Is the City of Sioux Falls involvement with the Riverline District just a scam?

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The more I think about the lackluster presser on Monday about the Rec Center at the current convention center space and a new CC at the Riverline area, I think this is just a scam (an idea former city councilor Jamison had before they built the EC. His idea was to build the EC downtown in coordination with a new convention center and convert the current CC into a rec center).

• Why does the city have to purchase the land at the Riverline District?

• If the council agrees with the purchase of the land, how will we bond for it?

• What will be done about train traffic, flooding, natural springs under Nelson Park.

This just sounds like another sweetheart developer deal where the city becomes the land broker (like Phillips to the Falls) and while the private sector figures out their crap and investors the city sits on the land, collecting NO property taxes, then when the private partners come in, they are handed another tax break with a TIF.

The timing is also questionable, right before a massive bond is going to be taken out for quality of life ($70-80 million). Are they going to slip the purchase of Riverline in on this? And if so, is that even appropriate?

I think it is a good idea to build a CC downtown, but this time around it should be the private sector that handles it. Just look at the current CC and EC, we have practically ZERO ROI on these facilities. While the management takes in millions in sales and profits on the EC, the taxpayers get to pay the almost $10 million a year mortgage. If the EC is doing so well, shouldn’t those profits be shared with the taxpayers so we can use the funds for paying the mortgage? Right now all we collect is sales taxes, and they barely cover maintenance on the facility.

A convention center is just a money pit, once all the grifters feed at the trough, it is up to the minions to pay off the bonds.

If the city wants to get involved in the future with the Riverline, GREAT, but the taxpayers shouldn’t be land brokers, let the private sector sit on this land and pay taxes on it until they figure out their grand ‘Vision’ (ironically an idea from over a decade ago).

Also, there is NO need for indoor municipal rec space. This city has tons of private facilities and so do the school districts.

Posted in: Uncategorized

The Riverline District needs to be housing, and that’s it.

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I will agree this will be a prime piece of land for development but not without many challenges.

The one thing it doesn’t need to be is another play palace or baseball stadium. This city has plenty of recreation opportunities. Heck, right across the street (Fairfax) there is a swimming pool and a future skatepark. I would even suggest we build a playground in the Northwest corner of Nelson Park.

As for ‘amenities’ does this area really need more restaurants, bars and shopping opportunities? Not at all, it is surrounded by dozens of restaurants and only a short distance from a grocery store and Lewis Drug.

I would suggest filling the area with affordable and workforce housing constructing hundreds of units that are studios, 1-bedrooms and 2-bedroom flats for younger folks just getting started in the workforce.

But it will need to be propped up;

TenHaken said it is “very likely” the city will ultimately purchase the land, though, and will then decide on negotiating sales or leases to private developers.

That is not his decision to make alone. While he certainly can negotiate (we saw how well that went with the 6th street Bunker bridge) the ultimate decision comes to the council. I know I will regret saying this, but this would be a great place to have a TIF instead of just a buyout from the city. The city could come in and use the TIF to build up all the infrastructure needed to put in such a large housing project, or take an even more daring approach and skip the TIF all together and just budget for the infrastructure taking out the tax rebate equation all together. If Riverline gets the investors and proves they are secure the city can hold up their end of the bargain by preparing the property with sewer, water, roads and other utilities without expensive TIFs and land purchases it would simply be a line item in the budget.

When we pay our 2nd penny in Sioux Falls it should be going towards infrastructure. There is absolutely NO reason the city needs to get into the real estate or tax rebate business on this one. It could be a lot easier then concocting deals. We provide the infrastructure the private investors provide the housing.

Often when there is development in Sioux Falls, anywhere, I ask ‘What is the benefit to the average citizen?’ We are often told that new development helps build up the tax base, but every year we continue to raise the property taxes on 3 levels (county, city and school). If all this development is increasing our tax base, why do we continue to raise taxes? Because of all the play palaces we are subsidizing.

There is ONE benefit to taxpayers, especially those who live in the area (I live 4 blocks away) if any kind of housing is to be put in this area it will border one of the most active and LOUDEST train tracks in the city. The trains are going nowhere. We would need to build a quiet zone in this area in order to make the housing work. I should know, I hear the train whistles all hours of the night since this is the most active thoroughfare.

