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Oklahoma City Council approves bus station move

Reporter Michael Kimball live tweeted from the Oklahoma City Council meeting Tuesday morning. Read about agenda items and meeting updates below.

BY MICHAEL KIMBALL mkimball@opubco.com | Modified: November 13, 2012 at 11:14 am | Published: November 13, 2012 Comment on this article

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Reporter Michael Kimball live tweeted from the Oklahoma City Council meeting Tuesday morning. Read agenda items and meeting updates below.

@OKC_Beat 8:35 a.m. See the agenda and watch live video at links here: okc.gov/AgendaPub/meet… or watch on Cox channel 20.

@OKC_Beat 8:38 a.m. Looks like a full house today.

@OKC_Beat 8:42 a.m. A few routine items early today. Later on, there will be more discussion about a relocation of the downtown bus terminal.

@OKC_Beat 8:43 a.m. Also, the council is expected to approve the new CBA for this year with the police union.

@OKC_Beat 8:50 a.m. Pat Ryan is asking questions about money for a license plate reader for the Police Department in the consent agenda.

@OKC_Beat 8:51 a.m. I saw the sheriff trying one of those out a couple of years ago. It was pretty slick. Everyone that drove by, their car info popped up.

@OKC_Beat 8:51 a.m. Or I guess he wasn't asking questions, just highlighting it because it's sometimes controversial.

@OKC_Beat 8:52 a.m. He just said he wanted the software to be under tight security so the data can't be mined.

@OKC_Beat 8:52 a.m. And on to the zoning part of the meeting. Here we go.

@OKC_Beat 8:52 a.m. Hopefully nothing super long this morning with that.

@OKC_Beat 8:56 a.m. Here's the bus terminal. Let me find a link for some background real quick.

@OKC_Beat 8:57 a.m. Here's some background on the Greyhound terminal: okne.ws/ShrgGJ

@OKC_Beat 8:58 a.m. Basically, the deal is that Greyhound has to be out of its current spot downtown pretty soon.

@OKC_Beat 8:59 a.m. They need to move before the MAPS 3 transit hub becomes an option. So this spot is at Reno and MLK. Will be there for at least a decade.

@OKC_Beat 9:00 a.m. Skip Kelly now becomes the latest to call for the city to have a more comprehensive and integrated transit plan.

@OKC_Beat 9:00 a.m. There's definitely momentum on the council to try to figure out a way to lure Greyhound to the transit hub eventually.

@OKC_Beat 9:01 a.m. But where will hub be? City wants Santa Fe station. Negotiations to buy it ongoing, but unsuccessful so far.

@OKC_Beat 9:05 a.m. Pete White also calls this a lost opportunity, that city could have done more to wrangle transit hub before Greyhound relocation.

@OKC_Beat 9:06 a.m. White fires a shot. Says he's starting to think some things were on MAPS 3 ballot "just to get it passed."

@OKC_Beat 9:07 a.m. Meg Salyer steps in to say city hasn't missed an opportunity, "perhaps gained one."

@OKC_Beat 9:07 a.m. Salyer said there are lots of moving pieces, and eight or 10 years could be just the right amount of time to get transit hub ready.

@OKC_Beat 9:07 a.m. (Greyhound is signing a minimum eight year lease at the current place.)

@OKC_Beat 9:08 a.m. Salyer: "I think this is a solution to a problem."

@OKC_Beat 9:08 a.m. Ed Shadid's turn, and he'll echo comments from White and Kelly.

@OKC_Beat 9:10 a.m. Shadid points out Greyhound's investment of $800k on this temporary station could have gone toward MAPS 3 hub.

@OKC_Beat 9:11 a.m. Shadid hammers on the need for transit connectivity for people with disabilities.

@stevelackmeyer 9:12 a.m. Flashback: Inter-modal Hub shar.es/GYccM via @ShareThis

@OKC_Beat 9:16 a.m. David Greenwell says he thinks the temporary place is also a temporary improvement for Greyhound.

@OKC_Beat 9:16 a.m. The new location is closer to hotels and places to eat.

@OKC_Beat 9:16 a.m. He adds that Greyhound is a business, and if they think this move is the best move, city should respect that.

@OKC_Beat 9:21 a.m. Inching closer to a vote here. Will be a rare case of a non-unanimous vote.

