David Brooks: Find the "Real Action"... in Sioux Falls

NYT columnist David Brooks puts on a happy face with that snappy purple tie and says the next 40 years will be great for America (total destruction of our constitutional republic notwithstanding). In a "luscious orgy of optimism" (spring has that effect on me, too), Brooks declares America is in for healthy immigration and population growth, development of more vibrant town centers, and a leading role in global economic revival.

Brooks also notes that Sioux Falls will be where it's at!

Over the next 40 years, [geographer Joel] Kotkin argues, urban downtowns will continue their modest (and perpetually overhyped) revival, but the real action will be out in the compact, self-sufficient suburban villages. Many of these places will be in the sunbelt — the drive to move there remains strong — but Kotkin also points to surging low-cost hubs on the Plains, like Fargo, Dubuque, Iowa City, Sioux Falls, and Boise [David Brooks, "Relax, We'll Be Fine," New York Times, 2010.04.05].

O.K., Boise isn't exactly the Plains. But quit your grousing: Sioux Falls made the New York Times! Whoo-hoo!

Where Can You Earn More, Sioux Falls or Sioux City?

South Dacola fills my morning with the daily recommended allowance of wage data. Taking umbrage with an anti-Sioux City wisecrack on KSOO, "Poly43" compares 90th percentile wage data for similar jobs in Sioux Falls and Sioux City. At the 90th percentile, we're talking about the people with some of the best qualifications in the field.

The results: in the jobs listed, Sioux City workers make an average of 20% more than their Sioux Falls counterparts.

However, we get a different picture if we look at all jobs. Overall, the average annual salary in Sioux Falls (as of May 2008) was $35,420. The average annual salary in Sioux City was $33,190. So if I understand this correctly, for workers toward the top of the wage scale in certain jobs, the two-hour drive down I-29 from Sioux Falls to Sioux City could produce a 20% pay boost. But over the entire labor sector, moving to Sioux City produces a 6.3% pay cut. Factor in cost of living (Iowa’s cost of living in Q3 2009 was only 2.5% higher than South Dakota’s) and that's an 8.6% cut in purchasing power.

One field where Sioux Falls really kicks Sioux City's can: chief executive pay. Sioux City has 90 CEOs averaging $139,810 a year. Sioux Falls has 190 CEOs averaging $178,590, 28% better. That rushing sound Todd hears from Harrisburg is northbound Lexuses (Lexi?!? :-D )

So if you're trying to win an argument about who makes more where, Sanford Falls or Sewer City, cost of living isn't as big a factor as the type of jobs and employees you're looking at.

----------------------
Iowa does beat South Dakota statewide. Our average annual wage was $32,770. Iowa's was $35,910, 9.6% higher (6.8% higher after figuring cost of living).

Sioux Falls Reinvents Education Wheel: What's Not "Real World" about My Classroom?

The Sioux Falls School District touts a new high school that KELO's Ben Dunsmoor says will focus on "real world skills." Perhaps this new school can teach Ben Dunsmoor the real-world skill of writing in complete sentences. A skill all professional journalists should have. (That's an example of the modifying sentence-fragment style that KELO appears to impose on all of its journalists. Dunsmoor commits this error twice at the end of his written report.)

Another real-world lesson the new "Performance Based Learning" school will teach that is specific to South Dakota: life is about the lottery. Instead of doing the hard work of reviewing applications and choosing the students best suited for this educational experience, the Sioux Falls School District will simply draw names out of a hat. That's just like how we fund our state budget, relying on the lottery instead of taking leadership and making hard tax choices.

But wait a minute: is the implication that all of our other schools are teaching imaginary skills? Must we all drop everything and join a project team in a one-to-one computing environment to learn anything useful?

Funny: I thought my years of lectures were helping pass on useful practical knowledge, not to mention instilling listening skills. I thought requiring students to spend hours in quiet contemplation of classic novels was developing appreciation of culture (which is part of the real world) and long-term attention spans (which should be part of the real world). I thought reading and discussion about literature, history, government, and philosophy developed critical thinking skills and well-rounded employees and citizens. I thought an education in the humanities helped make people more decent and interesting.

