South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Bunker Ramp

Art Bunker Ramp Downtown Sioux Falls Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Is the Downtown Sioux Falls Bunker Ramp Mural to get new life?

l3wis 5Comments

UPDATE: I am getting word that they will be working with Walter Portz over the next year to develop a mural, or something like that. Walter just recently finished the mural at Levitt. I guess the VAC expressed they were NOT happy about the process or the secrecy, can’t wait to see how the administration will spin this. I guess they are also keeping the donor’s name a secret as of right now, though we have some pretty good guesses who it is.

I am hearing a rumor that Planning Staff decided to drop a turd on the Visual Arts Commission at their meeting this morning, I would assume it is under new business, public art update.

I was NOT in attendance but I am hearing there was a work around for the Bunker Ramp mural and they are going to announce tomorrow (10:30 AM at the city’s Wednesday presser) that they are bringing it back (different design). I guess they did the planning and selection for this behind closed doors (I know, SHOCKER!) with ZERO input from the VAC and public and using a familiar donor.

It seems someone’s ego must have gotten the best of them.

As of right now, I can’t find much about it except on the agenda which spells nothing out so I guess we will have to see the big announcement, which I am sure will be announced HERE in advance.

Any dolt with just a little bit of experience in public art could tell you this is NOT how you approve public art.

Bunker Ramp SF City Council Sioux Falls

What’s going on with the Bunker House?

l3wis 3Comments

An attorney said to me last week that if there has been this much silence from the city AND the defendant it is likely they are in mediation to settle.

Some would argue the city has legal standing in what they are doing, and on some level they do, but some would also argue that the constitutional and federal rights of the defendant is a much stronger case.

What would a possible settlement look like?

I don’t know, because to be honest with you I have never had to deal with such a thing, and I haven’t combed through every detail of the case.

In the simplest terms the city will probably allow him to finish the house and not demolish it, because as Judge Lange stated that would be a total waste, or as someone stated to me, tearing down the house would be the ultimate dick move by the city.

I don’t think the city has many other options.

COUNTY COMMISSIONS AND CITY COUNCIL HAVE BECOME DEFERRAL QUEENS!

The heck with the rubber stamps these bodies have, they have exchanged them for unexpected vacations and deferrals. Have you noticed lately that when the Lincoln and Minnehaha Commissions as well as the Sioux Falls City Council have to make an important decision one of the members will skip the meeting for a ‘scheduled’ vacation or they end up deferring it.

I wonder if any of them realize that when you put off an important decision it makes that ultimate final decision much harder for the public to swallow. Look at Pettigrew neighborhood. Past mayors, councils, officers and administrators have failed to make a dent over the past 30 years and the problem has gotten worse and the mayor calling 20% of the residents in Pettigrew alcoholics doesn’t help the situation.

As I have told councilors and mayors for the past 20 years, if you can’t do the job or are afraid to the job please resign so we can replace you with someone that can. I will agree that personal attacks that are unwarranted towards elected officials is unacceptable, but attacking your competence has always been free game. This has nothing to do with the character of those supposed leaders, it has to do with their courage, or the lack of.

Bunker Ramp Downtown Sioux Falls Public Utilities Public Works Sioux Falls

Maybe this is the reason Sioux Falls is limiting credit card parking meters

l3wis 11Comments

So what do most people do if they are in a hurry? They say ‘F’ck it’ and move on. If someone is in a hurry and they find a parking spot DTSF but don’t have any change to feed the meter (that doesn’t have a CC reader) they will probably not go looking for another spot and just risk the ticket. Maybe that is what the city is hoping for.

You can either listen or read the interview;

GRABAR: I think so. Essentially, parking enforcement serves as a subset of what is now known as revenue-driven policing. And the idea here is that cities take advantage of these parking laws to try and get as much money out of people as possible, but not in the way that you would think, right? I mean, I think this is a common misconception. Meter rates are actually, for the most part, pretty low in most cities, which is to say they are below the market clearing price that would create empty spaces on every block. Most cities make more money from illegal parking fines than they do from meters and garage taxes put together. So, for example, New York City in 2015 made $565 million in parking fines. It’s the biggest category of fines that the city issues. But they made just $200 million from parking meters.

So what’s essentially being run here – and I don’t know if cities are conscious of this – is a system that is poorly designed that almost seems like the incentives are in favor of illegal parking because for the city, that’s where they make their money.

I would have loved to been a fly on the wall when the Parking Director, Matt Nelson and Mayor TenHaken had a conversation about getting creative with raising more parking fees. Probably went something like this;

Nelson says, “Paul, we just gotta find a way to get people to park in the ramps more.”

TenHaken responds, “Thank goodness I stopped that naked Indian mural, because that certainly would have drove drivers away.”

Bunker Ramp Code Enforcement Sioux Falls

The Bunker House will ‘Probably’ not be demolished

l3wis 4Comments

According to this story the city has been very quiet about their intentions. I was talking to someone today who has been following the situation closely and they told me that the city will ‘probably’ not tear down the home.

I asked if they thought it may be because of the fear of Federal lawsuits? No. They said it is because of public perception, and if they pull the trigger they fear the blowback.

Which I find comical considering anytime we have a controversy like this in Sioux Falls the local media circle jerks around the story for about 3 days and everyone forgets about it.

Just ask someone who moved here a year ago what they think about the f’d up siding on the Event Center and their response would probably be ‘We have an Events Center?’

The city could tear down the place tomorrow, invite the media and food trucks and make a demolition party out of it and two weeks from now no one will care.

BUNKER RAMP HOTEL A BAD INVESTMENT

Last week I was talking to a local developer and joked that he should buy the Bunker Ramp. After saying he had no interest he informed me that building hotels on top of parking ramps across the country never works out well, and maybe he is right, Lamont couldn’t find the investors.

I go back to providing retail on the south side and building studio apartments above.

6th street Bunker Bridge Bunker Ramp Downtown Sioux Falls Potholes Sioux Falls

6th Street Bunker Bridge starter kit

l3wis 7Comments

The day after the bridge funding was approved by city council a foot soldier told me that the price overrun was odd to him considering this is just a deck replacement. I asked him what he meant. It was his understanding that since the bridge isn’t that old (I think constructed in the 70’s) that the piers would remain and they are simply replacing the deck like they did with the 8th street bridge.

I didn’t want to jump the gun on that prediction so I have been watching the demolition and noticed the preservation of the piers and according to this media report, that is the case;

That’s to build cofferdams to protect parts of the piers in the river that will be reused. 

So for a $10 million cost overrun we are not even getting a total bridge replacement? The taxpayers are certainly going down a certain creek without a paddle.

WHERE ARE THE CITY’S 2022 FINANCIALS?

Speaking of speculative book keeping, the city finance department has yet to release it’s audited or even unaudited 2022 financials. Usually there is a report to city council and the public by March of the following year.

Another foot soldier speculated to me that maybe the reason we haven’t seen it is because the mayor’s office is trying to figure out how they are going to explain the massive reserves the city coffers are nesting on.

Maybe we should institute the 1st Annual Sioux Falls Pothole Day Saturday April 1st and any citizen that volunteers for 8 hours on that day to fill potholes will receive $100 cash and a Sioux Falls ONE pin. That would be a quick way to spend some of that moldy money.

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