South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

SF City Council

Curt Soehl Cynthia Mickelson SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Transit Washington Pavilion

Washington Pavilion, Transparency and FREE youth bus rides

l3wis 8Comments

During the Informational meeting yesterday I spoke about the Pavilion’s slow growth in concert revenue and memberships as well as charging to attend regional art shows. (FF: 49:20) Below is a graphic of the current annual report.

During the city council regular meeting I talked about transparency in government (FF: 7:00) and the FREE youth bus rides (FF: 15:10). For clarification, several advocacy groups have been pushing for this for over a decade. Last Fall a couple people from those groups reached out to me to blog about it. I then reached out to former SF School board president Cynthia Mickelson who currently still serves on the board. She thought it was a good idea since the school district has been struggling with their own bus system and she reached out to councilor Curt Soehl and they have been working diligently to get it pushed through the transit board. A big thank you to both of them for their diligence.

Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Transit Transportation

Mayor TenHaken walks out of the Council Meeting during public input to Tweet

l3wis 3Comments

Ironically, PTH had nothing to do with this move. This was recommended by the Public Transit board last month and was actually in partnership with a recommendation from former SF School Board President Cynthia Mickelson after I texted her on November 20, 2021. Cynthia reached out to Councilor Soehl about it and I never heard a peep until last week when it appeared on the agenda.

I’m happy they are moving forward. Many former board members have told me they have been working on this for around a decade.

Paratransit SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Transit Transportation

Sioux Falls City Council will finally approve FREE youth bus rides all year long

l3wis 4Comments

UPDATE: Public Transit advocates have told me they were aware of the changes, BUT were never given a timeline when they would go in effect so it comes as a pleasant surprise to them.

If I am reading this correctly it looks like the mayor wants to give free rides to youth on public transit all year long (item #35);

I’m glad to see they will be attempting to make this change. Rapid City has done it for several years. This will also alleviate some strain on the School District’s bussing system. While the mayor is the sponsor, I don’t think there will be any no votes on this.

It is a little disappointing that the council did not bring this forward considering they are 1) the policy body and 2) been urged by advocates for several years to make this change. Apparently the mayor got the message while the council is still hanging out in the cornfields looking for ways to getting out of forming policy on things like the bunker ramp and tornado sirens.

Affordable Housing Downtown Sioux Falls Pettigrew Heights SF City Council SF School District Sioux Falls

Rumors still circulating about 9th & Grange greenspace

l3wis 3Comments

The Cathedral and Pettigrew Heights neighborhood associations have already made it clear they do NOT want the greenspace and community gardens at 9th & Grange to be used for affordable housing. Both associations have shown that there are plenty of empty lots and houses that need to be torn down throughout both neighborhoods that can be used to move affordable houses to the neighborhood without using the greenspace.

As I mentioned in the past both associations have plenty of evidence that the school district and the city have been quietly working behind the scenes to take over this space for affordable housing.

A person who attended the most recent Pettigrew Heights association meeting said a city official(?) told some of the attendees that there is still a plan to move affordable houses to the greenspace (Sanford expansion was mentioned).

The land is currently owned by the School District and they may have to get an appraisal on the land before transferring it. If that happens the school board and the city council would have to approve a land transfer (there may be some legal issues with usage). The city could take it over as a park or they could try to transfer the land for affordable housing (the city already maintains the space for the school district).

I guess the first place to watch is the school board, who currently make most decisions behind closed doors, then show up to the public meeting to rubber stamp those nontransparent decisions. The agendas will have to be scrutinized closely because they may try to slip it in on the consent agenda.

As of today, the school district maintains they have NO plans for the space . . . but would they tell us if they did?

Downtown Sioux Falls SF City Council Sioux Falls

Is the City of Sioux Falls using ‘fuzzy math’ for storm cleanup costs?

l3wis 6Comments

Imagine my surprise when I saw this slide in the presentation planned for tomorrow’s informational meeting on Storm Debris Management;

Obviously the live presentation will probably bring some clarity to those last 2 numbers because if they cleaned all the streets and parks for those dollar amounts they must be using Santa’s Elves for FREE. While the May storms were bad, last week’s storm was worse, but I find it a little hard to swallow with labor and equipment costs the city only spent that much. Maybe that is all they spent on clearing boulevards and streets, and if so, it is a disservice to the public. Muni government is easy, you collect taxes and you provide services. That means helping folks with storm cleanup like the city did in 2013 instead of relying on the quilting bee from church.

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