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Author Topic: Five ways to make Tulsa special.  (Read 25509 times)
davideinstein
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« on: August 24, 2016, 03:10:01 pm »

This is simply my opinion, but I've figured out what we need.

1. Most bike lane per capita than any city in the country.

2. Best city public schools in the country.

3. Invest in soccer. The other major sports are too established. This gives us a sports culture.

4. Tear down some highways. Start connecting neighborhoods.

5. Make the University of Tulsa a public school.

Do those five things, we become something special. 2/5 are education for a reason.
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cannon_fodder
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« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2016, 07:26:19 am »

Good to have a vision. Here to throw cold water on it  Wink

1. I don't care about "the most bike lanes." The gulf coast of Florida has a ton of bike lanes, almost all unusable as they are too small, not separated in any way, don't go anywhere, and are really just an afterthought to say "we have 654 miles of bike lanes!" Lets do it right.

2. AGREED.

3. I agree soccer is an area open for development, but its not like we are in on the ground floor. Unfortunately, the Roughnecks may be killing the MSL dream as we speak. I hope soccer does well and I hope the city supports it - but it isn't the City's place to throw millions of dollars into the pockets of whomever owns a franchise by handing out incentives or building a stadium (which would be required to land a higher league team).

4. We JUST redid the downtown loop. While tearing a leg out makes some sense, this is a very long term plan that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and have minimal return (we don't have the density at this time).

5. The University of Tulsa is the highest ranked college in the state. It is a 120 year old private institution with more than $1,000,000,000 in endowment funds and building and grounds in excess of $2,500,000,000. Admissions wants to see an ACT over 30 and a GPA over 3.8 with more than 70% of admissions being in the top 10% of the high school (95/99 selective). Nearly 10% are Presidential scholars. Tuition is in excess of $42,000 a year.  26% of students are international and only ~35% are from Oklahoma.

All in all, a poor candidate to convert to a public school in the State of Oklahoma. How would that even work? The State kicks in tens of millions of dollars a year to educate mostly out of state kids and foreign nationals?

It seems unlikely that the Board of Trustees would sign the deed over the State of Oklahoma when it can't manage much of anything, and neither the City nor the State can "make" the University public.  A true 4-year public institution in Tulsa would be great... but give it up. Langston, NSU, OSU, OU, TCC, Rogers State --- all want a piece of the pie (with TU and ORU of course).
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« Reply #2 on: August 25, 2016, 07:43:35 am »

If I'm going to criticize, I should contribute my 2 cents or I'm not being constructive... so my attempt:

1) Set the goal of having the best equipped, staffed, ad run public schools in the State (measuring performance demands overcoming demographics, which is an entirely different challenge)

2) Continue supporting and encouraging entrepreneurs and start ups in a big way (instead of putting that effort into luring low wage out of state companies with bribes)

3) Promote the development and revitalizing of urban spaces with zoning, building codes, tax incentives, and a streamlines process (to differentiate ourselves both from sprawling suburbs and from regional competitors like OKC, Wichita, and Bentonville)

4) Relentless focus on quality of life (that is a broad reaching statement: police, infrastructure, AND parks, etc.)

5) Beautify the city (mow the medians, paint the bridges, etc. When coupled with crumbling roads causing debris, many areas look like you could shoot a Mad Max film there)


Added together, I think we both keep and draw and motivate the people that want to live in a great city. Its easy to let your yard go to hell if the area around you looks like crap. its easy to move away when everyone else moves away. Its easy to go to the place everyone wants to be... so lets be that place.
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AquaMan
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« Reply #3 on: August 25, 2016, 09:20:13 am »

I think your #2 and #5 are the best, and most likely, strategems. It's like making sure you're bathed and well dressed before a job interview. The others are somewhat co-dependent on the city and state's economy.

Of course if you don't recognize that the state's economy is not doing well but instead prefer to perceive it as "not doing badly considering...."
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heironymouspasparagus
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« Reply #4 on: August 25, 2016, 03:38:02 pm »

I think your #2 and #5 are the best, and most likely, strategems. It's like making sure you're bathed and well dressed before a job interview. The others are somewhat co-dependent on the city and state's economy.

Of course if you don't recognize that the state's economy is not doing well but instead prefer to perceive it as "not doing badly considering...."


I keep hearing about how bad Oklahoma is doing, but don't see it in the business' I go to - stores, restaurants, etc.  They all "seem" to be busy at kind of normal levels... I realize my visits are just little 'snapshots', but there aren't a lot of cobwebs being spun on the doors of most business'.  As of 8 months ago, the only year we experienced any real issue with "doing well" was 2009, when we lost GDP.  4% isn't booming, but still isn't too bad, especially when you look at the rest of the US and most of the world.

