I knew when Sally rolled into office for a second term with his anti-electric agenda, the war on e-bikes would begin. The industry was already collapsing on itself since most of them came about during Covid and once fat lazy Americans could go back to driving cars to work, their bikes are collecting dust or are sitting at a pawn shop. In fact you can buy non-used older models for about 1/3 of what they cost new. There have been tons of regs passed across the country that have really killed sales. Many states either limit throttling to a certain speed OR it is NOT allowed. A lot of the newer bikes have PAS only, that means you only get assistance while pedaling and have no throttle only pedal activated motor. This means slower starts and since an e-bike is really a motorcycle when you are NOT pedaling and only throttling is probably the reason states have limited throttling. Which I totally understand. I hardly use my throttle except to push off, while riding I can maintain speeds depending on my pedaling cadence and PAS level. I can max out at about 14 MPH in PAS 1 and 33+ MPH in PAS 5, all controlled by my pedaling and no throttle. Believe it or not, I like the exercise. If you bought an e-bike to ride like a motorcycle, go buy a motorcycle and get off the trails.
New Jersey went a step farther and put age restrictions on the bikes. You will also have to have a valid driver’s license or equivalent for an e-bike (you will be able to get an e-bike license if you CAN’T get a car license) and you will have to carry insurance.
The reasoning is that a lot of teens are getting killed in NJ on E-Bikes. OK. So how do any of these laws fix that? The age restrictions, sure, I don’t take issue with that. But the other crap? Really? This just sounds like a scam by the insurance companies to expand into another market. They look at these as motorcycles, and they are, IF they have a throttle, but if they don’t they are simply a bike with a battery. Personally I think the industry should stop putting throttles on them.
It angers me, not only the license and registration part, but the insurance grab. The original reason I bought an e-bike was to lose weight, and it worked! But in that process I realized that an e-bike is so functional and multi-purpose that I use it for everything. I also like that I don’t have to put any gas in it. I do spend a lot on maintenance. In fact 3x more than on my car a year, but I love the freedom. Now days when I leave the house, the only decision I have to make is ‘which bike do I ride today?’ depending on the weather.
I think it would be a f’ing travesty if they started requiring e-bikes to be registered with the state, I will revolt like a MOFO! There has been talk of this over the past couple of years and I have convinced moderate Republicans to hold the line on it, and so far they have held back the goons both on the left and the right, but I think the MAGA steam is a building, so we need to watch this.
It is also a kick in the nuts to the guy who is just trying to get back on his feet out of prison, and was able to pick up a decent ride at a pawn shop, and the next thing he knows he needs a DL to ride this thing* and he can’t get one because he just spent 3 years in the penn for 6 DUI’s. When we talk about re-offenders in Sioux Falls, this kind of crap contributes to it.
*I also find it funny to think they can police this. They already make throttle e-bikes now with hidden batteries and even motors. Some even have cruise control (mine does) so the throttle can be hidden in the app.
If any of these hair brain ideas pass in SD, it certainly won’t make our lives better. I would agree that throttles are BAD if you don’t know how to use them and maybe there should be age restrictions, but all that other crap, no way. Maybe another idea would be requiring all e-bike shops to offer a FREE one-hour class once a month on e-bike safety. Oh, and it would be nice if I could buy full coverage insurance for my e-bike, but right now, I can’t find it. So there you have that.
UPDATE: So DN decided to do another story about the Data Center, and they got it right this time;
The issue is what could happen to this land. Two items were decided for a data center. The vote to approve rezoning for the land paves the way for the data center. In another item, the preliminary plan for the gemini addition was originally voted down, then reconsidered, and passed with another vote.
See, when you actually WATCH the meeting, you see what happened, but the headline was misleading;
Out of order: attendees react to city council vote on data center
The only people out of order at that meeting was the city council for approving this and the TV media who didn’t even bother covering this. I also noticed the city has been telling the media this;
A spokesperson for the city says proper and legal protocol was followed.
Who is this ‘spokesperson’? The janitor at Carnegie Hall? I think it is funny that the city attorney can’t even be honest about being a source. Loser. Sure the law was followed, but it was fast tracked. This land should NOT have been annexed for another 16 years! And it gets done in a matter of months. Was it legal? Sure. But it sure is shaky as HELL and someone with deep pockets and lawyer friends could challenge this. And before the 1st reading I also questioned the legality of the compatibility study;
Notice it says N/A. That means there is no legal grounds to pass this. NONE! ZILCH! ZERO!
Reminds me of a fight at Carnegie in 2015 when they had an opportunity to approve a solar farm in this same area and at that time it was in the joint jurisdiction area and NOT annexed into the city. There was a huge pissing match about it between council and commissioners. It would have failed by ONE vote anyway, even if the city wasn’t involved because tie votes with the commission results in a failure. I think about this, because right now we could be enjoying electricity from this plot of land instead of sucking juice. Such a huge missed opportunity. At the time there were all these promises about building houses in that area and that is why they opposed it. Never happened, now we are facing a data farm.
