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Sioux Falls Burger Battle goes Beefless?

l3wis 10Comments

Not quite, BUT the traditional rules are being bent a bit this year.

I asked DTSF recently about the traditional rule of having a beef patty base and if that still applies? They told me that since the Cattleman’s Foundation no longer sponsors the event they have dropped those parameters.

Good to know. I have bugged DTSF for years to bend the rules anyway and allow restaurants to make their burger patty out of any protein base (fish, fowl, beef, pork, lamb, plant, wild game, etc.) can you imagine the concoctions? Nothing beats a lamb burger with tzatziki and feta!

This year one participant is offering a 100% Bison patty (don’t get it cooked over medium rare, or it will taste like a shoe) and another participant, while using beef, is offering a sloppy joe on a hoagie.

Like I said, I am all for dropping the beef patty rule, but it would have been nice to know that before this year’s battle has begun, you wonder what if the participants knew?

food tax Mayor TenHaken Property Taxes Sioux Falls Taxes

Mayor TenHaken proclaims it is time to focus on infrastructure

l3wis 10Comments

DakotaNews chief softball pitcher, Brian Allen, recently did an interview with Paul asking him what we should focus on in 2023. Paul said it was time to get back to focusing on infrastructure.

I guess it only took 5 years for Paul to figure out the simple premise of local municipal government; you collect taxes and fees and provide essential services like road maintenance, water and sewer, public safety and outdoor recreation in our parks.

Ever since Mayor Munson, the city has focused more and more on chipping away at our 2nd penny for things like leather chairs for a private movie theater, landscaping and ‘other stuff’ for a private research facility, butterflies and tennis courts while giving massive tax breaks to welfare queen developers.

When former city commissioner Loila Hunking proposed the 2nd penny tax decades ago it was to be in a lockbox and only to be used on road maintenance and in rare occasions other infrastructure projects, since then the penny has been on a wild spending spree that has little to do with the pothole in front of your house.

It often cracks me up listening to past and current mayors and city councilors talk about how we need to ‘get back to’ focusing on infrastructure.

Don’t be fooled by the promises. There is going to be a big fight in Pierre this winter over reducing the food tax and property taxes, one of the proposals will win at the end of the day (I think the property tax cut has a better chance). Mayors and councilors across the state will be crying about the revenue loss and will be asking how they will be able to keep up with essential services and infrastructure.

Let me give you a little advice; stop spending our tax dollars on stupid sh!t.

Mayor TenHaken Sioux Falls

What is the ‘REAL’ population growth of Sioux Falls?

l3wis 12Comments

There will be one constant in 2023, more fluff & puff bluster from our esteemed leader;

“$1.9ish billion in building permits we’re going to hit this year. Probably added another 7,000 people to the community, so trying to sustain and keep up with the demands of that growth in 2022 has been challenging,” Tenhaken said.

I would love to see the correlation between population growth and commercial building permits, if one exists (you know, like homelessness and Rec MJ). I would also like to know where the ‘probably’ in population growth comes from? If you do some quick googling, you will see the average population growth in Sioux Falls is about 4,000 people a year yet when the talking heads get in front of a camera they have thrown all kinds of numbers out there. Over the past few weeks I have heard 3.5K, 4K, and even 10K. I guess the mayor is just cherry picking another number from the sky.

I would love to see the breakdown of this supposed population growth;

• How many were newborns? When I researched this a few years ago, it was determined that almost HALF of the new population growth in Sioux Falls was newborns from existing residents.

• How many were dependent minors, stay-at-home parents and retired seniors that are NOT in the adult, full-time workforce?

• How many are working full-time jobs?

• How many are working remote jobs with NO economic ties to the local economy?

• How many have permanent housing they either purchased 100% or are paying a mortgage?

• How many residents have either died or moved away?

• How many simply use Sioux Falls as a permanent address but live 50% or more out of state?

• How many are living in poverty?

