I noticed your comments on the Red Dirt Report Phi Alpha. I hope that they actually leave them up. They deleted mine.

Red Dirt Report took it to a whole new level, essentially comparing Shadid to the Pope. Shadid says holistic, "planning-centric paradigm" is key to OKC's future | Red Dirt Report (http://www.reddirtreport.com/red-dirt-politics/shadid-says-holistic-planning-centric-paradigm-key-okcs-future)

Here's my rub - I certainly agree that more planning and thought needs to go into the way our city develops. I just can't stand this campaign and the accusations and hysterics that are being thrown about.

I wasn't at the ULI event, so maybe I'm missing the context, but I don't agree with his understanding of new urbanism and the supposed problems it causes.

So Ed Shadid is talking about income inequality but he owns a house in Gaillardia (valued at over a million dollars), a condo in the Founders Tower (valued at approx $400k) and a house in the Greens (valued at around $300k)? Anyone else see a problem here?

Red Dirt Report took it to a whole new level, essentially comparing Shadid to the Pope. Shadid says holistic, "planning-centric paradigm" is key to OKC's future | Red Dirt Report (http://www.reddirtreport.com/red-dirt-politics/shadid-says-holistic-planning-centric-paradigm-key-okcs-future)

Here's my rub - I certainly agree that more planning and thought needs to go into the way our city develops. I just can't stand this campaign and the accusations and hysterics that are being thrown about.

I wasn't at the ULI event, so maybe I'm missing the context, but I don't agree with his understanding of new urbanism and the supposed problems it causes.

This part?

“And as much as I love New Urbanism, it has an Achilles heel. And that is sometimes practiced in a ‘top-down-developer fashion.’ It can lead to gentrification. It can lead to segregation. If you have tremendous investment and dollars in one geographic area and you’re not careful and take precautions to preempt the rising poverty levels and displacement of the poor and gentrification it can lead to segregation of the poor.”

Read mine, JTFs post following and my response specific to OKC here:

http://www.okctalk.com/general-civic-issues/33058-new-urbanism-library-2.html#post647170

I think we've whipped that horse a few other times and places on this forum too.

Just read this piece. Rick Cain is retiring because he wants to retire. Its not because of some internal conspiracy regarding transit. Geez...

double post

Fortunately, our city leaders are devising ways to incorporate affordable-rate housing into our downtown development. Also, OKC has bountiful land, we are not landlocked (like SF and NYC and DC), and we have entire square miles of industrial and blighted areas to be developed. In OKC's case, "gentrification" is not a dirty word, so Shadid's concerns on this front don't apply.

Fortunately, our city leaders are devising ways to incorporate affordable-rate housing into our downtown development. Also, OKC has bountiful land, we are not landlocked (like SF and NYC and DC), and we have entire square miles of industrial and blighted areas to be developed. In OKC's case, "gentrification" is not a dirty word, so Shadid's concerns on this front don't apply.

Specifically who and what ways?

Gentrification, since we live in a society that does not limit where people can live, which houses or apartments they specifically can buy, nor how much they can spend, is always happening somewhere. For some period of time, until a neighborhood is 100% gentrified, you actually have a lot of economic diversity. Certainly more than in housing developments in suburbs like Edmond. Not too much diversity in upscale neighborhoods in East Edmond. Imagine announcing you're building low cost housing in Oak Tree.

But, if you look at neighborhoods like Gatewood and even parts of Mesta Park, you see a lot of economic diversity. As areas gentrify schools there generally improve and it's good for everyone. Crime tends to decrease, which is good for all the children and families, regardless of income. Places like that generally have residents who are less afraid of lower cost options being available in their neighborhoods. Gentrification, as it is occurring, is not necessarily a bad thing. Watch Classen Ten-Penn over the next few years and tell me that what's happening there is bad for the residents.

I noticed your comments on the Red Dirt Report Phi Alpha. I hope that they actually leave them up. They deleted mine.

