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Tulsa City Council preview, 2021/05/05: 36th & MLK TIF
AFTER-ACTION REVIEW: All items on the regular council meeting agenda were approved without dissent. There was only one controversy: Gary Brinkner, vice chairman of the Greenwood Chamber of Commerce, objected to special event application for the Black Wall Street Legacy Festival, which would block off Greenwood and Archer for three...
The Usual Suspects: Tulsa Economic Recovery Advisory Committee
Does G. T. Bynum IV know anyone who lives east of Yale, north of 21st, or west of the river? I've been watching the creation of blue ribbon panels for years, and this list is disturbingly familiar. The mayor's picks for his Economic Recovery Advisory Committee are yet another expression...
Re-Vision foolishness: Where are the BoEs?
The Tulsa City Council is rushing to get the new "Vision" tax on the ballot for April. The current Vision 2025 tax doesn't expire until the end of the year, so they could wait until June (the city, state, and federal primary date) or November (city, state, and federal general...
Bill Christiansen for Tulsa Mayor
Another day, another mendacious attack mailer from Dewey Bartlett Jr. If I had known there were enough Tulsans who objected to rising city budgets, county tax initiatives, the City Hall move, the Great Plains Airlines bailout, and accepting Federal stimulus money to justify a mail piece targeting those concerns, I...
Ballpark assessment: State Supreme Court turns a blind eye
An email this morning from attorney Kent Morlan, a downtown property owner and resident who represented his fellow property owners in the fight to overturn the misuse of the city's power to impose an assessment to pay for the new downtown ballpark. The politician behind that misuse was then-Mayor Kathy...
Keep the Fairgrounds in the city limits
In a recent issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly, Terry Simonson, who left his position as Mayor Dewey Bartlett Jr's chief of staff under an ethical cloud, makes a very weak case for de-annexing the Tulsa County Fairgrounds (aka Expo Square) from the City of Tulsa. Over the history of the...
Tulsa District 9: G. T. Bynum ethics complaint
I received an email Monday containing an anonymous ethics complaint that had been filed against Tulsa District 9 City Councilor G. T. Bynum. The text of that complaint, with links to relevant documentation added by me, can be found on the jump page for this article. (For your reference, here...
Phil Lakin and G. T. Bynum: The (as yet) unchallenged
At the end of day one of filing for the 2011 Tulsa city elections, two districts had a single candidate with no announced opponent preparing to enter the race. Phil Lakin is the sole candidate so far in far south Tulsa's District 8. Lakin, CEO of Tulsa Community Foundation and...
Ballpark assessment plaintiffs petition for summary judgment
It's opening day for the Tulsa Drillers at Oneok Field, and some of the downtown property owners who are forced to pay for its construction filed a petition today for summary judgment in their lawsuit to overturn the assessment for the Tulsa Stadium Improvement District. The case against the ballpark...
Small world, isn't it?
I'm reluctant to post this, because it could be read as conspiracy-mongering, but I was just fascinated by all the interconnections evident in a single Tulsa World story about a new professorship at the University of Tulsa College of Law. The new chair in energy law is being endowed by...
The 2009 District 8 race
District 8 is a tough race for me. During his seven years on the City Council, Bill Christiansen has disappointed me over and over again. Early on, he worked to undermine and oppose some positive initiatives from my reform friends on the Council -- for example, the future growth task...
Happy Independence Day!
Today is a day to celebrate America's independence, to remember the reasons our Founding Fathers declared independence, to renew our commitment to the liberties that they sought to secure, and to thank the Creator for the rights with which He has endowed us and for giving us, in His providence,...
Bryan Osborne running for District 8 City Council
Bryan Osborne has officially entered the race to succeed Bill Christiansen as a Tulsa City Councilor for District 8. (Christiansen is expected to run for Mayor.) Paul Wizikowski has already announced his candidacy. Phil Lakin, CEO of the Tulsa Community Foundation, manager of Tulsa Stadium Construction Co. LLC (the sole...
My city was gone: Clinton Middle School, Tulsa Club, Tiger Stadium
Notes about demolition and neglect, here and elsewhere: From the Beryl Ford Collection/Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society. Red Fork's oldest remaining high school building is to be demolished. The 1925 building served for most of its history as Clinton Middle School, but when first...
Novus Homes sues City of Tulsa for interference
Last fall Novus Homes LLC, W3 Development LLC, and principals of the two companies filed suit against Tulsa Development Authority for breach of contract involving TDA's termination of the exclusive negotiating period with Novus Homes LLC for redevelopment of the vacant the half-block west of Elgin Avenue between Archer and...
Inside baseball
A surprising item in today's Whirled: The Tulsa Stadium Trust received only one bid Monday to construct a nearly $40 million downtown baseball stadium and no bids to finance $25 million of its cost. The construction bid came from Tulsa Stadium Construction Co. LLC, which guarantees that it will build...
Bobby's back
I'm happy to note that Bobby of Tulsa Topics has several new entries up -- a commentary by Kent Morlan about the downtown stadium trust and the oligarchy that put it together, a visit to Espresso by the Book in Gardner's Books, and an item about his work as an...
Stadium trust on tonight's Council agenda
I've been seeing e-mail traffic urging people to show up at tonight's City Council meeting in support of the Tulsa Stadium Trust. I understand that Bank of Oklahoma and other downtown employers are trying to pack the council chambers tonight. Those who show up should remember that the vote isn't...
Can we trust the Tulsa Stadium Trust?
Some wise words in a letter from retired architect Bob Sober to the members of the Tulsa City Council, regarding the proposed Tulsa Stadium Improvement Trust indenture, on the Council's agenda for Thursday night: Councilors, The Mayor has asked you to approve the Trust Indenture in this Thursday's Council meeting...
Downtown Drillers ballpark and the Tulsa Stadium Trust -- quotes of the day
From "Floyd," on TulsaNow's public forum, regarding the Trust Indenture for the Tulsa Stadium Trust: Sigh. If they had just decided to build a stadium and then created a set of special design codes for the stadium district, they could be moving dirt soon. But they can't help themselves from...
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