South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Downtown Sioux Falls

Downtown Sioux Falls Sioux Falls

RIP Wave Thingy

l3wis 4Comments

I saw the last vestige of these tonight. Drivers have successfully destroyed every single one of you. Before the haters start in, I supported painting the streets, I actually think the painted part should go all the way thru the intersection and should be a bright hazard orange with white stripes and even verbiage that says ‘CAUTION-PEDS’. But putting out devices that cost taxpayers money and destroy vehicles is a very bad idea. Do you think the city engineers learned anything? Doubtful.

Downtown Sioux Falls Sioux Falls

That’s some great advertising

l3wis 2Comments

So I have rode my bike past this place hundreds of times and it always makes me laugh that an engineering firm didn’t know how to put stones in the ground level and upright. Maybe it’s an artistic touch but me is guessing they just dropped them in the dirt without a concrete anchor. If they were a dentist office or brake shop, wouldn’t think much of it, but you are an engineering firm, this doesn’t bode a lot of confidence in your skills. Don’t let councilor Lucy Bayse know about it, she will write some silly ordinance.

Donita Trump Noem Downtown Sioux Falls Homeless Kristi Noem Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls Trump

Full of more crap than a Christmas goose

l3wis 8Comments

So I was thinking, maybe the solution to our goose problem is shipping them off to Springfield, Ohio? Just keep the residents away from our dog parks. Those folks would have a feeding frenzy. Oh, Donny, the stories you weave.

AND IT CONTINUES TO PILE ON

While a certain dynamic duo in town seems to have the governor on the run with her credit card statements I got a chuckle out of what this news organization(?) had to say about why they are doing it;

COMBATTING SECRECY AND IGNORANCE

That’s rich considering these two hid investor information from the public when applying to be the legal newspaper of Sioux Falls, oh, and got the unethical council and SOS’s office in on your scam. Government SECRECY!? You make me laugh. Also, how do you combat ignorance? Ignorance is the lack of knowledge on any particular topic. So is this paper going to make the public more aware of the corruption in Pierre with their 4,000 subscriptions? I’m dying! Hopefully you will figure out what hair and nail salons Noem has been visiting these days. The public is DYING to know, just don’t give them the info in a gravel pit.

SPECIAL CONTRACTS FOR SPECIAL PEEPS

Well it was like Christmas for certain ad agencies in town last Tuesday at the City Council meeting;

Councilor Ryan Spellerberg brought two separate amendments Tuesday night – both of which passed unanimously and with minimal council discussion. One allocated $150,000 for a marketing campaign to encourage the public to donate to charities rather than to panhandlers.

Yes Kids, instead of actually taking REAL capital and spending it on bus tickets to help get these folks home or a street outreach program that picks these folks up at night we are giving the money to well connected ad agencies to tell us to NOT give to these folks. Talk about government ignorance!

With the recent closure of the Sioux City warming shelter we are in deep doo doo this winter. Instead of finding ways to ignore these folks, maybe come up with a plan for this winter, like NOW! I hate to say it, but I have a feeling we are going to be reading about a lot of homeless tragedies this winter.

I heard next week the council is going to fund a marketing campaign called, “Nothing to see here, move along.” it will be for discouraging folks to come to public input and public meetings.

SPEAKING OF DEAD GEESE

Not sure this ties in, but I don’t care. The city wants to see the entire Delbridge Collection sold as a group. Like I said, could care less about a bunch of dusty monkeys in Lenin’s Tomb, but there is some historic and scientific value to the collection and we should save it. I think we are missing a massive opportunity here to build a very unique exhibit, but instead we have to make sure the Mayor and his friends make money building a convention center we don’t need. SHINY BALL, MUST TOUCH!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

County Commission David Barranco Downtown Sioux Falls Minnehaha County Property Taxes SF City Council Sioux Falls Taxes

Bikes, Bonds and Belittling

l3wis 8Comments

Not sure if you caught the above meeting, but it was a scorcher. While I would agree with Minnehaha County Commissioner Joe Kippley that Leah shouldn’t be fooling around with past elections, I don’t agree with him asking her to resign in public. He should have wrote her a letter, got a couple of his other commissioners on board and CC’d the media. It was extremely unprofessional, and the kicker is he is the health director for the city. Getting ‘political’, which was what his stunt was, is not the ethical standard I want my health director to be holding. If anything Joe should resign because of his conflicts, and I have a feeling he will AFTER the November election so they can appoint someone. More trickery. Oh, and the commission has allegedly been playing games with bond levies. More to come on that 🙁

