Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

UPDATE II: Sioux Falls continues their ‘White Trash 4th’ festivities

UPDATE II: So a friend who used to live in Sioux Falls and still has businesses here sent me a suggestion after reading this post, he now lives in a suburb of Casper, WY;

Hey saw your article. They do something like that with the fireworks here in Glenrock, WY. It’s a $10 minimum donation to the fire department per car and they have two baseball fields where you wait in line and have like 6 stations each where you can shoot your fireworks and all the fire trucks are there. It’s a great event!

UPDATE: From cynicism comes relief. I am reminded, quite often (daily) that my cynicism is a problem, to which I reply, ‘If we lived in a perfect world, I wouldn’t be a cynic.’ So after posting this I have had tons of people reach out privately to me, at first I thot to scold me about not being woke about trashy people, but in fact, quite the opposite. People agree, pick up your trash, they also agree, even poor kids should be able to have fun. The solution? The city should designate a fireworks area for people who don’t have the property (or the legal right) to do it in the city limits. So you have a designated area. There have been tons of suggestions, but I suggested Sanford Sports Complex, because the parking lots and football fields would be well suited in case a fire broke out. You could also get a non-profit involved to raise money by having food trucks at the event, selling sparklers and snaps, etc. and putting out a message about their charity. They could also hand out garbage bags to event goers and afterwards volunteer to clean up. It could be a great community event and everyone would feel included instead doing the duck and run under the Burnside Bridge. Thank You! I love it when my cynicism leads to solutions, but doesn’t it always 🙂 Now if we can just get the knuckleheads at city hall to see the vision . . . nevermind, already feeding the leading mayoral candidate my ideas, because this one is out to lunch.

It doesn’t fail, every year after the 4th I am dodging empty fireworks containers on the bike trail, it has been this way since I can remember. The irony is the penalty for shooting off fireworks is less then littering, oh, and you are doing it all on taxpayer owned property. Skanky, trashy, lazy, pathetic clems. They do it in the same spot every year (right off of Burnside). Not one cop has driven by and witnessed this in 30 years? It’s one thing to use public land to shoot off fireworks illegally, but did you ever think about bringing a garbage bag and cleaning it up? Skanky, trashy, lazy, pathetic clems. This part bothers me the most. I’m okay with some trailer trash kids blowing things up once in awhile, but for Godsakes, why aren’t the parents making them clean this up? Because you know they are present, probably their idea. Skanky, trashy, lazy, pathetic clems. So next year, I want an undercover officer stationed under the Burnside bridge on the bike trail, and start handing out those tickets, mostly for littering. I know it would require an officer to leave their vehicle, and that can be a struggle, but just pretend you are getting a FREE 64 oz Fountain Mt. Dew at the C-Store (probably pissed they don’t have a drive thru.)

No Soup for You! Green space closed with little explanation.

I Southdacola foot soldier sent me this photo. I do have to commute to this area of town (36th and Sycamore) and have seen the signs. I guess I didn’t think much of it, maybe it is a conservation area? I am having a city councilor look into it, because this person also sent the picture to the council. This person has lived near this detention pond for over 30 years and told me the sign was put up recently after the city stopped mowing the area. They told me that when the city mowed it, kids would play soccer over there and fly kites or walk dogs. I guess they told me ‘it was being used.’ My assumption is it was added to the infamous ‘no mow list’ to save money. I have been talking to minions in multiple departments with the city and they said their budgets are being cut even before July. Want to save the city money? Less lawn cuttings won’t even move the needle. You need to cut out ALL non-profit handouts and layoff all middle managers with the city. You would save us millions. You also need to stop hiring consultants to do the job city employees are supposed to do, this would also save us millions. The lack of vision is so awful at city hall they need to put an image of the 3 blind mice on the front door.

Two year old fitness park already broke

The machines at the Rotary Park fitness area are broken and have been for almost a year. I have informed several councilors and a parks worker. Still broke. How sad it is that we put this wonderful park in (June 2023) and we do ZERO maintenance on the equipment. The machines should also be put in storage during the winter months to avoid damage. They have left them out since installing them. They actually were under 6 feet of water during the flood last year. That would have been the time to fix the equipment. All they did was spray off the workout pad with a hose.

The Parks department operating budget is in the millions each year. How about fixing up the current equipment we have already instead of building entertainment complexes downtown.

The Fitness park was the idea of our mayor, which I supported. But you have to actually maintain the equipment after installing it. It seems every idea our mayor has usually fails.

My prediction was correct. ONLY ONE PERSON DESIRED Jacobson Plaza; Mr. Jacobson

I have been saying all along the $4M Ice Ribbon that has ballooned to $16M was NOT the idea of constituents. I haven’t heard a single person say they wanted that Plaza or needed it. There has been talk in the past of putting in a ‘temporary’ refrigerated ice ribbon at a park, but no permanent structures. A lot of this talk ended when they built the Scheels Ice Complex. So I have been saying all along, this was the idea of ONE person who was looking for a tax write-off after selling their Electrical Supply Company. (I’m all for private gifts to our parks, but that money needs to go into the Parks’ general fund and let the citizens decide how that money is being spent.)

Now don’t take my word on it, during Poops State of the City address he told the audience how the ice ribbon came about. Mr. Jacobson called the Mayor, took him to lunch and told him he wanted this. As I figured. No constituent polling. No advice from the city council. No consultant proposals. Just a rich guy buying the mayor lunch.

So this is how we make $16 million dollars in parks programming decisions, we let some rich dude looking for a tax write-off to take the mayor to lunch, while the skatepark folks had to scrape for years to get the city to pony up ‘something’.

If you want to know what the citizens want for Parks Programming, just ask them. Duh. Because as I have said, money can’t buy you class, purpose, style, taste or culture, so why do we let the rich determine our parks programming? Because they buy the mayor lunch. Unfcknbelievable.