While Riverline has challenges the city could make this very easy and painless by simply getting out of the way after building up the infrastructure. Of course that isn’t as sexy as having press conferences and talking about complicated land swaps and baseball stadiums that we DON’T need. Sometimes the best thing government can do with projects like this is get the f’ck out of the way and let the private sector offer a solution.

As I have said in the past, most smaller developers and contractors in this city take NO city subsidies. How is it that the little guy has figured out how to make a buck but the big guys are always begging at the trough?

If the city moves forward with a land purchase deal I would suggest the voters of Sioux Falls refer it to a public vote and break this cycle of waste and bureaucracy.

Posted in: Developers, Development, Downtown Sioux Falls, Mayor TenHaken, SF City Council, Sioux Falls

City of Sioux Falls Homeless Task Force lacks neighborhood representation

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Besides the fact that there was NO public call for membership to this group they have NO one from the neighborhood (residents or business owners) serving the on the group.

While we could certainly wait to see what this group accomplishes, it’s hard for me to have much confidence when the selection of the task force was done in secret and lacking transparency.

While some of the members of the board do work in affordable housing and social work, I’m not sure athletes, realtors and directors of business organizations really have a grasp of what is going on in this neighborhood. Where is the director of one of the homeless shelters like the Mission or Dudley house on the board? Or a rep from the Banquet? What about a pastor or deacon? A business owner or homeowner in this neighborhood would have been an excellent addition to the group. It is pretty much a group of bureaucrats that are going to craft policies that uphold the bureaucracy instead of fixing the problem.

The SFPD really needs a group of officers dedicated to outreach to the homeless. That would be a great first step. Instead of reacting to the problem, a proactive approach.

I live in the Nelson Park neighborhood, and to be quite honest with you I have never seen so many homeless people before, the problem has exploded.

I do wish them luck and I want to thank Chair Merkouris for wanting to take this on. I also think it is wonderful the meetings will be open to the public, and WILL be recored. Nothing can be accomplished in the dark.

Posted in: Downtown Sioux Falls, Homeless, Rich Merkouris, SF City Council, Sioux Falls

My Hopes and Dreams for 2020

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• Sioux Falls Skatepark. Hopefully the organization raising funds for the park will make their final push in 2020 so we can see a new park at Nelson Park in 2021.

• Re-elect Sioux Falls City Councilors Theresa Stehly and Pat Starr. I know that Theresa and Pat really haven’t made formal announcements, but I have an inkling they will both run for re-election and crush it. I think it will be fun to watch the monied elite in town get their butts handed to them.

• Deny Sioux Steel TIF and start TIFs for private homeowners, small rentals and citizens. I agree that TIFs can work if you put them to work. The Sioux Steel TIF is nothing but corporate welfare that doesn’t help the general taxpayer one iota. It’s time to re-direct the program to the working middle class.

• Start a private Sioux Falls arts organization promoting local visual and musical art. Would I want to be a part of this? Sure, if someone asked, but I don’t have the gumption anymore to start such a thing. But I think it would be refreshing to have a citizen driven organization not tied to other public entities.

• Pass Hemp legislation and tell Noem to shove it!

• Pass nepotism legislation in the State House. I know, I am not going to hold my breath, but after several past and current governors have decided hiring their family members is a good practice, it’s time. 

• Eliminate half-penny sales tax and fund public education thru investment funds. I think the SD Legislature looks like enormous fools over the half-penny increase. We have been told several times that the education investment funds could supply the money we need to fund education. Let’s admit it, our governor and most legislators are public education haters, they did the increase to stick it to us for bitching about the teacher pay increase. While they call themselves loving X-tians, they are very vindictive. They don’t believe kids should get an education unless a bible is involved, even though they don’t understand the teachings of that book, or any book for that matter.

• NO fees for police service to non-profit events. While I will admit a small standardized fee would not be out of line, we all know this has to do with budgeting. The city could easily give our SFPD a decent raise and budget for these events. We could also fast track hiring more officers.

• Defeat Trump with a Sanders/Warren ticket. While my first choice is Warren, I think Bernie will win the nomination. I know that I have said Bloomberg in the past, but Sanders has so much solid support, I think he is unstoppable. I also think that Warren and him agree on so many issues that he will choose her as his running mate. Some think such a ‘Socialist’ ticket won’t win, but I think a majority of Americans who vote are seeing Trump for the crook he is, and now a possible war with Iran.

