Making a difference

[downtownguy]

I was recently asked by a member of this board how ordinary people can help promote downtown and Oklahoma City. I'm not wanting to claim to be an expert on this, but as promised I've listed my own ideas on my blog at www.downtownguy.blogspot.com. I doubt my list is complete. And I'm very interested in hearing ideas from Patrick, who has had quite a bit of accomplishment communicating with some of this city's movers and shakers (not counting Moshe Tal).



- The Downtown Guy
www.downtownguy.blogspot.com

[Patrick]

Okay, okay. I'll take a bite. And I definitely agree with your comments about Moshe Tal! Let's run that guy out of town.

Here's my short list:
1. Get involved and "in the know" at council meetings.....simply showing up is a good first start. Although I don't make the majoirty, I do try to make a few every now and then just to keep up with what's going on. And the ones I miss, I always look at the summary on the city hall's website.

2. Spread the good news about Bricktown. Take someone down there whose never been. I've done this many times. Verbally tell other people how fun Bricktown really is, and try to turn all critical comments by other people into positive comments.

3. Participate on this forum!

4. Contact your city council person and the mayor. I saw Mick at church today (Crossings Community Church...the church I grew up in), and he said he'd really like to hear more from some of us via email. He said he loves hearing suggestions and comments from citizens.

5. Get involved with community service. What a great way to help improve your community.

6. As downtownguy said.....CONTACT ACTION LINE! Everytime I see a code violation, I always report it. If you want to help improve our downtown area and city in general, report a code violation so the problem can get corrected and the overall appearance of our city will improve. I've never had a problem with Action Line not taking care of a proble I reported. But, we have to report them for them to know the problem exists.

7. Support downtown merchants! If you're planning on going out to eat, skip the Memorial Road or NW Expressway corridors and hit Bricktown. The more support we can give those merchants, the greater chance we have of seeing downtown grow. If you need jewelry, shop BC Clark downtown! Stop by Subway or Quiznos downtown for a nice bite to eat. Skip Barnes and Noble and hit Taylor News and Books downtown on Park Ave. Support the Laughing Fish and other stores in Bricktown....everytime I go to Bricktown I always try to buy something at Laughing Fish...hey every little bit helps!

8. If you're looking for a place to move, consider downtown. Although I'm not living there, if I were to move I'd consider it.

Well, those are all great ways to help promote downtown and continue the renaissance.

I'm sure I have more ideas, but those are what I could come up with.

Any of you guys have any other ideas?

[downtownguy]

check out my blog today and check out my proposal

[Patrick]

Ah downtowguy.....I like your style! A concerted effort from all of us to try to come up with one business we'd like to see in Bricktown, and then bombard that company with emails, letters, phone calls, etc. showing them that Oklahoma supports their presence here.
Hmmmm....we've all done this so many times, only on a smaller scale. I'll see what I can put together.

Not sure if you saw the post on another forum awhile back about Penn Square soliciting ideas for restaurants for their outparcels, but as a result of that I got a list of about 100 different restaurants. It's currently in the hands of Bob Landdec, regional manager for Simon malls here in the Oklahoma City area. Not sure what the result of all of our efforts will be, as one outparcel already has a tenant that will start construction soon, but two remain and Bob said he's going down our list to see what he can do. Anyways, it's clear that companies and developers definitely look to consumers for suggestions for new locations. Bob Landdec said that most of the upscale national retailers that have located at Penn Square have done so as a result of impressive catalog sales from the market surrounding the Penn Square area.
Anyways, my point in saying this is that businesses will listen to us, especially if we come to them in mass numbers.

And by the way, I do have more freetime right now. I'm currently taking some time off from school, so that explains it. I thought it would be great to take a break halfway through medical school. That way I wouldn't get too burned out, like so many med students do.

[downtownguy]

I have challenged the rest of the board through the other thread started by Luke. Let's see what they can come up with, and then we can do our bit. Do you have any knowledge as to how the electronic petition was put together at www.tulsanow.org/forum for saving the Skelly Building? Or maybe Todd might know? Wouldn't that be the next logical step for setting the agenda?
- The Downtown Guy
www.downtownguy.blogspot.com

[Patrick]

Sounds like a good idea. You might contact Todd and ask him about it. An electronic petition would allow us to submit just one piece of info the company of our choice, so we can avoid having to individually contact the company.

Since Todd is the owner of this site, we can talk to him about this, and maybe draft a letter with the petition from "everyone at OKC Talk."

[Todd]

Hi Guys!

I can get a petition feature added to the site pretty quick (2-3 days) if you all think its something we can use.

Cheers!
Todd

[floater]

Here is the site natedog of the TulsaNow forum used:

http://www.petitiononline.com/

We can use this when we're ready to roll....

[downtownguy]

Well now, isn't this fun!
Realize there will be plenty of rejections for every success story. There will be plenty of rejections, but success stories rarely begin with guarantees.
- The Downtown Guy
www.downtownguy.blogspot.com

[Patrick]

Sweet! Once Todd gets the feature added, we can compare both petitions and make a final decision on which one we want to go with!

Similar to what downtownguy says, we are walking an uphill road, but numbers do speak, so we might as well give it a shot.

If we find an interested party, I'd be more than happy to contact Randy Hogan or whoever (depending on the locale we choose). Randy would be easy because he's still looking for tenants for his property.

[floater]

It doesn't matter which forum we use, as long as we have the means...

[Todd]

Hi all!

I looked into adding the petition feature and it looks like going with floaters suggestion is going to be the best solution. Adding a custom feature to the board was going to be a little expensive for a free forum.

http://www.petitiononline.com/