Happy Friday! Megan here.
Weather check: Warming up
✅ Member check: Now is a really great time to buy in to smarter, easier local news – especially if you found value in the election coverage from Sioux Falls Simplified.
This week, you'll find a closer look at how Sioux Fallsians voted (and where folks leaned red or blue). There's also a fair amount of city news, including new downtown parking rates and a first look at a future indoor playground.
And now, news:
2026 SD ELECTION
Analysis: What the Midterms show about Sioux Falls' politics
Simplified: South Dakota didn't quite see the "blue wave" much of the country saw Tuesday night, but what results do show is an increasing "purple-ing" in the state's most populous city. Here's a closer look at not only voter turnout in Sioux Falls, but also the partisan lean of each precinct.
Why it matters
- Voter turnout statewide hit historic lows in the general election compared to previous general elections (Great analysis from Searchlight's Makenzie Huber here.) But compared to the June primary, about twice as many ballots were cast in Sioux Falls.
- And while the majority of registered voters still aren't participating in local elections, turnout on Tuesday did paint a picture of the politics of Sioux Falls and the geographical divide in our city as the core tends to lean blue and the outer ring tended to lean red.
- Sioux Falls Simplified analyzed turnout data from the Secretary of State to determine the partisan slant of each precinct in Sioux Falls. That data also shows that more precincts lean Democrat (43 out of 79 analyzed here), but overall voter turnout trends higher in Republican precincts.
- Only four Republican-leaning precincts saw a low voter turnout – defined as less than 45% of registered voters casting a ballot.
Show me the data
SIMPLIFIED PRESENTS
Sioux Falls to host major Midwest studies conference
This is a paid piece from the Augustana University Center for Western Studies.
Simplified: The Midwest tends to slip through the cracks when people talk politics, art, history and culture. The Lost Region Recovery Project is looking to buck that trend by bringing nationally recognized scholars together for three days of conversation in Sioux Falls later this month.
Why it matters
- The Lost Region Recovery Project Conference launched last year as a partnership between Augustana University's Center for Western Studies and Middle West Review and was funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This year's theme is "Turning 250: The View from the Midwest," and the event will run Nov. 19-21 in Sioux Falls.
- The conference will bring big-name speakers, including Politico's Jonathan Martin and Wall Street Journal's Pamela Paul, throughout three days of thoughtful conversations on how the Midwest has evolved over the last 250 years through history, politics, food, art, music and more.
- Additionally, the conference will feature the world premiere of a new documentary film, "Somewhere in the Middle: Finding the American Midwest," created by a local filmmaker in collaboration with the same three entities hosting the conference.
"The Midwest slips through the cracks," said Jon Lauck, director of the Center for Western Studies. "This is an effort to bring the national gaze to the center of the country and to get people to hear our stories. We get ignored too much."
Tell me more
TL;DR
Super Simplified Stories
- The top pork prize. Maribella Ristorante's "PLUMA" pork dish took home the top prize in the Downtown Pork Showdown. In total, 26 restaurants participated, and more than 5,000 pork dishes were sold as part of the annual month-long event.
- Council defers liquor license renewal. The City Council on Tuesday voted to defer a final decision on renewing the liquor license for Smokin' Deals at 1600 E. 10th Street after a few neighbors expressed concerns about alcohol being sold to people who are already visibly intoxicated and proliferating public drinking in the area. Representatives from the business said they are not selling to people who are already drunk, and city officials reported few complaints at that location. The council voted to take a bit more time to dig into the data before deciding one way or another.
- Sioux Falls schools to expand junior kindergarten. More students are showing up to kindergarten unprepared, district officials said during a work session on Wednesday, and so Sioux Falls schools are looking to expand to a full-day junior kindergarten program at 15 elementary schools next fall. The ultimate goal is to improve literacy rates and help kids more quickly catch up to grade-level by giving them a year of junior kindergarten before jumping into actual kindergarten. More information is expected in the coming months.
- A new indoor playground. Sioux Falls City Council on Wednesday took the first step in approving a $500,000 donation to fund an indoor playground at the new Frank Olson Recreation Center. The funds, from donors Paul and Mary Ellen Connelly, will be used for "Margie’s Tree House Playground." Design for the entire Frank Olson project is set to be completed yet this winter, and construction is expected to kick off in the spring with final completion in the spring of 2029. Here's a rendering of that indoor playground:
CITY
What to know about changing parking rates downtown
Simplified: Parking on Phillips Avenue is likely to be more costly – as is the cost of a parking ticket – after the City Council this week approved changes to the city's parking ordinance. Here's what you need to know about the changes.
Why it matters
- These changes have a couple of goals. One, the city wants to see parking turn over more often on busy downtown streets because more cars means more people means more money being spent.
- And two, the city hasn't increased parking fee caps in more than a decade, and Finance Director Shawn Pritchett said these changes are needed to make sure the city's public parking fund can remain self-sustaining.
- Parking fees on Phillips Avenue are set to increase to $1.75 per hour (up from $1.50 per hour currently), and the hourly rate to park in the 10th street mural parking ramp as well as the 1A ramp across the street will go down to $0.75/hour.
- Changes also have the support of downtown business owners and residents, several of whom spoke in favor of the ordinance change on Wednesday night at the council meeting. That includes Nancy Savage, owner of Child's Play Toys, who said reduced fees in the ramps will help both her employees and her customers.
"Reducing the price in the garage, I think, is one of the most genius things," Savage said. "And I don’t know why we didn't think of it before because it will definitely get people moving from Phillips to the ramp."
Tell me more about the changes
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Megan Raposa
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Thank you to Sioux Falls Simplified sponsors, including SafeSplash Swim School, Wayne & Mary's Nutrition Center, Startup Sioux Falls, Encompass Mental Health, the Sioux Falls YMCA, EmBe, the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, Barre3 Sioux Falls, the Sioux Falls Zoo and Aquarium, the Washington Pavilion, The Premiere Playhouse, The Good Night Theatre Collective and the Sioux Metro Growth Alliance. When you support them, you're also supporting Sioux Falls Simplified.
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