Around Tulsa tonight
I stopped by the "Realtor Reality Check" rally for Chris Medlock, held across the street from the Southern Hills Marriott, where the Tulsa Real Estate Coalition was holding its candidate forum, from which TREC excluded Medlock. I had to leave at 5:30, but I'm told the crowd grew as more people had time to arrive after work. Mad Okie has photos and a description of the event. That's Councilor Jim Mautino's wife Bonnie holding a sign that says, "Bixby has a mayor, Jenks has a mayor, Owasso has a mayor. Tulsa needs a mayor, too!" Mad Okie's got a bunch more worth reading, plus some funny stuff.
I was downtown right about sunset and drove down Main Street, where two of the last remaining small commercial buildings are fenced and awaiting demolition -- 417 and 419 S. Main. The buildings belong to one of the partnerships formed by Maurice Kanbar and Henry Kaufman to acquire buildings in downtown Tulsa. Remember my half-joking worry: What if these guys buying all these old downtown buildings were really demolition enthusiasts? Well, it looked as if the first visible work to be done on the historic downtown properties they had acquired would be to tear down two buildings for parking. Some preservation-minded folks got their concerns back to Kaufman, who issued a two-week stay of execution. (Maybe this was some sort of hazing ritual, forced on Kaufman and Kanbar by the local good ol' boy network. "Y'all have to prove you're real Tulsans by tearing down historic buildings for parking.")
Here's the start of a TulsaNow forum topic about the buildings; the topic goes on for four pages. The southernmost of the two buildings has special memories for me: I did my month-long high school internship there when it was Channel 41, a news-talk TV station that had just gone on the air. (You'll find my memories of KGCT on Tulsa TV Memories.)
I met another blogger this evening, while waiting in line at the drugstore. A friend from church came up to say hello, and mentioned that she and her husband enjoy reading my blog. The fellow in front of me overheard and asked what blog, and when I told him, he said he'd just come back to Tulsa from NYC, and he'd heard of BatesLine from a fellow blogger back there -- Scott Sala, of Slant Point and Urban Elephants. (I mentioned Scott in this week's Urban Tulsa cover story about local news bloggers.) What a small world!
The blogger I met is Earnest Pettie, who blogs as The Idea Man. His latest idea: issue tax refunds as debit cards, tied to an account that accrues interest on the remaining balance of the refund.
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I like Earnest Pettie's idea. It would also be nice if our OKLAHOMA state lawmakers would not allow gift card companies to have any fee subtracted for maintenance. The companies should be giving people interest -- not taking money away since the money should be deposited when purchased.
Our banks have accounts where they also do not charge any monthly fee for maintaining even a small balance for more than six months and the same rule should apply to GIFT CARDS.
I also think it would be nice if our Tulsa County
homeowner's insurance could be lowered by at least $100 a year if the property has been maintained neatly.
It would encourage homeowners to not pile junk in their yards and to keep up their property for the beauty of Tulsa County.
There are some really unkept properties all over
Tulsa. You have to admit Michael Bates has a point -- some of the areas in downtown Tulsa need a
demolition enthusiast to buy old run down properties and turn them into profitable businesses. With so many computer/ I.T. workers
that lost their jobs in the last few years in Tulsa, we could use terrific investors
to start new businesses to stop the outsourcing and put Tulsa educated workers back to better paying jobs.
Roop got a huge raise from what he was making on the Tulsa City Council to the position he now holds, but had there been a
capable Human Resource Director, that H.R. Director would have found there were far more
qualified City of Tulsa I.T. applicants on file with better resumes than Roop.
iMAGEination Graphics was at the Realtor Reality Check Rally and in the wee hours of the morning finished production of a short video clip of the event. I'm uploading to Google Video as I type this and I'll have it available in other formats soon. Coming soon to a computer near you... or DVD... or whatever you get your hands on first!
It is a crying shame they are tearing down 419 S main. That was home to Lerner Stores! Nowadays they go by the name New York and Company (same one thats in the mall). 419 has a great art deco facade on it. I can't speak for 417, I only knew it as most recently the Sherwood restuarant. From my office view though it doesnt look like they are tearing them down, because they spent a few weeks building some kind of wooden platform looking thing and they have removed an equal amount of brick off of 417 which makes me think they are going to put up a sign or something.