Meet "Stakeholders"

Happy Monday everyone. To celebrate this glorious occasion, I thought I'd provide some insights into the C2S report recently compiled by MAPS 3 consultant ADG, which many took as a deliberate attack piece on the transit project. Why? Why else does a report about the implications on C2S need to go so far out of its way to attack the streetcar and "recommend" further study specifically to answer issues that have been answered in full already by ACOG, COTPA, Jacobs Engineering, the transit subcommittee, the Modern Transit Project, the Alternatives Analsysis process, and even ADG themselves.

But alas, about those stakeholders. First it should be mentioned that it has come out, through thourough investigation on the part of the transit subcommittee members who felt compelled upon seeing this "study," that not all "stakeholders" are equal, and not all "stakeholders" were asked the same questions, or even any questions about the streetcar at all. It seems indeed that the determination of who to ask about the streetcar was rather spurious and targeted toward individuals who would be prone to criticize the project. So this helps explain how a "study" based on interviews asking these people who have privileged status what they think about these public projects could have come out so unnecessarily negative for the transit project. The "stakeholders" interviewed were:

Mick Cornett
Meg Salyer
Gary Marrs
Larry Nichols
Tom McDaniel
Roy Williams
Anthony McDermott
Kim Low
Fred Hall
Bill Cameron
Bob Howard
Cathy O'Connor
Russell Claus
Kirk Humphreys
Blair Humphreys
Hans Butzer
Paul Green
Jim Tolbert

Now, meet the "stakeholder" +one whom I have information that leads me to believe are driving this attempted coup against the streetcar project.

Kirk Humphreys. Many of the you are actually already familiar with the former mayor, but Humphreys has been pretty busy since he has been out of office. Aside from a failed Senate run and continued electoral problems when he was voted off of the OCPS School Board, he has been fairly busy with real estate activities (hence OCPS) and chamber functions. I am also hearing that the former mayor has made it into a personal vendetta against transit, and hopes to derail the project. Humphreys also serves on the MAPS 3 Convention Center Subcommittee.

Mike Carrier. Meet Mike Carrier, who is the President of the OKC Convention and Visitors Bureau. I hope his surname does not derive from anything to do with transit, because Carrier has also made it into a personal vendetta against the transit project. I'm also assuming he does not see any value of the streetcar for his convention attendants. Carrier also serves on the MAPS3 Convention Center Subcommittee.