Ahoy!
l3wis 
July 2013
Is Walmart using the Mayor’s Playbook?
Walmart has sent out the above postcard/mailer to get support for their monstrosity they want to build;
The battle for a new Walmart in Sioux Falls continues. After a petition against Walmart, the big box chain is now taking matters into it’s own hands.
Some residents around the area of 85th Street and Minnesota Avenue received a pamphlet in the mail asking them to support the possibility of a new Sioux Falls Walmart.
Over the last year, those opposing the Walmart have been collecting signatures to put the new zoning ordinance to a vote. And in May, it became official that residents of Sioux Falls would be able to vote on the zoning in April 2014. The group collected over 6,000 signatures against the new Walmart.
But now Walmart is collecting signatures of its own, with these new pamphlets. Throughout the piece of mail, Walmart is laying out all of the positives of this new store at 85th and Minnesota.
This mailer is purely political in nature, but carries NO weight. Something several citizens have said to me who have seen this story or have gotten this postcard is;
 “This has got the mayor’s hands all over it.â€
First off, the signatures the SON petitioners gathered had to be signed by VALID registered voters who live in the Sioux Falls city limits. Did WM send these to only registered voters in SF? How about Harrisburg? The mailer only lists addresses and not names, so my assumption is that it went to households, whether they were registered voters or not is beyond me. Sorry, but unless you are a registered voter and property owner in Sioux Falls, your opinion on this matter isn’t worth the cheap paper WM printed this PC on. And my guess is that most of the people who shop or work at WM are neither.
They also are asking for people to sign the PC and mail it back to them, but it’s not a BRE (Business return, postage paid). I guess by purchasing a stamp to mail this PC back you can show your support for WM financially also. They ask you email them so you can receive even more propaganda from them.
The mailer also claims it will create 250 jobs (full-time? Part-time?) and that a current FULL-TIME associate earns $12.81 per hour (Starting pay? Benefits?).
My suggestion to anyone who received this postcard is to recycle it. I think WM has had enough EPA violations, we can help them out a little on this one.
So what are those ‘Lies’?
The AL has refused to print some of my letters in the past, for various reasons, one reason they have given me is ‘accusatory’ in nature. This letter writer has accused petitioners of ‘lying’ yet doesn’t state what those ‘lies’ are. Why would the editors allow a letter that ‘accuses’ someone of lying, but the letter writer doesn’t tell us what those lies are;
They were misinformed, and one person even said that he was lied to about the reason for the petition and what they stated.
Throughout the rest of the letter, they talk about ‘lies & misinformation’ yet don’t tell us what those lies are. Are they afraid if they would print those ‘lies’ we would find them to be much more truthful then what the letter writer is claiming? I do know the Spellerberg petitioners have done their research, and last I checked, a petition signature IS NOT a vote, it just allows for something to be put on the ballot. This ain’t a done deal, far from it. This letter writer will have plenty of time to ‘inform’ people before the vote, spreading their own form of the ‘truth’.
Everyone does know this, The Indoorers have had over 6 years to raise money for their own indoor pool, and the most they have come up with is to buy some t-shirts. They also know that the location is much too small and has no room for expansion, unless of course you want to destroy the whole park, they also know that this will cause parking problems for the VA, and lastly, the only ones supporting an indoor pool are the swim teams parents who are butt hurt that they don’t have their own public facility like hockey, tennis, etc. Yet they have contributed nothing accept asking for a 100% handout from the taxpayers. Enough of the subsidies and handout to club sports in this town. You want an indoor pool? You think we really NEED one? Then go knock on the Hospital’s doors and see if they will foot the bill.