[This post is just one man's opinion about making this city better.]
I'm going to give you a glimpse of two very different cities; where we stand as a city today and where we will be some years from now.
Take a walk around downtown Oklahoma City, watch the tour boats navigate the canal, eat at the fantastic restaurants in Bricktown, go to a Thunder game, feel the energy that is there is in Bricktown. To the South, watch a regatta paddle along the Oklahoma River. In between, there is a pretty desolate landscape of dilapidated warehouses and vacant car lots. Look up you see a crumbling, monolithic highway. Teetering and shuddering, it divides the vibrancy to the North and dinginess to the South.
Now as if you were a giant lumbering over the city, grab that stretch of highway like a giant cable strewn across the floor, and pitch it Southward. Bring downtown together again. Using Zeus' shovel (we're using our imagination, remember?), turn the soil under what used to be I-40. Replace it with a burgeoning boulevard. Next, swing from the peak of the new Devon skyscraper and draw a steel circle around downtown. Watch as a rail car rolls through the city; past new businesses and restaurants, better shopping, neighborhood lofts and an expansive green park, the Ford center and ballpark throbbing with concerts and maybe even an NBA playoff game (or two, please!), a convention center that sits as an architectural triumph we actually want to go to, through centers of scientific advancements and technology pioneers, a new world-class law school, and a river that is a magnificent sporting and leisure destination. A city admired. (This incredible fly-through video for the Core to Shore project got me really excited for what downtown could be.)
We are faced with a choice on December 8th. Which fate will we set for ourselves: Will we stagnate, waste incredible momentum and strangle this city, or will we continue our rise and strengthen the foundation we've already started? If we choose the latter OKC could become, quite possibly, that city on a hill--OK, a plain--that shakes off this recession and helps lead this country back. We can make OKC great again. We have to show that this recent growth wasn't a blip but is sustainable.
Whether you voted for it in the past or not, MAPS has done an awful lot to help this city. We came together, invested in our city, and it has paid off. So many more jobs, millions to schools and for safety, more opportunities, and finally a pro team for a city so wild for sports. These initiatives weren't perfect, sure. But all of our lives have been touched by MAPS. Doesn't matter if you live in OKC or Del City, Edmond, Norman, Yukon, or wherever.
Everyone worried about MAPS. Each time it came to a vote we worried that the plans they set forth wouldn't happen or would help our city. For the most part they did. We held our city leaders accountable and they rose to the occasion. They should know that in such a time as now, we'll be watching them that much more closely. The tasks ahead of us on this third installment of MAPS won't be easy. The proposed plan doesn't have what each and all of us want, but it has some pretty amazing projects in it. This city will be much better for it. Increasing investment and activity in the city is what we need to get out of this recession, not to shudder our doors as if a tornado were overhead. It's time to come up out of the cellar.
What if MAPS3, worth an estimated $777 Million, were spent elsewhere?
Let's imagine we put every penny of that towards the city budget as it is, or even all for public safety. What would the impact on the city be? Nearly a billion dollars later we would be exactly where we are now. No new businesses. There would be more jobs to work for the city, sure. But we need more widespread economic growth, not just a budget buffer. Investing in things that create activity and spur investment, bring new businesses and create new jobs, we could increase the tax base by almost that much or maybe more.
On the other hand, we could just let MAPS die.
Would that save us from the recession? A few hundred dollars a year per family--a kind of "city-wide stimulus"--instead of significant investment in city infrastructure. Would that create more jobs? The city's collective blood pressure may drop a point or two, but it wouldn't create the kind of sustainable economic boost to the city we need. We need business to boom, companies to grow, and job creation to explode. Retiring MAPS won't do that for us.
We need to expand the ecosystem of businesses large and small, and create opportunities for home-grown entrepreneurs. We need to generate more intellectual gravity for our universities and institutions. We have to bring in knowledge-based companies and nurture an environment for new ones. As someone who works for a small technology company and is soon to be married, I want to be proud to start my family here.
As I said before, I didn't say MAPS3 was perfect. It's hard times across this nation right now economically. But we can't just hide in the shelter waiting for the storm to pass. We're Oklahomans--we've gotten pretty
brave dealing with those. But it's time to get out there and rebuild.
There's worry that we won't hit the projections we need. Some think if the going gets tough that smaller projects would be the first to get going. This includes the bike trails, sidewalks, and even the water park. I implore our city leaders to have the health and well-being of Oklahomans in mind as they move forward. And we need to hold them accountable.
The proposed rail system could weave together downtown OKC, sidewalks and trails could spider web throughout the entire city, and the Oklahoma River would transform from afterthought to a phenomenal attraction. These projects could be the catalyst for the next phase of our city's resurgence.
I hope that we can band together as a city and support the growth of OKC. I hope that we will support the small businesses that we have and urge our friends and even ourselves to start new businesses and explore new opportunities. I hope that individuals and companies invest in these new businesses and in the downtown Renaissance. I hope we solidify our path not just onward, but upward. I hope we pass MAPS3.
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