Update from a resident:
The brewery, and the Six-Pack, is back up! Now it's "City Brewery", a great source of civic pride. The World's Largest Six Pack now looks like cans of City Lager.
Main industries might be considered education (with THREE colleges: Viterbo, University of Wisconsin- La Crosse, and WWTC) and health care, with the only major hospitals within about 100 miles. Construction (to keep up with the rampant sprawl) also is a major source of income.
La Crosse was started a heck of a long time ago by pioneer fur-traders who set up shop here, where the Mississippi, La Crosse, and Black rivers meet. Later, it was a popular place for settlers to cross the Mississippi. Logging was the next important industry, followed by agriculture. Hemmed in by a wall of bluffs, the city has not grown nearly as much as it could have, to the delight of conservationists- La Crosse County (in an area where the hills were not crushed under the glaciers 10,000 years ago) is incredibly scenic. Unfortunately, tourism has not been as large as residents would prefer.
The city's biggest problem is its stodginess. There's nothing to do except drink (to which end, Third Street boasts the more bars in a comparable area than any other city in the world). It could be argued that there are only young people in the city at all because of the excellent education system.
More information can be found at at the city's website: http://www.cityoflacrosse.org/
Sorry, I can't abide the comment by
srrfs that La Crosse doesn't have a suprising road layout. This is only true if you stick to the main roads. As soon as you stray, my best advice is to
ignore your map. Not that it's inaccurate (although this is becoming more and more true as certain intersections are closed to control traffic); rather, your map resembles a maze drawn by a
schizophrenic, and, worst of all, the main roads (the only semi-straight,
contiguous roads in the city) are poorly differentiated from the road onto which you've misplaced yourself. So, take the bus, please.