Jodi Schwan’s weekly column really did hit the nail on the head, I would agree we are a city full of dreamers.
While Jodi is right that when the wealthy put there minds to something in Sioux Falls, they get it done. It usually comes with an investment from taxpayers (whether they want to or not) and the private sector stepping up.
But the dreamers I see in Sioux Falls don’t run with the Sanfords and Schillers of our community.
They dream of someday making a living wage. They dream of more affordable healthcare and housing, better streets, more equitable taxes, and less increases in fees and property taxes.
We certainly like to dream, but for decades the things that would truly lift our city up economically and make our dreams a reality are ignored by the ‘big (money) dreamers’ in our community. We can continue to throw money at play palaces and failed parking ramps, but until we realize ending wage collusion and lifting all the boats in the harbor is the real answer, we will continue to just be a city of dreamers.
We didn’t vote for an Events Center. It’s become a dream that the debt hadn’t happened. Most everything is from an unscientific L&S poll. Still not sure how the empty Admin Building and 5-story parking garage happened. It was ingenious to call the Aquatics Center Midco so we wouldn’t know it was built and maintained with public money. If you want a say in city government, move to Harrisburg or Brandon.
It’s certainly known that the wealthy put their wants and needs first. Just look at the last 16 years. It’s time this administration steps out of their comfort zone, ventures out of their downtown offices and take a real look at older neighborhoods to see what can be improved. It seems like there are usually only three Councilors that advocate for the citizens and that is getting quite old.
The problem with dreamers is they have their eyes closed while doing their visualizing. While they’re getting all tingly about intellectually stimulating praise-worthy challenges, the lure of big profits and cementing their legacies. . . those mundane necessary tasks of here & now to keep “the house†in order go unnoticed or ignored. You know, like year-’round prompt patching of road surfaces/fissured gutters/ragged storm drain covers, regular sweeping streets/raised medians/government property sidewalks, killing opportunistic weeds on public right-of-ways, cutting & promptly trimming the grass at urban interstate intersections and all portions of all city parks, reining in the proliferation of ugly temporary wooden commercial real estate agent signs, etc. In other words, all the clutter outside of downtown giving residents and visitors a less than favorable impression of the upkeep of our city.
I like to dream about what a guy can do with a bunker ramp.