I often tell folks that local politicians are HORRIBLE at predicting the future.
There is also a rumor swirling that more land adjacent to this site is being bought up to build an even bigger data farm. Folks are checking into this. If true it means the developer of this project hasn’t been honest with the public about expansion. I know shocker. Ironically he probably wanted to tell the public but maybe his bodyguard talked him out of it. Yes, the developer of the project had a bodyguard following him around at the meeting. That should tell you what kind of person this is. If you have to hire a bodyguard to go to a public meeting, it is pretty obvious what you do for a living 🙂 Chew on that one!
In other news, I may be bringing back the DaCola podcast. I may be recording a PILOT with some other podcasters in the coming weeks about the upcoming city election. Wish me luck. They built a studio so the podcast will also have video and posted on YouTube. If I told you who built the studio, you wouldn’t believe me 🙂
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I think it is time to recall them.
There is a discussion going on in the background (I am NOT involved) about doing a petition drive to overturn this, which is good. But getting 8K sigs in 20 days is a heavy lift that will take hundreds of volunteers, BUT, if they decided to do this, they should circulate multiple petitions, you are out there collecting anyway so here they are;
• Revoke the annexation of the Data Center land
• Revoke the rezone
• Revoke the site plan
• A recall petition on every city councilor and mayor
I think on the last one we have 90 days to collect.
It is time to send a message to the city’s elected officials, you are not doing your job and actually hurting citizens personal finances. It is one thing that they are getting bad advice from the city attorney but the corruption is overwhelming. Transparency could fix this crap overnight but they are so deep in the chamber honey wagon that will never happen. And when a city government can’t function and is corrupt it needs to be booted from office. I think it would be hilarious to see two of the councilors get voted out of office that never received one single vote to get in that office. Poetic justice.
And let’s talk about the corruption, like annexing land just so a data center could be built, this was in the works for months and the council knew it. Or when councilor Spellerberg recused himself on Tre after voting on all the other items related to it. HUGE ETHICAL violation, but the rest of the council just turned the other way. Or when Marshall Selberg perjured campaign finance forms and was ILLEGALLY living out of his district for a year!!!! They didn’t do a damn thing and now he is running for Mayor (we know how this will end for the Harford resident). I even was working with them on some code enforcement solutions and getting all public meetings on YouTube. And they just ignored me after I offered suggestions. This council and mayor have no interest in representing us, so it is time for them to go and they can go serve on the Chamber board where they belong.
WHY IS TRANSPARENCY AND CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IMPORTANT?
This is the thing that bothers me the most about the council. Sure they do a ton of corrupt deals that grease their own wheels, but that is typical small town politics, it is the lack of transparency that fuels this corruption. The council knows they can’t be honest with the public because they would see all the backroom deals they are doing, and that scares them to death!!! I will give you a couple of recent examples of the council and city employees purposely covering up data in surveys so the citizenry doesn’t see how bad it is.
I filled out a copy of the Citizen Community Survey. I had one mailed to me, so I was a part of the scientific portion of the survey. They did another one online that anyone can take. I think they sent out around 4k surveys and had about 300+ respondents which is a pretty good percentage. I have been reading the final results of the surveys for the past 20 years. The city usually posts the reports online. This year was different. The comment section was missing. In the past they usually print some of the comments, positive and negative. This tells me most if not all were negative so they pulled them from the survey. I contacted the massive polling company that did the survey and requested the comment section. They have been giving me the runaround because they think I’m going to use the data nefariously. Nope, just gonna post it on my site. I told them 3 times in an email that I am a citizen of SF who took the survey and paid for the survey and I would like to have a copy of the comments. Still no response. In my last email I told them I was just going to contact management. I will get those comments 🙂
Another example is the missing survey files for the future of Frank Olson Park. I guess most surveyed said while they would like a new pool at Frank Olson, nobody wanted a bond (they said just pull from reserves) but instead the council bonded it even though the neighborhood was opposed, you know, like buying an old rec center that no one wanted. As I have said in the past, the bonding companies and contractors in town throw a bonding number at the city each year and makes them find a project to fit the dollar amount they want. They don’t care what it is. So the city conveniently hides surveys that paint a different picture. Don’t believe me, look at the budgets for the past 16 years, there is always a bond in there or a couple of projects we don’t need. Nobody wanted a rec center at Frank Olson except the bonding companies. And the survey says . . . .
Also, remember the GIFT of $1 Million from the Kirbys? At the presser the parks director said they could not spend the money to offset the bond. Guess why that is? Because the way the bond ordinance is written is that they cannot spend less then what the bond is only more, usually thru change orders. So basically the Kirby’s will be covering the cost of a nice sign and change orders. Thank you. But would they ever tell the public that bonds are not flexible? Why do you think we were forced to build the bunker ramp? We were bound by contract in the bond. We could have lawyered up and paid some fines and got out of it, but that would have required our mayor having something between his legs besides a fanny pack.
