Can Kathy Taylor Be Beat?

[waterboy]

quote:Originally posted by Wrinkle

quote:Originally posted by waterboy

So, why does she have such a good approval rating by voters?

...makes one wonder if TW/KOTV left their respective buildings when doing the survey.

They may have gotten as far as their parking lot or the nearby pubs...

I can't think of any current leader who could damage an incumbent mayor who has been so activist in nature. People just want something done, anything that will move us off the mediocre list. She's putting forth good, if not controversial, effort in doing so.

[Red Arrow]

quote:Originally posted by inteller

A point of clarification, the "they were paying more for vehicle repairs than the street improvements would cost them"

I guess I wasn't clear on "they". I was referring to the voters as in...
the voters were paying more for vehicle repairs than the street improvements would cost the voters.

[Red Arrow]

quote:Originally posted by waterboy

So, why does she have such a good approval rating by voters? It isn't so hard to find mistakes made by executives, but oh so hard to for opponents to list her successes. Had the economy not soured in the last quarter, some of those mistakes you quote would have been positives.

It's all Bush's fault.

Perspective matters as well. I don't know why you guys had so much vehicle damage last year. I drove about 25000 miles on a company car doing multiple stops in and around the city. We had a fleet of a dozen cars working all around the city logging even more mileage. No vehicle damages reported due to street conditions during the last year.

Not all cars are created equal in avoiding damage from bad roads.  SUVs should do great. Fleet cars with high profile, low performance tires and spongy suspensions have a much better chance to avoid damage from potholes etc. than many of today's popular automobile choices. I feel unsafe in a car that wallows about.

Edit: forgot ..."from" bad roads.

[waterboy]

Nah, we were driving Toyota Corollas with cheap as possible tires. That car should be the prototype for American cars. Durable, nimble, fuel efficient and comfy. Up to 300,000 miles apiece and they still looked good. 30-35mpg combination mileage. Face it, most of those road damage reports were probably avoidable. Tulsa drivers like to complain about everyone else's driving and the poor roads when most of their discomfort is self inflicted.

[swake]

Under Taylor the city was able to complete the arena as designed and without asking taxpayers for more money (like what Oklahoma City had to do with their cost overruns), she has gotten a massive streets package passed, she has gotten a new baseball stadium started without a general tax increase.

Tulsa has a new city hall replacing that absolute embarrassment of a civic center. She made a wise choice to not tear out the old civic center arena and decided instead to expand the convention center allow Tulsa in the future to bid on events needing two arenas.

She annexed the fairgrounds which expanded Tulsa's tax base and law enforcement reach. I still say that the county is more upset over the fairgrounds now being under the city of Tulsa's law enforcement jurisdiction than the incremental increase in sales tax. They don't want city police not under control of the Sherriff to be able to investigate what goes on at the fairgrounds.

She settled the lawsuit regarding Great Plains Airlines and fired the lawyers who got the city into the mess. A mess created and unsolved by the previous two mayors. If you want to be upset over the settlement, be mad at the people who got the city into a situation where the city was responsible for the loss. The problem had been festering through two previous mayors and fighting it was most likely only going to cost the city more money in lawyers fees. It's not really been a loss anyway as the CEO of the Bank of Oklahoma (who we paid the money to) has since donated many times the amount of the settlement back to the city and community.

Taylor got a new and mutually agreeable contract done between the city and police. She has had multiple police academies and there are now more cops on the streets. In fact a new academy just graduated in the last week. She got a new (old) and capable police chief in place replacing the train wreck one fired by the last mayor, a chief that the police on the street believe in. Crime has fallen every year she has been in office and from what I know and hear the biggest current problem with law enforcement in Tulsa isn't the size of the police department, it's the lack of police support and criminal prosecution from the Tulsa County D.A.'s office.

She saved the city's ambulance service by creating a fee for the service that anyone is allowed to opt out of simply by asking.

Taylor is fighting the county from trying to double dip on tax revenue by charging the city for city inmates when a decade ago the city helped pass a dedicated sales tax to support just that function.

And she has done all of this after being given an absolute mess of a city budget by the previous administration.

