OKC Police & Fire needs

[EBAH]

Of course it had a noticeable effect in our community. Crime is up all over the city, except Downtown. The OKC crime average is ABOVE the national average across all crime categories(Oklahoma City Crime Statistics (OK) - CityRating.com)




For many of us who aren't fortunate enough to live downtown, or midtown, these are the dark days.

OK, well first off, this in no way takes in to account the crime stats from 1990, 1980, 1970, etc... And, although it is above the national average over all, amongst cities it's size, it's not bad at all, in fact, quite marginal.

Second, just ask a citizen of Detroit or St. Louis if they think that more police officers on the ground has a had a direct corelation to the overall crime rate of a given metro area. (Both cities have very large officer per capita ratios, and VERY high crime) Crime is more often a a side effect of economic conditions and the rates are higher in most US cities right now due to an increase in "desperate" un or under employed people. All the more reason to pass a spending measure that would create work for lower skilled or unskilled labor.

Third, I don't live downtown, or mid town, I live in the westerm part of the inner city. We have crime over there, more so than in many other parts of the metro. Crime is, sadly, a part of life. If you want to live in a place with zero crime (which of course is impossible) move out of a large city. The rest of us will stay behind, and do what we can to improve things, and make the best of what we have.

There's zero guarantee that any of the proposed project will even be built. The wording of the proposal and the ballot leave a door open for the City to spend the money on anything they want, as long as they label it as a "Capital Improvement".

Having said that, if they do build what's proposed, I thing the White water ride and the aquatic centers are a complete waste of money. Primarily because the city has been closing Aquatic centers around the city for the last few years due to lack of funding. Why would they propose to build brand new ones when they can't even fund the ones that are already built and were in-use? Furthermore, why was there a lack of funding for public Aquatic centers if the 2 previous MAPS proposals were so successful in generating revenue?

The first part of this is just silly, we do have an accountability mechanism to see that these things are followed through on. It's called the press, you are exhibiting it's effectiveness by airing your complaints, that have undoubtedly reached your ears/eyes through the press. The white water "ride" is actually a proposed Olympic training center and a part of larger river development that will bring a lot of visitors to the state for MANY years to come. As far as the aquatic centers, well, I'm not a big supporter of that issue, but I can see their value in the grand scheme of things. And as I stated previously, these proposals are meant to have a little bit of something for many different demos in the city. The elderly could be well served with these centers and your lack of funding cited is a pretty good reason to put some of the money from this package towards them to make them more effective.

I also personally feel that the Streetcar system is a waste of money as it is proposed. I feel that way because I already ride the bus and see that nobody is using the current Transit System, especially Downtown. If they were being honest about getting Mass Transit going in OKC, why wouldn't they put the new transit system where it's going to actually be used?

Yes, I know, I've seen the posts from literally a handful of people who can't wait to ride the trolley from thier nice DT condo to Starbucks and to the Park. How wonderful for them.. Maybe those of us who will ride the transit System from our homes to work would actually get more use out of such a product.

This package will include improvements to city bus lines in the form of street light transponders and a circulator street car. Also, if public matching funds from the fed can be secured, the beginnings of commuter lines. I agree that no one rides the current system, but it is purely because it is worthless. But improving TIT for the buses and giving the downtown area a public circulator that can be used by the numerous hotel guests and convention attendees downtown is a very good start. Also, the street car would connect the three largest areas of employment in the city together (the capital complex, CBD, and Hospital) relieving the traffic load in these areas and allowing the employees in these areas to readily access the rapidly developing downtown restaurants and retail at lunch. I would actually think that these downtown condo dwellers going to starbucks (which I mean, come on, that is just flat out class bating, and pretty shameful class bating at that) would be the vast minority of the ridership in comparison to the thousands of middle class employees in the medical center, government district, and CBD on lunch breaks. It would also enable future "park and ride" scenarios for these employment districts. I understand what you mean, this is not a transit plan that fixes all of our problems at once. But, where else would you start. There is no other part of the metro that employs anywhere NEAR the amount of people that are employed along the proposed trolley route. It will serve as an excellent starter system that can one day be linked with commuter lines and additional bus lines to make up our first workable public transit system in 50+ years.