For those of you (like me) who get impatient with how slow development can be downtown, be of good cheer. Do this and it will make you feel alot better as to how far we have come. Go on to google maps and look at the street view for the Brady district. The ballpark isn't there. Tribune two, not there, New hotel, not a chance. AHHA, just a vacant parking lot. The Brady village square is still central trucking. Do this and walk around the downtown of 2007 and be amazed at how far we have come. If you want to bring yourself back down into the dumps, go look at the Baryl Ford Collection directly after.
I may have mentioned this before, but I couldn't remember. If I did, apologies.
I wish TNF has a 'like' button. The transformation so far has been incredible, but just imagine what it's going to look like in another two years. And five years. And ten years...
The ironic part is, how much of this growth has come after DTU essentially ceased to exist. That was clearly a worthless marketing and downtown advocacy organization.
Quote from: Conan71 on January 30, 2012, 12:48:45 PM
The ironic part is, how much of this growth has come after DTU essentially ceased to exist. That was clearly a worthless marketing and downtown advocacy organization.
Imagine if the TDA worked well.
Quote from: Conan71 on January 30, 2012, 12:48:45 PM
The ironic part is, how much of this growth has come after DTU essentially ceased to exist. That was clearly a worthless marketing and downtown advocacy organization.
But...but...they
made a website. ;)
Quote from: carltonplace on January 31, 2012, 11:08:37 AM
But...but...they made a website. ;)
And Jim Norton silently collected a $100K+/year paycheck while he trimmed his toenails behind his desk and did little else.
Lunches at the Celebrity Club with the other members.
I won't say DTU needed to be saved, but I will say Norton was a big advocate for downtown and while maybe he didn't do the best job he certainly wasn't sitting around doing nothing. I would lay most of the blame at the board. It was made up of many of downtown's largest property owners, if they wanted more from the staff they should have demanded it.
I would also venture to say some of the things we see today can partially be attributed to Jim and his staff. The seeds for today's projects were planted long ago.
That said, they needed a radical overhaul and their board sat by idle for far too long.
Quote from: rdj on January 31, 2012, 12:22:53 PM
I won't say DTU needed to be saved, but I will say Norton was a big advocate for downtown and while maybe he didn't do the best job he certainly wasn't sitting around doing nothing. I would lay most of the blame at the board. It was made up of many of downtown's largest property owners, if they wanted more from the staff they should have demanded it.
I would also venture to say some of the things we see today can partially be attributed to Jim and his staff. The seeds for today's projects were planted long ago.
That said, they needed a radical overhaul and their board sat by idle for far too long.
Okay fine. He wasn't doing nothing, he just wasn't doing much. ;)
I had a lot of dealings with him and DTU in the early 1990's that left me very underwhelmed at their efforts and generally "not getting" really great promotional ideas and opportunities for downtown. These weren't simply my hare-brained ideas, this was some of Tulsa's best and brightest creative talent trying to push downtown to the masses. There may have been issues with the board, but Norton was definitely not the sort of dynamic leader who could direct DTU beyond the short-comings of the board.
I'm hoping that the greenarch and new med school get up and running before they come through town again. That would be fantastic.
Quote from: jacobi on January 31, 2012, 12:54:50 PM
I'm hoping that the greenarch and new med school get up and running before they come through town again. That would be fantastic.
They who?
The google car.
Quote from: jacobi on January 31, 2012, 02:05:42 PM
The google car.
From what I heard, it came through again last summer. It takes time to compile and code all those photos.
Yeah I heard that too. I just figured that they hadn't made it downtown.
Quote from: Conan71 on January 31, 2012, 12:35:59 PM
Okay fine. He wasn't doing nothing, he just wasn't doing much. ;)
I had a lot of dealings with him and DTU in the early 1990's that left me very underwhelmed at their efforts and generally "not getting" really great promotional ideas and opportunities for downtown. These weren't simply my hare-brained ideas, this was some of Tulsa's best and brightest creative talent trying to push downtown to the masses. There may have been issues with the board, but Norton was definitely not the sort of dynamic leader who could direct DTU beyond the short-comings of the board.
