Cool New Site
I’m hoping I have enough credibility with you folks that you know I’m only going to hype a site if I really do like it – regardless of whether it’s in the NewsOk family or not (The Lost Ogle, for example, is definitely NOT a part of the NewsOk family. We consider www.dustbury.com to be an odd, quirky guy that looks like a long-lost uncle).
Now, that having been said, I’m very excited about www.thundermadness.com. It’s probably the sharpest addition to our online efforts to date. And far better than anything I saw associated with the Seattle Post or Seattle Times.
Check it out.
The. Worst. Kept. Secret. Ever. Part Deux.
Leadership Square is surrounded by remote television news studio trucks as everybody prepares for the 5 p.m. “surprise” announcement of the new NBA team – the Thunder.
What? Am I actually acting like this rumor is fact? Hard not to after visiting the following web site: http://store.nba.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3231465&cp=3231432&parentPage=family
Did the New Neighbors Find That Basketball?
This picture is floating around the Internet today. The moving vans for the “unnamed” OKC NBA team arrived downtown yesterday, and an official name announcement is expected this week.
This. May. Be. The. Worst. Kept. Secret. Ever.
The New Neighbors' Moving Vans Have Arrived
Read about it here. There’s always so much to do – get the cable guy out, enroll the kids in school, sign up for that RSVP welcome basket, meet the neighbors, and of course, unpack all those boxes.
Now, first, most important – where’s that basketball?
Interesting Tidbit at ESPN.COM
“The last few months we talked about why it made sense to put the team in the suburbs or north and follow the Cleveland Cavaliers model. There is growing recognition of downtown’s energy and there is now some sense that perhaps a downtown location should at least be considered, and so you’re going start to see ideas like that pop around.”
-Mayor Mick Cornett interview at ESPN.COM.
OKC is a Major League City
But what does that mean?
I’ve been giving this a lot of thought the past few days. The challenges and opportunities ahead will prove to be a historic time for downtown and the city as a whole.
Let’s begin by looking back once more. Can anyone argue that the past decade is a once in a century transformation for downtown? Looking back, you would have to go back to 1910 to find a time when downtown went through such a growth spurt. It was a time that defined OKC as a major player in the west half of the United States. It’s a bit of irony that OKC lost that momentum just as First National and Ramsey (now City Place) towers were rising up into the sky. After all, the great skyscraper race simply couldn’t compete the powerful (and woefully inaccurate) portrayal of Oklahomans in “The Grapes of Wrath.”
Since the 1930s it seems that OKC has been stuck in a position of trying to get people to like it once again. We pitched one incentive after another, one plan after another, trying to lure in industry and the sort of attention city leaders hoped would get OKC noticed again.
In 1993, the gameplan changed – and with the passage of the Metropolitan Area Projects OKC decided to spend some time, money and attention on itself. For once we decided to make ourselves happy – and improve our own city – instead of chasing after the latest economic hot shot halfway across the country.
The self investment worked, and got us to where we are today – a Major League City.
It’s easy to find areas where the city is still lacking – public transit, poverty, crime – but clearly things are moving forward.
We’ve retained our humility and friendliness, and that’s good. But maybe it’s time to do some showing off as well. I’m not suggesting a “fake it ’till you make it” approach as what can be found in cities like Dallas (yes, they really are faking it in so many ways). But let’s get a little cocky. Here are some suggestions made over the years that have yet to really get off the ground:
1. Get a great big flashy sign in front of Ford Center that can let everybody who passes know of the caliber events going on inside – including the upcoming NBA season.
2. The All Sports Association did a great job of transforming the dull blank south walls of the Cox Convention Center into a giant tournament rankings scorecards during the 2007 Big 12 Basketball Tournament. Let’s put those walls to use more often …
3. Trigen Energy has been quietly providing cooling and heating to downtown properties from its plant at Sheridan and E.K. Gaylord for some 30 years. During a master planning study several years ago, a consultant suggested placing a flashy LED sign on windowless plant that would promote various OKC events.
4. Other consultants have suggested using light pole banners to promote downtown all year long. What are we waiting for?
5. Snazz up the Oklahoma Spirit Trolleys. In San Antonio, similar trolleys have signs outside the entry doors promoting attractions on the routes. This has the advantage of not just making the trolleys easier to use for visitors, but also promote what downtown has to offer these visitors (and let’s not forget addressing complaints of unreliable service I detailed in this week’s Main Street column).
6. Visitors often comment how clean and modern downtown is. They like Bricktown, but then they wonder why so many buildings still have boarded up or broken windows and why so much space is still empty. If we’re a major league city, surely these relatively inexpensive flaws can be fixed pronto – as one might expect from a major league city.
7. I’ve often wondered why so many downtowns are free of 19th century technology – yes, overhead electric lines – and yet they muck up much of the streetscape in Bricktown.
8. Let’s brag more about our history. We’re building a great attraction with the Land Run Monument along the Bricktown Canal, yet we have nothing to my knowledge that explains to visitors what they are seeing or the unique founding of the city.
9. We have great historic characters – people like W.B. Skirvin, Charles Colcord, Perle Mesta, Jimmy Rushing, Charlie Christian, Roscoe Dunjee and so on … Yet these figures really aren’t celebrated. Some small town main streets in this state pull off great festivals where performers recreate historic figures and tell stories from the places where these folks’ ghosts are almost certainly still kicking back. The DeadCenter Film Festival proved we have a great creative class in town – let’s give them another shot at showing off by re-introducing us to W.B. Skirvin sitting back in his old chair in the lobby of the Skirvin, or Charles Colcord discussing the finer points of law enforcement at the Colcord Hotel, or Jimmy Rushing showing off his musical shops in Deep Deuce.
10. Yes, the NBA is coming. But I’ll argue being a major league city is a frame of mind, not something simply bestowed by a group of team owners. Think small town, and the major league status will remain elusive. Think like a major league city, and no one can take that away from you.
Flashback: 1998
From left, Seattle Supersonics chairman Clay Bennett, NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, and NBA commissioner David Stern talk after a press conference at the Skirvin Hilton Tuesday in Oklahoma City. By Nate Billings, The Oklahoman.
Flashback: It’s March, 1998. Ward 8 Councilman Guy Liebmann, considered the early favorite for the mayor’s post after Ron Norick decided not to seek re-election, is in a tough battle against political newcomer Kirk Humphreys. The city’s Metropolitan Area Projects initiative is running behind schedule and over budget. Liebmann wants to shelve the proposed arena. Humphreys insists that all of the MAPS projects should be built as promised to voters.
The ballpark has yet to open. No MAPS project is completed some five years after the tax was approved. The public is unhappy with the ballpark lease with the Oklahoma RedHawks because it gave away control of naming rights.
Downtown is showing some vibrancy, however, mostly in Bricktown which has continued to flourish despite delays in construction of the ballpark and canal. But downtown still only has one aging hotel. And one of the grandest buildings of them all – the Skirvin Hotel – is marking one decade dark and abandoned. The building is falling apart, and Ward 7 Councilwoman Willa Johnson is pondering whether it should be declared dillapidated.
I’m in the thick of all this, easilly cranking out a two to three stories a day with beat partner Jack Money.
Could any of us have predicted that 10 years later the NBA commissioner would be hosting a press conference at the Skirvin Hilton Hotel – now considered the finest hotel in the city – to announce the arrival of a team at the downtown arena was a virtual lock? Would anyone believe that downtown would soon be home to its seventh hotel, with more coming? Or that hundreds of condominiums would be opening up? Or that a skyscraper of at least 37 stories would soon alter the downtown skyline?
Wow….
