OKC Boulevard

[HangryHippo]

The only part above grade is the overpass that will span Classen/Western, as you can see in my last drone photo in post #783.

As for the purpose, there was a lot of strong-arming by the usual downtown suspects who want cars to move in and out of the CBD as easily as possible. Many advocated for just restoring the street grid, as we already have plenty of E/W thorough fares.

Exactly. One need only look at your picture to see that we have an OKC Blvd. in Reno Ave., but we just had to build this. It's built, so whatever, but I hope the city can fix it.

[shawnw]

I was a gridder. But with the complete rejection of that, I advocated for the traffic circle at the public meetings. But alas, Eric was not having it. He had several seemingly reasonable justifications, not that I can remember them with any specificity, but I think they were were all very hypothetical. There's so much changing in this area I don't think we can reasonably predict anything remotely accurate about traffic counts and such.

[Pete]

But alas, Eric was not having it. He had several seemingly reasonable justifications, not that I can remember them with any specificity, but I think they were were all very hypothetical.

My experience when trying to get straight answers from him is that you initially feel like you've been answered, then later realize most of what you were told was a big brush-off and even that some of it didn't make sense.

[dankrutka]

The sad lesson from Boom Town is that OKC's history is comprised of too few people with little understanding of, or commitment to, urban development shaping OKC to their own liking... and ultimately to OKC's deteriment. There is a straight historical line from Stanley Draper's visions of sprawl and urban renewal to Jim Couch and ODOT's car-centric visions for the Boulevard. These policies set OKC back. In creating OKC in their own visions, these OKC elites simply mold OKC around their own positionality related to class and race too. It really bothered me how Couch seems to descire OKC be built around and for his commute. Just framing the discussion that way is revealing. Moreover, how often do we discuss the destruction of black neighborhoods for the "innovation" medical district. Jabee describes this tragic history in Anderson's book, but it's just as sad because you can hear the same class/race dismissiveness when Couch talks about the homeless shelter in the book. These white, well-to-do guys think if they build the city they want that it'll trickle down and benefit others, but of course, that's been proved wrong over and over again... particularly because it does not seem they listen to other people with any real interest.

This is why what Pete has done with OKCTalk is so important. He has questioned the way decisions are made in OKC. Democracy is messy, but ultimately, leads to better results because differing viewpoints bring out diverse community needs and interests. It's past time for OKC to reject the good-ole-boy network and aim for democratic, transparent, and just processes so OKC doesn't keep making the same mistakes.

[shawnw]

Jim Couch and William Couch... any relation?

[CloudDeckMedia]

Jim Couch and William Couch... any relation?

Current City Manager and OKC’s first mayor? No.

[shawnw]

Didn't think so but wasn't sure.

[CloudDeckMedia]

Where did Russell Claus go? Still in the US?

[Pete]

Where did Russell Claus go? Still in the US?

He took a planning job in some small town in Australia.

[Pete]

These passages are very telling from Boomtown:

[dankrutka]

Yeah, I was fuming while reading that part. All of this has been reported on this board, but Anderson brought a lot of stories together in ways that reminded me how much of OKC's potential has been squandered by poor planning over a period of 60 years. The worst part is that even after the destruction of URBAN RENEWAL and sprawl, OKC has learned little and still tears down buildings like it's nothing and designs the the urban core for suburbanites. At least now, there are citizens starting to push back, but it'll take a real movement for things to really change.

[jonny d]

This wasn't a city proposed boulevard, was it? For some reason I thought it was ODOT.

[Mott]

can someone refresh my memory, as it appears there are NO pedestrian overpasses linking the Crystal Bridge park with the new park to the river.

[Jersey Boss]

Dan, #804 was a good read. Pete, thanks for providing a some additional info from the book.

[king183]

I really hope everyone is participating in the local political scene, pressing your city councilors to answer for this harmful policy. It's enraging stuff to read and see play out, but it can change if we want it to.

[Urban Pioneer]

I feel like I have lived under a rock. I heard that this book was being written but didn’t fully grasp that the guy got to meet Claus. We (streetcar people) used to call him “the angry koala bear”. He seethed with anger on the inside. We were sympathetic to him and he was to us. We all felt like misunderstood misfits. I was always angry that he didn’t stand up for his ideas and beliefs. Now that I’m a dad, I understand that he was just trying to protect them, keep his salary and fight for his ideas quietly from within.

[Pete]

I feel like I have lived under a rock. I heard that this book was being written but didn’t fully grasp that the guy got to meet Claus. We (streetcar people) used to call him “the angry koala bear”. He seethed with anger on the inside. We were sympathetic to him and he was to us. We all felt like misunderstood misfits. I was always angry that he didn’t stand up for his ideas and beliefs. Now that I’m a dad, I understand that he was just trying to protect them, keep his salary and fight for his ideas quietly from within.

