Should the city be mitigating risk when it comes to public art?

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This is a rendering I did of what I was told the Bunker Ramp mural would have looked like. A Native American taking a nap next to a river dreaming of buffalos frolicking in a rainbow sky. I still have NOT seen the image.

Mr. Lalley is suggesting that is what the mayor exactly did when rejecting the selected mural choice and cancelling the project all together, mitigating risk;

This wasn’t a commissioned piece, as Boice had to explain to me, which could include parameters on the theme or content.

In this case, the intent was to allow the chosen artist “control the narrative,” as Boice put it.

That’s new.

It’s a great idea when you’re fostering and supporting artistic endeavors in your community.

For a government, for people who want other people to approve of what they do, it’s risky.

But you have to know that going in.

Rejection from the wider public is always a possibility. In my experience uncertainty is the artist’s constant companion, whether they are painters, musicians, sculptors, writers or quilters.

There’s always risk in art.

City government is inherently about mitigating risk.

We may never know the content of what was intended as a short-term mural, that was recommended by the Visual Arts Commission and rejected by the mayor.

Which highlights a more perplexing theme.

We may never know if the mural in question was patently offensive to one or more groups of people in the community.

We may never know if the mayor was reacting to some real or perceived public consequence if he approved it.

With public art comes public scrutiny.

Artists usually want that.

Government usually does not.

While I still struggle with this supposed offensive mural, you can only look a block away to a naked dude that has been standing there for 50 years (with a short stint in a parks and rec boneyard).

While it appears that the mayor was mitigating risk, it also suggests to me he was more worried about what Taupeville would think of the mural and not everyday folks.

Just another shirtless Native American in front of the Bunker Ramp of Democracy.

Which brings us to Ben Black Elk;

As the unofficial greeter at Mount Rushmore, Black Elk spent 27 years welcoming guests and promoting Native American culture. A Huron Daily Plainsman article noted that he posed for an estimated 5,000 photos daily during peak tourist season, earning Black Elk the distinction of being the most photographed Native American in the world. In addition to his photo record, the Sioux City Journal reported that Black Elk was the first person to have a live image broadcast over the Atlantic — via the Telstar satellite that launched in 1962.

It seems the state did a fine job of mitigating the risk of having a shirtless Native American pose for pictures in front of Mt. Rushmore now if we could just figure it out in Sioux Falls.

Jack, James and Jimmy

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I’ve never met former president Jimmy Carter or have seen him publicly, but I always admired his attention to the environment. He of course was beat by the worst president to ever live, Reagan. I do remember a comment from my grandpa Carl on election day when someone asked him who he voted for (I’m not sure my grandparents ever voted for a Republican). He said, “Mr. Carter is a good man, and he was handed some difficult problems, and I am willing to give him a second term.” Then I think there were some curse words about his opponent. President Carter is currently in hospice care.

Also to my surprise, former legislator Dr. Jack Billion passed away yesterday. While I know his health had been fading over the past few years I was fortunate to BS with him one last time this past summer at a Dem picnic at McKennan Park. He was just as funny and antagonistic as ever. Jack was our guest on Rant-A-Bit in 2010. Maybe my co-host can find a way to pull up that episode and link it 🙂

It is also with heavy heart that James Abourezk has passed. You may know Jim’s famous wife, Saana, who hands down makes the best Mediterranean cuisine in Sioux Falls. Thru my art exploits when I was younger I got to meet Saana who introduced me to Jim. I consider myself very fortunate to have had a couple of lunches with Jim’s court at Saana’s. He was extremely funny, crude and intriguing. Also to note, Jim was rumored to have a large original drawing political cartoon collection. Maybe someday we will see it on display.

You will be missed!

City of Sioux Falls will be hosting weekly pressers

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Well after five years the city administration has figured out how to hold a weekly press conference;

This new weekly briefing will take place every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. In the One Sioux Falls Media Briefing, city departments will be highlighted for various topics each week.

Not sure how they will do the streaming moving forward, but they decided to stream this first one on Facebook. It really should be simultaneously streamed on CityLink in SIRE on the city website and also on the city’s YouTube page. The city has the technology and know how to do this, they just choose not to.

We can be happy this is a small attempt at transparency but if certain constituents don’t have Facebook how are they going to watch it? Also, can the city’s media department figure out how to mic the reporters in the room so we can hear their questions?

Like the pressers during Covid, I doubt these weekly pressers will endure. This is just an attempt to make up for the 6th Street Bunker Bridge fiasco and the lack of transparency. Transparency in government isn’t an ‘occasional event’ it should be 24/7 – 365.

Try not to wear gold watches when pleading your case

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Last night during the public input time at the council meeting Vitaliy Strizheus who owns an unfinished house the city is scheduled to demolish on Monday came to plead his case to the council and public. I have avoided posting about this because 1) I really don’t care about the lifestyles of the rich and famous of Sioux Falls and 2) I do not know the details of the case including accusations that the city is discriminating based on race and what Constitutional property rights he may have. The city has a track record on this after ignoring their own building codes and allowing an oversized mansion to be built in McKennan Park.

Hopefully a Federal judge will block the demolition so we can get a clearer understanding of what is going on. But taking 10 years to complete a home is unacceptable and there should be consequences. Not sure charging taxpayers $85K to demolish and all the litigation expenses is really beneficial to the defendant or the public. I think this could have been solved in a different manner. Why can’t the city just take the home and sell it on auction?

But what I found most intriguing is while this guy is begging the city to spare his home he dawns a gold watch. He should have taken a queue from this guy at last week’s public input complaining about the uselessness of the pothole hotline. Maybe Carhartt Kent had a gold watch under his coveralls but I am guessing NOT.

1st Amendment case threatened towards Lincoln County Commission

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Trust me, anytime I hear the name Shawn Tornow I usually want to crawl up in a corner and suck my thumb, but he might actually be onto something here;

Lincoln County’s public comment policy doesn’t just apply to specific issues that are discussed in executive session, but broad topics covered by executive session.

Tornow says that regular citizens wouldn’t even know they are running afoul of Lincoln County’s policy.

For example, members of the public might not know about anticipated litigation. They wouldn’t know about topics that were discussed in executive session, because they don’t have access to those meetings. Nor would they know about any other matters that are confidential by law.

In his 3-21 notice, Tornow says the policy is a violation of the First Amendment.

The 3-21 notice alleges that Commission Chairwoman Tiffani Landeen unlawfully cut off Montgomery during a commission meeting on Dec. 6.

“Your actions in this regard were unreasonable, unnecessary and, as my client firmly believes, actionable since her right to free speech and free expression at such a public meeting was unlawfully squelched,” the 3-21 notice says. “Consequently, this correspondence and resulting action became necessary in order to take action to right the wrong.”

I have been warning the city council that cutting off individuals because you are unhappy with the content of their presentation is a 1st Amendment violation. As Tornow points out above the public isn’t aware what the elected officials know due to the privacy of an executive session and elected officials don’t know what private citizens know or what they will say in public. I get it, decorum and threats of violence are serious things and should be handled (even though last night at the city council meeting a public commenter said SH!T three times during his input without being interrupted by the chair. Maybe since he was talking about it running downhill it was pertinent to the input about sewers? I chalk it up to no one actually listening to the gentleman).

At least Tornow and his client are affording the LCC the opportunity to remedy the situation without it going to court.

This is NOT rocket science folks. Instead of focusing on what people CANNOT say during public comment periods and making up rules as they go along, maybe we should focus on what they can say which is just about anything they want to, including feces running down hill.

The SCOTUS ruled on this in 2018 and several times before that. The ruling stands until it is challenged and overturned.