South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Downtown Sioux Falls

County Commission David Barranco Downtown Sioux Falls Minnehaha County Property Taxes SF City Council Sioux Falls Taxes

Bikes, Bonds and Belittling

l3wis 8Comments

Not sure if you caught the above meeting, but it was a scorcher. While I would agree with Minnehaha County Commissioner Joe Kippley that Leah shouldn’t be fooling around with past elections, I don’t agree with him asking her to resign in public. He should have wrote her a letter, got a couple of his other commissioners on board and CC’d the media. It was extremely unprofessional, and the kicker is he is the health director for the city. Getting ‘political’, which was what his stunt was, is not the ethical standard I want my health director to be holding. If anything Joe should resign because of his conflicts, and I have a feeling he will AFTER the November election so they can appoint someone. More trickery. Oh, and the commission has allegedly been playing games with bond levies. More to come on that 🙁

COUNCIL KICKS THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD ON THE RIVERLINE DISTRICT

At the council meeting last night the council took the line item out of the 2025 budget and concocted a steering committee to study the purchase. While I’m happy they killed the line item, I am not happy they are continuing down the path which will ultimately have us buying the land. From talking to councilors I got the feeling they were just going to kill it and let the River Rats figure it out, but this must be the compromise. Folks, all this is, is smoke and mirrors by the council. They plan to implement a 3rd penny tax to have us paid for the Convention Center. This is short-sighted. They should implement a entertainment corporate tax on all business with 500 or more employees. If you think this place will have an economic impact on your businesses, prove it, pony up.

Oh, and Councilor Barranco was the ONLY councilor to vote against a property tax increase. Thank You David! That vote proved to me that at least 7 councilors don’t give a rat’s ass what economic position you are in, they need their play palaces!

E-BIKES HAVE INVADED DOWNTOWN

Not really, but some people seem to be butt hurt they are sitting around downtown. They are not junkers, so I am not sure what people are concerned about. Other cities do it this way. I think the only tweak I would make is having the bikes in a mobile unit so they are not scattered everywhere downtown, but like I said, there is a million other things we need to worry about downtown, and a random bike parked on a corner ain’t one of them.

WAS HARRIS DEBATING BIDEN LAST NIGHT?

After the first 10 minutes of the debate last night I thought Harris was debating Biden.

Downtown Sioux Falls Sioux Falls

Business Diversity Ordinance needs to be implemented Downtown Sioux Falls

l3wis 8Comments

As I have mentioned before, Downtown Fort Collins, CO was really transformed once they did a business diversity plan. Basically no two similar businesses can be on the same block on either side of the street. It’s really basic, you can have two restaurants or bars next to each other, but they must be different in concept, etc. What’s fascinating is DTFC has all kinds of business diversity; credit unions, chiropractors, dental offices, mortgage, you name it. It is also 4x the size of ours in walking accessibility. And here is the last comparison, Fort Collins climate and population is very similar. We can do this here.

It’s really an easy process. Basically DTSF as an org would hire a consultant to study the ordinance. The city council would fund the study and once completed, present to the council where they can make tweaks in a couple of public working sessions. After about 16 months you could pass the new ordinance. There of course would be a grandfather clause (basically if you are already established, you don’t have to leave, BUT any changes in lease agreements or closures the ordinance would be in effect.)

I started thinking about this more since Vishnu Bunny was forced out DTSF. I knew this would eventually happen since a small group of investors are buying up DTSF properties like mad and paying way over appraisal pushing the little dude out. I know several DTSF business owners who rent but would prefer to own their storefront. One of them told me, “We can secure the loan, we just can’t find anything available.” One of the problems is the joint venture between Tupy and Paulson and their development company they run out of a UPS store PO Box. They are literally buying all and any property DTSF which they will eventually transform.

Jeff Mann, the owner of Vishnu is a good guy. I should know, I helped him beat down the city and Mayor Huether at the time to get Vishnu DTSF. There was some clown, whose name we won’t mention, trying to influence the mayor to stop the venue and we went to the media. Huether had a change of heart and showed up to the opening in which I proceeded to explain genital piercings to him. His face was priceless. Either way, Mann has shown he was a staple of DTSF in which I participated in several art exhibits on First Fridays. We really are losing a gem.

Our downtown is turning into a dump because we don’t promote business diversity. I have almost boycotted every downtown business except one, because they promote business diversity. Maybe DTSF needs to have their next board meeting at Book Coop and learn a little about diversity.

