Save Your Neighborhood has posted home-made signs in support of their position on Referred Law 4, urging people to vote against the rezoning at 85th and Minnesota.  The signs are located near I-229 and Minnesota, and on 85th Street, between Minnesota and Western.
While the group is at a severe disadvantage financially when compared to Walmart and its ballot question committee, the group is relying on its volunteers and a grass roots effort to bring facts surrounding this issue to the public’s attention.
One thing nobody thought of is Walmart allows overnight parking. Gypsy types sleep in their cars or some type of crummy camper. In most cities it’s where vagrants congregate overnight. I side with home owners. Not only will this junk dealer bring in thrift store consumers, it’ll attract crime and shanty town boxes with prevalent trash and excrement.
Walmart has already stated there will be no overnight parking at the 85th/MN store. And you can not sleep in a car. And vagrants can’t hang out in their shanty town boxes. Security patrols the lots at night to prevent this. Campaigns of lies seems to be the tone for many who comment on this blog.
http://www.walmartatlas.com/overnight-parking-etiquette/
I was at Fresno CA & stopped at a Walmart for sundries. There were about 30 illegals along the side wall getting settled for the evening. I passed maybe 50′ away & could hear stomachs growling. Jack in the box had 2 tacos for a dollar. I bought 30 sacks of 2 for them and provided 3 cases of water from Walmart. Maybe Walmart belongs in affluent neighborhoods so citizens realize how little cities assist the homeless. A little sympathy & kindness goes a long way.
Bear with me. True story.
I was at Washington High in 2004. My daughter was in a tennis tournament. There was an old Somali woman in heavy clothes (summer). She wandered around for several hours trying to get someone’s attention. She spoke Swahili and was there for English class. Her bus home didn’t come because it didn’t run on Saturday. Everyone treated her like a vagrant and pretended she wasn’t there. I realized something wasn’t right and tried to communicate with her. A passing jogger was bilingual (yes, Swahili). I called a taxi. Mike Huether was there. Daughter plays tennis. He came over and commanded things. I had it handled. Guess who got the good samaritan credit. Guess who paid for the taxi.
True stories you must read here. They’d never be accepted for Argus letters to the editor.
Traffic jam? The new south side Walmart will actually ease the traffic conditions on the west side.
Thanks, Walmart!
There’s no Walmart in the country that doesn’t allow overnight campers. It’s company policy because they make purchases. It’s hard to believe there’s someone who believes what Walmart ‘says’. There’s indefinite zoning here. Ordinances state campers must be moved every 7 days. Just roll it ahead into another space. It’s impossible for the city to enforce restrictions or revisions. One must only petition the court to dismiss the case because city code doesn’t comply with the SD Civil Procedures Act. The best action is to chase Walmart off to somewhere along the interstate where nobody wants to live.
I live across the street from the West side WalMart and yes, when the weather is nice people do park their campers there, and it is on the end of the parking lot closest to the street. That being said I have never heard any ruckus coming from the campers. I have lived in this location since 1997. There was an incident of one of their employees chasing another employee with his car and eventually knocking him down or something, but it didn’t involve campers. I have never seen a crappy camper parked there, and they are all towing a decent vehicle, and some have bikes with them. I think most of the people complaining about some things like that are the ones that just plain don’t like WalMart.
How about courting for a Super Target. They’d build near the Tea or Brandon interstate exits. Their products don’t fall apart. Their employees are paid well with good benefits. They do not discriminate against women. There’s only one Target & 3 Walmarts. Oh yea, it’d be outside city limits. Just because Walmart will build inside Sioux Falls is no reason we need one.
Don’t forget the sales job that Bentonville billionaires tried on us, saying that a Walmart will bring convenience to the neighborhood and access to groceries. They say “There will be NO overnight camping, there will be a forest in front of the property, and you won’t see it at all.†The potential CUP promises are windy and long, but in the end Walmart will not negotiate in good faith with a neighborhood. (They have stated in the press multiple times that they do not negotiate with neighborhoods). If they would, there would have been a (welcome) 60k sq ft Walmart Market with reasonable neighborhood-impacted hours, 7am to 9pm all ready to open.