COUNCIL KICKS THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD ON THE RIVERLINE DISTRICT

At the council meeting last night the council took the line item out of the 2025 budget and concocted a steering committee to study the purchase. While I’m happy they killed the line item, I am not happy they are continuing down the path which will ultimately have us buying the land. From talking to councilors I got the feeling they were just going to kill it and let the River Rats figure it out, but this must be the compromise. Folks, all this is, is smoke and mirrors by the council. They plan to implement a 3rd penny tax to have us paid for the Convention Center. This is short-sighted. They should implement a entertainment corporate tax on all business with 500 or more employees. If you think this place will have an economic impact on your businesses, prove it, pony up.

Oh, and Councilor Barranco was the ONLY councilor to vote against a property tax increase. Thank You David! That vote proved to me that at least 7 councilors don’t give a rat’s ass what economic position you are in, they need their play palaces!

E-BIKES HAVE INVADED DOWNTOWN

Not really, but some people seem to be butt hurt they are sitting around downtown. They are not junkers, so I am not sure what people are concerned about. Other cities do it this way. I think the only tweak I would make is having the bikes in a mobile unit so they are not scattered everywhere downtown, but like I said, there is a million other things we need to worry about downtown, and a random bike parked on a corner ain’t one of them.

WAS HARRIS DEBATING BIDEN LAST NIGHT?

After the first 10 minutes of the debate last night I thought Harris was debating Biden.

Downtown Sioux Falls Sioux Falls

Business Diversity Ordinance needs to be implemented Downtown Sioux Falls

l3wis 8Comments

As I have mentioned before, Downtown Fort Collins, CO was really transformed once they did a business diversity plan. Basically no two similar businesses can be on the same block on either side of the street. It’s really basic, you can have two restaurants or bars next to each other, but they must be different in concept, etc. What’s fascinating is DTFC has all kinds of business diversity; credit unions, chiropractors, dental offices, mortgage, you name it. It is also 4x the size of ours in walking accessibility. And here is the last comparison, Fort Collins climate and population is very similar. We can do this here.

It’s really an easy process. Basically DTSF as an org would hire a consultant to study the ordinance. The city council would fund the study and once completed, present to the council where they can make tweaks in a couple of public working sessions. After about 16 months you could pass the new ordinance. There of course would be a grandfather clause (basically if you are already established, you don’t have to leave, BUT any changes in lease agreements or closures the ordinance would be in effect.)

I started thinking about this more since Vishnu Bunny was forced out DTSF. I knew this would eventually happen since a small group of investors are buying up DTSF properties like mad and paying way over appraisal pushing the little dude out. I know several DTSF business owners who rent but would prefer to own their storefront. One of them told me, “We can secure the loan, we just can’t find anything available.” One of the problems is the joint venture between Tupy and Paulson and their development company they run out of a UPS store PO Box. They are literally buying all and any property DTSF which they will eventually transform.

Jeff Mann, the owner of Vishnu is a good guy. I should know, I helped him beat down the city and Mayor Huether at the time to get Vishnu DTSF. There was some clown, whose name we won’t mention, trying to influence the mayor to stop the venue and we went to the media. Huether had a change of heart and showed up to the opening in which I proceeded to explain genital piercings to him. His face was priceless. Either way, Mann has shown he was a staple of DTSF in which I participated in several art exhibits on First Fridays. We really are losing a gem.

Our downtown is turning into a dump because we don’t promote business diversity. I have almost boycotted every downtown business except one, because they promote business diversity. Maybe DTSF needs to have their next board meeting at Book Coop and learn a little about diversity.

Next Page »

You Missed

South Dakotans

Lying thru their effing teeth!

Sioux Falls

Now that’s a great response from a local philanthropist

Uncategorized

Sanford updates wellness patrons

Media thedakotascout.com

A Word of Advice to the Argus Counsel