December 2024

South Dakota Ranks 45th in Bicycle friendliness

H/T to Jordan Deffenbaugh for posting this on Turdbook;

While Sioux Falls as a city ranks a lot better, we do have work to do, trust me, someone who rides a ton in this town knows. What I found most astounding was the ZERO in Planning. I would think there would be at least ONE legislator pro bicycle. I guess I need to take Jamison out for a coffee 🙂 and a bike ride.

WE MISSED AN OPPORTUNITY WITH JORDAN

Speaking of Jordan, I see what his opponent has done so far and I am completely disappointed that the voters didn’t see what a great package we would have gotten with Jordan. Maybe Thomason will wake up after New Years, stranger things have happened, like watching Councilor Miranda ‘Lucy’ Bayse vote for a property tax increase next year. This is going to be fun.

Is the Sioux Falls City Council communicating with City Hall?

After watching the above presser where Councilor Miranda ‘Lucy’ Bayse said this, I wonder if the council is talking to city hall;

There isn’t anything that’s proposed that would increase the tax expectations or increase what community members would pay in their taxes to fund these things.

Over the last couple of years when the city council has discussed NOT raising property taxes (they always vote for the increase) the mayor’s minions have cried to the council if we don’t raise the taxes every year we would miss out on rec programming, street repair and any other bogeyman they can cook up. So how can Lucy say there won’t be any increases in taxes to pay for services? She can’t. She is either lying or doesn’t understand how the funding works. While we have a bond rating based on our 2nd penny collection, we also have other bond ratings tied to our total revenue take in which also consists of Federal and State grants and property taxes. While the bond itself to pay for the facility is attached to the 2nd penny some of the programming will come from property tax revenue. So where is the disconnect? You will pay more in ALL taxes to fund these facilities, does the council think the money is coming from the sky? Seriously? It will cost MILLIONS each year to subsidize these facilities, the money is coming from somewhere.

Instead of lying to the public to justify the means why not stop the hand wringing and propaganda and put it to a legal bond vote. If you really want to know what the public thinks, ASK THEM!

What was on the menu tonight at the Sioux Falls City Council meeting?

Screenshot

So some Bible Bumping Homophobes decided to show up to the meeting tonight and start reading from books intended for teenagers in the library. Let’s just say the topic which one of the inputers decided to read from wasn’t about kitties. Or eating kitties, but you get the picture.

The pornographic input continued.

Of course, it is just fictional dialogue between teenagers that want to engage in sexual activity.

This past year when a doctor from Sanford was interviewed about the skyrocketing STD’s in our community she said this about the pandemic. “We don’t teach comprehensive sex education in our schools.” She is spot on. So sometimes kids learn about sex from books.

As for all the gay bashing, that is expected from these folks, but as for the book banning, not on my watch. Instead of trying to remove books from the library that some kids will see as beneficial (since their parents and school isn’t teaching these things) maybe sit down with your kid and have that conversation, or better yet go to the library with your child and pick out books you think would be appropriate. It’s called “Parenting” and that applies to YOUR kids, not the community’s. I’m getting really tired of these ANTI-DEMOCRATIC FASCIST THEOCRATS trying to raise everyone’s kids. Also, it is NONE OF YOUR F’ING BUSINESS how a parent chooses to teach their kids about sex. Maybe they just need to tune into the council meeting and they can learn how to go down and put on a rubber. You all really looked like a bunch of buffoons . . . wait. Maybe they need to read a book once in awhile 🙂 May I recommend the US Constitution. There is no advice on oral sex but you learn a ton about civil liberties which is more helpful then a guide on how to eat kitty, I mean, a kitty.

SPEAKING OF KITTIES

The city council approved catch, neuter and release for stray cats. While I was initially opposed to this, I fully support this now. Ferrel cats are actually good at pest control and if vaccinated for rabies and neutered they are safe to roam our community and provide this service.

SLANDER?

A public inputer came tonight to tell the council about a certain inputer’s slander. We all know who she was talking about. Every week she comes up and slanders someone. I have told her she is going to slander the wrong person and end up being sued. While the council could ask her to stop, it is really out of their control and if she does make some serious allegations that are not true, she is the only one that would be accountable. As I have told the council about how the mayor runs the meetings, you can’t control what is said at the podium, so why bother, you are also not guilty of slander for simply listening to someone slandering someone else. I have a feeling she is going to throw the wrong VIP under the bus at the podium and we will never hear from her again because she will busy talking to a judge and not the council.

