South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

1st Amendment Mayor TenHaken Media SF City Council Sioux Falls

The Empire Strikes back?

l3wis 4Comments

Remember the game of connect the dots? We will get to that in a moment.

It all started with a thot I had Friday night while listening to announcements from the Levitt stage.

Is Matt Paulson trying to build a local media empire to influence city hall policy even more?

It all started over a year ago when a local (seasoned) journalist told me that there are plans in the works to combine all the small local independent or semi-independent media outlets and freelancers into one organization, or at least under an umbrella of cooperation. I don’t need to list these orgs, if you read this blog, you read their sites also. This plan was later confirmed to me from another associate, but told me the plan still has some kinks in it and setbacks. I didn’t blog about this because frankly when I first heard it, I was rooting for them and said it was a great idea, let’s just see if it will work.

While many of these indies have talent, they don’t have a lot of capital, they need outside investors to make this work and they need to sell a butt load of advertising to pay everyone’s salaries.

Then walks in Matt Paulson.

But let’s play that game of ‘connect the dots’ I spoke about earlier;

• Matt Paulson has funded every campaign of all of the current 8 councilors and the mayor and many past councilors.

• Jodi Schwan leaves the Argus to start her own business website.

• Patrick Lalley, Reposa, Ellis and Sneve leave the Argus to start their own independent sites, with a small kink, Market Dweebs owner, Matt Paulson has quietly been investing in the Dakota Scout, something the council and the SOS failed to inform the public about.

• In one of the most unethical moves by city council they approve the Dakota Scout contract for legals without releasing the investors names.

• I learned Friday night at the Levitt that Paulson has hired a local popular TV anchor to work at Market Dweeb.

I’m not sure what shoe will drop next but if I were KELOLAND, DAKOTANEWS or the Argus, (nevermind, they are already a sunken ship), I would be nervous about my advertising dollars and the whole integrity of the media locally. While I like local independent journalists, I’m not sure I care for their investors, who seem to be buying up city hall candidates and now local journalists so he can control the narrative even more.

Art censoring little . . .

As a community we should be very nervous and cautious of how this potential media merger will occur, but like everything else this Dweeb touches, it will all be done in the dark of the night, because that’s how the fourth estate does things these days.

Still waiting for my offer Matt 🙂 The Scab could really use a cartoonist that used a different medium besides crayons.

Art Bunker Ramp Censorship Downtown Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken Open Government Open Meetings racism Sioux Falls

It only took them a year and a half to do an article about this

l3wis 5Comments

Besides myself, who broke the censored mural controversy, only one other journalist has really poked around on the topic, but someone must of went over to the newsroom and woke up one of their jokalist’s to write an article. It is actually a pretty good article on the insight of what the artists were going thru, but not very timely;

Would they ever work with the city again on a project? They’d never completely count out the idea, the artists said.

But, Hernandez added, “the experience was pretty horrible.”

These fine young artists aren’t the first and certainly won’t be the last to suffer the consequences of ‘horrible’ city policies and leadership and blatant CENSORSHIP.

There is also another concern. Do we have RACIST elites in this community influencing city hall policy?

Speaking of suffering, the city has asked the courts to dismiss the Federal housing discrimination lawsuit. Just your typical dragging out the clock games they play. Of course, we know that is likely NOT going to happen. They have an incredibly solid case.

Miranda Bayse Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls

Councilor ‘Lucy’ Bayse proposes ordinance change without consulting local fencing industry

l3wis 4Comments

A new councilor is at it again, making an ordinance change that 1) doesn’t benefit homeowners, only makes fencing more expensive and 2) doesn’t give homeowners any options. Councilor Bayse proposed the change at the Planning Commission Meeting last night, but didn’t even bother to show up as a Planning staffer presented the item (don’t blink you might miss the meeting);

§ 160.480 FENCES.
(l) A fence post must be secured below ground level in all residential zoning districts.