Just read the article. No comments. In fact, very few if any comments on most of the articles. I guess RDR doesn't garner the comments it wants.

Specifically who and what ways?

You must have missed the numerous discussions here about Steelyard, The Alliance's efforts to get affordable housing, the brouhaha recently about the Low Income Housing proposal in Midtown, etc.

I'm growing weary of conversing with you. You are starting to seem like a troll. It seems you ignore extensive conversations here that cite facts and plans on subjects -- like the conversations on lower and affordable rate housing -- and then just question everyone like you're some kind of prosecutor.

Not everything Ed Shadid says is going to be true. In fact, a great deal of it is hogwash. And not everything needs to be viewed from the prism of politics. Because Ed is trying to find any scab he can pick, he makes everything political, such as the departure of the city planners Sid Burgess references. It's exhausting.

Here are the facts: The Alliance for Economic Development is working to improve areas of Downtown that have been vacant and underutilized for almost half a century. They are trying to stimulate more retail, office, and residential development. Among their goals is to ensure that there are increased housing opportunities for dwellers with different incomes. This is happening.

I'm growing weary of conversing with you. You are starting to seem like a troll. It seems you ignore extensive conversations here that cite facts and plans on subjects --

Likewise. It's a large part of the reason I usually don't address your posts. (or those of some of your "bros")

Likewise. It's a large part of the reason I usually don't address your posts.

Well, you DID address my post with a question, which I answered. So what of that? Too many facts and not enough rhetoric for you? Or will you just deflect and change the subject since you can't score a cheap political point?

Do you swallow Ed's talking points without considering the fact he has an enormous political challenge: how to make a successful mayor look bad? You say you are supporting the mayor but you jump on every one of these canards with the enthusiasm of a gumshoe detective. Then, when it doesn't fit a damaging narrative, you slither away awaiting the next piece of rancid bait from the carnival barker.

I never made it past your highhorse name calling to get to the meat of it. But here you go, what I said back in the spring and just linked. Common knowledge by anyone studying the issue.

Exactly. Since we're all schooled that:

1. Gentrification drives out the lower and middle class.
2. The search for authenticity leads to the unauthentic or disneyfication.
3. Alternatives offered are disproportionate to the population demographic at large.
4. Alternatives are not well received and rarely implemented. Certainly not in Oklahoma.

thus, the results will be 1 and 2, an inauthentic disneyfied environment for the wealthy.

I never made it past your highhorse name calling to get to the meat of it. But here you go, what I said back in the spring and just linked. Common knowledge by anyone studying the issue.

Exactly. Since we're all schooled that:

1. Gentrification drives out the lower and middle class.
2. The search for authenticity leads to the unauthentic or disneyfication.
3. Alternatives offered are disproportionate to the population demographic at large.
4. Alternatives are not well received and rarely implemented. Certainly not in Oklahoma.

thus, the results will be 1 and 2, an inauthentic disneyfied environment for the wealthy.

OK. Let's just call the city then and tell them to cancel the affordable apartments being built with The Steelyard. Everything market rate from here on out. Your dogma is more relevant than actual proposals that are currently in development.

Just to be sure, that's what you're saying, right? There's no way for the city to authentically build housing that is affordable for non-rich people? Well, they're doing it, and the development is already under way, so according to your four points, it will not be well received and fail.

The facts are that many urban cities have had success with mixed-income developments, such as in DC, where they razed public housing projects and built developments that fit various price points. That's the way we used to build neighborhoods in this country. Not everything was minimum square footage (such as you see in suburban housing divisions) with different income groups segregated from each other.

Call me an idealist if you wish, but I see no reason why the Steelyard won't be a rousing success.

Do you swallow Ed's talking points without considering the fact he has an enormous political challenge: how to make a successful mayor look bad? You say you are supporting the mayor but you jump on every one of these canards with the enthusiasm of a gumshoe detective. Then, when it doesn't fit a damaging narrative, you slither away awaiting the next piece of rancid bait from the carnival barker.