@OKC_Beat 9:25 a.m. Kelly: "I don't want to debate this all morning." ... Be my guest.

@OKC_Beat 9:30 a.m. The bus station issue passes. Only Shadid voted against it.

@OKC_Beat 9:39 a.m. Now we're through the dilapidated/unsecured structures and to the tail end of the meeting.

@OKC_Beat 9:43 a.m. Shadid is bringing up @stevelackmeyer's story on the convention center from this weekend.

@OKC_Beat 9:43 a.m. Here's a link: okne.ws/W2GM83

@OKC_Beat 9:44 a.m. Shadid has been making many of the points stated in the article for a while. He's been focused on CC for a long time.

@OKC_Beat 9:45 a.m. Shadid is actually getting pretty worked up about this. You can tell in his voice.

@OKC_Beat 9:45 a.m. Shadid has been adamant that the CC OKC says it needs will cost $450M, not $250M.

@OKC_Beat 9:46 a.m. Shadid says he wants to know when OKC residents will want a free press.

@OKC_Beat 9:46 a.m. Really?

@OKC_Beat 9:46 a.m. FWIW, IMO, pretty weird to ask about that when you start by talking about an article in the newspaper stating your view.

@OKC_Beat 9:47 a.m. He got off the free press tangent pretty quickly. Definitely raised some eyebrows up here in the press box.

@OKC_Beat 9:49 a.m. I didn't realize I worked for the not-free press.

@OKC_Beat 9:51 a.m. I'll say this about Shadid. He's more interested in pressing his own view than finding common ground, but he strongly believes in his view.

@OKC_Beat 9:52 a.m. Voters can decide if that's what they like. It's certainly different from his colleagues. But he does get things done.

@OKC_Beat 9:53 a.m. People definitely react to what he says. That's for sure. So it's hard to dispute that what Shadid does is effective.

@OKC_Beat 9:54 a.m. Some council members try to be smoother about making their points, and they are also effective. So it's an interesting contrast in styles.

@OKC_Beat 9:57 a.m. By the way, to introduce and illustrate his point, Shadid read from a passage in the recent NYT Mag piece on OKC.

@OKC_Beat 9:57 a.m. The passage wondered aloud if some of the niceness here in OKC stems from conformity.

@OKC_Beat 9:58 a.m. Anyway, Shadid's homily is over for the week and it's on to the other council members.

@OKC_Beat 10:02 a.m. Nothing really of note so far in other council comments. Salyer briefly stumped for a need for an updated and modern CC.

@OKC_Beat 10:04 a.m. Now we've got a presentation on a long-term plan for "solid waste flow." It's garbage, something else. Don't be gross.

@OKC_Beat 10:05 a.m. I meant it's garbage, *not* something else.

@OKC_Beat 10:07 a.m. Guys I'm not going to lie. It might be difficult to come up with interesting tweets about solid waste plans. But I'll try.

@OKC_Beat 10:13 a.m. Garbage definitely is one of the many challenges the city faces as it continues to grow, population-wise.

@OKC_Beat 10:19 a.m. Btw, I should say that I generally just retweet any constructive commentary I get on a subject. So on Shadid, the RTs are all I got so far.

@OKC_Beat 10:20 a.m. I'm not intentionally retweeting one viewpoint or another. Just the ones that are sent my way.

@OKC_Beat 10:22 a.m. Well, I would never RT something anti-Thunder, anti-OU, or pro-OSU or pro-UT. Other than that, I don't take sides.

@OKC_Beat 10:22 a.m. And for the sides I do take, I make no apologies. #Boomer #ThunderUp

@OKC_Beat 10:27 a.m. Back to solid waste, Mayor Mick Cornett asking about prediction we only have 25 years or so left of landfill space.

@OKC_Beat 10:28 a.m. He wants to know how that compares to the rest of the country. The answer by city staff is that it varies widely.

@OKC_Beat 10:30 a.m. Some things the city is looking at are ways garbage can be used to generate energy. That could be interesting.

@OKC_Beat 10:43 a.m. The solid waste thing will be over soon, and then that's about it for today. I'll let you know what happens between now and then.

@OKC_Beat 10:48 a.m. And now we're going to executive session, and no action is expected after that. So meeting effectively over. Thanks for following!