South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Sioux Falls

Downtown Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken Phillips to the Falls Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

UPDATE: Falls Park or The Falls? What’s the difference?

l3wis 4Comments

UPDATE: Still gathering the tea leaves on this one but what I have heard so far is that the design was done internally (even though the city usually hires that sorta thing out to you know, Poops’ former ad agency). I’m still trying to figure out which one of Poops’ marketing goons in city hall proposed this. I still think they should have named it ‘STAY OUT OF THE FOAM PARK’.

So a few weeks ago I was riding thru Falls Park (I usually do a couple rides a day thru DTSF just to see what projects are going) and I noticed the new sign at Falls Park; this ugly navy blue and orange sign that said ‘The Falls’. Didn’t think much of it because it looked like a temp sign for the Winter Wonderland. I thought one of the local liquor distributors printed it, LOL.

First off, it is called Falls Park, because the Falls are there and it is a park. This is ‘naming’ 101. So I am confused why we wanted to shorten the name, not by much, and create some kind of branding for the park.

I have worked in printing and marketing since 1993 and the best rule of thumb if something isn’t broken don’t fix it. Not sure why we need to rebrand Falls Park? It has been there thousands of years and it’s natural beauty is what makes it.

Now there are upgrades on the horizon, but instead of RE-BRANDING maybe we just need to promote the PARK!

It often cracks me up with Mayor Poops renaming things, but NOT explaining why, because he knows it is just a whim.

I have some feelers out there and hope to have the REAL reason this park was renamed.

As a former city official said to me today; ‘Where were the public meetings to let the public in on renaming the park?’ And this person makes a great point. Let the public in on changing the identity of the park, you might just find some great results. But Authoritarians know everything, just ask them.

When you run a MILITANT ANTI-OPEN GOVERNMENT REGIME, opinions are like diapers.

If I was in charge of re-branding Falls Park I would rip every single piece of concrete out of the park, I would tear down the gift shop and observatory tower and would transform the park into a naturalist site with native flowers, grasses, etc. It would truly be beautiful, and ironically if you used native flowers and grasses, the maintenance would be minimal.

Poops vision is turning the place into Disneyland. How I hate Disneyland.

Curt Soehl Downtown Sioux Falls SF City Council Sioux Falls Uncategorized

Did Sioux Falls City Councilor Curt Soehl forget what he used to do?

l3wis 1Comments

Curtist the Blurtist was blurting and curting last night at the city council meeting about the proposed GIGANTIC TRUCK ordinance. Kermit Soehl was the only councilor to vote against it, mainly because Curt owns one of these aircraft carriers on wheels. The big argument of the night was public safety and it is pretty straight forward, but Curt wasn’t having it saying that it would cause an economic downturn in DTSF, as if only big truck drivers are the only ones who spend money downtown. It was quite possibly the dumbest thing I have ever heard a councilor say, oh wait, forgot about Countcilor Jensen. But the shocking part about Curt’s vote is he was a former firefighter and president of the firefighters union. I would think he understands ‘Public Safety’ but I guess once you become a insurance peddler those things don’t matter anymore. I hope Curt runs for mayor, he will end up DEAD LAST!

INFORMATIONAL MEETING

At the informational several folks with Sioux Falls Sustainability(?) made comments about the building codes and how they need to focus on energy efficiency. I have heard several stories about newer apartment buildings in town with little to no insulation. One friend told me his mom was paying $150 a month in heat in a 800 square foot apartment. If that apartment was properly insulated and in the center of the building there should be little heating costs.

Drinking Liberally Liberals Sioux Falls South Dakotans

Drinking Liberally (11/29/2024)

l3wis 10Comments

In Politics: Nationally: The Election is over and the wrong side won. Despite all the celebration on the Republican side however, nationally, as votes continue to roll in, it turns out that the Republican victory was very narrow and Trump himself received less than 50% of the popular vote, 49.83% and dropping as of this morning. The Republican margin in the US House of Representatives is extremely narrow too (220-214) and only the Republican gerrymandering in North Carolina and Florida with the partisan approval of the US Supreme Court produced their victory.