^Typical Downtown Mick Cornett supporter.

^Typical Downtown Mick Cornett supporter.

^
I Don't live Downtown.

^
I Don't live Downtown.

I stand corrected, for my lack of grammar and clarity.


Do you swallow Ed's talking points without considering the fact he has an enormous political challenge: how to make a successful mayor look bad? You say you are supporting the mayor but you jump on every one of these canards with the enthusiasm of a gumshoe detective. Then, when it doesn't fit a damaging narrative, you slither away awaiting the next piece of rancid bait from the carnival barker.

^Typical Foaming at the Mouth supporter of Mick Cornett and All Things Downtown.
Personal insults first. Expectation of shoe licking second.

I see foaming at the mouth on both sides. Don't you?

Cherry pick much?

Just for grins and giggles, way back before some folks decimated the downtown core of OKC, there was thriving retail, eateries, even a rail based trolly aka streetcar system.
Then downtown got whacked. Big plans, though unrealized.
Ended up with largely a deadtown, little to no retail, few eateries, and no rail.

It's taken a few MAPs, and those various MAPs scenarios have also placed projects far removed from downtown, as have numerous, numerous bond issues, but downtown is almost, yes almost, but not yet quite, back to the point is was all those years ago before the focus left downtown all but abandoned for so many decades.

Once downtown catches up up to where it was more than 50 years ago, maybe then grumbling about too much is happening for DT might ring out with a wee bit of truth in it. At the moment though, from out in the cheap seats where the casual observers with little to no skin in the game hang out, it sure sounds like a lot of needless whining from folks who prefer only that which benefits them directly take place.

To be fair, I'd count me in that category every once and a while. :)

Hey, not trying to cherry pick much. Just trying to figure out why we've just shifted to name calling only.

I rather like, as you know, the subject gentrification and neighborhood revitalization. Let's get back to that and how it relates to the Mayor race.

We didn't just shift

After they insulted others off the board, the last round started at least five pages ago by Mick Cornett supporters calling edgar and myself a troll and bro, and has continued right up until you yourself engaged in it a couple of posts up. Go look it up. I got on with it returning soonerguru's namecalling. I also asked the mods to step in which they haven't. So bring it on. If that's what Mick Supporters are made of I'll get in the mud and wrestle with you.

I stand corrected, for my lack of grammar and clarity.



^Typical Foaming at the Mouth supporter of Mick Cornett and All Things Downtown.
Personal insults first. Expectation of shoe licking second.

Really? From the guy who started in by calling us all blind a few pages back? I think you might want to address the log in your own eye first.

Edit: This went downhill when you started posting conclusions instead of arguments and took offense when no-one followed your unexplained chain of logic. Try explaining what you are trying to say without accusing the people you are talking to of being too blind and rabid to figure it out for themselves and you will probably get a better reception.

Really? From the guy who started in by calling us all blind a few pages back? I think you might want to address the log in your own eye first.

I do regret I used the non-specific "to a blind Mick supporter". That's a bit different than a personal attack against one person like saying "David, you are a______."

You wanna go back and count all the times someone had something to say like "__________ Ed supporters" on this page it will be far more than once.

guys... this is getting a bit too heated. let's stick to discussing the topic instead of discussing each other. -M

So back on topic: what are your thoughts on the proposed Steelyard development, which will include affordable-rate apartments?

So Ed Shadid is talking about income inequality but he owns a house in Gaillardia (valued at over a million dollars), a condo in the Founders Tower (valued at approx $400k) and a house in the Greens (valued at around $300k)? Anyone else see a problem here?

Absolutely. He should give one of those to me. Then our incomes will be less unequal.

Just read the article. No comments. In fact, very few if any comments on most of the articles. I guess RDR doesn't garner the comments it wants.

You have a link to the article? I'll write it again.

So back on topic: what are your thoughts on the proposed Steelyard development, which will include affordable-rate apartments?

crickets...

