It’s rare that I give Mayor Poops props, but he made some interesting comments about density and our core (FF 12:00). The only problem is that he has had more then 3 years to do something with the help of the do-nothing council. He mentions that we need to do a better job of building density in our core. DING! DING! DING! This wasn’t the first Mayor to try to mansplain this issue. Mayor Munson actually took a stab at it when he created the Pettigrew Heights neighborhood and started the rebuilding of Downtown. The problem was when Bucktooth & Bowlcut took the baton he just focused on the immediate Downtown. Fast forward to Paul and the story behind the scenes is that he has been talking to core property owners around the downtown area, the problem, as rumor would have it is that Paul wants to try to strong arm these owners into selling property to the city so he can bulldoze it and turn it around to his rich developer friends. This is what happens when you have a COS that used to be a developer executive. Most of those owners have told them they will redevelop on their own without the help of the city.
The bigger issue with this is that the public, the city council and these owners all need to come to the table and put together a strategy, and the process needs to be very open and transparent. Right now those meetings, like the MED MJ ordinance discussions are happening behind closed doors, and as I understand it are failing miserably.
I’m not sure what it will take to get this mayor to understand open government, he just doesn’t, and neither does the council or the city attorney’s office.
The only way we will will ever succeed with this core redevelopment is if we open the books, unfortunately I don’t think that will ever happen with the current administration.
Before the core can grow there must be better and improved access. West 12th is slum with to many stoplights. East 10th is a dreary drive with failing commercial strips. Minnesota Ave. gets slow when there’s any kind of construction and has older retail that comes and goes. Improving downtown access doesn’t make developers rich but must happen.
Do you want revitalized housing in some of the core neighborhoods?
(e.g. each of 14-20 single family properties on a city block are revitalized/rebuilt).
Or do you want greater density of housing?
If greater density is desired, there needs to be a way in which the ownership of real property by 14-20 invidual landowners on a city block is consolidated, combined or converted such that multi-family housing can be built (duplexes, fourplexes, townhomes, apartments).
What I heard –
– Mere lip service to adding density to our core. Absolutely no commitment;
– But we are going to keep adding infrastructure (i.e. streets, more and bigger) in order that commutes are not extending for those residing at the ever more-distant fringes of our sprawling city; and
– “tell us what these other cities are saying about Sioux Falls?” With these words, Nyberg exhibits something common to Sioux Fallsians – a psychological need for validation of their decision to live here. The existence is validated by an index of the retail and restaurant chains in place in the city. He stops just short of, “do they know that we have the walls erected for our Dave and Buster’s and that Dillard’s is coming? Wait, Dillard’s is coming, right?”
I am not quite sure I understand what “mansplaining” is, but then again I was born prior to 1980 and not up to date with all this social media lingo.
But I am not sure I understand why you think the Mayor is a bad mayor, nor doing anything that the people do not agree with.
Perhaps your issues are with “general government agenda” and less about the stated goals and policies of our Elected Leaders who attempt to control that government.
Ever stop and think that perhaps the issue is not our elected leaders, but the actual “City Government” itself?
“Maybe Dillard’s is coming ‘someday'”…. “Perhaps, their inserts could have saved the Shopping News”….
Mike, you make a fair argument, but the problem is our elected officials want to fix issues with a broad brush instead of doing the hard work and digging in to address all the details. Yes it is messy, but it’s proper. The right way to fix the density issue is a with small calculated steps depending on the complexity of each neighborhood. But Paul and council just want to flip a switch and make it all happen at once overnight. It just doesn’t work like that, and why nothing has been accomplished. There are no silver bullets.