Quote Originally Posted by Steve View Post
Without MAPS, I'm sorry, but you have a downtown with huge undeveloped pockets left over from Urban Renewal, a dying or dead Bricktown, an undeveloped river, blight from MidTown (with a vacant St. Anthony hospital) to NW 63 (because McClendon and Ward couldn't have built up Chesapeake and the surrounding area due to the inability of attracting good young talent). You don't have Continental Resources, you have a dying I-40-Meridian Avenue corridor, you have a continuous stretch of blight from the river south to I-240. You don't have Devon Energy (Larry Nichols has said this to me directly), and without all these high paying jobs, the historic neighborhoods are struggling. You still have a huge number of boarded up homes due to the oil bust - homes that weren't bought and renovated by a burgeoning young creative class.
Is OKC dead without MAPS? No. But it sure isn't the Oklahoma City we know in 2013. I've lived here since 1977, I've had a front seat to what's transpired the past 20 years, I've done the interviews, I've done the research. Without MAPS, cafebouf, betts, sid and many others on this board would be long gone.
I was here Larry. I was part of the minority in my generation (Generation X) who didn't flee when the economy went bust in the 1980s. I saw family friends who were executives at trucking companies - making six figures - reduced to working at the Hertz calling center. I knew another man, an engineer, who started up a janitorial service and survived cleaning offices of those who were once his peers. People were losing their homes. My family lost their home in Quail Creek, and they went back to New York while I stayed.
Hell yes it was a Depression in Oklahoma City. And it's crazy to think Oklahoma City wouldn't have continued to slide into the abyss without a radical restructuring like MAPS.
  1. I completely agree. More, I agree so strongly that I'm inclined to think (in a friendly way) that those who disagree are just ... well, what is a friendly word that means "idiots" ... "woefully mistaken" will do, I suppose.

  2. I will be 70 in July. I am blessed with fond memories of downtown before the Pei Plan. I remember the flight of retail/entertainment to suburban areas. I remember the hope that the Pei Plan would bring a revitalized downtown and the razing of much of downtown that gave downtown its character and mystique ... yes, for me, at least, downtown did have such a thing as "mystique" before the Pei Plan. I remember the Oil Bust, the Penn Square failure and its domino effect on local banks and those in other states. I remember the deadness of downtown which lasted for many years for anyone having a reason to come downtown, and none did unless one worked there 9 to 5. During that time, I was a lawyer with a divorce, etc., practice, and, were it feasible for me to do so (it's not easy for a lawyer to pick up and move to another jurisdiction) I would have, to my childhood favorite location of Corpus Christi, Texas. But, it wasn't feasible and I was stuck in the city of my birth. I guess that I could have moved to Tulsa or other location in Oklahoma, but that involved similar problems to locating out of state, e.g., developing a practice and presence within a community.

  3. Over time, the original MAPS changed that not only by its projects but also by the city pride which, after many years of suffering and shame, yes, shame, was reborn and has since continued to grow. The Thunder. Bricktown. Deep Deuce. The developments in Midtown. The decision by St. Anthony's to stay put and expand. Automobile Alley. Myriad Gardens ... etc. etc. etc. ... without MAPS, Oklahoma City would have none of the above.


All of which, of course, is off topic, the topic being Shadid's possible or probable candidacy for mayor in 2014.

I have some preliminary and very general thoughts about that possibility, too. I'll state some of them here.

  1. As I've already done several times in my blog and in this forum, I am a big-time supporter of Ed Shadid, and I remain so, today. He alone, as either former or sitting council members (including the mayor) has been a champion of transparency and bona fide participation of citizenry in the process of decision making, particularly decision making which involves major items involving the city's future and he alone is willing to stick his neck out on account of principle. Pete White comes close, but he hasn't followed through in various city council circumstances. If you disagree, please name another who fills such shoes.

  2. Most comments in this thread which are negative about him relate to his possible views with regard to the possibility of revisiting MAPS 3, particularly the downtown streetcar matter. Largely, it seems, those views spin out from comments that he made at his Public Transportation town hall meeting on February 26, 2013, at the Farmers Market. The video of his remarks is at the following link: http://vimeo.com/edshadid/transit

  3. In a broader sense (i.e., above and beyond downtown streetcar), a criticism is that he would re-open the door as to how MAPS 3 money ($777 m) should be spent. We (at least those who are particularly familiar with the MAPS 3 campaign) understood when we voted that (1) the MAPS 3 ballot was, strictly speaking, for a penny sales tax for 7 3/4 years for capital improvements, without particularity as to projects or amounts to be spent thereon; (2) the particularly came in the form of a non-binding city council resolution which identified the projects and approximate amounts. Differing from the original MAPS vote, or MAPS for Kids, or Ford Center improvements and NBA training facility votes, in MAPS 3 city leaders (council members) told city voters, "Trust us. We will do these projects." A general criticism of Shadid in this thread is that he may feel free to abandon the trust factor and revisit how the MAPS 3 $777 m sales tax should be expended.

  4. As a mayoral candidate, should he become one, Shadid has not yet stated with specificity what his intentions are with regard to Maps 3, including downtown rail and Maps 3 generally. I, for one, would defer any judgmental statements about him, personally or substantively as to what he might propose, until he actually does so.

  5. Some have emphasized/suggested that Shadid is TOO principled ... that he isn't "political" enough" to be able to form a political consensus and then proceed with the consensus agenda. I'm not really clear about how to read such criticisms ... do the criticisms mean that he is "too good" of a person to be mayor ... do they mean that he would not work well with the chamber ... do they mean that he would expect journalism at the Oklahoman to be non-chamber-oriented and just report the facts? Actually, these questions are some of the most intriguing, to me. I'm interested to see how this all comes down.