My understanding was that for a while, he did fight for his ideas.

But he was punished for his way of thinking and learned to try and pick his battles before deciding he was not being allowed to do his job at all, and ended up just quitting in frustration.

We talked about all this here while it was going on.

Sometimes it takes an outsider to shine a light.

[Hutch]

I really hope everyone is participating in the local political scene, pressing your city councilors to answer for this harmful policy. It's enraging stuff to read and see play out, but it can change if we want it to.

And I hope that everyone takes your message to heart. If you want to transform OKC city government, you just need to transform OKC City Council.

As a council-manager form of government, the city manager is hired (or fired) and directed only by city council. The city manager is solely responsible for hiring (or firing) and directing all city staff and implementing policies. There is actually a state statute that prohibits council members from directing, admonishing or in any other way controlling city staff. Under that statute, a council member can actually be removed from office for blatant disregard of that law. If the city council doesn't like the actions of the city manager and/or the staff or their application of policies, they can either direct the manager to change things or fire the city manager. That's why most city managers tend to move from city to city.

I remember meeting Urban Pioneer in 2009 when I had just gotten involved in the Union Station issue. While I had experience working with Norman city council, I wasn't prepared for the reality of how OKC municipal government operated. I remember Dr. Ed Kessler often stating during one of his Union Station rants that OKC wasn't run by city council, it was run by an "oligarchy". I usually dismissed his comment as just personal bias. It wasn't until Urban educated me on OKC politics and after being involved for several years in the transit effort that I realized Dr. Kessler was essentially correct.

OKC is no different than many cities. Local municipal governments and their policies have historically been dominated by a small group of financial powers. Those powers ensure that city councils are majority filled by those representing their best interests. Those councils then elect city managers who will adhere to the preferred policies of the power players, and the city manager hires staff that will implement those policies. When staff become stymied and frustrated because they can't pursue and implement policies that they believe are in the best interest of the future of the city and its citizens, you lose great progressive minds like Russell Claus, or Garner Stoll before him.

Years before the unfortunate departure of Russell Claus under Jim Couch, former City Manager Glen Deck forced out Planning Director Garner Stoll for progressive urban policies that caused too much indigestion for the powers-that-be:

Sunday Flashback: The Garner Stoll Legacy

In some respects, things have slowly started to change. In many respects, things remain the same. The good news is that all it takes to change the system and the policies is to change the City Council. The simple fact is that the deciding difference between building ODOT's boulevard and reconstructing the grid...or watching traffic congestion continue to worsen and developing a regional transit system is having 5 of 9 votes on city council.

[TheTravellers]

I will be making a point of asking my new city councilman (whoever it will be, I'm in Ed's ward, so it will be someone other than him shortly) to fire Jim Couch, it's way past time for a change. I'll also be asking all my neighbors to do so, and will be asking Ed about it at Neighbors Night Out this Tuesday when he stops by.

[Urban Pioneer]

I went and bought a hard back copy of Boom Town today at Commonplace Books in Midtown. I am thrilled that he prominently covered Friends for a Better Boulevard and that whole debate. He really caught the essence of what that was all about. He also correctly recorded that the whole affair started in a OKC Streetcar subcommittee meeting. That was an incredible meeting and I am quite sure that I have a recording of it in the streetcar archives.

[Hutch]

I will be making a point of asking my new city councilman (whoever it will be, I'm in Ed's ward, so it will be someone other than him shortly) to fire Jim Couch, it's way past time for a change. I'll also be asking all my neighbors to do so, and will be asking Ed about it at Neighbors Night Out this Tuesday when he stops by.

When the citizens' and council's vision for the direction of a city changes, city managers often get replaced because they are unable or unwilling to change too. As a very close and recent example, it somewhat surprisingly just happened in Norman.

City Manager Under Fire

Council Approves Departure of City Manager

I'm not going to get into the behind-the-scenes details and will just leave it at this:

The city council and mayor serve at the pleasure of the citizens who elected them...not simply the business community and the powers-that-be. The city manager serves at the pleasure of the city council who hired him and not the other way around. When a city council reaches a majority of members who are progressive-minded and willing to buck the influence of the special few, the city manager is often a casualty of that change if he's caught up on the wrong side of the fight.

[Pete]

^

It's also important to point out that Couch's appointment pre-dated any of the current council members by a decade.

In other words, he was not appointed by any current elected officials.


And it's not like the City Manager has to be re-approved on some sort of timeline, they just continue on until the council takes it upon themselves to vote them out -- or they step down on their own.

[shawnw]

How does a vote on the dismissal of the city manager get added to the council agenda?

[Hutch]

It's my understanding that City Manager employment issues are handled privately in executive session and not publicly as part of the normal City Council agenda.

[shawnw]

Makes sense I guess. But that means it will never happen. It's probably only the senior council members in executive session.