Using Smart Growth Tulsa Coalition's (SGTC's)
summary of votes, I went back to
SGTC's budget allocator and started picking the most popular items (based on the 307 respondents with verified emails).
Here's a list of the most popular survey line items, with the cumulative total staying below the $1 billion budget:
1. Permanent Dedicated Public Transit Tax 2/10th %, $200m
2. Permanent Dedicated Parks & Recreation Tax 1/10th %, $100m
(The top two choices account for 30% of the overall budget.)
3. Economic Development / Build free city-wide wi-fi system, $2m
4. Permanent Dedicated Public Safety Tax 2/10th %, $200m
(The top four choices account for slightly more than half of the overall budget.)
Continuing with the next $497,900,000:
5. Arkansas River Development - Rebuild Zink Dam, $75m
6. Transportation / Implement the GO Plan - Bicycle/Pedestrian Master Plan, $15m
7. Arts & Culture / Tulsa Children's Museum Permanent Site, $10m
8. Transportation / Connecting Downtown to the River via improvements to Boulder Ave, Denver Ave, Houston Avenue, $12m
9. Transportation / Phase I - Center of the Universe Inter-modal transit hub and Greenspace connecting the M.B. Brady, M.B. Greenwood, and M.B. Blue Dome Districts with the M.B. CBD, $25m
10. Transportation / Safer School Crossings and Crosswalks, $500k
11. Arts & Culture / PAC Renovation and Expansion, $95m
12. Transportation / Riverside Drive (41st to I-44) resurfacing and improvements, $11m
13. Economic Development / Hospital replacement/Substance Abuse Treatment Program, $400k
14. Tulsa County / Road & Bridge Projects, $62m
15. Transportation / Bike Share Program Implementation, $3m
16. Transportation / Phase I Streetcar - Route to be determined., $57m
17. Parks Sports & Recreation / Expand River Parks and Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness, $42m
18. Arts & Culture / Improve City-County Library Branches, $55m
The total cost of the top eighteen choices in the survey is less than $1 billion.
However, the nineteenth most popular proposal (chosen by 34.9% of respondents), Bigger Better Tulsa Zoo, was a budget buster at $60 million. So I skipped Bigger Better Tulsa Zoo, and went on to the next most popular line items which stayed within the remaining budget. I could add six more proposals without exceeding the overall $1 billion budget. Here are the six, with the percentages of respondents who voted for each:
- Neighborhood Revitalization / Mixed Use Parking Garages Downtown, $22m (34.2% of respondents chose this item.)
- Neighborhood Revitalization / IDL Underpass Illumination & Beautication, $500k (33.2%)
- Arkansas River Development / Levee Repairs, $10m (32.9%)
- Transportation / Close Lanes and Expand Sidewalks along Wide Streets for Restaurant Expansion and Outdoor Seating, $2m (26.1%)
- Transportation / Safewalk in Suburban Acres Neighborhood, $300k (14.3%)
- Parks Sports & Recreation / Trixx Skaters Club, $200k (Only 10.4% of respondents chose this item.)