I really enjoyed the public input last night at the Sioux Falls City Council meeting. It was also refreshing that the mayor was absent and wasn’t running the meeting. Council chair Kiley did an excellent job of running the over hour of testimony about Icon Lounge, noise ordinances downtown and allowing exotic pets in Sioux Falls.
The biggest group to appear were local musicians. One thing I learned long ago from hanging out at Nordic Hall and later the Pomp Room; Don’t F’ck with local musicians. They have to scrape and scrap enough the way it is to get gigs, so when you threaten to close one of their venues down, they get a little irritated. I will say though they presented their side of the argument very professionally, as did many other presenters last night.
As I told a councilor last night, the problem with public input isn’t the presenters it’s the smart ass running the meeting. He was absent last night, and it went well.
One of the funnier moments was when one presenter said that we are turning downtown into a senior living/housing district and it should be an entertainment district first, residential second. Noise ordinances should take precedent to commercial use first downtown and residential second. I couldn’t agree more.
The last presenter offered the best solution. He said that the city should do a baseline noise study all over downtown and see what the ‘average’ decibel is currently and determine a new sound level from there. I think several councilors agree. If I was a betting man, I bet you the average decibel level downtown on weekday afternoon is a little over 60.
Hopefully the city will do such a study and fix the noise ordinances downtown to cater to entertainment first and residential second.