Just happened to drive past there Monday evening (Sept 5) after dark. The building is still vacant, all the lights were on inside, and there were no vehicles around. Could it be GC is going to re-open there, or is another eatery going in there?? Inquiring minds want to know..........

Just happened to drive past there Monday evening (Sept 5) after dark. The building is still vacant, all the lights were on inside, and there were no vehicles around. Could it be GC is going to re-open there, or is another eatery going in there?? Inquiring minds want to know..........

Anything in Warr Acres is impossible to research.

Not only is nothing online, but they are also almost hostile if you call to inquire and completely unhelpful.

Anything in Warr Acres is impossible to research.

Not only is nothing online, but they are also almost hostile if you call to inquire and completely unhelpful.

Sounds like a scenario of "Don't poke the bear".

Anything in Warr Acres is impossible to research.

Not only is nothing online, but they are also almost hostile if you call to inquire and completely unhelpful.

Curious who you are calling that is hostile? The Mayor and every City Councilperson publishes their direct phone number in the newsletter that goes out with our garbage and sewer bill.

Curious who you are calling that is hostile? The Mayor and every City Councilperson publishes their direct phone number in the newsletter that goes out with our garbage and sewer bill.

they are not the ones that would respond to permit inquiries

they are not the ones that would respond to permit inquiries

You might be surprised on that.

With Warr Acres, I've called the main number and asked for the appropriate person to discuss such matters.

The person answering the phone has always been defensive (why do you want this?) and borderline rude.

I've ended up leaving messages for the mayor who has never returned my call.


BTW, this isn't much different than my experience with Nichols Hills. I've been in there and had to talk to several people and fill out a form and even still they were not very helpful. They became better after I did this several times but I haven't reached out to them lately.

The bottom line is these municipalities are unaccustomed to such requests and tend to react with great suspicion.

Generally speaking, I've stopped bothering with these smaller towns. And for a while, OKC wasn't much better but now almost everything they do is online so I rarely have to deal with a person. I will say, however, that I recently tried to get answers on the status of the former Goodwill property next to Scissortail Park (the one where I found renderings before the developer through his attorney asked me to take them down) and the people involved took forever then never really answered my questions.

If anything needs to go through the OKC City Attorney's office, they seem to purposely stall for weeks and then provide a non-answer. I've spoken to attorneys in that office on the phone and one of them was beyond rude, to the point of almost yelling at me. And very strangely, the city insists on even the most banal requests regarding building permits or planning documents be put through 'legal review' which is completely unnecessary. Once something is filed with the city it is public record.

There tends to be a pretty high level of paranoia at all these places.

Curious who you are calling that is hostile? The Mayor and every City Councilperson publishes their direct phone number in the newsletter that goes out with our garbage and sewer bill.
When I called Logan county to try and get information on what they were building at Waterloo and I-35, they were very passive aggressive and borderline rude as if I was wasting their time. Finally towards the end of the call the lady just straight up told me “it’s none of your business and if there was anything I could be helped with.” It was very strange. I was super polite when I asked about it even saying how I was excited for more economic activity in the area. Perhaps she personally didn’t like the development? I really don’t know. I’ve the same reaction from different agencies/city governments in central Oklahoma. It’s all very strange.

I’ve also been “blacklisted” and banned by ODOT from attending any meetings or interacting on their social media account after I blew up on the phone one day because of how unhelpful and rude they were for asking simple questions. I used profanity once on a post on the OTAs Facebook where I disagreed with them and I’ve personally seen profanity used by others on there before and they have no problem with it. But because my post was one where I criticized them all the sudden it was an issue.

Could it possibly be me and my attitude? Perhaps. But I’ve interacted with agencies and governments in several other states like Colorado, Utah, California(I live here and am very much involved with talking to my city and the public servants here), Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. I’ve had a couple bad experiences but nowhere near the amount I’ve had in Oklahoma. People in Oklahoma just seem to be extremely uptight about little things that no one really cares about elsewhere and it’s especially prevalent in the good ol boy network in the state and city governments.

But never once have I had any issue with OKC or Edmond in particular apart from when I was called an idiot for suggesting bike lanes on Covell and my criticisms about the parkway plan in general.

Apples and oranges. WA is a 2.8 Sq Mi city with a Strong Mayor form of Government. The Mayor is the City Manager and runs the city on a day to day basis. It is a 40+ hr/week job all for a $1200/month salary. It was $800/month salary until a few years ago when the CC upped it to $1200/mo. Which is why I suggest contacting the Mayor or CC member directly, not the staff. They all publicly post their phone numbers. Trust me on this. I know what I'm talking about on this one.

