Mayor Paul TenHaken appears to recognize that freedom comes at a price. Struggling within the confines of his GOP party line against officially taking coronavirus seriously, the mayor of Sioux Falls won’t take official action to prevent coronavirus from destroying lives and the economy, but he will at least try telling people to wear a mask, dang it:
Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken maintains his office will not pursue a mask mandate, but he says the need to slow the spread stretches beyond city limits.
Mayor TenHaken has strong words on the issue of masks:
“Wear a dang mask when you’re indoors. We’re not asking you to sign up for the draft here. We’re asking you to wear a mask when you’re inside and you can’t distance.”
…Hospitals are stretched thin, but Mayor TenHaken says his office will not pursue a mask mandate. He says a city mandate won’t impact surrounding communities that rely on Sioux Falls hospitals.
“So if you wanna live in a state that gives you freedoms, that comes with an expectation of responsibility,” he says. “And I need this region to do more” [Jackie Hendry, “Sioux Falls Mayor and Health Leaders Implore Public to Slow Covid’s Spread,” SDPB, 2020.10.19].
Hey, Mayor Paul: a mask mandate in a city that’s home to a fifth of all South Dakotans and which hosts maybe another fifth of South Dakotans every week for work, shopping, and big events at the Sanford Center could make a huge impact on surrounding communities and on our really bad statewide coronavirus numbers. Lead by example, show that you are willing to back a mask mandate, and a lot of neighboring towns’ mayors and councilors would think, “Hey, if Mayor TenHaken can take that political heat from the Governor and other anti-mask nuts, so can we.”
Research shows that mask mandates—not just our wearing of masks, but governments’ making rules to require masks—reduce the spread of coronavirus.
Mandating masks in Sioux Falls doesn’t guarantee that everyone will wear one, just like wearing a mask doesn’t guarantee that you won’t get coronavirus. But mandating masks gets more people to wear them (see the research from Fargo) and thus reduces the statistical risk for the population in Sioux Falls and in the communities that interact with Sioux Falls.
Keep talking, Mayor Paul… but consider backing that talk with action.
Watching Mayor TenHaken last night made me think of our schools. Each seems to be in the place that they are willing to do ANYTHING to get people/students to do the right thing and wear masks — EXCEPT mandate it.
Maybe the answer is to consider masks the enabler for certain things: ONLY if you wear a mask you can . . .
Sioux Falls currently has 1 out of every 3 cases in South Dakota, and 1 out of every 94 Sioux Falls metro citizens is currently active for COVID-19. With Sioux Falls being the shopping center for East River, and the medical center for the entire state, in a sane world, this is EXACTLY the place where there a mask mandate would be put in place, thus cutting down cases for the entire state. But no, that would be far too… what, compassionate? Logical? Pragmatic? Sane?
Ten Haken knows that if he issues a mask mandate he’s done in SD politics. That’s the SDGOP mandate – “Party waaaay before people.”