What's the deal with Smart Growth Tulsa?

[davideinstein]

After asking questions about the mayor race the past couple of days they told me to stay home and not vote, called me narrow minded and said they have written me off as someone with any sense. Is this just another organization that can't handle dissent? I remember Bill Leighty at the Vision meetings questioning the research people had done for a soccer stadium with accurate cost and him using the most expensive stadium in the country (Sporting) as an example of it being too much even though the size people gave was San Antonio which fits the Tulsa market better at a way cheaper cost. I'm under the opinion is just another lobby group in the city that frowns on individual thought. Not healthy. You can't just tag a lobby group as "smart growth" and expect everyone to agree with you.

[Conan71]

Bill is kind of a demagogue.  

I thought his outburst masked as a chance to comment at the Vision meeting at TCC (the only one I could attend) was rather disrespectful and combative.  There are issues I see 100 percent with him and one of those is Helmerich Park.

When the vote is going to be so close between Dewey and GT, voting for Paul Tay is a vote taken from GT.  So essentially, because you are sick of the same ol' same ol' and made a protest vote by voting for a candidate with no chance to win, you are abdicating any sort of change.  If you don't like the current mayoral admin, the only way you could help change that is by voting for a candidate who actually has a chance of unseating the incumbent.  Tay does not have that chance and if he did, Tulsa's city government would be a train wreck.

Yes, GT is from the LaFortune clan, but he's got better vision than DB when it comes to smart development and getting rid of many of the legacy GOP cronies who have been on the Bartlet (sic) administration and need to go.  

If you really are sick of the status quo, get involved.  A really good mentor said the path to do that is to ask your councilor to appoint you to something like the sales tax oversight board or get involved with a visible local organization.  After awhile, run for council, after that goes well, run for mayor.

The problem with Tulsa is too many talented and bright people are just unwilling to run for office or think they can't make a difference so they don't try.  Quite honestly, if Karen Gilbert had not run again for D-5, I would have filed and campaigned really hard and worked to represent the district and the best interests of Tulsa.  Working with the council to break the mall site on Turkey Mountain really awoke a desire to serve in me.  YMMV.  

If the core people of the TUWC had not come together and rallied public support because they thought they couldn't change anything, there's a very good chance there would be a mall under construction on Turkey Mountain right now.  If people didn't think they could affect change on the Hemerich Park debacle, a developer from Dallas would have already stolen that land at a fire sale price.

[davideinstein]

Right before I was going to vote I got a call from GT after he saw my complaints online. He answered the three questions I had about city education, bike lanes and a soccer stadium. I switched my vote over literally 15 minutes before I voted and was extremely impressed he took the time today to give me a call.

My complaint before that was that I had legitimate policy questions and no one would answer them. Some of the things Smart Growth Tulsa posted were ridiculous. I'm just a regular guy but I keep up with local policy and care a lot as an individual. Instead of actually considering my complaints they were complete jerks. Disappointing because I'm pretty passionate about solid urban planning and it's just another organization along with TyPros that I'll write off as being against individual thought.

[davideinstein]

Also, thanks for the efforts on Turkey Mountain. We take the dogs there often to hike and it's one of the highlights of my week.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Bill is kind of a demagogue.  

I thought his outburst masked as a chance to comment at the Vision meeting at TCC (the only one I could attend) was rather disrespectful and combative.  

I hate it when people are like that....



Or....
A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.

[heironymouspasparagus]

So, I was just paddling around in the Smart Growth Tulsa website and found that Ann Patton is on the Advisory board.  Nice.  And she wrote a book about Rev Dan Allen a few years ago.  Sweet!!   Gonna have to order the book, now...!

Volunteered at NFN with friends from 16 to early 20's.  Picked up bread and food in the REALLY raggedy-a$$ panel van!

Dan Allen - truly great man!!

[Hoss]

So, I was just paddling around in the Smart Growth Tulsa website and found that Ann Patton is on the Advisory board.  Nice.  And she wrote a book about Rev Dan Allen a few years ago.  Sweet!!   Gonna have to order the book, now...!

Volunteered at NFN with friends from 16 to early 20's.  Picked up bread and food in the REALLY raggedy-a$$ panel van!

Dan Allen - truly great man!!

A great read of Ann's was the process it took Tulsa to get the flood mitigation program in place.  I know for a fact that RM is very proud that his mother was a huge part of that.  There's a section of Boeing Park in my neighborhood that is named in her honor.

I remember moving over in that area before Mingo Creek was dredged up and made where it didn't flood every year.  It's a point of pride I have that for once, Tulsa led the nation (and at that time, the world) when it came to flood mitigation.  Communities still come to Tulsa for pointers on how it's done, is my understanding.

