I think someone else mentioned that in the minds of many South Siders, regardless of the geographic reality, our downtown area is the "North Side" in their minds.

I can understand why. If you're familiar with our city's history you know that for all intents and purposes Capitol Hill was the "downtown" of the South Side. Even though that was a long time ago, I think that culturally that idea has been handed down generationally from the old timers.

The reality is that downtown, especially Bricktown, is used by people from all around the city. But like any large government project involving a substantial tax increase, at some point you have to ask yourself "what's in it for me." And while Bricktown is nice, throwing a constituency a bone to get them out to vote is even nicer. I think that the MAPS 3 vote could have been much more successful if it had included revitalization funds for several portions of the city (such as the Asian District, Paseo, Capitol Hill, and Stockyards City). That's just a political reality. It is arguable that not including these things was a bad decision though... since the MAPS supporters won, it can probably be argued that they got what they wanted and they didn't have to add on additional "pork" to do it. But at the end of the day, if finding some city unity is also a part of MAPS, I think this has been an opportunity squandered once again.