Simplified: Sioux Falls is home to dozens (scores? hundreds?) of nonprofits and community groups. Here's a look at some of the big items those groups are working together on in 2023, as well as a few other community-specific issues.
Why it matters
- Sioux Falls is so much more than city government and businesses. There's an entire community of folks working to help solve systemic societal issues and make this city a better place.
- Even beyond the nonprofit world, there are community trends worth watching in the coming year.
- From childcare to sustainability to the future of Airbnbs, here's a look at some Sioux Falls community-related stuff to watch in 2023.
What to watch:
Childcare
Childcare costs are largely unaffordable (and only increasing) for families, and meanwhile day care providers aren't able to pay staff competitive wages.
For the next few months, various community partners – largely coordinated by Sioux Falls Thrive – are working to support two people working full-time to find possible solutions to the area's childcare crisis.
- In the first couple months, a big focus of these two women – Rana DeBoer and Nicole Fluth – has been looking at ways to engage businesses in childcare discussions.
Megan Raposa
Sustainability
While this is on the "to watch" list for city government as well, it's also worth watching from a community standpoint.
An increasing number of nonprofits have popped up in the last year or so to emphasize the importance of everything from urban agriculture to composting to creating environmentally sustainable business practices.
- You've got SoDak Compost, IronFox Farms, the Urban Agriculture Coalition and Building Sustainable Connections as a start.
- Plus, there are more established groups like Friends of the Big Sioux River all working toward the same goal of a more sustainable Sioux Falls.
And, on the city government side, the community is expected to see a second draft of the citywide sustainability plan this spring.
Development
Ok, yes, this is a little more business-y than community/nonprofit-y, but it's still going to be an important thing to watch in 2023.
Sioux Falls is coming off of two years of seeing more than $1 billion in building permit valuations. Will that keep up as the economy shifts and construction expenses continue to rise?
And even if that $1 billion mark isn't attainable again, there's still a few big-time ongoing projects to watch, including the Steel District and Cherapa II downtown.
If you want a real business expert's thoughts on 2023 development – not just my tl;dr version, you're going to want to read this piece from Jodi Schwan at SiouxFalls.Business.
Airbnbs/short-term rentals
Sioux Falls now has hundreds of short-term rentals – a number that's gone up quite a bit in the last year or so, and officials at both the county and city are going to be looking at ways to rein them in in the coming months.
As those conversations happen, the Sioux Falls community will have to weigh the balance between keeping up with national travel trends (i.e. short-term rentals like Airbnb and other, similar apps) and making sure affordable housing stock isn't gobbled up into investment properties.
Is that all?
Of course not.
I learn about cool people doing cool things on a near daily basis, so there's no way to predict what kind of cool things Sioux Fallsians will get up to in 2023.
That said, these are some overarching themes you can expect to see headlines about.
Oh, and if you know some cool people doing cool things, send them my way: megan@sfsimplified.com.
