February 2024

Is the Sioux Falls Downtown ‘Glice’ experience an omen?

l3wis February 11, 2024 6Comments

Besides the fact that the winter wonderland experience was poorly promoted (not announced until the day the festivities started) it really didn’t draw a lot of folks. Even Soo Foo Bizzo Queen had something to say about it;

To be candid, there wasn’t a very big crowd when I stopped by Friday night. I checked in Saturday afternoon, and it was about the same.

Same with Saturday night, at least when we stopped by.

So why was the Glice Arena response so dismal? Because it is cold out. While I make fun of Three Bears ski park for being closed when it is too warm (no snow) and when it is to cold (don’t understand that, the colder the weather the better the snow) maybe the real reason they close is because no one is showing up on the colder days, so why be open?

Not sure why people around here don’t enjoy winter sports more, but hey, as a guy who has been riding bike everyday for the past week, I get it, sometimes it is hard to enjoy yourself when you are freezing your butt off.

We have plenty of indoor ice in Sioux Falls, there really is not reason to skate in the elements.

Which brings us to Jacobsen Plaza. As I have told folks in the 20+ years I have been following city politics I have only had one person mention to me that it would be nice if we had a small refrigerated rink at one of our central Sioux Falls parks. That is the only time I have heard of this ‘need’. Originally only going to be about a $4 million dollar project it has ballooned to about 4x that. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

Will the Jacobsen Plaza see the same dismal participation as the glice arena? Not sure. But if I was a guessing man, it seems we will have a really nice ice river to look at while driving by on Phillips in your car.

Isn’t it fun watching a bunch of rich people decide what our PUBLIC recreation looks like? Make sure you wear your coat and hat and grab those ankles, this is not only to be cold, it’s gonna hurt.

Pitty Patt is a scammer? Get OUT!

l3wis February 11, 2024 2Comments

It only took the SD GOP over a decade but they finally booted Dinkus to the curb;

PIERRE — A familiar face on the South Dakota political scene will no longer have contractual ties to the party that he has been involved with for more than two decades.

That’s after the South Dakota Republican Party’s Central Committee voted overwhelmingly Saturday to cancel any future contracts with the Brookings man behind DakotaWarCollege.com and Dakota Campaign Store, Pat Powers.

Maybe they got tired of paying for all of his fartilicious fish & chip stories?

“When it was outlined for myself and other GOP Chairs that payments to DWC could range between $5000 to $6000 a year, it raised some eyebrows,” said R. Shawn Tornow, Minnehaha County GOP Chair. “It appears improper that the state party would be funding and propping up such a petty and petulant blogger.”

That’s rich coming from a guy who was fired from the city for fixing a ticket for his daughter and was asked with another attorney to turn in their law licenses, nobody knows why.

I think it is funny they have been scammed by this man for so long. Remember when he was deputy SOS and he had Paul TenHaken at the time hide his server so the state wouldn’t find out his conflict of interest? Then Jackley said Pat didn’t steal any money so it was ok.

While the people behind the cancellation may be celebrating, it’s Powers who has been laughing all the way to the bank after scamming these clowns for so many years.

UPDATE: There is NO ‘Taxpayer’ ROI on a new convention center

l3wis February 11, 2024 7Comments

UPDATE: Besides the fact that the presser for this project wasn’t publicly noticed on the city website, somehow the news of the presser magically appears on the city website. So is the Riverline District official city business Paul? Or are you using the city website like your personal FB page, in which he posts city business all the time, but has this disclaimer on his page;

Personal account, not associated w/ City of SF

He seems to be blurring the lines of what the role of government is. If you want to push for this project as a CITY, then you should properly NOTICE anything that is involved with this project, like posting a meeting agenda, so that the council can be aware of quorum, and the public can also know. It’s kind of like posting the city council agenda on a Wednesday morning after the Tuesday night meeting. To late.

With the city council agenda page currently offline due to vendor issues, it may start happening.

He just can’t wrap his head around the concept of transparent government. You can’t just tell half the story to the public and expect them to get on board. It would be like picking your car up at the mechanic and when you ask them what was wrong with it, he says, ‘Oh nothing serious, fixed now. $300 please.’

The above photo is of Uptown at the Falls concept, the original concept presented over a decade before any dirt actually moved. As you can see, not exactly what happened. All we got was some poorly insulated apartments and a couple of retailers.

We are going to be presented a lot of BS concepts over the next two years. Get ready, you are going to need a pay loader to clean this up.

Original Post

We only have to look at the Events Center. A place that is profitable, but gives NOTHING back to the taxpayers in the form of bond payments.

A new convention center would be NO different. A bunch of private investors would cash in and the citizens would have to pay a mortgage on a facility they know little about, don’t use and affects their lives very little, you know, like the Denty.

Just another developer scam that the city is trying to sell;

I did get a good laugh out of the new video during weekly pressers, they have a mic and cam on the press finally, though the bridge troll from the angus liar and bike hat boy didn’t help the image of the mayor’s press pool.

Just teasing.

What’s going on with Dakotafreepress?

l3wis February 11, 2024 2Comments

I have no clue, but if I had a quarter for everytime someone asked me this question I could buy a drink at Starbucks 🙂

I haven’t corresponded with Cory via phone or email in a couple of years, but did leave a voicemail saying I was thinking about him and hope he is ok.

There is a flurry of rumors that I really don’t want to get into, but if I had to guess, someone who is kinda close to Cory told me he is simply taking a break. Which is fine with me.

But yah kinda have to wonder?

The status of his site with comment moderation turned off, tells me he is still controlling the site with little interaction. That’s called a break.

Could it be something else? Sure. But until there is a big reveal, why don’t we just leave Cory alone 🙂

Theresa Stehly on FORUM

l3wis February 11, 2024 0Comments

Theresa was the featured guest on FORUM this week. For the record, Theresa was aware she got the council races mixed up in the beginning, but her message about the election is important.

School Board; 2 seats

City Council races; At-Large, NW, SW, NE.