This month will mark my 25th anniversary in Sioux Falls.
I thought about this after Jodi Schwan wrote an article about Downtown, but would have to disagree with her on a few things, but I will get to that.
I moved here in 1991 to attend school at SE Tech for Graphic Communications. My first apartment was a block West of Gigglebees, I lived there throughout schooling. I worked at a restaurant close by on Minnesota Avenue (I made $4.60 an hour, and my share of the rent with my one roommate was about $150 a month). I used to walk downtown on nice days, the only thing really opened at that time was Zandbroz and Minervas. I would try to eat at Zandbroz Soda Falls about once a month, they had killer quiche and smoothies. At that time, I was 19, I felt DT had a lot more potential, it had a lot of cool old buildings, I found out later I wasn’t the only one who thought about it.
As I was finishing school in 1993 I got a job at a printshop called PATCO printing, in the old Lewis Building (we had a run of the entire building, and some of the stuff in the basement and upstairs offices left behind was cool to dig thru). PATCO was owned by Pat Pilcher, a former state legislator in the hay day of Democrats in Pierre and a flaming liberal, I was the only male employee, and I got a lesson really quick in (female) politics. Pat used to print the NARRAL newsletter and fundraising stuff, and the ‘ladies’ would come in with wine, crackers and cheese and sit in the conference room and stuff newsletters. Mostly talk politics. Thelma Underberg (sp?) Loila Hunking and several others would grace the stuffing parties, I learned quick as to just listen. This is where I met Carol Pogones, (I think) she convinced Pat to put the printshop in downtown. Carol was on a one woman mission to revitalize Downtown, and she worked it.
Pat passed away, and her brother took over, so left to work at a different printshop, and for a short stint I moved into some apartments on Cleveland and for awhile over by Seratoma Bingo, but I wanted to be back downtown. I eventually moved to the Ronning Apartments and absolutely loved it. I was a frequenter at the Pomp Room and Jamz. I eventually got an apartment of my own a block behind Black Sheep Coffee (formerly Great Plains) I lived there for 7 years before buying my home 14 years ago near Avera Hospital. I loved being close to DT and Scott Hudson and I had a couple year stint where we met for coffee almost every weekday morning at Black Sheep talking smack and politics. It’s funny to watch all the upcoming hipsters in downtown, I knew them as teenagers working at Black Sheep. My first art exhibit was at Black Sheep and I started an art club called MAC (Midwest Artist Collective) at the coffee shop. We would do shows at various DT businesses.
I missed working at PATCO, mostly missing working downtown. I got a job at a startup company called Image Nation in the Stewart Building. I was a regular at Sanchez Taquitos and Skelly’s for lunch. I also fell in love with the restaurants. I have always worked part-time in restaurants in Sioux Falls for extra money. But I would have short stints doing other stuff like DJ’ing at the KRRO and working as lead usher for the Pavilion the first four years they were open. This is how I met Razmik Mhitarian, owner of the Touch of Europe. When the Pavilion opened, there was only really 3 staple sit down restaurants DT, Tina’s, Minervas and Touch of Europe. After several Black Russian Shots, Raz convinced me to work at Touch of Europe, in which I did on and off until almost it’s closing. I have also worked at JL Beers (horrible experience) The Diner (great experience) The Brickhouse (formerly the Brewery) and Crawfords. I also displayed my art at NITWITS comedy club, in which one night, a piece got vandalized.
I met all the movers and shakers of the DT scene over those years at the TOE, and to this day have several strangers tell me I waited on them down there on first dates and marriage proposals. While I was mostly brash and rude, most liked my sense of humor, we really knew how to weed out the customers we didn’t want, it was our reputation. When the Pomp closed, the Jazz scene really exploded at the Touch of Europe, and since Tina’s and Minervas would close at 9 PM, we got the after show rush of the Pavilion. Some people don’t believe me, but we would usually stay open until almost 2 AM, and after parties would last sometimes until 6 AM.
It was really a cool time to be DT, (about 12 years ago) and I knew better things were coming. I will always give credit to Carol for putting a boot up Dave Munson’s ass to get DT rolling. I’m sure he tells a different story :). And the Pavilion was huge to the success and growth of DT. Mayor Huether really was handed the success of DT on a silver platter from Dave’s administration.
This is where I differ on Jodi’s opinion of how DT can grow;
Probably more disappointing is that the city doesn’t appear to be successfully driving these sorts of creative partnerships. And it’s not only happening with the River Greenway project.
I think in the comings weeks we will learn about a renewed effort to build a mixed-use parking ramp east of the future Lewis Drug, but sadly with better strategy and leadership a more comprehensive project already could have been under construction there. The effort to make a small triangle of city property on Ninth Street available for riverfront development seemingly has stalled. My guess is before the end of the year we will see more discussion about potential uses for the railyard property.
But all these opportunities will require political will if we are going to maximize them, and given the mood of the current City Council I’m not sure how well-received much additional attention for downtown will be. Any leadership here may have to come again from the business community.
“I would love to see three or four cranes downtown,†Houwman said at the Washington Square event. “There are underutilized, underdeveloped properties downtown.â€
It’s a commendable vision. But it would be more likely fulfilled if the public sector were driving momentum downtown as well as the private sector is.
I suppose we can throw a lot of public money at DT, as Huether and Darrin Smith have done, but I really think the business and development community need to pony up now, I think of the blood, sweat and tears people like Jeff Danz, Razmik, Kristina Kuehn, Erika and Dave Billion and the Hazards have put in DT over the years, they did this on their own, they made it happen. We can hand out TIF’s like candy and offer incentives to Raven Industries and Cherapa place by building them tax funded store fronts, but the real progress and growth for DT will come the old fashion way, like from people like Zach DeBoer who spent $200 of his own money to paint stripes on the street.
I would really like to see the business community tell city government, “Thanks for your help over the years, but we got it from here.”
Of all the things I love about Sioux Falls, it’s Downtown is the true Gem of the city, it’s been successful because individuals and businesses have decided to invest in it. Whether the city wants to throw more tax payer money at it is up in the air (they actually do thru several TIF’s, special property tax assessments and the facade easement program) but I don’t see this freight train stopping anytime soon.