I always thought it would be close.
I was wrong.
Big money wins again. Think about it, the Rec center failed, and there was no money behind the YES vote.
This is sort of a relief though, I don’t think I have the stomach for another debate down the line.
I promised the mayor ‘no sour grapes’ and there won’t be any from me. I have said all along if this is what the voters want, have at it.
But I will be clear about one thing, transparency and openness needs to return to city hall. And I will continue to watch.
I will give props to Sue Roust, she estimated close to 40,000 votes and she just about nailed it.
FINAL
VOTES PERCENT
PRECINCTS COUNTED (OF 57) . . . . . 57 100.00
REGISTERED VOTERS – TOTAL . . . . . 97,521
BALLOTS CAST – TOTAL. . . . . . . 40,198
VOTER TURNOUT – TOTAL . . . . . . 41.22
EVENTS CENTER PROPOSITION
Vote for 1
Yes . . . . . . . . . . . . 23,283 58.08
No. . . . . . . . . . . . . 16,806 41.92
Cobra Commander will now put on my “sad” hood instead of my mirror mask…upset yes but mad, no…..
cobra…
I accept the vote as well. Clearly the yes vote had far greater turnout. As I continue to analyze the precinct results a few things are glaring. The farther you go out west, south, etc the yes votes are a total landslide. We’re talking 70/30 range. These are what I would consider the more ‘affluent’ areas. I’m not disaparaging them, heck, I live in one of them and my precinct went 62/38 YES. The only clear NO precincts appear to have been in the core areas and what I would consider lower income areas – again not disparaging just making generalizations. Some areas were essentially 50/50. It seems clear that Tim Stanga in a way was right. There is a gulf on this issue between ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. As a matter of disclosure, I had every reason to vote yes. I’m doing well, I have club seats at the Stampede right behind the glass, and I have disposable income for events. I just thought the financing plan was reckless and I’m way more financially conservative, apparently, than many of my peers. My anectodal experience around here was many people didn’t know many details (or any) and were completely uninformed, they just wanted a shiny event center, period. And in areas like this our houses are newer, our roads are nice, so we probably don’t perceive many things older neighborhoods do or suffer from things like sewer backups etc. And of course the areas that tilted heavy for it have the disposable income to enjoy the new event center. I’ll accept it, and in actuality when the thing is built I’ll probably enjoy it. I’m not mad, I’m just sad really. The best way I can put it is that its what I would imagine if my now 3 year old daughter was an adult and bought a house I knew she couldn’t afford. I’d be afraid for her and sad really that she tied a boat anchor to her ankle. That’s really what I think the city has done to itself.
Argus.com was best viewing of the night. Like a mouse in the corner, you could watch ALL the behind the scenes activities (13wis – I hope you get a screen grab of the Mayor wearing a hard hat, which wasn’t on TV).
You’re right about “money talks” – a lot of hugs and awkward high fives between the Mayor and his BIN cronies. I just hope they’re willing to put their money where their mouth is now, so to speak.
Indeed, the EC debate is over for now. Some pointed comments made at last night’s Council meeting about the Ethics Board. We must continue to pursue this. Hopefully, the local media will join in on this “open government” issue. But, first, the cheerleaders need to take off their skirts!
I dont even get a shoutout for nailing this ON THE BUTTON??
http://www.southdacola.com/blog/2011/10/events-center-prediction/#comment-60042
I really hate be so awesome at predicting things….it’s really a curse. Just remember this next time ppl want the results two weeks b4 the vote.
Screwit… I’m starting my OWN BLOG!!!!
I saw that steve, looks like you and Roust were the big winners in vegas tonight! Greg, it’s always about money, I saw this during the mayoral runoff. I don’t want to get into it, but you are right, the poorer neighborhoods didn’t support it. Corn – I saw the hard hat, and did laugh, Mike, cheeseball until the end. But you are also right, we need to be concerned about how taxpayer money was spent.
I am a MANIAC. The final number for ‘no’ was 16806… look at this…
http://www.southdacola.com/blog/2011/11/if-the-ec-fails-it-wont-be-because-of-negative-feelings-about-the-mayor/#comment-60524
O.k. time to get shiddy and forget any of this evr happebnd.
