‘Just another schlump looking for the easy story?’
So a KSFY reporter decides to show up to a parade named after our mayor, where MMM will be handing out free sandmiches, then asks people in attendance to grade the mayor;
It was a simple survey of three questions, each asking if Mayor Huether has delivered on his three campaign goals. Campaign goal number one: keep moving Sioux Falls forward.
The questions were ‘topical’ in nature. I would have asked them about transparency and open government. I would have asked them about catering to special interests, I would have asked them about personal gain. Afterall, anybody can tell someone to fix a street, it’s our money, yah know. While I will give the mayor high grades on fixing the streets, it really is just smoke and mirrors.
I also wonder if KSFY tracked anybody down yesterday who was not a Huether fan? Like I said, this was a parade named after him, so that is highly unlikely that those peeps were in attendance, except for me 🙂
The thing that bothers me the most is our local media putting themselves in positions where they know they will get no negative press. There also seems to be a bit of ignorance.
I watched the AL promote the F’ck out of Tour SF this past couple of weeks, GREAT! I love riding bike, and I will give kudos to Managing Editor Patrick Lalley for his passion for bike riding in SF. But Pat, I really think you need to focus on your job, you know, editor. He likes to brag about the ‘100 Eyes’ show being the #1 political talk show in the region, so you would suspect he would know his ‘politics’. On the last episode he mentioned that Sue Roust still works for the SOS, and did not realize she was only a temp employee. WOW!
And then the AL wonders why they have to go door-to-door to try to scrape up subscriptions. Have they hit your neighborhood yet?
Yes, they knocked on my door also and asked if they could deliver a free paper every Sunday.
I think readers are getting very tired of reading about Patrick’s biking and Jacqueline’s running and kids!
The Argus Leader is far TOO PREDICTABLE, something a newspaper should never be!
There are lots of interesting things happening all over this area everyday that never get reported.
And many citizens who quietly go about their lives who have fascinating stories. Maybe they could take a queue from the national TV reporter who used to open the phone book and randomly pick names. Wow, did he come up with some interesting stories!!
MMM’s promise to fix the streets reminds me of the story of Italy’s Mussolini when he promised to make the trains run on time all the while stripping the people of all their rights.
This article is absolutely disgusting.
Iversen should be ashamed of this news story, and the owners of KSFY should be made aware of their “lack of news” format they promote. Simply appalling.
Jake’s challenge as a reporter is the general lack of knowledge that the average person has about matters involving local government. This, of course, begets the ages-old chicken/egg question of whether people choose to be ignorant of matters of public concern or if they are ignorant because the media chooses to focus on other topics and the public doesn’t know where else to get information.
Other than road improvements, or ice storm cleanup, or the events center, what do you think people pay attention to when it comes to local government? Here’s my wager: nothing. They pay attention to nothing. Which is why, when it comes to the mayor, those are the three things they’ve talked about in the last six months.
MMM picked intelligent campaign goals that make it easy to look like he’s done what he’s said. Are there orange cones all over the roads? Yes. Is there an events center being built? Yes. Are there hordes of people all over this city just like the ones interviewed who may not know a lot about the specifics of city government but are generally happy with how things are going? Yup.
I’m not saying that makes him a great mayor, necessarily. It does, however, mean he had a pretty good campaign team.
So other than trying to get people to vote on internal matters regarding procedure, transparency, code enforcement, etc. – which are arcane, narrowly casted topics that never work in campaigns – how does one run against MMM?
It’s a disgrace and the ultimate insult when Joe Sixpack knows more about the report than the reporter.
“It does, however, mean he had a pretty good campaign team.”
And ironically the guy hired to run that team despises Mike now, and may also run against him.
Let’s not forget…..
he spent almost a quarter of a million dollars (of his own) to get elected.
TIF beneficiaries will see to it mmm’s campaign war chest is overflowing.
I bet he will spend even more money this time around.
