Did Ernest Istook Betray OKC?
That’s pretty much the question being asked by Tom Elmore, who brings our attention to a recent story in the Huffington Post. Indeed, it was Istook, as the 5th District Representative for Oklahoma, who single-handledly killed Oklahoma City’s efforts to use $3 million in MAPS money to match up with federal money to establish a light rail or streetcar system in the urban core. Elmore, himself a bit of a controversial figure though undoubtedly passionate about rail transportation, reminds us about another rail system that Istook didn’t try to stop:
Ernest J. Istook?
While he was talking down rail development using a wealth of existing assets in Oklahoma — he was using Oklahoma-derived tax dollars to fund extensive light rail and commuter rail development in the home of his “spiritual brethren,” Salt Lake City, Utah.
Simultaneously, he funded ODOT’s needless destruction of OKC Union Station’s rail yard, last then-unused, grand, capital-city rail passenger hub in the West with all its original train-handling space intact and center of Oklahoma’s 900-mile state-owned railway network.
In Utah the new “Front Runner Commuter Trains” link population centers in Salt Lake / Provo to the south and Ogden to the north to HILL AIR FORCE BASE, blood competitor to OKC’s TINKER AFB — making the Utah base the only USAF Air Logistics Center in the nation with oil-crisis-proof-workforce-mobility.
And you paid for it, Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, in another LDS stronghold, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano had hit static with her Phoenix-Tempe light rail plan. It was being blocked by her state’s own “LDS-conservative-Republicans.” So — she made a pilgrimage to Salt Lake in September, 2004 to visit 93-year-old LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley. Three months later, US House Transportation Subcommittee Chair Ernest Istook and Senate counterpart Richard Shelby appeared in Phoenix with a pledge of $587 million for the project — which by then also included extension to the Mormon Regional Temple in Mesa. (See recent, related story, below this post…)
Check it out for yourself, folks.
Also make sure to see how Salt Lake is performing economically today — among “the first big post-recession jobs producers.” And Oklahoma? Well — if the “New Crosstown” opens in 2012 as promised, we’ll have another four miles of expressway we can’t afford to maintain — and no rail hub. Add that to the state’s existing $40+ billion in “unfunded highway maintenance need.”
And now Ernie is working for the bigshot corporatists at Heritage. They ginned up the “highways-only-monopoly” in this country, the “concrete cross” to which we are all nailed — and they enjoy it. Nor do they mind sending “YOUR children” to war to prop it up.
What do “Republican conservatives” like Istook mean when they say “no public subsidy?” They mean — “none for you.”
It’s all reserved for “their special friends.”
Uh — folks — if you’re not angry, perhaps you just don’t understand the situation.
TOM ELMORE
UPDATE: Some of you are asking – was Istook ever asked or challenged on this issue directly? Yes, in the 1998 congressional race, here is how it was addressed:
Istook Opponent Rails Against Vote Church Behind Transit Choice, Foe Says
By Ron Jenkins
AP
Wednesday, October 21, 1998
Edition: CITY, Section: NEWS, Page 10
U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook was accused by his Democratic challenger Tuesday of voting to benefit his church at the expense of his constituents.
M.C. Smothermon, of Oklahoma City, criticized Istook for voting for an omnibus transportation spending bill that included $35 million for a light rail system in Salt Lake City, headquarters of the Mormon Church.
She said she could find no basis for Istook’s vote, other than favoring narrow interests, since he had voted in 1996 against a bill that included $10 million for a light rail system in Oklahoma City.
“He chose to benefit (the) home of his church,” Smothermon said. “I am a Methodist, and if I were to benefit the Methodist Church at the expense of those who put me in office, that would be wrong. It appears to me that that is exactly what Mr. Istook has done and that is wrong.”
Smothermon is trying to unseat Istook in the race for the 5th Congressional District. The general election is Nov. 3.
Istook, R-Warr Acres, who is a Mormon, said it was outrageous for Smothermon to interject religion into the campaign.
“It’s sad to say that, out of desperation, she has made religious intolerance the centerpiece of her campaign,” Istook said. “I think my fellow Christians and other people of faith in Oklahoma will reject this religious intolerance.”
