That’s awesome! Makes me feel really proud of our city.

I lived there for the past ten years. Yeah the building was paid for out of tax peoples moneys, but as one of the tax payers working five of the years for William-Sonoma’s phone center, I couldn’t afford to due anything. Sure it looks pretty and it’s great if you were upper middle class. But as John Q public, paying my bills on time, feeding my kids and affording gas to get to work, I didn’t have the money to do anything else. I lived seven minutes from the metro on south 51st St. I didn’t smoke,I didn’t drink, I didn’t gamble. I felt like I was giving the rich my money so they could afford to do those things that I could only dream of doing. From my pockets to their fat wallets. When it came to politicians or political groups calling me asking if I would vote for them, I would tell them this and the answer I got was I needed to not pay one or two of my bills to go out and have a night out in Brick Town. I said I wasn’t going in dept just to go have fun. I didn’t have cable, I didn’t have a computer. I was renting to own. never late on rent for six years when the owner pulled it out from under me. He said I would be doing him a favor by getting that bill out from under him. Six years later his wife wanted to raise my rent because the house was paid for they kicked us out. I thought if you stayed at a place and worked hard for the man, the man would take care of you. I am a good and honest man and Oklahoma spat in my face. They took my money and built a playground for the wealthy. I couldn’t afford to go down town and park because that alone was ten dollars. Oh once and a while Williams-Sonoma would give us tickets to events down town, but that cut into my bill moneys. I couldn’t even afford free tickets. Getting sick even with insurance was a major set back because I missed work plus had to pay co-pay and deductibles would drain me. It’s all a farce, smoke and mirrors. I volunteered at the food bank on my days off and saw how many other people struggling. i had occasional help from my brother but it shouldn’t have had to be that way. I lost my little girl cause the medical bills were to much to keep her going. Now I’m living on faith how ever God is going to bless me today. Taking shelter and doing all I can for my boy and me. Finding little bits of work when I can afford gas to even get work. I worked, I was the one they could count on to be there at work, on time. I left my Layla behind in a grave to missing my dad alive by a half an hour here in Ohio. Smoke and Mirrors Oklahoma. Beat the poor down take our money so that you can live with your sporting events, concerts and gambling and then laugh in my face. Your not missing much from me but you took to much from me.

Designate an area that needs to be developed as a Gambling District and allow gambling like Las Vegas. You already have Indian Casinos everywhere. Private investment would pour into the city and diversify the economy. A blighted area could simply be designated a Gambling District and private investors would rebuild the area and add many new hotel rooms. The rail trolly could be extended to the new Gambling District and help make both a success.

Ed if your unsupported supposition was true then Las Vegas would be booming on a never ending upward streak. Have ya bothered to check the financial health of the LV area recently? Friends who recently had to leave since the architectural firm he co-founded could not survive the brutal downturn.

I’m a native of Tulsa and my partner and I moved to Oklahoma City from San Francisco for the affordable housing and to be part of the boomtown scene.

We loved playing house in Gatewood but as you know the political climate in OK is humiliating, and as an educated black guy my partner could not find a decent job. We stayed only sixteen months.

We’re now back in San Francisco and despite the cost of living we’re better off financially because we can both earn good income.

What’s happening In Oklahoma City is exciting and I’m rooting for the city, I just think the city and state needs less polarizing leadership to move to the next level and attract dynamic transplants.

Chris Andoe
San Francisco

You do realize, Chris, that the polarizing politicians were elected by folks who want their set of morals and beliefs represented. Basically you are asking a whole lot of people to modify their deeply held convictions so that you feel good about the choices you made in regard to your life.

I am all for gambling in the state of Oklahoma. It would add more corruption and less jobs to your state while lessoning and adding more real jobs to my bigger one to the south.
Or, think of it this way, when you take a dollar earned from private enterprise and reinvest it by way of giving it to someone who won it by being lucky, the state of Oklahoma is gambling on weither that person is someone who will reinvest it into the kinds of private enterprise that generated that dollar in the first place.
Come to think about it, this nation is fourteen trillion dollars in debt. You might as well take that dollar and reinvest it in crack cocaine because most in this nation are on the fasttrack to living under a bridge.