[Conan71]

Ann was also instrumental in the Mooser Creek Watershed study published around 2002.  Mooser Creek is the creek that runs along the north foot of Turkey Mountain and drains into the Arkansas River just north of the sewer plant on the south side if I-44.

This all-but-forgotten document was likely one of the reasons Simon was sent packing once it was brought to the attention of INCOG.  I believe between admonishments in that study about not altering grades of over 20% (parts of that property reach a 29% grade) and a letter sent by the board of the YMCA sent to Simon on conditions they had were what sent Simon packing before the TMAPC even voted on it.

Ann is one Tulsan we can all say has left a positive legacy.  She and Bob are terrific people.  Their kids aren't so bad either.

[TheArtist]

So, I was just paddling around in the Smart Growth Tulsa website and found that Ann Patton is on the Advisory board.  Nice.  And she wrote a book about Rev Dan Allen a few years ago.  Sweet!!   Gonna have to order the book, now...!

Volunteered at NFN with friends from 16 to early 20's.  Picked up bread and food in the REALLY raggedy-a$$ panel van!

Dan Allen - truly great man!!

We sell her books at DECOPOLIS!  Your locally owned downtown bookstore since 2012!

End commercial.... resume regularly scheduled programming.

[heironymouspasparagus]

We sell her books at DECOPOLIS!  Your locally owned downtown bookstore since 2012!

End commercial.... resume regularly scheduled programming.

Sweet.  I will try to get by next week and get that one.  Good to know.

[Bamboo World]

Ann is one Tulsan we can all say has left a positive legacy.  She and Bob are terrific people.  Their kids aren't so bad either.

Don't forget Gus and Dan, who had the prudent foresight of assigning the name "North Second" to the street between North First and North Third.

What a glorious christening!  Such elegance.  Such wisdom of the basic straightforwardness of cardinal directions and ordinal numbers! 

"On First Friday, meet me on North Second Street!"

"My opposite-sex, same-age spouse and I celebrated our tenth anniversary on North Second Street."

"Last night, I took my old lady to see Arlo Guthrie perform for the seventh time from our fifth row seats at the North Second Street Theater."

"Looking across Boston from my third floor apartment on North Second Street, I have a fantastic view of the Art Deco gas station on the corner."

"I was enjoying the Fourth of July fireworks from the north side of East North Second Street on the fourth block east of North Main Street East when I accidentally tripped and fell on a 7 inch sheer drop in the sidewalk there.  A bit stunned and in excruciating pain for a second at first, I later realized that I had broken the fourth toe on my left foot and had ripped a gaping gash in the right leg of my second hand, first edition Gloria Vanderbilt vintage jeans."

In my opinion, those Patton brothers were two sharp cookies, and they are very much under-appreciated in Tulsa's history.  Re-naming and re-branding North Second Street was a shameful trashing of Tulsa's uniqueness -- a potentially positive legacy lost for decades, perhaps centuries, or perhaps forever, to the selfishness of partisan politics.

Sure, the squabbles and grandstanding of the city council made front page news while the re-naming scheme was a bitter, raucous battle at City Hall.  But after the dust settled, no one talked about the re-naming for years and years.  Of course there were hush acknowledgments and whisperings in a few quarters of our ravaged city, but for the most part, the disgraceful subject was routinely ignored in textbooks and local history classes (as though ignoring the lost legacy of North Second Street would make the permanent, horrific scar simply disappear).

I'm not opposed to progress or change.  But some things are worth changing, and some are not.  Veering from the Pattons' "North Second Steet" vision was a serious mistake for Tulsa, and it was a colossal waste.  In terms of natural resources alone, just think of all the vinyl, metal, and paint that would have been saved over the years, if only we had stuck with their first choice, instead of settling for sloppy seconds.

[Conan71]

There is a short block long stretch of asphalt near Ollie's in Red Fork called Patton St.  RM has mentioned how that came to be before.

[RecycleMichael]

You all are so nice to me and my family.

[heironymouspasparagus]

You all are so nice to me and my family.

Did Ann work with NFN in the 60's?


They had a lot of good people hanging around then on a time available basis.  Was always kind of chaotic in the rush to get stuff going...   May have met her and don't remember....

[RecycleMichael]

Did Ann work with NFN in the 60's?

No.

She was a reporter for the Tulsa World. She met great people and told their stories.

Dan Allen was such a guy. His work as a poor priest in north Tulsa was legendary. Not only did he start Neighbor for Neighbor, he also started the Oklahoma Food bank.

She wrote stories in the 1970s about flooding and the victims, then dedicated her life to making Tulsa safe from floods.

She just loves to write a good story that matters. Her latest book is her best about a guy who promoted hate.

http://annpatton.net/