South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

1st Amendment Developers Development Downtown Sioux Falls Elections Sioux Falls TIFs

One Great City!

l3wis 4Comments

I LOVE this song;

I just replace ‘Winnipeg’ with ‘Sioux Falls’ and it makes soooo much sense. The last line in the song nails it;

And up above us all, leaning into sky
A golden business boy will watch the North End die
And sing I love this town
Then let his arcing wrecking ball proclaim

I hate Winnipeg (Sioux Falls)

So a foot soldier who actually reads regional news sent me this article about TIFs. Talking points are always the same and I encourage you to read the entire piece;

Politically, TIF is seductive. It allows elected officials to claim they are “doing something” about development without raising taxes today. The costs are deferred, opaque and spread across future taxpayers. But the long-term consequences are real: higher property taxes, underfunded schools, distorted development patterns and growing dependence on subsidies for projects that should stand on their own.

Pretty common sense stuff. Right? And the folks who wrote this article are not a couple of jokesters;

Julie Risser is an Edina City Council member. She previously served on Edina’s Planning Commission and Energy and Environment Commission. David Schultz is Hamline University Distinguished Professor of Political Science. Previously he served as a city director of planning, zoning and code enforcement and also as a housing and economic planner.

I have read hundreds of articles over the past decade about the destructive nature of TIF’s and have never understood why local governments get sucked in, besides the fact they are getting their personal palms greased, but I have never heard the word ‘SEDUCTIVE’ used. It makes SOOO much sense now. Not only are our national politics ruled by money and power (The taxpayers of this country just paid for a military operation to take the oil resources of an independent nation, wrap your F’ing head around that!!!) but now our local politics are now too. I think the upcoming city election is an opportunity for citizens to stand up this money machine and elect folks who won’t tolerate it any more. Don’t be ‘seduced’ by snake oil salespeople.

MY HOPES FOR THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION (Mayoral)

Somebody asked me last night what would be my ideal outcome of the next city election, and I gave a longer answer then I expected;

Greg Jamison as mayor, Christine Erickson as Public Information Officer, Joe Batcheller as his Planning Director and Jamie Smith as his Housing and Community Development director AND I would hire a trained monkey to be the city attorney. Notice I said ‘trained’.

1st Amendment Development Downtown Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce

What did I tell you about the ‘Rich Party’? (H/T-MZ)

l3wis 0Comments

So check this out;

Isn’t it interesting the city is cutting funding to several struggling NGO’s in Sioux Falls but not the Development Foundation, even after receiving $15 million from the state just 2 years ago they magically still got around $500K from the taxpayers of Sioux Falls this year. Disgusting. Oh and the over $100 million in TIFs and other tax rebates.

I can guarantee you the reason funding was cut from the MCC was because DHS and the Feds threatened ALL Federal Funding to the city if they didn’t cut immigration services funding to orgs like LSS. This has nothing to do with making ‘tough choices’ this is just blatant racism from Sally and his cohorts and the city could have lost millions in Federal grants for infrastructure projects. Will the city ever tell us this? Highly unlikely.

I’m telling you, the RICH PARTY in Sioux Falls stays on TOP because they control the money and they take the money.

1st Amendment Music

Flashback

l3wis 0Comments

I had a flashback this morning after reading this;

Sparklers on champagne bottles likely cause of deadly Swiss bar fire. A fire at a bar in a Swiss ski resort appears to have been caused by sparklers placed on bottles of champagne that came “too close to the ceiling”, authorities said.

In 2003 I was in a club fire in Minneapolis started by pyrotechnics;

In February 2003, the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis experienced a pyrotechnic-caused fire, similar to the deadly Station nightclub fire, but with drastically different outcomes: all 120 patrons escaped safely due to an automatic sprinkler system and trained staff, highlighting effective fire safety measures versus the tragedy in Rhode Island where 100 died due to flammable foam and lack of sprinklers. The Minneapolis incident serves as a key comparison, showing how proper fire suppression and procedures prevent disaster, even when a fire starts from the same cause. 

The fire occurred ONE week before this infamous club fire;

On the evening of February 20, 2003, a fire occurred at The Station, a nightclub and music venue in West Warwick, Rhode Island, United States, killing 100 people and injuring 230. During a concert by the rock band Jack Russell’s Great White, an offshoot of the original Great White band, a pyrotechnic display ignited flammable acoustic foam in the walls and ceilings surrounding the stage. Within six minutes, the entire building was engulfed in flames. The fire remains the deadliest firework accident in U.S. history and the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history. It was also the second-deadliest nightclub fire in New England, behind the 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire.

