July 2, 2023

The question had been on my mind for months, and I knew I had the perfect opportunity to ask it.

A group of us toured construction progress at the downtown Steel District recently, the massive development adjacent to Falls Park being developed by Lloyd Cos.

Fortunately for me, the true expert on all things Lloyd Cos. happened to be touring alongside me.

Pat Lloyd.

“So,” I said to her, “whose idea was it to put up the flag?”

She smiled.

“Oh, that was Craig’s idea,” she said.

It was yet one more reminder that while her company co-founder and husband might split time between Sioux Falls and warmer locales, he’s still dialed into plenty of details around here. And still full of ideas.

So when he and I had lunch recently, after tackling a list of other topics I needed to fire away at him, I saved this one for last.

“So one more thing,” I said to him. “That flag at The Steel District. I heard it was your idea.”

Let me back up for a minute.

I don’t remember the first time I noticed the flag, hanging from the unfinished parking ramp that was the first structure to rise up at The Steel District.

I just remember how seeing it there against a symbol of progress actually made me feel good about the country at a time when it’s sometimes easier to focus on what I wish were different.

Lloyd told me, fittingly, he thinks it went up a year ago around the Fourth of July.

“I was thinking, ‘We don’t have a flag there,'” he said. “And I think we’re patriotic. So I went out to Maximum Promotions and said, ‘What’s the biggest flag you’ve got?'”

He ended up buying one on the spot that owner Mark Nelsen estimates was 20-by-30 feet.

Nelsen can give all the stats when it comes to size by the way. The biggest flags in the state, 40-by-80 feet, are flown at Camping World. His own store has a 30-by-60, as do a few other businesses in town.

Around the time of the pandemic — and he speculates maybe because of federal relief dollars — he sold several 80-foot flagpoles to businesses.

Shortly after his purchase, Lloyd realized “I didn’t have a pole,” he said.

“The only place we had to put it was the parking ramp.”

Frequently, people will ask how he came up with the idea. But, idea guy that he is, it popped into his head and wasn’t part of any big plan.

Of the many conversations Lloyd and I have had, I can’t remember one that really ventured into politics. And yet, I know we’re enough alike to know that we both have voted enthusiastically for members of both parties to represent us over the years and would continue to do so if the quality of candidate warranted it.

So this wasn’t any kind of political statement. It was, as he said, about patriotism. The kind of patriotism that allows a person to support either party or any candidate with a strong vision for the future and the capacity to execute it.

Fittingly, Craig and Pat Lloyd are a wonderful example of the proverbial American dream. They came to Sioux Falls in 1972 to manage an affordable housing rental community. Before they became owners of a leading development, construction, commercial real estate and property brokerage firm, they built homes in the early 1980s when few were gutsy enough to figure it out, then built screen doors and cleaned apartments so they could pay their employees and lenders.

I think about the flag provider itself too. Nelsen started Maximum Promotions in 1982 as a way to pay for college by producing a redesigned football jersey.

This year, the harsh winter brought a tough start to 2023, but “it’s really picked up nicely,” he said. “We’re making sales calls all over the state and have some really good projects brewing.”

Thanks to his ingenuity and adaptability, the legacy of his career literally flies across this entire state every day.

When you travel around wearing a badge that says “flagpoles,” you can tell pretty quick when people aren’t feeling good about the country and when they’re more open to showing their patriotism, Nelsen told me.

“Then, they at least think about it. They’re looking for a chance to make a statement, and that statement is: ‘I’m proud of this country. We have our flaws, we’re openly admitting it, but I plan on standing up for what that flag means.'”

The flag, of course, takes on individual meaning based on our own experiences.

I thought about that this week in the context of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action in higher education. That’s its own column, of course, but fundamentally my own experience has left me with the impression that inequity in higher education also has much to do with socioeconomic backgrounds and the resulting advantages or disadvantages they provide.

I listened to a commentary after the decision that addressed as much, including a quote along the lines of “It’s really hard to be born rich in America and end up poor. And it’s really hard to be born poor and end up rich.”

I found it hard to argue the point. And yet, still, every time I drive by that flag at The Steel District, I think about the many exceptions to that notion. I think about the new Americans I’ve met who have become successful business owners. I think of the entrepreneurs I know will locate their own businesses at this development, some established and some brand-new but all the result of risk-taking and work ethic. I think about the people who will be able to afford to live in this prime real estate, thanks to their own hard work and resulting success.

It’s not a level playing field. Not even close. But still, work hard, treat people well, and the odds of working your way up, I venture to guess, are better here than anywhere in the world.

The more I thought on it, the more appropriate a flag displayed on that development became.

A work in progress.

When you think about it, in this moment in time, that’s about as symbolic as it gets.

The development is a work in progress. The city is. The country is. We all are.

But, unlike many in this world, we’ve been given the freedom to figure it out.

If you head downtown for the festivities this Fourth of July, don’t forget to drive or walk by that flag. I bet you’ll be glad you did.