Pop Quiz for COTPA
Today’s Main Street column reveals how the Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority (COTPA), which is charged with operating the city’s public transit and downtown parking garages, might have blown a chance to prevent the International Photography Hall of Fame from moving to St. Louis.
Just in case anyone thinks I was being to kind to COTPA, here’s a pop quiz for the folks who are admired throughout downtown for their operation of the Oklahoma Spirit Trolleys:
Pop quiz time for the folks at COTPA:
1. Self identity test – our expertise is in:
- Providing subpar public transportation to less than half of the city while diverting downtown trolleys bought with MAPS funds to
Edmond.- Subsidizing river cruises with boats carrying less than 50 percent of their capacity.
- Leasing out retail space in public downtown garages.
2. Which is the preferable policy regarding retail space in COTPA-run downtown garages?
A. Demand $5 per square foot or higher for space vacant for 25 years.
B. Provide unpopular retail space to non-profit attractions for little or no rent in hopes of using the space to draw people to downtown and generate foot traffic that might make the remaining empty space more feasible for retailers.
3. When you meet Jane Jenkins, the new incoming president of Downtown Oklahoma City Inc., you will brag about:
A. Downtown trolley service that is ridiculed and deemed unreliable by downtown residents.
B. Largely vacant retail space in most of the downtown garages run by COTPA.
C. Downtown trolley information signs that no longer provide route information to locals and visitors.
D. A board that includes no major downtown leaders as trustees.
4. Your aspiration is:
A. To provide the best darn river boat excursions to be found on the
Oklahoma
River.B. Confuse anyone who dares ride an Oklahoma Spirit trolley
C. To maintain unsightly vacant retail space at the downtown garages
D. To discourage ridership of the
Oklahoma Spirit trolleys so that the service can be dropped due to lack of demandPop quiz time for readers:
Are you happy with the performance of COTPA?
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Comments
Terribly short sighted. Who gets to be on the board – are they patronage positions? As a city, I think we can do way better. Thanks for the reporting, Steve.
Steve -
Any idea how many of the more successful urban transportation departments are also charged with providing downtown parking? Or leasing bad retail space?
COPTA is broken – period. I can only hope that we won’t let this organization influence the planning and management of the new transit improvements that are to be included in Maps3. We need to take a step back and think about what it is going to take to have an effective transit system, focused on moving people, and doing so with excellence.
It is not all COTPA’s fault that they perform poorly. The duties they are given, along with a severe lack of funding, have set them up to fail. But fail they have and it is time to move on.
I say all of this with the full knowledge that there are
great people there, some of whom are working hard and doing a great job. Still, moving forward, we need something better than what COTPA has to offer.
Blair is correct. It is counter-intuitive for COTPA to be managing both transit and parking. The mission for both components actually contradict each other. They need to be separated, and another entity needs to manage space utilization. COTPA likely needs to be dismantled, re-branded and begun anew with a distinct clear mission of what it’s supposed to be doing: transit in OKC, and that’s it. Everything beyond OKC and across it’s borders should be managed by a truly regional authority.
Hopefully, a COTPA makeover can be included in the public transportation component of MAPS-3. I also believe COTPA should be re-organized. I also think that City planners and leaders should try to obtain more US Govt. public transportation grants. Perhaps with MAPS-3 money, we can get matching funds?
Blair is right. COPTA needs to be dismantled. We need a metro transit ran by people that know how to run a transit system. I could design better routes than what they have now.
[...] might be someone in this town who’s happy with the local transit system, but it’s not Steve Lackmeyer, who poses several questions to its administration, including this zinger: When you meet Jane Jenkins, the new incoming president of Downtown [...]
A lot of cities, like Austin and Dallas for example, are switching to regional controlling entities to manage transit. Because really, that’s the only way you can do public investment for something like commuter rail that goes out to the suburbs.
It’s time for COTPA to go. I wouldn’t be caught dead on one of their buses. This is probably the only regard in which Tulsa makes us look bad. I don’t like cities that think they can get by with buses and no rail, but Tulsa’s buses actually are pretty nice, and they’re reliable. Tulsa also will probably beat us to light rail, especially if we still have these COTPA jokers around 2 years from now.
My name is Nick Roberts, and that’s my stand. Everyone in OKC hates them. They are standing in the way of OKC’s rise to the Second Tier, so they must be done away with.
Oh SNAP!
Great post Steve. What is the difference between COTPA and MetroTransit. I see a lot of complaints about the bus system, which I thought was MetroTransit, not COTPA, but is MetroTransit just a subsidiary of COTPA?
[...] for the system to come from COTPA, a transit authority that specializes in parking, and has a long, long record of poor [...]
[...] routes and of course, the switched emphasis to the river cruisers. Some might say I’ve been too harsh on MetroTransit and the Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority. All I know is that [...]
Keep COTPA in the spotlight! They need to be exposed so we can FINALLY OVERHAUL THE SYSTEM!!!!! COTPA, Mayor Cornett and the CITY are foolish if they stand their ground (aka rest on their laurels), if they let the International Photography Hall of Fame walk out of town over some measely vacant retail space in a neglected parking garage. This is exactly why they and others want to leave, because lack of foresight! Heck, I wouldn’t care if the city gave them a year of free rent.