Word Twisters

Here they come. Conservatives dressed in sheep's clothing trying to capture words of the new political movement as their own. Words like progressive and here in Oklahoma, trying to piggyback the success of the MAPs project to further the ends of enriching the rich.

Enter Vince Orza. Now Vince, for those of you who don't know him, is a former newsreader reformed to restaurant chain tycoon and in his spare time nourishes young minds as a teacher at a local University. He just published this editorial in a local progressive newspaper.

In the article, Vince encourages Oklahoma to be progressive by endorsing his vision of a world-class civilization created here in Oklahoma. His first big ol' "progressive idea" is to create a massive aide to dependant corporations by overhauling the tax code.

Somehow, shifting the tax-burden onto those who work here and away from the shiny new task-master fat-cats that must be bribed to come here, doesn't seem very progressive.

Also, he trots out the usual whipping boy; school consolidation. Many small towns use their local schools as identity, and consolidation (read--elimination) would be a death sentence for many small towns. Note to Vince--authoritarianism is not a progressive idea.

He does, to his credit, link our high incarceration rate to our low funding of education. Should we invest more in schools to allow our citizens to prosper, or failing that, build more prisons to catch them on the back end? An easy decision, really, but one which we have failed on miserably.

Vince touches on using our oil and gas prosperity and encouraging our Indian community to aide in his quest for creating an "American resort and convention mecca..."

One would imagine our Native American community would be more willing to be a cooperative partner if our government would pay its bills.

When banker Elouise Cobell added up the Indian trust money lost, looted, and mismanaged by the U.S. government, the tab came to $176 billion. Now she's here to collect.
[...]
While generations of non-Indians have become rich harvesting the abundant resources of private Indian lands -- which once included virtually all the oil fields of Oklahoma -- Indian landowners have been paid only erratically, and far less than their due. Consequently, even landowning Indians remain among the nation's poorest citizens, joining the 23 percent of Indians in America living in poverty, and the nearly 40 percent who are unemployed. Some tribes fare even worse, and the Blackfeet suffer a 34 percent poverty rate and a 70 percent unemployment rate. Overall, Indians are more than twice as poor as the average American.
[...]

I would be rather reluctant to sign any more treatise if I were them. The lawsuit has been dragging on now for more than a decade. Gale Norton, the head of the Department of Interior named as a defendant has resigned and is now a shill for Shell oil. Hmmm.

But what really got my attention on Vince's article, was his hanging the acronym "MAPs" on it. Every pregnant idea that comes down the pike these days tries to capitalize on the success of MAPs, as though the mindless drones of Oklahoma will hit the yes button in the voting booth because MAPs is somehow a magic word.

I am very proud of the small role I played in passing the original MAPs vote, and deeply resent the wholesale bastardization of the term. You see, Vince, it is a question of value.

I am not an economic whiz kid like Vince, however, I know it takes "X" amount of dollars to run a state. When you give aide to dependant corporations these funds are made up on the backs of working stiffs like me.

New industry means new money, right? It also means very real infrastructure costs like water, sewer, power, transportation, etc.

No, Vince, I cannot endorse a massive corporate welfare program, dressed up like a spoonful of sugar. This merely increases the economic divide and reduces those true engines of Oklahoma progressivism, the middle class.

MAPs for the rich makes No Sense Vince.

MAPs For Gaylord

On March 4, Mayor Mick Cornett is asking the citizens of Oklahoma City to approve a one-cent sales tax to expand the Ford Center, a new indoor arena built as part of the MAPs project I wrote about here.

I am very proud to have been a supporter of and active campaigner for the very successful MAPs project, however, I can not be more agnostic about this current proposal. To begin with, the good citizens of Oklahoma urged our leaders to build facilities able to house professional franchises, only to be mildly rebuked. Oklahoma City, we were told, did not have the population to sustain a professional team.

I suppose our guest-hosting of the New Orleans Hornets have proved otherwise. Clay Bennett, a local businessman and spouse to the Gaylord Media and Entertainment Empire (publishers of The Oklahoman) headed up an organization that purchased the Seattle SuperSonics on July 18, 2006 for $350 million.

Seattle, it seems, is unwilling to upgrade its facilities. The previous ownership group claims over $60 million in losses for the previous five years, and Mr. Bennett is working feverishly to bust the contract that ties the SuperSonics to Seattle through 2010. A minor partner of Bennett's new ownership group, Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy, was quoted in an interview that the SuperSonics were not purchased to keep in Seattle, and that they hoped to bring the team out to Oklahoma City. The NBA fined McClendon a quarter of a million dollars for the comment.

In short, it is no secret the vote on March 4 is to create snazzy new digs for the Sonics. However, nowhere is this disclosed in any of the campaign materials. Very limited information is available about what our tax dollars will buy. Since I see no disclosures of super swanky and private skyboxes that will benefit no one other than the Gaylord swells, would it be safe to assume none will be built using public funds?

