OG&E Tower

[Just the facts]

St. Louis is steeped in soul and vitality, but the inner city suffered. It has had long periods of deteriorization and crime downtown. Downtown OKC has a much better, cleaner, and safer feel and reality with as much vitality...especially on the weekends with events.

Well worth the time to watch: The Pruitt-Igoe Myth ? a Documentary

[ChrisHayes]

The only part of St Louis that I like is the river front around the Gateway Arch. Aside from that I can't wait to get out of it whenever I'm there. They especially have to deal with that stain that is known as Easat St Louis. As Oklahoma City develops, and we get more recreational venues, we'll put St Louis to shame. The river front and Brick Town could be two vital areas to do just that. There's a lot of acreage along the river front, both east and west of Downtown that could offer a lot to develop for recreation.

[OKVision4U]

Now that we are at April 1, ...any new announcements for the Stage Center Tower?

[skanaly]

They are adding 40 more stories

[skanaly]

April fools

[Urbanized]

Well played.

[Spartan]

St. Louis is steeped in soul and vitality, but the inner city suffered. It has had long periods of deteriorization and crime downtown. Downtown OKC has a much better, cleaner, and safer feel and reality with as much vitality...especially on the weekends with events.

You and soonerguru should check out Wash Ave next time you're there, as that's the main hotspot. I'm also not sure what you mean by juxtaposing the inner cities of STL and OKC. OKC doesn't have an inner city compared to STL. Much of the "inner" core is in "suburbs" like Clayton or University City. Many STL hoods have held on while others haven't. STL, like Cleveland, used to be one of the top 4/5 cities in the nation and so similarly to Europe, its greatness is the built legacy of what was.

[Rover]

I lived in St. Louis for awhile and really like St. Louis and even had a great project there awhile back...the Westin by the old stadium (historic building redo). Not attacking them. BUT, downtown has suffered and at times has been very unsafe.

Was there last summer for some baseball and it was better, but still big pockets of problems. Highway system downtown is awful. Streets were in marginal shape. Many, many vacant spaces. On the positive side, it WAS better than a few years ago. And, as you say, there are nice ethnic areas and great pockets.

And, even though Cleveland is losing population and has a poor national image, it has some great history.

[Spartan]

What city not named Austin or Portland has a positive national image?

[bchris02]

What city not named Austin or Portland has a positive national image?

Many, many cities. Off the top of my head, Seattle, San Fran, Denver, Charlotte, and New Orleans are pretty well liked. This article sums it up.

Do Rankings Affect Our Opinions of Cities? - Samuel Arbesman - The Atlantic Cities

[CuatrodeMayo]

I've only visited St. Louis once and I spend most of my time in Forest Park and the nearby neighborhoods.

It was fantastic.

[Plutonic Panda]

Many, many cities. Off the top of my head, Seattle, San Fran, Denver, Charlotte, and New Orleans are pretty well liked. This article sums it up.

Do Rankings Affect Our Opinions of Cities? - Samuel Arbesman - The Atlantic Cities

New Orleans?

[Rover]

Many, many cities. Off the top of my head, Seattle, San Fran, Denver, Charlotte, and New Orleans are pretty well liked. This article sums it up.

Do Rankings Affect Our Opinions of Cities? - Samuel Arbesman - The Atlantic Cities

I would add Minneapolis as a city with a good national image. Salt Lake City, maybe. Sante Fe. Boulder.

[AP]

I would add Minneapolis as a city with a good national image. Salt Lake City, maybe. Sante Fe. Boulder.

I guess you didn't read the article?

And the ten cities with the highest percentage of negative reactions:

10. Salt Lake City, Utah
9. Milwaukee, Wis.
8. Columbus, Ohio
7. Jacksonville, Fla.
6. St. Louis, Mo.
5. Cincinnati, Ohio
4. Oklahoma City, Okla.
3. Cleveland, Ohio
2. Birmingham, Ala.
1. Detroit, Mich.

[Rover]

St. Lake City is a nice city. However, it gains negative reactions often because many people misunderstand Mormans. I'm amazed at how many people think you can't even get a drink of alcohol in SLC.

I thought this part from the article was interesting: "The positive or negative opinions of our survey respondents were correlated, often quite strongly, with such metrics as change in population, housing prices, and cost of living, and inversely correlated with measures like crime and unemployment. " OKC would rate very positively in ALL those areas, and yet it had many negative reactions. Given this is a two year old survey, I wonder if there would be any change, or whether people's outdated impressions are stronger than fact. I also wonder how many of the cities the respondants actually have personal experience with or whether this survey is actually measuring the effectiveness of PR. If the impressions are related to released and publicized data and not based on actual experiences, then it isn't measuring facts, it is measuring effectiveness of media.

