Is Smoe’s Bar reopening?
l3wis I saw someone is going to take over the old Smoe’s bar (Item 2A). The listed owner is one of the owner’s of the Hello Hi and they just recently got another liquor license. Another Tiki Bar? Hmm.
Sioux Falls
Is Sioux Falls Parks and Rec offering FREE camping in the parks now?
I took this pic about 11 AM this morning between Cherry Rock park and Rotary park. Someone peeked their head out as I was riding away.
I just shook my head a few weeks ago when some talking heads with the city said that the transient/nuance problem downtown is getting better. Really? Maybe during the day, but when I ride at night, I have never seen that many different groups. I did a headcount last week and it averages about 15 individuals I see camped out after dark each night in about 6 different areas downtown. Not all are sleeping but most have their camp setup and ready for the night. I have also seen many camps along the bike trail underneath picnic shelters. I’m not sure who is providing the messaging folks data or what they are being communicated, but the problem has gotten progressively worse since June. Not sure what the solution is, but lying to the public about it and ignoring the problem isn’t a solution either.
Who on earth suggested that Jaunt bikes be parked next to bike racks downtown Sioux Falls?
When the Jaunt rental bikes showed up downtown I liked they were just randomly parked in places. They have a GPS tracker on them and an alarm system so they don’t have to be locked up anywhere. In other words, they don’t need to be parked by a bike rack. Not sure who suggested to Jaunt, because I am sure it was NOT their idea, that they now park the bikes by bike racks. First off, the obvious, this makes the bikes appear to be privately owned and locked to a rack and NOT available for rent, secondly, those bike racks are for people locking up their personal bikes, and since bike racks are in very short supply in this town, I am getting tired of moving beeping bikes to lock up my bike. MOVE THEM AWAY FROM THE RACKS AND DON’T LET SOME IDIOT BUREAUCRAT TELL YOU HOW TO RUN YOUR BUSINESS.
I had some friends tell me recently they wanted to try out an E-Bike before buying one, so they rented the Jaunts today and rode them the entire trail and said they worked great and they are going to go buy some e-bikes of their own.
I guess the City of Sioux Falls is going to have an affordable housing resource website
And, like most things, they have to hire an outside consultant to do all the heavy lifting for them. I have joked we could eliminate most management positions in city government and replace them with purchasing agents. You don’t need to pay an attorney or engineer six figures a year if all they are doing is shopping for consultants.
Lunch with Sioux Falls Police Chief Jon Thum
I actually didn’t have lunch with the chief, but he was addressing the Breakfast Club today at NOON at the City’s admin building where I was the only citizen in attendance at the beginning (it’s mostly elected officials from the region that show up to these monthly get togethers). I go for the free lunch 🙂
Thum said that officers with more experience dealing with people and managing situations are better officers then those with degrees in criminal justice. While I believe him, I asked him this question, “I want officers to have at least a 2 year degree in criminal justice because I want officers to know the LAW when they are responding to a situation. Thum did confess he would like officers with experience in both areas, but prefers officers with people skills over law knowledge. His excuse was different laws in different jurisdictions. Well guess what? Officers should know the laws they are enforcing. I think the Chief should be focusing on hiring people with both skill sets and not just settling for mediocre. I got the feeling from his response that Thum is trying to fill a quota, and he doesn’t seem to care how he fills that quota, bodies on the street scenario.
The above picture is an officer hiding behind a utility box on private property of a local manufacturer I took a few days ago. Wondering if this is one of his ‘people person’ officers? I don’t have a problem with officers taking breaks, but they should be in a public parking lot or at the precinct.
I also presented this question to Thum, “I want to address shutting off the scanners. I researched the Federal regulations and it is well within your right to turn the scanners completely off (Thum nods) but the suggestion from the Feds is to only turn them off for sensitive situations like wellness checks, overdoses, domestic, etc. So I want to set up a scenario for you. We had a train derailment downtown a few years ago. Luckily it was just corn and it didn’t knock over the viaduct, but these same trains carry tons of chemicals thru downtown every day. What if it derails again and there is a massive chemical spill and you have to evacuate thousands of people from downtown. How will you get that info to the public in a timely manner if the scanners are shutoff?”
He did say the Fire Department has a notification system (not sure what that is) and that they TEXT people. I can tell you that downtown is full of older homes with poorer elderly people living in them, they likely don’t have cell phones. I wasn’t really satisfied with his answer. I often tell folks, once we have open government a lot of these issues disappear in the night, but I don’t think Thum gets it.