  
Congrats to Greg and Theresa;
Theresa Stehly is the best choice to succeed Staggers in the At Large seat on the City Council.
The fact that Stehly has allied with Staggers on several high-profile issues doesn’t alone justify this choice. Stehly rises above the two other candidates – John Paulson and Ritch Noble – because of her knowledge of city issues. The benefit of her activism over the years, whether on the Drake Springs Pool or boulevard gardens or snow gates, is that she built a working knowledge of the details of local government.
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We recommend Greg Neitzert as the best candidate in the Northwest District.
In addition to volunteering for the zoning panel, Neitzert was deeply involved in the debate over the rewriting of city zoning regulations, the Shape Places ordinance. In that role, he became one of the most knowledgeable people in the city on issues of growth and development, what smart planning should look like, and how our city should look and feel in the coming decades.
He is the most prepared in this field to step in to help set the path for the City Council and the city.
And ALMOST endorses Steele and Starr;
Selberg’s opponent, Manny Steele, is a former state legislator with a long history in state government. This experience doesn’t always translate to local politics, however. Steele is an earnest public servant who brings and appropriate level of skepticism to any debate.
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It really comes to a pick between Pat Starr and Tamara Enalls-Fenner. In this case, a Northeast District voter would be well served by either of the top candidates. But that’s not how voting works.
Starr, a marketing and advertising professional, has a good suggestion regarding the planned parking ramp on the site of the failed Banks shared use project. Starr suggests holding off building the ramp and moving on to other worthwhile projects around the city to allow time for more ambitious ideas for a key piece of downtown property. It’s a useful suggestion that demonstrates his practical approach.
Downtown Sioux Falls is nearly out of leased parking spaces and will run out by the time a new ramp is finished. The new ramp is not a frivolous project, rather it is a critical piece of infrastructure required to facilitate continued growth and investment into our city core.
The new ramp is in the wrong location. It needs to go at 8th & Phillips – in the heart of downtown – as part of the proposed Wells Fargo project.
The Smith/Huether site is at the eastern gateway to our downtown. Nothing looks less asthetically-appealing than two large parking ramps.
As for the subject of this post, I’d say the A-L pretty much nailed it. Though I have been disappointed with the superficial news coverage of these races. Will they support public financing of this parking ramp, for example? Or the new administration building?
Not to mention that this site has one of the best riverfront views. It should be redeveloped properly with the best interest of ALL citizens in mind – not simply another politically-expedient project.
We continue to see the MM crowd saying “Let’s take the best views the future can have and put another parking ramp there.”
I wonder if we can turn on the professor Peabody’s wayback machine and have our old ramp over the river back?
Our short-sighted administration is always claiming to be working for a solid footing and then we find it is quicksand.
If you think Mike represents the small guy people think again.
Great endorsements by the Argus, well done on the research!
Kudos from and to the Argus. Perhaps they’re returning to public service.
Before there’s a parking ramp, there should be a downtown that’s a work center with retail.
put up the damn ramp at the site of the old sioux falls stockyards and run the trolley all over hell, especially over the new city rail yard that only cost $27,000,000 or so, whose counting any more, we are close to half a billion in dept, what the hell. Hey we can go bankrupt like Detroit and sell the Pavillion, and I bet we have artwork that might include cool images of the Hubris himself. That might get us out of debt, NOT. LOL