Silly me. Sorry to have wasted your tax dollars all these years on imaginary skills. Let's all do projects... until the next educational fad comes along.

Of course, if we want more projects and performance-based learning, we don't need to create a whole new high school and send money to California consultants. We could just encourage more kids to join the debate, interp, and theater programs in our high schools. Debate is a year-long project requiring research, writing, and collaboration. Interp requires months of cooperation and coordination with team members and coaches. Theater requires combination of creative and technical skills to produce a good show. Speech and drama activities require rigorous scheduling and test students' learning in the crucible of live performance. Our arts programs are already doing performance-based learning and long-term projects.

...But I guess educational trendiness requires that we reinvent the wheel. Sigh. (That's not a sentence fragment, Ben; that's an interjection.)

E3ASMXE6G9D8

Voting Rights Saves Mission, Wagner Drivers License Stations...

...but Sioux Falls still more important than 15 small towns.

Remember the state's plan to cut 17 drivers license stations? Apparently, the cuts have been reduced to 15: Mission and Wagner are not listed among the stations closed as of October 1.

How'd they make out? Thank the Voting Rights Act. According to Monica Wepking of the Wagner Post (also reported previously by Austin Kaus of the Mitchell Daily Republic), closing the drivers license stations would have forced residents to drive farther to obtain the photo IDs necessary for voting. The Native American populations in those areas could well have sued the state for making voting more difficult for them. Upon further review, Governor Rounds decided to avoid litigation and keep the Wagner and Mission stations open.

But the state and urban media are still spinning the closure of the other 15 stations as a good thing... for Sioux Falls. KELO reports that the Westport Avenue drivers license station will get two extra workers two days a week.

"By bringing in the extra staff, it will help shorten the wait times at the Sioux Falls office here. People would be able to come in and get their driver's licenses renewed, also get drive tests at a faster rate," [senior examiner Jim] Lilla said [Brian Kushida, "SF Drivers Licensing Station Gets Staff Boost," KELOLand.com, 2009.10.06].

Indeed, the busy people of Sioux Falls can't be made to wait. But a dozen folks in Britton, another dozen in Howard, another dozen in Philip (and so on) can be expected to not only wait but drive an extra half hour to a licensing station in another town, then lose another half hour in their car as they drive back to their work or their kids or whatever pressing business they have in their little communities.

A Sioux Falls resident waiting at the drivers license station can take phone calls, read a book, you name it. A Philip resident driving to Kadoka or Wall cannot (please, don't read and drive). The productivity loss caused by closing these 15 small-town drivers license stations is great for rural residents than for the Sioux Falls residents favored by the Governor's decision.

Advocates of Later School Start Face Uphill Battle (Charge!)

I note with pessimism the movement by some Sioux Falls moms to push the first day of school back toward September. Rhonda Lockwood, Paige Honner, and other moms hope to gather over 3000 letters of support to present to the Sioux Falls school board by October. If that doesn't get them satisfaction, they say they'll petition for a public vote.

Note I didn't say disapproval: I'm all about starting school after Labor Day, as they do in Minnesota (where kids get higher ACT and SAT scores than South Dakota... not that standardized tests mean anything). I voted for Initiated Measure 3 in 2006, which would have mandated all South Dakota public schools start no earlier than August 31.

My pessimism comes from the reminder that Minnehaha County voters overwhelmingly rejected IM3, with 27659 ayes outweighed by 38235 nays (that's 58% saying no, more than the statewide nay rate of 57%).

Maybe the Sioux Falls moms can surprise me and rally a voting majority to their cause. But out of that same voter pool, they'll need to find 5288 voters—just about 1 in 7—who want a later school start date but voted against IM3 purely on ideological grounds of rejecting state control.

Again, don't read my pessimism as disapproval. In the face of an uphill battle, the proper response is, "Charge!!!"