Steve – You should email me, would love to know your identity. Even though I am sure your formula was less then scientific. 🙂
Greg – didn’t get a look yet at the breakdown by precinct. Here is a map of low-income areas in SF. essentially, N of 12th on the West side, North of 6th on the East side and a strip along Minnesota all the way through to 229 on the South and a sort of “club shape” between 41st and 57th East of 29. Does that correlate with the Yes/No split? (Essentially outside the Interstate Yes, inside – No.)
http://www.siouxfalls.org/~/media/documents/comdev/2011/J60001_Fair_Housing_Analysis.ashx
Page 13 for the map.
Ruf – No doubt politics has come to money, never thought I would see the day in SF. I know when Munson ran for mayor the first time around he spent something like $10,000 (I think?) What did Huether spend? Like I said I don’t have sour grapes about approval, an events center is/was inevitable, who are we kidding? But I do have a problem with money influencing votes and the lack of transparency, the public really lost on that aspect of this issue.
Billy Bragg says it best
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O76fVD7Haow
rufusx, yeah that’s pretty much right, west of I-29 and getting down south a ways, south central and southeast it was a huge yes vote. As you moved inward it got closer where say it was yes but it was at least competitive. The area north of 12th street and west of I-29 (where my dad lives) actually was YES, but it wasn’t by a big margin. It should be noted in that area there is some new development too mixed in with older homes and the trailer parks. The only clear no areas were areas like where I grew up (Laura B Anderson neighborhood) east of John Morrell, the area west and north of the arena, a number of downtown/central area districts, north around airport etc. I’m not saying it perfectly correlated, but it was pretty darn clear -as you moved outward the margins got larger. I live over by Roosevelt/Memorial and in a lot of the precincts around that we’re talking 70/30, same with way down south. What do all of those have in common? Obviously you could be on the lower end and vote yes or on the higher end and vote no, but it seems to me the correlation is unmistakable. To the yes credit, they won by a clear mandate, no mistaking that. With all precincts in they darn near ran the table, so no excuses they clearly won. Probably because of more money, better message, all of the above. I want to be clear I’m not really a class warfare/us vs them type of guy, I’m just stating what seems obvious from the results. My interest now is trying to figure out how the city doesn’t end up in financial ruin when this does what all of these do, which is run at a loss and blows a hole in our budget.
l3wis-
Since I spent a good amount of time tonight online at AL Media listening to wild speculation offered by Stu, might I offer the wild specualtion that Scumbag Steve is indeed S. Roust, one and the same !
I wouldn’t say it was a ‘better’ or ‘clearer’ message. Just a better funded one. Though I got my panties in a bunch over Huether slamming the blogs, I’m not sure why now. I think Huether actually drove more people to my site then away by bringing the blogs up. It is easy to mislead people when you dangle a carrot in their faces, especially since Barclay, Holsen and I don’t have any carrots 🙂
As I noted earlier, spent part of the night on the Argus Leader media feed.
Interesting part for me: Lot’s of younger folks chiming in via Twitter & other social media with comments such as “… finally getting an Event Center !”. Made with the same sort of glee and entusiasm I hear when someone learns that their favorite, long-sought-after chain restaurant is set to establish commerce in Sioux Falls ( ” … we’re finally getting a Cheescake Factory !”).
Like a chain restaurant, the Event Center seems to be a measure of validation for some residents of this city
(e.g. “This is a backwater hick town – we can’t even get a “; or “Now that we finally are getting a , maybe my freinds will stop thinking that I live on a cow town”.).
Guernsey – I don’t know Sue personally, but did have a great conversation with her about a year ago. Trust me, she isn’t Scumbag Steve.
I think Scumbag Steve is Bob Litz … and they’ll find about 7,500 “NO” votes in a dumpster out back of the courthouse. Remember his yard sign? The fix was in!
Interesting, too, that the West Sioux neighborhood (most likely to directly benefit from this $115m project) voted “NO”.
Lastly, the Huether/Entenman bromance tonight was over the top. Think they’ll get a room?
What made me laugh the hardest tonight was a twitter from spill canvas congratulating the city for voting this in. Like they’ll ever play in there.
I second the Huether/Entenman celebration being a little creepy. Now that this is done, we need to start pushing for the private donors who supposedly wouldn’t commit until it was a sure thing. Well, now it is. Let’s go, a couple of big donations would make me feel a lot better. L3wis, I agree the better way for me to have put it was better funded message. The no side really wasn’t organized and surely didn’t have big money behind it so the message was largely lost. Money isn’t a 100% guarantee in politics, but its extremely hard to overcome.
“Lastly, the Huether/Entenman bromance tonight was over the top. Think they’ll get a room?”
Where? There are no plans for a second on-site hotel 🙂
Scott – C’mon, they are back together workin’ on a new record!
