TenHaken talks optimism, challenges ahead of State of the City address

Want a sense of the excitement Mayor Paul TenHaken feels in Sioux Falls as spring approaches? Take a look at this.

It’s the latest rendering of the next phase of downtown River Greenway development, scheduled to begin construction later this year.

Alongside it, more than a half-billion dollars in public and private investment is coming in the next two years.

There will be a new destination hotel, hundreds of apartments, condominiums, office space and retail ahead – and that’s just on the private side.

City government is planning major improvements to the Sixth Street bridge, Phillips Avenue, Falls Park and the Seventh Street cul-de-sac that leads to the Arc of Dreams over the Big Sioux River.

The energy and vibrancy shown in the greenway rendering in many ways could symbolize the state of the community.

“If there’s a word I would have to use right now in Sioux Falls, it’s ‘optimistic.’ I think there’s just optimism,” said TenHaken, whose first mayoral term has included plenty of reasons that would not have necessarily fit that until now.

Two years ago nearly to the day, the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Minnehaha County.

Rewind the clock two years, and imagine someone told you “all this was going to happen,” he continued.

The pandemic, the resulting divisiveness, population shifts, a social justice movement.

If someone had told him all that, and then that by spring of 2022 “we would have 19 percent year-over-year (sales tax) growth and 1.8 percent unemployment, I’ll take it times 10,” he said. “We were preparing for businesses to close, for 30 percent vacancy on Phillips Avenue; we just thought it would be terrible. So because we weathered it the way we have, there’s a lot of optimism.”

That’s not to discount the lengthy list of challenges the community faces, he said.

“We have day care issues, historically low unemployment, housing challenges,” he said. “I don’t want to make it sound like I have rose-colored glasses on.”

Both the good news and the tough stuff will be themes of the annual State of the City address scheduled for 8 a.m. Wednesday at the Sioux Falls Convention Center.

The event will reflect a subtle but significant shift TenHaken is bringing forward as he attempts to secure a second term. He faces Taneeza Islam and David Zokaites as challengers on the April 12 ballot.

“I really see that the theme of the next four years is kids, the continued investment we’re going to be making in kids and families,” he said.

The State of the City will begin with a panel discussion involving representatives of the Mayor’s Youth Council, a group of high school students that began meeting this school year to learn about the community and give input on key issues.

The speech will follow and touch on themes such as how the city is investing and plans to commit more resources toward the needs of kids and families. It’s reflected in this updated One Sioux Falls framework, which includes the priority area.

“Certain kids don’t have the same opportunities kids in other ZIP codes do,” TenHaken said. “We typically (in city government) say that’s not our lane. That’s the school district or JDC, and no. These are very much city issues.”

The speech also is expected to touch on what TenHaken calls “sustainable growth” amid record population increases.

“Sustaining the infrastructure and the cops and the water and the road network and the housing,” he said. “All these pieces that are going with record growth. I think that’s first and foremost what people are concerned about. How are we going to keep the wheels on a car that’s going 90 miles per hour?”

Expect him also to touch on what he considers successes of the past year: The Link community triage center, the collaboration with Dakota State University to bring an applied research lab and create a cybersecurity campus in Sioux Falls, and the approval of the Public Safety Training Campus.

And TenHaken will introduce some new faces in town, giving a sense of the changing makeup of the community.

“We’re highlighting people who have moved here, people who have graduated and moved back, people in our diverse communities,” he said. “Their stories are what will resonate with people.”