First off, I am still bitter about the idiot that set off the pyro at the Minneapolis show. It was the final night of my Rock & Roll weekend. I saw the Pretenders on Friday Night at the State, the Donnas at the Quest on Saturday and was looking forward to seeing Link Wray Sunday night at the Fine Line, but he never went on 🙁 I never did get to see him before he passed just 2 years later. Still a little pissed about not seeing the man who invented electric guitar distortion.

Fortunately in my case, the sprinkler system did kick in, but NOT until everyone was out of the building because when I was running across the dance floor I looked up and the entire ceiling was on fire (just like the Swiss fire, the insulation caught on fire.) Ever since then when I go to a club I am unfamiliar with, I find ALL exits and always note the closest one to the stage. Believe it or not, it can get you out of other scary situations like slam dancing gone awry (that’s only happened to me once 🙂 I spent the rest of the show in the back alley.

I often tell folks when going to a sold-out club show, find all exits first, because I never want to leave a club show again with the ceiling on fire. I still remember the bartender yelling as we are running towards the door ‘RUNNNNNNNNNNN!’ I’m thinking, ‘No Sh!t Sherlock.’

My prayers go out to these folks, but please, learn from a tragedy.

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

What Falls Park could be

l3wis 3Comments

Notice I call it Falls Park and not THE FALLS. The first thing the next mayor needs to do is take down that stupid looking 1982 jacket vest colored sign and replace if with a new quartzite sign that says ‘Falls Park’. So if any future mayors try to do the same thing, it will be a little bit harder to replace. I still don’t know how a mayor can just make that decision on his own with executive authority? That should have gone thru public hearings with the naming committee, historic board, the parks board, the planning commission, the rubberstamp arts commission and a vote of the city council. Heck, the next mayor needs to do just that to get it changed back! So much corruption at city hall. When I bitched to someone about this who works at city hall they kind of said to me like ‘Who cares.’ and I was like, ‘How would you like it if he renamed Fawick Park, Sanford Park and replaced David with that goofy Happy Chef looking statue that sits on the Sanford campus.’ They had a change of heart.

LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL WE COULD MAKE FALLS PARK WITHOUT SPENDING MUCH ON PERMANENT INFRASTRUCTURE

If you have ever been to the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC, Canada, you know what I am talking about. It is one of the gems of this coastal city. When I lived in the Pacific Northwest I made a couple of trips to Victoria (before 9/11 so all you needed was an ID to enter the country and empty your pockets before getting on the ferry. I saw them make an old lady cry because she couldn’t take her peaches with her. The attendant was like, ‘Mam, this is a 45 minute ride and there is a huge food court at the dock’.) Victoria is on a peninsula thingy so driving there is a pain in the ass, so peeps drive from Seattle to Port Angeles and take a 45 minute cruise in open ocean. I tell you this because we came back on high tide once and I was as green as cucumber.

With Greek and Scottish culture throughout the city and dozens of public museums the Butchart Gardens is there true attraction;

Internationally renowned, the 55-acre display garden located near Victoria, British Columbia was created in 1904 by Jennie Butchart. Still privately owned and operated by family descendants, The Gardens is a National Historic Site of Canada. Open every day of the year, welcoming over one million visitors annually.

You just get lost in there. I would recommend the city fund a trip so a councilor, parks manager and parks board member can go see this in person. We could do this at Falls Park using native flowers and grasses and really turn Falls Park into a nature wonderland instead of a Six Flags.

There is also a bigger idea in all of this. If you read the Buchart website you will notice it is privately owned with volunteers. You could get corporate sponsorship’s for the garden beds at Falls Park that could pay for the little maintenance they will need or even have a team of volunteers. If the Pavilion can use volunteers to operate it’s Great Hall, then why can’t the city have volunteers maintain Falls Park?

There are so many opportunities to bring in the community on this and make it the talk of the midwest, but if contractors in this town don’t get a contract every 5 minutes to poor concrete over our parks, they get nervous and city hall folds like a cheap suit.

Next Page »

You Missed

1st Amendment Developers Development Downtown Sioux Falls Elections Sioux Falls TIFs

One Great City!

1st Amendment Development Downtown Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce

What did I tell you about the ‘Rich Party’? (H/T-MZ)

1st Amendment Music

Flashback

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

What Falls Park could be