Recent Posts

Gov. Kevin Stitt's border trip cost state $12,199 for charter flight to, from Texas

OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma taxpayers will foot the bill for Gov. Kevin Stitt's charter flight to Texas last week to join Republican governors for a news conference to criticize President Joe Biden's immigration and border policies.

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2021/10/14/gov-kevin-stitt-border-trip-biden-immigration-policies-taxpayer-costs/8420693002/

OSU posted an announcement today of groundbreaking for this facility. I've seen no update to the purchase of buildings to move the workers' compensation court and other state offices. I assume the groundbreaking is on the OSU Med side, but I doubt this can move very fast if they are still looking for new space which would likely also need significant modifications.

https://www.newson6.com/story/61675af75030520c10a636c5/skynews-6-video:-progress-on-gilcrease-expressway-extension-project-?fbclid=IwAR2MMExxN1xPgj4jdbA7ZSwz3ULxt3VeyQH3M0HNk2uas67hsXtCiAGMaWA

TULSA, Oklahoma - Construction crews are making progress on the Gilcrease Expressway extension that will connect Highway 412 with I-44.
News On 6 has been following this project for a few years now and has seen major progress over that time. The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority said the five-mile stretch is expected to relieve congestion during peak travel times from Interstate 244 and Highway 97.

The Gilcrease Expressway Extension will connect Highway 412 and, ultimately, the Tisdale with I-44 on the west side of town.

The bridge being built over the Arkansas River will cross at 57th West Avenue, and this project will cost around $330 million.

The project was started late in 2019 and Turnpike Authority Leaders expect the highway to be open by November of 2022.

You kind of lost credibility there by all that gaslighting... no one is saying a piece of infrastructure is racist. Those dang young kids need to get off your lawn! Right? Get a grip on reality.

The decisions of where to place infrastructure were due to a compilation of issues, many of which were results of racist policies (redlining for example) if you actual chose to see beyond your own nose (open your mind a bit). Redlining destroyed property values in areas like Greenwood. You can't possibly with a straight face tell me that redlining was not racist. That creates a vacuum, and yes in fact many of the crime issues and housing issues are a direct result of a combination of all these issues and that happens when you've had people actively working to destabilize that community for decades - wake up.  

Which in turn made those neighborhoods easy targets when highways were being built because they could acquire the land cheaply (same with "urban renewal" programs). Look at the Riverside Expressway as an example. If redlining and other things hadn't eroded wealth in Greenwood they would have had the money to fight 244 and possibly reroute it away from the neighborhood or get it canceled outright like residents in Maple Ridge were able to do with the Riverside Expressway.

There was no reason why 244 needed to go right through the middle of the commercial district of Greenwood. You can't with a straight face tell me that wasn't intentional either. Why couldn't it have gone a few blocks north? Or south along the railroad line. There were other routes it could have taken that would have been less impactful to Greenwood. Yet, they chose to build it where it is.. because they knew that neighborhood had very little ability to fight it and to many white planners of that time black neighborhoods were nothing but 'blight' that needed to be paved over to make it all go away. There were also plenty of poor white neighborhoods in town with crime issues (still are today too) yet none of them were ever a target of mass clearing like Greenwood was for highways, UCAT, etc.

There's nothing about that which was ok and you can bury your head in the sand if you'd like to not acknowledge what is right in front of your face. This same scenario played out everywhere in America. It's not a coincidence that wealthier (mostly white) neighborhoods like Maple Ridge were able to get freeway plans canceled while places like Greenwood were not.

Washington DC is a great example too. Most of the highways planned there that were cancelled all happened to be mostly white and more affluent areas (like NW DC up to Bethesda). Yet the only places in DC that has highways built were the SE and NE parts of DC (mostly minority neighborhoods that were redlined for decades prior). Open your eyes a bit, it doesn't make you a weak person to recognize things like that, which were mistakes our planners have made in the past, and want to try to fix those problems.

Gaslighting my a$$. From the mouth of the Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in April of this year:

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has claimed racism is built into the very infrastructure of America - in its highways.

'There is racism physically built into some of our highways, and that's why the jobs plan has specifically committed to reconnect some of the communities that were divided by these dollars,' Buttigieg said to theGrio last week while referring to the racism as a 'conscious choice.'

But Republicans were quick to mock Buttigieg and blast him for his comments about the highway system.

'Highways are not racist,' embattled Rep. Matt Gaetz said on Sunday, while the Young America's Foundation tweeted: 'This is not parody.'

In the past, some city planners targeted black communities by building highways through them or using them to keep an area segregated.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pete-buttigieg-claims-racism-physically-built-into-us-highways/ar-BB1fD8Bh

https://thegrio.com/2021/04/06/pete-buttigieg-racism-us-infrastructure/

https://www.wxxinews.org/post/connections-discussing-racism-american-infrastructure

I feel like they have redesigned that condo tower 6 times now. They have been talking about that property since I was a kid, but nothing ever gets off the ground. Those floor heights are something else. Must be some two story high ceilings on the upper levels.

I think you are thinking of the other parcel that Coury owns at 21st & Boston, and is currently for sale.  Originally proposed as a boutique hotel called The Maple (below) I think this would be a good condo site.

Previous tenant was Crushed Red... you're right that they were in a tough location to succeed. I did enjoy it though, healthy options.

We went to Foxy Tacos this weekend... ate out on the patio and really enjoyed it. Crushed Red really underutilized the space, I think it'll be very busy for sports and nice days.

SideCar looks great! Can't wait to check it out... feel like that building in general took a really long time.

Anyone heard anything about new condos planned for 21st & Main?  This is the site adjacent to the bank.  This is all I could find:
...

I feel like they have redesigned that condo tower 6 times now. They have been talking about that property since I was a kid, but nothing ever gets off the ground. Those floor heights are something else. Must be some two story high ceilings on the upper levels.

Sidecar looks great. Sounds like they will have several locations since they are putting in a similar rooftop bar in Jenks.

Foxy Taco's is already open? That's awesome. Seems like they poked along on that one too. Today is a great day for Cherry street!

Looks great! And I saw this weekend that Foxy Taco's patio was busy for the football game. Nice developments.

On that note, the weird pizza place in the Foxy Taco spot had to be some sort of tax scheme, right? I mean they tore out the best part of the property, an outdoor bar, and tried to compete with Andolinis, Hideaway, and Prarie Fire. That had zero chance of success. Literally everyone I know said it would fail. How was it even a thing?

Some interior pics of Sidecar at 15th & St Louis

Spring-2022-New-Pre-Leasing
>Restaurant       3,700 Square Feet
>Bar/Music Venue    3,900 Square Feet
>Retail               1,800 Square Feet
>Retail               1,900 Square Feet
>Rooftop Bar      1,500 Square Feet