Smothermon said she had worked for years in interfaith organizations and wanted to be clear that “I have no quarrel with the Mormon Church.
“Also, I fervently support Mr. Istook’s right to practice his religion as he pleases, according to the dictates of faith and conscience. My anger is directed at the use of his elected position to influence and affect public policy to the detriment of those citizens he was elected to serve.”
Istook said his vote was on an omnibus bill and had nothing to do with the Utah project.
But he said he understood the Salt Lake City proposal will be used to transport millions of visitors expected for the Olympics in that City in 2002.
“As for the rail trolley which was proposed for downtown Oklahoma City, it was very high in cost and projected to have very few riders and a great many Oklahomans have thanked me for not wasting taxpayers’ money on it,” he said.
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Comments
Wait, are we really asking this question?
He left out the part about then running for governor of the people he screwed over. Did he betray OKC? Depends. He just made a political calculation that Oklahomans are a bunch of morons who politically only care about ideology and nothing else. So he gave them the ideology that Okies wanted and then lavished gifts on other places.
Okies will continue to chose ideology over anything else.
How does Istook explain the apparent hypocrisy at the expense of the region he purports to represent?
Has anyone ever directly asked Istook on record, Why he chose to support rail in Utah and Ariz but did not support it in his representing state of OK?
As is often the case, Elmore makes some great points until he takes it too far. He does that at the Heritage paragraph. He needs to lay off the conspiracy theories and present just the facts. There is plenty of damaging evidence there.
Istook did betray us in favor of the mormons; there is no doubt about it. But Tom Elmore making that case will only make people NOT believe it.
Do you folks want rail because of the novelty of it or would you actually use it on a daily basis? Just admit it…you’d take the kiddos for a ride once a year and that’s about it. Unless gas is $8 per gallon, rail is simply a novelty.
It certainly raises serious questions of loyalty and shows a lack of vision. This isn’t a Coburn situation where he was taking a stance against all perceived “wasteful” spending (which, to be clear, I don’t think this would have been at all) as Istook voted to send money to a less populous city for the same purpose.
Now imagine Mitt Romney as President. He has even more direct ties to SLC. Just something for everyone to consider when they hear his name tossed around for 2012…
I remember at the time how dismayed I was a member of OK’s Congressional delegation voted against money for OKC, but I didn’t realize until this story how much it hurt us compared to what he did to help SLC. Shameful.
Public transportation, like a rail system is ideal for densely populated metropolitan areas who are seeking to reduce pollution. SLC is more densely populated than OKC and has terrible, terrible pollution and smog problems because its located in a mountain valley. The OKC metro is spread out over a large area, not densely populated, and has prevailing winds that continuously blows its pollution and smog up to Tulsa. Rail doesn’t make sense in OKC.
Have you been to SLC? The vast majority of the population of Utah lives along a narrow corridor hugging the Wasatch front. From a population distribution perspective, a light rail made much more sense in the SLC metro than it does in the OKC metro. As I recall, Ernest suggested that the city fund natural gas-powered trolleys whose routes could be changed to reflect population shift. Once again, not necessary in SLC as the population really doesn’t have anywhere to shift other than further North or further South.
Mormon Temple Light rail stop in Mesa AZ: Is it an answer to prayer?
The Phoenix Metro light rail began service in December 2008. It began service with an impressive 20-mile starter line, going through the downtown area, Arizona State University main campus, and to an end station in one of the larger cities in the State, Mesa.
One of the extensions that is under progress is a 3-mile addition to the current end station and with it will push the new end station next to the Mesa Mormon Temple. So, what about such a decision?
The Mesa Mormon Temple is a gathering stop for church member throughout the year. There are thousands of visitors each week that will come to visit, some from miles around. In addition, there is an annual Pageant in March/April that draws 10,000+ visitors to the site. This extension would allow seniors and others from across the valley major Park N Ride lots to connect with this station. It promises to be a big hit with ridership.
