I'm not sure if anything like this has been discussed on here before but if it has then just merge threads.

If one actually stops and thinks about what MAPS did to OKC, it is really quite stunning. I was in college or maybe had just graduated when MAPS was passed. At first I was excited about all the stuff they said it would build. But it got off to such a slow start, I lost confidence and began to believe that it was like all the other OKC pie in the sky that we'd been sold over the years and that it would never happen and we'd never see the money again, or it'd be scaled down and done in a crappy cheap manner.

What a difference 20+ years makes.

It's pretty obvious that had it not been for the original MAPS and the subsequent MAPS we wouldn't have all the building going on in our downtown districts right now. Devon Tower would've never been a thought. We would've never been looked at as a temporary home for the NOLA Hornets and later as a landing place for the Sonics/Thunder. We would've never had world class rowing on the Canadian/Oklahoma river nor all of the development and proposed development on the river for such activities. All the hotels, condos and apartments would've never been dreamed of downtown. No one would've ever thought of putting a school or a grocery store downtown.

Looking at downtown all of that stuff is rather obvious. But MAPS has affected central Oklahoma in ways that aren't immediately obvious. Edmond is investing in it's old downtown. Business and retail developments are being produced to a higher standard than they were. Uptown Grocery would've never been believed to be a successful concept 15 or 20 years ago. Talk of high density living in Norman is not looked at as crazy and is a real possibility. All over central Oklahoma you can see businesses and residential going up that has a higher and sometimes more urban feel to it. In short, people are taking more pride in what they produce in Oklahoma now. We're not just tossing up ugly, disposable buildings and strip malls. People here finally realize that they can reach higher when building a development and make it nicer and better and more successful.

I know ther's still developments around here that aren't up to the standards that we wish, but we've come a long way from where we were in the 80s. Our standards and quality have been raised. Our expectations have been raised. You can no longer entice us with some crappy concept and have us be thankful for even considering building in Oklahoma. People are taking chances on businesses here in central Oklahoma that would've been deemd insane 20 years ago.

I know Tulsa had big plans for downtown and on the river front and a lot of it's fallen by the wayside. I hope they can turn things around and be as successful as OKC. I know there's sometimes animosity between the two cities but I think it benifits Oklahoma as a whole if it has two successful cities.

Coming back to my main point. Think of all the things we have now or coming up in the pipeline that we never would've had if it weren't for MAPS.