This last couple of weekends I have been reintroduced to Winter. Last Saturday morning while running errands the streets were a pure sheet of black ice that was undetectable unless you tapped your brakes. After sliding thru almost two intersections I wondered where the sanders were? Yesterday while riding my bike down East 10th street I hit a patch of ice and almost dumped my bike. I am not expecting our street department to sand every residential street in this town, but at least the busy streets and intersections.
The rumor coming from city hall is that the snow budget for 2023 was already eaten up and they are trying to get by without a supplemental appropriation until January 1st. Which is ridiculous since tax dollars main objective is to fund taxpayer services like street maintenance.
I found it funny that a city that has a tennis court on every corner of this town wants to build pickleball courts. You can play pickleball on a tennis court, you just have to lower the net by 2 inches. We seem to have money for a fad (I call pickleball the rollerblading of the 2000’s) but no money to throw a little sand on the streets so people can safely navigate? BTW, I also saw a gigantic 4-door super max truck slide thru an intersection, so when it comes to ice, size doesn’t matter.
This ‘cheating’ us on snow removal started with Munson and progressively got worse towards the end of Huether’s term. TenHaken acts like when it snows he has to make some weighty decision. It’s simple, money is in a fund for this, you call the Street Director and tell him, get to work. Nobody will criticize you for doing ‘too much’.
I have spoken to former street department managers and workers (retired) and they all tell me they have no idea why it is being run the way it is now. I think I have the answer, it’s not being run, it’s being ignored. On purpose.
Oh no, but what will happen “Someday” if the $20 million, only 160 foot long, bridge to The Land of Cherapa gets icy, what will we do?…. Maybe some ice bumper cars might help?….
( and Woodstock adds: “Now, now, I keep trying to tell all of you guys this town ain’t for the people no longer… Nope…. It’s just for the developers” ……
Wow, just think of all of the ice you could remove with $20 million….
Thank goodness for climate change, manmade or not, else we might need some leadership at city hall…. #WhatsItAllAboutSelfie? #IsThatIceSelfie?
I can’t wait until 2027, when we could conceivably hold an international pickle ball tournament right here in Cyox Phals. Heck, if Yankton can hold an annual international archery tournament, then we certainly could hold an international tournament of pickle ball importance you would think. In fact then, maybe the corn hole people might finally take note as well…. AND, maybe the final championship game, or games, could then be held under the presence of the sacred Bunker Ramp….
I’ve lived in the same area of town my entire life (O’G area). When I was a kid, my Dad used to joke that we would be the first – and usually were – to get plowed out after a winter storm because the mayor and one of the two city commissioners lived in our neighborhood back then. So, there’s always been politics in this town when it comes to snow and ice, but at least in the past we all got plowed and sanded. Now days it’s done with an attitude as though it’s a bother for our city fathers to plow us out or sand ice. This attitudinal change demonstrates how local government is less now about representing the concerns of the average citizens, and instead more about directing the energy, money, talent, and time for the few, or the developers especially:
https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/february-2011/snowpocalypse-then-how-the-blizzard-of-1979-cost-the-election-for-michael-bilandic/
i live up the street from pat star. that explains why my street is never plowed.
Growing Up in Sioux Falls all my life, I can remember some pretty interesting winters during the 1980’s. Back in those days, we would take notice to the straight trucks pushing snow down 41st Street, 12th Street, Minnesota Avenue, and Cliff Avenue – they would work in tandem and would often drive 3 wide, staggered 1 car length back from each other. It was an amazing site to see. They could plow the entire street east to west on one pass, and the snow drift on the side of the road would be like 10 feet tall, and feel as if you were driving in a tunnel. Back then, we never complained about the length in time it took to plow the entire town. At the time we lived with our mom on 60th & Oakland, in a new development south of 57th Street on the southwest side of town, we were nearly the last street of South Sioux Falls and we would wait to perhaps 2 pm for our streets to be plowed. Did we complain, no, this was the trademark of a generation of people born prior 1980. We had a different mentality in those days, and we made the snow days awesome. I remember my dad coming to pick us up on a Friday, driving a Yellow 1975 Chevy Suburban, taking us to his house in West Sioux, where we preparing this evening to go to the local Slot Car Speedway in the back of Universal Hobby Shop on Saturday morning, this would have been the winter of 1984. A group of Racers often got together to spend Saturday mornings trying to beat each other in classes called Wom-Womps, Sprint Cars, and a Modified type class. As kids growing up, this is how we spent our winters, and we never fussed over snow removal, cause like I said in those days, ‘we’ made them fun, exciting, and like holidays.
What did we do after the Saturday Morning races – Go to the Hamburger Inn next to the Bus Stop downtown, fur an awesome burger, fries, and a coke. After that, we would attend either the State Theatre or the Holiday Theatre for a movie night.
From 1980 to 1990, I remember Sioux Falls as a community that lived together, played together, worked together, and dug itself out together. We go around our Neighborhoods helping each other shovel out their driveways, never complaining about the plow trucks pushing snow in our driveway, cause we all understand, a community is all of us, working together to plow ourselves out during snow storms. That to me is my most awesome memory, and it was the best of times.
There’s no practicality and responsibility coming from city hall. Their minds got focused on play and vacant parking garages. Downtown revitalized itself but you can’t get there in winter. Doesn’t seem to matter that water department upgrade should be fundamental and homelessness is shameful. Maybe they’ll come out of their fantasy world before they ruin McKennon Park. Doubtful. Meanwhile, the feds can distribute cheese at pickle ball courts and the homeless can sleep around barrel fires in the parking tower.
Make America Irate Again
I would defend pickleball. It is easier to play than tennis and a lot less stressful on your joints (not as dangerous as roller blading). Anyone can play and it is good exercise. I don’t know of any city funded pickleball courts in the last 5 years. Avera has done some at their performance center and privately funded outdoor courts.
Robert, I would agree that it is good fitness, and as an advocate for E-Bikes, I am for anything that gets ‘older’ folks working out. My point is we could convert existing tennis courts to pickleball courts simply by changing the nets and putting an extra couple of lines on the court. One of the reasons the tennis association said they needed to build new courts is so they can have tournaments at one location. But what about all the single courts throughout the city? Why not convert them? Would save us $$$$ and you would have your pickleball. Everyone wins.
one thing that happens here is u will never see keloland warning these noobs who moved here about the first ice of the winter , cuz they get money from the body shop to runs there ads, & the txxas noobs get spun all to hell n wreck cuz they dont know how to drive on it, & + no sand = its all connected