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Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

l3wis

Mayor TenHaken Planning Commission racism Sioux Falls

Is Sioux Falls population estimate pre-mature?

l3wis 6Comments

One of the most frustrating things about our supposed local news isn’t that they are fake news, but that they don’t tell the full story after passing off press releases as a news story;

Sioux Falls grew again, according to the city’s planning and development department.

The new estimated population for 2020 is 195,850. That’s an increase of 5,100 from the 2019 estimate of 190,750. The new number was released Friday afternoon by the city.

The Planning and Development Department calculates its year-end population estimate based from data released by the U.S. Census Bureau annually in July.

While this is all fine and dandy in a year without a census, I find it odd that no one asked the city why they didn’t just wait until the official census is released (hopefully SOON)? I have argued that I think that number is high and fudged so the city has more bonding leverage. I am NOT sure what it is, but I think we need to wait and see once the official Census is released.

“Sioux Falls continues to demonstrate our resiliency and optimism as evidenced by the steady growth of the past year. This confidence, along with our City’s ability to improve and expand infrastructure and manage our land resources has been a proven formula of growth for many years,” Jeff Eckhoff, director of planning and development, said in the news release.

This statement ties into another Stormland TV story about right wing radicals and racism;

“For me to sit here as the mayor and say, ‘Well, that doesn’t exist here in Sioux Falls’ would be naïve, because certainly some of the same racial tensions that we saw bubble up in Washington and some of the slogans we saw on shirts can certainly exist here,” TenHaken said. “What I can do as mayor is just continue to promote a message of unity, of inclusiveness.”

“Last summer, we’ve had it before, we’ve had KKK fliers distributed around our community, we, people found them in parks and things, and I’ve always wondered, is that just a prank, is that a teen trying to get a rise out of someone, or is it very real,” TenHaken said.

Whatever the intent or the maturity behind such imagery, the Ku Klux Klan stands for real, documented hate.

“I think that’s the sort of thing we just can’t tolerate, there’s just no place for that,” TenHaken said. “There’s no acceptance of that.”

I have often thought there is a correlation between racism and economics. I’m not sure how Amazon or an egg roll factory will solve our low wage job issues in the community. Studies have shown that Amazon actually drives wages down. Recently I was asked if I thought Noem or TenHaken had anything to do with bringing them here. My answer was simple, “Sure. They got the Hell out of the way.” Only one entity made the decision to come to Sioux Falls, and that was Amazon based on logistics of their operation. I have often chuckled about how politicians like to pat themselves on the back for bringing in business but rarely say anything about trying to prevent harmful businesses from coming. I think trickle down economics doesn’t work. In fact the founder of them, Ronald Reagan and his administration has proven that nothing trickles down to us. The rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer and main street is disappearing. I have even predicted that in 10 years or less, large corporate retail stores will be virtually non-existent.

So back to economics and racism. The state and the city can do more to combat racism, they can do it by building up communities starting at the bottom and working up. Besides cute messaging and education they can start investing tax dollars into the core of our city to provide more affordable housing they can also recruit businesses that will be locally owned and provide living wages. I had to cringe a bit last week when Planning Director Eckhoff made an interesting comment about affordable housing. He was referring to the practice of tearing down small houses in the core of our city, essentially saying they were obsolete because people want houses with two-stall garages now. He was basically saying the city’s housing department isn’t interested in rehabilitating smaller affordable houses. I have no doubt in my mind that the city’s housing and planning department (who have merged in recent years under the direction of TenHaken) has been in cahoots with contractors and developers to eventually wipe out existing affordable housing in our core (houses that are smaller with either no garage or a one-stall and one or two bedrooms) that can cheaply be fixed up because developers have seen that multi-housing units are where the money is to be made. I have suggested mini-TIFs to homeowners and small apartment owners to fix up our core neighborhoods essentially investing in people instead of big developers and international low wage corporations that never trickle it down to rest of us. (FF: 1:18:30)

If we are going to combat racism in Sioux Falls, it starts with economics, that means creating living wage jobs and affordable housing in our core. Giving millions in TIFs to egg roll factories isn’t a very good plan.

