Ideas 4 MAPS

[rte66man]

Physical books sales have been increasing for the past ~5 years or so. I wonder what the driver in that is.

To me it's apples and oranges. For news, I rarely sit down for an extended period. I like it in short bursts. For me, that makes it easier to get it on the Web as opposed to having the time to scan a physical newspaper. For books, I prefer the tactile feel of a book as opposed to a Kindle, etc. I can see why many people prefer eBooks, but it's just not for me.

[PaddyShack]

I never got into eBooks, I only ever used them when I was in college and I could find free PDF copies of the text. I have always preferred the physical book as well as greatly enjoy shopping at Full Circle for my books.

As for news, I like reading the physical paper. However, I hate paying for biased news and poor journalism. So I hardly ever pick up physical news publications. As for the Gazette, I will pick it up every week along with some of the other offerings around it.

[baralheia]

If l remember correctly, there is a berm along the length of this part of the river. The boardwalk, as you put it would be on top of the berm extending over the rocks. If a developer were to build riverside patios and building access to the river on floor 2, the same level as the top of the berm, floor 1 could still be used for parking access but still be at the current ground level.

Not really, no... There aren't any man-made levees along the river through downtown, though there is a natural berm on the south side of the river across from the Boathouse District... It's not very tall at all though. In all other areas that I can see, the top of the rocks is at the same level as the river trails on either side. And that close to the river, I personally wouldn't want to have any vehicles or anything valuable lower than the level of the rocks... That's also there for flood and erosion control. That's good out of the box thinking but what you describe with parking wouldn't work here, unfortunately. But the boardwalk idea is ace. That would go a long way to further activate the river and that area of downtown.

[mugofbeer]

Not really, no... There aren't any man-made levees along the river through downtown, though there is a natural berm on the south side of the river across from the Boathouse District... It's not very tall at all though. In all other areas that I can see, the top of the rocks is at the same level as the river trails on either side. And that close to the river, I personally wouldn't want to have any vehicles or anything valuable lower than the level of the rocks... That's also there for flood and erosion control. That's good out of the box thinking but what you describe with parking wouldn't work here, unfortunately. But the boardwalk idea is ace. That would go a long way to further activate the river and that area of downtown.

OK, so no lower level.......

[TheSteveHunt]

This is why we must start subsidizing media.... and the problems don't just lie in declining readership or print news...it is virtually impossible to learn about what happened in OKC on the big corporate owned ch4, 5, etc... 4 minutes of idle chit-chat between the anchors, 5 minutes of weather, 6 minutes of crime, 4 minutes of funny national stories, then a few mintues of sports -- thats what happened in our town today? Come on.... we can do better.

Serious question. Whether you like the Oklahoman or not, how do you make people read papers again? Unless you are going to have an online-only traditional newspaper, the internet killed paper publications. They are hurting in most major cities with some, like Pittsburgh, not having a DAILY local paper at all (this one publishes only 5 days a week). The one remaining newspaper here in Denver has only 60 or so remaining employees.

[mugofbeer]

So email your TV stations to change. Denver 9 has a very different news show while another has only a bit of news with a bunch of special interest junk. lts a matter of individual taste. We already subsidize media and its called NPR/PBS. ln the political climate we have today, there is slim to no chance of new subsidies

[DCARS]

The subject of 'logrolling' is going to come up again.
You might want an arena but not a soccer stadium, for example. Or you might want the streetcar expansion but not a cap for I-235.

Forgive my ignorance, what is meant by the statement "not a cap for I-235"?

[Bellaboo]

Forgive my ignorance, what is meant by the statement "not a cap for I-235"?

There was a proposal to cover a section of I-235 between downtown and the Health Science complex, for a few blocks.

[shawnw]

(for the purpose of building on top of it, for better pedestrian connectivity)

[mugofbeer]

......... and so I-235 doesn't seem such a divider between the Central Business District and the Health Sciences Center. lt's been done with some success in a few places like Dallas. Denvers new I-70 corridor will have a cap with a soccer pitch on top.

[TheSteveHunt]

You're right. We can just do it after everyone else does, which they will. Like everything else here.

So email your TV stations to change. Denver 9 has a very different news show while another has only a bit of news with a bunch of special interest junk. lts a matter of individual taste. We already subsidize media and its called NPR/PBS. ln the political climate we have today, there is slim to no chance of new subsidies

[mugofbeer]

Huh?

[OKC Guy]

I don’t think we should do a new MAPs just to check a block it needs to be substantial and good for all citizens.

What is the longevity of our NBA arena? At some point we will need to replace or rebuild it. Is that in 10/20 years? If 10 that comes fast and we need to think ahead. I think most would support some cost for this but not all, so owners would need to be involved to see what the split of costs would be. This arena was a great spend for the city and we must protect it by planning ahead imo

Will we help build soccer/multi use stadium and if so that might be needed soon.

