I kind of wonder if this was some kind of ‘snark’ from the popular liberal online news source?
All those things that everyone loves about the famous, jaded, sea-beaten SF (and more!) can also be found in a fresh, friendly, affordable Midwestern SF: Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
One’s hilly. One’s flat. Both are beautiful. And you’ll never believe how much they have in common.
LOL! As a person who has visited San Fran three times, I can tell you that Sioux Falls will never be anything like San Fran. Not that there isn’t some nice notables in the article about the finer (progressive) things going on in Sioux Falls, and the fact that I have been noticing Sioux Falls is becoming more fun, I think we are going to need more then 10 different attractions in Sioux Falls to make us more like San Fran – which I am all for. The first thing to changing the perception of Sioux Falls would be to have a more transparent and open government, locally and statewide. Progress comes from transparency and the open flow of exchanging ideas. While this may be happening in board rooms in Sioux Falls, it is not happening at City Hall or Carnegie or at the halls of the Capital in Pierre. While some may believe progress has been attained in Sioux Falls due to a business-like acumen dictatorship, I would have to disagree that we are anything like the city that produced great progressive politicians like Harvey Milk. While on the surface, Sioux Falls is a pretty looking cake with a nice frosting job, we are really going to have to implement progress and openness on all levels of government in Sioux Falls before we attain the ‘SF’ of the Midwest status. It seems in Sioux Falls, beauty really is only skin deep.
San Fran has character that evolved from many different cycles. Sioux Falls had character but city government and a few developers keep citizens oppressed and tyrannized. Recent Walmarts make us the McDonald’s of the midwest. We’re just another interstate highway crossroads where truckstops are successful but indoor sports palaces are debt service that causes infrastructure collapse. We have more pawn shops, casinos, and guns. Homelessness is not an issue because there’s no sympathetic welfare or they freeze to death. I like living here but I can’t say I’m proud of cruel and corrupt government.