quote:
Originally posted by Nick Danger
I believe that river development is critical to the city's survival and growth, but also have problems with the funding aspects via the increased sales tax. It seems like that no matter how much money we "give" to the government entities, it is never enough.
One problem I have with developing new entertainment venues, is how much discretionary income is available to support these new destinations? If you look at the parking lots of all the casinos around town, it seems like a large part of the discretionary income has found a home. This is going to be a difficult audience to convince that they need to spend their money elsewhere. The dollars being spent now will be spread over a wider area. What long-term effect will this have on the economy?
This has historically been a difficult town to keep entertainment and eating establishments in business. And with a lot of the major businesses either relocating or cutting upper level jobs, it will be more difficult to attract and keep entertainment/dining choices that cater to the upper income brackets.
I believe it would be more beneficial to create a business-friendly environment that will bring jobs back to Tulsa, and automatically raise the tax base. River development in and of itself is not going to encourage businesses to move here.
Just wondering, for example, why Google and Gatorade chose to locate in Pryor? Was Tulsa considered and dismissed as a possibility? It seems we are losing ground for some reason, with more companies moving out than choosing to move in.
JMHO,
Nick
Different companies choose to locate particular facilities in different places for different reasons. (hows that for clarity?[
]) For instance, on my way to Bartlesville there is a huge Wal-Mart distribution center. Its basically out in the middle of nowhere. On a highway, cheap land, who knows why that spot. I am sure they had their reasons and no matter how attractive this or that city was, their math came up with that spot. The Google thing I believe had something to do with cheap and plentiful electricity from a coal powered power plant, 4.5 cents per kilowat per hour, and some other reasons. It wasnt the kind of facility where it would matter if there were a city or anything else near it or not. As for The Gatorade...
" PepsiCo is building a $180- million manufacturing and distribution facility in Pryor's MidAmerica Industrial Park to produce Gatorade and Propel Fitness Water to serve South Central states. The plant, set to begin operations in September, is on a 165- acre (67- hectare) site and includes a 400,000- sq.- ft. (37,000- sq.m.) production facility and a 1.1- million- sq.- ft. (102,200- sq.- m.) distribution center.
Chris Weber, plant manager of the new facility, says the Pryor site was chose because it lies in the heart of the new facility's distribution area. The plant, the ninth Gatorade facility in the U.S., will ship its products via truck, with 500 to 700 trucks pulling in and out of the facility daily.".....
Are there many 165 acre spots near a highway you could build something like that in Tulsa, not exactly some tiny little thing you could just plop down in mid town. And I am sure the neighbors wouldn't want 5-700 trucks pulling in and out everyday.
Point is, yes perhaps a few of those types of things could be brought to Tulsa, but not every type of business facility is a perfect match for Tulsa.
Now I am not saying river development is the exclusive solution to what I am about to say. But neither are the roads.
One thing that I keep wondering about is this....
I have heard over and over from different business owners who have high paying, skilled and technical type jobs, even some manufacturing businesses needing skilled workers... That they cant find the people here to fill the positions and when they try to "import" these people, they often dont want to live here.
I specifically remember one business owner in the audience of a river meeting getting up and telling the story of how he had found a good canditate for a job position he had open. Flew the guy here, wined and dined him, offered him a great wage package. He said the guy looked around town and just said he couldnt live here. Makes it a little frustrating for this business owner to be here and perhaps at a disadvantage when competing with a similar company that is located where they can more easily get the people they need to work for them.
I keep hearing how anymore, companies go where the skilled labor is. The "creative class" type people not only create companies and jobs, companies and jobs go to where the creative class people are. I dont think trying to attract google computer farms and bottling plants is really the way to go in the long run anyway.
Even some skilled manufacturing jobs like those in need of welders are having a hard time finding workers here. But the lack of those types of workers is probably the result of very different reasons than our lack of our ability to attract the creative class types.... Or is it? Is there a connection?
From what I know of my friends that have visited here, long time friends who used to live here but have moved away, the common denominators as to why they dont want to live in Tulsa is that it doesnt offer the type of lifestyle they want. They want to live in a cool, hip, urban environment with lots to do and lots of people like them who like to to the same things they do etc. Is Tulsa hip, cool, "trendy". Is there anything the city government or taxpayers can do to create that or pump up the buzz a little? Has anyone noticed how Omaha of all places, sold themselves? They took what little they had, pumped it up, shined it up, I mean they put lipstick on that pig and sold that baby.
One thing that many of my friends also have in common is that they are hard working, really love getting out and enjoying life and are... ambitious. Is Tulsa a place that immediately comes to mind as a place to go if your ambitious and want to enjoy life?
Roads... fine, great trails and some nice things along the river.... sure, another thing to add to our "cool" and pretty place to live factor, along with revitalizing downtown and some mid-town areas. I frankly think the one best thing our city could do would be to invest in our colleges. Creating a great college town atmosphere, bringing in and keeping young educated people, college research facilities, an arts scene (and I am not talking opera and ballet), and all the other things that would go along with a large university, or two. That would be the best investment bar none.
Another thing that would really help is our attitudes. As in changing them. One of our biggest exports anymore seems to be negativity, despair, our whining and picking on ourselves and our home town. I have to admit, I have caught myself doing it on occasion. And as an artist I should know better. Image and perception really are important. I live on selling illusion. Is Omaha, or some of those other places, really all that? Or did they paint a convincing enough picture to get enough people to believe it? Is there something to be said about packaging and marketing? Something to be said about confidence and how you feel about yourself, and how others perceive you? Would it even change the actions we choose to take and where those different actions would lead us?