When I called Logan county to try and get information on what they were building at Waterloo and I-35, they were very passive aggressive and borderline rude as if I was wasting their time. Finally towards the end of the call the lady just straight up told me “it’s none of your business and if there was anything I could be helped with.” It was very strange. I was super polite when I asked about it even saying how I was excited for more economic activity in the area. Perhaps she personally didn’t like the development? I really don’t know. I’ve the same reaction from different agencies/city governments in central Oklahoma. It’s all very strange.

I’ve also been “blacklisted” and banned by ODOT from attending any meetings or interacting on their social media account after I blew up on the phone one day because of how unhelpful and rude they were for asking simple questions. I used profanity once on a post on the OTAs Facebook where I disagreed with them and I’ve personally seen profanity used by others on there before and they have no problem with it. But because my post was one where I criticized them all the sudden it was an issue.

Could it possibly be me and my attitude? Perhaps. But I’ve interacted with agencies and governments in several other states like Colorado, Utah, California(I live here and am very much involved with talking to my city and the public servants here), Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. I’ve had a couple bad experiences but nowhere near the amount I’ve had in Oklahoma. People in Oklahoma just seem to be extremely uptight about little things that no one really cares about elsewhere and it’s especially prevalent in the good ol boy network in the state and city governments.

But never once have I had any issue with OKC or Edmond in particular apart from when I was called an idiot for suggesting bike lanes on Covell and my criticisms about the parkway plan in general.

This mainly applies to the budget at the state level, but seems to encompass all areas of various governments around the state:

https://okpolicy.org/effective-democracy-requires-more-transparency-in-oklahoma-state-government/

With Warr Acres, I've called the main number and asked for the appropriate person to discuss such matters.

The person answering the phone has always been defensive (why do you want this?) and borderline rude.

I've ended up leaving messages for the mayor who has never returned my call.


BTW, this isn't much different than my experience with Nichols Hills. I've been in there and had to talk to several people and fill out a form and even still they were not very helpful. They became better after I did this several times but I haven't reached out to them lately.

The bottom line is these municipalities are unaccustomed to such requests and tend to react with great suspicion.

Generally speaking, I've stopped bothering with these smaller towns. And for a while, OKC wasn't much better but now almost everything they do is online so I rarely have to deal with a person. I will say, however, that I recently tried to get answers on the status of the former Goodwill property next to Scissortail Park (the one where I found renderings before the developer through his attorney asked me to take them down) and the people involved took forever then never really answered my questions.

If anything needs to go through the OKC City Attorney's office, they seem to purposely stall for weeks and then provide a non-answer. I've spoken to attorneys in that office on the phone and one of them was beyond rude, to the point of almost yelling at me. And very strangely, the city insists on even the most banal requests regarding building permits or planning documents be put through 'legal review' which is completely unnecessary. Once something is filed with the city it is public record.

There tends to be a pretty high level of paranoia at all these places.
I agree with the level of paranoia. But damn. Your going to give some free publicity by mentioning a new business on here and FB.

And I was suggesting that to Pete. The current WA Mayor is all about promoting WA.

Governments seem to forget that they work *for* the people.

I just chatted with the WA Mayor and I can't reveal what is being worked on but it won't be Golden Corral reopening.

To play devils advocate..... How many calls a day do they get from the average person that's just being nosy every time some dirt moves.

How many of us wouldn't be annoyed if we were trying to do our jobs and 25 people called and asked you what was being built? I know I can't raise my hand.

True but I wouldn't call the owner of the Oklahoma Gazette and OKC Talk your average person. But on the other hand how many Mayors would go get a dead cat off a resident's lawn on a Sunday morning when their Animal Control wasn't available.

True but I wouldn't call the owner of the Oklahoma Gazette and OKC Talk your average person. But on the other hand how many Mayors would go get a dead cat off a resident's lawn on a Sunday morning when their Animal Control wasn't available.

Still in devils advocate mode but.... The person answering the phone doesn't know who is average and who isn't. And they may not even be aware of OKC Talk or the Gazette.

Now out of devils advocate mode.... I've noticed government employees tend to be curt and temperamental more often than not but I also don't think most of them consider themselves to be in the service industry like someone in retail does. I think they feel more like they are an authority figure and it's not like you can just go shop with someone else when it comes to government.

True but I wouldn't call the owner of the Oklahoma Gazette and OKC Talk your average person. But on the other hand how many Mayors would go get a dead cat off a resident's lawn on a Sunday morning when their Animal Control wasn't available.

Pete hasn't owned the Gazette in quite a while.

Pete hasn't owned the Gazette in quite a while.

