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Tulsa City Council District 4 candidate forum video

Here is a playlist of videos from TulsaNow's June 4, 2014, Tulsa City Council District 4 candidate forum. Incumbent Blake Ewing and challengers Danny Patten and Elissa Kay Harvill participated in the forum....

Posted by Michael Bates on June 20, 2014 10:27 PM

Barthelmes Conservatory concert tonight; Phoenix open for business

Tonight, December 14, 2012, at 6 p.m., the Barthelmes Conservatory will hold its semi-annual open concert at The Church at Midtown at 38th and Lewis. The conservatory's talented and hardworking students, mainly high school and middle school students, will perform short solo and ensemble pieces from the classical repertoire for...

Posted by Michael Bates on December 14, 2012 12:24 PM

Vision2: Blake Ewing explains his opposition to Prop 1

Tulsa City Councilor Blake Ewing has a blog post out today explaining his opposition to Vision2 Tulsa County Proposition 1 in great detail, addressing the "deal closing fund" and the "airport part" in separate sections, and it's worth reading in full, but here are a few highlights (emphasis added): As...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 5, 2012 8:10 AM

Made-in-Tulsa movie set for international release

A homegrown feature film, The Rock 'n' Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher, already the recipient of multiple awards on the film festival circuit, has been picked up for international release by a division of Warner Brothers. This is a big milestone for Tulsa and a feather in the cap of...

Posted by Michael Bates on May 7, 2012 7:16 PM

Tulsa Election 2011: A win for Ewing, a beatdown for at-large

A weird election season has come to an end. Tulsa voters have emptied out the City Council and turned down two radical plans to remake city government (while embracing two ill-considered modifications with bigger impact than voters appreciate). After the polls closed, I collected results from precincts along the southern...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 8, 2011 10:51 PM

Tulsa Election 2011: Blake Ewing in District 4

Blake Ewing, Joe Bates, and Rocky Frisco, September 9, 2011. Photo by Trish Molina. Copyright 2011 Aithne Studios. Used by permission. Of the seven City Council races on today's ballot, the District 4 race, the only one in which I'm allowed to vote, is the only one in which...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 8, 2011 1:12 AM

Old, rich Republican lawyers and developers for Ken Brune

Democrat Ken Brune sent out a mailer to Republican voters in Tulsa District 4 with a list of 74 "Republicans for Ken Brune (1 MB PDF)." Ken Brune seems to be liked only by an elite and elderly class of Republicans. A BatesLine analysis of the 74 names, using voter...

Posted by Michael Bates on November 5, 2011 1:12 AM

Tulsa's Swan Lake one of "America's Great Neighborhoods"

The American Planning Association has named Tulsa's historic Swan Lake neighborhood one of ten Great Neighborhoods for 2011, part of the APA's annual recognition of "Great Places In America." (Hat tip to KRMG News for the story.) From the APA's citation: What dominates this attractive and popular neighborhood are...

Posted by Michael Bates on October 5, 2011 12:12 AM

Tulsa District 4: Blake Ewing on historic preservation and infill

I'm sad to say that Democrat voters in Tulsa's District 4 made my choice in the general election an easy one. Friends and supporters of incumbent Councilor Maria Barnes appreciate her commitment to defending neighborhoods against inappropriate encroachment, a problem in District 4 where modern-day commercial development (and its accompanying...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 18, 2011 1:26 AM

Tulsa District 4 Republican primary: For Blake Ewing

This is the only election I get to vote in tomorrow, and I'm voting for entrepreneur Blake Ewing for the Republican nomination for Tulsa City Council District 4. In the 2009 primary, I endorsed legendary Tulsa musician Rocky Frisco in his race to unseat incumbent Eric Gomez, who had beclowned...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 12, 2011 8:35 PM

Tulsa Election 2011: Progress report

Things are moving rapidly on this last day before the Tulsa City Council primary, and I'm doing my best to catch up. Several developing stories: Oklahoma City-based Majority Designs (the direct mail firm of Fount Holland and Karl Ahlgren) have put out mailers "not authorized by any campaign or candidate"...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 12, 2011 3:28 PM

Tulsa District 4: Get Rocky Frisco some wheels!

Legendary Tulsa musician Rocky Frisco, member of the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, who also happens to be a candidate for the Republican nomination in Tulsa City Council District 4, has been an involuntary pedestrian for the last several weeks, following the theft of his old, beat-up, but reliable Toyota...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 8, 2011 5:23 PM

The Chamber weighs in; TulsaBizPac issues endorsements; Ewing responds

TulsaBizPac, the political action committee formed by Tulsa Metro Chamber, a city contractor, to influence the selection of the public officials who will decide whether those contracts will continue, has announced an odd assortment of full endorsements, partial endorsements, and non-endorsements that nevertheless come with a tidy sum of cash....

Posted by Michael Bates on August 21, 2011 11:47 PM