Trust me, I would cry if I could
The (non) Big announcement will be made today at 2 PM at City Hall about the RR Relocation. I don’t expect any fireworks.
UPDATE: The appraisals have been finished, and shared with BNSF and Santa FE Railroads, but cannot be shared with the public (due to some obscure Federal law). The mayor said they are in ‘beginning stages’ of negoitiating a purchase (yeah right).
The mayor refuses to answer questions about the appraisal AND doesn’t mention that the MOU ends on Dec 31 (which will pretty much force the process to start over).
In other words, as I predicted NOTHING has been accomplished, and NOTHING is being said about that failure to cut a deal with the Railroads. It is time for the city to cut ties with this deal, it’s a waste of tax dollars and city employee resources.
Click to enlarge
Holding a press conference on December 23rd, the day before Christmas Eve, regarding a project which has been in the works for the past 12 years……..
I think they hope no one is paying attention.
I expect plenty of surprises!
Press conference lasted six minutes.
Independent appraisal has been completed and sent to BNSF for review.
MMM and Cotter state that according to federal regulations no information can be shared with non-negotiating parties or the public.
Question: Has this protected information been shared with our City Council? And, will they be kept apprised of the process as it happens?
The FINAL draft of the environmental assessment is NOT available on the city’s website for the public to view.
Why?
These press conferences are like puppet shows. You hope it is something you can be proud of for attending and worth your time because they actually have substance, but you leave every time feeling like you really do not matter. Embarrassing.
Wasn’t the RR relocation project a big part of Mrs. Erp’s campaign? Was she there for the show?
It’s TOO HARD!!!! Let’s quit!
Yesah, that’s the spirit.
I guess my position has always been that I philisophically am opposed to using federal tax dollars to purchase this property. This redevelopment would have zero benefit to anyone outside of Sioux Falls (and not really to many in Sioux Falls either in the grand scheme of things), so why take taxpayer dollars from some guy in Nashville, TN to purchase land in Sioux Falls from the railroad so we can redevelop it. Particularly when the federal government is insolvent. I don’t think my daughter should pay to redevelop 100 acres downtown. In the real world that’s what we’d be doing. And yes I know if its not spent on this it will be spent on some other wasteful project somewhere else, probably a bridge named after a Senator who obtains the funds for his state (look at the latest continuing resolution), but I’m not going to justify our bad behavior with others. I think it would be nice if it were redeveloped, and I think all of the redevelopment downtown has been very impressive, but I don’t think in the grand scheme of things it makes any material difference to the vast majority of taxpayers or citizens.
I guess my opinion has been simple on the matter, if this piece of property is so important to development (developers) downtown, why don’t they pool their money and buy it from the RR?
Why? Because it is NOT important. I agree Greg, it would be nice to clean it up, but in the whole scope of things does it really matter? It has looked pretty much the same for 120 years. It hasn’t hurt the growth of SF, people still come here, people still live DT (I only live literally about 5 blocks from here) and if private enterprise wants to take a Swifter Sweeper to it, have at it, but stop wasting public resources.
“….the federal government is insolvent.” Hah ha ha ha ha – yer a hoot Neitzert!! As if the federal government doesn’t have the power or authority to get $$$$$$ whenever it CHOOSES to, through several 100% LEGAL means. Ha ha ha ha ha.
Merry Xmas.
Oh, and don’t leave Santa any of that koolaid.
The location would be a great place for a new Canaries Stadium. Just a thought.
A lot of people say that, but, we already have a Canaries Stadium.
That looks like a really expensive banana.
Big enough site for an urban Walmart, Trader Joe’s and an indoor pool 🙂
Does this topic deserve any more attention? It’s not gonna happen but it’s important to keep the lame duck mayor focused here so he can’t cause more debt damage elsewhere.
What MMM does not want his SF constituents to know is, he cannot pull this deal off without asking local taxpayers to pony up more than the federal earmark of $35 million+
The City Council has known this for some time.