The City and region is trying to develop more transit friendly and transit oriented development in the light rail corridor. This is a ready-made solution to gather instant ridership on the trains. It portends to be successful. I am sitting on a Stakeholder Committee that is fine tuning some last minute options for the final plan.
The project will take several years, but as the infrastructure is built, the tracks are laid down, and service extended, the community and businesses in the area will be favorably helped and supported by thousand of new customers and patrons.
Bryan Watkins
Designated Broker
LRA Real Estate Group
http://www.LRARealEstate.com
Phoenix-Tempe-Mesa Metro
480.734.7878 text/cell
Find us on http://www.Facebook.com/LRARealEstate
http://web.archive.org/web/20070918035349/mormonalliance.org/casereports/volume1/part2/v1p2.htm
Some have asked, regarding Istook, “Why?”
The archive at the above link may seem oblique. But think about it. The question is not “what would Istook do to please his good friends among the Salt Lake bosses.” The question is, “What would he NOT do.”
As established in the report above — “not much.”
By the way — the 15 year fight waged together with my very few colleagues led us all down many unforeseen roads. This was one of them.
Brad Edwards, footnoted in the archive, absolutely confirmed the story as told here.
OKC Attorney Floyd W. Taylor, former ODOT chief counsel, also confirmed it — as did every other footnoted individual I was able to find.
The story was first told to me at Christmas-time on a concourse at Crossroads Mall — by a man I had never met. He introduced himself to me as “Head of the largest nonprofit in Oklahoma.” Turned out to be the Oklahoma Automobile Dealers Association — and one of the injured mothers in the “Oklahoma Nightmare” imbroglio was his friend.
….but, try as I might, he would never talk to me about it again.
Serious, serious business? Yep. But it’s all over in Oklahoma City — with the destruction of the magnficent OKC Union Station rail yard.
The bad guys won.
The answer to your leading question is, “Yes, absolutely.” Bearing the proper label of “republican” and “conservative,” and his congressional district proudly wearing the same labels, for the longest time he could do no wrong. If it hurt OKC, his constituents’ response was, “It must be OK.”
Screw that. One of my brothers lives in SLC and I can say first hand that that city’s transit system is way cool. To be sure, it’s not the same kind of transit that was envisioned in MAPS 1 or 3 … it’s not a “modern streetcar” system at all. It’s a transit system that moves people around the breadth of the sprawling metro area.
But, to the point, Istook did not serve Oklahoma City well at all, at least in this instance.
Tom Elmore, controversial? No, I say; Ahead of his time? Yes, I say. Tom Elmore, passionate about rail transportation? Minimally, he in reality more passionate about the truth. His civic record as an Oklahoma citizen is honorable. If everyone in the state took his approach to holding Oklahoma officials accountable the word corruption would be erased from the annals of recent Oklahoma history.
I positively support the transit development in Salt Lake, Phoenix and across the West and the nation. Getting a real transit system started is like starting a forest in a desert. If you didn’t do it 70 years ago, the time to start is now. However — don’t be compaining, or listening to the highway lobby’s calculated complaints a year from now that “there’s no tree big enough for swings or treehouses.”
Time, treasure and patience is required — together with intelligent reuse of pre-existing rail assets if you’ve got ‘em.
What I long observed in the voices and demeanor of Dallas Transit officials, for instance — as DART Rail and the commuter trains took off like gangbusters was “FEAR.”
They now indisputably see the astounding power of the technology. They also see the chaos and unrest in the Middle East — and wonder if they can possibly catch up to the need before the storm breaks.
Yep. They’re scared to death — while well underway.
But OKC leaders not only “aren’t scared” — they’re glibly, offhandedly wrecking rail infrastructure and strategic connections transit leaders from across the West pleaded with them to preserve.
The LDS leaders, in certain aspects, “hedge” around their communities. LDS faithful, as I understand it, generally stand prepared to weather unforeseen catastrophes. “Be prepared” is part of their lives and their daily investment.
Then there’s what passes for leadership in Oklahoma — which has all our tails hoisted up on the highest flag poles daring any passing storm to light us up — while they build “pleasure districts” for their own fun and profit.