You must have missed the numerous discussions here about Steelyard, The Alliance's efforts to get affordable housing, the brouhaha recently about the Low Income Housing proposal in Midtown, etc.

I'm growing weary of conversing with you. You are starting to seem like a troll. It seems you ignore extensive conversations here that cite facts and plans on subjects -- like the conversations on lower and affordable rate housing -- and then just question everyone like you're some kind of prosecutor.

Not everything Ed Shadid says is going to be true. In fact, a great deal of it is hogwash. And not everything needs to be viewed from the prism of politics. Because Ed is trying to find any scab he can pick, he makes everything political, such as the departure of the city planners Sid Burgess references. It's exhausting.

Here are the facts: The Alliance for Economic Development is working to improve areas of Downtown that have been vacant and underutilized for almost half a century. They are trying to stimulate more retail, office, and residential development. Among their goals is to ensure that there are increased housing opportunities for dwellers with different incomes. This is happening.



What Ed had to say about that group:


“I had an interesting couple of weeks when I was first on the council,” Shadid recalled. “My very first meeting with Jim Couch, before my first City Council meeting – I had been elected five days before – and he sat me down and he says, ‘We need to create this non-profit. It’s called the Alliance for Economic Development and it will be on the agenda. And it’s important to have a non-profit like that because we need to have a vehicle for doing studies, like for a convention center and hotel, where if the results are adverse, then we can keep it within the non-profit and not release it to the public.” - See more at: During Q&A, Shadid recalls shady request from OKC city manager | Red Dirt Report (http://www.reddirtreport.com/red-dirt-politics/during-qa-shadid-recalls-shady-request-okc-city-manager#sthash.mQXZDTip.dpuf)

Same group?

(You people made me look. I never read a word of the RDR until you mentioned it.)

Real brilliant. Assault on Couch before you're elected... Idiots...

I'm glad you fixed that before too many people read it.

Nobody's buying that you're voting for Mick Cornett. So how do you feel about affordable housing in The Steelyard and these other places that The Alliance wants to incorporate affordable housing? Do you want to actually discuss issues or are you here, as soonerguru said, to try to score cheap political points with debunked arguments?

Nobody's buying that you're voting for Mick Cornett. So how do you feel about affordable housing in The Steelyard and these other places that The Alliance wants to incorporate affordable housing? Do you want to actually discuss issues or are you here, as soonerguru said, to try to score cheap political points with debunked arguments?

I don't care what you or anyone else buys about who I'm voting for. I might change my mind before I vote too, assuming Ed isn't the closet axe murderer the Mick Supporters are hoping he is. We'll see what happens between now and then.

I first saw Ed when he conducted one of the early neighborhood round tables and I was impressed, as were apparently many of you. Didn't pay a lot of attention to him in the meanwhile except for bits and pieces.

He attended an org Christmas party with his kids and about thirty of my friends and acquaintances last year so I have met him and seen him in a small group. However, I don't think he's ready for the mayors post. Not because of ethics, brains, positions, but because of personality. He may be at some time in the future if he manages to keep from being destroyed by the haters. Mick's held it together and one more term won't kill us while we wait for a replacement.

I already told you my thoughts on the direction we're headed with gentrification and the poor. You want to thump the drum of the Steelyard, thump away.

I don't care what you or anyone else buys about who I'm voting for. I might change my mind before I vote too, assuming Ed isn't the closet axe murderer the Mick Supporters are hoping he is. We'll see what happens between now and then.

I first saw Ed when he conducted one of the early neighborhood round tables and I was impressed, as were apparently many of you. Didn't pay a lot of attention to him in the meanwhile except for bits and pieces.

He attended an org Christmas party with his kids and about thirty of my friends and acquaintances last year so I have met him and seen him in a small group. However, I don't think he's ready for the mayors post. Not because of ethics, brains, positions, but because of personality. He may be at some time in the future if he manages to keep from being destroyed by the haters. Mick's held it together and one more term won't kill us while we wait for a replacement.

