Exactly. What the council did last night was void the hard work and countless volunteer hours of neighbors trying to have a voice in the future direction of their own neighborhoods. Jack Henderson's incomprehensible ramblings about wanting a QT in north Tulsa, insulting the Pearl District and then asking Jamie Jamieson for help on his own Small Area Plan were asinine. But they paled in comparison Councilman Mansur's incoherent babble.
He seriously compared Small Area Plans and the Comprehensive Plan to a Biblical story about harlots being forced to split a newborn child in half (1 Kings: 24-25, yes, I looked it up), and then ranted about how George Washington was a small business owner that didn't want government interfering with his business.
The complete disregard for the desires of the Pearl District Association was appalling. I was perhaps most disappointed by the actions of Phil Lakin, who refused to recuse himself from voting in this matter due to a conflict of interest. Mr. Cadieux, the owner of QT serves on a board with him. As Bob Edmiston, the city attorney, explained, it's completely at the discretion of the individual councilor as to whether they should recuse themselves... Then made it a point to say that outside of the board on which Cadieux and Lakin serve, that they're really good friends. (!)
The arguments put forth by QuikTrip were less than compelling. They include:
"Look at 15th & Denver. You just can't get more urban than that." Failing, of course, to mention that this proposed siteplan is almost twice the size of 15th & Denver's store. And the notion that the 15th & Denver store is "urban" is a fantasy statement.
"We've closed a lot of stores in Tulsa that look outdated. We want to always look modern, no matter the cost." So they're proud of how many stores you've abandoned and left empty because the other side of the street corner works better for them now. And that they'll do whatever they can to get their way without regard for the surrounding neighborhood.
"We've made many concessions to the TMAPC and Council. Look, we even built a four-foot wrought iron fence along the periphery to create a street wall." A wrought iron fence does not a street wall make.
"We're not actually closing 10th street; we're opening it up." Complete insanity.
"We welcome area residents to drive through the parking lot to get to 10th street." Cutting through parking lots is illegal.
When it came to certain provisions in the 6th Street Infill Plan came one of the most important statements of the night: "That just won't work for us."
I'm proud of Blake Ewing for speaking out so passionately and logically against this. I'm proud of the citizens who spoke in opposition to this plan. And I'm proud of Karen Gilbert and G.T. Bynum for trying to go back to the compromise table and find a workable solution for all parties.
But I am ashamed of the sheer ignorance on public display by a majority of the Councilors last night, and I'm concerned for the future of our city. It's clear now that citizen input is worthless, planning guides are worthless, and that corporations will do whatever it takes to win over ill-educated council members by threatening to leave the community. If it had been any other company asking for this amendment and street closure, it would likely have been denied. But this was QuikTrip, beloved, innocent, homegrown QuikTrip.
As a city, we've turned into development whores. We'll let businesses do whatever they want, even at our own detriment and in complete opposition to what citizens and neighborhoods want, in order to appear to be pro-business and easy an easy place to develop.
I agree with Blake's manifesto from a long time ago: Tulsa needs to grow up and start acting like a real city.
I believe Ben Franklin once said that for democracy to work, a country must have an educated populace, but I think he only got it half-right; in order for democracy to work to its fullest potential, we must also have educated elected officials. That's something we're sorely lacking at the moment.
I feel your passion. I used to hope that TN was the group that would educate about and actively promote good urban development. I hope you have better luck with them than I did. I was very frustrated when I mentioned at one of the meetings what QT was going to do in the heart of Brookside against the Brookside plan. Ripping out old, pedestrian friendly buildings and creating a larger, non-pedestrian friendly gap, against all the work the people there had done to create the Brookside Plan and build up this valuable area of the city by making it better with new businesses that fit what we love about Brookside. But anyway, nobody on the board seemed concerned, one actually looked right at me and laughed in my face saying they liked what QT was doing there. That felt like someone stabbed me with a knife in the gut. They later said I should have brought it up during the meeting, but to what end? They expressed their opinions before hand. I was shocked, and hurt by that. Needless to say it's one of the reasons I left TN for I didn't feel that they were really doing anything. I am glad they are working on creating a Running of the Bulls event, but I would really hope they would also go back to what I thought were the roots of the organization to eductate (the counselors for instance) and participate in promoting good urban development (and even protest against bad urban development).