My major question is where will the money come from for cost overruns? Will we just chip away at the reserves? Or chip away at other CIP projects when these overruns occur. You gotta be smoking some pretty good doobage to think we are gonna build the EC and infrastructure around it for $115 million. The River Greenway project has already gone over 50% cost overrun. Imagine if the EC does? Where are we gonna dig up $57 million dollars?
Not to mention city debt will hit almost 1/2 billion after we bond this.
It is about the selling not based on facts. the little bullet points on KSFY tonight has a couple facts but the one they could not post was “Event Center won’t interfere with current operating duties of the city”
Things might have been different if Barclay’s group had only 50 knowledgeable citizens able to knock on doors and businesses to discuss this issue. Rather than just hanging door hangers but he did a great job with the finances available and the few citizens willing to help.
I commend Barclay, Jamison and the Velvet Hammer for speaking out, but too little too late, and too little money.
Forgot to mention that Rocco Tchetter told me that the Blues Bashers will be the headliner for the first EC concert 🙂
Communist claim that the “ends justify the means,” but only a true capitalist can show this to be true. Whether it be John D Rockefeller’s cornering of the railroad petroleum shipping market in the 19th century which later paved the way for the good which has come from the Rockefeller Foundation and the politics of Jay Rockefeller, or the “bootlegging” and stock manipulation tactics of Joe Kennedy which produced the likes of JFK and RFK. We are now faced with the re-alities that the good from the Sanford Children Hospitals and the new Sioux Falls Events Center are actually the offspring of predatory sub-prime lending. The rise of Huether speaks both to the strengthens and weaknesses of our market political economy. The question begs us … “Is this all the better we can be?”
Must successful and effective political policy be only the child of a lesser thing. They say that the fruit does not fall far from the tree. If this is true, then what can be said about our political system and its dependence upon
self appointed lords, who administer their good (ends), in their undemocratic (means) way?
Did you write this before today?
No, I just put this in words, but I have been thinking about this for a long time.
It’s a thought that has plagued me for some time as well. People are full on in 5 year old me mode and they decided that they will not bite the hand that feeds them unlimited credit, rather they will do whatever to get more reward points, even though it means going deeper into debt…half a billion dollars for a city with under 200 thousand residents, amazing how the stupidity never ceases.
Best Comment I’ve seen about EC: Can’t wait to be able to buy meth at the Log Cabin before the Bret Michaels concert. LOL!
Is the city moving toward having one company manage the whole facility including the arena, convention center and the upcoming events center? I’m annoyed that I can get nothing but beer when I’m in the regular seats at the arena while the VIP sections offer liquor. When I inquired about it I was told it has to do with licensing and multiple management groups (SMG and Global Spectrum and perhaps the hotel) within the same structure. Frickin’ ridiculous. I’m guessing there are many other examples of duplication of service and needless rules associated with multiple companies managing essentially the same structure.
What a sad, sad day. This is a plan for 1999, not 2011. The old economy ain’t coming back… unfortunately, that’s the only thing that could make this thing successful. The damage from this thing will creep in slowly, almost imperceptibly. Small cutbacks to parks, libraries, transit, because the 2nd penny isn’t as strong as everyone predicted. All so that about 8% of the population can go see ACDC and the Black-Eyed Peas once every 10 years.
It will be one management company. And I also think there will be liquor served.
@Greg – you mention the area you live in and other such areas. I am in the generation and we have many friends/acquaintances that seem to love the lifestyle of “buy now, pay later.” I am not suggesting that is you – but that is a major portion of the “yes” vote. They have no idea how to live within their own means – hence this shiny, new EC was all they saw. They didn’t do enough research to know that Madison AVe will have to be redone – which is not in the budget. We eventually will need a parking ramp out there – that is not in the budget. This $115+ million is for construction costs only – the rest we get to find the money for. That is their lifestyle – buy now and I’ll rob Peter to pay Paul on another day. Scares the shit out of me.
As I have said to many today, we sold our souls to the devil last night – the Mayor and DEBT. There is a reason SF isn’t struggling like many parts of the country and it was because we didn’t frivolously do massive tax-payer projects such as this. Now we have and now we get to join the rest of the country.
With that said, I am ready to role up my sleeves and make this thing work however it needs to be done. I have always said the last thing I want is for my kids to reap the backlash of a loose decision such as this – so it’s time to go to work. Downtown will ALWYAS be my top priority and somehow we need to make the new EC and DT hold hands. That is best for the community.
