Andy sums up our mayor in a couple of sentences.
Ellis fills us in on why the Events Center debate is boring;
Huether responded: “People want it. There are people that are just sick of the dialogue: ‘Get it done so we can move on to other things.’ ”
That comment reminded me of the conversation I overheard at the Y. I’m not sure whether the two guys want an events center, but they want the subject to go away.
I personally would like to see both. Bring it to the ballot with a funding source ASAP. Let the voters decide. If they want it, we go ahead and build. If they don’t, we shelve it for another 10 years or so – AND DON’T TALK ABOUT IT! It seems Huether is under the impression that the voters are just salivating to approve it. LOL! If they wanted it so bad, as you claimed during your campaign, wouldn’t the first thing you would have done is found a funding source and stuck it on the ballot, ASAP? Nope. You are still looking for an angle, because you know support for an EC is a 50/50 longshot, and you cannot stand to be wrong. Look how many times Lincoln failed, and he is still considered one of our greatest presidents. Mike, failing on the EC isn’t the end of the world. If I were mayor I would much more prefer citizens telling me they love the streets they drive on and how beautiful our parks are. I’m just saying.
This comment by Andy Traub, who is a BID supporter, sums it up;
I was at that meeting and I want to thank the writer of this editorial for summarizing the 90 minutes of conversation very well. People, it was a discussion between the Mayor and BIDT so of course it had a lot of pro-downtown points. It was a VERY interesting meeting. The mayor sounded stuck in my opinion. He’s a businessman who can’t make a decision based on dollars alone. That’s frustrating for me as a taxpayer because I want an investment that makes cents/sense for the future according to the study. I came away feeling sorry for the mayor in some ways. Politics are dumb. Thank you for a very balanced perspective on the meeting. I agree people are tired of the conversation because most people, even those following this closely, are discouraged by a lack of openness. We’ll learn more tomorrow.
And who has made it political? The mayor. He should have opened the process up to the voters and the council from the beginning instead of hogging it to himself. It will end up biting him in the butt. He won’t be able to sell this plan like he bought the election.
It seems this SF citizen gets it, but is anyone in city hall listening?
Before another penny is spent on anything to do with a potential events center, the current marketing Svengali we have for mayor needs to expand his tunnel vision and address the critical infrastructure needs of the people of Sioux Falls as a top priority.
This effort should include the widespread problems associated with the sewer network, long-term fixes to the numerous potholes and degraded sections of road throughout the city, replacement of all unsafe bridges, completion of work on the levees and finishing the Sioux Falls segment of the Lewis & Clark water project.
The city also needs to properly fund its parks and recreation and cultural facilities, including their operation, maintenance and personnel.
The Washington Pavilion is a shell of its former self, and the Art Barn is closed.
If the city can’t afford to operate and support these existing facilities, how can it possibly hope to run an events center?
I was going to type something here about the BID crowd, but fuck it. I’m as tired of them as I am the mayor, the argus, and our dumb local tv crews that scramble whenever a BID wants some publicity.
I would agree, I also think Ellis using the ‘Y’ guys convo a bit generalization, I told him a few days ago that the convo is boring. I’m sure he heard it from several folks.
I hear it everyday by people asking why the Argus is so fixated on the topic.
The paper would not survive w/o advertisers. And secondly, did anyone find it ironic they talked about laundromats and fertilizers in their article about tax exemptions, yet they didn’t bring up taxing advertising.
HMMMMMMM.
Seems that the people who have money invested in getting the events center built downtown own the discussion and the mayor. Big city politics at its best. Speaking from an out of towner who will be driving into SF to attend an event at any future events center, access is #1 on my mind. Easiest in, easiest out, and downtown is NOT it. Motels, restaurants, etc will expand near any event center if it is successful, and access will be paramount in its success. Of course, those with money invested in a downtown EC and development are those with the most influence right now and they could care less about access, just about their pocketbooks.
