February 2024

Councilor Soehl wants to address panhandling, problem is he can’t

l3wis February 14, 2024 5Comments

During the city council presser (which BTW has only been posted to FB and NOT YouTube, which is ironic since the mayor’s presser TODAY is already loaded to YouTube). The council put out their concerns.

One of the things was mentioned is that someone is planning to run in the NW district challenging the one person who has announced. Which is good.

I have been advocating for years that the council do pressers. So this is a good move towards transparency, and I know that councilor Merkouris is committed to continuing these events.

But councilor Soehl’s comments about his ordinance to stop people from using public space to panhandle is, well, speculative.

Trust me, nothing bothers me more that people have to beg for money on a street corner, so why don’t we craft ordinances that HELP these people instead of treating them like rats?

Soehl wants to put in city ordinance that it is illegal to stand at certain interstate off ramps. He doesn’t mention panhandling because the city attorney told him not to, but it is obvious his intent.

The ordinance would likely violate the 1st, the 5th and 14th amendment of the Constitution, along with many others.

I don’t like panhandling either, but there are solutions to help these peeps without criminalizing the activity.

Sorry Curt, but this is going to blow up in your face, and I don’t think you realize it. If I was you, I would rescind this as fast as possible, but maybe you like the criticism?

Why hasn’t the City of Sioux Falls updated noise ordinances in decades?

l3wis February 14, 2024 1Comments

If I had to guess, it has to do with those whiners downtown about the concerts at Icon because they bought expensive condos with no noise insulation.

During public input at the council meeting this week a lady who has frequented the council many times informed them of what she has learned about the noise ordinances in town.

They haven’t been updated for decades.

The complaint is there are parties going on at public parks. Totally legal. The problem is the bumping music above allowable decibel levels.

If the city had actual noise ordinances in place they could stop this. They do, but they lack enforcement.

But the interesting part is how the city tries to sweep away the flies. They claim that the party goers see the health department official or PD coming and they turn the music off before they arrive. So why not show up undercover? Show up in an unmarked vehicle walking a dog thru the park and whip out the badge. This isn’t rocket science.

Either way, the city needs to address noise ordinances.

Whether an Acorn or a Pringles Can, you can never be to safe

l3wis February 14, 2024 3Comments

Remember the Tuthill officer incident in which I joked he saw a ghost with a Pringles can? Well this story is even funnier;

Despite Hernandez’ claim that he thought shots were coming from inside his vehicle, he told an investigation that he didn’t remember seeing the flash of a gun or any glass smashing in the car. What’s more, in his body cam footage you can clearly see the acorn fall into frame and strike the roof of his car.

Armed and dangerous suspects need to be handled with care. Acorns? Kill Em’ All and let God sort them out.

*Thanks to the foot soldier who sent me this article!

UPDATE: The Man, The Legend, David Z

l3wis February 14, 2024 9Comments

UPDATE: Lalley does an article about the director.

Kind of disappointed I wasn’t interviewed, I even know the director 🙁

Need to learn some of his karate moves.

Why aren’t we running shuttles to the Denty?

l3wis February 13, 2024 5Comments

Not sure why, but folks who attend concerts at the Denty have told me that it takes sometimes hours to get a cab from the place after a show. I’m guessing peeps have figured out that the gig economy isn’t so great.

With all this talk lately about the bad positioning of the Denty and Convention Center many are asking why do we have to move something when we can just figure out how to utilize it better.

Before the Denty was built there was talk about running public transit shuttles from downtown parking ramps to events. I think they did it a couple of times and it disappeared.

Instead of moving the convention center, why not just start running free shuttles from DTSF to the complex during concerts and conventions?

You could do it for free, or even charge a $1, and would get more people spending money in our town when they attend these events.

Another funding source would be adding a ‘parking’ fee to every ticket sold. I suggested to the council years ago that they should be charging a city ‘facility’ fee to each ticket that strictly goes towards the mortgage, but they argued the artists and promoters didn’t like it. Oh well.

So why don’t we do it? My guess is that the management of the Denty doesn’t want peeps who are driving from Mitchell to spend any of their money anywhere else except at the Denty.

We act like the Denty is in outerspace. If I had to guess, the Denty is about 2 miles from DTSF. This is doable.

Let’s admit it, building a CC and EC at that location was a mistake, but instead of spending $300 million to fix a mistake, why not work with what we have?