As you know, I have been after the city for almost 20 years to take out this property. Finally saw some progress when they tore down the recycling center, the liquor store and a gutted house. I fully expected them to tear down the other two properties (abandoned houses) but they gave the property owner another chance to make amends, as you can see, it was a bad idea.
Instead of replacing the basement windows, he put concrete block in the sills, then he decided to paint the house without fixing the soffit or siding and it has sat like this for a couple of weeks. There is also old tractors parked in the backyard and the privacy fence has fallen over. And while he may eventually get the house to look better on the outside, the inside is totally destroyed with massive water and fire damage. In other words it would take a lot of $$$ to fix the interior, so basically the city is allowing a property owner to fix the exterior of a house when the inside remains unlivable. WHY!!!!!!!?????? Incompetence.
I know that the due dates for having the repairs completed passed this Spring, so I was surprised the city is NOT tearing down the properties. Funny how it took me 20 years, and only half was torn down, yet when a religious non-profit needs some demo or an old Sears building needs toppled the city has all kinds of money in public works to demo these buildings almost immediately. Crappy houses in low income neighborhoods are apparently not a priority.
Keep playing games, because when the new mayor is installed I will be in their face to bulldoze this property. You solved nothing in 20 years except kick a can down the road. Those houses will be demolished and I will make sure of it.
UPDATE: In a weird meeting where one of the Park’s managers apparently felt they needed to apologize to a board member for using the word BIKE instead of PEDESTRIAN we got to the bottom of what happened, this same manager confessed in a sheepish voice that ‘consultants’ came up with the detours. Well, that says it all. And why does the city use so many consultants when we have so much mid-management? Either have them do their job or get rid of them and stop depending on consultants and 6-figure managers who are glorified proofreaders. Speaking of bicycle and pedestrian safety in Sioux Falls, look at all the issues that have to be fixed, it’s like we have just ignored our pedestrian walkways for 20 years!
Typical of the city, talk about an issue after the fact. During the Active Transportation meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 8:30 AM at City Hall they will be discussing ‘Parks Trail Detour’. I hope commuters that were put off by the badly planned detours show up and express their displeasure on how this was handled. So you are going to discuss it after you failed? How about an apology so we can all move on.
SIOUX FALLS CITY COUNCIL CHAIR MERKOURIS LOVES TIFS!
During the budget hearing today Merkouris decided to put in his plug for TIFs and encouraging the state legislature to make the rules more lax to implement them. Here’s an idea Rich, how about throwing $50K at a public university so their economic department can study the ROI of TIFs in Sioux Falls. I have argued for years they would never do the study because it would reveal their ruse. Here’s your chance to prove me wrong 🙂
COUNCIL CHAIR STILL DOESN’T UNDERSTAND 1ST AMENDMENT
As the mayor stepped out early tonight for his annual jumping jack instructor dinner and charity auction, council chair Merkouris stepped in and struggled with his 1st Amendment knowledge. He cut off an inputer who dared to speak on a separate item already discussed. I’ll say it for the 1000th time; The chair of the meeting cannot cut you off for mere speech and the rules of the chamber only apply to those on the dais. The next time they try to cut you off, just ignore and keep talking. The entire council and mayor really need to take a course on the 1st Amendment, because they are clueless of the laws they swore to protect.
BIG HANDOUTS AGAIN TO DEVELOPERS
The city council agreed to lease parking for $1 a year to a stinky rich developer who didn’t plan for parking. That’s his problem and he can either pay a fair market value or forget about it. Jeffry Scherschligt the developer of Cherapa one and two decided he needed the parking because he is putting in a 20,000 square foot grocer. Kind of sounds like a for-profit business. So why would we give them a non-profit rate? Also, he claims he will do upgrades to the lot in exchange for the $1 a year. Better yet, give us receipts and we will reimburse you for the work thru deferred lease payments. Why on earth would we be giving it to them for nothing? Last I checked Jeff did this to make some money, so why aren’t we charging a going rate? Or better yet, he can buy the parcel and develop however he wants to. I have a feeling Jeff is doing this so he can secure the land once he has the money (I heard he is pretty stretched thin). Kind of hard to boot off a person who already did the improvements to the property, isn’t it? I wouldn’t even be surprised if he is angling to get the property for FREE in a few years. We have given this developer millions in tax payer upgrades to the river greenway, and here he is again at the trough, and we know why . . . he has no shame and the council rewards the welfare queens.
COUNCIL REZONES PROPERTY TO LIARS
So while the city won’t tear down the remaining properties on the MX Liquor lot, for gawd knows what reason, they have no problem spending $500K to demolish property for a religious non-profit who lied thru their teeth to get the demo money, and they reward the liars more by helping to cover up the lie by approving the rezone. They looked like a bunch of fools tonight, but that seems to be the typical theatre these days.
UPDATE:Item #14, I guess we figured out why the city hasn’t continued demolishing the MX Liquor property, looks like he owes some money;
This is silly, put a lien on the property if he doesn’t pay for demolition and when the property sells the city will get it’s money. That property is in an Opportunity ZONE and they could easily get over $1 million for it. It is prime property for apartments and with it being a OZ a developer could get gobs of Federal Tax breaks for building it. I would encourage the current owner to look for a buyer or find a developer and lease the property. The city can still demo the remaining properties even if he won’t pay right away, we will get the money on the back end, and they know it. Ironically, they gave $500K to demolish a couple of blocks for a religious non-profit that lied thru their teeth to get it done. I would suggest going after that money before we worry about a slumlord who simply refuses to pay (he has the money).
