Sioux Falls

Bob Litz; You won’t like me when I am angry (and wrong)

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Temper, Temper now, Bob;

Litz accused Staggers of “planting” the people in the meeting. Staggers denied the accusation and told Litz that he would have him “personally removed” if he ever made it again.

“If you want me to leave, Mr. Chairman, I’d be happy to,” Litz said. He gathered his papers and walked out.

BAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, because Kermit has that much control over people he can get them to show up to meetings. Kind of sounds like a group of citizens feeling they are getting screwed over, maybe that is why they showed up?

Earlier, Litz accused Staggers of using the meeting to make a “political rant.”

More like challenging the ‘Status Quo’ – What’s wrong with that?

When asked about the issue with Westwick, the city’s zoning enforcement manager declined to talk about it unless it was done in executive session – a meeting closed to the public.

“I’m not at liberty to put it out there and have the jury of public opinion discussed here,” Shawna Goldammer said.

This is the same ‘Shawna Goldhammer’ that was asked if the city could relax regulations a little to speed up the Whittier neighborhood revival and her stern and direct answer was “NO!” This chick won’t budge on shit. I have a feeling if Staggers gets elected she will be unemployed.

The meeting wasn’t entirely about the campground issue. Former Minnehaha County Commissioner Jerry Noonan complained the city is harassing him about a vacant property.

He said the process and staff at City Hall are unfriendly.

“I think I should be treated a little civilized in that particular process,” Noonan said.

I don’t think they are unfriendly – just really f’ing stupid.

“build (a new) events center right the first time.”

Another great letter (response) about the Event’s Center.

I wholeheartedly agree with John Mimmack’s call to “Build events center ‘right the first time,’ ” as his My Voice column in the Oct. 15 Argus Leader was headlined. Mimmack needs to pursue due diligence, however, if he wishes to insinuate that I support a downtown site for the events center out of personal gain.

Public records will show that I own no property in Sioux Falls, let alone downtown. I believe I sufficiently addressed the most salient reasons why an events center should not be built next to the Sioux Falls Convention Center in my Oct. 8 My Voice column. As an urban planner, I cannot in good conscience support a proposal that falls short in terms of fiscal sustainability and community enrichment.

A cost-benefit analysis would show that a downtown events center would be the most financially viable location, especially when considering the current economic malaise. If critics of a downtown site wish to debate the issue, they need to use facts to support their case rather than conjecture.

Furthermore, it’s become all too cliché to claim that anyone who supports a downtown events center has something to personally gain from it. Like Mimmack, I prefer Sioux Falls “build (a new) events center right the first time.”

That’s what bothers me the most about the EC arena location supporters. They seem to think that if you don’t support their flawed decision to build the EC by the Arena, they think you don’t support an EC at all. Not the case, I think we should build an Events Center, I just think the location and funding is extremely flawed and there is still time to fix it, we haven’t even voted on it yet. Joe is right, do it right the first time.

JazzFest Organizers Announce Third Day of Music

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This is sooooo kickass!

Robert Joyce, Executive Director of the Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Society announced today that the organization will extend the Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Festival – JazzFest into a three-day event, starting the evening of Thursday, July 15th at 6pm and wrapping up around midnight on Saturday the 17th.

“By adding Thursday evening we will reach new audiences, increase the awareness of our mission, spread out our financial liability and get more musicians and artists involved in the festival. And do all three without adding a great deal of expense to the festival,” says Robert Joyce, Executive Director of the Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Society.

“We’ve been investigating how the Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Festival can be more productive, artistically and also fiscally. Expanding the event in this way achieves that for us.” says Neal Eddy, Board Chair of the organization.

The Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Festival – JazzFest is a free music festival featuring two stages and over 18 hours of music.

The 2010 festival dates are July 15, 16 and 17.

More information on the Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues Festival – JazzFest can be found at www.jazzfestsiouxfalls.com.

Is the City Survey in Sioux Falls scientific? Hardly.

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As I reported last week, somebody I knew got the city survey, to her surprise she received another copy of the survey in the mail with a note that said;

About one week ago, you should have received a copy of the enclosed survey. If you completed it and sent it back, we thank you for your time and ask you to discard this survey. Please do not respond twice.

Well that makes sense not to respond twice, it would kind of throw that whole ‘scientific survey’ concept out the window, wouldn’t it. So I assumed when I looked at the survey there would be some kind of barcode sprayed on the back that would correspond with the first survey so that the company processing the surveys wouldn’t process the same household twice. Guess what? No such barcode exists. In other words the same household can send in the survey twice, they can fill them out completely differently, or they can pass them onto a friend to fill out because there is no way to track where they came from because they are sent back anonymously in the same BRE envelope that everyone else will use (not sprayed with trackable barcode either).

I had often believed that the first survey the city did a few years ago was flawed. No one knew what demographic they were mailed to (3000 residents) and only 900 people responded.

This shouldn’t surprise any of, Munson’s administration has fought hard to control information and has used propaganda repeatedly to mislead and lie to the public. I just never thought they would be so blatant about it this time. Must be getting rusty after 7 years.

Sioux Falls Press conference on Bicycle riding (H/T – MinusCar Project)

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Get your bike riding ass there;

The Mayor of The City will be hosting a bike related press conference Wednesday, 12:15 @ Cherapa Place. If you’ve ever ridden a bike before you should get on it and ride to this press conference.

Seriously, I think you should. Especially if you read The MinusCar Project and nod your head in agreement more often than you shake your head in disappointment.