Sioux Falls

Sanford wants to get involved with new Badlands Veteran Center

l3wis October 31, 2019 4Comments

An anonymous veteran sent me this today;

Passed with American Legion last night. 16 vet groups are proposed at former Badlands With Legion & VFW major players. Badlands also includes liquor license and adjoining prior Hoy building offices.  VFW vote is 11/4. VFW is presently closed. Legion Post 15 is 1,500 active members.

Disturbing:  City attorney has privately organized this with new nonprofit corporation. Sanford is a major player who will have offices there supposedly for vet health care advisory.

VFW would sell property at Minnesota & 229. Includes mini warehouses and fast food place. Value is more than $10 million. 

Legion would sell their property for about 1 million but includes liquor license (330k). 

There’s a purchase option on Badlands property that must be exercised soon. 

American Legion and VFW in Sioux City have failed and are closed. Badlands will become not only local but regional and a national focus if not trait. Legion/VFW have combined in several other SD cities. 

Predicted first year operations at Badlands will be about 10 million with a 300k profit. Land and improvements owned. Property tax exempt. 

Innovation or Fascism?

l3wis October 30, 2019 2Comments

I kind of got a good laugh out of this story when I first read it. I have a close relative who lives in the Seattle area, and he is a fan of the blog, he recently said to me in one of our ranting phone conversations, “I wish you would come to Seattle and clean up the local government mess we have here!” I of course I cleaned that quote up for my delicate readers. It seems no matter where you live, when these local government folks get together, the BS flows like water down the Swiss Alps on a warm spring day;

City leaders face similar challenges in the early days of setting up innovation offices: explaining to city employees what they mean by innovation, getting them comfortable with new ways of working, getting some quick wins. Eventually, they have to think bigger, said Tina Walha, Director of Innovation and Performance in Seattle.

Because, you know life is about the ‘Quick Wins’. Oh, the stories I could tell about the Seattle area and it’s ‘Quick Wins.’ But our own Innovation Guru had this interesting tidbit to add;

Support from political leaders, particularly the mayor, is critical. Jason Reisdorfer, Director of Innovation in Sioux Falls, S.D., said he couldn’t get far in his role if Mayor Paul TenHaken wasn’t constantly talking up the value of trying new ways of solving problems.

“Culture is modeled from the top-down,” Reisdorfer said. “It starts with the mayor. The mayor sets the bar super high and encourages risk-taking and trial and error. It’s on us as innovation chiefs to carry that down through the organization. It’s probably our number one job.”

The best ideas come from citizens, and an effective leader takes the citizens ideas and runs with them. I call it ‘from the bottom up.’ To often our supposed leaders think they have the best ideas, when in reality the real culture of a community comes from citizens who get engaged. And when you ignore them, you are only looked upon as a self serving dictator, and not a leader.

Let’s end with a little old skool propaganda;