Wow, people are still acting like the Arena site is miles and miles away from downtown? I shouldn’t be surprised, as apparently the Justin Bieber commercial worked on our local idiots.
@Alice: “we need to make the new EC and DT hold hands.”
I like how the Mayor and others have suggested “trolley service” between the EC and DT. Why not, you know, actually invest in the existing transit system? Call it whatever you want to make sure the McMansionites don’t get scared (they’ll never ride “public transit!”), but they shouldn’t act like they’re geniuses for suggesting something that should ALREADY exist (quality transit service in the urban core).
“Lastly, the Huether/Entenman bromance tonight was over the top. Think they’ll get a room?â€
Not likely. One thing I’ve always wondered about. Entenman throws a kegger every weekend of the summer at J&L. Not for free though. Unless you think ear splitting decibal levels of God awful bands and $5.00 a pound domestic beer is a good deal. Point is, too many of these keggers have bikers heading down Westport Avenue or North 60th Street in a state that would bring a lot of money into the City Sobriety Checkpoint program. Think we’ll see a checkpoint out there anytime soon? NOT LIKELY.
Scott – do you think the personal automobile dependent culture the Yes vote lives will still be dominant 15-20years from today? Have you ever walked from DT to the Arena or vice versa? Feel all safe and cozy doing so? Up steep hill, down steep hill. Cross a busy West Avenue (OOOpps! – Can’t do THAT! no where to cross between Russel and 6th) and then cross busy Minnesota Avenue.
Sure, as the crow flies – not that far – but WHAT is in between?
Yeah, I do. If not, we’re sure wasting hundreds of millions of dollars expanding the city in all four directions and crafting more highways circling the city.
Ruf – Funny you brought this up. In the summer, I usually ride my bike to events that I will be drinking at. I live by Drakes Springs Pool and have ridden my bike to shows by the Arena on several occasions (Nutty’s North). One night I went to a show there and a friend picked me up. She left early, because she had one of her pissy-pants episodes so I had to hoof it home. Not fun. I would guess about a 4-5 mile walk. Mind you, I had been drinking Turkey Cokes all night and was wearing Converse All-stars, and this was summer, those may factor into the difficulty of the walk.
So in conclusion, the Arena site and the DT site are not the same. But I have always been under the assumption that ANYPLACE but the Arena site would be better. They are going to have to build a parking ramp eventually out there, that is inevitable. Like I have said before, wait until the cost overruns start adding up.
I heard on the news tonight that there won’t be a final estimate of the total cost for a few months, until all of the plans are finalized. I thought they had the plans all made. This came from mayor big spender himself. Hopefully after this dies down some we won’t have to listen to the mayor with his silky overly polite voice on the news a dozen or so times every day.
They are going to have to build a parking ramp eventually out there, that is inevitable. Like I have said before, wait until the cost overruns start adding up.
Parking ramp spots are going for 17 to 20 thousand per spot today. Add on another 5 to 6 million for that add-on. If not a ramp, then they’ll have to buy a lot of private property for a flat surface lot. Street upgrades around the Center are also going to have to happen. And what about controlled light intersections? Surely we’ll need more of that….for safeties sake. What about storm sewer? Just a couple of blocks to the east of this white elephant we have a bank of apartment complex’s that flood every summer 3 or 4 times during our once in a hundred year downpours. What about sewer? Do we have the sewer capacity in that area to handle multiple events? Not likely…at least based on how many times a year we gotta dump turds in the river just a few blocks to the west of this “EVENT” Center. How about electrical requirements? Does the city have the needed capacity for a 12,000 seat event center? And if we don’t, how much are going to have to pay for that?
Think River Greenway Project and it’s cost overruns. Then multiply it thirty fold. Or any other quality of life project this city has taken on in the past twenty years.
BOHICA folks. BOHICA
Lewis, you should take Mike to the first show there. For your pre-game, be sure to drive down Phillips on way to Log Cabin. Then swing into Sport Bowl for a pitcher and some tots. Then suggest you walk from there. On way to the venue, tell him you gotta take a whiz and slink into the Legion (sorry Jono’s) for a stiff highball and a loose meat. Now that is living.
The Legion is the only bar I have ever gotten truly wasted at.
Poly – I figure cost overruns on the project will be about $70 million before the doors even open.
@Scott: “Yeah, I do. If not, we’re sure wasting hundreds of millions of dollars expanding the city in all four directions and crafting more highways circling the city.”
Glad to see that you understand that we ARE wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on unsustainable sprawl.