---------------------
Update 2009.09.28: Those Sioux Falls moms will even have to fight the President, who wants longer school days and longer school years. Sorry, Mr. President, even I can't ride with you on that one. Note (same article) that the wunderkinder in Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong all spend fewer hours in the classroom each year than our kids.

Thune Votes Against Bikes

Michael Christensen, the dedicated Sioux Falls cycling advocate who leads by exercise with The MinusCar Project, catches Senator John Thune in bicycular tongue bifurcation... or perhaps velocipedal prevarication... or maybe Huffy hypocrisy.

The MinusCar Project reports that Senator Thune voted Wednesday for an amendment sponsored by his Okie pal Tom Coburn to let states opt out of the Transportation Enhancements portion of the transportation bill. The Transportation Enhancements mandate requires states spend 10% of their transportation funds on transportation alternatives to automobiles, like public transit, walking paths, and bike trails. States can also use the money for highway beautification and roadkill reduction, which apparently vexes Coburn to no end.

Luckily, Thune was in the minority. Christensen notes that Senator Thune was more than happy to pose for pictures and take credit for a new multi-use trail in Sioux Falls last year funded by the Transportation Enhancements funds. But now Thune is happy to go along with his conservative government dismantlers to knock the legs and pedals out from under such projects.

As Michael says, thanks, John.

City Budgets: Lots of Increases, Madison One of Biggest

Last week I noted that Madison's 11.5% budget increase for 2010 seems a bit steep given the recession, the drop in sales tax revenues, and budget cuts at the state level. But what are other towns doing?

• Britton just gave first reading to a municipal budget that spends 3.9% more than last year. Most of that increase comes from the city's 3% share of a federally funded $2-million airport project.
• Hot Springs plans to boost its 2010 budget 2.3%, with a $17,000 increase going to the library. Hooray for learning! (Amusing side note: Hot Springs Councilman Barry Field helped defeat a motion to send Arlin Fenhaus to the South Dakota Golf Course Superintendent’s Association meeting. Field said he wouldn't approve Fenhaus's trip "until he begins to take direction." Ouch!)
• Sioux Falls is going for a 4% increase. The budget includes $1.7 million for golf course improvements but bupkis for the homeless shelter, in a city where one thousand children are homeless.
  
• Then there's Watertown, which is considering a 29.5% budget increase. Holy cow! Is that all stimulus money?

And a local comparison: Lake County just approved a $5.8 million budget, an increase of 3.6% over the 2009 budget.

Stupid Parent Tricks: Sioux Falls Mom Endangers Children Daily... By Sending Them to School

Somehow, I don't think we'd be having this discussion if Carrie's kids' teachers invited John Thune to talk to the class.

Hello, Carrie Pederson of Sioux Falls. I'm sure you'll find this post unfair, insulting, and mean. But when you use the public airwaves to say stupid things, you must expect public criticism.

What stupid thing did you say? In reference to President Barack Obama's upcoming speech to America's schoolkids, you offered this utterly silly argument:

"I don't like the idea that he's going to speak directly to the children and we don't know what's going to be said," Sioux Falls parent Carrie Pederson said.

Um, Carrie? Do you know what happens in school? There are a bunch of scary adults called teachers who speak directly to your children every day. And you probably have less idea of what those teachers are going to say on any given day than you do of what the President plans to say Tuesday. (Quick quiz: tell me what your kids' teachers will say in school Wednesday.) At any moment, one of those teachers could start spouting off propaganda to turn your defenseless children into Darwinists or anarchists or (horrors!) docile employees who don't challenge authority.

And what sort of accountability is there for these so-called teachers? Unlike the President, teachers don't have reporters following them everywhere they go. Unlike the President, who is selected in an excruciatingly long and brutal public selection process, teachers are reviewed and hired behind closed doors by a handful of people.

What kind of a parent are you to surrender your children to these dangerous teachers? How can you get through each day knowing you've left your children unsupervised in the grip of such unchecked potential brainwashing?

