July 2013

Washington Pavilion’s latest Smoke & Mirrors

While the Pavilion continues to remain silent about where their Development Director disappeared to (Maybe they could set up a Science Center exhibit, find the Development Director. Is she behind the curtain? Is she hiding under a desk?) You would expect to at least hear an announcement of someone replacing her? Right?

Nope. Instead their big announcement is adding another (co)President. Ironically, they could have ten co-presidents, and the same person would still be running the joint, VP of Operations, Jon Loos. Rumor has it, Jon Loos knows exactly what happened to the Development Director, and let’s just say, Jon likes job security, he has been there since day one, he runs the joint, and no matter how many retired CEO’s of former communication companies you bring on board, Loos still is in charge. Just ask former Presidents Hoffman & Wood, but good luck tracking them down.

This is just Smoke & Mirrors from the Pavilion to distract away from their real problems, a Board of Directors that consists of ‘Specials’ that want to keep us ‘Have-Nots’ out, a policy that I will never see changing (The first Director, Steve Hoffman, actually tried in his first few years to get away from that culture, but he was hamstrung by the Board, then eventually quit). A public arts institution that has no Development Director, and isn’t apparently looking for one, but they have two presidents!

I enjoyed the nice little story written about it;

“This is really all about the Pavilion. It’s not about Scott or I at all,” Toll, 65, said. “The thing we’re saying is the two of us are not additive. We’re exponential.”

Oh, how cute. I think I am going to puke.

The amazing part is that not one single public official questions what the heck is going on in the place. I could blog about it until I am blue in the face, and I have, but unless the very people responsible for handing over the subsidy to the WP asks questions and demands answers, we might as well just prepare ourselves for more press conferences on the Great Hall stage announcing more leaders without a peep from minions about what really goes on in the Big Purple Building.

Mural Dedication tonight – Pretty Cool!

I usually don’t get to excited about public art in Sioux Falls, but this project is pretty cool;

At 6 p.m., the Sioux Falls Mural will be dedicated at Meldrum Park, that is on the corner of 6th Street and Lewis Avenue.

Recently when I was in Ft. Collins I noticed that the city commissioned artists to paint all of the transformer boxes around town. I also have a friend who is studying public art in Mexico City for a few months, and has posted some cool stuff on FB. I think Sioux Falls needs more community mural projects like this, especially DT. We need to be a little more Primary colors and a lot less beige.

Who is really ‘Benefitting’ from the River Greenway Project?

The City of SF Audit Committee will be releasing their audit of the river greenway project, which has cost taxpayers almost $10 million so far (the project was originally going to cost around $2-4 million, if my memory serves me well). The original plan was to upgrade the bike trail and landscaping by the river, which would have been just fine. But someone got a hold of someone’s ear at the Parks department and now we have the current ‘San Antonio’ version of the greenway project. This all started with mayor Munson and has seemed to snowball since then, we have bought a bridge (maybe two), bulk heads, a spray park and the infamous (and dangerous) steps into the river. We have also torn down a parking ramp.

Document: confluence

Design of the project was almost 10% of the total cost of the entire project. In the research I have done, projects of this size and nature usually run about 6% of the total project cost. I knew this was going to be a money sucker from the beginning, we have even bonded (borrowed) almost 50% of the total cost of the project. I have often thought if taxpayers would have voted on this project, it would have been scaled back. It seems contractors, developers, engineers and architects are deciding what is good for the citizens of this town, this practice needs to end.

 

The Argue Endorser’s ED board Endorses the People of Walmart

85th & Audie, Here I come!

Well Walmart has just received the Kiss of Death, the AL’s endorsement. Of course, the AL knew this wasn’t going to be easy endorsing one of the most corrupt and largest retailers in the nation over the rights and wishes of (model) citizens in our community (who were there long before the rezone or WM).

The endorsement is a little surprising considering that,

1)    There is a pending lawsuit &

2)    since when does the AL weigh in on zoning & planning issues?

Well, I’m sure the Ed Board knew this would be a little sticky, so they do what the MSM is good at these days when they NEED to sell an idea, mislead;

Neighbors are concerned about the traffic a supercenter will create. But we’re not convinced neighbors would feel the same if Target, Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s were opening there instead. Yet other stores would create similar traffic.

WOW, how much misinformation can the Argus Misleader pack into one paragraph? On last week’s 100 Eyes show with SON representative, Dana Palmer and managing editor Patrick Lalley, Dana clearly said she didn’t care who built there, including WM, and admitted to shopping at WM. The SON group has 2 concessions that WM won’t budge on, size of store and hours of operation. If WM would consider these concessions, not only would SON accept them to the neighborhood, it would also reduce traffic.

Then there was this (mis)statement that the AL has been inking in their paper ever since Shape SF got revoked;

. . . and if zoning changes are turned down, we’ll revert to 30-year-old zoning rules.

Dana Palmer also clarified this on the 100 Eyes show (apparently the ED Board doesn’t even watch their own programming, probably a good thing, unless of course they are trying to fall asleep).

While the current zoning law was FIRST put into place in 1983, it has been changed and tweaked several times since then. Just a few years ago the council changed the zoning notification process. So saying this is a 30-year-old zoning ordinance isn’t just misleading, it’s kind of a lie, but I wouldn’t expect anything less out of the Beck and the gang.