Queen Kathy - again?? JUST SAY NO!!!!

[heironymouspasparagus]

Taylor? She bailed on the people of Tulsa quicker than an Egyptian hot-air balloon pilot.

Were you even living here then??  Usually your thought process is much less convoluted and ends up at least somewhere near the real world...  this time - swing and a miss.

I think this election will be slightly tilted more towards voting against someone rather than voting for.   Anybody but Bartlett!!

[guido911]

I'm voting for RM.

[RecycleMichael]

Thanks for you support. Unfortunately, I am not running for Mayor in 2013.

Get back with me in four years.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Thanks for you support. Unfortunately, I am not running for Mayor in 2013.

Get back with me in four years.

Through inaction, many an opportunity is lost.

May not want you in four years....


I just saw an ad for "Gator Boys"....and I knew even without their example, that putting your head inside an alligator's mouth is really a bad idea.  Probably a lot like running for office....

[Teatownclown]

Thanks for you support. Unfortunately, I am not running for Mayor in 2013.

Get back with me in four years.

Sorry, no chance. You have a trashy past.

[Red Arrow]

Sorry, no chance. You have a trashy recycled past.

Recyclable items should not be considered "trash".   Just ask any automobile salvage yard owner if he considers his establishment a "junk yard". 

[heironymouspasparagus]

Recyclable items should not be considered "trash".   Just ask any automobile salvage yard owner if he considers his establishment a "junk yard". 

No.  My driveway is not a "Junk yard"....

[TulsaRufnex]

I disagree. I think the ballpark has helped quite a bit. I also don't blame the ballpark just because the properties directly next to it haven't sold and changed. I attend many games and see lots of people walking to the ball park after hanging out in both the Brady Arts District and the Blue Dome.

I have young kids and they never said they wanted to live near the fairgrounds even though we went to many a game there. Now, my kids really want to live and work downtown. The ballpark made everything within five blocks cool to them.

Baseball is magic and moving the ballpark spurred everything in my opinion.

Well... I do not adhere to the "Baseball is magic" dogma... Field of Dreams is soooooo last century, RM.  
But I do believe the "walkable downtown stadium" model is a qualified success.

I don't know how much of it was Kathy Taylor's doing, but in hindsight, I think the location of the ballpark on North Greenwood may have turned out to be better than Bill LaFortune's proposal for the East End/East Village.  Unfortunately for LaFortune, and for Taylor in her first few months in office, it turned out Tim Kissler and Willie Lauterbach and their Global Development Partners team from DC were especially good at spending other people's money... and all their supposed assets turned out to be nothing more than smoke-and-mirrors... but I still wonder how popular the "Stadium Improvement District" is going to be twenty years from now?...

As a kid, my family would go to TU basketball games at the Assembly Center, and we never walked anywhere before or after the games.
Park.  Watch.  Drive home.  
Repeat the same routine for anything at the fairgrounds pavillion or the old ballpark.

I think the Brady District is easier to develop than Blue Dome/East End.  There are more existing buildings, and it has better "bones."
Every time I read something about how Blue Dome/East End is going to magically transform into some walkable residential urban utopia in the next two or three years, I am tempted to drive down to 3rd & Greenwood and look south for yet another reality check.  I really wish the BOk Center had been built there, but alas... excuse me if I find it hard to get excited about another church being built and the local opera company setting up shop in an old fire station... I really don't see that inspiring people to want to move downtown.

Hmmm.  KT?  My biggest beef with her was that she wasn't a "real" Tulsan and therefore could never comprehend the mindset and twisted civic pride we have here...

[Conan71]

Blue Dome is as easy a walk from the ball park as most of the currently developed density in the Brady.  I think most all the BD bars and restaurants do as much business as they have time and room for on game nights.

[TulsaRufnex]

Agreed.
Blue Dome is definitely walkable from the ballpark...
I meant to say that the development you see in Blue Dome starts with the existing older buildings on 1st and 2nd streets, but the areas south of 3rd are sparse, barren, and much harder to develop compared to Brady (or 6th & Peoria, for that matter).

[rdj]

Most of the area south of the Blue Dome will not be repurposed.  Lots of empty lots there that will see buildings from scratch.

[Conan71]

Interested to see what the final product looks like at the old Bill White building.  Sure seems like that would have been easier to scrape and rebuild.

[TulsaRufnex]

Most of the area south of the Blue Dome will not be repurposed.  Lots of empty lots there that will see buildings from scratch.

I'll believe it when I see shovels in the dirt-- or in this case, shovels in the asphalt.
Whither Urban 8?  And how's that "neighborhood-transforming" Tulsa Opera HQ landswap going?
When I drive by the Home Depot, the last thing that comes to mind is:  "Wow, this part of town could really use a new church!"  

[rdj]

I'll believe it when I see shovels in the dirt-- or in this case, shovels in the asphalt.
Whither Urban 8?  And how's that "neighborhood-transforming" Tulsa Opera HQ landswap going?
When I drive by the Home Depot, the last thing that comes to mind is:  "Wow, this part of town could really use a new church!"  

I'm not disagreeing with you, I never believe a project will happen until the tenets move in and open for business. 

I was stating that most of the building stock south of 6th street in the "east end" is not really suitable for rehab, it is demo and rebuild from scratch primarily.

[LocalGirl]

Any time you do something or make any changes in this town you will make people angry.  You, and even I, may not like her methods, but I liked that she got things done. 

So, it doesn't matter what tactics are used to accomplish one's goals?  I think the ballpark is a good thing, too, but I know it wasn't all KT's doing - lots of private money and influence was behind that project. I also know she was dishonest in the process of getting the project through the Council.  But, so what??

What did KT do wrong?

What (else) did she do wrong? Oh, please! How about her lies to accomplish the City Hall move? How about her refusal to attend CC meetings and make required presentations because they DARED question her? How about firing the new Parks Department head, within months of actively recruiting her, because she DARED question her (KT)?  KT thinks she's royalty, exempt from ethical standards, and she's nothing more than an empire builder!

NO - it's NOT ok to 'get things done' in a crooked way - even if some of those things may be beneficial.  (What about when they're not?)  She's shown she will do whatever is necessary to have things HER way and giving over power to someone like that is just nonsensical.