I already told you my thoughts on the direction we're headed with gentrification and the poor. You want to thump the drum of the Steelyard, thump away.

Why do you seem so angry? Is the Steelyard worthy of discussion?

Why do you seem so angry? Is the Steelyard worthy of discussion?

That's a total mystery in this friendly environment.

As far as the Steelyard discussion goes...after all the foaming at the mouth I was going to back away from this thread for awhile. But I let UP goad me into posting.

Later. or not.

mkjeeves always sounds angry if the word "downtown" can be found anywhere on a thread. I don't see this forum as unfriendly and i disagree with people from time to time but whatever. Ed comes across as nice and thoughtful when he's campaigning. As I've said, some of his ideas are appealing, especially if you're not a Republican as I am not. You have to really pay attention to him in Council, read what he writes and read his interviews to see the real him. Not to mention hear what he does behind the scenes. I've seen and heard enough from him to vote for almost anyone who opposed him. I don't think Mayor Cornett walks on water, but the thought of Ed as mayor scares me so badly it's easy to be very supportive of the opposition.

What Ed had to say about that group:


“I had an interesting couple of weeks when I was first on the council,” Shadid recalled. “My very first meeting with Jim Couch, before my first City Council meeting – I had been elected five days before – and he sat me down and he says, ‘We need to create this non-profit. It’s called the Alliance for Economic Development and it will be on the agenda. And it’s important to have a non-profit like that because we need to have a vehicle for doing studies, like for a convention center and hotel, where if the results are adverse, then we can keep it within the non-profit and not release it to the public.” - See more at: During Q&A, Shadid recalls shady request from OKC city manager | Red Dirt Report (http://www.reddirtreport.com/red-dirt-politics/during-qa-shadid-recalls-shady-request-okc-city-manager#sthash.mQXZDTip.dpuf)

Same group?

(You people made me look. I never read a word of the RDR until you mentioned it.)

I've long since learned to take anything Ed says with a grain of salt. He likes to "embroider" the truth for political gain. And considering the fact that a lot of the establishment was supporting Charlie Swinton for the seat Ed won, even if that were the reason for the Alliance's foundation, why would Couch tell a brand new city councilman when he was only one vote on the shoe? He didn't need his vote. Why not sell it as precisely what it's name says, a council for economic development? Couch has been doing this for a long time. If he's as devious as Ed is implying, the last thing he would do is give away secrets to a political neophyte. Now, I'm not saying existing city staff is lily white, but neither is Shadid at this point in time.

Sorry for double post. Don't know how that happened.

That's a total mystery in this friendly environment.

As far as the Steelyard discussion goes...after all the foaming at the mouth I was going to back away from this thread for awhile. But I let UP goad me into posting.

Later. or not.

We can have a pleasant discussion, it just needs to be an actual discussion instead of talking past each other. The people bringing up the Steelyard really are trying to engage with you, you know.

I think there are some significant legal issues with Alliance's secrecy, including, IIRC, an adverse Attorney General's opinion from the early 80s. If someone with some funding wanted to haul the Alliance to court, there's a pretty good chance their records are subject to the Open Records Act. That's what happened with the Oklahoma Industry Authority and y'all know how that shook out. I really don't care what Ed says he is for or against. He just doesn't have the personality or character to be mayor. We're not electing a legislator here to write bills we agree with. We're electing the city's spokesman. The ability to communicate a positive image is more important than policies for this position.

Here is some information on the Steel Yard from the developer's application. The project is being developed by Gary Brooks, with help from OCURA and, perhaps more importantly, a stimulus brown fields grant. This is only a segment of the narrative.


