Undaunted Podcast: Ep 2
l3wis We went on a wild ride about city political history.
2026
More lies from the Noem
I was watching a segment tonight about Noem and the 2nd Amendment and comments she made in her book;
Like most stuff in the book, total BS. I will confess I didn’t read the book, because ghost written books by politicians is usually boring and conflated, and I know all I need to know about Noem. But I found the above statement hilarious because it couldn’t be farther from the truth.
I participated in the BLM rally, I walked for a couple hours downtown but didn’t follow the protest to the Mall where a couple of latch key kids threw some pebbles at the police. Never saw a single biker all day. There was a motorcycle gang in Sioux Falls, but they weren’t the kind of gang that you want showing up to a BLM rally to protect police. I saw about a dozen of them hanging out DTSF the day before wearing their colors and jackets. They seem to be focused on drinking beer and not protecting police. They were a chapter of major criminal gang. There is also a rumor circulating that this gang was actually in town to commit burglaries during the protests. That one has been hard to prove since there is NO transparency in the police department. I also remember a flyer circulating on Facebook that a school bus full of Anti-Fa was coming from Fargo. That was pretty funny and surprised Noem didn’t reference it in the book. The day was beautiful and full of love. Like I said, I never made it to the mall, but the time I participated it was peaceful. There was NO bikers and NO anti-fa at the rally. The only problem was a couple of 8 year old boys that were bored at the mall, but that doesn’t make for an interesting narrative.
National Community Survey; ADDRESS HOMELESSNESS
I have received the comments from the NCS. The city provided them. I have to reformat them before I post, but after a quick review I was surprised by how many people commented about the transient problem DTSF, this is just one of many;
I am not typically insensitive to such things or unthoughtful about the words I choose but it must be said. Bums have taken over downtown. I have lived here most of my 41 years and have not seen anything like it before. Covid hit and it’s like we now tolerate vagrancy. Even as folks are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into making this the showpiece of our city, we are just overrun with bums. Sure there’s mental health and addiction issues but a lot of it is just bums. I saw someone sleeping on Phillips Ave in front of the old Visnu Bunny space at 9am on a weekday. Why do they feel comfortable doing that? There should be a multi-pronged effort to squash this immediately. Make laws that empower police to push back against panhandling. Offer transients bus tickets to leave the city. Put constant pressure on those who haunt DT and litter and generally degrade our quality of life. Why would the behavior of a couple hundred people be allowed to ruin the heart of a city that hundreds of thousands of people.
A multi-prong approach would require multiple agencies working together within the city. I know, laughable.
Not a lot of solutions offered but it was most certainly the NUMBER one topic in the comment section.
Some colors do run
UPDATE II: Data Center Petitions Due
Wednesday, January 28
12:00 PM – 7:00 PM
The Painted Lady (HQ)
We’re in the home stretch of the Let Sioux Falls Vote petition campaign and need your help with a critical task: validating petition signatures.
What we’re doing:
As petition sheets come in, we need volunteers to verify that signatures match voter registration records. You’ll look up voter information on the Secretary of State’s website and confirm addresses and details are accurate. This verification work is essential to ensure our petition has the strongest possible validity rate when we submit to the city.
What you need:
Bring your laptop or computer. If you have an extra device you can share, even better. The work is straightforward and we’ll show you exactly what to do.
Why this matters:
The city will likely challenge this petition. Every signature we validate correctly strengthens our case and demonstrates that Sioux Falls voters want this on the ballot. We need as many validators as possible to process the incoming sheets efficiently.
Other ways to help:
We also need people at the front desk to assist circulators dropping off sheets, notaries for extended coverage, and drive-up team members to help with traffic flow.
Can you give us a few hours tomorrow? This is how we get across the finish line.
Questions? Comment below or stop by.
