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Thread: Rural Sourcing

  1. Default Re: Rural Sourcing

    Quote Originally Posted by Ross MacLochness View Post
    My company offered me a spokies or transit pass in lieu of paying for part of parking FWIW.
    Sounds like you work for a pretty innovative and urban-minded company. Congrats!

  2. Default Re: Rural Sourcing

    We don’t provide our employees with parking in Bricktown, though I have been working with a lot operator to implement something. It’s difficult for us because we have quite a few part time employees (in fact technically nearly all of them are) so I would have to provide a ton of individual parking passes for people who sometimes only work a few times per month. It’s a tough thing for service industry providers.

    But I definitely would consider discussing some streetcar privileges for my staff who live nearby, or even those who might wish to park free elsewhere and ride in. I think this can create opportunities for a reshuffling of parking demand, and perhaps make use of free off-peak parking in other districts.

    Since I’m in the Heritage Hills/Mesta area I’m personally giving serious consideration to doing away with my company vehicle in favor of a more practical used cargo van or something, which would be parked full time in the Bricktown garage. Then I could get to work on some combination of streetcar, walking, bicycle, scooter, motorcycle or Uber/Lyft on bad weather days (or if course drive the van home). I already use my motorcycle more than my car anyway. A nice walk or pedal to the streetcar would be relaxing, and there is a stop literally in front of the door to my office.

    Also might enable me to get a “fun” personal vehicle for the first t8me in years, such as an old Jeep or the like. I’m giving real consideration to this show idea, and I’m sure there are many others whose lives are centered near the streetcar who are doing the same.

  3. #28

    Default Re: Rural Sourcing

    Quote Originally Posted by dankrutka View Post
    I'm honestly asking, what infrastructure do you think needs to be created to give people the option to use or not use a parking spot? Aside from that, the streetcar will open in just a few months so, in this case, the streetcar would be finished long before the company moves in.
    Listen, no doubt you could offer people a certain amount of money to just not make use of a company parking spot, and perhaps you'll get a few bites, but I know it was not long ago that I would talk to people who lived in Deep Deuce and thought nothing of driving to their office elsewhere in downtown.

    This is conjecture on my part, so anyone who is wiser, please correct me: My guess is that businesses get substantially better rates in an already cheap urban area to park. From their perspective: do you risk buying less parking than you may need in hopes that you have enough people willing to arrive to work via other means. It's not like they're going to be offering the employees the equivalent in what the employee would pay if they had to pay for parking themselves (and I imagine more businesses than we'd care to guess actually leave this responsibility up to the employee in the first place). And even if they were to offer the no-parking benefit, it may not be a large enough amount for many people from this region of the country to justify having to cover the cost if they do choose/need to uber/drive/park.

    If the assumptions above ring true than the "infrastructure" I'm talking about are deals with Embark to get cheaper rates, better service times, those types of incentives that can come about when you have 50 businesses sending a steady income to public transit. And since the Streetcar at least makes the connections between all the housing stock in Midtown and even some Heritage/Mesta dwellers more stable, you may actually be able to convince 5% of your workforce to give up the car for an extra $25/week.

    I live a block from the nearest 005 stop (one of the few lines that runs past 7PM): if I worked downtown, even with the streetcar operating I'm not sure I'd even consider taking transit due to the 30 minute bus frequency. Bump that frequency down to even 18 minutes and I can at least consider planning my morning/afternoon around the trip, but even then an 18 minute lead + a 12 minute lead looks a whole lot different than a 15 minute lead + an 8 minute lead. It's about margins for error along with cost-effective movement. It's still too cheap to park downtown and so something beyond urban purists is going to have to create the value in transit.

  4. #29
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    Default Re: Rural Sourcing

    Couldn't do it everyday due to weather, but what about parking near downtown, and buying your own electric scooter?

