Wayne Coyne: YES on Dec. 8th

Wayne Coyne, frontman for the OKC-based band, The Flaming Lips, recently wrote an op-ed in the Gazette arguing for MAPS 3. I have to say that it is very cool that one of OKC's more prominent citizens is getting behind the MAPS 3 effort, not to mention that regardless of none of the projects going near his neighborhood the Plaza District (although Flaming Lips Alley is near a lot of the projects), he is still able to support a city-wide initiative. Many others have not been able to get over the selfishness of "what's in it for my block?" kind of thinking.

Wayne writes, "If you've done anything downtown or consider the things it has to offer -- if you like these things and think they are cool -- these all have connections back to the first MAPS vision. Please urge everyone you know to vote 'yes' in Tuesday's election. Urge them also to seek out the truth and not be misguided by any bad hype."

In his editorial, he looks back on what downtown used to -- back when it was desolate, abandoned, and left in dire shape. A friend of his found a human skull once. Cops always used to stop him when he was performing at sketchy clubs (back in the '80s when the Flaming Lips began), just asking why he was in the area. When your downtown is so dire that cops are stopping people just trying to find out why they're in the area, that's when it's bad. And you think that improving downtown might have helped public safety out? (Well, that's a different matter.)

I think it's also cool that you have, basically, everyone with a brain in OKC coming out supporting this. A lot of these people don't even agree on most anything, for example, do you think Wayne Coyne and Larry Nichols have ever voted the same way in a presidential election? Or even a state election? So you have to ask yourself, why are there nothing but "Not this MAPS" signs all over OKC? Go figure. Here in OKC, city matters are meant to be nonpartisan. By doing that, the idea is to get rid of the divisiveness in politics. But some people will always cling to that divisiveness for their side of any issue.