The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/462178064/building-better-cities

Can we make this part of orientation for State, County and City leaders? Some real common sense stuff in there:

1) People don't move to or stay in cities for the retail shopping
2) Public spaces make a city
3) Cities don't have to wait for other governments to come up with a solution
4) If you can't get basic government functions done well (schools, police, fire, fixing pot holes) then citizens are less likely to enable you to provide aspirational programs
5) What the elite of a city view as important, might not be to a majority of the population


If you do nothing else, spend 12 minutes listening to #5 listed on that page. The City Planner when New York revitalized its water front, discovered that Brooklyn was "cool," and oversaw the development of the Highline.  Good incite on what makes a city work in the long term and how that sometimes conflicts with the short-term profit motives of developers.  Simple example: developers didn't care about the Highline project at all, until it was wildly popular, made real estate and new projects in that area take off, and drew in millions of visitors. Then they wanted to tear down the remaining 1/3rd to use for development and line the rest with shops to "capitalize" on the asset.  Totally ignoring what made the space work in the first place.

Sound familiar? (*cough* Turnkey Mountain restaurant *cough*)

Somehow missed this post when started.

Found this and seems like this is the perfect location to address the concept of building better cities.

But this would require using a brain or two, some innovative thought, perhaps even a neuron to fire in the cranial void of a state legislator....guess we are just still screwed.

But this is the kind of thought we need to have going on in this country.  Where is it?  Since we landed on  the moon a few times, it's as if we said, "okay, we did our part, so we can just sit back and rest on our laurels.  Go to some foreign countries and kill some people.  Get our rich buddies even richer.  Turn the Fox loose in the hen house."

https://www.facebook.com/CollectiveEvolutionPage/videos/10154185262878908/

Its not that these things haven't been known around here or said out loud. Its that those in power in Tulsa, simply don't have listening capabilities. During discussions on this very forum all five of these have been expressed and roundly criticized or ignored because the speakers simply had no "credentials" (defined as an elite or friend of the elite class) or were viewed as anti-business, anti-property rights, Obama lover etc. In other words, people who think for themselves, observe and comment on the craziness of Tulsa.

Dewby has the listening capabilities.  The problem is, he suffers from ignorance and apathy. He’s been quoted as saying only a minority are against certain developments.  When they were challenged in public over the Simon project and the REI project though, it’s very apparent more people are speaking out against such development than are speaking out for it.

I agree, it probably is a minority of us in the city (in the population as a whole) who give as much active thought and discussion toward what constitutes good planning and good development.  To be quite honest, I always took what happened in planning and development for granted until I became more involved with TNF and started trying to learn more from people like Ponderinc, The Artist, CF, Chim Chim, and others who have a great passion for it.

I’m the last person I would have ever referred to as a greenie or tree hugger, but I wear it pretty proudly now.

Straddle bus is built and being deployed this summer.



http://nextbigfuture.com/2016/05/full-scale-straddle-bus-has-been-built.html