March 14, 2021

A purple city.

I don’t remember the exact context, but it clicked as soon as I heard Mayor Paul TenHaken say it sometime in the span of the past year.

It was in a news interview, I think a national one, describing what it was like trying to lead Sioux Falls.

A purple city. Clearly solid support politically for both red and blue if you look at the numbers.

Minnehaha County as of this month reported:

• 52,101 registered Republicans.
• 37,571 registered Democrats.
• 36,322 registered independents.

And this was Lincoln County:

• 20,924 registered Republicans.
• 9,766 registered Democrats.
• 10,790 registered independents.

When red and blue clash, we all know what it looks like. Like a nearly four-hour City Council meeting, for one thing.

It’s enough to make me think we’d be better off taking elected officials out of public health policymaking once a public health emergency is declared.

But I digress.

Because the point is not how the worst can happen in a purple city; it’s how the very best can happen when red and blue are able to blend.

When I launched Pigeon605.com six weeks ago – I had to go back and confirm this; it seems so unreal – I mentioned to those at our launch event that I saw this as a product for a purple city.

I wanted to create a place for stories that focused on people, events and issues that unify us, in contrast to the discourse and divisiveness that seems to permeate some media and social media.

And it has been rewarding to see that happen. We’ve told stories that I believed existed in this community but that have still amazed me as they surfaced. At least one every week has revolved around people coming together – often strangers – to literally change others’ lives.

I’ve connected with people who have stopped and saved the life of a fellow Sioux Falls resident they had never met. Multiple times.

I’ve talked with people who have come together to rally around individuals and families battling incredibly tough health situations.

We’ve introduced people with incredible personal stories overcoming a stack of odds.

We even showed you how a community came together to bring home a lost cat.

That’s all in six weeks. It makes me wonder how many other stories like these I’ve missed over the years. But mostly, it has reminded me of what a purple city really looks like.

I have no idea the political leanings of any of the people in the aforementioned stories; they were irrelevant. But I suspect red and blue came together on the side of the road while they rescued someone in need. I suspect they came together to support individuals and families in need. And, of course, to search for Elmore the cat.

And I wonder what more could happen if we as a community further embrace the power that can exist in a purple city.

It probably helped that I asked TenHaken this question before he was forced to make another controversial tie-breaking vote, but I wondered if he also thought being a purple city was a strength.

“I do,” he said. “Because you don’t have a leader who caters to one side of the aisle or the other. I’m trying to lead half Democrats, half Republicans or a third independents, so the policies that we put in place have to be for the entirety of the city. For one Sioux Falls.”

One Sioux Falls. He coined it as a mantra before anyone had heard of COVID-19. It seems especially fitting coming out of it.

But the diversity of ideas and experiences, the balance of perspectives that it takes to reach a “one Sioux Falls” approach is where I see its greatest strength.

It’s far from easy, but fostering that unity should be the task that we ask of our leaders and of ourselves.

It very well could be the final ingredient that helps us harness the already incredibly strong future that appears to be taking shape.

“I want to position us for just an incredible rebound,” TenHaken said to me when we talked earlier this month.

“And that means helping our tourism economy get back on track, it means getting people in the community comfortable with visiting attractions and businesses they haven’t maybe darkened the doors of for the last year and continuing to build confidence in the great work our law enforcement does with community policing.”

This is going to be the year of the recovery for Sioux Falls, he continued.

“And we’re well on our way. I wouldn’t trade our position in Sioux Falls with the position of any other city. I think we’re in the best spot we can be right now.”

It’s hard to disagree with him. And it has never been a better time to put the power of a purple city to work.