My mistake. I thought he still did. Still owning OKC Talk and the views it gets puts him as not your average person inquiring with a City Government. Especially one the size of the one in WA where everyone on the CC publicly posts their phone number.

My mistake. I thought he still did. Still owning OKC Talk and the views it gets puts him as not your average person inquiring with a City Government. ...

Agreed, OKCTalk is the single most important site with information about what's going on (and what will eventually happen) in OKC, in pretty much any aspect of life.

My mistake. I thought he still did. Still owning OKC Talk and the views it gets puts him as not your average person inquiring with a City Government. Especially one the size of the one in WA where everyone on the CC publicly posts their phone number.

We all know that but does the person answering the phone at the city government know that?

Maybe I'm just jaded working in a field that has to deal with city governments on a daily basis but the behavior Pete describes doesn't surprise me in the least.

We all know that but does the person answering the phone at the city government know that?

Maybe I'm just jaded working in a field that has to deal with city governments on a daily basis but the behavior Pete describes doesn't surprise me in the least.

I'm pretty sure Pete has been dealing with WA staff. Not directly with the WA Mayor or other members of the CC. I've been PMing Pete about getting this taken care of if he wants to.

I believe the messages I had left before were for the previous mayor of WA, who never returned my calls. I'll try again with the new guy.

BTW, I just remembered an even worse experience with The Village. It's really to the point I don't even try with these small communities. Would be nice to get answers but if they are completely unhelpful it's not worth the aggravation.

The previous Mayor appointed the current Mayor. They actually switched places on the council. Swapped CC seat for Mayor seat. Because of age and health the former Mayor couldn't put in the time required for the job. Then the previous Mayor opposed just about all the big improvements the new Mayor wanted to do like pass a GO Bond to fund a new Police Station, Fire Station, Resurface some residential streets, move City Hall to the Community Center location so the new Fire Station could be built where the old City Hall was, finally complete the S MacArthur widening project which is just about finished. The former Mayor fought to defeat the GO Bond issue. He was the only member of the entire CC to oppose it. Then the last time the current Mayor ran for reelection the former Mayor supported his opponent. Again the current Mayor was hand picked by the former Mayor to be his successor. That is who Pete has been dealing with.

I believe the messages I had left before were for the previous mayor of WA, who never returned my calls. I'll try again with the new guy.

BTW, I just remembered an even worse experience with The Village. It's really to the point I don't even try with these small communities. Would be nice to get answers but if they are completely unhelpful it's not worth the aggravation.
It was a loooong time ago but dealing with the Village as an electrical contractor was a horrible nightmare. It's like they think they're on a different and much higher level planet.

I just chatted with the WA Mayor and I can't reveal what is being worked on but it won't be Golden Corral reopening.

Ouououou...something "secret squirrel" going on there.

Just happened to drive by there VERY late Friday (11/18) night. All lights inside were on. Any word regarding what may(?) be going on?

I just chatted with the WA Mayor and I can't reveal what is being worked on but it won't be Golden Corral reopening.

I guess developers want their plans kept secret for as long as possible. Their competition doesn't need to know most of all.

No surprise on GC. Buffets have been going downhill since before the pandemic.

I guess developers want their plans kept secret for as long as possible. Their competition doesn't need to know most of all.

No surprise on GC. Buffets have been going downhill since before the pandemic.
I agree about the buffets. But I would think building excitement (hopefully) by letting people know your store or restaurant is coming soon would easily outweigh any conceivable reason to not let your competitors know you're coming soon.

A few weeks back, I passed it at around 12pm and saw multiple cars in the parking lot; seemingly checking the place out and talking outside the door. Hopefully it turns into an active spot. Just a few blocks to the west there used to be a carwash that was converted into some kind of lounge and it stays pretty busy on weekends.

I just went by on the way to Backporch. There were two pickups and a bigger trailer with a big flatbed trailer in the parking lots. All the inside lights were on.

A few weeks back, I passed it at around 12pm and saw multiple cars in the parking lot; seemingly checking the place out and talking outside the door. Hopefully it turns into an active spot. Just a few blocks to the west there used to be a carwash that was converted into some kind of lounge and it stays pretty busy on weekends.
Google street view shows a sign "LA Street Cuisine" and under that "Dispensary Art Gallery Lounge"
Google Image Capture "May 2022".

Google street view shows a sign "LA Street Cuisine" and under that "Dispensary Art Gallery Lounge"
Google Image Capture "May 2022".

Those two businesses are already established and just a bit further west of the GC building on the other side of the hotel.

Did anything ever go into this location? I used to drive out NW Expressway daily but haven't been out there in a few months.

Not yet. There was some work going on inside for awhile but I haven't even seen that lately.