Landlord ends 19 year Store 2 lease, which ends use of sign with city message July 1.

The main issue of course is use of our commercially zoned property, (back yard) just as we have for 18 years. This is fenced and screened from view to their specifications.

They have pronounced that the only thing we can use the $75,000 commercially zoned back yard for is to park licensed vehicles. We are not in the car business.

We think that is an unreasonable unconstitutional ban on our property use that is the same as taking our property, rendering it worthless to us.

We want to appeal that to the court system and here is the rub...they have set up so you CAN NOT do that. Read the site.

The second main issue is the City Harassing you free by responding to any vindictive neighbor that wants us harassed. We have a lot of properties and this has become so common from one party we can almost predict when and on what property his next phone call will be about.

Six months ago I sent a written notice to the city harassment department to please lay off such "requested" harassment for a couple of months until I got back from Australia and New Zealand. Harassing me from these free harassment requests by a neighbor, while I was gone upset my employees and please wait til I get back.......and they did not send any.... thanks fellas...

Now I am sending them one again to please hold off all harassment June and July, since I will be in Argentina and Brazil. Send as many fines and harassments as you want when I get back. Please do not harass my employees while I am gone.

NOW THE "UPDATE"

We are educating the public about this city abuse system, that many, not just us, are caught up in with no appeal. To do so we put a sign our Van.

That is Side issue Number One

They wrote us a ticket for our Van Sign (City Harassing You?) and saying we had to remove the sign from public parking view. We contest that and know how to and can easily win that in court...and so informed them... They have not proceeded. dropped....

Side Issue Number Two..

Wrote us a second ticket and fine while the first was going thru the "pretend" appeal system. Legally they can not do that... Informed them this was an illegal fine. We were set for a hearing on that and I flew 1200 miles for that hearing. with them knowing I was out of town, they only dropped the illegal ticket and hearing two hours before the hearing. Dirty pool.

Side Issue Number Three..

In the Argus Article about our city harassment, the following appeared". Jacobsen, a 78-year-old video store owner, landlord and online publisher, also has promoted his siouxfallsclassaction.com Web site on the West 12th Street Video Mania marquee and through signs on news racks he has distributed around town. The marquee sign, part of his business, can't be touched by the city, Jacobsen says, glee evident in his tone. "It's been there for years," he says. "That must be a source of irritation to them."   End of Argus quote...

When the city wants something changed at a property they do not contact the tenant. (we are a tenant at the 12th Street Store.) They contact the owner, landlord, so to speak, when they want changes made.

We have been renting there 19 years, never been behind on the rent, and the landlord sends us a notice, last Friday that he is ending our lease and we have to be out by July 1.

Guess that gets the "City Harassing You? message off the sign. You figure it out.

Side Issue Number Four

At one time we had as many as 120 newspaper vending machines stored in our back yard over the winter, and lately it has been 30 to 35, we whittled it down last August.

The city says we can no longer have these machines in our back yard.

Now that the weather has turned decent we are working on the them as time permits, ( we also have 700 plus more in six states we are also refurbishing in six states in the good weather)

As we rehab these we are putting them on Sioux Falls Sidewalks with our City Harassing and our eight other regularly published newspapers. Eight of them have already been put on city sidewalks with the City Harassment papers, were they do not attract rodents and children do not get hurt on them as they allege they do in our back yard.

Ten of them are going to our FRONT yard were we do not like the looks of them, but they say it is illegal in our back yard, they ARE legal selling papers in our front yard.

The remaining 15 will legally go on Sioux Falls city sidewalks as we get them rehabbed. That way they do not have to be ILLEGALLY stored in our back yard and they may even sell a few papers. We know the "City Harassing You?" paper has circulation and we try to update it regularly.

We know how to defend our constitutional right to distribute our views and ideas on the public sidewalk. No problem there.

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