LOCAL GOVERNMENT
I’ve been researching the changes in Sioux Falls government since the 1970’s. Looking at the root causes for the disfunction we continue to have in Sioux Falls. Alan Ehrenhalt wrote a series of articles for Governing magazine and then books based on the Sioux Falls mess. Here is a 1991 Baltimore Sun newspaper review of his book, The United States of Ambition. See how much has changed or hasn’t.Â
But since the 1974 upset, stability has vanished. Old city commissioners have been ousted, their replacements tainted with scandal. Political power, once tightly held, has been ricocheting back and forth between organized labor, the local branch of the National Women’s Political Caucus and a conservative anti-tax league.
PARATRANSIT
The underlying belief is people who rely on public transit are not tech savvy or work, so why try? There is an attitude in the taupe house society people, in wheelchairs must be placated so the taupers can skim off their special share first.
For the price of a subway ride, a wheelchair accessible van would pick me up at my apartment and drop me at my destination anywhere within the city’s five boroughs. So far so good. But then she explained the fine print. I would have to schedule my ride one to two days in advance. My pick-up time could be an hour earlier or an hour later than requested. The driver would have a 30-minute window in which to pick me up before he would be considered late. I, on the other hand, had to be outside to meet my van within five minutes of its arrival or I would be counted as a no-show.