More cops, lower crime, hundreds of millions of new money for streets, the arena completed as designed without new taxes, an expanded tax base, a new city hall and baseball stadium without new general tax increases. What exactly are you all so upset about. She's certainly doing "something" and she's has not raised taxes any appreciable amount at all.

[Red Arrow]

quote:Originally posted by waterboy

Nah, we were driving Toyota Corollas with cheap as possible tires. That car should be the prototype for American cars. Durable, nimble, fuel efficient and comfy. Up to 300,000 miles apiece and they still looked good. 30-35mpg combination mileage. Face it, most of those road damage reports were probably avoidable. Tulsa drivers like to complain about everyone else's driving and the poor roads when most of their discomfort is self inflicted.

Tire profile is more important than cost.  The best I can determine, the Corolla probably has a 65 profile tire. 20 years ago that would have been a sporty tire. Not anymore.  A 195/65 tire should (and evidently does) provide reasonable protection against wheel damage on a light car like a Corolla.  

Some of the damage around town is probably self inflicted. I don't think I would say most of it. If you are watching the road surface directly in front of you to avoid potholes, you are probably missing the big picture and will eventually wind up in a collision. The damage then is not recorded as road damage.

Durable - no question there.
Nimble/Performance - depends on your reference. If it struggles to make expressway speeds on a reasonable length entrance ramp, I would say unacceptable. As far as overall handling, it depends on your reference and preference. I assume it's somewhere between Corvette and Lincoln Town Car.  Again, I haven't driven one so I don't know this answer for the Corolla.
Fuel efficient - yep
Comfy - depends. I've sat in many new cars at the new car show at the fairgrounds each year in March. I don't specifically remember the Corolla. Many of the small cars would be OK for a quick commute but I wouldn't want to take them cross country.

[Red Arrow]

quote:Originally posted by swake

She annexed the fairgrounds which expanded Tulsa's tax base and law enforcement reach.

Be careful what you annex for a tax base.  The citizens may expect to be supported by the city they're paying tax to.  I'm thinking of S.E. Tulsa streets.

[Hoss]

quote:Originally posted by inteller

quote:Originally posted by Red Arrow

quote:Originally posted by waterboy

Nah, we were driving Toyota Corollas with cheap as possible tires. That car should be the prototype for American cars. Durable, nimble, fuel efficient and comfy. Up to 300,000 miles apiece and they still looked good. 30-35mpg combination mileage. Face it, most of those road damage reports were probably avoidable. Tulsa drivers like to complain about everyone else's driving and the poor roads when most of their discomfort is self inflicted.

Tire profile is more important than cost.  The best I can determine, the Corolla probably has a 65 profile tire. 20 years ago that would have been a sporty tire. Not anymore.  A 195/65 tire should (and evidently does) provide reasonable protection against wheel damage on a light car like a Corolla.  

Some of the damage around town is probably self inflicted. I don't think I would say most of it. If you are watching the road surface directly in front of you to avoid potholes, you are probably missing the big picture and will eventually wind up in a collision. The damage then is not recorded as road damage.

Durable - no question there.
Nimble/Performance - depends on your reference. If it struggles to make expressway speeds on a reasonable length entrance ramp, I would say unacceptable. As far as overall handling, it depends on your reference and preference. I assume it's somewhere between Corvette and Lincoln Town Car.  Again, I haven't driven one so I don't know this answer for the Corolla.
Fuel efficient - yep
Comfy - depends. I've sat in many new cars at the new car show at the fairgrounds each year in March. I don't specifically remember the Corolla. Many of the small cars would be OK for a quick commute but I wouldn't want to take them cross country.

you shouldn't need a ****ing R65 tire to drive around the streets here.  That is BS.  My R45s make it feel like I'm driving off a ****ing cliff when I hit some of the craters in this town.  And that is inflated to factory pressures.

Wow, not a lot of cars use 45 profle tires; that's an odd number.

Probably why we have that in common.  What kind of car do you drive?  And are those 18 inch wheels (like on mine)?

But I would agree.  I literally live on the freeways because I know for the most part there aren't any suspension crushing potholes on those.