It would be fair to disclose The Oklahoman's editorial endorsement of using public funds to subsidize BassPro shop installing a store in Bricktown, while the Gaylord Entertainment was a large shareholder of Bass Pro private stock.

Truthfully, most professional team owners need private skysuites to make a profit, and the system is rigged for taxpayers to build them. Under our current system, corporate welfare is needed so they can entertain us.

I do not know how I'll vote on Tuesday. If I vote no, I am voting against getting a professional franchise in Oklahoma City and if I vote yes I am voting to give public funds to a hard right-wing family and publishers of the "Worst Newspaper In America."

Tough choice.

In Support of the DNC

So Dean is trying to build a 50 state Democratic infrastructure. I feel this is very farsighted. I've often felt that no one ever learns anything when things are going fairly smoothly. Education truly begins when "we've always done it that way" is demonstrated as a path to apathy.

During the late 80's and early 90's, here in Oklahoma, we had a Democrat and a Republican as U.S. Senators. I was working as an advertising executive for a widely circulated and well-received (circulation appx 50K) community newspaper in a strong Democratic area of OKC. This area of OKC, is geographically referred to as South OKC, since it is located on the southside of the Canadian river, and was deemed by many "Northsiders" or "Silkshirts" as we referred to them, as being negative for voting down many bond issues and such.

I met several local politicians and became fairly politically active myself. A city self-improvement project, called the Metropolitan Area Project, (MAPs) came up in '93. It was a grand plan that would require a huge investment by passing a countywide one cent sales tax for five years with a vote of the people. It would fail without the support of the southside. Our publication endorsed the project and published a special edition spelling out all the details.

I was relentless in obtaining advertising revenues for the support and distribution of this message. Face it, there is nothing free about the press. I was the top five revenue providers for that publication. At the watch party, I was next to Tom Keilhorn, a local political polling god when the results came in from the south. He was incredulous as he looked up at me from his chair and speechlessly shook my hand. Governor Ron Norick did the same.

It was not a blowout. Only about 52% in favor countywide, which was about the same as the southside. Soon after that, I had a career change, Senator Boren retired and Oklahoma fell firmly into the Red State column with Inhofe and Coburn for Senators.

If a solid infrastructure, like the one Dean is trying to put together now, was in place back then, perhaps I could have been urged by someone on the lookout to further aid the Democratic party. There can be no doubt that it is needed. Full-time paid political operatives constantly looking for new recruits. Isn't that what being a democrat is all about? Just wanting to help someone needing help?

How To Build A World-Class City

(cross posted at Firedoglake)
This is a story of hope, of bold visionary leadership, and grassroots political action successfully improving the lives of its citizens. A message very important in these dark days of rudderless and incompetent leadership.

Welcome to Oklahoma City!

A blast from a cannon announced the birth of Oklahoma at high noon on April 22, 1889. The children of these pioneers have overcome tremendous obstacles to make their sires proud at the close of the last century and the beginning of the new. In true pioneer spirit, they saw a better future over the horizon and dug deep to put forth the most massive quality of life package ever devised in this nation. A total of nine whopping projects, each one being massive enough to stand alone for voter approval. Oklahoma law requires tax increases to be approved by a vote of the people. To build a world-class city, the requirements are 1) A need 2) leadership and 3) value.

The need.

Oklahoma City was in pretty bad shape. Huge expansion had made it the largest city in the nation when I was a kid. The running joke in the 60s was Fidel better straighten out or we'll send them OKC boys down there to annex Cuba. The SCOTUS "white flight" decision brought blight to our inner city, as it did throughout the country. "Urban renewal" just made things worse, by eliminating a lot of housing and the oil bust of the mid 1980s was ruinous to our economy. Penn Square Bank collapsed, followed by a whole slew of others. If it was Thursday, more banks would fall. Personally, I could not find work in the oilfields of Oklahoma and took other work, each one paying less than the last. And when poverty knocks at the door, love flies out the window. My wife left me with three small children, the youngest in diapers. To try and improve our future prospects, I enrolled full-time at college, swallowed my pride, and took a part-time job flipping hamburgers.

Leadership.

Mayor Norick took office in 87. He was picking cotton in the arena of public service in the huge shadow of his father, former Mayor Jim Norick, who oversaw the expansion of the 60s, modernized our water system and built the convention center, and other large projects. The needs were huge and the funds were non-existent. The push was on to lure major employers. Large corporations, knowing their worth, require tithes for consideration. Three times Mayor Norick called for, and received a vote to increase sales taxes for the benefit of these jobs. All three times the employers chose to go elsewhere. The natives were growing restless. Our infrastructure was crumbling. The ADA was going to make our baseball park obsolete, the Canadian River that divides the town from north to south drained so well we had to keep it mowed. The livestock area of our state fairgrounds were dilapidated as was our convention center and civic center. Mayor Norick joined with other city leaders to address these needs and instead of making a "Sophies Choice" the decision was made to bundle all of them together and offer an all or nothing choice to the people. The nine projects were:

The river project. City leaders, sensitive to the "dust bowl" image suffered by Oklahoma, proposed creating a series of river lakes by building a series of three dams. This "crown jewel" project cost a total of $52 million.