UPDATE: Love this video of Chris with Jordan. The irony is I disagree with both of them on politics, but they are spot on about the petition drive! Thank YOU! Hey Chris, I need a new bed, can we work something out 🙂
I also found this interview with ‘Hot Wings Ryan’ skeptical;
“We’re excited to see people pay attention to what’s happening in Sioux Falls. But I think there was a lot of misinformation there,” said Ryan Spellerberg, a city councilor.
YES! And it all of that misinformation is coming from the city.
Let Sioux Falls Vote will be collecting circulator sheets starting tomorrow with a deadline of Thursday to turn in the petitions. I have no idea how many sigs they have, because they decided to collect signatures in what I call the ‘chaos’ style. Now, this is NOT bad, just chaotic because you are depending on hundreds of volunteers (not paid circulators) to collect the sigs for you and you come in at the end with the booty. If I had to guess, they have the sigs, maybe more, but there is NO way of knowing until Thursday. All that aside, even if they don’t make the mark, this petition drive has united many folks across the political landscape. Dems, Repubs, Indies and all stripes are working together on this. With all the horrible political division going on in this country, it makes me smile that EVERYONE in the community is working on this together, and it is what I envisioned anyway; CITIZENS UNITED AGAINST A CORRUPT CITY GOVERNMENT And even if they get the valid sigs, the city and developer will likely challenge in court; language, active voters, etc. It will be a sh!t show. But let’s pretend for a moment this makes it to the June ballot, the rezone will go down 70/30. And even if the petition drive isn’t successful, it will reveal the true colors of our city government, and that sends the best message.
I also want people to know Sam Scarlata who is organizing the petition drive is also running for At-Large City Council against the incumbent Rich Merkouris. We may not be able to kill the Data Center, but we can kill his council seat! I want Sam to know, there is a grassroots network in this town that will destroy the Matt Paulson money machine, we are going to change city hall in June, and I mean it this time 🙂
Speaking of the Developer Welfare Queens, I was awaiting Jodi’s article defending the grifter class in Sioux Falls with all the Data Center resistance;
Rapid City voters last week made a clear statement about the guardrails they believe should exist around tax increment financing. Without delving too deep, Rapid City also historically has used tax increment financing to fund growth in ways that fundamentally are different from Sioux Falls.
Sioux Falls generally has taken what I would call a conservative approach with structuring TIFs, focusing on some of the most basic qualifying costs allowed under state law: things like site preparation, infrastructure and parking. I can point to numerous downtown redevelopment projects that would not exist at the scale they do or exist at all without this economic development tool. They have done what they were intended to do: driven additional economic activity well beyond the increment in property tax growth they were able to use to support their projects.
This statement is on it’s head. Rapid City has actually used TIFs more, but for smaller infrastructure and housing projects, that is why the Libertyland TIF was so ridiculous to RC voters. Sioux Falls has NOT used them CONSERVATIVELY. Massive tax breaks for parking ramps ($100 MILLION) that mostly residents of the expensive condos use, which drive up our personal property taxes and forces residents across the state to fund our school district with sales tax revenue. In other words when the SF city council gives a TIF (property tax break) the school district has to make up that property tax revenue from state sales tax collection. So when you buy a loaf of bread in Milbank you are funding the tax cut for millionaire condos in Sioux Falls. I know, not fair. At all.
Economic development incentives aren’t giveaways. They’re more like investments.
I would agree 100%. When we use tax dollars to fight a fire, build a road or give us clean drinking water, that is an INVESTMENT, in EVERYONE. When we give that to rich developers that just creates a wealth gap and raises taxes on the rest of us. If anything it is a DI-VESTMENT in our citizens.
Every time I hear a journalist or some other talking head talk about the benefits of TIFs, I ask the same question, ‘What is the benefit to the average tax payer?’ I usually get crickets and the reason there has never been an independent state or city audit of TIFs is because there is NO benefit, and they know it. TIFs are really the emperor with no clothes.
If TIFs really work, why not an audit?
I hope Jodi had a nice dinner from the revenue she made from this article, because you are the only one benefiting from TIFs. Just sayin.’