Letting teachers speak directly to your children—unbelievable! unconscionable! I'll bet you're the kind of parent who lets other adults speak directly to your kids without any supervision, like Sunday school teachers, police officers, and giant corporations (how many ads for Pepsi, Coke, Nike, Hollister are your poor brainwashed children subjected to every day?). You might as well tell your kids to run with scissors while you're at it.

----------------------
By the way, Carrie, David Brooks considers your concerns over the upcoming Presidential address "totally unrealistic and insane."

New New Media Coming to Eastern South Dakota

My Web-Spidey sense is all a-tingle! We've got at least a couple new online news ventures coming our way in September:

• ThePostSD.com: My social mediarologist friends at 9Clouds Twittered about their upcoming venture Monday. Their Facebook page promises an "online alternative newspaper that focuses on the rich and unique culture of Eastern South Dakota." I am intrigued!
• Also under development: The Dell Rapids Area News. A WHOIS search shows the website is owned by Debra Henriksen, wife (I'm betting) of well-known South Dakota media dude and Sportscaster of the Year Mike Henriksen of SportsMaxRadio.com. The under construction page shouts local local local: "Local News, Local Happenings, Local Advertisers." Looks like someone is about to give the Argus-owned Dell Rapids Tribune some welcome competition. Saddle up!

Locally grown news—yahoo! So where's Joe Prostrollo nowadays?

Lake Herman Sanitary District Dodges Bullet on Constituent Info Sales

The Sioux Falls School District has gotten itself into hot water over selling the addresses of its constituents. And indeed, I must agree with Sioux Falls parent Shannon Barnes:

They tell them, you know, 'Don't post your personal information on Facebook. Don't post your personal information on MySpace. Don't give out your address. Don't even give out what school you go to,' And yet, they are selling these names and addresses [Shannon Barnes, quoted in "Complaint Alleges Names Could Fall into Wrong Hands," KSFY.com, 2009.08.25].

As Lake Herman Sanitary District president, I received a call earlier this summer from a salesman for a local retailer who asked if we would give him our address list so they could do some direct mail advertising. As noted in our minutes from last week's meeting, I declined to hand out that list. (At least Lawrence and I can agree on something! ;-) )

Of course, I hear the Lake Madison Sanitary District will sell you a copy of their address list for a reasonable fee. Porbably a good deal. Besides, Lake Madison folks spend more money, anyway—much better targets for an ad campaign.

I'm also happy to note that my current employer, Dakota State University, does not sell its student lists to commercial interests or anyone else. Heck, we aren't even printing a paper directory this year.

Another Big-Booze Republican Arguing Against Local Control

Republicans generally advocate local control. It's a logical position to take if you are against big government. Plus, it keeps you from having to think of solutions if you run for high office.

But the more I read, the more I think the only principle Republicans really adhere to is a baser Golden Rule: "Don't make rules; I want more gold!"

Today's case in point: Rick Law of Worldwide Holdings, Inc., is suing to overturn the Sioux Falls ordinance that allows the City Council to prohibit placing any new video lottery machines within 2000 feet of schools, parks, or existing video lottery machines. (Dang, even sexual offenders are allowed to get closer than that to schools, aren't they?)

Mr. Law, who already owns two "VIP Gaming Lounges" in Sioux Falls and Sioux City, is next in line for a $155K city liquor license, but he whines that there are no locations left in the city and that "The way the ordinance is written, the licenses are basically worthless." He thus turns to the courts, arguing that the city is usurping constitutional authority that can only be exercised by the higher powers in Pierre.

According to OpenSecrets.org, Mr. Law also contributed $1000 to Republican John McCain in 2008.

Local control is great for big-money Republicans... until the locals try to control their businesses.

Sanford-MeritCare HQ Set for Fargo; Greenway and Miller Draw Nice Checks

The kids at Sanford Health must have gotten the Sioux Falls jingle "Stay close go far" backwards: I read that the merged Sanford Health and MeritCare will put their corporate headquarters in Fargo. I think MeritCare and Sanford are both tax exempt, so corporate income tax won't bug them. But any corporate folks who move from Sioux Falls to Fargo will have the pleasure of contributing to North Dakota via individual income tax (and yet they move...).

