DTU out, OKC company in

[TURobY]

But despite spending 99% of my time downtown, I've still not seen a cop on horseback.

I saw some at Mayfest.

[tim huntzinger]

Anyone else bet Jim Norton saw this coming?

How would he have known? Are these bids private? Who knew what when?  If I were a Councilor, I would take your question very, very seriously.  If 'Jim Norton saw this coming,' is there some kind of unethicalness going on here?  Down the rabbit hole we go.

NEXT UP: Tulsa Metro Chamber of Criminals!! Ha ha ha!

[sgrizzle]

If he didn't see it coming he was blind. He was a very polarizing person who had a no-bid contract for years. Everyone on this board knew it was going to competitive bid. His time was over.

[Conan71]

How would he have known? Are these bids private? Who knew what when?  If I were a Councilor, I would take your question very, very seriously.  If 'Jim Norton saw this coming,' is there some kind of unethicalness going on here?  Down the rabbit hole we go.

NEXT UP: Tulsa Metro Chamber of Criminals!! Ha ha ha!

I thought it was interesting he'd found another job well before the bid results were known.  It may have even been prior to the RFQ being issued.  DTU was a bad joke that wouldn't go away for 30 years.

[PonderInc]

Maybe when you run a lethargic non-profit whose budget reveals 50% goes to unspecified "management," you worry when  you know your contract will actually go out to bid...

Funny, last year's DTU budget (included in their contract with the City) reflected $170,000 for sidewalk, street and alley cleaning, and $48,170 for landscaping...which would have brought them in as the lowest bidder if they'd submitted that as their bid on the new RFP.  However, their bid for those services on the new RFP was $483,000.  Strange.  Guess they're still budgeting for all that "management..."

Basically, I blame the City of Tulsa for blithely renewing the contract without scrutiny for all these years.  Why did we have a contract that was never updated and never went out for competitive bid for the past 20 (?) or more years?  Whose job is it to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen?

[cannon_fodder]

DTU is shutting down after 52 years in operation:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20090624_298_0_Downto491033

Anyone else think it is a bit ironic that those 52 years represent a decline from downtown as the vibrant business core to downtown as a near wasteland?  I don't know much about the operation of DTU, but no-bid contracts that were 2x the cost of the new one and the recorded decline "under their watch" seems telling.  They will remain an organization with one employee to serve as a watchdog.  I hope they assume a new and productive role in making downtown a better and more vibrant area.

[Conan71]

DTU is shutting down after 52 years in operation:

Good riddance.  Controversial as the ballpark is right now, I'm still of the firm belief the ballpark will do more for downtown than the last 30 years of what DTU has done or influenced.  I was totally unaware DTU had been kicking around for 52 years.  I can't believe it survived as long as it did.  But I guess as long as the city was willing to blithely reissue a no-bid contract year-after-year, that would explain it.

[sgrizzle]

DTU is shutting down after 52 years in operation:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20090624_298_0_Downto491033

Anyone else think it is a bit ironic that those 52 years represent a decline from downtown as the vibrant business core to downtown as a near wasteland?  I don't know much about the operation of DTU, but no-bid contracts that were 2x the cost of the new one and the recorded decline "under their watch" seems telling.  They will remain an organization with one employee to serve as a watchdog.  I hope they assume a new and productive role in making downtown a better and more vibrant area.

The last sentence in the story is obviously a stab at DTU:
DTU was formed in 1957 as a nonprofit organization with a mission to bring merchants back to downtown following the development of Utica Square.

[PonderInc]

One of the problems with DTU was that they had a contract with the city that was all about keeping the Main Mall nice and pretty.  Cleaning fountains, emptying trash cans, sweeping sidewalks.  (Seriously, their 2008 contract still refered to the Main Mall!  It's like nobody ever updated the thing after 1980.)

Their contract with the city never included business development, marketing, security, urban design planning, transportation planning, etc.  (Certainly, it didn't include installing acorn lighting!)

However, they billed themselves as "the downtown authority."  And they were treated as the "gatekeeper" to and "owner" of downtown.  (As if they were in charge of everything downtown.)

Some people say that DTU was the only group "advocating" for downtown, when nobody else cared.  Perhaps.  (I don't know if this is true.)  But I've talked to too many people who said that DTU shut them out of the game.  Ignored them.  Protected their little empire, at the cost of downtown vitality and growth.

To me, the failure to collaborate with willing volunteers and seek out synergies with other organizations was telling.

When you talk to downtown business owners (specifically small businesses...you know, the cornerstone of our economy), and they say that DTU never lifted a finger to help them...  Well, that pretty much sums it up to me.  They were a downtown association for the big corporations in the core of downtown, and for the parking lot owners who served on their board.  Nothing more.  And the fact that we all assumed that DTU should have been working on behalf of all of downtown... well, it wasn't in their contract.

[Conan71]

One of the problems with DTU was that they had a contract with the city that was all about keeping the Main Mall nice and pretty.  Cleaning fountains, emptying trash cans, sweeping sidewalks.  (Seriously, their 2008 contract still refered to the Main Mall!  It's like nobody ever updated the thing after 1980.)

Their contract with the city never included business development, marketing, security, urban design planning, transportation planning, etc.  (Certainly, it didn't include installing acorn lighting!)

However, they billed themselves as "the downtown authority."  And they were treated as the "gatekeeper" to and "owner" of downtown.  (As if they were in charge of everything downtown.)

Some people say that DTU was the only group "advocating" for downtown, when nobody else cared.  Perhaps.  (I don't know if this is true.)  But I've talked to too many people who said that DTU shut them out of the game.  Ignored them.  Protected their little empire, at the cost of downtown vitality and growth.

To me, the failure to collaborate with willing volunteers and seek out synergies with other organizations was telling.

When you talk to downtown business owners (specifically small businesses...you know, the cornerstone of our economy), and they say that DTU never lifted a finger to help them...  Well, that pretty much sums it up to me.  They were a downtown association for the big corporations in the core of downtown, and for the parking lot owners who served on their board.  Nothing more.  And the fact that we all assumed that DTU should have been working on behalf of all of downtown... well, it wasn't in their contract.

I'll concur with everything you've heard from my personal experience of roughly 17-18 years ago which included direct dealings with DTU and meetings with it's director and staff.  Outside influence and suggestion was not much appreciated at DTU.  The only person I ever knew at DTU who seemed interested in truly promoting downtown was Julie Shields.  Marketing folk from companies like Williams or PSO actually came up with some of the best promotions involving downtown (RIP Jenny Sehafer).  My personal opinion was that Jim Norton was incredibly deft and detached from downtown and was doing nothing but stroking a paycheck as an administrator.  In my opinion, he was not that visible in the downtown community and perhaps more importantly, no one outside downtown even seemed to know his name.  I thought the whole idea was to attract people to downtown in the first place, not just pander to a few land owners.  Anyone outside downtown (and many inside) all thought he was the car dealer when his name was mentioned. 

Maybe my paradigm of what that job was supposed to entail was way, way off target.  I always envisioned DTU as being sort of a micro chamber of commerce.  I felt it failed in that regard.