OUR LOCAL TV MEDIA IS IN THE BAG WITH THE CITY
After my rant last night at the city council meeting about our mentally challenged TV media I expected a story about the Data Centers, except they didn’t have anyone at the meeting, that was obvious when you read this sentence in the DN story this morning;
When the meeting resumed, a few votes had changed, but it was not enough to keep the measure from being approved.
LOL. Um, that is NOT what happened, but OK poli-sci major!
Notice I call it Falls Park and not THE FALLS. The first thing the next mayor needs to do is take down that stupid looking 1982 jacket vest colored sign and replace if with a new quartzite sign that says ‘Falls Park’. So if any future mayors try to do the same thing, it will be a little bit harder to replace. I still don’t know how a mayor can just make that decision on his own with executive authority? That should have gone thru public hearings with the naming committee, historic board, the parks board, the planning commission, the rubberstamp arts commission and a vote of the city council. Heck, the next mayor needs to do just that to get it changed back! So much corruption at city hall. When I bitched to someone about this who works at city hall they kind of said to me like ‘Who cares.’ and I was like, ‘How would you like it if he renamed Fawick Park, Sanford Park and replaced David with that goofy Happy Chef looking statue that sits on the Sanford campus.’ They had a change of heart.
LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL WE COULD MAKE FALLS PARK WITHOUT SPENDING MUCH ON PERMANENT INFRASTRUCTURE
If you have ever been to the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC, Canada, you know what I am talking about. It is one of the gems of this coastal city. When I lived in the Pacific Northwest I made a couple of trips to Victoria (before 9/11 so all you needed was an ID to enter the country and empty your pockets before getting on the ferry. I saw them make an old lady cry because she couldn’t take her peaches with her. The attendant was like, ‘Mam, this is a 45 minute ride and there is a huge food court at the dock’.) Victoria is on a peninsula thingy so driving there is a pain in the ass, so peeps drive from Seattle to Port Angeles and take a 45 minute cruise in open ocean. I tell you this because we came back on high tide once and I was as green as cucumber.
Internationally renowned, the 55-acre display garden located near Victoria, British Columbia was created in 1904 by Jennie Butchart. Still privately owned and operated by family descendants, The Gardens is a National Historic Site of Canada. Open every day of the year, welcoming over one million visitors annually.
You just get lost in there. I would recommend the city fund a trip so a councilor, parks manager and parks board member can go see this in person. We could do this at Falls Park using native flowers and grasses and really turn Falls Park into a nature wonderland instead of a Six Flags.
There is also a bigger idea in all of this. If you read the Buchart website you will notice it is privately owned with volunteers. You could get corporate sponsorship’s for the garden beds at Falls Park that could pay for the little maintenance they will need or even have a team of volunteers. If the Pavilion can use volunteers to operate it’s Great Hall, then why can’t the city have volunteers maintain Falls Park?
There are so many opportunities to bring in the community on this and make it the talk of the midwest, but if contractors in this town don’t get a contract every 5 minutes to poor concrete over our parks, they get nervous and city hall folds like a cheap suit.
The new bike trail spur from Falls Park to Bahnson has basically been open, but they don’t plow it. They barely finished it before winter set in, so there really hasn’t been an unveiling but it is completed. Before the project was even finished this Fall this rock showed up. I found it funny that they had to make sure the sponsor rock was there before anything else. Pathetic.
Notice it is Broin, you know, the folks involved with Tre (Lyre) Ministries. I still think there is a ton of corruption going on with that project, but I just can’t finger it. But I am working on it. Ethanol is a scam, probably bigger then bottled water.
I am just seriously asking. I have never looked on the city website because I would assume if the plan exists it would be available. I was thinking about this over the summer. I started a new thing this year where I would ride the entire bike trail, 30 miles every Saturday and Sunday morning. I liked to start 30 minutes before sunup. What amazed me was not only the different kinds of wildlife I saw but the sheer volume of some of some of the species. I have seen coyotes, foxes, black squirrels, wild turkey flocks and deer herds, bald eagles and hawks, possums, beavers, coons . . . you get the picture.
I know they use air cannons at the airport and in the past the SFPD gets a permit I think from the state to shoot deer in certain areas in town. But what about other wildlife? I saw a flock of geese last weekend behind Smithfields that when they took flight from the banks of the river the sky turned black, no lie. I guess my concern is when does this wildlife become a nuisance? I am all for wildlife in town and it is what makes our city parks attractive (now if we can add a fruit tree park!) But I think it is time the city brings in the game fish and parks and does a headcount of the wildlife in Sioux Falls and recommend mitigation. Of course, this is a post for the next mayor and council because the current administration acts like Trump at a cabinet meeting. ZZZZZZZZZZZ!
l3wis 
