After the Bonus Round bar closed by my house a new owner took over the Cliff avenue establishment. They went through the normal process of applying for a license. They were going to be a casino with off-sale beer. The next thing I know the place closes after just a few weeks and re-opens with no video lottery and only a walk up counter to buy small plastic package liquor and beer (they also sell vape products).
A city councilor told me that since they already approved the alcohol use the business owner can change that use however they want to.
While you would think I would welcome a liquor store in my backyard it’s a little more complicated then that.
The Get N’ Go at 14th and Cliff suddenly closed on May 1st. They sold the single malt beverage cans. Essentially the closure is pushing the alcohol sales to this liquor store.
I think in the future if an alcohol establishment presents a business plan to the council when applying for a license they should have to stick to that business model for at least 12 months or self-termination of the license.
Isn’t it ironic all the tears shed over MJ yet getting alcohol in this city is a walk in the park.
UPDATE: A South DaCola foot soldier sent me this information about a story he read in the St. Cloud local paper;
One of the highlights I picked up in a quick scan – the original fixed route service which was replaced had a ridership of 5 riders per hour. At the conclusion of the trial period (in late Dec 2019?), ridership for the On Demand version was 1/2 of the previous – 2.5 riders per hour.
Nonetheless, at that time, they continued the trial period in order to see if a different period of the calendar would yield different results.
Didn’t read/scan beyond that, but would surmise that they continued the trial, COVID-19 emerged (which wasn’t kind to public transportation of any type) and they finally decided, post COVID-19, that the On Demand model wasn’t working.
A temporary bus service in Sartell is coming to an end and a fixed route will replace the shared-ride service.
Metro Bus is sunsetting the ConneX on-demand service and resuming Fixed Route 32 starting on Sunday.
The pilot project was started in 2019 and extended several times before the decision was made to go back to the fixed route system for Sartell.
I tried to find some articles why they decided to ‘sunset’ the program but couldn’t really find anything (links are welcome in the comment section). My educated guess is that On Demand Transit doesn’t work well, isn’t efficient and leaves a lot of riders out of the equation.
The Sioux Falls City Council really needs to strap in and take a very active role in fixing our transit system in Sioux Falls. First call I would make as a councilor is to a city official with St. Cloud.
Besides the lack of open government and transparency the authoritarians running this city went full dictator tonight and shut off the audio of two public inputers (fast forward to the Lucky Lady Casino public input. During Sierra’s testimony, Pettigrew Neighborhood Association president, the last minute was shut off and the first minute of the next inputer. This wasn’t just shutting off the public input microphone, but the entire room was silent.
I’m not a videographer, but it was pretty obvious this was probably done intentionally and NOT a technical glitch.
UPDATE: The latest from the city is that someone ‘accidentally’ hit the button. I guess my question is who ‘accidentally’ turned the button back on 🙂
I noticed a few weeks ago that when David Z was giving one of his usual public inputs with his printed out slides that they did not show the slides in the video. Maybe that was a dry run?
This isn’t just an open meetings violation, BUT a clear violation of the 1st Amendment. Unless an inputer is cussing like a sailor or threatening elected officials, they have the right to say whatever they want to. The public doesn’t have to follow the decorum rules, even though they should, those rules are for those on the dais.
When local governments start censoring their citizens at public meetings we have serious issues with who is governing us.
UPDATE: MAYOR TENHAKEN ADMONISHES LEGACY DEVELOPMENT
During the debate over the casino issues last night Paul admonished Legacy Development for NOT selling the troubled property to the city three years ago when he met with them privately to buy the property.
I was told about the meeting three years ago, and from talking to a couple of different sources it seemed believable. I told a couple of different reporters with NO followup. I guess if you want to get the news around here you have to wait 3 years for the mayor to tell us about it.
My concern wasn’t the failed deal, my concern than and now is that the city should get out of the land speculation business and he shouldn’t be cutting real estate deals behind closed doors without the council being at the table.
The irony of this is that the city has plenty of ordinances and regulations on the books to take care of this property, they just have to stop deferring and start acting. Last night’s decision was easy. Apply the laws you currently have on the books to stop the short term problems and create a long term solution to the neighborhood problems.
