President Obama’s visit to Oklahoma dominated the news cycle this week, and basically shut down small portions of downtown Oklahoma City, Durant, Interstate 40 – pretty much anywhere inside a one-block radius of the president.
The White House provided only a six day heads up Obama was headed to Oklahoma, and that caused some rapid rearrangement of events in the area, according to The Journal Record’s Dale Denwalt:
Kim McCluer spent more than a year organizing Talent on Parade’s national competition in Oklahoma City, including a site visit, coordination with four downtown hotels and renting space at the Cox Convention Center. . . . “It’s been 18 months in planning for us and a few days of changing plans,” said McCluer, owner of the Kansas-based dance competition that holds shows across the country. . . . McCluer said she had to move out of her own hotel room and reassign some of the competition spaces; a post on the group’s Facebook page warned parents about traveling through downtown.
“[McCluer] was actually pretty pleasant about it,” said The Journal Record’s managing editor Adam Brooks. “She said now she has a good story. She's actually been kicked out of a presidential suite by a president.”
Brooks also said the Buzz Coffee and Café in the underground tunnels said traffic was down as early as Wednesday morning, due to people avoiding the area.
“I know everyone cleared out pretty early on Wednesday as well to make sure that they didn't get trapped in parking garages by Secret Service,” Brooks said.
And there was quite a bit of collaboration between the Secret Service, the Oklahoma City Police Department, and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. OCPD said they’re used to accommodating dignitaries, but it’s rare to have as high-level of a visit as the sitting president of the United States staying overnight, Denwalt notes.
Oklahoma City Police Capt. Bobby Tompkins declined to discuss details, including how many officers were called into duty, until after the president leaves. He did, however, say that the police are accustomed to VIP visits. Oklahoma Highway Patrol Maj. Rusty Rhoades said about 70 troopers from across the state would be involved in aspects of the president’s stops in Durant and the Oklahoma City area. The complete state and local law enforcement cost of the president’s visit will be available within three or four weeks.
Razing History
There were also developments earlier this week at a site President Obama briefly drove by as the motorcade proceeded down Sheridan Ave. Thursday morning. On Tuesday an Oklahoma County District Judge ruled the historic Union Bus Station on Sheridan Ave. between downtown and Film Row can be demolished. It’s part of the proposed 499 Sheridan development – several buildings and parking garages that will most likely be used as overflow office space for Devon Energy. Preservationists, including Oklahoma City Councilman Ed Shadid, pursued court action after the Downtown Design Review Committee and the Oklahoma City Board of Adjustments said the bus station doesn't have much historic value.
“People feel like we've lost too much history, and that includes the Stage Center, which is basically across the street from this site,” Brooks said. “Shadid cares because he just wants to make sure we don't give up too much. But in this case the court said it wasn't really ruling on the historic significance, it was just saying that the Downtown Design Review Committee and the Board of Adjustments followed the rules, and that's all the court could really look at.”
Assistant Municipal Counselor Daniel Brummitt told The Journal Record’s Molly Fleming Oklahoma City was pleased with the ruling:
“We thought we had a good case,” he said. “From the city’s standpoint, (ruling in the Board of Adjustment’s favor) is what we had hoped for.” Once the bus station is cleared, Hines Interests, the group behind the 499 Sheridan Ave. project, will put a parking garage on the site. Shadid had consulted with an architect who created a design that would put the parking garage under the 27-story tower that will sit at the corner of N. Hudson and W. Sheridan avenues. In Shadid’s proposed change, the bus station would be made into residential housing with retail on the first floor. Moving the parking garage would add $30 million to the project. Hines Development Manager Thomas D’Arcy said during the trial that moving the 10-story parking garage under the 27-story tower was not economically feasible.
Brooks said he expects more negotiations about tax increment financing, or TIF, funding from Oklahoma City for 499 Sheridan before the project gets underway. But massive urban redevelopment takes time.
“When Stage Center was taken down about a year ago, a company called Clayco had plans to develop a building as an OG&E headquarters on that site,” Brooks said . And right now it is a pit filled with water, so even once demolition happens these projects can take quite a while to get going.”
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