The latest on UNP

Here is the new updated flier for the University North Park project. This is an absolute crime. That whole deal is as corrupt as it gets. The old switch and bait, once the citizens give the developer the TIF he wants.

What's a shame is that there are other developers who build shoddy strip mall crap, probably a little better than this, who still play by the rules and pay property taxes and don't get the city to build parks and infrastructure for them. What kind of a message does this say toward that? What kind of a message does this say in terms of validating the free market? All this is: corruption, cronyism, lack of vision, and incompetence.

And the saddest thing is that OU's foundation was behind this project from the beginning.

"It's [not] the economy, stupid"

Everyone stop what you're doing, there's a really quick important message you need to see: Stop blaming the economy. It's getting old. By now, if you're a successful developer whose head isn't up your bum, you've figured out how to make things work.

This guy (Stanton Nelson), is not a successful developer. His project, the University North Park/University Town Center (not), has been in limbo for a few years. It started with a bang, winning approval from Norman residents for a TIF district which helped pay for basic infrastructure, lured an Embassy Suites hotel as an anchor, and he was able to build big retail anchors such as a Super Target and Kohl's among others.

Then the problem came with what was next: The lifestyle center, which he was contractually obligated to build, was supposed to be built in the next phase, due east (across the super-nice 24th Street with curves that the city built him) from the Target. Was it the economy, or was it that he was never prepared or willing to build the lifestyle center from the beginning? You decide. But one thing is clear, this guy was a clown from the beginning, and Normanites were delusional to ever believe him while he was blowing smoke and naming potential tenants that wanted to sign with him, tenants such as: Oh yeah, Restoration Hardware, Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Trader Joe's, a Whole Foods of course, and a whole host of other big-name retailers that OKC and Tulsa have even been clamoring for (except Tulsa already has several of them). First mistake: real developers don't drop names like that. Second mistake: real developers don't do things contingent on taxpayer help, without which their project is doomed. Third mistake (lookin at you, OU): real developers don't name a project after a university that is located 3-4 miles away.

This guy is not a real developer.

Now Norman is looking to move on. He will likely not be involved in this development much longer, so Norman is hoping for the best case scenario: move on, shut him down with penalties, and get a more competent developer to come in. Sounds good.

The problem is that it hinges on the development of the Legacy Park. The contract the city and he entered into was that the city would build the park, he would build the lifestyle center. If one party failed, the failing party would pay a penalty to the other, in this case, it will be the developer. The city will spend $5.9 million on the park and then probably get that back under the terms of the penalties, but in order to prevent that from happening, the developer is refusing to donate the land to the city in the first place, which was also in the contract.

He's citing economic problems for why he can't donate the land to the city. It's great that he's looking out for the city's best fiscal interest, but it's plainly obvious he's just trying to prevent what would proceed after that from his failure to develop the lifestyle center, I believe by 2016 (it is now 2011, obviously..4-5 years into the development schedule of this project). Call a spade nothing but a spade. The city has the money because it comes from the TIF, which has been generating a lot of revenue ever since Target went in, and would generate even more revenue for the city if Stanton Nelson were actually a serious developer capable of pulling this project off.

Here's my take: Recall James Carville's famous quote, "It's the economy, stupid." In this case, Mr. Nelson, "It's not the economy, stupid. It's you." Look all around the metro, and even more, look in some of the cities across the nation that are still being very successful. Large developments are still occurring, quite contrary to Nelson's lame argument that "nobody is building lifestyle centers right now." Which begs the question, if that were true, then what ARE they building? Because Moore is moving forward with the Fritts Farm project (Target has already broken ground WITHOUT taxpayer subsidies in this case), the Moore Warren is fixing to pull of another ambitious expansion that will make it truly impressive, and among countless other projects, even Midwest City is going forward with the next expansion phase of their town center which is far better than anything built in this area of Norman lately. In West OKC, the walls have been going up for a few months on the massive new outlet mall out there. You don't think that project could be pulled off if "nobody is building lifestyle centers right now" ?? The City of OKC invested in that project purely to defend its tax base from the other ankle-biting suburbs.