[Red Arrow]

quote:Originally posted by inteller

you shouldn't need a ****ing R65 tire to drive around the streets here.  That is BS.  My R45s make it feel like I'm driving off a ****ing cliff when I hit some of the craters in this town.


And then hitting a brick wall on the exit side of the crater.

And that is inflated to factory pressures.

My 10 yr old car has 225/60R16 tires.  50 profile tires are becoming more commmon even on non-performance cars.  I still cringe on some of the surface anomolies I've encounted.  I take that back. I cringe on the regular surface, am delighted on the (smooth) anomolies.

[Hometown]

I would say that she is vulnerable.  But the local Democrats don't seem to have a stable of qualified candidates.  If we had a viable alternative I would support the alternative.

I'm a life long Democrat but I don't like Taylor's style of governing.  She fancies herself a Corporate Titan when we really need a Mayor.

She is a little Napoleon, she is litigious and she doesn't have the generosity of spirit that I look for in leaders.  She lacks character and has a mean streak.

She single handedly threw out decades of public investment in our Civic Center so that the city could have a corporate headquarters as grand her own home.

She has failed in her biggest mission – finding us a police chief that would put the good old boy system to rest.

In fact Taylor seems to have appointed herself ringleader of the good ole boys.

The city's relationship with the Bank of Oklahoma is downright anticompetitive and unhealthy.  Taylor has tried to exploit rather than remedy.

The only thing Taylor did that I liked was ask FEMA for money, in person, all by herself.  That took leadership.

My mole in city government said she has forced out numerous key old timers and replaced them with her yes men and women.  It looks like she is planning on using Tulsa one way or the other.

I want a shake up in the local Democratic Party, but I'm not hopeful that we are smart enough to make that happen.

[swake]

quote:Originally posted by Red Arrow

quote:Originally posted by swake

She annexed the fairgrounds which expanded Tulsa's tax base and law enforcement reach.

Be careful what you annex for a tax base.  The citizens may expect to be supported by the city they're paying tax to.  I'm thinking of S.E. Tulsa streets.

I will be sure to go and personally inform every resident of the fairgrounds of that.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by inteller

ah yes, I forgot the city hall fiasco.

How many floors are still empty?  how many floors are being leased with sweetheart deals from Bok?  and how many entities of conflicting interest live on the same floor as the mayor?

As the story goes, the building was purchased as the new home for Dollar Thrifty, but when they backed out of the deal the mayor took it off the developer's hands.

[Red Arrow]

quote:Originally posted by swake

quote:Originally posted by Red Arrow

quote:Originally posted by swake

She annexed the fairgrounds which expanded Tulsa's tax base and law enforcement reach.

Be careful what you annex for a tax base.  The citizens may expect to be supported by the city they're paying tax to.  I'm thinking of S.E. Tulsa streets.

I will be sure to go and personally inform every resident of the fairgrounds of that.

I was referring to annexing in general.

However it could refer to businesses.
What about the motel there?  The waterpark?  Will they now start demanding something from the city?

[waterboy]

quote:Originally posted by Hometown



I want a shake up in the local Democratic Party, but I'm not hopeful that we are smart enough to make that happen.

You've said that before and it is perplexing to me. There is no strong Democratic party in Tulsa because....its Tulsa. We are the last bastion of conservatism, evangelism and status quo. Good Democrats are eaten for breakfast with coffee by the local powers. That's just the environment here. When a massive victory like Obama and the Democrats had nationally amounts to a drizzly fog locally, its pretty telling. Even KT seems a bit too Democrat for these parts and she's a Republican anywhere else.

So how does the party bulk up?

[Hometown]

I still have to find answers to some questions I have but it looks to me like Governor Marland was the wonderful exception in our long history of lousy leadership.  How did he do it?

People who have been building strategy on the Democratic power structure as we find it won't like what I have to say but as my friend in Democratic politics said about the last election -- we lost everything (except for my favorite Dan Boren).

Now is the time for creative self destruction and reinventing the Oklahoma Democratic Party with a message that is more meaningful to the Oklahomans.

We need a shakeup.