Safe Community
We want a place which is safe for families and children. Yet, all too often, when we look outside our front doors, we don’t find safety, we find crime, trouble, terrorism, and/or catastrophe. There are a hundred things that could happen in a heart beat that could damage or destroy the electrical distribution grids, stop the steady flow of trucks to grocery stores, and cause a serious breach in what we think of as “normal life”. The newspapers constantly warn us of the threat of disease epidemics. Going forward into an increasingly risky future, communities which show toughness in the face of challenges, which have taken prudent steps to mitigate their risks of disaster and promote prompt recovery, will be at a competitive economic advantage. People and businesses will flow to those areas which are meeting 21st century challenges effectively. They will abandon areas which do not meet these challenges of safety, security, and resilience. The time to build the cellar is BEFORE the torndao hits.
•We need responsible investments in police and fire departments and emergency services. We can incorporate ambulance service as part of the Fire Department’s mission and thus do something to help reduce the cost of medical care and insurance premiums in Oklahoma City. The City has to be prepared for unexpected catastrophes and be able to respond appropriately in the event of a large-scale disaster over a long period of time, during which assistance from outside the area might not be available. Oklahoma City residents will not be hostage to the whims of emergency service bureaucrats a thousand miles away. We will never be in a position of waiting for FEMA to show up.
•With some smart work and effort, the City can guarantee water and sewer service even if there is damage to the electrical lines in some places. The equipment necessary to provide these services needs to be better protected so it can survive terrorist attacks or weather disasters.
•Effective public transportation is essential to ensuring that the central Oklahoma economy can remain strong in the face of the expected rapid increases in the prices of gasoline and diesel.
•Ensure that city streets such as Northwest Expressway are properly provided with pedestrian amenities, including crosswalks and sidewalks. Let’s do what needs to be done so that no more people die because pedestrian safety is a low priority in our government budgets. In the specific case of Northwest Expressway, which is technically a state highway, if the Oklahoma Department of Transportation is not willing to provide these safety enhancements, Oklahoma City can do the work and sue the State for reimbursement.
•Public power. During the California electrical problems of a few years ago, the areas that avoided blackouts were those served by public power companies. Going into a future where energy will be increasingly scarce, Oklahoma City must have control over its most important energy supply, which is electricity. Otherwise we are at the mercy of the national market, and will face rapidly escalating prices for electricity. Electricity is an essential public service, and as with the water and sewer systems, there is much that needs to be done to protect this equipment from terrorist attacks and weather disasters. Because OGE has not done much to protect its equipment, two or three terrorists with rifles could cause serious problems with our electrical systems. We should not wait to find out how easy it is for terrorists to destroy our access to electricity. Oklahoma City should exercise its legal right to convert to public power and make the investments necessary to protect our electrical system from attack, sabotage, and make it more resilient in the face of weather disasters. A City owned power system would also provide opportunities for cogenerators, and encourage investment in solar and wind power by offering “net metering plans” where electricity drawn from the grid is replaced by electricity generated on-site. If the site generates more electricity than it uses, the City would buy the excess from the customer. If the customer uses more energy than he or she generates, they would only pay for the difference between what they used and what they generated. Over time, this would encourage the generation of more electricity by environmentally sustainable technologies in Oklahoma City. With recent proposals to deregulate sales of Invester Owned Utilities, OGE is vulnerable at any time to a hostile takeover by outside interests that could hold the prosperity of the entire city hostage to higher electricity rates. The City owned power system should have enough generating facilities to provide power to the City so that it is not necessary to buy it on the national market. If the City had excess power, it could be marketed nationally, which would provide an additional source of City revenue. Every citizen would be an owner of the electrical system and it would be controlled locally! Public ownership of electrical generation and distribution would also facilitate replacing the present system of above-ground electrical lines with buried lines. Oklahoma City frequently suffers from wind storms and tornadoes, and undergrounding the electrical lines is an essential strategy to mitigate damage from storms and facilitate recovery.
•War and terror attacks are a concern of everybody. But Oklahoma City is not doing its part to support peace and security in this world and to end the scourge of terrorism. We send our sons and daughters to war, while here at home we are giving the Jihadists the resources they need to kill our soldiers and commit terrorist acts every time we buy their gasoline! If want a world of peace with security, we can take responsibility for our lifestyle decisions that are helping to fund the world terror campaign and create the conditions where terrorism flourishes. Oklahoma City can make it easier for people to do the right thing, and one essential aspect of this is a creating a functioning multi-modal public transportation system — on the fast track! — that gives people an alternative to funding Al Qaeda with their transportation dollars.
