Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
I guess this is what JC said about transparency, and it’s good. JC really was the Dale Carnegie of 2,000 years ago!
This brings us to the former historic gas station and pot shop corporate headquarters on 18th and Minnesota, you know, the location of really expensive groceries and a employee discriminatory sandwich shop and who can forget the vape shop turned Noem campaign headquarters or the low class windshield shop where workers yell at me like cavemen when I ride my bike thru the parking lot.
Tre has changed plans many times with historic designations, running out of investors and now with a street closure and redevelopment plan that includes an office building on a residential street. Huh?
Originally we were told the city was giving them an interest free deferred loan (doesn’t have to be paid back), which would be awful. I believe the Planning Commission did approve it but I get lost with the council, which I think approved it also. But then it was revealed that Tre paid for it themselves (FF: 1:41:00). So was the council aware of this? If so, when were they going to tell the public? How does an approval process happen then behind the scenes another arrangement is made? If a demo contract needs to be canceled, the council MUST approve that cancellation in a public meeting. There are many shady levels to this project including a city councilor intimately involved with the project (maybe financially) not recusing themself from the discussion, which is an ethics violation even if HE is NOT involved in the final vote.
This administration is playing fast and loose with the law, but hey, look at the leader of the party, 50 shades of orange.
The CRC meets on Wednesday to discuss the 1st Chapter of the Charter. Zitterich is presenting a council commission to study the size and makeup of districts, which I support. If the CRC approves this, which I think they will, it go on the ballot for the June election and voters will be asked if they support forming such a commission.
The council will also reconsider the rezone of Tre Ministries project. This of course is the project that got the city to pay for a $500K demo job (no loan was given, we paid for it out of Public Works funds) and they lied about the investors. This is a bad idea all the way the around. I told someone from that neighborhood this was about the ‘credibility’ of the developer and a rezone can be denied because of that. I told this person I heard that Tre was changing it’s name to Lyre Ministries, it has a more Old Testament feel to it 🙂
I have to admit that some people have some strange business ideas. There was a business that closed by my house about a year ago and finally someone started leasing the retail space. It is a Bong and Gardening supply store. I looked at some of the ‘gardening supplies’. Let’s just say you could grow some killer indoor hydro toms, but I have never tried to smoke tomatoes in a bong.
I have seen many exhibits of Wright’s furniture and visited his original home in Chicago a few years back and walked the neighborhood and looked at the exterior of the 16 homes he designed in that hood. After reading this article, I really struggled to see the influence of Wright. The main thing that stood out was the lack of woodwork. Wright had a knack of combining different types of wood to create an affect on a wall or floor. He was a master at it. I don’t see any of that in this home. Even the lines are lacking. Wright liked low ceilings unless in a specific room that required studio space. He even built a loft viewing gallery in his living room! The woodwork in his original home is very valuable and original and the staff is adamant about NOT touching any of the wood surfaces and staying on rug paths. My friend got his ass reamed after leaning against the dining room wall. I can see some architectural elements in the home that ‘pluck’ some Wright ideas, but I really don’t see the influence. I tell people my home is a museum of bad taste, and is influenced by Ed Roth, though Rat Fink may disagree.
As you can see from the PC’s website, they are supposed to have 9 members in attendance with one of them being non-voting (chair). They haven’t had a full house for YEARS! They have been warned about it by me personally and the council. I told a councilor last week when the agenda came out to look at all the rezones, all approved by 3 votes. He must have spread the news to his fellow councilors because Curt brought it up during the council meeting. He asked how they can approve something with 3 votes? Jason, from the planning office, who will lie to no end (Don Kearney must be mentoring him) said some had to recuse themselves and it was all consent agenda. It wasn’t, and why are we having planning members with conflicts? I know this is a volunteer position, but if you can’t attend the ONE meeting a month or you have multiple conflicts, maybe you should NOT take the position or resign. I would love to sit on the Planning Commission as a regular person not a business/developer/architect insider, as it currently is. If I was the city council, I would reject ANY recommendations from the PC unless it has at least 7 votes of approval, if not, send it back to the commission the next month. Trust me, if you do this a couple of times, developers and contractors will be LIVID and my guess is attendance would improve.
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.
l3wis 