Istook did not betray his constituency in a vacuum. He was wise enough to recognize the complete lack of vision here — and to exploit it for the good of his friends and associates. Real leaders would have stopped it. But we don’t have any here in OKC.
…and that’s not the only such event. In about ’97-’98, Walnut Street in front of the Ball Park was built to receive a rail line. I worked at the time for the contractor that had the installation contract. Despite many delays, the day finally came — and we loaded an extra-long flatbed with the rails and then came to Bricktown in a pickup to make sure the way was clear. When we walked into the general contractor’s office, a group of ashen-faced men told us, “Sorry guys. This job was cancelled 15 minutes ago.” “Who cancelled it?” my boss asked. “Ernest Istook cancelled it, I’ll guarantee you…” I said.
Later, COTPA Director Randy Hume confirmed my deduction.
And nobody to back Istook down.
No leadership in Oklahoma City.
Nathan – I guess you have never noticed the smog/ haze that develops in OKC in the summer due to our weather patterns. Is your name Nathan Istook?
Tom is absolutely correct regarding the roll played by Istook. What hasn’t been mentioned is the roll played by the Shadow government of OKC. A group of heavy-hitters whose purpose is to enrich themselves at the expense of OKC’s citizens. They comprise the core of a power group that has torpedoed the possibility of Central Oklahoma having a viable passenger rail system any time in the foreseeable future.
Light rail is most certainly applicable to serve the Oklahoma City metro area. We have 100,000 + automobiles daily, drive into Downtown five days a week from the suburbs, many of those make the trip without stopping at stores in Oklahoma City to shop on the trip to and from. They sit and fill the parking lots and garages, just to do so on the following day, contributing to congestion on the streets and highways. We could cut this in half within weeks of having a functional system that served Norman, OKC and Edmond. There are many, who you’ll never convince of the convenience and economy of light rail. Moreover, it has been proven, that the mere existence of light rail in previous down at the heels neighborhoods, creates investment and new construction.
Anyone who says OKC has little or no worries about air quality because it’s windy is as clueless as it gets. As compared to other medium sized cities in the US, both OKC and Tulsa rank in the lower 20% and are getting worse all the time. It is just a small part of the overall poor health numbers for Oklahoma that the Chamber crowd is so ignorant of when they wonder why our ability to attract good jobs and businesses is so weak. Nobody wants to move back in time and worsen their health and intelligence all at the same time.
“As for the rail trolley which was proposed for downtown Oklahoma City, it was very high in cost and projected to have very few riders and a great many Oklahomans have thanked me for not wasting taxpayers’ money on it,” he said.
Yeah, thanks a lot! Now to get the streetcars that were supposed to happen in MAPS, we are getting them with MAPS 3 at 9.2 times the total cost (and 40 times the direct cost to OKC taxpayers). That is the truly wasteful part.
OKC’s light rail would go no where and would only serve for light entertainment. At least Salt Lake City’s goes to places of large employment and other towns. Not just circle around Mayor Mick’s land of oz. BTW, I hate Istook I witnessed him be hatefull to a store worker for no reason.
Salt Lake City is was and always will be every bit as sprawling as the OKC area. Yeah, it’s in a valley. Yeah, OKC is on a prairie. It doesn’t mean the wheel has been reinvented in SLC. Plus we are getting pretty consistent at beating them in basketball.
I agree with Larry. It would have been nice if we could have simply gotten our measly streetcar system, all we were ever asking for, a long time ago. But I would say it’s still good that we’re getting it now. Istook should renounce his Oklahoma ties for what he did to Oklahoma. A true creature of partisan Washington if there ever were one..he was also one of the top congressmen embroiled in the Abramoff fiasco.
And are we really going to have to revisit the debate whether rail is right for OKC? Newsflash: less-dense cities have succeeded with rail, like Phoenix. LRT brings density up. It doesn’t matter because we’ve always wanted to do streetcar first. We have the density downtown for that. Streetcar will help us continue to build up density even faster. There is not a single non-fixed non-rail mode of transit that will influence development of a city as much.