[OKVision4U]

St. Lake City is a nice city. However, it gains negative reactions often because many people misunderstand Mormans. I'm amazed at how many people think you can't even get a drink of alcohol in SLC.

I thought this part from the article was interesting: "The positive or negative opinions of our survey respondents were correlated, often quite strongly, with such metrics as change in population, housing prices, and cost of living, and inversely correlated with measures like crime and unemployment. " OKC would rate very positively in ALL those areas, and yet it had many negative reactions. Given this is a two year old survey, I wonder if there would be any change, or whether people's outdated impressions are stronger than fact. I also wonder how many of the cities the respondants actually have personal experience with or whether this survey is actually measuring the effectiveness of PR. If the impressions are related to released and publicized data and not based on actual experiences, then it isn't measuring facts, it is measuring effectiveness of media.

It may have a great deal to do with Tornado's. The movie Twister & Moore F-5's are not a "positive" in most opinion poles.

[Rover]

It may have a great deal to do with Tornado's. The movie Twister & Moore F-5's are not a "positive" in most opinion poles.

I saw no reference to natural disasters as being a correlation. Nor do we know what questions were asked, how they were asked, and in what order they were asked...all very important in affecting outcomes. Give us the questions and the methodology used on the survey and we might get a glimpse into the relevance of the answers. We have no idea of the selection process for those surveyed and how representative they are of the greater population. This survey may be very accurate, but we can get no sense of that from the article shown.

[Bellaboo]

Many, many cities. Off the top of my head, Seattle, San Fran, Denver, Charlotte, and New Orleans are pretty well liked. This article sums it up.

Do Rankings Affect Our Opinions of Cities? - Samuel Arbesman - The Atlantic Cities

This article is over 2 years old. The Thunder have done a lot to improve our image since then, believe it or not.

[hoya]

St. Lake City is a nice city. However, it gains negative reactions often because many people misunderstand Mormans. I'm amazed at how many people think you can't even get a drink of alcohol in SLC.

I thought this part from the article was interesting: "The positive or negative opinions of our survey respondents were correlated, often quite strongly, with such metrics as change in population, housing prices, and cost of living, and inversely correlated with measures like crime and unemployment. " OKC would rate very positively in ALL those areas, and yet it had many negative reactions. Given this is a two year old survey, I wonder if there would be any change, or whether people's outdated impressions are stronger than fact. I also wonder how many of the cities the respondants actually have personal experience with or whether this survey is actually measuring the effectiveness of PR. If the impressions are related to released and publicized data and not based on actual experiences, then it isn't measuring facts, it is measuring effectiveness of media.

If it correlates with cost of living and housing prices, then OKC will do very poorly. The cities that do well are the ones with high housing prices. It's directly related, not inversely.

[Jersey Boss]

This article is over 2 years old. The Thunder have done a lot to improve our image since then, believe it or not.

How so? Reason I am asking is that all the cities on the list have pro teams, except for Birmingham. 4 of the cities have NBA teams.

[Urbanized]

St. Lake City is a nice city. However, it gains negative reactions often because many people misunderstand Mormans. I'm amazed at how many people think you can't even get a drink of alcohol in SLC...

This is absolutely true. My best friend / Thunder season ticket partner and I have gone to at least one Thunder away game since the team arrived here, with the goal being to attend a game in every NBA city. I have repeatedly tried to get him to go to SLC, which I think would be a fantastic trip, and despite the stated goal, he can't be persuaded AT ALL to move the city from the bottom of the list. He thinks it will be the worst dud of a town/trip in the entire league. I have family who live there, and my cousin (a lapsed LDS himself) says there is quite the population there who rebel against the conservatism of the general market and make it a relatively good town for carousing, but my buddy won't hear of it. Heck, I'd like to go just for the locale/scenery.

[dankrutka]

This article is over 2 years old. The Thunder have done a lot to improve our image since then, believe it or not.

I would guess that the Thunder have helped a little, but most stereotypes - which is probably the basis for the negative image - likely are still there for most people.

[Just the facts]

Salt Lake City is one of my favorite cities. Their downtown is amazing.

[ljbab728]

Who cares about SLC. I want to hear more about the 40 floors that got added to the Stage Center Tower plans.

[Bellaboo]

How so? Reason I am asking is that all the cities on the list have pro teams, except for Birmingham. 4 of the cities have NBA teams.

I'm not comparing to others, just ourselves. If you watch ESPN on any given day, OKC is mentioned via Thunder in a positive way.....wasn't that way a few years ago.