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Tulsa in the 1920 Official Automobile Blue Book
Before Eisenhower's Interstate Highway System, before state highway officials collaborated to create a national highway numbering system in 1926, motorists traveling cross-country followed turn-by-turn directions contained in the Official Automobile Blue Book. These books are a time capsule of transportation history, not only mentioning routes, but road conditions, locations of...
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...
Rand McNally on the Internet Archive
On the Map Scans Facebook group, someone posted a link to the Internet Archive's copy of the 1980 State Farm Road Atlas, which was a rebranded Rand McNally Road Atlas. That got me wondering about finding earlier editions, and I did a search for items published by Rand McNally. The...
Santa Fe, Taos, Aspen and back
Late last night we returned from a quick five-day, nearly 2,000-mile trip to Aspen, Colorado, by way of Amarillo, Santa Fe, Taos, Buena Vista, the Great Sand Dunes, Capulin Volcano, and Black Mesa. We packed a lot into a short trip. Some notes: Downtown El Reno has a very nice...
Oklahoma legislators betray taxpayers; Coburn launches taxpayer revolt
NOTE: I will be on 1170 KFAQ with Pat Campbell at 7:05 am on Wednesday, March 28, 2018 to discuss the tax increases passed by the Oklahoma House of Representatives last night and the path forward. Listen live on 1170kfaq.com or on the Tune In app. Later the interview will...
Rick Steves needs to tour his own country "through the back door"
For many Americans, Rick Steves is the guru of European travel, specifically of an approach to travel he calls "through the back door" -- skipping the high-priced hotels, chain restaurants, and tourist traps which insulate you in an American bubble, and instead encountering authentic local culture, staying at B&Bs, hostels,...
Israel 2015: March 7-8: The journey there
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great;...
Tulsa pastor indicted for embezzlement
Indicted for "unlawfully divert[ing] Community Center funds for his own personal benefit in the approximate amount of $933,507.80": Rev. Willard Jones, a pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church, faces three counts of wire fraud and one count of tax fraud. FOX23 learned a community center the church built was the vision...
The food truck approach to public transit
Many of my hipster urbanist friends are very fond of food trucks. Food trucks today offer a wide variety of cuisines and a wide range of sophistication and price. The mobility of the kitchen allows the restaurant to go where the customer is. Better food can be offered for...
Tulsa 1921 map
A remarkable and detailed 1921 map of Tulsa is available for viewing online, from the Special Collections of the University of Tulsa McFarlin Library. The inset map shows the entire city, and is captioned; TULSA AND ADDITIONS A Ready Reference and Guide Map to Tulsa's OFFICE & PUBLIC BLDGS. CLUBS,...
ZivaGate: Ziva Branstetter accused of collusion in Rutkauskas offensive against blog critic
UPDATE 2013/06/20: See below regarding the letter from Tulsa World attorney Schaad Titus to blogger Sean Kelly. This is a bizarre story, and it doesn't look good for one of the stars of local print journalism. Other outlets have covered it well, but it deserves to be noted here. Tulsa...
Bad bureaucrats: Pension logrolling, hidden funds, expenses fiddling
A few news items of interest, while you wait for me to publish some sort of analysis of last Tuesday's results: Reuters: Special Report: How a vicious circle of self-interest sank a California city -- long, but a must-read: Yet on close examination, the city's decades-long journey from prosperous, middle-class...
The Lame Dilbert session of Congress
This warms my heart: Current House members who were not elected to the next Congress have had to vacate their office suites and move into small cubicles in a pair of dining rooms in the Rayburn House Office Building.... More than 90 departing House members from both parties have been...
Immigration, assimilation, and trust
It's happened twice this week. I've written long blog entries -- long essays with links -- and then hesitated to click the "publish" button. Ironically, the essay arose from a story about a sociologist reluctant to publish his findings because they may give aid and comfort to the politically incorrect....
Wichita WiFi and coffee
Business has had me in Wichita fairly often over the past few weeks. I was telling a friend about my recent sojourn, and she replied that she'd driven through Wichita a few times and couldn't "get on board with the whole Kansas thing." I'll admit that I didn't have a...
My week in jail and a visit to the Aztec Theater for "San Antonio Rose Live"
Because this is a long entry, you'll need to click the "Continue reading" link to see the whole thing. Clicking any of the photos will take you to a bigger version and my full set of San Antonio streetscape photos. If you're interested in hotels, restaurants, historic preservation, and entertainment...
17 days and 3748.1 miles later
Over the last two and a half weeks, we packed five people and too much stuff into a minivan, drove it 3,748.1 miles through 11 states and the District of Columbia, reconnected with dear aunts, uncles, and friends, met a longtime e-mail and blog pal in person, bumped into a...
Oklahoma ruins (and Arkansas too)
More linkage, less thinkage, until I get out from under the pile: Abandoned Oklahoma is a website devoted to photography of abandoned places around the state. Homes, industrial sites, parks, schools, churches. Sites include the Labadie Mansion in Copan (north of Bartlesville), the Santa Fe Depot in Cushing, the Page-Woodson...
Who are the real NIMBYs?
An edited version of this column was published in the August 14-20, 2008, issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly. It was a more polished version of a blog entry from the previous week (minus hyperlinks and blockquotes, which don't translate well to print). The published version is no longer available on...
I-244 & Yale vagrant facility on Council agenda
Tonight (Thursday, August 7) the Tulsa City Council will reconsider a resolution it passed last week. The resolution, jointly issued with the Tulsa Housing Authority dealt with four lots on the west side of Yale between Admiral Place and I-244, declaring it to be "in the public interest" for TDA...
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