#8 has a point. Likely, the Argus will not get much campaign advertising. There’s no longer enough circulation. The networks will get most but the’ll be down some. Look for lots of cable channel ads & (big surprise) blog site advertising. I hope to have 10 or so new billboards at prominent locations. The city can’t take you to court so ordinances are fiction not worth reading. None will be city planning approved. All will be the real truth about Huether.
I know another blog that will accept ads. Just saying. 🙂
I just came through downtown.
The intersection at 6th and Phillips is closed again.
Did the contractor work around the clock to finish it for the Mayor’s parade and then turn right around and close it?
I guess we have the answer.
There is a need to let concrete cure. Time is the only way for this to be accomplished. In this hot weather, concrete cures to fast. Now withing hours of being poured, the wet concrete gets heavy trucks driving on it. The concrete fractures under these loads. We won’t see it right away but this concrete is likely damaged permanently and will need to be replaced.
It will be interesting to watch this concrete fall apart over the next couple of years because the mayor needed his parade to drive on it.
Thanks SubPrime for another expensive parade!
Well said Anonymous. How lazy is it when a so called news paper man just keeps writing articles about his hobby. It’s a F-ing bicycle. My 5 year old bikes every day, maybe I could get him a gig at the Argus.
Can you imagine paying for that rag where every other article is a reports special interest and the only real daily news is an AP article. I don’t know how Ellis and Hult go to work and shares the same space with all those morons.
the argus is now a paid version of tempest, and will meet the same fate.
scott – Don’t insult the Tempest.
“I don’t know how Ellis and Hult go to work and share the same space with all those morons.”
I do feel sorry for Jon and John.
“I just came through downtown.
The intersection at 6th and Phillips is closed again.”
Doesn’t surprise me, but you know, I am just a conspiracy theorist.
“There is a need to let concrete cure. Time is the only way for this to be accomplished. In this hot weather, concrete cures to fast. Now withing hours of being poured, the wet concrete gets heavy trucks driving on it. The concrete fractures under these loads. We won’t see it right away but this concrete is likely damaged permanently and will need to be replaced.
It will be interesting to watch this concrete fall apart over the next couple of years because the mayor needed his parade to drive on it.”
First of all, the concrete was poured DAYS before the parade… not hours.
Second, they are still working on both sides of the actual road bed, so the road isn’t ready for normal traffic (it wouldn’t be safe for the workers primarily and would lead to more delays as they would need to close each side independently as they work on it).
Third, it is standard practice for construction companies to drive over poured concrete within a few days of the pour – it isn’t a big issue provided you don’t have hundreds of vehicles passing over that area in a short period of time.
Part of this depends upon the psi of the concrete, but what is important is that the traffic on the fresh concrete is slow as lateral loads and the shock of higher speed traffic is much more damaging than a few parade vehicles traveling at less than 5mph.
Fourth, concrete actually takes 30 days to reach full rated compressive strength (some less, some more), but you will never see a construction project block a road for 30 days after a pour because it isn’t reasonable.
But hey – if you want to complain about the city trying to work around events you should probably start driving by Yankton Trail park every other day. They have had to open and close various parts of the road and parking lots for soccer matches and they have been putting in a lot of extra hours over there putting in new fencing and doing landscaping and finishing up paving… so I guess this is all due to MMM trying to be sure it is ready for Jazzfest – I’m sure he has been on the phone with contractors and probably has made threats if it isn’t done on time right?
I keep wondering if Craig is a city employee who Mike has assigned to responding to whatever city business southdacola posts about! 🙂
“”I keep wondering if Craig is a city employee who Mike has assigned to responding to whatever city business southdacola posts about!”
NO.Say its not so anonymous….. Has there been a pattern?
Well of course someone who disagrees with the overwhelming anti-establishment mentality must be a city employee, because those are the only people who would right?
Thankfully l3wis knows that isn’t the case, but lets not let anyone know because it is much more fun pretending to be a paid shill.
Anon, have met Craig, and I would guess that is not the case, but even if it is, who fucking cares?
Don’t blow my cover DL – if I can keep at this for 29.6 more years I can start collecting a city pension!