EAST BRICKTOWN APARTMENT DESIGN NARRATIVE
East Bricktown Apartments is both an important step for Downtown
Oklahoma City mixed income housing as well as a link to the past history of
Bricktown. With a density of 50 units per acre, the design actively infuses the
entertainment district of Bricktown with the energy of residential housing. The
building is pushed up to East Sheridan Avenue creating a crafted pedestrian walk
of brick and concrete, street trees and on-street parking. This highly developed
streetscape anchors the building to Sheridan and connects East Bricktown to the
urban pedestrian paths of the City. With approximately 17,665 SF of
Commercial/Retail/Office on the 1st floor along East Sheridan Avenue, East
Bricktown Apartments will continue the exciting entertainment and retail history of
Bricktown in an area long ready for revitalization and new development.
East Bricktown Apartments will be a model of exceptional planning and
high design standards for Work Force Housing. The residents will be the women
and men that make Bricktown and Downtown Oklahoma City work. They will be
restaurant and hospitality workers, sales clerks, government employees and
tradesmen. These are the folks that currently commute to Bricktown and
Downtown due to the high rents and the focus of developers on the high-end
market rate housing. East Bricktown’s parking garage will take nearly 400 cars
off the streets of Bricktown and will turn commuters into walkers, residents and
customers.

And here we go...
Shadid's Fifth Amendment questions answered | Red Dirt Report (http://www.reddirtreport.com/red-dirt-politics/shadids-fifth-amendment-questions-answered)

I guess we'll know whatever we're going to know when the records are unsealed.

I don't even care what's in the records unless there's something that would be a contraindication to him being mayor. I've got plenty of reasons not to vote for him without the records being unsealed.

Reading the Red Dirt Report, it seems that Shadid has already misstated to the public what is in the records. Last week he said it's "only about pot." In the link tomokc provided, however, Shadid is talking about having been "incapacitated" by acid and ecstasy use in the past. In the article he said he pled the fifth regarding whether or not he was stoned while making his hospital rounds.

Did he plead the 5th about anything other than pot? The story does not say he did. The way I read it , it says during the deposition he admitted to other things that occurred when he was a teen and pled the 5th on pot use during his marriage.

Wow. I just read the story on the McCarville Report. He's finished. He should drop out of the race tomorrow. Period.

Betts, I would normally agree with you about not caring what's in his past, records, etc. But - he lied. Just like he lied about finishing MAPS. I really think he'll drop out of the race. Covering-up personal crap in politics these days is just stupid - it's going to get out. He's just a joke now (even more so than before).

Here's why he should drop out. This isn't a "way back when I was a teen" story. That kind of heavy drug use explains the "Shadid haze" in my opinion.

From The RDR:

This June 2005 deposition was taken two months after Shadid had completed a three-month stint at the Talbott Recovery Center in Atlanta, Georgia. In the deposition, Shadid also says he had become incapacitated by hallucinogenic drugs including LSD and Ecstasy when he was a teenager. When Shadid was an 18-year-old high school student he had attended a 28-day-treatment program near San Antonio, Texas to be treated for “poly substance” addiction.


During the deposition Shadid also admitted that during his residency program he tested positive for marijuana. The chairman in charge of his residency program placed Shadid on probation for three weeks. The question is then asked of Shadid, during the deposition, if he had been under the influence of marijuana while doing his hospital rounds and he pleaded the Fifth.
Shadid's Fifth Amendment questions answered | Red Dirt Report (http://www.reddirtreport.com/red-dirt-politics/shadids-fifth-amendment-questions-answered)

I'm not the least bit surprised at the spin by the Mick Supporters.

I'm not the least bit surprised at the spin by the Mick Supporters.

I'm not as big a Mick supporter as you might think. I still have a hard time with how he beat Jim Tolbert. He's no saint. But, really, Shadid has so many question marks that are now - for me anyway - halfway explainable. But, he's lied about too many things.

How would YOU spin it if you were Ed? How can you spin something like that?

This is all a smoke screen. I find it interesting that the only thing he gave the Red Dirt Report was the deposition that was not under seal. He still refused to turn over the records that are currently under seal. So, nothing new here. But aside from that...his refusal to answer the question about practicing medicine under the influence of marihuana is troubling. Clearly he was making rounds while high. Says a lot about his judgment. That could endanger the health and safety of his patients. He pled the 5th because had he answered truthfully, he may have lost his medical license.

