Extreme changes to DT parking?

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After the gigantic announcement that DTSF parking was going to become ‘better’ with a New motto “Look for the Gold P” it looks as though the only ‘P’ we are getting will be running down our legs in the form of a ticket that has to be paid. (Proposed Changes to the Appeal process; Doc: parkingticketrepeal)

I’m no specialist on city ordinance law, but the proposed changes to appealing a ticket seem to have become harder (item #28) Not only now will they be charging you $25 to appeal (most likely a $5 ticket) if you fail in your appeal, tough cookie, no other options to the appeal exist. The city is literally trying to eliminate any recourse after the appeal hearing.

Of course, most people will just pay the $5 instead of fighting the ticket at a cost of $25, but let’s say you receive a $50 or $75 ticket, and you lose your appeal? According to the changes, and I may be wrong, you cannot take it to court.

Now, I am no constitutional scholar, but I think they are opening a pretty big can of worms on this one, and I hope the City Council asks some serious questions about these proposed changes. But if you want an explanation or preview of the changes, good luck there to, because during the Informational meeting today, where there will be a presentation on the changes, the DOCs don’t exist in SIRE yet.

So was this new ‘PALs’ concept just window dressing making it look like things will get better? My suggestion to anyone receiving a ticket that they think was underserving is just to tear it up and throw it away. Why? Well since the city is proposing a change that says you cannot take your appeal to court, that means they can’t take you to court either. So how do they propose collecting the fine from you if you refuse to pay the ticket? Good question.

The Pure Deliciousness of M.B. Haskett

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Not sure if you have visited this place, but I accidentally started liking the place after having Sunday Breakfast there (The Crispin is always cold 🙂 He features different specials, but he makes fantastic crepes, bread pudding French toast and quiche, and MB’s eggs are always poached (the best way to have an egg).

The owner Michael is a trained chef (I forget what prestigious school he went to) but his meals are truly gourmet, and he is a great addition to Downtown.

The DT SF 2025 committee, A Stacked Deck?

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Image: siouxfalls.org

First let’s talk about the mysterious announcement of this top secret committee, the first press release put out about the group was on Monday, September 30, 2013 12:16 PM by Q-Tip Smith. The next press release was put out Tuesday, October 1, 2013 11:32 AM, about 2 hours before the press conference. I guess they felt a need to spring this on the citizens of SF like it is some grand surprise.

In all fairness, the city did say they want our input (just not on the sooper-secret committee);

Over the next 12 to 15 months, numerous opportunities will be available for the citizens of Sioux Falls to provide their input on the future vision of downtown. A wide variety of public meetings, community-wide events, and a number of committees will be established to seek input for the vision of downtown.

Let’s look at the committee the MAYOR has appointed;

Brendan Reilly, Attorney

Daniel Doyle, Attorney

Eric McDonald, co-founder of a medical document company

Gene McGowan, venture capital

Glen Koch, Owner of DT restaurant

Jennifer Schmidtbauer, Director of Development for major DT SF manufacturer

Jerry Nachtigal Public affairs for major SF CC company/bank

Jessie Schmidt, Co-Chair of SF Planning Commission

Joe Kirby, He’s a Kirby (He’s the guy who lives here part-time and tried to sneak a provision in through the Charter Revision Commission to give the mayor more power)

Larry Toll, Co-President of Washington Pavilion

Terri Schuver, Owner of DT gallery

Michelle Erpenbach, City Councilor (I heard she never informed the rest of the council she was going to be on the committee, or at least some of them were unaware of her appointment)

Paul Ten Haken, owns a media company (his company is the one that came up with the new DT parking concept and the motto, “Look for the Gold P.” He also has a problem with his employees talking about political affiliations on their personal FB pages.

Don’t get me wrong, the committee needs to be comprised of SOME community leaders, but it is lacking actual ‘Downtowners’ – people who live, work and own businesses DT (tri-fecta). When a community wants to develop a ‘vision’ about a sector of it’s town, they really need people who have the best interest of all citizens and a deep knowledge of history and the past, moving forward you always want to avoid the mistakes of the past. I would think one of the owners of Minerva’s or the owners of Zandbroz and Vishnu Bunny would have made fantastic members of this committee. Remember a developmental ‘vision’ needs to include ‘the little things’ not just major projects like hotels, condos and insurance buildings. The secret of making our DT even more successful will be by connecting the whole community to this ‘vision’. I am just not sure how many of these members have a connection with downtown as a whole and the kind of people it attracts. IMO this is about making a small amount of people lots of money developing the DT vision, which is fine if the whole community will share in this richness.

The findings will be very interesting, but I have a feeling the rest of us will be left out – maybe they will tell us about it in a press conference.

You have to find a parking spot to find a parking spot in DTSF

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So this is how it works kids. If you want to use your GPS on your phone to find a parking spot, first you have to find a parking spot to use your phone. See it is against the law (texting ban) to use your phone in that capacity while driving, so you must first park to find a parking spot, or as Q-Tip Smith has suggested, have a friend along. Hopefully your friend has parking in front of their house so you can pick them up, or they can pull a Dukes & Hazard and try to jump in the car while driving by (I think that is legal, but I am sure councilor Erpenbach is working on an ordinance to make it illegal. I think I heard her saying in a meeting one day “I’m gonna get those Duke Boys”.)

Sioux Falls has an ordinance against using hand-held devices to send text messages or emails or surf the Internet while a person is driving or in traffic. The ordinance does not prohibit the use of internal or dashboard navigation devices, but the ban would encompass using GPS on a smartphone.

Smith said he encourages drivers to have a passenger access the site or, if there is no passenger, to pull over, access the site, and then put the phone a cup holder while it gives directions out loud. Smith said it’s his practice to pull over first before using his phone.

The city is also going to train meter peeps to be nicer 🙂

Meter enforcement officers will wear bright gold shirts and undergo customer service training so they can help people downtown.

Wonder why they don’t just hire nice peeps to begin with? I am just saying. Maybe riding around on that Hoveround all day makes them angry? Maybe they should install a massager seat on them. You will also have the option to pay your parking ticket online now. Now that’s customer service! They also have a new logo. As Q-Tip Smith says, “Just look for the Gold P!” I guess versus the brown P.

Riverfest’s poor food vendor planning pays off

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I would say Riverfest was a success in bringing people downtown. The irony is the poor planning on having food vendors ironically paid off for DT restaurants. Almost every restaurant on Phillips was full or on a wait. Maybe organizers did that on purpose so that fest goers would dine at DT eateries. Either way, it paid off.

The other irony of it was everyone had to leave the river front to get a bite to eat (unless you ate at Falls Landing or Wild Sage).

So Riverfest brought people to the river, then pushed them to the main drag and attraction of DT, Phillips Avenue, not the Sioux River.

I’m just saying.