Government and mining (oil/nat gas/coal) are our two biggest economic components at 15% each.   (Link at bottom)

And most of our state budget problems are self-inflicted from electing Mary Failin' and her ilk.



There are many questions I have about economic issues, but a couple seem to stand out and keep crossing my mind.  Oklahoma has probably the worst 'tunnel vision' on these, but it is also a national/worldwide phenomenon.

First, oil base economic dependency.  Wood had it's day as primary fuel.  Coal had it's day.  Now oil is most likely nearing the end of it's day as primary - meaning largest usage base, not sole source.  When is Oklahoma going to start realizing that 15% (see table link at end) has been going down and will continue to decline?   We always go into a tailspin when oil prices/revenue does go down - that suggests our dependency is at much higher level than it's 15% contribution to the economy!  This is unsustainable (to overuse a term I find mildly "cliche"...)!!

Oil consumption worldwide has gone down this year.  It will become a smaller part of the overall energy usage mix going forward.  That's just a fact, but none of the current non-leaders in state government are understanding or acting on that reality!  We have talked at length about what is coming - well, the future is here.  Now.  And making an impact worldwide that will grow every year.  If we don't stop continuing with the UnVision leadership we seem to love so much, we WILL continue our lackluster piddling along!

We have an exceptional opportunity in this state to get ahead of one of the curves - and I bet - no...I guarantee - we miss it completely!!  Agriculture here ain't bad...we have a lot of things happening, but the biggest chunks are still limited in variety.  Cattle, corn, wheat, canola.  Those make up the majority of our farm products.  We also have a lot of land that could be more effectively used for growing marijuana - not for medical or recreational, but for oil product production - fuels, lubricants, etc.  This country enforced an ethanol program for years based on corn - with biomass production capabilities of a ton or so per acre.  Switchgrass is touted as a "wunderkind" plant at 8 to 9 tons per acre.  Marijuana easily comes in at 12 to 15 tons per acre.  We have approx 33 million acres of ag land - 13 million considered "prime' ag land.  If we used maybe 10 million of the non-prime land for marijuana, we end up with over half a billion gallons of biomass liquids that could be used just as fuel - like biodiesel - but could also be used as feedstock for a high tech specialty oils/lubes/bio-chem products industry that could add significantly to the state.

We have the ag part of it done very well with OSU.  We have the petrochem part of it done very well with TU.  We could really shine on the world stage!  And not just from our half billion gallons, but we could also buy grass from surrounding places - anyone ever see trucks full of hay moving around?  Well put it on trains so the transport costs are cost-effective and bring it from KS, CO, TX.

500 million gallons of something made into a market value of $5 or $10 a gallon - $50 billion - or about 1/4 of the state GDP!   BHAG's!!!  Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals!!

Second, the world economy in general has dependent on cheap (read that as "slave") labor for hundreds of years.  It is literally what allowed the expansion of western European society across the world stage.  It made for a "growth" economy that is now ALL we understand, and no where can I find evidence that anyone is looking at any other model.   (Enlightenment appreciated here.)

Before that, from what I have read and studied, relatively speaking, the world was "growing", depending on the success of the various imperialistic entities, at slower rates.  It was not quite, but more in the direction of a "steady-state" economic model than recent history.  With lots (all ! ) of the wealth accumulation at the top.   When you run out of new parts of the world to move into for exploitation - the labor markets are no longer just slave wage places...China, Mexico, VietNam, etc. - how does one approach a more steady state model?  Seems to me based on history, you just enslave more people...  The question(s) that arise relate to whether anyone is doing any serious study about this?   And whether a low growth economy can work without enslavement?  Agricultural societies in small groups seem to have been more the norm in distant past and almost certainly low growth - is that the only way economies can work?



Here is an interesting history of GDP...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Oklahoma


« Last Edit: August 25, 2016, 03:43:01 pm by heironymouspasparagus » Logged

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erfalf
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« Reply #5 on: August 26, 2016, 07:07:41 am »

I have actually seen marijuana occur naturally on sub-prime (in my opinion) farm land in the state. So apparently we have the ecosystem for it. That's certainly out of the box (legal) thinking.

Turning University of Tulsa into a public school would be a monumental disaster. It already has a huge endowment for a school that size (heck for any school). I figure if they wanted to get bigger they would. MIT/Harvard/Boston College/Northeastern all seemed to work fine for Boston. Public university isn't necessarily a silver bullet.

And on that note, do we really need a public university (lower level courses) that just pulls more of the same in to Tulsa. Everybody has one. If you want more bang for the buck I would think focusing on the medical schools or something of that caliber would be much more beneficial. We want the most talented, not just some dummy that could pass the extremely low bar the Board of Regents has. Why not work to make OSU on par with Baylor Medical. Capitalize on the momentum that Spartan creates. Medical and Aviation are two perfectly good fields to focus on because of the potential in the future.