What we have right now is a company demanding a 24/7, 186,000 sq ft supercenter. This type of business needs to be in a commercial corridor with interstate access. Put it over on Tallgrass and it will have great interstate access from the Tea Interchange and Hwy 100. Put it further down on Minnesota at county road 106, great interstate access at Tea exit AND the road can already handle the weight of the trucks. Cooper said that he might be able to get Walmart or the developer to help pay for the (3 of the 27) items that need to be fixed, per the traffic report. They also “might†help build the roads. Notice the big word “MIGHT”, which means “PROBABLY NOTâ€. Let’s just add another $100 million to the city debt to bring blight onto the neighborhood, a main entrance into the city, and a good share of Lincoln County. We already have heard that Canton stores are bracing for the disaster this store will cause them. You can also bet future Harrisburg growth won’t be so robust either.
Sounds like the mayor has more to do with land dealings in the area with RMB investments than he is letting us know. Could be that he stands to gain from this deal as well. Wake up Sioux Falls, get rid of MMM and the BS!. This is not good for Sioux Falls. It will impact a lot of young professionals and others who will not build on the edge of town. After all, the developers have to launch their commercial developments, come hell or high water, disregarding any residential neighborhood that is there or might be there. This sets an ugly precedence. Existing neighborhoods should worry as well. A rezone is easy enough for a developer to accomplish. Heather Ridge and Twin Eagle are established neighborhoods and the city is not protecting them – so they won’t protect anyone.
That, fellow citizens, is the Shape Places idea of future growth of Sioux Falls. There will be more lies, more half-truths, more deceptions, more empty promises and more touchy-feel-good politics from the mayor.
As for the City Attorney, who so cleverly worded the language on #4. He made it sound like the land will be vacant if it doesn’t pass and become C-4 and nothing will go there. That’s not true and wasn’t the intent. We all remember the hand-wringing, desperate looks and quavering voices of the Planning Commission and certain Council members that this land is so unsuitable for anything else, other than a giant supercenter store. In truth, the land would receive appropriate zoning for smart development. Oops, I forgot that the kiss-a** taxpayer-paid for city Attorney works for MMM, Walmart, and supercenter rich developers.
you had me until you mentioned those poor young professionals who will now have no place to live.
What 85th stuckee said
@ Joan – I also live near that Walmart. That is why I commented. I totally agree with your assessment. I never see anything as nefarious going on as pathloss would like others to believe. I actually like going there for the ethnic diversity. As I do at the 18th and Cleveland Laundromat and the grocery store there. Andy’s Foods is an awesome place to shop. Cheaper than Wally World or Hy-Vee on many items.
So 85th stuckee .. The Hy-Vees and Lewis stores on the south side have nothing to do with the demise of the guys in Canton or Harrisburg? Walmart will bring them down? People one stop shop now. I linked an article on DL’s blog to this end about a month ago. If you are for the little guy, shop at the 14th st Sunshine – great store – or Andy’s that I referenced above. Both great places to buy groceries. Or drive to Harrisburg to help them stay afloat. But I am sure you go to your nearest Hy-Vee Superstore. So how are you making a difference?
Having said this all this… I do think it is pretty cool that the people are doing a grassroots campaign in that neighborhood – DL’s original thought here on his blog.
People who think skumbags are free to just hang at Walmart obviously have never been to a Walmart because they just like to hate on them.
@ pathloss – Target employees -livin’ the dream
“People ask what the difference between Wal-Mart and Target is,” said UFCW organizer Bernie Hesse. “Nothing, except that Wal-Mart is six times bigger. The wages start at $7.25 to $7.50 an hour [at Target]. They’ll say that’s a competitive wage, but they can’t say it’s a living wage. We know a lot of their managers are telling people, ‘If we find out you’re involved in organizing a union you’ll get fired.'”
http://www.alternet.org/story/35610/target_as_bad_as_wal-mart_you_decide
Was that Shooter McGavin talking about people living in their shantys:) Let’s not get discriminatory now.
