Myriad Gardens

[Bellaboo]

Any plans for more events in the Myriad Gardens during the Finals? It would be a wasted opportunity not to show off the park with live concerts when the finals are in town...

I was down there last night and they had a concert going on at the bandshell.......had it lit up Thunder Blue and Orange.

[CuatrodeMayo]

I just got back from a picnic (lunch with the family) Imagine my girls' disappointment when we discovered both the reflecting pool and (most importantly) the thunderstorm fountain were both out of order. There we kids all over the gardens in their swimming clothes looking for something to do. On the eve of the national spotlight I would expect the Gardens to put their best foot forward. Disappointing.

On the plus side, there was a large Ultimate game taking place on the Grand Lawn.

[Spartan]

The thunderstorm fountain has been out of order more often than it is working

[Larry OKC]

Definitely need the Thunderstorm thingy working during the Thunder finals...

[dankrutka]

How will they show the movie? Just put a projector screen on the white stage structure?

[adaniel]

That's a shame about the Thunderstorm fountains. That thing was crazy during the Festival of the Arts.

I will say I was at the Myriad last night taking pics of Devon Tower. It was probably about 10pm at I couldn't believe how many people were walking around. Maybe because it was a warm day and people were coming out at night, but it was still surprising for a Sunday night. I'm really heartened that so many people are embracing the Gardens. It is really becoming a treasure.

In fact, pretty much all of the southern half of downtown was humming. Between the activity with media members at the CHK area, a pretty big BBall game at the courts, Bricktown (which was surprisingly busy) and activity at the Myriad, it was very active last night.

[dankrutka]

Definitely need the Thunderstorm thingy working during the Thunder finals...

Who can people complain to? No excuse for this.

[Spartan]

This has become my answer for everything lol: City Council, tomorrow morning! Be there or be square.

[Pete]

Call the Myriad Gardens Foundation (the group that operates the park):

Phone: (405) 297-3995

[adaniel]

^
Since I wanted to take my cousin there, I called and asked. They are indeed working on it but its going to take 3-6 weeks. Waiting on parts.

Kind of a bummer as 6 weeks is mid-July. Its also a bit worrying that parts are wearing out that fast.

[Spartan]

6 weeks to get the thunderstorm fountain running again?!?

[Pete]

That's unacceptable. Six weeks is half the summer.

It's only been installed a year... They need to either keep spare parts on hand or hold the manufacturer to minimum service response times.


In what other business could you get away with a "we're waiting on parts and it's going to take a month and a half"??

Apart from OG&E and street lights, of course.

[rcjunkie]

That's unacceptable. Six weeks is half the summer.

It's only been installed a year... They need to either keep spare parts on hand or hold the manufacturer to minimum service response times.


In what other business could you get away with a "we're waiting on parts and it's going to take a month and a half"??

Apart from OG&E and street lights, of course.

Actually this is not that uncommon. As for keeping spare parts on hand, would you really want the City to spend hundreds, if not thousands, on parts they may never need.

[Spartan]

That's unacceptable. Six weeks is half the summer.

It's only been installed a year... They need to either keep spare parts on hand or hold the manufacturer to minimum service response times.


In what other business could you get away with a "we're waiting on parts and it's going to take a month and a half"??

Apart from OG&E and street lights, of course.

And elevators in Sweden, where the elevator in my building in Uppsala was out of commission and "waiting on a part from Germany" for the entire time I was there. lol

It's deja vu.

[Pete]

Actually this is not that uncommon. As for keeping spare parts on hand, would you really want the City to spend hundreds, if not thousands, on parts they may never need.

Yes.

They have an annual operating budget of $4 million and this fountain is probably the key draw for kids and has already proven to be wildly unreliable.

After the massive investment made in this park -- with public funds -- this is not an acceptable way to operate it.

[dankrutka]

This really is dumbfounding. The city is constantly willing to delay services (e.g., lighting, fountain) weeks for a later date as if NOW (which coincides with the most publicity the city will ever receive) doesn't matter. This city is run like a corrupt 3rd world country.

[Pete]

I'm told that all the big water features have been problematic since the outset: the kid's fountain, the wave fountain, the big rock feature on the NE corner have all had significant down time and they are barely a year old. People have already forgotten the kid's fountain was months late in being finished.

I'm beginning to worry that corners were cut as part of the value engineering that occurred about halfway through. Remember, lots of things were completely deleted, including a second cafe, the green roof on the one cafe that did get built and a bunch of other things. And they STILL went way over budget.

I'd ask how they could have been so far off but this is all par for the Project 180 course. The gardens are beautiful and everyone loves the design, but I fear this might be yet another result of poor project budgeting and management.

[CuatrodeMayo]

Another couple of points of frustration with the fountain: 1. The cloud-creating device has not worked since the grand opening. Hopefully they fix that too. 2. It only operates until 8 pm. Since it also only operates during the summer, nobody will ever get to experience it after dark when it looks the best.

[Spartan]

This is exactly what you get when you put civil engineers in charge of running a city of 600,000.

[OKCisOK4me]

City wanting to be Tier 1 must learn to crawl before it can walk.

[Spartan]

Or at least exchange the civil engineers' best practices manual: cities 300,000-500,000 for the newer, updated civil engineers' best practices manual: cities 500,000-800,000, which on page 32 section 3a it says explicitly to slap anyone upside the face who doesn't make sure the city is looking its best when it is on TV before the entire nation.

[jn1780]

Actually this is not that uncommon. As for keeping spare parts on hand, would you really want the City to spend hundreds, if not thousands, on parts they may never need.

Well, it already broke and it only operated from June to September last year so the odds of not using the parts is slim to none.

Future does not look bright for the fountain if it is already breaking down.

[Spartan]

What is the deal with our P180 suppliers? Pelco and others..

[soonerguru]

To continue the hand wringing, the lack of the kids' spray facility in Myriad Gardens is a MAJOR FAIL. After work today I saw camera crews roaming around the Myriad Gardens taking shots. There are media here from every corner of the globe to show our city off and we can't keep a *&#@ spray park running. It's embarrassing and bush league. This city is still not major league -- not by a long shot. There are minor league cities running circles around us.

It's scary to think of all the incompetence associated with P180, particularly considering we're in the midst of a major boom in OKC. If this is how we handle prosperity I greatly fear what will happen here when our natty gas bubble bursts.

From what little I know of OKC politics, it seems like it's time to give Jim Couch the gold watch and wish him well. His crony style of governance doesn't mesh well with OKC taking the next step.

I'm thinking of all that we've discussed in the last week, including the twin unfolding debacles of the boulevard, the inability to complete the Main Street segment of P180, the failure (or willful decision) to keep lights on in a major downtown residential district, the hubbub and shutdown of Thunder Alley, etc. and I'm dismayed with the leadership happening in OKC. Time to step up our game.

[skanaly]

Soooo...someones got to know what happened there tonight. Police on every corner, and tape was all around the perimeter. One cop says there was a suspicious package...anyone know anything else about this?