Cap over 235. One interesting aspect if this happens, when driving 235 south you go over the 23rd street area and as you start the downward drive you are at eye level with the 13th/10th steet overpasses. It would be and interesting view if the cap happens, being able to almost see the top of cap from just north on 235S.

Bus service. Put some serious money into this. Get more buses and that means drivers/maint costs. Make this system realy work. This would enhance streetcar too. Maybe look at it differently too. Build some hubs around the city, actual places where you can be inside and buses go to/from. So you might have a hub somewhere along NW Exp and buses feed into it. So to go downtown from outer reaches you have one trip from area to outer hub and then from there to downtown hub. Basically you break down the city into quadrants with each having a hub which is like a main hub only we now have 5 hubs vice 1. It would make it easier to manage imo. But would cost a lot. Likely fed dollars too?

A few ideas and thoughts to ponder

[Laramie]

Stockyard City Opry Center Music Hall: Construct a 1st class Opry Center Music Hall in Stockyard City with room to accommodate 1,500 (1,000 theater style seats with 500 seat balcony) equipped with with cup holders, lighting, led exterior lighting, a reception area 5,000 square foot room--The room layout can be custom-design to exact event specifications, and host up to 300, dependent on the layout; also an area for offices. The center needs to be equipped with second-to-none lighting for national telecasts--surface parking to accommodate 600 vehicles.

Opry Center Music Hall can also be equipped to host WWE Wrestling, boxing & mixed martial arts. Weddings, receptions & special events.

Budget: $15 million - $18 million.

[soonerj2015]

What are everyone's thoughts about a destination lake? Don't know the logistics or if it's possible, but it would be cool if they could connect Draper and Thunderbird. This would create a nice big lake for boating, camping, and nature enthusiasts. More tourism dollars would stay local with less of those dollars going to the Eufaula area. Also private development would boom on the southeast side.

[Bellaboo]

What are everyone's thoughts about a destination lake? Don't know the logistics or if it's possible, but it would be cool if they could connect Draper and Thunderbird. This would create a nice big lake for boating, camping, and nature enthusiasts. More tourism dollars would stay local with less of those dollars going to the Eufaula area. Also private development would boom on the southeast side.

There is info on that scenario out there. It is shown as damming West Elm Creek with a connection to Draper after filling.

[soonerj2015]

There is info on that scenario out there. It is shown as damming West Elm Creek with a connection to Draper after filling.

Where would I be able to find out about this?

[TheSteveHunt]

Lake Hefner is one of the best sailing lakes on the planet. Don't understand why it isn't a bigger deal than it already is.

[soonerguru]

Probably some combination of making your reporters not report stuff on twitter, and put everything behind a paywall (which I'm noticing the Oklahoman is already doing) and then having your most popular, or at least most followed reporters put out long and pleading twitter threads on why to subscribe.

Ultimately it comes down to content. I don't know anything about their financials, but from the outside looking in, the KC Star seems to be doing a pretty good job of keeping the wheels on, and I think a lot of that is because they seem to be doing real and important journalism.

On that note, I'm sympathetic to the arguments these writers make that consumers should simply ignore the editorial page because "it's just one page." However, virtually everyone who reads the Oklahoman currently reads it online, and editorials do not appear on "one page." They are often displayed in play position on the homepage of NewsOK.com, and they often have very devastating content, such as the recent one regarding climate science that the Gazette rightfully and responsibly lampooned.

By the way, I'm paying for the Oklahoman, so spare me the "poor Oklahoman" comments. I'm a paying subscriber, as much as I believe OPUBCO is very much to blame for a lot of the backwardness and terrible leadership of our state over the years. Indeed, I would almost be surprised if we do not see an editorial lauding the terrific leadership of Mary Fallin in the next couple of weeks as she exits the state mansion. That would be totally in their wheelhouse of tone deafness.

So, yes, I love reporters like Ben Felder, and I appreciate the health coverage of one of the reporters who hasn't been there for four years, and I often very much appreciate Steve's insights and reporting (when he is not being ridiculous like he was today about the streetcar on opening night). But all of this good work does not negate the negative impact the editorials make, and they are influential, if not to readers they are to decision makers in OKC.

So it's a mixed bag. Rather than whine about why we should ignore the opinion pages, perhaps the paper's ownership should consider offering more balanced opinion on their opinion pages, and stop performing as sops to their titanic industry friends, even when it is incredibly socially irresponsible, as they did with their recent "humans influencing climate change is a hoax" staff editorial.

[TheSteveHunt]

They are basically refusing to even report on my Supreme Court case. Even if you don't like me, you have to admit there is at the very least a small story here, worth informing the people fairly, not just the side they like. This is a big problem with the paper.

