About twice as many people as usual voted in the MAPS 3 election yesterday, and that is a heartening sign of civic engagement. Alas, the end result is a blank check to the current and future city leaders amounting to $777 billion. Nice work if you can get it.
Another optimistic bit of news is that the Mayor says that the new convention center won’t be built first, but “later”. On the unknown side is his statement that they want the park to open by 2014, when the “new boulevard” that will replace the I-40 Crosstown Freeway is scheduled to open.
Did I miss something about the funding of said boulevard? No, I don’t think so, it’s presently unfunded, as is the new jail that we are going to have to build or have our local jail taken over by the federal court system.
I hope I am wrong about the MAPS issue. I hope that the City Council (and the future City Councils to come) can be trusted with this amount of money. I hope we aren’t presently experiencing permanently changed economic conditions. I hope Oklahoma City doesn’t suddenly have an emergency need for a true public transit system due to a renewed and even more vicious energy crisis.
I also hope I win the lottery.
