I see the new episode of ‘Ask the Mayor’ has a new rockin’ intro . . . for a new rockin’ mayor.
Some quotables from His Man Mike during the episode (paraphrasing);
“I just click my heels or snap my fingers and a pot of gold appears for the good people of Sioux Falls, it’s like a dream come true.”
“If you don’t mow your grass, scoop your snow, get rid of your junky cars, wipe your ass or clean behind your ears you won’t like me as a mayor. You need to be a good neighbor or code enforcement will be cracking down on you, and your children and your children’s children.”
“I will be one of the most fiscally conservative mayors this city has seen in a long time, and at the same time you will see monkeys flying from my ass.”
“Would a downtown Events Center be good for Sioux Falls? Sure. But it won’t pass voters. Because instead of trying to educate voters on the best location we would rather just spend a bunch more of the taxpayer’s dollars on another plan. We hope to keep doing this, I don’t know, maybe 19 or 20 times. Because who cares about funding the place? At this pace we will probably see a new events center built by 2056.”
And of course, a pre-Jazzfest quotable;
“It’s so great to see thousands of people show up to an event and thank me for being their mayor, hey, and the FREE music ain’t bad either.”
Code enforcement, sure if it’s city ordinances. None of the codes I was cited with applied. I could prove it but never got a fair hearing and/or appeal into a REAL court. Meanwhile, until ordinances are revised and a court accepts them, you can spout off all you want but you’re a small dog with no teeth.
You lied when you took an oath to protect and defend the constitution. Since (2 court cases), it’s been proven you regularly deny citizens’ constitutional rights.
I met Reid Holsen. He’s in a position at Human Resources. Conflict of interest? There’s 2 Toads at city hall. They’re good for eating flies that swarm around all the propaganda bullshit.
As for the Events Center, he admits he’s willing to take the path of least resistence politically and shortchange us on our ROI for the facility.
Goes 180 degrees against his “I’m here to shake things up, take some risks, not follow the conventional wisdom” line.
Must be tough to breathe when you talk out of both sides of your mouth so much.
Reid Holson is the old Human Resources brother. Nepotism is alive and well.
Huether needs to find a way to get rid of regular employees. He did well with directors because they’re not union. Most city employees are dead weight and excess budget. About 1/3 live outside city limits and they have no vote against Huether.
How about:
This is a down economy and we’re forced to furlough employees. Lay off the worst then (if needed) use outside contractors for their jobs.
Must be tough to breathe when you talk out of both sides of your mouth so much.
He is doing exactly what he said he would do during his campaign. For right or wrong, at least he is sticking to his word unlike most politicians.
Reid is actually a good, reasonable guy. Just one guy’s opinion.
Costner is right, he is sticking to his guns, and not that there is anything wrong with that. But I also think that you have to be willing to change course if you need to. Munson had an agenda and he didn’t give a shit who didn’t like it, he was going to do it. Look at “Phillips to the Falls” which sits empty to this day.
Costner:
“He is doing exactly what he said he would do during his campaign.”
Sure, when you say whatever your audience wants to hear whenever they want to hear it, eventually you cover everyone’s base..at least with your words.
At one point, Huether campaigned vocally on not “adding any unneccesary frills to the Convention Center” as part of his digs against Costello & the Task Force, which I’m certain got him some of Kermit’s “Hell no on the EC” supporters.
Now he’s in and he’s adopted Terri Ellis Jinglehammer Schmidt’s demand for more contigous floor space for his main reason to propose building at the Arena site.
Huether also has tried to paint himself as a “huge supporter” of downtown, and throws lines out about how CNA “could’ve built on the edge of town, but didn’t” yet when it comes to the single largest project this City will likely invest in in our lifetime’s, he doesn’t think it’s politically doable to convince people we should build where the best payback will come from.
Maybe you think a guy who says whatever he thinks you want to hear is a refreshing change, but I for one think that act’s wearing pretty thin these days.
Sy I think Huether has been pretty consistent with his views of the EC. He studied the issue and came up with the same conclusion the task force did – that the most feasible solution would be to build it near the current Arena and CC.
Now I’m not saying that is my preference by any means, but Mike hasn’t flip-flopped on his opinion. He has neve said it should go downtown even though saying so probably would have earned him a lot of support from the DTSF crowd.
So it isn’t a matter of him saying what he thinks people want to hear, because quite frankly most people aren’t even sure they want the thing, and those that do have made it pretty clear they won’t support it if it means tearing down HWF. I’m sure you could probably find more people who want the EC downtown than you do at the current Arena site even if both of those groups would likely be smaller than those who don’t want the damn thing in the first place.
My issue is this, are you going to “shake things up” or are you going with the conventional wisdom? Pick one.
I think Huether’s correct that 1 in 4 voters don’t want it, and the one’s that do don’t want HWF torn down. I think most of the EC supporters just want it built and really don’t care where it goes.
I think 1 in 4 of the supporters are against it downtown for a vareity of reasons, but I think if you showed them an open, detailed comparision of the projected returns at both sites on a $100+ million investment, you’d get 8/9 of 10 supporters to jump on it.
My biggest fear for the EC is we build it too small & in the wrong place, both of which will cut it short on potential business. The result is the anti-Events Center crowd will have a lifetime of fuel to bash it with, the same way they bash the Pavillion.
Kill channel 16 and use it’s budget for payments on the events center. Citizens don’t want that propaganda piped into their homes anyway.
Honestly Sy I doubt the location (whether it be downtown or at the EC site or elsewhere within city limits) will not really have any impact upon potential business. Size will have some impact, but usage will remain at the same level regardless of location because any event large enough to require such a facility is not basing their decision to come upon where the facility is located.
Could the return on the investment be higher if it is built downtown? Maybe… but there is no guarantee either. There are a lot of factors that go into play here and the studies performed thus far aren’t all that convincing.
There’s no maybe about it Costner, the first group narrowed it down to the Arena and Cherapa, and when the potential collateral development was factored in it flipped the half that was pro-Arena. Within 4 blocks of Cherapa place there’s been over $500 million worth of new development proposed. Sure some will never get built and some will be scaled back, but if an EC went in all of it would get pushed forward by a decade. Drive around the Arena some time and try to visualize anything remotely like that out there. Ain’t gonna happen.
Downtown Omaha was stalled until Qwest went in, now they are upping the ante. It worked there and will work here, even if on a smaller scale. That’s all I’m sayin.
Potential collateral development has one major problem… it is all “potential”. There is just as much underutilized or non-utilized space around the current Arena as there is downtown with the added advantage of being much lower in value.
People find the numbers they want based upon the answer they are looking for. I have no doubt the pro-downtown crowd would find stacks of evidence to support their viewpoint while ignoring the drawbacks. That is how the game is played.
However if the task force is to be believed they chose the Arena site for a reason even after factoring in development.
At this point I still believe people are naive if they think Sioux Falls can support such a beast no matter where it is built. We have a hard time filling the seats in the current Arena, the Pavilion and Convention Center are vastly under-utilized, and to date nobody has been able to provide any data showing how this new mythical and magical Events Center would suddenly succeed where so many other facilities have failed.
Oh sure we can get a couple of extra concerts a year which otherwise may have passed us over. Great… because it is a damn shame that Carrie Underwood has to perform in the Tyson Events Center down in Sioux City.
Downtown Omaha was revitalized years before Qwest opened, and is in even better shape since the owners of Saddle Creek Records took their millions of profits and added a block-long music club/movie theater/restaurants/shops complex.