Urban Tulsa embarrasses Roscoe and Jack

[Double A]

quote:Originally posted by Chicken Little

quote:Originally posted by waterboy

All of them...

And calling your colleauges liars and tyrants when they appear to be working on the problem is not helpful.

The fact of the matter is Kathy "proactive" Taylor and the EDC were so busy schlepping the One Tech lemon that they were caught with their pants down when Albertons folded. Kathy Taylor ran as a business savy CEO who would be proactive as Mayor. If that was really the case she would have been well aware of the stores looming collapse and would have already had a plan in place to deal with the Albertson's departure as the anchor for this TIF district. Instead of being proactive, once again the Mayor had to react to a situation which could have been avoided if she only had been concentrating on real priorities of the city, instead of frivolous flights of fancy like One Tech or the River Tax.

[Chicken Little]

quote:Originally posted by Double A

Kathy "proactive" Taylor...

I don't know if anybody, employees included, had much more than a month's notice on the closing.  Do you have information or are you just speculating?

Regardless, I don't think it is relevent to the point I was making.  How is name-calling going to make the situation better, 2A?  If everybody was simply ignoring this problem, then sure, make some noise.  But it appears that some people were actually trying to do something, and that at some point they were reaching out for support from Turner and Henderson.  And for that, Wescott gets called a liar?  That just seems like bad form; maybe it was just a slip, but it ain't right.  

My point is actually broader than that, though.  Politicking is not a substitute for action.  And if you want to see where all that "bad blood" and nastiness can lead, then look at our country's gridlocked congress.  There's gotta be some balance.  You gotta choose your battles, being a full-time a-hole doesn't get a darn thing done.

There may be more to the story than we know.  That second group may be a better choice.  Nevertheless, a good backup plan doesn't hurt.  Just my two bits on the matter.

[waterboy]

Agreed CL. But Albertson's had been in some turmoil for several years. So no one got caught with their pants down. They were hoping for the best outcome for these stores in an industry that operates on small margins and gets butt kicked by WalMart routinely. The Pine store was a good opportunity that ultimately didn't work for them. If that's the Mayor's fault then so was the power outage.

AA please don't waste your energies calling names and pointing fingers. This is a team effort you know. I am curious as to what you think an acceptable Democratic response would have been and who would have made it? Who measures up to your standards?

[Double A]

quote:Originally posted by waterboy

Agreed CL. But Albertson's had been in some turmoil for several years. So no one got caught with their pants down. They were hoping for the best outcome for these stores in an industry that operates on small margins and gets butt kicked by WalMart routinely. The Pine store was a good opportunity that ultimately didn't work for them. If that's the Mayor's fault then so was the power outage.

AA please don't waste your energies calling names and pointing fingers. This is a team effort you know. I am curious as to what you think an acceptable Democratic response would have been and who would have made it? Who measures up to your standards?

The buck should stop with the Mayor and the EDC. They are the ones who were so preoccupied with the One Tech and the River tax, that they neglected this TIF and were totally caught off guard by the Albertsons collapse. She's the one who ran as a proactive business wiz, her reactive handling of this situation shatters that myth.

[waterboy]

quote:Originally posted by Double A

quote:Originally posted by waterboy

Agreed CL. But Albertson's had been in some turmoil for several years. So no one got caught with their pants down. They were hoping for the best outcome for these stores in an industry that operates on small margins and gets butt kicked by WalMart routinely. The Pine store was a good opportunity that ultimately didn't work for them. If that's the Mayor's fault then so was the power outage.

AA please don't waste your energies calling names and pointing fingers. This is a team effort you know. I am curious as to what you think an acceptable Democratic response would have been and who would have made it? Who measures up to your standards?

The buck should stop with the Mayor and the EDC. They are the ones who were so preoccupied with the One Tech and the River tax, that they neglected this TIF and were totally caught off guard by the Albertsons collapse. She's the one who ran as a proactive business wiz, her reactive handling of this situation shatters that myth.

With accountability goes responsibility, so by your reckoning the councilors should not even be involved. What do we even need them for if she has such individual awesome accountability? No, development and its success or failure is a village operation. The best she can do is provide leadership, focus and energy. She has done that. You don't like her direction but that doesn't mean she isn't working hard at providing it.

And believe me now and hear me later...anyone who followed Albertson's stock and that category in particular was not surprised by those store closings. What is surprising to me is that no one is drawing parallels between what happened with that TIFF and what could happen with the one in Jenks or Tulsa Hills. It should give one pause.

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by TulsaSooner

It's only fair, after all, they've been embarrassing Tulsa for years.

[]

lol

[tim huntzinger]

Himelfarb is the coordinator, not the CZAR. I would think his job is to smooth out wrinkles, help navigate the system, find appropriate contacts for interested re-locators.  To lay the blame for an empty frigging store at the feet of any one person or Duo is missing the point, IMHO.

As I remember, there were about ten kajillion other 'projects' that sapped energies, from streets to North Tulsa river projects to Drillers stadiums to any number of other stupid things.  That this one lil' project got put on the backburner is par for the course for North Tulsans, IMHO.