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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

Tulsa County ObamaVision plan unveiled

A clique of corporate welfare queens and pork barrel princes today announced a plan to bring Barack Obama's proven* economic development strategies to Tulsa County. The $747.9 million borrow, spend, and tax ObamaVision plan embraces five central principles of Obamanomics: (1) Use government spending to stimulate economic development, because government...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 9, 2012 11:40 PM

BOHICA: Chamber & County start agitating for another tax hike, regional unification

The TEA Party folks say they're Taxed Enough Already, but several of them who might have run against a Democrat Tulsa County Commissioner (with plans to raise our county sales taxes once again) opted instead to run against Republican legislative incumbents who are working to reduce our state income tax...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 15, 2012 11:56 PM

TulsaBizPac it in: Majority would oppose candidate with Tulsa Metro Chamber PAC support

I emailed FOP political consultant Victor Ajlouny and requested a copy of the FOP's press releases on their poll and their endorsements. The eight-page Tulsa FOP poll release featured a question about the impact that an endorsement from the Tulsa Metro Chamber's political action committee (TulsaBizPac) would have on a...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 28, 2011 2:05 AM

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

Chamber of Secret Endorsements?

I heard an interesting rumor on Saturday from two different sources about City Council endorsements by TulsaBizPac, the Tulsa Metro Chamber-affiliated political action committee, so I sent an email to Shiela Curley, Vice President of Communications for the Tulsa Metro Chamber. Here's the text of the email: Dear Ms. Curley,...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 15, 2011 12:54 AM

Martinson, 2009: Tulsa Metro Chamber "advocates... blind obedience"

In 2009, incumbent Councilor Bill Martinson was defeated by Chris Trail, a well-funded challenger, a newcomer to politics and to the city limits, funded and supported by forces that didn't like an intelligent skeptic on the Tulsa City Council scrutinizing their schemes. I recently came across Martinson's response to the...

Posted by Michael Bates on July 28, 2011 2:05 AM

Clueless SOTs and their enablers

It appears that the rich old SOTs, who seek to take Tulsa back from, well, Tulsans, are attempting to marshal the resources for gathering the necessary signatures to put their aristocratic propositions on the ballot. Word is that they aren't getting the kind of support and traction they may have...

Posted by Michael Bates on October 22, 2010 9:48 PM

The 2005 recall: Five years later

Five years ago tonight, on July 12, 2005, I was at The Embers, a wonderful steakhouse at 81st and Harvard (now gone, sadly), celebrating the overwhelming defeat of the attempt to recall two Tulsa City Councilors, Jim Mautino and Chris Medlock. The recall effort dominated the local political scene for...

Posted by Michael Bates on July 12, 2010 11:22 PM

PLANiTULSA final draft, my comments

Today at 4 at Tulsa City Hall is what may be the final session of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission's public hearing on the PLANiTULSA comprehensive plan. (You can download the June 2010 Final Draft of the PLANiTULSA policy documents here.) Work obligations preclude me from attending today, but...

Posted by Michael Bates on June 15, 2010 10:59 AM

TMAPC & PLANiTULSA: The hearing and the delayers

I spoke at Wednesday's TMAPC public hearing on PLANiTULSA, Tulsa's first comprehensive plan in a generation. I haven't had time to write my thoughts on the event, but my friend Jamie Jamieson copied me on an email to a Pearl District neighborhood leader. He did a fine job describing yesterday's...

Posted by Michael Bates on March 11, 2010 6:55 PM

Rocky Frisco on downtown development; Chamber to run downtown marketing?

From Rocky Frisco's Tulsa Metro Chamber questionnaire. Nail, meet hammerhead. The more the city government has tried to "develop" the downtown, the worse it has become. I firmly believe that if had been allowed to develop naturally, without all the wild ideas for "development," it would still be an exciting,...

Posted by Michael Bates on September 7, 2009 6:00 PM

Chambers of horrors

The Oklahoma House voted Tuesday to prohibit state government funding for the destruction of embryos for the purpose of stem cell research in the state. (The legislation does nothing to hinder the many other forms of stem cell research -- marrow, cord blood, various forms of adult tissue -- which...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 22, 2009 12:43 AM

Chamber audit results: "needs improvement"

City administration officials declined to accept the recommendation of the City Auditor's office to use a process to select an economic development contractor, rather than continuing to renew the Tulsa Metro Chamber (officially the Metropolitan Tulsa Chamber of Commerce -- MTCC) automatically each year. The auditor's recommendation was one of...

Posted by Michael Bates on August 26, 2008 7:18 PM