Ol' Pete Is Right. Sioux Falls Has to Stay a City for Everybody.
Vince’s parents, Quang & Quynh are refugees of the Vietnam War who moved to Sioux Falls in 1993. They’ve owned different restaurants over the years, raising and educating their three sons in the community.
Patrick Lalley published a piece yesterday about a guy named Pete — a weathered, no-nonsense working man who sat down at the Orion Pub and said something that stopped me cold.
"There has to be a way for families to work their way up. People have been coming here from all over the world for a chance to start over."
I know that story. I lived it.
My Dad Went to Smithfield First
My parents moved to Sioux Falls in 1993 because they read it was the best place to start a business. But before they could start anything, they needed a chance to prove themselves.
Smithfield was that chance.
My dad was a war refugee. No formal education. No networks. No safety net. Smithfield gave him a paycheck, a foothold, and enough stability to eventually build something of his own. The work was hard. But it was honest — and for our family, it was a pathway to dignity.
That phrase matters to me. Dignity isn't just about wages or benefits. It's about knowing your work is valued. It's about having somewhere to go every day that makes a life possible. For countless families in this city — immigrants, refugees, people starting over with nothing — that plant has been exactly that.
What This Decision Was Really About
The City Council's vote on Smithfield's relocation wasn't just a TIF approval. It was a question about what kind of city we want to be.
Moving the plant off the riverfront isn't abandoning the workers. Done right, it's an investment in them. A modern, safe facility says to every person on that floor that their work matters and that this city is still building for them. It preserves the jobs that have given generations of working families their first real foothold. And it opens a new chapter for the riverfront and the surrounding neighborhoods at the same time.
That's not choosing growth over people. That's recognizing that for a lot of people in this city, the jobs are the people.
Pete's Real Point Was Bigger
What Pete was really saying — and what gets lost in the policy debate — is that a city that stops making room for hard work stops being a city for everybody.
Desk jobs and innovation corridors are great. We should chase them. But a Sioux Falls that only works for people with degrees and connections isn't the Sioux Falls that gave my family a shot. And it's not the Sioux Falls I'm running to build.
Equal Opportunity means the benefits of growth reach every worker, every neighborhood, every family willing to put in the work. It means we don't build a shiny future at the expense of the people whose hard work made this city what it is.
Sioux Falls gave my family a pathway to dignity. I want that same path to stay open for every family that comes after us.
— Vince Danh
Candidate, Sioux Falls City Council At-Large | June 2nd, 2026