Quote Originally Posted by betts View Post
I still think the whole problem here is thinking the streetcar needs to be all things to all people, when we need to view it as simply one small part of a mass transit system. While I think we need to look long and hard at our existing bus system and routes, they are just as important as the streetcar in terms of offering transit that doesnt require an automobile. I believe that a lot of these comments about who the streetcar should serve reflect an unconscious bias against bus transit, as if we provide effective transit, the mode shouldn't be that important. We have all sorts of things downtown that are unique and are designed as much for people making a special trip downtown as those living or working there, and until we have more money to spend on rail transit, the streetcar has to be something unique and special. That's not really any different from what has been done in other cities with their first streetcar route.

In addition, I would hesitate to call both SoSA and Deep Deuce places with the highest incomes.
It definitely does not need to be all things to all people, but it also doesn't need to be all things to a certain echelon of the citizenry and nothing to others. I believe 100% in the notion that downtown is the place to locate amenities and resources for there to be equal access, however, I also am past the realization now that let's face it: I've had a frankly privileged upbringing, you're fairly accomplished, most people downtown are--talk about the difficulty of finding a unit under $1,000/mo, and we also know that the people going to Thunder games every week, eating in downtown restaurants, going to meetings downtown, going to cultural events--these are typically the activities only of people who are doing well for themselves.

I want this system and this vision for quality of life to be shared by much more than people who look just like me, and I think in the future, this could be one of the emerging factors that turns around the huge issues that OKC has with income disparity, opportunity disparity, and social justice. OKC--in its never-ending (and hopeless) quest to one-up Dallas on every matter--is undeniably a capital of conspicuous consumption, even in the face of sagging incomes compared to peer cities and abysmal educational attainment. Wouldn't it be great if this new quality of life that is attracting the creative class to OKC could also provide an inlet for our existing citizens to join our creative class?

It's almost like the argument of local retail vs. chain retail, only instead of stores and buildings and leases and incentives, we're talking about people and families. I don't want that to ever be a force opposed to downtown. I know that you have fairly similar political and moral views to my own, being fairly humanist in a few posts of yours that went there before, so I know I'm not preaching to the choir...or the SR goons.

I just don't like the idea of telling people making <$25,000 and who don't own a car that if you want to ride this streetcar system that your tax dollars are paying for, that's fine, just go downtown first in order to hop on. Meanwhile they live around NW 23rd, which by and large, is undergoing its own major urban renaissance. A lot of us on here, myself included, think 23rd is about to explode once the Tower opens up, and that revitalization will probably have more trickle-down effect than downtown.

Not to go full-on Pete White on anyone...