He said a ‘couple’ of people complained that their neighbors(?) put fence posts in 5 gallon pails of concrete and didn’t bury the pails just had them sitting on the ground. So why not write an ordinance that says;

‘No fence posts can be put above ground in pails of concrete or other substrates.’

There is also a million different ways you can secure a post. You can attach it to another out building or your house, you can use L brackets and bolt them to a concrete patio pad. Heck, there are probably so many different ways to fix this, it’s not even funny.

I spoke with a person who is in management for a large fencing company in Sioux Falls. He had no idea they were proposing this. Fortunately it hasn’t arrived to the council yet so he has a few weeks to shake them down, and he intends to.

Instead of making regs based on a couple of your friends bitching, why not actually research the topic, talk to professionals in the field, heck, have a public round table. But for god sakes stop passing ordinances to make it look like you are doing something. And don’t pull away the football at the last minute either!

Arterial Roads Downtown Sioux Falls recreational Road Funding Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

UPDATE III: BREAKING: LOCAL TV STATION TRACKS DOWN NEWEST HOT DOG CART!!!

l3wis 12Comments

UPDATE III: As I predicted most of these plastic thingies have been removed or destroyed by vehicles. Shocker! I Know. Just yesterday the last one remaining in front of the post office was ran over by a mail carrier big rig. He didn’t completely destroy it, but he broke one of the pieces. Absolute stupidity. Do we even have a traffic engineer that studies industry standards and keeps abreast? Doubtful.

UPDATE II: As you can see, cars are already hitting and damaging these devices, and they have only been on the street for a couple of weeks. I think this will end badly, mark my words.

UPDATE: As I suspected they are using these bands in the wrong way, they are for protected bike lanes;

Bicycle lanes should feel safe and inviting. But that doesn’t mean they have to be eyesores. The Wave Delineator accomplishes this by quickly and easily creating protected bike lanes, while providing a visually appealing alternative to its traffic cone and flex post counterparts. Ideal for temporary pop-up bike lanes during day- or week-long events, or when communities want to pilot a location for a longer-term protected bikeway.

Now that I have your attention I really wanted to talk about the city’s traffic calming efforts. While I get how this works, these white bands are actually not only a hazard to passing car they are also to bicyclists who are trying to navigate around these contraptions. I am all for the other stuff, but not this floating thingy that I have almost hit twice now. The city has a bad habit of doing this all over town, building pedestrian crossings where the curb slopes are NOT cut out and other hazards like barriers, light posts, weird angles, etc. Can’t wait to see this wrapped around someone’s driveshaft.

We need to educate drivers on pedestrian safety. This city needs to drop about $500K on driver education thru a multiple media platforms. We can paint every intersection like Willy Wonka, but until drivers wakeup, doesn’t matter.

Speaking of idiotic things the city does, after former councilor Neitzert spent months on changing the rec trail ordinances the city employees fart around installing inadequate signage;

Notice how small the MPH sign is. They also have E-Bike crossed out and you have to read the small print to realize you can ride an E1 or E2. And where are the speed signs? I think that the SFPD probably told the Parks Department they won’t be enforcing speeds on the trail, and probably the reason there is NO speed signage along the trail. Can’t ticket someone for speeding if there is no speed limit notice on the trail.

Still waiting for a road biker doing 25 hitting a grandma on her E2 doing 10, then we can have a discussion about speed, braking and physics.

Bonita Schwan

Personal Privilege

l3wis 3Comments

Love you Bonita! Just wanted to start with that. So you may remember Bonita, she still haunts Sux but recently she told me she is running for City Council in her new residence. Good Luck Bonita! I am sure you will win. Is David Z running? Better check your sources.

I can ask Bonita for ANY advice, and she always has an answer, and if she doesn’t she just laughs and gives you a hug. Who wouldn’t want this person for a city councilor? Oh, that’s right . . . Sioux Falls really missed an opportunity.

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