Here we go again, the progressive thinkers at city hall want to use your tax dollars to hand out more property tax discounts to developers in the disguise of low income housing downtown.

Like an episode of Good Times where the super promises to fix the frig so JJ’s beer doesn’t get cold this grand scheme to get some cheap land on the taxpayer’s dime isn’t so Dyn-o-Mite.

Even Maxwell Smart could figure out how this scam was hatched. Former CitiBank pencil pusher, and now our esteemed mayor have probably been slow cooking these ribs for awhile, accept none of us have been invited to the pick-a-nick table, Boo-Boo. It seems since CitiBank made the loan offer to the city, they get first dibs. While the other lenders are stuck with the gristle.

See, when I accept credit card or loan offers, I try to go with the one with the lowest fee and interest rate.  But things are so strange in the City of Sioux Falls finance department you’d think Rod Serling was running the show. Mysteriously, no other banks stepped up to the plate, but its kind of difficult to get on the team when you aren’t even invited to the draft.

It seems our local government wants to concentrate more on how taxpayers can subsidize low wage earner’s housing instead of trying to secure living wage jobs for these same people.

It doesn’t take Alan Greenspan to figure out the more people make, the more they spend and put back into the economy. It seems City Hall is more concerned about keeping the little guy down instead of lending a (real) hand up. “You can live in this nice grass hut as long as you stay on the low-wage island, little buddy.”

Sioux Falls has some of the lowest wages in the nation, for a city it’s size, they claim it is the price for quality of life. Please make me a grade ‘A’ bologna sandwich. They are wrong, there is a price tag on quality of life, and you can’t buy it with a job washing dishes, or teaching kidergarten for that matter* (in SD only).

Quality of life to me is being able to afford health insurance, food, utilities, investments and transportation without having three jobs. I am fortunate to have my own home and a living wage profession, but it didn’t come from discovering Texas tea with uncle Jeb. I still have to maintain a few ‘hobby’ businesses to stay in the black.

I want our city government to get off their duffs and start attracting jobs that pay a living wage instead of catering to developers and businesses that profit from low wages and our tax dollars. The citizens of Sioux Falls need to follow George Jefferson‘s lead, “I’m a moving on up, to the top, to a deluxe apartment in the sky” and they need a local government that will help lead them there.

 

 

I originally started this organization so I would have a monicker when I wrote letters to the editor, but the more I think about it, the more I want to get serious about it.

Last night I came up with this logo concept. Basically it means cutting through the bureaucratic red tape of our local publicly funded art organizations.

It seems lately secrecy, mismanagement and out of control spending on administrative costs is the norm all the while ignoring our local artists.

I’ve decided that something needs to be done, and ONLY if we join together we can accomplish our goals:

– More funding for LOCAL artists to create public art.

– Require that at least 50% of SculptureWalk contain art from Sioux Falls and South Dakota artists.

– Require any public art that is either donated or purchased by the city be made by an artist from Sioux Falls, or South Dakota.

– Require local arts orgs who receive money from the city to spend at least 75% of that subsidy on LOCAL public art programs, such as theatre groups, musicians and visual artists. This could include commissions for public art, in school programs, rental discounts in the facilities, and concerts.

– And most of all RESPECT!

I would love to get together and here other artists’ ideas. Only if we work together we can influence change.

fb.art@sio.midco.net

It little Saturday night fun in SF. Hat tip Will!

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=qS4uQjsUQ5k

Frank and his band will be playing in October at the Touch of Europe. More details to come. Check out his music and BIO here:

www.frankbasilemusic.com/