(Editor's note: This is just one part of a series of stories about local candidates in the upcoming June 2 primary, municipal and school board election. Find more coverage here.)
Simplified: One of Mayor Paul TenHaken's big initiatives in his final term as mayor was an effort to purchase land downtown – the Riverline District – as a proposed site for a new convention center. That plan is on pause, but the city still owns the land for the time being. Sioux Falls Simplified asked each City Council candidate for their thoughts on a downtown convention center.
Here's what we asked:
Do you support building a new convention center downtown?
Here's how candidates answered (in alphabetical order):
Zach DeBoer
*Note:I forgot to ask Zach about this, but I'll get a response as soon as possible.
Tommy Kunz
"I would say at this point, I wouldn't really support any more convention centers," Kunz said. "We already have the Denny. We have the Arena that are mostly sitting empty a lot of the times of the year, and I fear if we build another one, we'll have another one that kind of sits empty for most of the year."
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Matthew McKinley
McKinley did not respond to multiple calls and emails requesting an interview.
Zak Okuwe
Okuwe said he sees how a new convention center could help the community.
"But at the same time, I hear a lot of complaints," he said. "People don't want it built on the back of taxpayers. We're continuing to increase our budget, but we're not getting enough (revenue) in.
"And there's just all these unfinished projects – where there's the (10th Street) parking ramp. So ,how can we begin to finish things and begin seeing results before we move on to the next project? It's just another thing that we have to just approach with an open mind to listen to the voters, to listen to constituents, to truly listen to what they want and approach it from different perspective before we move on."
Bob Trzynka
Trzynka said he's long supported a downtown convention center.
"That being said, I don't think the Riverline District is currently the right location for it," he said. "There are too many question marks there about how we fund it, how deal with it, how we get access to it. I think, you know, potentially that's one of the questions that we ask as we build out the Sanford District (in the current Smithfield site)."
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