Also in agreement with the sports (for the most part). Look what Oklahoma City did with Rowing. A good portion of the Olympic team trains there now. Tulsa could be that for biking for sure. I think it very wise for Tulsa to avoid just trying to become a "major league city" by route of NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL. Because what will basically happen is they will be a third rate league city. It will be interesting to see what happens in OKC over the next decade. Not that we should wait that long to do anything. They have a truly dedicated management team, but I don't know if that is enough. Apparently hardly any players want to live in OKC, and you can't pin that on the lack of an NBA team this time.
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erfalf
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« Reply #6 on: August 26, 2016, 07:21:20 am »

2) Continue supporting and encouraging entrepreneurs and start ups in a big way (instead of putting that effort into luring low wage out of state companies with bribes)

Completely agree. The benefits to this are two fold. You create meaningful jobs that are less likely to bolt for the next best offer of another city. And the owners are generally more giving in their communities.

I am familiar with one such example. Omni Air International is a jumbo jet charter company (think renting a 777, government type stuff most often). Rarely does one of their jets make it's way to Tulsa, heck they don't really even have a base here, just a warehouse and office. But... the office is here, 100 jobs or so. Good jobs. But the owner gives big to charities in town. Particularly they started New Leaf, an organization that provides individuals with developmental disabilities with life skills, marketable job training through horticultural therapy, community-based vocational placement, and residential services to increase independence.
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heironymouspasparagus
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« Reply #7 on: August 26, 2016, 08:02:57 am »

Completely agree. The benefits to this are two fold. You create meaningful jobs that are less likely to bolt for the next best offer of another city. And the owners are generally more giving in their communities.

I am familiar with one such example. Omni Air International is a jumbo jet charter company (think renting a 777, government type stuff most often). Rarely does one of their jets make it's way to Tulsa, heck they don't really even have a base here, just a warehouse and office. But... the office is here, 100 jobs or so. Good jobs. But the owner gives big to charities in town. Particularly they started New Leaf, an organization that provides individuals with developmental disabilities with life skills, marketable job training through horticultural therapy, community-based vocational placement, and residential services to increase independence.


Take that one step further - make a pitch for them!  

A New Leaf has a garden center on South Elm in Broken Arrow.  And they grow very good plant stocks for your gardening pleasure!!  Don't forget them when you are putting in your gardens!  Better plants than you will ever find at Wally-World, Lowe's, or Home Depot....  We have been buying there since about as far back as I can remember...



http://www.anewleaf.org/


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"So he brandished a gun, never shot anyone or anything right?"  --TeeDub, 17 Feb 2018.

I don’t share my thoughts because I think it will change the minds of people who think differently.  I share my thoughts to show the people who already think like me that they are not alone.
heironymouspasparagus
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« Reply #8 on: August 26, 2016, 08:11:17 am »

I have actually seen marijuana occur naturally on sub-prime (in my opinion) farm land in the state. So apparently we have the ecosystem for it. That's certainly out of the box (legal) thinking.

Turning University of Tulsa into a public school would be a monumental disaster. It already has a huge endowment for a school that size (heck for any school). I figure if they wanted to get bigger they would. MIT/Harvard/Boston College/Northeastern all seemed to work fine for Boston. Public university isn't necessarily a silver bullet.

And on that note, do we really need a public university (lower level courses) that just pulls more of the same in to Tulsa. Everybody has one. If you want more bang for the buck I would think focusing on the medical schools or something of that caliber would be much more beneficial. We want the most talented, not just some dummy that could pass the extremely low bar the Board of Regents has. Why not work to make OSU on par with Baylor Medical. Capitalize on the momentum that Spartan creates. Medical and Aviation are two perfectly good fields to focus on because of the potential in the future.

Also in agreement with the sports (for the most part). Look what Oklahoma City did with Rowing. A good portion of the Olympic team trains there now. Tulsa could be that for biking for sure. I think it very wise for Tulsa to avoid just trying to become a "major league city" by route of NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL. Because what will basically happen is they will be a third rate league city. It will be interesting to see what happens in OKC over the next decade. Not that we should wait that long to do anything. They have a truly dedicated management team, but I don't know if that is enough. Apparently hardly any players want to live in OKC, and you can't pin that on the lack of an NBA team this time.


In clandestine fashion, it has always been a top cash crop in the state...yep, we got the ecosystem for it.


We have good "first two year" and associate degree programs at TCC.  Don't really need the full 4 year university program here IF there were better synchronization of curriculum paths, giving easier transition to the 4 year programs here!  Something that should have been done decades ago!  


