Although the property’s new owner, Kestrel Investments Management Corporation, has plans to seek a demolition permit in November, hope still exists to somehow save the building described last year in Architectural Record as a “love-it-or-hate-it” structure. For decades, the now-defunct theater — complete with its concrete forms, brightly colored steel ramps and large corrugated metal […]
Tim Farley
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Moving along
Mayor Mick Cornett The council meets Tuesday to discuss the route, already approved by two MAPS 3 citizen panels. It includes Bricktown, the downtown business district, Automobile Alley and Midtown. It will come within a block of the proposed 70-acre downtown public park with a possible extension to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Serious play
The rules were simple: kick the ball and run fast. Games ended when the recess bell rang, and final scores were often debated with little, if any, resolution. Many of those same kids have grown up and are reliving their youth in Oklahoma City’s World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA). With competitive and social leagues, there’s […]
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FOP endorses Shadid for OKC Mayor
Ed Shadid Oklahoma Gazette file More than 100 officers attended the meeting to hear Shadid and current Mayor Mick Cornett talk about law enforcement issues, including the controversial manpower issue and how each candidate would address the officer shortage problem. John George, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 123, said the endorsement of Shadid […]
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MAPS threat lingers
Kenneth Jordan Since Slane questioned the validity of the MAPS 3 election two weeks ago, OKC’s lead municipal counselor, Kenneth Jordan, delivered a letter Sept. 3 citing a 2011 state Supreme Court case, Thomas vs. Henry, that he claims validates the ballot language and election results. In the letter to Oklahoma Gazette, Jordan said the […]
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Stepping up
Several large corporations and shopping malls sprang up on the fringes, while most upscale residential developments headed for the suburbs. Downtown was not a welcoming place after 5 p.m. on weekdays, as the exodus of workers left behind an area predominantly populated by vagrants. Mass transit, for the most part, was allowed to wither, its […]
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City officials respond to MAPS 3 legal challenge
City officials sent a letter Tuesday to private attorney David Slane outlining the reasons his concerns are misplaced. Slane alleged the December 2009 MAPS 3 vote was unconstitutional because it violated the state’s single-subject rule since eight different projects would be financed with the sales tax extension. The single-subject rule came into focus for Slane […]
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The hot place to be
Credit: Mark Hancock Turning tragedy into triumph, Midtown’s meteoric rise from the ashes occurred, in part, because of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building, which killed 168 people and wounded hundreds more. The blast damaged more than 300 buildings over a 16-block radius at a cost of $652 million. “So many […]
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Urban education
“If we’re going to operate as a fully functional 24-hour downtown, we need more than an elementary school. We need a middle school and a high school,” said Russell Claus, city planning director, about John W. Rex Elementary School, under construction at Sheridan and Walker avenues. The $14 million charter school is the result of […]
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Legal challenge threatened over MAPS 3
Oklahoma City attorney David Slane contended that passage of the 2009 MAPS 3 package was unconstitutional based on a state law that restricts voters from approving multiple projects with a single-ballot question. Slane, known for taking often-unpopular stances on controversial issues, claims the ballot language violated the state’s so-called “single subject” law since it provided […]