Corona Virus Mayor TenHaken Minnehaha County Sioux Falls

Will the City of Sioux Falls & Minnehaha County provide a public vaccination site?

l3wis 9Comments

I know I have touched on this recently, but what I have been hearing from people who have been vaccinated (because they are in the correct category) is that people who are not patients of the two major health systems in Sioux Falls are NOT being contacted for their vaccination appointment. Some have even reached out to Falls Community Health and have been told they can’t get one there. On January 17th in a FB video, Mayor TenHaken said the city will be relying on the two systems to do the vaccinations and get a hold of patients to schedule them. He said they are ‘the professionals’ which is true, but also added ‘you don’t want government doing this.’

This is not right for many reasons;

• In the past mass vaccinations were handled by the Federal government in partnership with private volunteers, hospitals, local governments and pharmacies.

• As Federal taxpayers we paid for these vaccines and their Federal distribution there is NO reason why there shouldn’t be a public option for those who don’t use our two major health systems.

• We have the money to do a public site as proven with the almost half-million the city has already spent in ‘education’ programs.

• Privacy issues. Many people who don’t use the private systems don’t want them to have that information which they may use for patient recruitment.

I won’t make this argument about how much money the health systems will make from this, I really don’t care at this point, and it is moot. This is about citizens being able to have every option possible to receive a vaccination, whether they get it at the two hospitals, a private pharmacy, Falls Community Health or a drive-thru site ran by Feds. I also think that as a community we are better than this, we have the money and the resources to provide this, and ethically we should.

Once again I am disappointed that Mayor TenHaken, the county leadership and others in state government just pass the buck on covid prevention and leadership to the private sector. While I appreciate all the great work they have done, it really needs to be a true partnership not a passing of the buck.

I’m hoping the Biden administration and the Feds get involved and force the city and county to provide a public option, even if they have to throw more money at this epidemic. Let’s face it folks, our economy and lives will never get back to normal until we can provide immunity to almost everyone, and sitting on our hands while the private sector handles this is just not acceptable, but unfortunately with most local government issues, predictable.

Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls

Mayor TenHaken’s ties to China

l3wis 8Comments

Last night at the Sioux Falls City Council regular (FF: 1:42:00) meeting a citizen brought up during public input the curious nature of Paul’s trip to China in November(?) 2019. Remember this was before Smithfield’s disastrous approach to keeping workers safe during Covid, and probably the reason why Covid spread so rapidly in Sioux Falls. Smithfield is owned by Communist Chinese investors that ship most of the product from our location to China. Think of it like the XL Keystone pipeline that would ship Canadian tar sands crude across our state to the Gulf Coast so it can be shipped to China.

Paul said this at the time of the trip;

“These relationships are critical first steps in establishing both trust and economic partnerships between our communities. One of our largest employers — Smithfield Foods — is owned by a Chinese parent company, and my office has had several other discussions with business development opportunities that have Chinese ownership ties. The Sioux Falls economy would strengthen via stronger cultural and business relations with key Chinese partners.”

If I was a guessing man, I can almost guarantee Paul met with Smithfield investors while in China. Remember how no one in his administration OR in Noem’s wanted to hold Smithfield accountable? How ironic that Noem just called a couple of newly elected Senators ‘communists’ while she bowed to the real communists whose ignorance of safety procedures helped spread the virus rapidly thru our city and region and essentially cost lives while Noem and TenHaken blamed immigrants for lacking proper hygiene. They virtually did nothing to stop the impending doom at Smithfield and even the CDC drug their feet.

Sorry Paul, I have ZERO interest in doing business with the Communist Chinese who are actively using 5G technology (antennas made in China) to spy on us and their meat-packing stink-hole plants to destroy our environment with little fines or punishment and providing unsafe working conditions that helped spread Covid through our community. The Chinese don’t care about our community, and the feeling should be mutual. This is about lining their pockets and little else.

