Love Letters, Hate Mail

Sticks and Stones

Dear Editor:

I absolutly love your magazine....been reading it for years BUT I am offended by the loose use of the "F" word. Any way to stop this word from appearing in your paper????

Lennia

Editor's Note: You know, it's not one of our favorite words, but it is, after all, just a word. And we happen to be living in a world that uses this word more frequently than ever before.

Have you called Hollywood to stop it from entering scripts so that you don't have to hear it on the lips of big time stars and starlets? Have you called Webster's to extract it from the Dictionary?

Have you asked one of our favorite buddies and the world's most influential leader singer, Bono (U2's front man, who throws the word around so frequently that it has lost its shock value) to please expunge this word from his vocab as he tries to rid the African continent of hunger and AIDS?

If we are to participate in this world we live in, and report and comment on all the shit that is going on, every now and then we have to print the word you mentioned.

Chill, Dude

Dear Editor:

This is regarding the story you ran, referencing Flaming Lips front man Wayne ... Coyle ... speaking out for Sen. Rice's campaign. COYLE! Wayne COYLE?! One of the most popular rock acts in the world is from Oklahoma -- and you tell us the front man's last name is COYLE?

What a journalistic sham you've perpetrated on your dear readers, Urban Tulsa. "From a strictly objective journalistic standpoint, Rice is simply way

cooler than Inhofe," writer Brian Ervin said in his Sept. 12 story. Well, let's run out and vote for Rice, then! Wow! He's cool! Urban Tulsa said so!

To correct a couple of things: First, just so you know, the "campaign event" on "Vote. Or be Taken Over by Robots" was really a voter registration drive, not a campaign fundraiser or a ringing endorsement of Rice. Be clear - clearness is an OBJECTIVE trait of good journalistic writing.

Second, it's Wayne COYNE, front man for the Flaming Lips, not Wayne Coyle. Which proves the writer did NO research into verifying what Rice's office probably attempted to pass off as fact (or the reporter just passed over

because he was lazy?).

"STRICTLY OBJECTIVE," you claim? HOW CAN UNINFORMED BE OBJECTIVE? HOW CAN FACTUALLY WRONG BE OBJECTIVE?

How embarrassing. Especially for Coyne. Especially for Rice.

Chilly Durden

Editor's Note: It was our only mistake last week, and we are embarrassed beyond belief. Thank you for reminding us we are human. And say, while we are exchanging notes, we have a word of advice for you: relax, man, before you blow a gasket. You give us liberals a bad name.

Think Imaginatively

Dear Editor:

I saw the website some months ago and it just seemed right to take a minute of your time to get some one to wake up and smell the coffee.

Here we are stuck in Tulsa Time and it could very well be our signature statement for the rest of the midwest region to point and laugh at us OKIES, or we could gamble and make an investment in the future of Wind Solar and other green technologies to showcase TULSA as being a small city with leaders who envision a different future for the next generation of our young people over the next 50 years.

See the Attachment Paint Bit Map it's not a professional drawing it doesn't have to be to get the point across, but I think it does well to illustrate what we should be focusing on as well as providing entertainment for the citizens of Tulsa.

I have to laugh at these so called leaders today, just take a look at what ORAL ROBERTS did with private donations some 50 years ago.

People still travel from all over the world to see the futuristic Building and concepts he and several others leaders invisioned a world might look like some day here in TULSA OKLAHOMA.

PRIVATE DONATIONS PEOPLE !!!

WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE for GOD's SAKE, no for TULSA'S Sake!!

If you want to learn more about how HYDROGEN VILLAGE TECHNOLOGIES are currently being utilized in the world, just type it in the browser search bar.

Joe water

Keep Drillers in Tulsa

Dear Editor:

I agree that it would be great to have the Drillers downtown and would provide a further economic boost to those currently downtown.

However my wife and I have been moving all over the United States and have recently returned back home to Tulsa. In each and every major city that we have moved to and from they were fighting the same sort of problem of trying to keep the downtown area from turning into a blight.

In each of these there were several distinct factors which either prevented or helped them to making this a viable effort. Bringing new business, and attracting people to live there. First they found that to make this work they had to attract people to live in a downtown sustainable urban lifestyle. As far as Tulsa goes we have the space and the development for the space to live in is either there or on its way.

The problem with attracting people to live there was always either supported or hindered by two things. The first being a viable sustainable grocery store within walking distance of the living environment. People who want to live in a downtown environment (vehicle free) do not want to have to get in a car and drive several miles to get to a grocery store.

Second, they were ALWAYS hindered or supported by the quality, reliability and ease of use of the public transportation system. Until these two things were aligned there was nothing that could be done to support further growth in the downtown area.

I love Tulsa, I grew up here and I want nothing more than a continued economic growth and success of the city I grew up in.

But we have to face the facts. Until we get someone in to the downtown area who can back a grocery store that will not go out of business within the first five years we will not see the downtown lifestyle grow. Thus it would behoove us to consider some way to get Wal-Mart to consider a downtown location that would coincide with our greater plan.

Also, the public transit system is atrocious. With the exception of a few "nightline" routes the public transport system basically shuts down after 7:30pm. I realize that to keep a public transit system afloat you have to have the ridership to sustain the continued routes, otherwise the system will go into bankruptcy or have to get further funding from the taxes to support it.

But if we are to ever make this work there has to be a longer running schedule for the majority of routes. Once up and running many of the cities end up pleasantly surprised to find that the mass population wants a reliable system and will use it more if they can count on it when they need it. Until then we have to dream...

Having the Drillers downtown would be nice too but you have to look at the bigger picture. If people have to drive in to downtown (not using the bus system because it shuts down around 7) and park what will the do after the game? They will walk to their cars and go where? More likely than not they will not want to fight the traffic for the few remaining parking spots downtown to park. They will thus drive out away from the downtown area to Utica or Brookside or wherever they want to get away from the traffic and make it easier on themselves to park their gas guzzler.

If we want a viable plan to increase the economy of downtown lets look at the greater picture. There has to be a way to make the downtown a viable source for living, working, and playing too. We must find a way to fit both the grocerystore (Wal-Mart or whomever you want) and Drillers downtown. After the public transit is improved and expanded. Like the great quote from field of dreams "Build it and they will come . . ." I say "expand the transit and we will ride...."

Besides how neat would that be to be able to ride the bus or train to a night game downtown, round out the evening with a dinner and some drinks and be able to ride the bus back home safely without endangering anyone.

Everett McPhail