Jodi’s Diary: A neighborhood cautionary tale about the “shaping” of Sioux Falls

25 August 2024

My earliest memory of grocery shopping was at a store called Pick-N-Pay.

I doubt that’s the reason for the name – it was basically a traditional neighborhood grocery store – but I remember it being filled with a series of large barrels filled with things like nuts, candy, and other bulk items that you could bag, weigh, select, and pay for – that made sense to me.

Pick-N-Pay was located at 98th Street and Lorain Road in Cleveland, just a short walk from the house where I spent my first year of life.

Note that this photo was taken several decades before I was born, but to describe the scenery, here it is:

The store had long been on a prominent corner of a desirable neighborhood—think Cathedral meets McKennan Park, with a few entry-level homes like the one my parents had been so excited about. The neighborhood was centered around a church and an attached school, and a boulevard rounded out the ambience.

But my parents sensed that things were changing. They began to worry about the safety and quality of education—especially looking 18 years into the future. So they took what was then a big step: They became the first in the family to move to the “burbs”—a community about a 20-minute drive down the highway from the corner grocery store where I would later graduate from high school.

In the first few years after the move, my parents still went to the old neighborhood to go to church and even to buy groceries. But habits change over time, of course. And they weren’t the only ones. Pick-N-Pay closed in 1985. Another grocery store briefly took its place. Then a drugstore, if I remember correctly.

I don’t remember when it closed, but the building was most recently known as the Westshore Opportunity Center, a county facility that provides employment and social services to residents.

But that too will change.

Last week, I learned that the Greater Cleveland Food Bank has purchased the building and will establish a hunger center there in 2026. Residents will have to prove they live at or below 200 percent of the poverty line, and then they can “shop” for food in a format similar to a grocery store like this one.

Let that sink in for a moment, as I did while I processed it. In about two generations, a grocery store on a central corner of a neighborhood became a food bank.

And if you think that can’t happen here, it’s time to wake up.

Recently I reported on the upcoming Shape Sioux Falls comprehensive planning process that will extend to the year 2050. I believe this will be the third, if not fourth, that I have been involved in in one way or another.

The first time was in the early 2000s when I had the privilege of working in city government. I always saw that time and the years that followed in the media as an opportunity to be a voice for what I believe can happen as cities mature and core neighborhoods suffer – because I saw it in my hometown.

But this year, for the first time, I cringed a little at the prospect of identifying even more sites with different zoning and density as we expand even further into the outskirts of Sioux Falls. This planning is, of course, necessary because those who want to drive development here need a roadmap for how the city will support growth through urban infrastructure and services.

So I asked a question about it. I asked whether, in addition to determining future land use, this plan also takes into account the possible redevelopment of existing areas, even if this is not the main focus of the planning.

I was told that part of the plan (you can read the story here) was that under-used areas would be identified and that the public would be able to comment on the issue.

And that’s a good start. But as long as the city continues to make significant investments in infrastructure development in the outskirts, development will likely take the path of least resistance. It’s far easier and more lucrative to convert farmland into residential areas, with apartments on one corner and a supermarket/gas station on the other, than it is to transform a core area into new residential and commercial projects that complement the existing neighborhood while also preparing it for the future.

I think of Perch, the undeniable success story at the corner of Ninth Street and Grange Avenue that’s so popular I haven’t even ventured into the crowds to try it out. Converting this historic grocery store into a cafe cost a tremendous amount per square foot, but thanks to a public-private partnership, the neighborhood now has an asset that will appreciate in value for decades.

As a community, we must look inward as much as outward in 2050. We must commit to strengthening our older neighborhoods—and that currently means everything north of 41st Street—and we must insist that our business community, our local government, and our school districts work together to make that happen.

If we don’t, there’s a corner on the west side of Cleveland that could manifest itself multiple times in this community. We have the advantage of being able to learn from cities that developed in different ways decades before us. Let’s not miss their message.

How you can help shape Sioux Falls for 2050