It’s easy to pull numbers from your ass but a breakdown would be helpful. One thing I personally have seen over the past 2 years is a constant rotation of these supposed new people. In other words I have seen a lot of newcomers realizing Sioux Falls just isn’t for them and they move on quickly.

The biggest reasons newcomers leave?

• Lack of diversity in healthcare options and insurance

• A lackluster and deficient public transit system and unsafe streets for peds and bicyclists.

• Lack of a living wage

• Lack of affordable permanent and short term housing

• Job growth opportunities in the blue collar sector

When people from out of state tell me they want to move to SD because of all the freedom and liberty here I remind them we do have quite a bit of freedom here, freedom from earning a living wage and having access to affordable housing and healthcare, other than that, it’s a pretty great place to live . . . probably.

Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, Jan 3-4, 2023

l3wis 1Comments

CALENDAR OF MEETINGS

Informational Meeting • 4 PM • Tuesday, Jan 3

• Transit Development Plan by Sam Trebilcock, Senior Planner

• 2026 Housing Action Plan – Year 1 Update by Logan Penfield, Housing Development Manager; and, Jeff Nelson, Accessible Housing Advisory Board Chair

Regular Meeting • 6 PM • Tuesday, Jan 4

Item #47, A  RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF SIOUX FALLS RECERTIFYING THE COMMUNITY RATING SYSTEM (CRS) PROGRAM.

Background & Objective: A required annual report from the CRS program on the Hazard Mitigation Plan. The current plan is at the end of its usefulness and a new plan is in the early stages, so no new efforts have been put into adding new items to the existing one. This is why the report is so short this year.

(I have never seen this program before, so I would be curious how long it has been since this has been updated considering we have been hit by tornados, severe storms, and flooding over the past few years requiring FEMA reimbursement. Would have been nice to have an informational meeting presentation.)

Planning Commission Meeting • 6 PM • Wednesday, Jan 4

Sioux Falls South Dakotans

What location will the state build its new prison?

l3wis 26Comments

Will it be built in Sioux Falls? I would assume that they would either have to build it in the city limits or in a suburb of Sioux Falls in order to have the workforce. A rumor swirling around is to build it at the 1880 Cowboy Town or the Buffalo Ridge Ghost Town (which is on I-90).

Patrick Lalley with his new digs at siouxfallslive.com throws around an interesting idea;

Here’s the question, what land?

There’s not much left on the current site, perched as it is on the bluff overlooking a packing plant, Falls Park, downtown and the verdant city beyond.

There’s the diversion channel to the east, rail lines and the airport to the north and housing to the southwest.

Where oh where will our prison go?

What an opportunity to transform the industrial and penal character of that high-profile section of the city, not just on the top of the bluff, but down below.

Maybe, and this is crazy dreamy stuff, the prison and the packing plant are a package deal.

The whole debate over where Wholestone Farms should build their plant only refocused the reality of the legacy of Smithfield.

Lalley is suggesting we tear down the old prison AND Smithfields and use the area for redevelopment. Yeah, it’s a pipe dream and Lalley knows it.

Smithfields isn’t going anywhere and as for the prison, I wouldn’t be surprised if the state sells it to a private developer who may remodel the existing prison for a different use like Dakotabilities did with the former Jefferson elementary. Take the bars off the windows and you could repurpose it for a pretty cool apartment building.

We will see if the legislature even passes the funding. $52 million seems like a lot of coin just for land acquisition and design. And where would we get money to actually build it? This facility could easily cost north of $100 million.

Prison building is just a scam on the taxpayers to make the private vendors who service the prison money and little else.

Will local leadership like Sioux Falls district legislators, council and mayor fight to keep the prison in the city limits? Likely not, but I would encourage the state and the city to do an economic impact study of the financial benefits of the prison. Personally I think we could save taxpayers millions by releasing all non-violent offenders with ankle monitors and drug tests while on parole. But that would require our legislature to have compassion, something they locked away decades ago.

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