And for the nattering nabobs of negativity - yeah, I know 500 million gallons isn't really a huge thing in the overall fuel scheme of things - couple days worth of gasoline usage in the US.  BUT if you do "value added" processes, it can become something very good for the state!  Way bigger than any other agricultural contribution!!  And we already have the infrastructure available to pursue this!

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"So he brandished a gun, never shot anyone or anything right?"  --TeeDub, 17 Feb 2018.

I don’t share my thoughts because I think it will change the minds of people who think differently.  I share my thoughts to show the people who already think like me that they are not alone.
AquaMan
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« Reply #9 on: August 26, 2016, 09:07:21 am »

Oklahoma isn't going to grow marijuana, legally. We can't even get medical marijuana. We're suing surrounding states for letting them grow it. Lets stay in the realm of possibilities.

When I was a kid, the Tulsa World/Tribune used a trucking company to deliver bundles of newspapers around the city. It was called, "Magic Empire" iirc. I always thought that was a cool description for a city. We should resurrect it in conjunction with the Gathering Pace opening.

Consider this. I asked for contributions a few weeks ago about where you would take visitors to Tulsa, namely what it was that makes us special from a local's perspective. I got three comments. CF was able to list some but either I am intensely unpopular on this site or the locals just don't think there's much to do here. I hope its the latter but I suspect its both! We are more than downtown and river development.

Anyway, if you want to make this a Magic Empire you have to start with self esteem and that starts with low level entrepreneurial success. Stop bending over for big important names and start engaging young people and retiring folks or empty nesters. Those are the ones with discretionary income and assets.
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heironymouspasparagus
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« Reply #10 on: August 26, 2016, 09:53:00 am »

Oklahoma isn't going to grow marijuana, legally. We can't even get medical marijuana. We're suing surrounding states for letting them grow it. Lets stay in the realm of possibilities.

When I was a kid, the Tulsa World/Tribune used a trucking company to deliver bundles of newspapers around the city. It was called, "Magic Empire" iirc. I always thought that was a cool description for a city. We should resurrect it in conjunction with the Gathering Pace opening.

Consider this. I asked for contributions a few weeks ago about where you would take visitors to Tulsa, namely what it was that makes us special from a local's perspective. I got three comments. CF was able to list some but either I am intensely unpopular on this site or the locals just don't think there's much to do here. I hope its the latter but I suspect its both! We are more than downtown and river development.

Anyway, if you want to make this a Magic Empire you have to start with self esteem and that starts with low level entrepreneurial success. Stop bending over for big important names and start engaging young people and retiring folks or empty nesters. Those are the ones with discretionary income and assets.


I must have missed that visit request...or did I??   Can't remember...I got lots of ideas, but probably too late now...
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"So he brandished a gun, never shot anyone or anything right?"  --TeeDub, 17 Feb 2018.

I don’t share my thoughts because I think it will change the minds of people who think differently.  I share my thoughts to show the people who already think like me that they are not alone.
AquaMan
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« Reply #11 on: August 26, 2016, 10:05:48 am »

"Best Local Stuff" july 11th under Development and New Business, though I think the topic has been deleted.
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heironymouspasparagus
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« Reply #12 on: August 26, 2016, 10:24:03 am »

"Best Local Stuff" july 11th under Development and New Business, though I think the topic has been deleted.


Still there.  I replied but it wasn't much help...didn't list anything.

I have made lots of lists in the past...will have to go back and see if can get all into one big list.

The ones I mentioned a few days ago are still good ideas...under Tulsa Economy, reply #36.  Woolaroc and Tall Grass Prairie are both good 'stand alone' destinations.  And soon the prairie will have what I hope is a decent little restaurant opportunity!

And the garden center.   There are lots of little ones I touch on from time to time that would make a good package tour.

And the light display at Honor Heights Park is always a nice tour.  Kinda have to get there just before dark or get WAY bogged down in traffic....timing is an issue.  Their azalea festival in spring is recovering nicely, too, after way bad ice storm damage a few years ago.

Kids love the Castle at Muskogee, but that is one of those things where a very small dose goes a very long way!  The Renaissance Fair is interesting.  Norman, OK has one, too for longer 'destinations'....






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"So he brandished a gun, never shot anyone or anything right?"  --TeeDub, 17 Feb 2018.

I don’t share my thoughts because I think it will change the minds of people who think differently.  I share my thoughts to show the people who already think like me that they are not alone.
AquaMan
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« Reply #13 on: August 26, 2016, 10:38:38 am »

Thanks. Good ideas.
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« Reply #14 on: August 26, 2016, 04:01:54 pm »

Eliminate all fast food restaurants....
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