OKLAHOMA CITY

Meeting Focuses On Sprawl

September 8, 2011 by Blue Oklahoma

What would it be like in Oklahoma City if a gallon of gasoline cost $10 a gallon or even $20 a gallon?

That's a question some people will see as alarmist or fraught with political overtones. But the reality is the cost of driving our cars is rising incrementally and there's no good reason to think that will change. Countries like China and India are increasing their overall oil use, the world population continues to grow and some believe peak oil-the point at which supplies only decline-is fast approaching.

So the simple answer to the question is this: Oklahoma City, with its 621-square miles of urban sprawl, would be devastated.  As we all know, the vast majority of city and metropolitan residents are dependent on the automobile in their daily lives. If it costs, say, $50 a day or more, to get to work in a car, then that changes how the city, most importantly its public transportation system, would function at several different levels. Are we planning appropriately here?

Oklahoma Worker Cooperative Network Announces Fall Tour

September 4, 2011 by Blue Oklahoma

Worker Cooperative Incubator Starts Operations - Plans 9 Meeting Tour of Central Oklahoma - "A Better Way to Go to Work"

The Oklahoma Worker Cooperative Network is a new organization that will help Oklahomans start worker-owned cooperatives.  

"Worker owned cooperatives are local solutions to global problems," said Matthew Jordan, OWCN board member. "By encouraging the development of worker cooperatives, we can recession-proof our economy. The Mondragon worker cooperatives of Spain created 100,000 jobs and have never laid off an employee for economic reasons in 60 years of work," he added.

 

Oklahoma Burning

September 1, 2011 by Blue Oklahoma

With a chunk of northeast Oklahoma City still burning or still facing a wildfire threat and with the announcement that Oklahoma's agricultural losses because of the drought will approach $2 billion for the year, it should be paramount local and state leaders begin to prepare for the possibility that we could be facing an extended weather event along the lines or even worse than the drought of the 1930s.

Unfortunately, such planning isn't taking place or isn't being reported by the local media. What is the reason for this? Is it that nothing much can be done? Is it because of a prevailing anti-science view of some our local meteorologists and editors at The Oklahoman, who obviously know how politicized the weather has become at the hands of politicians such as U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe? (To its credit, The Oklahoman did recently give an overview of the record-breaking heat from a meteorological perspective.)

Cruel Punishments

August 25, 2011 by Blue Oklahoma

State Sen. Connie Johnson said she intends to introduce legislation next session that would end life-without-parole prison sentences for nonviolent drug convictions, a sensible and pragmatic idea that could save the state a lot of money.

But will her legislation get a fair hearing, and will Republicans budge on the issue?

In recent comments, Johnson, an Oklahoma City Democrat, referred to the case of 61-year-old Larry E. Yarbrough, who was sentenced to life without parole in 1997 after a cocaine trafficking conviction. His extreme sentence was mandatory because he had two prior felony convictions. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recently voted to commute his sentence to 42 years, which could make him eligible for parole next year. Gov. Mary Fallin will make the final decision in the case.

The Silence Of The Heat

August 23, 2011 by Blue Oklahoma

Here's two certain facts about the heat: Oklahoma is experiencing one of its hottest summers on record and the local media has failed to discuss it at any length in terms of climate change or the bellwether of an extended drought and hot period.

Just yesterday, Oklahoma City broke the record for its number of summer days with a temperature of 100 degrees or more. The city has now had 51 days at 100 degrees or more, and that number will likely go up. The city of Grandfield in southwestern Oklahoma has endured 87 days of 100 degrees or more, which is a state record.