Clearly the economy is not stopping the momentum in Moore, which is continuing to literally suck the life out of Norman's tax base at this point. This is something that the City Council, looking for its livelihood to support its civic services and infrastructure, is most concerned with. A guy who can not build a lifestyle center in a development that is already anchored by an Embassy Suites, a city-developed park, a Super Target, a Kohl's, and more--and then makes lame excuses for himself, is not just a failure in this particular project, but is a total all-around business failure. I am a college kid, give me a chunk of land already anchored by all of these things that other retailers would clamor to be around, and I could do better than what Stanton Nelson wants to finish out his development with: Jack in the Box, GameStop, Portrait Studio, Discount Tires.

I think penalties are a euphemism for how the City of Norman should treat this guy, who must be a secret double agent developer working for Moore on a mission to prevent Norman from growing its tax base and retail amenities. That is the only explanation I can think of. I'd say the city needs to file as many actions as possible to take this guy to the cleaners literally (or whatever he built instead of say, the GAP, or Dillard's).

Iron Starr Campus Corner / Norman Arts Council

Iron Starr Urban Bbq sent me an email about a promotion they've got going on at their Campus Corner Norman location. I would encourage people, when hungry for some 'que, go support a local business AND local arts simultaneously..plus it's one of OKC's best bbq joints. County Line, Earl's, Bad Brad's, Iron Starr--you take your pick of the best, but they're right in there.

Cityshot XLI

The new McNellie's in Norman..Main Street. Actually, it's the "Abner's Ale House." A lot smaller than the other two McNellie's locations in OKC and Tulsa, but pretty cool to come across along Norman's Main Street.

Bob Stoops don't need no stinkin development

Bob Stoops is a big deal, everybody knows that. For those who don't know, Bob Stoops has coached in 4 national championship games of the last decade, numerous other BCS bowls, and despite an abysmal record, no other coach is as consistently at the top echelon of college football. And also for those who didn't know, Bob Stoops is selling his home in NW Norman's ultra-posh Ashton Grove addition at NW 48th and building a new estate on 20 acres he owns off of NW 36th between Franklin Rd and Indian Hill Rd in Norman. That's called development.

But what he opposes is additional development of the stretch of NW 36th between Norman and Moore. He filed a legal protest with the Norman City Council against the development of 350 acres adjacent to the home he is developing in a rapidly-growing corridor between the built-up areas of Cleveland County's two largest cities. The 350 acre development, proposed by JJ Properties, will include a huge number of tract housing, as well as an assisted-living center, townhomes, and an elementary school. The elementary school, not yet funded, would be in the Moore Public School district (which is everything in Cleveland County north of Franklin Rd).

So I think this interesting story poses a wide array of questions. The first obviously shows us the undesirable nature of sprawl, but what's most notable is that each party involved is guilty of sprawl. Bob Stoops is guilty of sprawl in the first place because he's the one who CHOSE to purchase land in a rapidly growing area, develop a $3.3 million home (that's called development), and then squawk when other development occurs nearby. Does Stoops honestly have the right to be surprised that development is going to happen on land adjacent to his new home along NW 36th? He can't be serious. That's like going being seated at a restaurant and then storming out mad because the waiter tried to get you to buy an appetizer and a drink. Then the developer is obviously guilty of sprawl, and yeah I don't blame Stoops, I wouldn't want to build a $3.3 million estate and then have it surrounded by tract housing. Then the Norman City Council is guilty of sprawl because they have done nothing but encourage the sprawl of NW Norman, even with Cindy Rosenthal as mayor. Here, sprawl has led to conflicts between all three entities, and it will be up to the City Council and Rosenthal to resolve it. That will likely be a very contentious Council meeting.

Then I think it poses other questions. Is Stoops saying that only people who can afford a $3.3 million mansion have the right to build a home near him? Obviously that isn't right. Look at it this way, I consider everyone to be on equal footing before the law. So therefor everyone should have an equal right to participate in the sprawl of places like Norman and especially Edmond. But I won't even go into the socioeconomic limitations of sprawl in Edmond because that's opening a whole different can of worms. But suppose that if we're going to have sprawl and we're going to have major development, do we discriminate between $3.3 million mansions and tract homes that sell for $120,000? I think so. The only way out of this debate were if sprawl were verboten, but it's not. That way you could make the argument that the only thing that's being protested here is a high-density development, not the starting price of tract houses. And for all I'm concerned, the development sounds interesting..I'd like to hear more about these "townhomes" being proposed.

