I do not know what is going on with the big downtown Sioux Falls hotel/parking ramp snafu. No one does, because Sioux Falls city officials are all avoiding comment and because the stories being told by private developer Village River Group and its leader, Aberdeen native and motel mogul Jeff Lamont, conflict. The city says Village River Group was “in default.” Lamont’s group contests the “alleged” default, saying that the project was still on schedule. Village River Group had proposed scaling down the project (literally, by four stories) and claims it had received no objections to or signs of rejection of the revised plan but that the city cancelled scheduled meetings and “failed to reply to numerous calls and communications from Village River Group concerning the design modifications.” Team Lamont’s Wednesday night release then says we won’t hear anything else from them publicly due to “potential litigation.”
My invocation of an F-abbreviation is excused by journalist Jonathan Ellis, who bluntly calls the situation “a full on CF” (let’s hear him use that term on his next public radio Political Junkies segment!)
This is a full on CF.
Village on the River developers: City cut off communications https://t.co/KXr0RYnZHU
— Jonathan Ellis (@argusjellis) May 16, 2019
The “Cluster” in Ellis’s terminology and the “All” in mine reflect the impression that everyone involved in this show is in some kind of mud and getting ready to throw it. Yet if you read Pat Powers’s blog (and why would you? masochism?), you’d think the collapse of this parking-ramp partnership was clear sign of the absolute failure of former mayor Mike Huether and the untrammeled virtue of current mayor Paul TenHaken.
It wasn’t as if the handwriting wasn’t on the wall for the demise one of Mayor Mike Huether’s legacy projects. Going back to last Summer, Mayor Paul TenHaken noticed that there were… problems with the Village on the River project, and a lack of transparency from the Huether administration….
Between tonight’s announcement and the Premier Center settlement, I tend to believe that Huether’s political career is over. With an exclamation point [Pat Powers, “TenHaken Had Noted Appearance of Problems with Village on the River Last July,” Dakota War College, 2019.05.14].
The absence of Huether from any future ballot is fine with me (although if he wants to run against me for Governor in 2022, do please bring that on, and I will gleefully quote both Powers and Ellis when discussing my millionaire opponent).
But I see no post yet from Powers complaining about TenHaken’s apparent lack of transparency on this week’s decision, only a follow-up mocking Huether’s referral of all questions about the TenHaken Administration’s decision to the TenHaken Administration. I see no post yet from Powers praising his preferred Sioux Falls whipping girl, Councilwoman Theresa Stehly, for her transparency on this issue and for her early, consistent, and continued criticism of the entire project as an “overpriced, overbuilt structure.” Powers affirms Mayor TenHaken’s wisdom, which would appear to endorse the city’s spurning of Village River Group, but I see no post yet from Powers taking the next logical step of criticizing VRG leader Lamont, who donates to Republicans and who appears to allow Republican candidates to pepper his Aberdeen properties with campaign signs, for whatever bad thing he must have done to warrant TenHaken’s spurnage.
If you want to see the Sioux Falls parking ramp used for cheap political shots, feel free to keep grating Pat Powers across your gray matter. If you want to get a sense of what might really be happening in the Sioux Falls City Council’s strange reversal, you should cast your peepers toward South DaCola, KELO Radio, KSFY, and other reputable reporters who are more interested in telling taxpayers what’s really happening than in propping up one party’s current golden boy.
TenHaken just dropped Facebook post from an Instagram advertiser/blogger espousing the wonderful qualities of Sioux Falls. Qualities only the hundred grand class can enjoy.
Wait—are you saying TenHaken bought an ad. (I still find the contemporary use of “drop” confusing. When I drop something, I refer to accidents or dismissal.) Tell us more, please.
The city hired a company who killed somebody for the biggest project in the city’s history. Then, when criticized, the city hired another company but kept the same principle executives from the company that killed somebody. The guy who worked for the city in community development and was responsible for the projects approval, now works for the company that killed somebody. The whole thing is going belly up and the city has doubled their legal budget for the project. I suspect CF is going to be a gross understatement before all is said and done on this mess.
If the market supported this project, it would already be built.
Yes, sorry for using the slang term “drop” for publishing advertisements onto other publishing media. The article is posted at: hihttps://livability.com/sd/sioux-falls/where-to-live-now/6-reasons-to-move-to-sioux-falls-sd-right-now?fbclid=IwAR3weqXWsOFRApDtNAJG_9aLyWT_yRc0TUjgi9c2cW40hjcfkLO8U9wqG-c
I looked into who wrote the advertisement that reads like a news article. The author, Sarah Von Bargen, has an Instagram page called yesandyesblog.
I also found through the article yesandyes.org. That is the website that offers Von Bargen’s advertising/promotional service.
The article was shared on Mayor TenHaken’s Facebook page on Thursday, May 16, 2019. The disingenuous article starts with, “Interested in moving to Sioux Falls, SD? Fair warning: you should probably only move there if you want affordable housing, a great job market, good public schools and lots of fun, affordable outdoor activities all year round.”
The affordable housing Von Bargen espouses is $150,000 to $200,000. The $55,000 property mentioned in the article would be small and unsuited for a family of four. If someone was interested in SF, they could go to any real estate website and find for every $55,000 house, their are five $200,000 houses.
The title for the advert-article should read “Poor People Need Not Apply”. Sioux Falls only wants educated, monied individuals to come here.
Money is required to do anything the article promotes. Even schools. Von Bargen mentions the cost of private schools. Yet public schools are only mentioned in the first paragraph as “good”. The real estate websites will tell you that is a lie. Unless C to D- grades for the quality of the area schools are considered “good” by the author or whoever gave the list of talking points to Von Bargen to promote in the article.
I haven’t looked at the ratio of well paid, educated jobs to that of not-well paid, educated and un-educated jobs available in SF. I would like to make a wager that it is the opposite ratio to the available housing.
I just checked who runs livability.com. It is an advertisement agency that specializes in creating articles for promoting municipalities and agricultural groups.
Powers seeks to roll coal on Huether after finding him lying injured on the political road. Watch out, Pat! God is (probly) in charge of the timing of the lawsuits over the parking ramp CF.
As Heuther himself even said as much at the Heritage Alliance:
[ …I am with you and for you. When you decide on a course of action that is in line with My will, nothing in heaven or on earth can stop you. You may encounter many obstacles as you move toward your goal, but don’t be discouraged—never give up! With My help, you can overcome any obstacle. Do not expect an easy path as you journey hand in hand with Me, but do remember that I, your very-present Helper, am omnipotent.
Much, much stress results from your wanting to make things happen before their times have come. One of the main ways I assert My sovereignty is in the timing of events. If you want to stay close to Me and do things My way, ask Me to show you the path forward moment by moment. Instead of dashing headlong toward your goal, let Me set the pace. Slow down, and enjoy the journey in My Presence. ]
-“Jesus Calling”, Sarah Young
No doubt this warning from The Lord to do things “My way” also (probly) applies to building demolition, city council deliberations, and bond sales.
Ah! Thanks, Kathy! I saw TenHaken’s tweet of that article after you commented and simply responded, “Reason #7: Lots of parking.” Now that I see the good research and analysis you’ve done, I see we have a case of stealthy marketing… also known as TenHaken-style BS. Pay some blogger to say nice things about you, then portray that paid article as an independent report. Barf! Kathy, I may have to promote your analysis to a whole post of its own!
Chris, Powers rarely challenges someone with real power… not unless he can count on the GOP to back him up.
Thank you. Get the word out to the Dakota Free Press readers.