Clearly, there is something in the main court file that scares him. He is continuing his fight to stop disclosure. And this RDR story is just a con-job. Oh well.

Please cite for the whole to world to see the exact quote from last week where Ed lied. Full text, in context. Shown to be a lie with what we know today.

It is Ed who is spinning. He went on all of the TV stations last week and said his fifth amendment plea was "only about marijuana addiction." Perhaps that is true, and if so, we will find out when we see the records.

The LSD and ecstasy admissions were new. So I guess those have nothing to do with the other, the fifth amendment plea? If so, again, we will find out when we can actually examine the records.

It was Shadid who used the term "incapacitated' to describe himself. And it was the Red Dirt Report writer who wrote that Shadid pled the fifth when asked if he had used marijuana while doing his hospital rounds. This isn't spin. Had Ed answered truthfully, he most certainly would have lost his license to practice medicine -- and may have made himself liable to malpractice judgments.

It is Ed who is spinning. He went on all of the TV stations last week and said his fifth amendment plea was "only about pot." Perhaps that is true, and if so, we will find out when we see the records.

The LSD and ecstasy admissions were new. So I guess those have nothing to do with the other, the fifth amendment plea? If so, again, we will find out when we can actually examine the records.

It was Shadid who used the term "incapacitated' to describe himself. And it was the Red Dirt Report writer who wrote that Shadid pled the fifth when asked if he had used marijuana while doing his hospital rounds. This isn't spin.

So no lie? You and zoo just said this proved a lie from last week. Spinnnnnnnnnn.

So no lie? You and zoo just said this proved a lie from last week. Spinnnnnnnnnn.

Semantics. We don't need a Rob Ford (from Toronto) as mayor of Oklahoma City.

So no lie? You and zoo just said this proved a lie from last week. Spinnnnnnnnnn.

No lie? Not really. Ed went on TV and made it seem he was trying to simply hide his marijuana "addiction." He made no reference to the issue of whether he was practicing medicine while high. So, it would seem that yes, it involves marijuana, but in a manner much more serious than being a habitual user. No spin there. It's not that he smoked pot, it's that he toked up and went to work at the hospital -- which was why he pled the Fifth, if the Red Dirt Report "article" is accurate. I don't recall Shadid discussing that on the TV channels last week, do you? He said it was a "private matter."

Is it a private matter if doctors are getting high on the job? Not at all.

Now, since we don't have the actual records, I will await the actual records.

And by the way, what do you think about The Steelyard? I provided some information for you to consider.

Semantics. We don't need a Rob Ford (from Toronto) as mayor of Oklahoma City.

Which candidate are you referring to?

Now, since we don't have the actual records, I will await the actual records.

That's a good idea. Might have been a good idea fifteen minutes ago too.

Which candidate you are referring to?

Which candidate has had problems with marijuana, LSD and Ecstacy? Which candidate has (apparently) a lifelong problem with various drugs? Which candidate at the least insinuated that his "addiction" was only to pot, only to now find out he has a history of hospitalizations for heavy drug use, taking the fifth on the marijuana while making rounds as a doctor? What's NEXT? It's just like Rob Ford. A little trickles out at a time.

Which candidate? Which one just admitted all of the above?

The consensus is that this all but dooms Shadid's mayoral campaign. Will this new information prompt a recall campaign for him as a member of the council? Should it?

The consensus is that this all but dooms Shadid's mayoral campaign. Will this new information prompt a recall campaign for him as a member of the council? Should it?

I have no idea. I think this is bad, though, because Shadid was trying to explain this away as a marijuana addiction, when it would seem he has practiced medicine while high. But I'm not convinced that's all there is to this saga. Reread yukong's post. Apparently there is more sealed than we currently know.