Saturday morning Logan and I headed out to Turkey Mountain and met up with some other people who love Turkey Mountain.
Not my photo, Logan and I are are the far right. Notice my special bug proof pants I’m wearing.
The local Anheuser Busch office had an employee volunteer day where about 30 to 40 their folks and spouses, and kids, and grandkids in some cases helped us repair trails and reseed some bare areas.
Logan and I went with a couple down the Red Trail with shovels and rakes. Tell you what, even though it wasn’t that hot, we were all sweating in no time. It was humid. Still, even though Red is not very long we spent a couple areas working on about four or five bad spots so we did some good I think. We were all worn out. We finished a little early and I thought Logan and I could help with the reseeding but nope, I was worn out and so was Logan.
The Anheuser Busch all worked very hard. They know how to have fun also. They had a trailer set up with video games. They coolers of water and I’m sure beer and were cooking up hamburgers and were playing games. We helped ourselves to some water but felt the need to get to some air conditioning and a shower.
The drawing is oriented so that north is to the right. If you study on it you see that the eastern edge of the proposed development butts up right next to a creek. If you read the elevations you can see that that they are planning on building a reataining wall that will be up to 75 feet tall, right at the edge of the creek.
Above is a nearby shopping center, Tulsa Hills. It probably has about the same amount of elevation over the ground but is staged by two retaining walls and two sloped areas. Simon, to save space and shoehorn as big a parking lot as possible is just going with one wall.
I also don’t see any storm water retention ponds or anything so in my inexpert opinion whenever there is a strong rainstorm, instead of 48 acres of earth to help absorb and slow down runoff, it is all going to run off of the paved parking lot and then dumped into the creek, along with whatever trash it gathers along the way, and flushed right into Lake Logan at the West Side YMCA. I don’t think this plan is a good start.
This mall is going to be a disaster for Turkey Mountain. Simon Properties is just putting their heads down and is bulling right on ahead.
We are going to see lots of asphalt and lots of cars and lots of stores selling crap. Also, this huge mall is only going to have one entrance, off a two lane road from a freeway instersection with no lights. I’m expecting that they will want the road and the intersection upgraded at no cost to them as an “incentive.” I’m also sure that will want some fancy tax treatment to pay for infrastructure as more incentives. They are building on private land so they can do what they want but I don’t want to incentivize them. I’d like them to go somewhere else in town. Perhaps to a failed existing shopping center and redevelop it.
Instead of an urban wilderness where we can refresh ourselves.
Our vistas are all going to manmade.
Instead of what God made.
What to do?
This is far from settled. Simon is making noises about opening Fall 2016 but this should be far from settled.
That is where I was standing Saturday morning. I took son up on Turkey Mountain. We took the blue trail, a short 1.5 mile loop.
Pink
Pink is the color of the free bikes available on the River Parks in Tulsa.
Technology
4H is an awesome organization. They are even tackling our country’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) manpower (and womanpower!) shortage. Something New
An automated pancake grill. Keeping America Strong! Favorite Place
My favorite place, besides the beach which is a long way from where I live so it doesn’t really count, is Turkey Mountain in Tulsa. An urban wilderness.