  5. #30

    Default Re: Rural Sourcing

    Quote Originally Posted by BLJR View Post
    Couldn't do it everyday due to weather, but what about parking near downtown, and buying your own electric scooter?
    It’s a choice. You could. I do it everyday. Lots of people around the world do too. It’s just rare in the region. Rain is really the biggest impediment, but that’s not hard to overcome. I find heat/cold as minor factors. Having said that, I made an intentional choice to live 7 blocks from work. I recently went car-less and don’t miss it one bit. I am not saying everyone should do what I do, but just pointing out that it is possible if you make choices intentionally.

  6. #31

    Default Re: Rural Sourcing

    Quote Originally Posted by dankrutka View Post
    ...Having said that, I made an intentional choice to live 7 blocks from work. I recently went car-less and don’t miss it one bit. I am not saying everyone should do what I do, but just pointing out that it is possible if you make choices intentionally.
    Since this thread has already detoured, thought I might as well chime in on this. I hear this *tons* from people - live close to where you work. Here in OKC, I've worked at TAFB, Britton/May, NW Expressway/MacArthur, and now at Reno/Portland. In Chicagoland, I worked in Lisle, and at 3 places in the Loop in Chicago. My wife has worked in Arlington Heights and in the Loop, and here she's worked at Britton/Broadway, downtown, the Capitol, and 10th/Broadway. Do people really have one job that consistently and permanently where they can buy someplace close and live there for their whole career or do people just change houses when they change jobs? The "live close to where you work" is completely unrealistic for us and has been for decades, just wondering if we're outliers?

  7. #32

    Default Re: Rural Sourcing

    Quote Originally Posted by Pete View Post
    As has been discussed here many times, we have a dearth of tech jobs in the area.

    Looks like we are starting to take some steps in the right direction.
    Oklahoma is ranked 41st in % of workforce in tech. Something we definitely need to improve on, with OKC and Tulsa leading the way for these types of new jobs.

    Cool interactive map
    https://www.cyberstates.org/#interactiveMap?geoid=40

  8. #33

    Default Re: Rural Sourcing

    I think I need to start dusting off the old resume... Working at Britton/Broadway is starting to affect my mental health due to my commute.

  9. #34
    HangryHippo Guest

    Default Re: Rural Sourcing

    Quote Originally Posted by BG918 View Post
    Oklahoma is ranked 41st in % of workforce in tech. Something we definitely need to improve on, with OKC and Tulsa leading the way for these types of new jobs.

    Cool interactive map
    https://www.cyberstates.org/#interactiveMap?geoid=40
    That's surprising. I didn't realize we were ranked that poorly.

  10. #35

    Default Re: Rural Sourcing

    Quote Originally Posted by TheTravellers View Post
    Since this thread has already detoured, thought I might as well chime in on this. I hear this *tons* from people - live close to where you work. Here in OKC, I've worked at TAFB, Britton/May, NW Expressway/MacArthur, and now at Reno/Portland. In Chicagoland, I worked in Lisle, and at 3 places in the Loop in Chicago. My wife has worked in Arlington Heights and in the Loop, and here she's worked at Britton/Broadway, downtown, the Capitol, and 10th/Broadway. Do people really have one job that consistently and permanently where they can buy someplace close and live there for their whole career or do people just change houses when they change jobs? The "live close to where you work" is completely unrealistic for us and has been for decades, just wondering if we're outliers?
    In my experience, most people do not live close to their work in big urban cities. They walk to their stop, take their transit to another stop and walk to their place of work. If it's short enough (less than 20/30 minute walk) they'll frequently walk the whole route. Maybe take a bus if it's raining.

    The problem in this region is undependable transit means your feet being the only form of transit *you* are responsible for is pretty impractical unless you do specifically what Dan did and move close to work. But that's exactly my point why the bus pass thing is probably not practical. Most people working at this type of job that Rural is going to putting in are not going to sell their house just so they can walk to work. You might get a few bites, but you need people to be able to buy in a variety of places to buy into this idea. If they eventually run the street car line up Classen, all of the sudden every house from 50th to Reno and from McKinley to Shartel becomes a practical place to live without a car. Right now Downtown is not even really *practical* to live without a car. It's doable, but people want more than doable.

  11. #36

    Default Re: Rural Sourcing

    RSI moved into the plow this week. They currently occupy one floor and are growing rapidly.

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