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Arkansas River retrospective
Over the last 13 years, I've written quite a bit about the Arkansas River and proposals for damming and remodeling it, and about what Tulsans really are seeking when they ask for water in the river. Recently I resurrected several of my Urban Tulsa Weekly columns and my 2007...
Arkansas River dams, again
Here we go again. Officials, led by an alleged fiscal conservative, are pumping us up to raise our taxes to pour concrete in the river. [Tom] Dittus is the managing partner of the Blue Rose Café at 19th and Riverside, and wishes he had some neighbors. "Hopefully people will see...
Kathy Taylor returns?
There's a strong rumor circulating (UPDATE: It's official.) that former Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor will be running this year to retake her former position as queen of the Borg Cube. You'll recall that official election records in Florida and Oklahoma showed that Kathy Taylor cast a ballot in both states...
Vacation 2009: Day 3 -- Columbus to Zanesville to Wheeling to Hustontown
Day 3: July 25, 2009, Columbus, Ohio, to Hustontown, Pa., via I-70 and I-76, 320.9 mi., 6:41 en route. The third day of driving included a swing through historic Zanesville, Ohio, and across its unusual Y bridge and a stop at Wheeling, W. Va.'s Italian Festival on the Ohio River...
The Gift of Standing Up
Alisa Harris posted a clip from the movie On the Waterfront on the World Magazine Blog in memory of Karl Malden. It's a powerful speech in which Malden, as Father Barry, gives last rites to a longshoreman who was ready to testify against the Mob and paid for his...
AP story on Tulsa County sales tax defeat; Gordon plans private dam funding
Too tired and too busy with family stuff tonight to do anything more than point you to some articles about Tuesday's defeat of the Tulsa County sales tax proposal. Justin Juozapavicius, the Associated Press correspondent for Tulsa and a former Tulsa World reporter, filed a report on the tax defeat...
River tax election eve roundup
If I don't collapse at the keyboard, I've got maybe two River-related posts left. First, this roundup of news stories and comments and then, for the late deciders, a summary of the issue and links to key pieces that I've written. The vote yes side has dodged all televised debates...
More bridges to nowhere
I've commented on the pointlessness of the 41st Street and 61st Street pedestrian-only bridges, which are part of the sales tax package Tulsa County residents will be voting on October 9, but which are not part of the Arkansas River Master Corridor Plan. The 41st Street pedestrian-only bridge would in...
Cleveland rocks?
This comment on an earlier entry by S. Lee was so well-made that I thought it deserved spotlighting here: Rather than be accused of a being a "nay sayer" (which, as we all know, is almost as bad as being a fan of Ann Coulter), I would suggest using Cleveland,...
Alaskan out of the way
Some time ago, David Sucher, author of the great urban design book City Comforts, rechristened his blog as "City Comforts, temporarily known as Viaduct, The Blog." His focus has narrowed from a wide variety of urban design issues to (mainly) a single crucial issue affecting his hometown of Seattle: Whether...
Planning Tulsa's Riverfront: A Brief History
This is the originally submitted version of a story that was published on January 31, 2007 as the cover story of the February 1-7, 2007, edition of Urban Tulsa Weekly, under the headline "The River Review: Planning Tulsa's Riverfront: A Brief History." The story as published can be found on...
Landing craft
The developer of the Branson Landing riverfront mixed-use development has expressed interest in developing the west bank of the Arkansas River between 11th & 21st Street, and that's the topic of my latest column in Urban Tulsa Weekly. I reflect on a recent visit to Branson Landing and to a...
New <em>Urban Tulsa</em>ism
Urban Tulsa Weekly has a bright and shiny new website! All the links in my archive category are now broken! But it's worth it! (And they'll be easy enough to fix -- it will just take time.) (There's a really simple forwarding trick they could do to fix all the...
Wanted: A Promenade
This is the originally submitted version of a story that was published on September 27, 2006, in the September 28 - October 4, 2006, edition of Urban Tulsa Weekly. The story is not available in the Internet Archive but was previously online at http://archives.urbantulsa.com/article.asp?id=3657. Posted on BatesLine on March 23,...
Lobeck v. Parrish, et al.
Bill Lobeck, Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor's husband, filed suit on April 26 against Lori Parrish, the Broward County, Florida, Property Appraiser; Judith M. Fink, Broward County Tax Collector; and James Zingale, Executive Director of the Florida Department of Revenue. The lawsuit seeks to recover the $133,826.93 that Lobeck paid in...
Paying tribute to the Mayor
I received a couple of interesting letters over the transom today. Remember the million bucks or so Kathy Taylor spent on her own campaign for Mayor? Turns out she didn't contribute to her own campaign. Instead, she lent money to her own campaign, and she and a friend are sending...
Home is where the exemption is
Is Democrat mayoral candidate Kathy Taylor a Floridian or an Oklahoman? The Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports that Kathy Taylor and her husband Bill Lobeck claimed homestead exemptions in both states: The chief executive of one of the nation's largest car rental companies and his politician wife owe more than $130,000...
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