[soonerguru]

They are basically refusing to even report on my Supreme Court case. Even if you don't like me, you have to admit there is at the very least a small story here, worth informing the people fairly, not just the side they like. This is a big problem with the paper.

I do agree that that story should be newsworthy. But another thing i've noticed is that a lot of their city coverage is actually very thin. Example: they will report an issue passed the council but won't even report who voted for and against. Notably, they often do mention if a councilor is absent (not actually sure how relevant that is). It is very rare they report on discussion related to city issues in front of council.

I realize they have lost a lot of staff but as the newspaper of record, they should at least include who voted for and against an item in an article they choose to pull out into a story. And I say this knowing that the council will vote on literally dozens of issues in a typical meeting.

Their coverage of our Congressional leadership is even worse. They sometimes will just report who voted for an issue and who voted against, with literally nothing else but PR quotes regurgitated from the media staffs of the Congressional reps and senators.

There was one story about Inhofe's stock purchase but no follow up.

They never once that I recall reported on Coburn's utter hypocrisy on spending matters. Were it not for the Post and the TImes we would know very little about the pols who represent us in Washington.

The paper also has a long history of shielding industry leaders in OKC from aggressive coverage. So, for example, when it was clear things weren't going well at Chesapeake, they were just reporting company-issued PR until the company was literally laying people off by the hundreds. Then, suddenly, "voila! ****'s going down at Chesapeake," something we had been learning from other national outlets for months. Sandridge was flirting with bankruptcy and the stories were all just as rosy as can be, with quotes from the CEO about shareholder "value," etc. As someone who lost a major investment in Sandridge shares (my bad), I was not served well by this cheerleading pablum.

Now, if a Democratic governor (Walters) has done anything at all, they will absolutely throw the book at them with front-page, copyrighted stories.

Tramel occasionally writes a good column but the sports coverage has been bad for a long time. Now, it just seems irrelevant. I read everything they offered after the OU playoff game and there was little of value or interest. Mainly a think piece from Tramel, some stats I could have gleaned elsewhere, and that's it.

I'm sympathetic to the people who work there for low pay and the fear of losing their jobs. I really do, but the paper has more apparent issues than "one page."

[Laramie]

Where are our design gurus out there.

Build & kill two birds with one stone--Multipurpose indoor soccer stadium arena on city owned land or State Fair Park:

Couldn't we combine a multipurpose soccer-arena indoor stadium using a 1,000 seat partition section of seats for a smaller arena venue (take up half the field) that could be rolled back when the larger soccer-American football stadium events are in use.

Leave the suites unfinished; allow those who want to purchase suites to custom build the suites (first rights to build for Funk-MacLaughlin) and lease or own them to interested party/parties or allow them to own outright if they build. Say $1 million per suite--offset some cost of building the stadium-arena.

The indoor soccer stadium-arena probably could be built on a budget of $130 million with a maximum seating capacity of 25,000 for traditionally outdoor sports and downsized with the partition section seats using half the soccer field to 13,500 for arena sports like rodeo, ice hockey & basketball. The suites could further offset the cost of $130 million--allow space for 50-75 suites.

Does that make sense?

...also posted this idea on the state fairgrounds development thread...

[Laramie]

Reminder to submit Ideas 4 MAPS: https://www.okc.gov/government/maps-4

[pw405]

Where are our design gurus out there.

Build & kill two birds with one stone--Multipurpose indoor soccer stadium arena on city owned land or State Fair Park:

Couldn't we combine a multipurpose soccer-arena indoor stadium using a 1,000 seat partition section of seats for a smaller arena venue (take up half the field) that could be rolled back when the larger soccer-American football stadium events are in use.

Leave the suites unfinished; allow those who want to purchase suites to custom build the suites (first rights to build for Funk-MacLaughlin) and lease or own them to interested party/parties or allow them to own outright if they build. Say $1 million per suite--offset some cost of building the stadium-arena.

The indoor soccer stadium-arena probably could be built on a budget of $130 million with a maximum seating capacity of 25,000 for traditionally outdoor sports and downsized with the partition section seats using half the soccer field to 13,500 for arena sports like rodeo, ice hockey & basketball. The suites could further offset the cost of $130 million--allow space for 50-75 suites.

Does that make sense?

...also posted this idea on the state fairgrounds development thread...

I think funding development like this is a good idea - if we could somehow leverage the advantage MAPS funds give with matching private donations... it could accelerate the timelines or create better final results.

[mugofbeer]

I think this would be problematic for a livestock show facility to be paired with skccer. Not that both couldnt be built on the same land such as the fairgrounds. The soccer stadium could be paired with football and concerts, however.