• Tear down Canaries stadium. This really should have been done years ago, but it has become a yoke around taxpayer’s necks. Bring on the bulldozers and sell the land to a private developer.

• Resolve the Bunker Ramp fiasco. This P.O.S. project continues to get worse by the day. It’s time the city council, mayor and legal department pull up their big boy pants and and fix it.

• Bring a major business to Sioux Falls, manufacturing, research, etc. We need to stop nickel and dime’n workers in Sioux Falls. We need to bring in a major employer who provides good wages, good benefits and on the job training.

• Fix the Whittier neighborhood transient issues. You know what I think, we need to move the Dudley House to a higher profile area, like closer to the law enforcement center and future triage center. But since that will not probably happen, we need to get a handle on it. It is spilling over in to other surrounding neighborhoods. I had two different transients sleeping in my neighborhood this summer a block from my house. I live about 8 blocks South of the Dudley house. I have lived in my house for about 20 years and this is the first time I have seen transients sleeping in my hood. I think that the SFPD has very low morale right now and is understaffed, this is NOT helping the situation.

• Explore a public ambulance and garbage service. I’m not saying we should implement it right away, but the city council should study the possibilities.

• Project TRIM eliminated and become a taxpayer service. There is NO reason why the city shouldn’t trim the trees they own in the boulevard.

• Fix flood control with better drainage planning. This can only occur when we stop paving our city like one gigantic parking lot.

• More walkable, bikable city. We have made some headway, but we need to get more aggressive. This summer, everyday for a week I rode my bike down the sidewalk on 41st street from Minnesota Ave to Louise because of bike trail flooding, it was horrific.

• Wage collusion ordinance. Require salary scale in ads, and a $11 an hour minimum wage in Sioux Falls, absent of an age cap. I know it is NOT a livable wage, but it’s still better than the state minimum wage of a little over $9 an hour.

Please add your wish list to the comments section, or just bitch about mine, which I expect.

Posted in: Sioux Falls

Cherapa II developer meets the city half way

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As I have been hearing, the developer of Cherapa II (a partnership between Pendar & Howe Properties) offered the city $7 a square foot, the city wanted about $15 a square foot and they settled on $10 a square foot. Strangely enough the developer’s appraiser said it was worth $7 and the city’s appraiser said it was worth $15 a square foot. What a spread?!

I’m okay with this. As we know we paid way too much for this property to begin with. The ‘extra’ amount was for a switching yard out of town. What has happened is that the RR remained only a few feet from the departed property running tracks right along side it. They are still switching and storing cars less then a half a mile from the property just North of Avera and along the river by Nelson Park. In my opinion we accomplished very little with the $27 million which we had to add millions more for another viaduct under 26th street which will only allow even MORE traffic to the North in the Avera and downtown area.

That aside, it is good to see someone will take advantage of the property and I believe it’s spokesperson, Jeff S. when he says he will finish the project. Where I found this testimony a little comical is when he said that he won’t be making much money from it. I would agree with him that on it’s face, in the short term him and his partners won’t be making much except for mortgage payments, but in the long term, this property will have a big payoff. He knows it too especially when he says he is thinking of his ‘Kids and Grandkids’ future. Councilor Neitzert also went into full ass-kiss mode defending Jeff and his contribution to the city (like he was a charity) and that developers are getting beat up to much about the kind of money they are making.

Whaaaaaaa!

Let’s face it, we can’t turn back the clock, because if we could, we would have tried to eliminate most of the downtown train traffic to JUST necessary deliveries and NO switching and NO storing of cars. But Mr. ‘Get things done’ saw $27 million in the federal taxpayer’s piggy bank that he was just itching to hand over to Warren Buffet instead of actually accomplishing something.

I wish Cherapa II luck, but I have a feeling besides the $27 million we paid for this pile of dirt and the over $30 million we are paying for the 26th street overpass, we will be paying for this badly executed plan for decades in tax rebate handouts, land deals and TIFs. It’s unfortunate that the citizens can’t sue it’s elected officials for making these kind of hazardous decisions, because if we could, we would be getting massive rebates.

The RR Redevelopment project WILL go down in history as one of the WORST negotiated projects in our city!

Posted in: Downtown Sioux Falls, Railroads, SF City Council, Sioux Falls