Originally Posted by
TheTravellers
No. Were the streets still barely passable 3 days later? Can't answer that because it hasn't been 3 days yet, but I'd bet not. If the streets were still in really, really poor shape in Houston 3 days later (and if those days were non-windy and non-precipitation), *then* they'd have problems. That is exactly what OKC's situation was. And actually, it's just a pet peeve of mine that OKC thinks it's a big-league city because of some things that have happened (yes, they're admirable), but if they can't take care of their infrastructure and support structure and all the little political crap that's still going on (despite what folks say), then it's still a fail, IMO. To be blunt, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. Big-league city must take into account the entire environment, not just some nice parks, an NBA team, a few good restaurants, it needs to include decent road construction that does not take 10-15 years for certain projects, non-massive amounts of blighted buildings and abandoned strip malls, etc. Whole package, not just a few pretty things to put in flyers and on websites.
I just like to poke at the image of big-league city when they really aren't. Yeah, they're trying, big strides have been made, but still got a ways to go. I just don't get why they can't "fix the basics" as one company I worked for initiated a years-long project to do when they realized they were broken. It's not sexy, it's not pretty, and you don't get a lot of payback except indirectly, but it must be done at some point.
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