CITY HOUSING AND PLANNING OFFICE CONTINUES WHACK-A-MOLE APPROACH TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING

During the City Council Informational meeting yesterday, there were a couple of presentations;

The first was about how the city plans to rebuild Hayward Park with a private/public partnership. I guess Steve Hildebrand and Matt Paulson are in charge of the fundraising. During the presentation, councilor Soehl asked why concrete and pipes (for the proposed spray park) cost $1 million. I told him during my public input at the end of the meeting it is because the city normally pays 2 to 3 times more for contractor work then what private industry does.

The Planning/Housing department did a presentation on how they plan to still build houses for a handful of families and sell them at a discounted price. In fact, Planning Director Eckhoff admitted something I have known for a long time, that contractors won’t do this work unless they can make some money. As I have known all along, this is has nothing to do with affordable housing, it has to do with certain developers and contractors making a buck on these Federal housing projects, this is a great program about it. While I understand they have to make a profit on these projects, I think they are and than some;


During public input, I told them about my idea of providing property tax rebates (small TIFs) to homeowners and small duplex and apartment owners in the core neighborhoods to fix up properties much faster for affordable housing. I told the city council it was time to invest in the ‘people’ of the city.

I ended my public input by scolding them about moving the regular council meeting to 6 PM, essentially shortening the informational and causing issues with the amount of time presentations can be done.

Trump

American Dictatorship Thwarted; The Insane Clown Posse is gone

l3wis 7Comments

Before my Trumpian friends beat me up, I will tell you that I am NOT a Biden fan. I think he has been a part of the establishment for far to long, and I think he sits on the far right side of the Democratic party. I think it is going to be very hard to pass a Medicare for All with Joe Biden as president, but if we can at least chip away at it, it may happen by the time I am eligible for actual Medicare. LOL. I also think he was fairly elected and I did vote for him as a registered Independent.

• I will admit that Trump did have a handful of accomplishments, I won’t give him full credit except for ONE, killing Iranian Terrorist Qasem Soleimani. It was the best thing he did as President and if there was one thing he handled almost flawlessly it was this. Of course, he did tarnish the accomplishment by lying about American soldiers injuries after the Iranian missile attack and not bothering to pick up a phone to inform anybody in Congress what he had done. It seems every time Trump has an opportunity to put a good spin on something he did, he ruins it with lying and being ignorant and stubborn.

• Operation Warp Speed. Trump proved one thing, if you throw enough taxpayer money at Big Pharma, they can cure just about anything in record time. All this has really shown is the pure greed of our healthcare institutions in this country who have made billions from Covid.

• He didn’t start any wars. But I think that is because there really wasn’t a reason to and Trump wouldn’t know how to handle them anyway, that and he has invested millions in our enemies countries. I also think that our biggest enemies practice cyber warfare these days as proved by the latest high level hack by Russia. The next battles will be in cyber-space.

• The economy did well until Covid hit. Actually, Obama’s economy did better, and Trump just jumped on the wave Barry left.

• (some) Middle East peace has been achieved. I think the only credit I can give to Trump on this was that he was in office while it happened. I think these countries have been working at these agreements since Carter was president, and with the global economy the way it is, they really had no choice but to start getting along.

In Trump’s final hours he pardoned crooks like Steve Bannon and Paul Erickson, two who defrauded investors. Earlier he pardoned Roger Stone.

Trump has been despicable to the very end, but what I expected four years ago when he was sworn in. He was a sociopath who lied over 30,000 times (that we know of). He was a cheat, a bully, a jerk and a racist. I also believe he was a secret atheist that doesn’t give two sh!ts about right winger Christians or Pro-Lifers.

He was the WORST president that ever existed in the United States.

Yes, he beats out GW Bush and Reagan and actually belongs in jail (and may end up there). I hope the Senate convicts him and I hope the state of New York convicts him. The only reason he never made America into a dictatorship was he was too sloppy and stupid to figure it out with his army of deplorable bigots. We will look back on these four years and wish that somehow we could erase the fact that a two time loser like this was president.

