Bob Waldrop (one of the fine people of this world, by the way) delivers a blistering critique of Mayor Mick Cornett, his “Big League City” campaign, and the governance of Oklahoma City in general.
If you don’t follow these things, the BLC campaign was created to generate interest in the city’s proposal to extend a one-cent sales tax and use the money to spiffy up the Ford Center (among other things) so that the NBA will be more likely to allow the Oklahoma millionaires who own the Seattle SuperSonics to relocate here.
Bob wants to know, and I think it’s a fair question, why the poor and middle class of Oklahoma City should have to subsidize such a thing. He also gives past examples of our city governments indifference-if-not-hostility toward the poorest among us. These are not issues that you will see raised in The Daily Oklahoman or the local television news outlets. Nor are they issues you are likely to hear the Mayor respond to.
While I understand the economic arguments behind wanting to use tax dollars to get an NBA franchise, build up the downtown area, and other such ideas, I am opposed in principle to having the poor and middle class subsidize it. It fails the common sense test. The owners of the Sonics have at least a billion dollars between them – let them pay to get their team here.
The whole idea of wanting to be a “Big League” city seems immature to me, in any event. We don’t need a basketball team to be a good place to live; we just need to be a good place to live.
Beside which, have you spent much time in a Big League city recently? I am at a loss as to what exactly we’re wanting to emulate.
Bob ran for mayor last time around. Would that he had won.