But when Stoops knowingly builds in a high-growth area and when the Norman City Council has already opened the floodgates for sprawl, that argument goes out the window. This now becomes socioeconomic, strictly. For Stoops this is about protecting the value of a $3.3 million investment. You have to wonder, why endanger such a huge investment like that in the first place? Why even build a $3.3 million investment in an area where the expectation HAS to be that tract housing will surround you within a matter of a few years. In fact if the development is at all, in anyway, above average, then you have already exceeded what I think the expectation has to be..where the bar is set, which is pretty low.

So in short, this is one way that sprawl can be ugly. And this isn't even looking 30 years down the road, this is looking at the short-term. It's incredible that if sprawl can even be ugly in the short-term in some instances, how we're still all gung-ho and excited to fill in those pastures!

Downtown Norman: Revitalization complete

Just wanted to post a few photos of how amazingly well the revitalization of Downtown Norman has gone. Here they be.

Pics taken over the summer..

Kelly Ogle opposes Nude Angelina Jolie

See this beautiful work of art? Kelly Ogle opposes this. He says it is perverted.

Maybe he is perverted. Maybe this beautiful work of art opposes Kelly Ogle.

For those who are confused, a bronze life-size park statue of the beautiful Angelina Jolie breastfeeding a baby is coming to Norman. It will be unveiled at the MAINSITE Contemporary Art Gallery in Downtown Norman on Sept. 11, as a tribute to World Breastfeeding Week. Why Norman? The artist behind the statue, Daniel Edwards, suggests it is because Brad Pitt was born and raised minutes from here. If you ask Kelly Ogle however, he asserts that it is here just to rile up folks in the Bible Belt. But pardon me for stating the obvious, was anyone riled up about it before Kelly Ogle featured it on the nightly segment where News 9 lets Kelly go wild with his own free mic time? No.

Last night Kelly Ogle said, "And the idea of putting the sculpture in a metro park..well, no problem, as long as you..make it realistic. Take the piece back to your studio, put some CLOTHES ON HER, and cuddle the nursing babies under a cute little blanket." In other words, cover them damn babies up!

The comments got worse tonight when they turned it around and aired comments from viewers. Oh my God. There must be a low-mark for intelligence that they're shooting for when they solicit comments from viewers.

"How do you explain the statue to your 5 year old?" - Cindy, OKC

I don't know. Gee that is a really good question. I think, because of this statue, you might have to sit your 5 year old down and give them a really serious talk about breastfeeding. This is like asking how you explain eating to someone who just got done eating 5 minutes ago. Whatever Cindy from OKC is on, I want some of it..

"Even my 15 yr. old daughter thought that it was TOO much!" Kathy, Edmond

How is it too much? I'm dying to know. In Europe art often celebrates the human body, and as a result, it's not "too much" for them to have nude sculptures. In America we don't like to see nude sculptures, either because we don't have as much class, it makes us feel like crap about our own bodies, or we aren't nearly as artistically advanced as our European brethren.

"If we allow it, watch out for what else is installed later on." James, Del City

Yeah no kidding. I'm sure one minute you allow a tribute to a woman breastfeeding, the next minute they'll be clamoring to put up hard-core sex scenes around it and then even adults couldn't go near the park after that. That makes sense. I think James needs to stop watching video he taped of women breastfeeding and go out and get a life.

"This is another assault on Oklahoma's Christian values." - Steve, OKC

I think it could be an assault on Oklahoma values, but not the Christian ones. A lot of really important Christian art features nude women figures. Angels are almost always depicted as partially-clothed figures. Christ is even often depicted as nude. Back then there wasn't as much negative dogma around the idea of a naked body. Art truly celebrated the beauty of the human body. I'll go easy here because Steve could be a reader of my blog.

"This would send the wrong message to children especially young boys." Kerry, Hammon

What is the right message to send, then? Don't breastfeed! Don't bring your infant babies out in public! Keep that breastfeedin' and them infant babies confined to your own home! ??