But part of me doesn’t blame Trump for any of this. I knew exactly how chaotic the last 4 years were going to be, he has always conducted himself as a spoiled baby. What has most enraged me over the past 4 years are his enablers and supporters, like Right Wing Whack-a-doodle radio and many local politicians who have supported him like Noem parading the country campaigning for him or Mayor TenHaken giving him a B+ Report Card rating. It was ludicrous.

These are the people who made Trump the worst POTUS ever to exist, they made him into a God that they thought could fix all of our problems, like draining some imaginary swamp. One person cannot fix our problems, that is also a reason I voted for Biden, I know he will not attempt to do it all alone on twitter. He will engage his cabinet and he will consult a closely divided Senate and House, working together is how you fix problems not tweeting at 3 in the morning conspiracy theories or paying off porn stars.

If I want my Trumpist friends to learn anything from their hero, it is, all men and women are created equal, and working together is the only way to make America Great Forever.

SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Jan 19, 2021

l3wis 5Comments

Editor’s Note: I didn’t see it on the agenda, but their is rumor floating around at city hall that there is a plan to tear down the McKennan Park Band Shell because it has gone into disrepair (have we heard this one before) and that it would cost around a half to a million to fix. This may be another game the administration is playing to get private money raised to fix it. But we still ask the question, if the rumor is true, why aren’t these facilities being maintained by the Parks Department? Where is the money going?

Informational, 4 PM

• Hayward Park Master Plan Update

• Housing Fund, this program looks like a good start on something I have been pushing for over a decade, incentivize core neighborhood housing cleanup with tax incentives. I obviously don’t know all the details, but it will be interesting to see what this is.

Regular Meeting, 6 PM

6. Approval of Contracts;

Sub item #7, This agreement extends the use of Peakon in benchmarking employee engagement strategy, landscape, resources and project ricks. Core product subscription fees are attached, Peakon APS, To Establish Pricing, $160K (I couldn’t really tell you what this is but another leadership/manager training program. I’m starting to wonder if city managers work or just go to classes all day?)

Sub item #8, Agreement to provide Nutrition, Day Break Adult Care, Recreation, Social and Educational Activities, Workers on Wheels and Senior Insurance and Information Referrals, Active Generations, $60K. (While I am not opposed to helping this organization out, I’m trying to wrap my head around why it comes out of the Parks and Recreation budget? Another reach around with budgeting. This should just be a General Fund expense.)

Sub item #11, Citywide Interior Design, Provide interior design services, TSP, to establish pricing (Maybe the city should hire an art buyer and an apparel consultant for the city directors and their offices? Maybe we should also hire a professional chef to cater in food to them? Sorry, but how hard is it to put up a cubicle wall or pick out a cheap chair?!)

Sub item #12, Sioux Falls School District Transportation Funding Agreement, $78,515 (once again the city is supplementing the school district. I guess if they can’t get what they want by raising our property taxes they will also go after our sales taxes.)

Item #41, Ordinance, 1st Reading, AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS, SD, GRANTING A NONEXCLUSIVE NATURAL GAS FRANCHISE TO NORTHWESTERN CORPORATION, DOING BUSINESS AS NORTHWESTERN ENERGY, A DELAWARE CORPORATION, TO FURNISH AND SELL NATURAL GAS TO THE CITY AND ITS INHABITANTS. (this will basically give NW the right to lay pipe with MidAmerican in new developments. I assume it will not affect customers who already get gas from MidAmerican. I’m all for it, I think the competition is good. I wish we had the option for electricity in Sioux Falls.)

Item #42, A RESOLUTION ADVISING AND GIVING CONSENT TO THE APPOINTMENT OF MEMBERS TO CERTAIN CITIZEN BOARDS. I find it interesting that we are appointing a banker to the Main Street BID board;

Darrell Schmith, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for First PREMIER Bank, 33 years of financial experience, Volunteered with several organizations including Habitat for Humanity and the Helpline Center.

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