Item #23, While the Operations Committee meets on occasion (they meet tomorrow to talk about a separate issue) they are making changes to the operations manual without addressing it in a public meeting. One of the many changes is letting the Mayor appoint certain board members and employees without the consent of the council. Not sure why they are ceding more power to the mayor’s office, but it explains why they didn’t announce it to the public in a meeting before the council meeting.
Item #10, They are moving forward with 2nd reading of the ball field in Harrisburg sponsorship without a dollar amount attached to the sponsorship. I have asked several councilors and other involved ‘How much is the sponsorship?’ No answer. While I get that they may not have all the bids in to determine how much the upgrades will be, they CAN put a cap or a minimum on the sponsorship without having the actual costs. This is NOT being done. This is the first time I have seen a park sponsorship with NO DOLLAR amount of that sponsorship included. Tells me the sponsor is only paying for a sign and that’s about it, if NOT, prove me wrong, and give us a dollar amount at the 2nd reading. Not sure why this is so top secret?
Item #11, The city council is moving forward with the campground ordinance, not sure if it will pass, but I am sure they have at least 4 votes and the mayor’s tie to pass this. Once again the council is giving in to the SFPD instead of creating ordinances that require them to do their job. Just because someone is the Police Chief, appointed by the mayor, doesn’t mean they have all the solutions in solving homelessness and the council should take lightly any advice he may give in solving this problem. The council needs to implement policy (their only job) that forces the SFPD to fix this issue. If they don’t want to follow the new ordinances, show them the door.
Item #12, Oh, the irony of this funding;
This ordinance is to supplement for $8 million to procure motor graders (currently leasing) and $1.8 million in network technology equipment to build out the data center to ensure a reliable and redundant network.
So in order to save a couple million on snow removal we have to spend almost $10 million to take over the service. I sometimes wonder if the peeps making these decisions are mentally challenged. You will see snow removal becoming less effective and a lot slower, if at all. In order for drivers that work for the city’s public works department to plow streets they will have to work a lot of double shifts and overtime, and if we get a big storm, it will be virtually impossible for them to keep up or complete the job in a timely manner. It’s going to be a bad winter for snow removal because of this change, but not sure how it could get worse. Remember the current snow plow chief had over a 100 car accidents in one day because he had his de-icing crew on pothole duty while it was raining ice. Should have been fired due to the millions in insurance claims and damage that was incurred on this day last winter.
MX Liquor Property; This isn’t on the agenda because the city is being very secretive about it. I have asked people in public works, the city attorney’s office and the entire city council, ‘When will the remainder be demolished?’ The deadlines have passed and the properties look even worse then when this process started. So did the city drop the ball on this? Why are the properties still standing? When the next mayor is installed, and if those houses are still standing, I will approach them on day two of their job and get them to finish the job. I can’t believe it took 20 years and 3 different mayor’s to get this done, and the mayor doesn’t want to lay off any city employees because they are so valuable. LMFAO!
As you know I have been encouraging the city for over a decade to tear down the MX liquor property at 15th and Cliff. I was happy to hear they were finally moving forward. They tore down MX and an abandoned house but gave the property owner a couple more months to fix up the two remaining houses. He has done nothing, and the deadlines have passed and the houses still sit there rotting (literally).
On top of that, I have contacted 3 city councilors and someone at public works (demolition) about why these properties have NOT been demolished yet . . . crickets. Which tells me they plan to do nothing. And they wonder why I call them incompetent?
But it gets even better.
(Yes, the power pole is hanging at an angle with extremely heavy transformers on top)
One of my neighbors noticed that a tree in the backyard of one of the dump houses broke and landed on the garage and a power pole, bending the pole and some of the equipment on the pole (this pole provides power to Century Business Products). So my neighbor, being the good gent he is, called the non-emergency police line to tell them about it and his concern for a fire being sparked. So a couple of minutes later he was standing in his front yard and he saw a fire truck pull up, the driver pointed out the window, talked to the other firefighter for about a minute and drove off. My neighbor was called back and told that Excel and the SFFD can’t do anything because it is on private property. HUH? Excel OWNS the pole, not the private property owner. They have a thing called an easement.
It’s time to bulldoze these places before an electrical fire, or worse breaks out. But I am not holding my breath. I told my neighbor we may wake up one morning and the houses will have collapsed into the basements and it would take another 10 years before the city would come and clean it up. If you ain’t in the Jones neighborhood in Sioux Falls, yah don’t matter.
The troubled City View apartments are in receivership — and may be headed toward a sale.
According to the court documents, City View’s owner owes the bank nearly $750,000 for past due interest, taxes, and insurance. Management originally borrowed $16.5 million but owe about $18 million in total.
The bank asked a judge to step in and have a third party manage the property, which is what led to the receivership.
Court documents indicate the bank requested the receivership hoping to satablize the apartments operations. It has also started a process that could lead to the sale of the property.
This should have happened in Sioux Falls a year ago. But with our piss poor state laws on consumer protection (more like business protection) they just kind of sit on their hands. And if you are really doing something THEN TELL US!
l3wis 