The arguments that rail is not right for OKC (but yet it somehow is for SLC and Phoenix?) are so worn and already disproved by the voters who showed up and passed MAPS3 by a comfortable margin. It was the streetcar initiative that carried the entire ballot with voters. OKC citizens want streetcar. They want transit options for a change. They want to see a different, more interesting OKC.
We are federal taxpayers. We helped finance the rail system in SLC just like we would have here. I think the people thanking Istook were in a different city. Or stupid enough to think that their federal taxes only go to pay for federal projects in Oklahoma.
I don’t see how any heavy hitters in OKC benefitted from lack of rail here though. That sounds like the same made up class paranoia we hear about MAPS 3 and Project 180.
2.86 cents of the federal fuel tax on every gallon of motor fuel purchased in this nation goes to the Federal Transit Trust Fund. It’s going to fund transit somewhere. Oklahoma now reportedly sends $70 million per year to the fund. If it’s not paying for transit development here, it’s free to, for instance, fund operations of SLC’s extensive rail system — and they’ll be glad to have it as they’ve been intelligent enough to “git ‘er done.”
In Oklahoma City, some of it bought “the river boats” in the “Oklahoma River.” That’s “transit.” Yep. The ones with the big oil companies’ names all over ‘em. An ugly joke. But no rail transit — despite the state’s former wealth of longstanding, downtown-centered railway assets.
Transit Trust Fund money bought the OKC Union Station terminal — way back in 1989 — the grant application presented with volumes of documentation of that facility’s obvious suitability as a regional transit hub. It was destroyed by ODOT anyway — while folks like Meg Salyer charged that Union Station advocates were never clear about what they wanted to save.
Strangely, Mayor Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City understood it — and called ODOT’s plan to wreck the rail yard “insane” in a KGOU radio interview.
Dr. Dan Monaghan of DART “got it” and repeatedly urged careful preservation of the facility, lamenting the mistake Dallas made when their rail yard was halved for “development.” “You’re gonna need your rail yard — all of it — and sooner than you think,” he said.
Denver Transit’s funding was reportedly threatened by Istook’s thugs after it diplomatically urged OKC leaders to compare their Union Station to Denver’s before shooting all Oklahomans in the feet.
World renowned Transportation Economist Malise C. Dick detailed his criticism of the “New Crosstown plan” to wreck a statewide rail center for 4 miles of road. “It violates every world standard for an acceptable project,” he said. “It’s the worst project I’ve ever seen.”
Nationally respected OKC planning director of the era, Garner Stoll, made similar warnings even as he resisted more deficit-financed sprawl. So, lacking the cajones to fire him outright, the upright and visionary OKC council courageously “defunded his position.”
ODOT — run by a former asphalt lobbyist with no college degree at all (yes, Fallin just re-upped him as Director of both ODOT and Turnpikes and Transportation Secretary — but “you kids go on to school now and study hard…”) — wasn’t impressed by any of this. His “$236 million project” now nears the “billion” mark.
OKC leadership could not be moved to ensure that this great gift of our great-grandparents’ generation to our own children got where it was meant to go.
A downtown streetcar alone versus a downtown streetcar connected to the metro, the region, the state and the world via the city’s historic rail passenger center? No comparison — and far too little far too late if the Middle East explodes.
As my now-18-year-old daughter said the day ODOT’s bulldozers began wrecking Union Station’s yard — “Dad, Oklahoma City didn’t deserve Union Station.” Allow me to humbly suggest, however that Oklahoma City quite richly deserves the trouble it has now brought on itself.
This is going to sound bad but I think one can make an argument that we’re better off planning an initial streetcar system now than we were in 1996:
1. Would a streetcar line in 1996 gone through automobile alley- or considered the film exchange district, or housing north of bricktown – or St. Anthonys/Plaza Court? None of those things were there in any real sense except for Saints and they were thinking of leaving.
2. If that ill-designed line had flopped, would it even had been considered in Maps 3? Now we actually have some hard info about where people are and what areas of downtown a streetcar would best serve.
