Jodi’s Journal: It’s time for the ’20s to roar

What I’m about to say to begin a new year is the opposite of what I felt much of the last one.

It’s not even what I routinely feel right now.

But as I look to the second half of the 2020s, I feel more excited for the future of Sioux Falls than I have in probably the past 20 years.

Two decades ago, in the second half of the 2000s, the vision for Uptown at Falls Park had been cast — the first development that would forge a path toward Falls Park and all the appeal of living, working and visiting at its gateway.

Denny Sanford would make his first monumental gift to rename Sioux Valley Health System as Sanford Health — $400 million to jump-start research and fund multiple initiatives.

The exceptional Avera Prairie Center would start construction. Higher education would begin to take a stronger foothold in Sioux Falls. The downtown rail yard relocation would be cleared to become reality, and construction would start on a long-envisioned River Greenway.

Those investments formed a foundation that led us through the subsequent decades, and I think with the right leadership and vision we’re ready to do it again.

I used to attempt to make some annual predictions, but the fact is Sioux Falls has grown enough that we can’t view each year in a vacuum. The development activity and major projects we see today now take multiple years to come to fruition. There are incredible investments in infrastructure being made that will open up new growth areas and exciting ways I think the core of our city can continue to revitalize.

So while the past year was not overflowing with positive headlines, I just sketched out two months of stories I think we’ll be able to tell at SiouxFalls.Business. Many of them will involve multiyear endeavors, but the encouraging part is that they appear to be moving forward. There’s enough confidence from large organizations not just in the broader future but also in Sioux Falls that they’re once again willing to make pretty big bets on this community.

Our challenge in the coming year will be to capture that sense of energy and enthusiasm at the most micro of levels — in our small businesses and even down to individual professionals.

This has been the toughest year in a while for some small businesses, particularly those that depend on consumer spending. I want as many as possible to be around to enjoy the growth I think is coming, but I consistently feel a sense of fatigue from these owners. As one told me recently, her business is profitable — but at what cost?

I have no easy suggestion on this, try as I do to think through it and advocate for them. All I know is that retail in particular is a numbers game. The bigger the potential customer pool, the greater the chance of sales. That means we must as a community continue to invest in attracting people — things that appeal to residents and visitors.

I’m excited for a full summer of activity in our downtown, where the investments made over the course of decades are positioned to come to full fruition, from families enjoying Jacobson Plaza to visitors discovering our riverfront and abundant options for spending time at our local restaurants.

That said, I also suspect many of us are entering a new year with more on our plates than sometimes feels manageable. The first half of this decade has brought a clear change in how work gets done, and I think that’s only going to accelerate in the second half. I can relate to feeling like there’s more on your plate than you can tackle many days, and the pressure to evolve your skills to meet the future doesn’t help. But I think we’ve reached a point where there’s not going to be a choice much longer. That cliche about working smarter and not harder is one we’re going to have to reckon with given both the opportunities and disruption AI is presenting.

The good news is you’re in a community that’s showing every sign of continuing to move forward. Stick with us. That whole concept of the “roaring ’20s” just might end up materializing here.

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