I think Jack Crowleys downtown plan and the Pearl District plans would be worth working towards. One started top down from the Mayor, the other bottom up starting with Jamie Jameson. Combine them and you have our own Core to Shore. Both are good plans imo. How do you propose we get them accepted by the public? (they were partly created by the public, even Crowleys plan includes parts, like Gunboat Park from earlier projects) People rail against the big bad plans those "up top" create(Channels), they also rail against (or elect into office those who will not go for) the small good ones the citizens create (Pearl District).
Give me some examples of what we should do. How did OKCs process work? Can we do something similar?
I give you respect by reading your posts and trying to understand them. Please reciprocate. I haven't said that our plans were not good or not as good as OKC's. We simply have a way of doing things here that has persisted for decades, or at least my lifetime. That process utilizes a phony input phase whether it comes from top down or bottom up. The policy makers and opinion leaders already have an idea of what they want but need others to agree to pay for their ideas. To not see that is to be part of it, knowingly or unwittingly. FOTD, FB and others have more intimate knowledge of that "bananna republic oligarchy" and have described it much to the chagrin of those who still naively believe it doesn't operate. Can I do any better? Not likely but that's hardly a defense.
Probably operates in a similar manner in OKC too, only there, and this is the meat of my remarks, it is presented in a more palatable fashion. People there believe, rightly or wrongly, that they are not being manipulated and that they actually have a choice. Once they vote down one of these projects, and it gets built anyway through chicanery, then they will have lost credibility in their leadership and will reflect the cynicism you note that Tulsan's have. Tulsan's rail against either process because they feel powerless. Things like setting meetings during the day when regular folks work or immediately following a long day of work. Making sure meetings involve little non-screened impromptu questioning. Showing pie in sky renderings that don't jive with reality. These cause people to feel manipulated at the least and often angry.
I won't make any friends with these remarks but its the truth as I see it.
I have often noted this example: Trinity River in Dallas. Can't vouch for its feasibility, walkability, common sense or success. But they made an effort to reach out to everyone for input not just those who are retired, notable, professional, etc. by using the internet to guage feedback for each element of the project. Kind of like surveys we do here on this forum. They then showed those results and continued to adjust the project to reflect those surveys. It may be a clusterf**k but no one can say they had no chance to influence the outcome.
Another example: we continue to ignore the public's errant perceptions. By not addressing obvious issues like the sewage treatment plant that they smell every time they cross the I-44 bridge (they think raw sewage will fill up the lake in Jenks) or the vagrants they see downtown they sense a coverup. These are real problems that are exaggerated or have solutions yet by not acknowledging them frankly, people become skeptical about the whole project.
Crowleys plan and the Pearl are hardly core to shore plans from what I saw. The area between downtown and the river is not the same makeup as the area between downtown OKC and the river (I got lost in that area a couple years ago and crossed tracks and cruised through low rent areas till I got dizzy.) They are fine plans and intelligently devised (especially liked Crowley's attitude) but go out into the city and ask someone at 91st & Mingo about them. Or East Tulsa or West. Have you even spoken to any of the 6th street property owners other than Jamie? You get cynicism, fatalism or outright ignorance of them as a response. Pearl is going to slowly materialize but there is lots of anger and cyncism about the tactics in the process there.
My instinct tells me its about age, honesty, and expectations. Our planners, presenters, county politicians and pr people involved with marketing the projects are all boomers or older. They know each other, they know the system and they know how to game. That OKC video was populated with younger professional folks with a techie feel to it. No water colors with sailboats and no smoke blowing.