3. Would that line have been torn out at extra expense during project 180?
I’m not sure in 1996 we were ready to take one what could be a really important part of OKCs future. Back then it was an excursion. Now I think we’re moving towards a true transit philosohpy. Those two wouldn’t have mixed.
Tom, with all due respect, that train left the station already. We need to move on, recoup, and make the best of what’s left. You’re right that it stinks, and I think your daughter is sometimes right as well that Oklahomans don’t deserve some things–this is just simple logic, although it’s a pretty defeatist idea. OKC aint Portland, you know.
Right now all eyes should be on the streetcar project, truthfully. If this succeeds, it opens up some interesting possibilities for transit in OKC.
Nick, the job of U.S. citizens at all times is to hold government accountable. Disasters like the legitimately insane destruction of OKC Union Station keep right on happening at the hands of ODOT and government elements like OKC’s unspeakably bad city council — despite all that committed citizens can do. Why? Because in the wake of such catastrophes, Oklahomans have generally folded their tents and gone home instead of making certain that the losses counted for something.
Serious legal and professional repercussions should be visited on ODOT’s Gary Ridley, David Streb and John Bowman — as well as on the real father of this mess, Neal A. McCaleb, now seen nightly on 4, 5 and 9 shilling for more influence for the unaccountable Chickasaw Tribe. When McCaleb tells us “we’ve built our economy on oil and the internal combustion engine and that’s not going to change….,” he’s offering real insight as to his own, smug, covert motivations for the destruction of longstanding state rail treasures. McCaleb waged war on the state’s railway system during his appointed tenures in state administrations — and the disciples he left in charge at ODOT have now very nearly liquidated the state’s rail holdings.
The gross, deliberate crime committed in the destruction of OKC Union Station’s rail center will not be fully apparent to the public until ODOT’s “New Crosstown” is fully open. That, I believe, will clearly demonstrate no improvement in roadway traffic nearly sufficient to offset the astounding loss of our rail center and diminution of the utility of the surrounding surface street network.
The first key abdication of responsibility in the loss of OKC Union Station’s yard and underpasses, however, came at the hands of the State Historic Preservation Office — which has now quite clearly become mainly a facilitator of the destruction of its charges, apparently in exchange for favor of one kind or another at the hands of those who “benefit” in the near term. Those at the top of this agency should be put out of public service, period.
Among the lessons those of us who’ve fought the battle for Union Station have inescapably confronted was that there’s no effort at improvement in Oklahoma life, no expense of public energy, no careful, rational argument that the special interest agents now infesting our public agencies city councils to college boards of regents to the governor’s office cannot frustrate. They have been carefully positioned for precisely that purpose, such that significant improvement in Oklahoma’s public and material life is simply impossible without the excision of the embarrasingly-characteristic “government/patronage culture” from our public institutions.
Dismissing this reality and the clear demands of citizen responsibility by invoking empty shibboleths like “that train has left the station” amounts to self-sabotage.
In short, ODOT and its enablers must — must — be brought to account for these recent high crimes if we expect any improvement in the state’s transportation and general economy.
As to my sad reflection that Oklahoma City richly deserves the trouble it has now bought and paid for in “the New Crosstown” and the destruction of OKCUS (well, actually, it “courageously sent the bill to its unborn offspring…”) — nobody worked harder than my collegues, my family and I to prevent this fate. We didn’t just “wish” for better things for Central Oklahoma; we paid heavily in pursuit of a better outcome. We put ourselves in the line of fire — while Oklahoma Citians kept right on electing and reelecting the likes of Istook, Salyer and Cornett. The record and any hope for improvement now inescapably demands the determined, focused pursuit of public accountability for the fathers and mothers of these disasters.
Jeffery: While they are valid questions (but will the MAPS 3 streetcar go to all of the places you mentioned?), those same questions remain today: is the route chosen going to be the one needed 10, 20 or 30 years from now? Maybe it will and maybe it won’t but even if it isn’t, the system can be added to areas that are growing etc. Yes, money would have been spent (but that money was still spent on the soon to be retired Spirit trolleys anyway) and with nothing to show for it this many years later, we are doing it now at 8 times the cost (and 40 some times the direct cost to OKC taxpayers) to get where we should have been 16 or so years ago.