I think dynamic leader is the key. Not to bring up another well beloved institution, but the Chamber suffered from the same style of leadership for several years. Love him or hate him, Mike Neal has brought an engaging, outgoing style of leadership that doesn't sit behind a desk and hope good things happen. Tulsa needs more leaders that lead from the front and are "evangelists" for Tulsa.
Quote from: rdj on January 31, 2012, 05:13:39 PM
I think dynamic leader is the key. Not to bring up another well beloved institution, but the Chamber suffered from the same style of leadership for several years. Love him or hate him, Mike Neal has brought an engaging, outgoing style of leadership that doesn't sit behind a desk and hope good things happen. Tulsa needs more leaders that lead from the front and are "evangelists" for Tulsa.
It's a shame Kathy Taylor got the treatment she did and figured it was no longer worth the abuse to be the mayor. She was a fantastic example of dynamic leadership.
Quote from: Conan71 on January 31, 2012, 06:16:32 PM
It's a shame Kathy Taylor got the treatment she did and figured it was no longer worth the abuse to be the mayor. She was a fantastic example of dynamic leadership.
There is some debate that she chose not to run for re-election due to her knowledge of the impending budget crisis. She knew it might damage her future political aspirations.
However, I agree with you. She worked extremely hard for the city in her time.
Quote from: rdj on February 01, 2012, 08:42:25 AM
There is some debate that she chose not to run for re-election due to her knowledge of the impending budget crisis. She knew it might damage her future political aspirations.
However, I agree with you. She worked extremely hard for the city in her time.
I was very critical of her for about her first year or year and a half in office. After working around her some, I gained an appreciation for how hard she works, her passion for Tulsa, and how well she actually listened when approached with ideas. Truly a remarkable leader and I became a huge fan of hers in the end.
Quote from: Conan71 on February 01, 2012, 10:49:44 AM
I was very critical of her for about her first year or year and a half in office. After working around her some, I gained an appreciation for how hard she works, her passion for Tulsa, and how well she actually listened when approached with ideas. Truly a remarkable leader and I became a huge fan of hers in the end.
She showed up, made appearances. She worked well into late hours. Her phone rarely caught fire.
I want to join the I love Kathy Taylor game.
In my job I have unique access to elected officials and have worked for now fifteen different governments and at least 50 different Mayors. Kathy Taylor was the best of all of them.
She was never afraid of doing what was right. All the rest of them had advisors telling them to be careful and worry about re-election. All the rest of them saw government as a budget driven process.
Not Kathy Taylor. If she believed the information was correct, she moved forward. She made decisions and did whatever it took to make it happen, including giving personal wealth to the project.
I do miss her.
Quote from: RecycleMichael on February 01, 2012, 11:46:45 AM
I want to join the I love Kathy Taylor game.
In my job I have unique access to elected officials and have worked for now fifteen different governments and at least 50 different Mayors. Kathy Taylor was the best of all of them.
She was never afraid of doing what was right. All the rest of them had advisors telling them to be careful and worry about re-election. All the rest of them saw government as a budget driven process.
Not Kathy Taylor. If she believed the information was correct, she moved forward. She made decisions and did whatever it took to make it happen, including giving personal wealth to the project.
I do miss her.
I think your personal interaction is useful and I can't speak to anything like that. Given that there is always debate who should get credit/blame in politics, I am interested in what you think
her actual accomplishments were for the city of Tulsa.
Ms. Taylor should be the next president of TU.
Quote from: jacobi on February 01, 2012, 12:48:38 PM
Ms. Taylor should be the next president of TU.
Nope. She is taking a fellowship with Harvard in lieu of taking that job. My prediction is she'll run for Sen Coburn's seat when it becomes available.
Quote from: rdj on February 02, 2012, 09:34:02 AM
Nope. She is taking a fellowship with Harvard in lieu of taking that job. My prediction is she'll run for Sen Coburn's seat when it becomes available.
Doesn't Inhofe's seat come up first? I'd be surprised if he runs again, I believe he will be 82 or 83 at that time. I'm not a rabid Inhofe hater, but I would really like to see him retire after this go 'round.
Sen. Taylor > TU president Taylor