YOU CAN DO BOTH AT THE SAME TIME!
I think one of the reasons the state isn’t building their one-stop facility DTSF is because they want to move those kind of services away from downtown.
Picture below was taken right after the city council meeting last night.
There has been some chatter over the past couple of days that people will be speaking tonight at the council meeting over some controversial items. First is Item #110;
The purpose of this application is to allow the development of an institutional use over two stories tall.
This is a rezone to build the new state offices in a consolidated area next to Dawley Farm on the east side;
Advocates, The state plans to consolidate its various services into a “One-Stop” location. That’s a fine idea, but the location is highly problematic: the far east side of town, far from the city center, far from other services people need. Here’s a KELO article on this:https://www.keloland.com/keloland-com-original/lawmaker-concerned-with-sioux-falls-one-stop-location/ Sure, it’s move by the state, but our City Council cares about quality-of-life situations for the people of our city. At their meeting tomorrow(Tue) at 6pm, they can make the state take another look for the One-Stop location by not accepting the zoning change. YOU can weigh in by (1) Coming to City Council meeting, 235 West Tenth St. and/or (2) Contacting city council members:
Obviously the new location also has issues with public transit.
The 2nd item has to do with alcohol licensing of a Lucky Lady’s Casino on the Loop that has been very troublesome. Item #19, Exhibit B on the consent agenda, MG Oil, Lucky Lady 1 & 2. I am of the understanding that between 4-6 councilors support pulling the licenses due to being a public nuisance. The council can reject a license based on suitable owner and suitable location.
The administration has been busy pushing it’s agenda onto the city council just waiting for their rubberstamp approval;
The new zoning districts, referred to as “midtown mixed use,” are specifically aimed at increasing population density and walkability in fitting parts of the city. An ordinance that would introduce them into the city’s zoning options passed to a second reading unanimously Tuesday.
They range from three-to four-story buildings that could fit near single-family homes to seven- to 10-story buildings that could only be built along some of the city’s busiest streets, or perhaps a whole city block.
Councilor Rich Merkouris said increases in this type of zoning could hopefully be accompanied with improvements to the city’s transit system, and Councilor Greg Neitzert said bicycles should be taken into account while sidewalks and roads around the buildings are developed.
With most proposed city ordinances, the devil is in the details.
I support building density and finally cleaning up corridors like Minnesota Avenue, but I’m starting to get the feeling this will be more like the old Westerns with the fake main street facades. We can clean up the curb appeal of Minnesota Avenue all we want but it is what is behind the street that concerns me more.
When cleaning up neighborhoods it starts with the lowest rung on the latter, that means a total overhaul of our core neighborhoods FIRST then we can concentrate on the window dressing.
And Rich and Greg are correct, there are many other issues we must solve first in our core before dreaming about moving next door to George Jefferson in the high rise with an awesome view of the Pita Pit roof.
Of course Wealthy Welfare Developer Queens have their prince on the council;
And Councilor Alex Jensen said there would need to be incentives to make the zoning appealing, saying it was easy to go buy land on the outskirts of the city for a one-story project, if the location made sense. Convincing that hypothetical landowner to get into the core of the city could take some extra work.
Which means tax rebates and TIFs. Ironically there is a natural incentive to those who actually play the FREE market system fairly, instead of waiting for government handouts, you get to build 5 to 10x the square footage on the same plot of land in the core as opposed to a cornfield next to Brandon.
Besides transit and walkability I also have other concerns about transitioning these buildings from well established core neighborhoods. So does councilor Soehl;
“If Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been living in their house for 40 years and now we’re gonna put a seven-story building in the same city block, explain to me how you’re gonna alleviate the city council from making that hard decision,” Soehl said. “Because it’s gonna end up with us. The complaints, the packed room, it’s gonna end up here to make those hard decisions.”
Once again councilor Soehl is choosing to take the safe and easy road and wanting to throw out the entire proposal based on the fact he may have to make a decision. This kind of zoning WILL require a case by case basis review and approval. DUH! What works well at 18th and Minnesota may not work at 33rd and Minnesota, I think the public and developers get that.
Building density is always a good idea, this is NOT complicated.
l3wis 
