If the Ewings want plazas they get plazas! You should all be happy J.R. doesn’t want to tear down more buildings, yet. Like the man said, just swallow their bitter pill.

“Grow of Die!”

This company has been losing billions of dollars for the last 3 years and they want to spend millions of dollars to tear down historic buildings that can be reused for a poorly designed plaza.

I just don’t understand. Tom Ward is on a power trip.

I also find it disgustingt that he would threaten a non-profit organizations future in the state for wanting to preserve the history of our state and the urban structure of our Capitol city.

I just hate how the city has folded under this pressure from a company that is not as big as you think they are. Chapparal is bigger! American Fidelity is bigger! Loves is bigger! Need I go on! Those are profitable comapanies that have been in the city for so for many years.

If we don’t put our foot down somewhere we will never be a “REAL CITY”.

This company has been losing billions of dollars for the last 3 years and they want to spend millions of dollars to tear down historic buildings that can be reused for a poorly designed plaza.

I just don’t understand. Tom Ward is on a power trip.

I also find it disgustingt that he would threaten a non-profit organizations future in the state for wanting to preserve the history of our state and the urban structure of our Capitol city.

I just hate how the city has folded under this pressure from a company that is not as big as you think they are. Chapparal is bigger! American Fidelity is bigger! Loves is bigger! Need I go on! Those are profitable comapanies that have been in the city for so for many years.

If we don’t put our foot down somewhere we will never be a “REAL CITY”.

While being a single-industry-dominated town is not to blame per se for this happening, the lack of diversity of thought (or the lack of its expression) among major civic leaders is never healthy for a city. No one is willing to take a stand if a club member does something wrong. The relationships are just too intertwined.

Part of it is small town sensitivity — people want to be thanked and congratulated just because they are doing something proactive in the city. The city’s design codes are disliked by some because it makes it tougher to improve a property. But if they are fulfilled, the result is a much better-looking neighborhood. Likewise, for OKC to be major league, it needs to set a much higher standard for its itself in the way business is conducted.

Otherwise, the message will always be Toe the line, or be marginalized.

I’m having trouble seeing how this is good for downtown, or even Sandridge. That’s what I find so mystifying. If people had been fighting them tearing down a building on land they wanted to use to build a tower I could understand it. But, to act as aggressively as they did in order to build a square of concrete that will hold no employees, serve no function, completely baffles me.

If Devon wanted to tear down the Skirvin and build a parking lot, Cornett and the city council would fall over themselves to make it happen.

So that’s how it goes when there are only a few players in town. This is one of the biggest problems with the diversity of OKC, not only are their just a few big companies, there is really only one industry (oil and gas).

This means we just do what we’re told and hope for the best. Sort of like the new MAPS, we give them the tax dollars and hope we get something sort of good in return.