A brand new 20,000 seat indoor sports/entertainment arena. Total cost $64.8 million.

Renovation of the Civic Center performing arts building. Total cost $51 million.

Renovation of the Myriad Convention Center and the addition of 100,000 square feet of new ballrooms and meeting rooms over the north plaza. Total cost $63.1 million.

State Fair renovations. The loss of the National Finals Rodeo to Las Vegas in '85 was a severe blow to OKC. Updating the fairgrounds arena and other equine facilities was seen as mandatory to prevent future hemorrhaging. The fairgrounds project was the only one to be completed on time and on budget. Total cost $14 million.

Public transportation linkage to the projects. Originally planned as a light rail system, that got railroaded by our very own congresscritter Earnest Istook R-Warr Acres, who blocked matching Federal funds as a waste of money. City leaders pivoted to 9 rubber tire trolley replicas. Total cost $5.3 million.

A shiny new baseball field located in Bricktown. The Oklahoma Redhawks is the farm team for the Texas Rangers, and the ballpark was fashioned after Dubyas old sandbox located south of the red river, in the state we refer to as "Baja Oklahoma." This 12,000 seat facility was rated in the top two nationwide for minor league play. Total cost $34.2 million.

The Bricktown Canal. Bricktown was one of the more blighted areas of downtown. An old brick warehouse district that virtually sat in the evening shadows of the downtown skyscrapers defiantly jutting out of the plains. Some going concerns remained, but most buildings were vacant, sporting broken windows and housing unsavories. The idea was to model it after Dallas' famed "West End" with the canal being reminiscent of the San Antonio riverwalk.
the canal would be a mile long, have water taxis, and link downtown to Bricktown to the river. Did I mention vision yet? Total cost $23.1 million.

The Library/Learning Center. Four stories tall and 110,000 square feet it has been called the "Ft. Knox of learning". Boasting meeting centers and all forms of modern multi-media state of the art gizmos, the aptly named Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library provides those seeking wisdom a one stop shop. Just call Ronnie "the bus driver" cause he's taking us all to school. Total cost $21.5 million.

So there you have it. Nine projects totaling $329 million dollars and is not related to directly recruiting a major employer. The vote would be a county-wide one cent sales tax increase for five years. A real tough sell for a city that was broke and closing banks in the throes of a major recession. It was obvious this was a "pie in the sky boondoggle."

Value

As a major in journalism, I became acquainted with Dave Sellers, the owner and publisher of the Capitol Hill Beacon, a community paper serving South (of the river) OKC. He hired me out of college as an adman, because "there isn't a lot of money in journalism." Dave, just like Dave Thomas of Wendy's, sported hokey short sleeve dress shirts and was the salt of the earth. I had been with the paper for a couple of years before the Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPs) vote came up. Southside, where I have lived most of my life, is very strong blue collar, and at the time, mostly democrats. The Beacon had been publishing newspapers since five years before Tolstoy died. Since the community didn't seem to support a subscription based newspaper, the Beacon elected to be a free paper, delivered to every home in South OKC (appx 46,000) every week. The regular Joes and empty nesters frequently voted down bond issues and such and was viewed as a negative area by the "silk shirts" that resided to the north. In short, the issue would fail without the support of the Southside.

I heard many refer to this negativity issue, and I resented it. One day, the President of Southwestern Bell came to visit Dave. I was sitting there when he asked Dave "What's wrong with the people on the Southside? They are so negative and vote down bond issues. Dave smiled, more to show his teeth than to show his pleasure, "It's a question of value." Did you catch that? Five words, none more than two syllables. Can he edit or what?

Dave saw the value and decided to support the measure. We were to put out a special publication spelling out all the details and benefits. My role was to generate the funds to get this message out. There isn't a damn thing free about the press. Dave knew the no vote was always built in. To counter it the choices are to suppress it or increase the yes vote. The vote passed by a narrow margin on December 14, 1993. The Southside also supported it by a very narrow margin.


And now, thirteen years later, you can't find anybody who voted no. The river we used to mow now has national boat races. Bricktown is shiny and buzzing and full of eateries and classy fashion stores and dance halls. Our new indoor arena just completed hosting a season of professional basketball (a first professional anything for OKC) by the New Orleans Hornets, due to the loss of their stadium from Katrina. Promoter boasts of private investment of $140 million were wildly off the mark; they have topped $500 million. Coffers are full and rainy day funds are being created. I'm so fuckin' proud I could just bust. The word for this success is "progressive".

My next project is:

How To Build A World Class Civilization.

Can I get a little help over here?