The Big Stinky
For many years there has been a not so well kept “secret” about the Arkansas River in Tulsa.
It stinks.
Just ask any west-sider and they will tell you about the smells that arise from two refineries, one sewage treatment plant and its associated facilities. Especially on a calm summer day with the temperature hovering around 100 degrees.
And finally the Tulsa World has admitted the truth, namely the west bank stinks and the east bank is not a lot better throughout most of the length of the Arkansas River between 11th and 71st Streets in Tulsa.
But wait, isn’t that the very area for which the taxpayers are being asked to reach into their pockets and pull out over $280 million dollars for “river development”?
Unfortunately it is.
But there is good news among the bad.
According to a Tulsa World report titled, “An odor runs through it” the “Big Stinky”, or at least that part of it associated with Tulsa’s Southside Wastewater Treatment Plant can be eliminated for only $500 million.
What a bargain.
First Tulsa County tax payers are asked to fork over $282 million dollars for river development, which if it ever comes to pass will have a hard time drawing customers to dine, dance and wile the hours away smelling a sewage treatment plant, we will ultimately be hit up again for $500 million to eliminate the “Big Stinky” that preventing folks from coming to our newly developed river facilities!
And that’s not to mention the not one but two refineries and their associated smells at the north end of the area of proposed river development in Tulsa. Smells over which the city of Tulsa has zero influence and certainly no control.
And then there’s the most sickening albeit funniest aspect of the entire plan as revealed in the Tulsa World article, one of the two ‘pedestrian bridges’ for which taxpayers are being asked to spend millions of dollars, if built where proposed, will traverse the overflow basin of the sewage treatment plant!
Can’t you just see it now?
Thousands of folks lining up, excitedly awaiting their opportunity to, stroll across a sewage overflow basin, and dine on the patio of one of Tulsa’s soon to be newest night spot alongside the “Big Stinky”.
The very thought of it gets me so excited I just wanna’ barf…
Again almost all of those areas of the river are public parks- they like to call it the River Parks. Private developement is not going to take over the parks. The money is going to go into making the parks world class free places for the people of the community to enjoy. Please get your facts straight before you make public statements on the web or at least make sure people know you are not well informed.
Ryan I’m very familiar with the River Parks.
And I’ve never written that private development is going to take over the parks.
Basically there are only a few tracts of private land on the west bank of river in Tulsa, the Westport complex, the concrete company and PSO to name those in the northern segment of the proposed ‘river development’ area. The rest is River Parks. The east bank is basically all River Parks from the 11th St. bridge southward.
This of course does raise the interesting question of “where is all this private development *on the river* going to take place in Tulsa?
Maybe developers can buy out Westport and the concrete company property but I doubt PSO is going to sell as they need the generating capacity of Riverside Station.
Private development is going to happend between 11th and 21st on the West Bank- Branson Landing group. The rest of it will happen in Jenks, Bixby, Sand Springs, and Tulsa from 101st to 106th on the East Bank. Broken Arrow has a good amount of land just south of the Creek Turnpike that could be developed down the road but the city has shown no desire to grow south toward the river. It is not all going to happen inside the city limits of Tulsa. To be successful we must start thinking as a group of cities. It is not Tulsa verse the suburbs. It is the Tulsa Metro verse OKC or DFW or Little Rock or St. Louis. Nothing new has really happened inside the Dallas city limits in years but the ecomony is doing great for everyone because the suburbs are doing well. If one does well eveyone around benefits. We must start thinking this way in Tulsa and stop trying to kill those next door, we need each other to continue to grow.
The “Riverside Station” is in the very south end of Jenks on the river- about 121st. The PSO- of course PSO was bought out a while back- location just south of Link Lake I believe is closed and is not producing power.
IIRC, there’s only two pieces of private land on the west bank between 11th and 21st street, the aforementioned Westport and the concrete company location. They are at the two extreme ends of that segment of the river bank. It was announced that the owners of the concrete company location were willing to sell back when the idiotic idea of “The Channels” was being floated. I’ve heard nothing regarding a sell out of Westport.
In between is River West Festival Park and the Reynolds Amphitheater and just south of the 21st Street bridge there’s the Skateboard Park and the city maintenance yard. So if private developers are going to take over the public parks and city land yeah, there’s lots of room for private development along the west bank. I just hate to see the public parks go.
Lots of folks are sure would miss Octoberfest.
When it comes to taxes it is ALWAYS Tulsa versus the suburbs as Tulsa continues to provide the majority of jobs while Tulsa workers continue to move to the suburbs, neither of which have ‘river development’.
As Broken Arrow and Owasso in particular thrive, more and more shopping dollars are being spent in the new shopping centers springing up there. Dollars that were earned in Tulsa, spent in Broken Arrow and Owasso do zilch for Tulsa. Turning the entire River Parks over for private development is not going to reverse this trend…
The NEW “Riverside Station” is in Jenks, it’s also called “Jenks Station” the old “Riverside Station” which was mothballed and then reactivated is now called “Tulsa Station” and last time I checked it was still in operation. Last time PSO checked it was also, here’s the link to the AEP/PSO factsheet for 2007 https://www.psoklahoma.com/about/serviceTerritory/documents/PSOFactSheet2007.pdf
And here’s a link to what happened when it went off-line, just last summer http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/607047/pso_customers_asked_to_cut_usage/index.html