Unfortunately, the closeness of these races doesn’t change the fact that Republicans control all three branches of government (including a very partisan Supreme Court) for the first time since the late 1920’s, which, coincidentally, coincides with the date Republicans want to turn time back to. No social security, no department of education, no department of health and human services (if you need help, it is just proof God doesn’t like you). The election may have been close but the future will be hell for many and for most of us in the end.

In Politics: South Dakota: The one positive outcome of Trump’s election for South Dakotans is the promotion of our beauty queen Governor out of the State and into the Office of Homeland Security for the Trump administration. I have no idea what she will do there other than whatever bidding Trump desires at Homeland Security but she will prove to be good eye candy for Trump at Cabinet Meeting photo ops. At least she will not bother us in South Dakota any more. I pray (vigorously) the Senate approves her.

The South Dakota Democratic Party (SDDP) performed miserably in 2024 and lost two of its previous 11 seats in the 105 seat South Dakota Legislature. Marginally relevant before, South Dakota Democrats now are mostly irrelevant. If they continue on their current course they will quickly become absolutely irrelevant.

Their failure in 2024 was entirely foreseeable given the SDDP’s current Leadership’s focus on ideological purity rather than electoral success. Since their recall of their Chairperson Jennifer Slaight-Hansen last July for suggesting economic issues get greater emphasis than LGBTQ issues, the GOP has increased its voter registration plurality over the SDDP by 21,147 voters. The GOP now has 318,423 registered voters to the SDDP’s 146,204. In percentage terms, since the recall of Slaight-Hansen the GOP’s share of all South Dakota voters increased from 49.8% to 50.8% while the SDDP’s share decreased from 24.8% to 23.3%.

It is enough to turn a Democrat to drink. I think I will!

Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls snow removal Snowgates

UPDATE II: Where were the F’ing sanders today?!

l3wis 6Comments

UPDATE II: I guess the street fleet was out at 7:30 AM on Wednesday, FILLING POTHOLES! The only spots they sanded were bridges and after they left at 3:30 PM they were CALLED back at 4:30 PM to sand, and only a handful of drivers responded to the request. But hey, if you drive a public works truck in the parade of lights you are getting $60 bones an hour. Priorities folks. Priorities. I also heard and still trying to verify there was almost 90 traffic accidents on Wednesday. Surprising? NOT.

UPDATE: I was told the sanders were out at 7:30 AM on Wednesday. I would be curious how many because when I drove to work at 4 PM on Cliff Avenue, parts of 41st street and Minnesota were pure ice and packed snow and I didn’t see one single sander out.

I know I have complained about this before, but today was literally a Sh!t show. With the weather today being what is was I decided to drive my car. Bad decision. While I do have studded snow tires on my bike, I try to avoid riding in the dark when conditions are very icy, but I would have probably been safer on my bike. Normally it takes me about 20 minutes to commute to work (5 miles) it took me 30 minutes today in my car, not just because of the terrible condition of the streets but because multiple streets were closed due to accidents.

I get it, there really wasn’t a forecast for this event, but it shouldn’t matter, it is the END OF NOVEMBER! Those sanders should be ready at ALL TIMES!

I did see them out tonight at 9 PM. Thanks . . . dumbasses.

So besides the personal expenditures of folks vehicles being damaged, we have the police and fire respond to these incidents. And now we are paying NIGHT differential to sand the streets. The pennies the city may have saved by not sanding this morning when the event started doesn’t even come close to the amount being spent on responding to these accidents.

Is our Mayor that stupid?

Maybe so, but it also falls back on his lack of leadership. Dave Munson would have been on the horn to Galen Huber at 6 am sending out those sanders. Why? Because public safety should never have a price tag, it is a requirement of municipal government to provide these services thru the taxes we pay. Makes you wonder if the city is in such dire straights that they can’t even send sanders out? We have around $80 million in reserves. We could sand every road in the state for a year and still not spend it all.

I suggested to a councilor that the council write an ordinance that takes control of street plowing and sanding. Basically it would require the street department to act on their own when there is an event and craft the ordinance in a way that pretty much requires them to act immediately to any winter weather event and take that control away from the mayor.

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