Dan/pathloss/Daily – you’ve got a LOT FULL of wrong facts here.
And Stuckee – My niece is a civil engineer who DESIGNS WALMARTS all over the country. According to her – yes – they DO NEGOTIATE with city governments as to what sorts of screening there will be, entrances, NO ALLOWING overnight parking, etc. etc. etc.
But NO – they DO NOT negotiate with individual neighbors on a one-to-one basis. Why? Because those individual neighbors DO NOT HAVE LEGAL AUTHORITY to negotiate zoning regulations or conditional use regulations.
How does she know this? because she is directly involved in these negotiations, as she has to incorporate the requirements arrived at into her design(s). And as an engineer – she has expertise as to what is or is not “doable” on any particular piece of ground.
when businesses say they pay competitive wages, they really mean they pay as poorly as everyone else.
Hi Scott that was sarcasm the rmb developer used that term the night of the rezone at 85th and western. Big butt ugly apts buildings. These younger kids are doing more research and if they see a pig with lipstick they will be cautious I think some of them will not come here and go elsewhere to live.
Sad days for Sioux Falls if the greed and deaf ears of the city continues at the pace it is going
Rufus x – good points but
Your niece works for Walmart until an India engineer gets a work visa & works cheaper.
I understand why upscale homeowners want a commercial location but I’ll be a buyer there after real estate values take a 30% hit.
We need another Target. They wait til Walmart alienates the community then come in diplomatically with a better location and respect. Vote down Walmart and see.
Huether’s ‘block busting’ should lower home prices to the SD Housing cap. I appreciate how he’s finding a way to move minorities out from the inner city so slums can be demolished in favor of Sanford Hospital expansion & new projects for welfare families. We can do it Sioux Falls, we can. He’ll do another term and exhaust all his time in a run for governor such that the city can be run properly by the council.
OK, yes to Walmart. Unrestricted. Lawyers will love it. A ‘block busting’ neighborhood class action settlement would be 30 million or better. Homeowners would get equity out without refinancing and their gain is tax free. Property valuations would plummet prompting low real estate taxes. They could sell and move into Harrisburg where there’s democracy.
City government is not citizen friendly so take back some budget and keep them busy with state supreme court.
These comments get loopier and loopier as the election draws nearer.
no kidding.
At least they’ve dropped all the pretense that this is about anything (zoning) other to bashing Walmart.
Economists: Being Near A New Walmart Actually Increases Home Values
While the sight of a new Walmart store going up always causes some area residents to frown, a new report claims that houses within the immediate area of a new Walmart actually see a slight uptick in value.
The paper, from researchers at the University of Chicago and Brigham Young University, looked at 159 Walmarts in 20 states that opened up between 2000 and 2006. It then compared nearby home prices for 2.5 years before and after each store opened.
http://consumerist.com/2012/06/14/economists-being-near-a-walmart-actually-increases-home-values/
What in the world are you thinking SlewFoot? Actual science – FACTS in a discussion of the SO(Y)N issues? Shame on you.
Although that article is interesting (I’ve seen it before), I don’t think SON has ever made this issue about home values, so that isn’t really a valid argument.
They have complained about potential traffic issues (based upon their opinions and not traffic studies), about trucks idling at night (something Walmart voluntarily agreed to prevent), about a lack of a buffer between retail and residential (something Walmart addressed via adding a section of the land zoned for Office use only), school kids walking by a major retail store (because all those non-existent kids walking along Minnesota Avenue or 85th where no sidewalks even exist face a REAL burden once they get in front of Walmart), and a host of other concerns, but unless I missed it I don’t think they were ever vocal about property values.
Some might be thinking it but I’m not sure they have said it.