This all stems from the neighborhood summit when a resident of the All Saints Neighborhood, Katrina Lehr-McKinney suggested that landlords and others in the community should be recognized;
Community Development also is launching the Mayor’s Neighborhood Champion award program this year. The program recognizes the tremendous volunteer work of our neighborhood associations that demonstrate leadership, volunteerism, creativity, or support of associations and organizational efforts. The three awards include:
- Neighborhood Landlord of the Year: Recognizes a landlord who sets the bar high in terms of maintaining properties, reinvesting in core neighborhoods, and utilizing good practice in the rental industry.
- Neighborhood Champion of the Year: Recognizes an individual or association for their leadership and/or accomplishments of an association.
- Neighborhood Business of the Year: Recognizes a local business that continually supports the efforts of neighborhood organizations within our community.
While I think the Community Development department does a great job helping residents with loans and grants to fix up their homes I think more could be done, such as property tax rebates, discounts and deferrals for people fixing up homes and smaller apartment complexes in central and proper Sioux Falls. I think if we can hand out a $2 million TIF for luxury condos we can do the same for the little guy. Just think of how many homes and apartments could be brought up to spec with $2 million in property tax deferrals.
I saw Huether at the news tidbit on this subject. He dreams of a time when people can sit on their porch reacting freely with the neighborhood. There are the upper 1% and the rest of us in this city. The 1% protect from being robbed. The rest of us are slaves to them or dig through trash to survive. The time has passed for freely socializing from your front porch.
On a semi-related note, here is some video the city shot of using snowgates recently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzzxb4YMaZw