I don’t whether to applaud the council, or just ask them what took so damn long? After watching the Mayor’s press conference about Van Eps park, and all the back patting he received last night at the council meeting for being ‘engaged’ in the Van Eps process, I just have to remind people of a few things.
1) Mayor Huether is the one who put more picnic tables and porta-potties at Van Eps, in an essence, attracting the bees.
2) Instead of removing the benches and bathrooms when he saw problems arise down there, he left them.
3) Instead of issuing an emergency executive order to ban alcohol temporarily, until the council had time to look at the issue he sat on his hands and waited for the Parks Board and City Council to fumble through the ordinance process, which took a couple of months.
4) Even now that the alcohol is banned, the SFPD and the administration have no plan when the drinkers move.
I have said all along the implementation of a drinking park had nothing to do with the safety or care of the attendees, this had to do with Downtown developers complaining about the homeless drunks around their businesses.
Yup – drove by VanEps twice today. Not one person there so where did they go? I am sure we will know sooner rather than later since a Plan B was never constructed and incorporated. Gotta love band-aids on problems.
Build it and “they” will come.
Provide and they will use.
Eliminate now and they will leave.
We’ll see.
Once again Mayor Huether is to blame. Surprise surprise.
You say in a previous article that you were leaning towards NOT wanting the ban, yet you blame Huether for not temporarily banning it sooner. Either you do or do not want to have alcohol in that park. Which is it?
If you do not want the ban, then why is Huether’s placement of picnic tables and porta-potty’s such a huge problem for you? He tried to clean up the park to make it more presentable. Yes, it did likely draw more of them, but you seem very concerned about where else they are going to go, yet you don’t want them at Van Eps…seems like you don’t know what you want, yet you are blaming Huether for not having the perfect solution either.
Also, he DID remove the hand sanitizer when he found out they were drinking from it…so yes, he is listening and dealing with the issue.
Finally, why is it ridiculous that downtown business developers were complaining about drunks. I’d say it’s pretty reasonable to be upset that drunk people loiter by your business, potentially vandalizing it or peeing on your building. Huether’s placement of the porta potty was to relieve pressure of this issue, as well as keep them from over-using the library, which created a burden for the workers there.
Oh, and I don’t think anybody has once claimed that banning the alcohol will solve the overall issue. Huether grew up with an alcoholic father, so I’m pretty sure he’s not under the impression that banning alcohol in one park will create a better Sioux Falls all over. He’s trying to solve one problem at a time, not all at once.
I appreciate that you work hard to gather information and share news and opinions, creating a forum for open discussion. However, It would be more enjoyable to read your blog if it wasn’t constantly drenched in hatred for Huether.
First off, I don’t hate Mike or any politician, I hate the decisions they make. I actually tell people that Mike is quite pleasant, and I have had many good conversations with the man.
I guess why I don’t like the ban is because it will be unneeded in about a month (cold weather). It should have never gotten to this level.
Take last year for instance, I made the comment to someone that the city should sell Van Eps because nobody was in the park? Why? Because the picnic tables and restrooms enabled them to turn it into what it is. Who put them there? Mike did.
Mike may no a lot about driving development in SF, but he struggles immensely with social issues.
My point of the post was that Mike created the Van Eps atmosphere, and he should have ended that atmosphere months ago instead waiting for the Park Board and the Council to do it.
Just watch this press conference and how out of touch he is with the struggles of the regular guy in SF.
http://www.siouxfalls.org/central-services/multimedia-support/citylink/programs/regular-programs/city-news/cn-van-eps-park.aspx