Simon Property Group Formally Announces New Outlet Mall on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain

What many of us feared might happen has inched a little closer this week. Real estate giant Simon Property Group formally revealed plans to build a 400,000 square feet outlet mall on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain. They have a few more hurdles to jump over but it looks like it is going to happen.

I cannot imagine a worse place for an outlet mall. Turkey Mountain is an urban wilderness used by thousands of Tulsans for hiking, biking, running, and just a generally getting away from it all.

It is huge, huge enough that by the time you get a half mile away from the parking lot you are pretty much on your own. It is hard to find solitude like that in a city.

The basic problem is that only about a third of the mountain (very very roughly speaking), the eastern third closest to the Arkansas River is public land. The next third to the west is owned by the George Kaiser Family Foundation who have announced that they are not selling their land for development. The western third is private property. It is unfenced and unposted and all sorts of people, including me use it like we do the rest of the mountain. We really cannot expect private landowners to provide us free public parks. The city or some other public entity needs to step up and buy the various properties. Where is the money to come from? I don’t know.

On the other hand Simon Property Group is expecting the city to step up and provide free enhanced road access and other infrastructure. I am totally against that. Why is that we are totally against welfare to poor people but trip all over ourselves to give money to companies worth billions of dollars?

So I’ve already emailed by brand new city councilor telling her my feelings on the issue and asking what her position is. If you are a Tulsa citizen then contact your councilor and let them know how you feel about this mall. In fact email Simon Property Group and politely let them know also.

The dirty little secret about shopping malls is that they are declining. Tulsa has several shopping malls that are in severe decline. Maybe Simon could rebuild an out mall in such a location and leave a wilderness alone.

One thing for sure is that if we don’t do anything we’ll lose a big chunk of Turkey Mountain.

I don’t know about you.

But that is unacceptable to me. If it is built I’ll still have a place to live.

Not everybody is that fortunate.

Links

Proactive Outside

No Mall by Turkey Mountain Facebook site

Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition Web Site

Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition Facebook Site

Trail Zombie blog post about the mall

A Statement from the Developer

NewsOn6.com – Tulsa, OK – News, Weather, Video and Sports – KOTV.com |

Linking to Our World Tuesday

Tulsa Clark Theater’s “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”

The long awaited (at least in our family) opening night of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever happened Thursday night and it went very well. The kids really had the play down and things went relatively smoothly. At least to those of us in the audience it did. Heather and I worked the event. I worked the concession stand so I got see the performance. Heather worked the green room and even though they have a closed circuit feed back there she wasn’t able to hear Logan’s five lines. Such is community theater.

Logan plays the Reverend and did his few lines perfectly (in his Dad’s humble opinion). All the kids did perfectly although Heather tells me that one girl missed her cue because she was looking for her lost halo or something. I hope that she found her halo. I lost mine a long time ago and I know better than to go looking for it.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, or just BCPE as the staff calls it, is the story of the worst kids in the world, the Herdman kids, getting involved in a church Christmas play. It is very funny and entertaining and at just two relatively short but satisfying acts is a good evening out.

And of course the cast got a standing ovation, and the leftover popcorn in the concession stand. Me and the other “concession dad” took in seventy bucks or so from the concessions and sold some raffle tickets. Hey it all helps.

The play has two casts who alternate playing. Even with the two casts Logan has been pretty busy juggling long hours of rehearsals with his demanding schoolwork. I can only imagine what the staff directing the play have gone through!!

So we are seeing the play Saturday afternoon with Logan’s grandmother and some aunt and uncles driving in from western Oklahoma. Then we’ll get to see it some more. I don’t mind. It’s worth it seeing Logan’s face after the performance.

Kudos to the staff for giving Logan a chance, and for working the long hours to get two casts in shape. Talk about a lot of hard work.

Timeless Sky

Over Thanksgiving my brother Bob came up from Corpus Christi and so he, Logan, and I went to Woolaroc for an afternoon. Woolaroc is oilman Frank Phillips old ranch and private museum up in Pioneer Woman country of Osage County. Woolaroc is a throwback to the 1920″s with rock buildings and barns and old craggy trees like the one above. I can’t get enough of it. This old tree is growing up right by the museum.