While reading up, I did find it interesting to see how Sanford Health spends some of our money. Among the highlights from Sanford's 2007 Form 990:

• South-Dakota-born sports stars Chad Greenway and Mike Miller each made $60,000 as independent contractors. Drop by sports camps, cut a few ads, make 20% more than the median household in Minnehaha County made all that year. Nice work if you can get it.
• Legal fees: three quarters of a million. $501K to DavenportEvansHurwitzSmith, $224K to Alston Bird of Atlanta (come on... couldn't spend those dollars locally?)
• VP Mark Elliot got $331K in pay, $47K in benefits, and $7.5K in expenses for marketing. Marketing: not actually helping anyone who's sick, but just fidning ways to convince us when we get sick that we should come to not just any hospital, but his hospital.
• Amount spent on advertising: $3.2 million. (Amount Sanford originally resisted paying Joe and Missy Urbaniak for their son Cooper's cancer treatment: $400,000.)
• CEO Kelby K. Krabbenhoft drew $1,266,680 in salary, $121,950 in benefits, and $11,776 in expense account and etceterals.

Your health dollars at work.

Smithfield May Shutter John Morrell in Sioux Falls

The Sioux Falls John Morrell plant celebrated 100 years of chopping up pigs in its current location last May. Now, with the pork market declining, a Minneapolis commodities analyst says Morrell's owner Smithfield Foods could halt operations at its Sioux Falls and Sioux City plants. There's just too much pork being produced and not enough being eaten.

We'll do what we can about the demand side of that equation at the South Dakota Blogosphere Open House on July 25... but even if Hubba is really hungry, I don't think we'll single-handedly stave off a plant closing.

How bad is Smithfield's condition? The article an eager reader sends me notes that Smithfield reported its first yearly net loss since 1975 (–$190M, says Smithfield), due to higher grain-feed costs. Hmmm... anyone want to draw a connection to ethanol? (And remember: pork producers can't take advantage of ethanol byproducts as feed stock.)

----------------
Should Smithfield decide it needs to close operations at Morrell's, might Sioux Falls workers follow the lead of their French brothers in labor? Some French car parts workers are threatening to blow up their old factory if they don't get better severance packages from Renault and Peugeot. Yikes!

Euphemism Alert: KELO Re-Headlines Colin Steen/Storm Story

...or "GM Gets Headline Bailout"?

Tony Blair exaggerates how much I care about the Indoor Football League.

I care about this much (see photo) about the great tempest surrounding the IFL's Sioux Falls Storm. Stiffing its workers, cheating on sales tax, losing a lawsuit over shoddy astroturf... sounds like just another shady business breaking the rules to make a buck.

But what catches my eye this morning is KELO's gentle revision of its headline about the ouster of Storm general manager Colin Steen. Originally, the headline read, "Steen Out As Storm GM." (KELO did the caps, not me.) Simple, direct, honest.

According to a quick Google search (click image left for larger view, with my green highlighting), that headline went up at 5:36 p.m. 22 minutes later, KELO slapped a new headline on Don Jorgenson's story: "Storm's Colin Steen Pursues Other Opportunities."

Now I can't remember the exact text of the original story, nor can I find a cached version, but I'm pretty sure the text of the story was changed as well to include the "pursue other opportunities" euphemism.

My goodness: is a general manager who has fubarred his organization this badly really worth that much euphemism? Maybe corporate can't shake its marketing-speak, but must the media parrot such doubletalk?

Rain Helps Sioux Falls Conserve Water

Rain is the worst weather for bicycling, so I can do without all the splashy days we've been having this month. However, on the upside, a little rain can have a remarkable impact on municipal water usage. Kevin Smith of Sioux Falls Public Works tells KELO that the big city's water usage is currently at 25 million gallons a day. That's down from 33 million gallons a day last July. Wow—8 million gallons of water saved each day, a 25% reduction, mostly just by people not feeling the need to throw water on their manicured grass.