Downtown Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken Riverline District SF City Council Sioux Falls

UPDATE: The Riverline ‘RATS’ are looking for a place to hide

l3wis 8Comments

UPDATE: I got word today from a very dependable source that the convention center is a ‘DONE DEAL’ when you talk to the business and banking community. They already have the chess pieces in place to make it happen, with or without the public’s approval. They also are lobbying the legislature right now to do a 3rd penny sales tax to pay for it, but they need their approval first. They are suggesting a ‘sunset’ clause, which never happens. Remember the Pavilion, you know the private non-profit that taxpayers fund in the millions each year even though they have over $14 million in their reserves. The entertainment tax was supposed to sunset after the bonds were paid off. I think that happened about a decade ago, still exists. Don’t be fooled by these grifters. This is a way for the bonding companies to make lots of money off of the backs of taxpayers. Most of the jobs will be hospitality, low wage, part-time with no benefits. Have you ever met a full-time bartender with the Pavilion, Denty, Orpheum, Bird Cage, etc.? NOPE. Because the jobs that will be provided by this convention center won’t make a dent in our brain drain problem. I agree there will be a massive economic impact from the new convention center, it will bankrupt our city.

The council seems to be a little butt hurt over the fact that they haven’t seen an appraisal OR a purchase agreement for the Riverline District, you know, the plot of land some douchey investors want us taxpayers to buy with cheeseburger taxes (entertainment). The problem is the council hasn’t seen a purchase agreement yet, and likely won’t until it if dropped in front of their faces at the last minute. And will the public get to see these documents?

I have concerns, but based on rumors I hear from realtors, at this point it is just pure speculation, but I have expressed privately to current and past city councilors that I have concerns about the purchase agreement due to potential conflicts of interest. It is NO secret that some who sit on that dais have spouses, business associates and other friends who pose major conflicts of interest. It will be interesting to see whose name(s) appears on that document, or will we see a lot of sharpie blackouts? This town gets more corrupt by the second.

Art Bunker Ramp Censorship Downtown Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken Open Government Open Meetings racism Sioux Falls

It only took them a year and a half to do an article about this

l3wis 5Comments

Besides myself, who broke the censored mural controversy, only one other journalist has really poked around on the topic, but someone must of went over to the newsroom and woke up one of their jokalist’s to write an article. It is actually a pretty good article on the insight of what the artists were going thru, but not very timely;

Would they ever work with the city again on a project? They’d never completely count out the idea, the artists said.

But, Hernandez added, “the experience was pretty horrible.”

These fine young artists aren’t the first and certainly won’t be the last to suffer the consequences of ‘horrible’ city policies and leadership and blatant CENSORSHIP.

There is also another concern. Do we have RACIST elites in this community influencing city hall policy?

Speaking of suffering, the city has asked the courts to dismiss the Federal housing discrimination lawsuit. Just your typical dragging out the clock games they play. Of course, we know that is likely NOT going to happen. They have an incredibly solid case.

Arterial Roads Downtown Sioux Falls recreational Road Funding Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

UPDATE III: BREAKING: LOCAL TV STATION TRACKS DOWN NEWEST HOT DOG CART!!!

l3wis 12Comments

UPDATE III: As I predicted most of these plastic thingies have been removed or destroyed by vehicles. Shocker! I Know. Just yesterday the last one remaining in front of the post office was ran over by a mail carrier big rig. He didn’t completely destroy it, but he broke one of the pieces. Absolute stupidity. Do we even have a traffic engineer that studies industry standards and keeps abreast? Doubtful.

UPDATE II: As you can see, cars are already hitting and damaging these devices, and they have only been on the street for a couple of weeks. I think this will end badly, mark my words.

UPDATE: As I suspected they are using these bands in the wrong way, they are for protected bike lanes;

Bicycle lanes should feel safe and inviting. But that doesn’t mean they have to be eyesores. The Wave Delineator accomplishes this by quickly and easily creating protected bike lanes, while providing a visually appealing alternative to its traffic cone and flex post counterparts. Ideal for temporary pop-up bike lanes during day- or week-long events, or when communities want to pilot a location for a longer-term protected bikeway.

Now that I have your attention I really wanted to talk about the city’s traffic calming efforts. While I get how this works, these white bands are actually not only a hazard to passing car they are also to bicyclists who are trying to navigate around these contraptions. I am all for the other stuff, but not this floating thingy that I have almost hit twice now. The city has a bad habit of doing this all over town, building pedestrian crossings where the curb slopes are NOT cut out and other hazards like barriers, light posts, weird angles, etc. Can’t wait to see this wrapped around someone’s driveshaft.

We need to educate drivers on pedestrian safety. This city needs to drop about $500K on driver education thru a multiple media platforms. We can paint every intersection like Willy Wonka, but until drivers wakeup, doesn’t matter.

Speaking of idiotic things the city does, after former councilor Neitzert spent months on changing the rec trail ordinances the city employees fart around installing inadequate signage;

Notice how small the MPH sign is. They also have E-Bike crossed out and you have to read the small print to realize you can ride an E1 or E2. And where are the speed signs? I think that the SFPD probably told the Parks Department they won’t be enforcing speeds on the trail, and probably the reason there is NO speed signage along the trail. Can’t ticket someone for speeding if there is no speed limit notice on the trail.

Still waiting for a road biker doing 25 hitting a grandma on her E2 doing 10, then we can have a discussion about speed, braking and physics.

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