Last week a person told me a funny story about a retired priest attending Christmas at the Cathedral (he will remain nameless). Either before or after the show he introduces himself to the lady sitting next to him and says,
“You look familiar. Did you attend one of my parishes as a child?”
(This certain priest served in many parishes throughout South Dakota)
She replies,
“I’m Kristi Noem, your governor.”
I found the story funny considering Noem’s quest to be someone on a National level and the fact most of her administrative staff has to be recruited from out of state. Maybe Noem should give the good father a job since she only hires people that don’t know her.
The official soap of the South Dakota Governor’s Mansion
You would think this would be a fight between the woke radical liberals and the right wingers, but now Kristi is fighting with her fellow nuttery;
“As a result, my office will no longer work with the Alliance until and unless its executive director chooses to act professionally,” Noem said, criticizing Woods for “sending this letter and releasing it to the media at the same time, instead of reaching out to my office to have a productive conversation about how we can work together.”
I won’t bore you with the letters sent back and forth, but if you read between the lines, Noem isn’t mad about the letter (BTW, she wasn’t attacked) she is mad she couldn’t have a closed door meeting to sweep this under the rug.
I also chuckled a bit in the Alliance letter boasting about protecting our kids from weed and gays, as if they are one in the same. I will admit, back in the day when I was high on pot I did some pretty crazy stuff, but sex with another man wasn’t one of them 🙂 It didn’t even cross my mind (whilst eating ketchup flavored cheese balls and playing Mario Brothers for 3 hours).
I guess I have never understood homophobia, it is just an excuse to be a hater, or just plain ignorant.
Let’s assume for a moment you don’t have any gay friends, relatives, or co-workers. Let’s even go a step further and assume you have never knowingly met a LGBTQ member of our society? Where is the vitriol coming from?
Drag shows for youth are meant to EDUCATE them about an alternative lifestyle before they grow up to be another a**hole republican.
If you want to protect our kids volunteer to be a mentor, a youth sports coach, a Sunday school teacher, a school crosswalk guard, or any other various youth associations. Being face to face and truthful with kids goes a lot farther then disgusting laws and legislation that only fuel a hateful divide and further cement the pitiful ignorance and hate of the radical right running our state.
By the way, I have noticed Noem’s wardrobe over the past couple of years, and I would be hard pressed to admit any of her clothing items were designed by a straight person. Her next piece of legislation will be titled ‘Fairness in Women’s Clothing Design’.
Yes, that is the daily rent, for the month it will cost you $5,950. I purchased my home 20 years ago, before I bought the house the rent I paid for a nice 1-bedroom behind U-Haul in Pettigrew Heights was $350 a month which included gas and garbage service. For $5,950 a month you could pay a mortgage on a 1 million dollar home. You can rent a decent hotel room in Sioux Falls for about $100 a night. Heck even Hotel Phillips only 2 blocks from this loft charges between $140-$220 a night. An VRBO or Air BNB is even cheaper. This 3 bedroom short term rental in McKennan Park will run you about $162 a night. Even if you had 3 people renting the loft, they would still have to pay $2,000 a month in rent. In fact what you would pay for rent in a year for this place ($70K+) was more then the original purchase price of my home.
Normally I wouldn’t give two rips about what a wealthy property owner/developer in DTSF charges for rent, I’m a free market person and if they can get that kind of ‘rent’ money, good for you. Where I take issue is that this building received a facade easement grant* (basically the city gives private developers money to fix up their historical facades with little oversight). I asked a councilor recently if the half-Inch faux brick that they glued on the front of Lucky’s facade was considered historic? Faux brick has been a trend lately, but I still think it looks fake. I thought one of the requirements of historic restoration was for it to be actually historic, you know, like the fiberglass bulstrades on the Pavilion’s new roof.
Besides the atrocious monthly rent, this really doesn’t make the city look very good when they are handing out TIFs for condo parking ramps and facade grants DTSF but on the other hand are promoting(?) affordable and accessible housing.
*The facade easement program was mysteriously and suddenly re-instated by the urging of Central District Councilor Curt Soehl. No surprise the 1st recipients for the grants were the former campaign treasurer for Soehl (for the 9th and Grange coffee shop that he is restoring) and the investment group that owns the Lucky’s loft who has given thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Mayor TenHaken and his various supported candidates. The program is nothing but a pay to play payback to these campaign contributors. The program was originally ended because there really is NO need for taxpayers to be propping up these private developers.
The city really needs to get out of the wealthy developer welfare program business and start incentivizing affordable housing DTSF with programs that help build housing density while focusing on the individual property and small rental owners. Instead the city’s solution is to build slab on grade tract homes in a cornfield in Southern Brandon. Even a chicken playing tic-tac-toe is smarter than that.
UPDATE: In 2017 Rapid City used a very small TIF to support affordable housing (H/T Mike Zitterich). It was 5 years ago, but for a $26,500 TIF the developer was able to build 5 Town Homes – the cheapest with the price tag of $109K. Even with inflationary adjustments, that same place would only be about $130-150K today. It was built on a blighted empty lot.
We could legally do this in the core of the city, and we could do it for multiple properties.
Here is a video of the project;
While many people have told me to get off my high-horse about helping low income folks with an E-Bike leasing program, Denver has found that it has measurable results;
Researchers at Portland State University are tracking 65 programs nationwide that are active or that have been approved to help people get on e-bikes, either through subsidies or loaning a bike. California plans to launch a statewide program next year backed by $10 million.
E-bikes, which have a motor and battery to propel riders, can cost about $2,000, putting them out of reach for many low-income families. Denver’s program has two tiers, with one that offers $400 to any city resident — an amount aimed at sweetening the deal for would-be buyers. For low-income residents, the second tier increases the voucher size to $1,200, a sum city officials say should make the bikes more widely affordable.
Two other elements of the program are designed to encourage buyers to use their bikes for transportation: a bonus of $500 for cargo bikes, which can carry children or a large load, while full-suspension mountain bikes used primarily for recreation aren’t eligible.
And after Denver tried this pilot program, guess what they found out;
A city survey found new e-bike riders were riding, on average, 26.2 miles per week, and that low-income buyers were riding about 32 miles per week. Respondents said they had replaced 3.4 car trips each week with bike rides.
“It’s so much faster,” said Rink, who commutes by e-bike. “It’s much less of a chore. There is an element of joy in riding the e-bike.”
I would agree, my main reason I like riding my E-Bike is because it is enjoyable, but if you look at the results of this successful program it is also equitable. I hope the new transportation board in Sioux Falls looks at this.