"To force a work of art such as this into a dress code and behind walls where it will be seen by fewer people who really need more enlightenment is disappointing." -Joe, OKC

Finally a voice of reason. This whole business of --Ooh! Hide them naked babies, and that naked mama!-- is just outright ignorant. The only reason that a nude sculpture is even remotely inappropriate is because the Nazi right insist that nude art is demonic and anti-God. The demonic nature is just a figment of their imagination, but as long as people agree that it's deplorable, perception is everything, and we will remain culturally inferior to Europe. Let's compare America next to Europe:










On a positive note, it has been hardly discouraging for the artist. The Norman community has at least been receptive to the idea, where people reacted positively to the touching tribute to the mother-child relationship, and liked the idea of celebrating Brad Pitt's Oklahoma roots. Artist Daniel Edwards is also planning a project with an Edmond artist to build a house they call "The Brangelina," according to Channel 5's website.

Cityshot XXI

Campus Corner, in beautiful Norman, OK

Norman's University Town Center..renderings

I was cleaning out my hard drive and came across these, some renderings that I had for the Town Center that will eventually get built as a part of University North Park/University Town Center. It's such a shame, how many excellent projects OKC had in the works that got momentarily derailed by the national economy. It's fortunate that most of these developments haven't been canceled, just pushed back until there is some recovery and loosening up in the national retail market.

So in the meantime feast your eyes on these:

Nice to see Oklahoma growing from afar

My apologies for my prolonged absence during the last 3/4 months. I appreciated everyone who occasionally read my blog, and especially those who occasionally commented. I promise I'll make up this drought by dropping more posts from time to time. Who would have thought switching to a more rigorous Architecture School and being a thousand miles away from OKC would have resulted in less free time to blog about Oklahoma?

However, not that even in the wintery land known as Canada can we escape Oklahoma's surging prominence, especially every time we turn on ESPN. The NBA ended up being just the shot in the arm that we needed (ok, maybe not). What a way for the Thunder to do something notable by vying for the highly-coveted title of Worst Franchise Ever! And if you don't think that's notable, which do people talk about more often: the Detroit Lions, or the Cincinnati Bengals. The record currently stands at 4-30; that is 4 wins, and 30 "moral victories" (we don't call them "losses" anymore, it's like it's the Special Olympics all-of-a-sudden). And I don't blame Scott Brooks at his Thunder post-game press conferences for wanting to change the subject to OU football. David Boren needs to issue a formal statement for his schoolapologizing for stealing the NBA's "thunder."

On the bright side, OU is at the same time highly underrated and on the verge of becoming the program of the decade. Of course it doesn't hurt that OU is probably the program of the year, with football being ranked #1, and at the same time basketball being ranked #4. OSU athletics, too, are showing signs of joining the big-leagues with all of their investment in athletic facilities. Even OSU football was once ranked #7, during a 3-week period that the State of Oklahoma had two teams ranked in the Top Ten. Sports columnists and announcers alike began to refer collectively to "the Oklahomas," although OU would very much beg to differ, as there's only one Oklahoma.

Plus, we can't forget all of the new sports facilities set to break ground. Such as the $100+ million renovations that the Ford Center is in the middle of getting, and the new Drillers Stadium in downtown Tulsa. Don't forget the rest of OSU's athletic village, which will likely bring the rest of Cowboys athletics up to par with the football, wrestling, and basketball programs there. OKC's Regatta Park has become the national mecca for rowing (just ask the New York Times), which used to be mainly an East Coast sport. I'm beginning to wonder how all of this compares to other states. There is no question that Oklahoma is a 21st-century player on the national sports scene, but when it's all done, and you consider NCAA and the pros and tournaments and all of that, how does Oklahoma compare?

Proud Okies, don't forget that a recent poll by The Sporting News ranked OKC 79th on its national list of Sports Cities. Norman, ranked seperately for some reason, was ranked 45th. Stillwater was ranked 71st, also ahead of the mother city, OKC. Many controversial problems abound with this ranking however: Even though by the time they did the ranking it had been concrete that the Sonics were moving to the Ford Center, this poll excluded them giving OKC 0 professional sports teams among its criteria. "Their ranking system is flawed," said even Mayor Mick. Had OKC and Norman been listed together, as they had been for every year of the poll until 2007, it probably would have resulted in a Top 30 ranking. Had they included the Thunder, who knows.

Perception is everything, and even still, that is by far Oklahoma's biggest problem. To quote a recent NBA team owner who toured our city before voting to approve the relocation of the Sonics: "You know, this Oklahoma