Friday, OKC opened their new riverboat taxis on the Oklahoma River. The full story is in the Sunday World. It took 15 years from the first MAPS vote, where putting water in the river was first envisioned, to completion, but they did this part in only 4 years. That is the same period of time since we left river development out of V2025 then slapped down two subsequent efforts. It will run 7 miles which is about the same distance from 21st street to Jenks.
Of course it wasn’t cheap. Chesapeake threw in two million for the luxurious 65 ft long enclosed boats, the Feds threw in a few million to cover the rest and it will be operated by the OKC transit authority which means it is destined to lose money. It will be subsidized by our taxes.
Note the different approach their leadership took in utilizing a River Authority to develop ports first in an effort to attract usage of the river because they felt that process would fuel development around the area. Wish I had thought of that….Oh yeah, I did. They view rail and trolleys in the same way. Had our leadership approached development in this manner I think we would have had different results. Not to worry, we have better running paths and parks.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4182/is_20060228/ai_n16202817 and
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4182/is_20031030/ai_n10159626World article:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20080427_1_A19_hThan61537