Well, Lynn, I would love to see it DT, because I live DT and would love to see more development. But that just makes me selfish. I have often said the best place to build it is near the Mall on the west side or near Dawley Farm on the east side, but neither of those sites are being discussed, which is sad, because the Arena site should not even be considered.
lynn:
“Motels, restaurants, etc will expand near any event center if it is successful, and access will be paramount in its success.”
So can you explain why nothing has developed around the Arena, despite massive public investment if access there is so much better than downtown? While you’re at it, tell us why attendance at downtown events like Hot Summer Nights and Sculpturewalk have increased pretty much every year over that same time period?
How about if your theory is true, why did 19 of the last 20 events centers have been built in their respective city’s downtown districts? Even though like Sioux Falls, those places have all kinds of places on the edges of town to put a facility?
We aren’t talking about a convenience store, we are talking about a 50+ year, investment decision.
Scott:
“I was going to type something here about the BID crowd, but fuck it. I’m as tired of them as I am the mayor”
Your tired of a citizen’s group who’s basic point is to maximize the return on this investment to the benefit of all taxpayers in this town?
and if this debate is so “boring” to people like Ellis, why is he crashing BID’s meeting with the Mayor?
“Easiest in, easiest out” Well, that just says it all. Come to an event and leave Sioux Falls as fast as you can. We should build it for these people who will buy a ticket and nothing else here. Hotels and restaurants will develop out by the arena site? Has this person been to the Arena or Convention site? Nothing has developed out there and those venues have been there a long time. Small town mentality.
I was also at the meeting, and to me the low point was when the Mayor was asked directly to lay out what his long term vision for downtown was, and remember this is a room full of people who supported him last year to varying degrees.
He went on to cite the “CNA/Schoeneman’s site, the River Greenway, the River Ramp redevlopment….and oh, wait I almost forgot: the track relocation” as examples. It seemed lost on him that all of those were in the works under Munson.
I pointed out that none of those projects have had any public opposition (as confirmed by his Staff) so why are we so convinced the Events Center will?
Still waiting to hear that answer.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
If an Events center is built, I think by now it’s obvious that the most economically sound location would be downtown. But think of what we could do as a City with a $100M blank check. Is an events center truly the BEST use of $100M we can think of? We (the City and State) are also planning on spending $100M on a big wide highway around the outside of town (Hwy 100) over the next decade or so. Is this an efficient use of our money, either? Highway funding is sort of an “unquestionable” these days, but should it be? Should we really be spending such amounts of money to what more or less amounts to cutting a few minutes off peoples’ trips out in the suburban sprawl?
Think what improvements we could make to our urban core with $100M (or $50M, or $10M). Streetscape improvements, transit improvements, traffic calming, mixed-use incentives – the list goes on. All of these are more likely to have positive impacts on the City’s financial bottom line than an events center or a suburban highway.
Sorry for the rambling – just my two cents worth on what my priorities would be if I were the Mayor…
Scott:
“zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”
Brillianty articulated and logically airtight argument you have there. The Mayor is looking for someone like you to help run his EC campaign.
Sorry, Sy, but it’s just become a repeated record. On here, you state your opinions, and I state mine. None of us have ever changed a single line, so no I’m not going to provide a “brilliantly articulated and logically airtight argument”…just as you haven’t either. My problem with BID is that they DEMAND to be the only voice in town, and anything that’s said contrary is immediately dismissed. I’m most pissed at the media, though, who salivates every time your organization puts out a press release.
Of course, because it prevents Ben Dunsmoor from having to go up in the antennae tower.
Well I’m sure it’d be interesting if there was a Pro-Arena Location group out there or a “Build it in the Suburbs” organization to grab just as much media, but wait, there isn’t, Scott.
You do make a good point CC, but I also think most people don’t care about the location. This is about money.
I do know people who support the Arena site. They just haven’t created a Facebook page and enlisted the assistance of a media whore (and I mean that as a compliment).
I will give Hildy that, he has managed to keep his face out there.