Now 25 million gallons a day is still a lot of water, about 150 gallons per Sioux Fallsian. Note that out here in the Lake Herman metroplex, the Madville Times world headquarters uses about 100 gallons a day... and that's with three people, including a thirsty and inefficient three-year-old.

So when July turns hot again and that grass shades toward brown, Sioux Falls, go easy on the sprinklers, and save some water for the rest of us.

Inter-City Bike Paths: Let's Roll!

Sioux Falls is looking at the possibility of extending its wonderful bike trail to connect with Tea, Harrisburg, and Brandon. Splendid! Give bicyclists more safe and practical places to ride, and you'll see more people become bicyclists. You'll also see more bike business and tourism.

Sioux Falls's intercity bike intentions hearken to my own proposal for a Lower Big Sioux Watershed Trail connecting Madison, Dell Rapids, and other locales here on the gently rolling southeast South Dakota prairie. Let's get those pavers and two-wheelers rolling!

Keep the RV: We'll Take the Smart Car!

My wife and I first saw the Smart car on the streets of Vancouver BC in 2005. Cute, tiny, and available as a convertible, it represents the direction GM ought to go if it wants to sell cars to the world: smaller, cheaper, more fuel-efficient, using less resources and less space. I know, it's no good for hauling your ice shack in a blizzard, but for 90% of the trips that 90% of us Americans make, it's all the car we need.

So we got excited when we saw a Smart car in Sioux Falls yesterday:

Whoo-hoo! A fellow American taking the lead toward smaller, smarter transportation!

Oh. Oops. Still American.

But hey, it's better than those RVs towing Escalades.

By the way, the Smart car was marked with the logo of LiddleKidz.com, whose Tina Allen was in Sioux Falls over the weekend to conduct an infant massage certification course.

Smut Peddler Faces Lawsuit for Sexual Assault

Speaking of objectification, a Sioux Falls smut shop owner is facing two lawsuits for sexual harassment and sexual assault. Two former female employees say David Eliason, owner of Annabelle's porn house in Sioux Falls and Olivia's pull-off-and-____-off rest area in Tea, tried to practice what he peddles with them, creating a less than optimal work environment. Last month, Judge Kathleen Caldwell heard from two women (likely the same, though I can't confirm that from my reading this morning) and found their stories sufficiently believable to grant a five-year protection order to keep Eliason away.

Eliason, of course, says the women's claims are "100 percent false."

Hmm... let's see: guy makes his living selling sex toys and portraying women as objects of sexual gratification. Guy gets sued for treating actual women who work for him the same way. Should we be surprised?

Eliason's chosen occupation makes clear his view of women's proper role in society. The trial and his lawyer's defense strategy promise to be equally disgusting.

Good Citizen Journalism: Hudson Covers KAUR Broadcast Shutdown

Hat tip to South Dacola!

Sioux Falls blogger Scott Hudson provides something no other area media have: a full, detailed account of why Augustana radio station KAUR is shutting down its broadcast signal and switching entirely online operations. Hudson has a passion for good music and the local music scene. He was also a DJ for KAUR for 18 years and even enjoyed a stint as its music director back in the 1980s.

Disappointed with the thin coverage the matter received in the professional press, Hudson goes to KAUR general manager Tom Prochazka to get the straight poop. Hudson provides a lengthy interview transcript that tells how the decision was announced to the staff and gives the reasons cited by Augie Dean Mark Braun for the station's mission change:

1. low student listenership and preference for online radio
2. lack of student DJs
3. no fit for KAUR in the curriculum
4. physical space
5. worries the FCC could fine Augie into bankruptcy for one naughty word
6. possibility of leasing the frequency to MPR or the Catholic Diocese

Prochazka tells Hudson that the move online results in a serious reduction of potential listeners:

The drawback with streaming is the royalty and licensing fee schedule. In order to stay within our budget, we would have to limit subscriptions to an average maximum of 212. There is some wiggle room here but the math works out that 212 people listening 24 hours a day would be just under a consumption level requiring a higher fee. 213 people would put us into the next category. So, access to over 300,000 potential listeners by broadcast or access to under 300 listeners via stream? Why not 300,300+ by both? [Tom Prochazka, interviewed by Scott Hudson, "Augie's Bonehead Decision Regarding KAUR," Rant-A-Bit, 2009.05.19]

Yikes—I didn't realize the added complication of calculating royalties online. I'd like to think that, as portable Web-enabled devices become more common, we could all listen to KAUR and other radio stations online just as easily as we can listen to the standard AM and FM broadcasts on our radios (and think about this: what do you have in your backpack or pocket more often, a cell phone or a radio?). But online broadcasts just can't reach as many people at once as a good radio signal.

Hudson offers his own commentary, noting the importance of a broadcast signal for catching new listeners and introducing them to new music. After all, it's a lot easier for a casual Sioux Falls listener to scan the entire radio dial and discover KAUR than it is to scan the entire Internet. Hudson notes that a campus radio station is a great learning experience, regardless of whether it fits in a specific academic program. Hudson also points out that KAUR is one of Augie's best community outreach efforts.

I do look forward to being able to listen to KAUR here at Lake Herman, right alongside my favorite online radio station for new non-top-40 music, Alberta's CKUA. But Mr. Hudson is right: Augustana College and Sioux Falls are losing a good cultural resource in KAUR's over-the-air broadcasts. Let's hope that Augie can at least find a broadcaster like MPR to lease the station and fill the gap with some good music.

And let's hope Mr. Hudson keeps up the good citizen journalism.

Sioux Falls Seeks Bicycle-Friendly Designation; Could Madison Follow?

Leather or spandex—wasn't that a Stevie Nicks song?

While the state puts together a new motorcyle-industry-funded propaganda organ to fluff up some scientific looking numbers on the value of the Sturgis rally, Sioux Falls is looking to promote that other form of two-wheeling. Thom Gabrukiewicz (we need more reporters with names like that) of that Sioux Falls paper reports that the city is applying for official Bike Friendly Community status through the League of American Bicyclists. City planner Sam Trebilcock says the designation will be good publicity and will help the city will help the city map its assets and plan improvements.

Perhaps Madison's new recreation trail commissioner, Nick Abraham (darn! no pic on the city web yet!), can take a swing at promoting Madison by getting our fair city involved in the Bike Friendly Community application process. The criteria for qualifying—the Five E's—look like good goals for any community:

1. Engineering: what we build to support bicycling, like bike lanes and multi-use paths in the community (in, not just out on the edge).
2. Education: providing safety information and teaching cyclists and motorists how to get along.
3. Encouragement: signs, maps, community events, bike clubs.
4. Enforcement: bike cops, fair enforcement of rules for motorists and cyclists, clear bike laws.
   
5. Evaluation & Planning: basing city actions on data and clear plans.

The only place I get antsy about meeting those criteria is under enforcement: the LAB encourages helmet laws. Cycling Puritans will wail, but I still can't bring myself to mandate puttign on the hat.

Otherwise, fulfilling the standards of the Bike Friendly Community designation would be a progressive project for Madison. And its doable, even for small towns: the Bike Friendly Community master list for Spring 2009 includes some non-metropolitan places, such as...

• South Sioux City, Nebraska (population 11,925)
• Steamboat Springs, Colorado (pop. 9815)
• Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (significantly bigger than Madison at pop. 41,983, but too beautiful not to mention... and they have a city blog!)
  
• Liberty Lake (pop. 6344) and Port Townsend (pop. 8334) in Washington
• Sitka, Alaska (pop. 8883).

There's a summer project for you, Commissioner Abraham! Let's not let Sioux Falls beat us to becoming the first Bike Friendly Community in South Dakota!