UPDATE: Mayor of Sioux Falls Paul TenHaken blows off a one year 700% increase in murders

UPDATE: I was speaking with someone who works in law enforcement recently (they are NOT employed by the city) and asked them for an anededote about all the shootings. I first wondered if it had anything to do with the scanners being shut off. They felt that would have little impact but they did remind me that in July of 2019 the OPEN CARRY law went into effect in South Dakota and since then crimes with guns have gone up. As they put it to me, ‘Everyone is carrying these days.’ That wasn’t really reassuring. I have been surprised for a long time that we have not witnessed a shoot out in a grocery store in Sioux Falls. I guess we don’t have to worry about people being frustrated at the grocery store anymore, Donald Trump will be president soon 🙁 I encourage who is left in the SF MSM do a little digging around on this, and see if gun related crimes and accidents have gone up since the law went into effect.

This is pretty typical of Poops, and the social challenges he ignores; climate change, covid, the homeless, panhandlers, dead monkeys, and many, many, many more. This is a guy who recently said, “I’m over it.” He just doesn’t f’ing get it? Does he? At a presser today he said this about our 700% increase in murders;

“Last year, we had a near-record low number of homicides. We had two. So, crime ebbs and flows,” said TenHaken.

Typical of a challenge with Poops. If it is too difficult to solve; ignore, deny, coverup and kick that can down the road.

The first thing I would do boy genius is have chief Thum research how each crime occurred and break it down into categories. Some may be preventable, some may not. This is Criminal Sociology 101. Why do I feel like this town is being ran by a class of 5th graders?! Ironically, they would probably make better choices. Stop worrying if you are going to get your big fat commission on the new convention center and start acting like the chief administrator of our city, of course after your jumping jacks with the kiddos. weird

Riverline Committee finally has public meeting today

Not sure what happened, because it wasn’t recorded, but here was the agenda;

• Purchase agreement, timeline to public vote, and consulting timeline.

I encourage peeps in the real estate industry to read the purchase AGREEMENT and see if something sticks out. They also have a PREVIEW of the document with questions.

I have heard plenty of rumors that there is a gigantic conflict of interest with who is brokering this deal and a city official, so keep your eyes peeled. My assumption all along is that they had the first two meetings as executive sessions because they were trying to find a way to hide names of people who will be benefitting financially from this deal in the form of commissions. They are also trying to concoct this ILLEGAL advisory vote which has about as much weight as legal advice from your barber.

Like I said, I did not attend the meeting today at the admin building in the middle of the afternoon, but I am guessing they are still sticking with the advisory vote which is ILLEGAL and I have been connecting with folks behind the scenes to find a way to stop this ILLEGAL election. More on that soon.

A foot soldier came to me lately with an interesting theory on the Riverline (from this article);

“The actual project currently is scheduled in two phases, beginning with 10th Street in 2032 and followed by 11th Street in 2036.”

Just a hunch – the City will buy Lloyd’s property currently leased by the State of South Dakota as office space (as well as other parcels in the neighborhood); hold it 7-10 years, through the greater portion of the viaduct construction projects.  

The City will build a Convention Center on a portion and as the viaduct construction projects are able to forecast a discrete completion date, the City will sell a portion back to Lloyd (and similar to the land deal involved in Phillips to the Falls, the price will be very favorable to Lloyd [original cost?]).

I have felt this was part of the plan for a long time. As you can see from the maps, a two-way traffic viaduct makes more sense, but it also frees up a ton of real estate.

While I support having only ONE viaduct (or better yet kick the f’ing trains out of town then we don’t have to fart around with this) it isn’t about making the lives of the residents better, it’s always about lining someone’s pockets.

If this goes to an advisory vote and the citizens pass this it will be one of the largest tax increases on citizens in the history of our city, it will also pay NO DIVIDENDS! In other words this tax increase will not make your life more fiscally secure and virtually have NO EFFECT on your life. The Convention Center business should be private, in fact it is, hundreds of for profit businesses throughout Sioux Falls do this, we don’t need another giant building that sits empty 90% of the year. Want to spend $400 million in Sioux Falls and make a REAL economic impact? Clean up the core neighborhoods with grants and community development loans. Trim all the city owned trees! Fix all the city owned sidewalks! I can tell you spending money on these things will go a lot farther in making this community a better place then some profit making scheme by bankers, developers, contractors and all the other ilk that comes to the feeding trough.

I can’t wait to see the committee’s recommendations. This is going to be very funny.