Tough Questions for Everybody!
I’ve been accused of just throwing tough questions at one person and one group. Well, let’s go ahead and spread the fun!
- To the State Fair Board: you want approximately $78 million for a new exhibition hall. Yet you have a permanent hotel/motel tax and while you’ve bonded against revenues for several years, why can’t you just build the exhibition hall as part of a next generation bond issue? Can’t the state fair board follow the example of the zoo, implementing improvements as the revenues continue to come in year after year?
- To the Core to Shore advocates: what if the citizenry doesn’t want Core to Shore? Has there been any poll on how much support this area actually enjoys? Are there private developers and private property owners who stand to benefit from all this in a fashion similar to those who benefitted from the Bricktown Canal? Will these owners be identified?
- To convention center advocates: Why were the only experts called in to speak at the Mayors Development Roundtable those who have a history of supporting such development? There are other experts who say convention centers are a bad investment – shouldn’t their opinions have been solicitied as well?
- Will there be a public forum to allow community imput as to what will be on a MAPS 3 ballot, or will it be decided behind the scenes?
OK, this list ought to win me all sorts of friends today.
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Comments
i lived through oklahoma city/county being totally dysfunctional for decades. back in the 80′s, tulsa had okc whipped as being the progressive, dynamic place to be. shaking that off was a long, painful process and i thank ron norick for not ever losing the faith during our city’s darkest hours.
lackmeyer is one of my favorite columnists, and i absolutely love the re-birth of the city. meanwhile, tulsa is having a real tough time getting re-unified as a team. while we should definitely ask ourselves what we want to be when we grow up, the major impetus of okc’s success has not in fact been MAPS…. it has been the unified city working together, no longer north vs. south, rich vs. blue-collar, etc. don’t believe it? just look at tulsa, where they are constantly squabbling ever since abandoning the commission form of government. you will have winners and losers, and some clever folks are going to be able to cash in and make a buck, but you better all stay on the same team if you want to keep winning. look what happened to the okc schools when people started to abandon them. count your blessings.
“win friends?”
I hope your third bullet point doesn’t win you a trip to the boss’s office. I’m starting to enjoy your contributions here and on OKCTalk.
What about this question: – To the Mass Transit advocates: what if the citizenry isn’t that concerned about Mass Transit?
Public Forum, community input? Steve, I get the feeling that the public input was only allowed at the MAPS3.org site.
My Spidey senses believe that the City’s leaders are racing against the clock, to meet a Nov-Dec election timetable. Yes, they are in the back rooms assembling the product, and meeting with marketing people on how to best sell a $1 billion package to the citizenry.
To allow more public input could delay any vote until March, 2010. But that causes a problem. The March election will be a Mayoral one, and I don’t believe Cornett wants to run double-duty, selling MAPS-3 and running for re-election simultaneously.