Petition Circulators:Â Please turn in all signatures that you have collected so far so that we have an estimate of where we are at!
Notary’s will be present from 5 – 8:30 pm - PLEASE BRING YOUR PHOTO ID!!
All Sioux Falls registered voters are encouraged to stop by to sign the official petition and show their support of smart growth in the city.
When: TODAY (8/20/13) from 5:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Where:Â 7601 S Audie Ave (on the corner of 85th & Audie Avenue)
The SF city council was scheduled to listen to the 1st reading of the Walmart Southside approval on Tuesday, August 6, still not sure if they are going to, because
1) The agenda for Tueday’s meeting is not posted yet. And
2) they may have to defer the approval due to the pending lawsuit. I guess we will find out August 6, what the city attorney’s advice will be on this.
Yesterday, Judge Hoffman recused himself from the case. I have been told it was because he knew someone personally named in the lawsuit, and it is common practice for a judge to recuse themselves due to these circumstances.
I am also awaiting details on another puzzle piece of the SON lawsuit. A couple of months ago a SON member applied for a rezone at the 85th & Audie intersection, when applying for the rezone she had to pay a fee to the city ($?). She still has not received a refund since her application was denied even though the city attorney promised to expedite it. Maybe Huether instructed the city finance department to sit on the money as long as possible so he could add it to the city’s (FAUX)Â reserve numbers 🙂
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R6sSW559mc[/youtube]
I had a nice little surprise last night getting home from work. The water main was broke right in front of my house. Nothing like your house rattling like chattering teeth at 5 AM in the morning due to a dirt tamping device. I guess there was also a water main break last week to in central Sioux Falls. Surprised that Stormland TV wasn’t in my neighborhood wondering how I would take a shower before I went to bed, doing a team report about how I may have to wash my bed sheets in the morning due to my griminess, but how was I going to do that also? Dumb. In fact, I didn’t see one single reporter or anything in the news about it. Apparently since I didn’t have a threat of my bagged frozen gravy thawing out, it wasn’t news.
Which brings me to a bigger story our supposed media in town should be covering;
“How bad is the infrastructure Downtown and in surrounding neighborhoods?”
Developer and Human Key to the city (or at least to the cash box), Craig Lloyd has often contended that he can’t develop Downtown without TIF’s do to old infrastructure and hazardous conditions. He may be right, afterall, even though I still think he should fund his own FOR PROFIT developments.
So when is our MSM going to stop worrying about what their co-workers think about them while showering with them, and dig into the deeper story? Maybe Mr. Lloyd would like to do an exclusive interview with Detroit Lewis talking about all the exploding transformers, water pipes and melting gravy.
As you can see from this graphic, developers haven’t even come close to chipping in 50% for arterial road development as they promised (several posts about the tax increase and lies from the developers) They would when we increased the second penny .02%. They have been good at blaming everything from the economy to the way the wind blows. Ironically any platting fees that they ultimately chip in for arterial roads probably is a wash because of all the TIF’s they are receiving lately.
Sioux Falls is slowly becoming a corporate welfare city, and this graphic is further proof of it. Whatever happened to the business model of ‘sink or swim’? Now it seems anytime a developer can’t afford something they just go running to the city for a lifesaver, and the planning commission, city council and Community Development office concedes. It’s time for the city council to put their foot down and say “Developers haven’t held up their end of the deal – so you are not getting this arterial street money.” Of course when you have several councilors and the mayor* investing in development in Sioux Falls, what else would you expect out of their self servitude. My suggestion would be to transfer that .02% into road maintenance and upgrades, and once the developers show us 50% we will put in our 50%.
*The mayor granted a TIF in the Whittier neighborhood for an apartment building his wife is investing in and councilor Jamison’s company did the facade remodel on Sid’s Liquor which received a facade easement grant from the city.