Nick — you nailed it. It’s absolutely laughable to hear the highway lobby-inspired arguments about redevelopment of transit: “Buses are better because their routes are changeable to meet development.” “Oklahoma City doesn’t have enough population density to support rail transit.”
….but we have “enough population density” to carry ODOT’s $40+ billion “unfunded highway maintenance requirement” around on our shoulders — don’t we? We have enough “population density” to afford to pay to destroy the last, best urban rail center in the West, just as the obvious need for it is rising to an inescapable pitch — and then “pay again” to build something much, much less somewhere else.
Remember with me that 19th Century US railroads were built into wilderness. NO “population density.” Our great, great grandfathers were smart enough (“duh…”) to recognize that population, commerce and development follow efficient lines of transportation. That’s not only how the nation was built — but how modern Oklahoma and Oklahoma City were built. The “new transit cities” of the West have now proven, unequivocally, that their new rail transit lines, though much harder to superimpose on longstanding development, still produce the same dynamism.
This is a message and a truth that THE OKLAHOMAN, together with the OKC Chamber of commerce and its minions have carefully blocked.
But think about it: Would there BE a “DAILY OKLAHOMAN” today if not for automobile advertising revenue? And how much of what-passes-for-an-economy here is directly tied to the enslavement of the state’s population to the automobile. (“Enslavement” too strident a word? As my grandmother always said, “Son, you’re a slave to anything you can’t do without…..”)
Oklahoma City, with its 80-year-old, but recently-destroyed wealth of rail corridors and connections, nearly all created before current urban density arose, was thus characterized by lines either straight-as-a-rifle-shot over the prairie — or following river ingress/egress to the urban center. OKC should have been in the vanguard of the Western rail transit renaissance through simple and economical conversion of these existing assets. But what passes for leadership here deliberately, methodically and calculatedly obstructed what should-have-been. Why? Because they sell cars. They sell asphalt. They run truck lines. They make their money tearing-up and rebuilding concrete roads. And they “sprawl-develop” out into the irreplaceable, airable, near-urban agricultural country, but only because easily-led Oklahoma taxpayers blindly and persistently deficit-finance all support required to establish urban-style neighborhoods there, while allowing the historic urban core to rot and decay.
And note with me that the big shots brook no commentary on key aspects of what they’ve done:
http://newsok.com/article/3538569#disqus_thread
Where’s the comment thread?
Folks, this is the work of “leadership” that has absolutely no clue what a “transit hub” is. If it had possessed such a clue, it could not have denied the near-perfection of OKC Union Station’s yard, now destroyed as if it meant nothing.
It’s the work of people who hire outfits like Jacobs Engineering (Carter-Burgess Engineering’s new name) — and then pay them with the public’s money only on the condition hold the truth about what a real transit hub is hostage. That’s precisely what they did in the laughable “Fixed Guideway Study” — and they’re clearly doing it again right now.
The old Katy freight yard that lay for many years along the south side of Reno in what is now called “Bricktown” (but will likely more accurately have to be called “tilt-up town” in the near future) might have made an acceptable transit hub — but the big Katy freight house “mysteriously burned to the ground” late one night (soon after the old Central Oklahoma Railfan Club started talking about purchasing the facility to become the Oklahoma Railway Museum) and the miles of rail comprising the yard preemptively trashed. (That rail could have been relaid for downtown trolleys.) Now they claim they “really believe” they can wedge something even vaguely resembling a “transit hub” into “Bricktown?”
Is that what the destruction of OKC Union Station’s magnificent, virtually-ready-made potential rail hub was really all about? This is their substitute for that 8-block-long, 12-track-wide yard and its 55,000 square-foot terminal building and spectacular arterial street underpasses?
It would be truly unbelievable if this sort of penny-ante nonsense was not so completely characteristic of “leadership” in Oklahoma City.
If the public wants better — it’s going to have to “insist.”
Istook probably got himself into a higher heaven with that little gift to SLC.