Thursday, August 21, 2014 at 6:00 PM the Tulsa City Council will consider three rezoning applications that if approved would essentially be a death blow to Tulsa’s only Form Based Code, the essential policy building block of Smart Growth. Smart Growth Tulsa calls on every Tulsan to TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY to prevent this giant step backward in…
Vision 2, Lesson Learned? That kind of systematic public evaluation of proposed capital needs and expenditures was missing in last year’s Vision 2 initiative and that is likely why it was handily defeated. The timing was wrong, public engagement was lacking and the spending did little to reinforce the goals of our long term comprehensive…
Tulsa, we have a problem. Too many of our historic and iconic downtown buildings have fallen prey to the wrecking ball. Too many ugly surface parking lots have taken their place. This untenable situation began in the 1960s and has been escalating since. It has led Tulsa to a most dubious distinction. We were…
Yet another missed opportunity. Mayor Dewey Bartlett has missed an important opportunity to implement a key element of Tulsa’s comprehensive plan. He expresses support for the plan publicly but has fallen short with his behind-the-scene action. The plan’s Land Use Chapter says: “To support downtown’s lively and walkable urban character, automobile parking ideally is located…
If Planners plan, shouldn’t Leaders lead? It’s not like we really needed any more evidence to illustrate the leadership vacuum in the Mayor’s office; that has already been pretty well documented. However, recent events further illuminate the confusion that reigns on the 15th Floor of City Hall. The disclosure that yard waste intended for mulching…
Some people will believe anything. Depending on the circumstances, debunking a conspiracy theory can be nearly as challenging as trying to confirm one, but in the case of the United Nation’s Agenda 21, not so much. First, a little background. According to Wikipedia, ‘Agenda 21 is a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the…
Vision 2…a massive FAIL Important lessons will hopefully be learned from the trouncing of Vision 2 on November 6th. It should serve as the mother of all wake-up calls for its advocates. And, it has to be crystal clear by now that we need to immediately change the way we operate around here. That said…
A lack of public input will doom Vision 2. Vision2 is the most poorly conceived and strategically deficient tax proposal in memory, a desperately short-sighted and reactionary response to a problem whose solution has yet to be determined. Proposition 1 includes $386 million in airport industrial complex improvements, a closing fund and $80 million in…
Poor timing, hastefully conceived, suspect priorities. All well-conceived capital improvement plans are necessarily tempered by fiscal realities that demand a rigorous evaluation and prioritization of candidate projects. The City of Tulsa is currently sitting on an unfunded capital improvement wish list in the range of $7 billion dollars, not including the Vision 2 proposals. Obviously…
Funding package ignores adopted plans. It is clear many Tulsans look at the Vision 2 proposal with a good deal of skepticism, mostly because of the way it was developed. Let’s consider what a truly responsible CIP planning process might look like for Tulsa in today’s challenging monetary environment. First, we can consider the benefits…
Planning Commission Decision is regrettable. PlaniTulsa’s Vision Document describes the kinds of places, economy, housing, parks, open spaces and transportation choices that the city’s policies should be designed to create. It was a product of unprecedented public engagement, developed with the guidance of one of America’s most prestigious planning consultants who led thousands of Tulsans,…
The people have spoken, why keeping asking questions? If we needed any evidence that the ‘Vision 2’ proposal was flawed by its very nature, it was made clear by comments attributed to Mayor Bartlett in another publication on August 16th: “We want to hear from the citizens of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the city of Tulsa, about…