And…. in a totally non-related matter….

Logan auditioned for and got a small part in Clark Theater’s “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” He, and the rest of the cast and crew have been working hard in rehearsals and their debut is Thursday. We are very excited for him. There is a bunch of family coming to see the production on Saturday and Heather and I will be seeing lots of the play in the coming week and a half. The production is almost all sold out. We are very glad to see this. The city almost succeeded in shutting the theater down but we got one more year and then we’ll see next year.

Here is Heather and Logan at city hall. Just goes to show that sometimes you can win fighting city hall.

So have you ever been on a protest at City Hall?

Linking with Skywatch Friday

Eric Baker’s “Oklahoma Autumn” at Philbrook

This is a Topaz Labs Impressions modified photograph of part of Eric Baker’s “Oklahoma Autumn” installation” at Philbrook Museum of Art‘s Gardens. It is made of steel, agate, and kiln fired glass and is absolutely beautiful and I always have to go check it out whenever I visit the museum. I used Topaz’s Impressions to give “swirly” the photo a little bit.

Linking with Digital Arts Meme

A Very Patient Brother in Yellow

My brother Bob left this morning to head back to Corpus Christi. We had a great time while he was here. We Thanksgiving together, ran in a race, went hiking and geocaching, watched a couple of football games, and had a few beers.

He’s a patient guy. Maybe too patient. I was telling him that he needs to check my blog from time to time just to see what I say about him. He says he isn’t worried about it. So as he was leaving I said, “Hey Bob, since you are wearing yellow get under the tree.” He did so I decided to see what I could do with it.

So I ran it through Topaz Impressions and decided on this. I don’t know I think he’ll have to come back next year with the yellow shirt.

Linking with Monday Mellow Yellows

Shadows on the Spotlight Theater

Shadows on the side of the Spotlight Theater on Riverside Drive in Tulsa. The Theater has been presenting “The Drunkard” since 1953. It is supposedly the longest running play in America. I am ashamed to admit that my family and I have never been.

Linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2

The Bison and Deer of Woolaroc’s Wildlife Preserve

My brother Bob drove all the way from Corpus Christi to Tulsa to have Thanksgiving with us. Logan and I decided to take him to the Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve about an hour from Tulsa in the Osage hills. It is Frank Phillips old ranch. You know the guy who started Phillips Petroleum. He is long gone but the company he founded and his ranch are still going. I love the museum, but that is for another day. Today I am posting about the bison and deer on the preserve.

There are lots of bison there. I used an HDR technique to get halfway decent shots. I don’t know about you but bison shots are tough. They just soak up the light and end up being black blobs unless I overexpose the shot and then their surroundings look like they have been nuked.

There was a calf there. This one is red. I am not sure but I think somebody told me that all bison calves are red. Anybody out there know for sure?

Where does a bison lay down goes a variation on the old joke. You go make this guy move if you don’t like where he has planted himself.

There were lots of deer out Saturday. They are very watchful but not as wary as they would be outside the preserve.

I like how they lock their attention on you. I am not a deer expert mind you and the only thing I shoot them with is my camera but I think these are European fallow deer. There are also Japanese Sika deer and we saw some but they were far off. And hey readers, if I am mistaken let me know!

Whoops, what is going on over there.

Woolaroc has lots of other animals roaming loose. Just as we were leaving the gate a herd of elk appeared and they have Scottish highland cattle, and Texas longhorns.

Linking with Camera Critters and Saturday’s Critters

Thanksgiving on the Run

Thanksgiving morning my brother Bob, up from Corpus Christi, and I ran in a food run on the Arkansas River Trails. Bob has been running pretty steadily since the big running boom of the 80’s. Me, I’m a poser.

It was the Von Franken Family Food Run. There is no entry fee. They just ask you to bring a sack of non-perishable food items. No tee shirt, no medals, and of course no timing and no closed course but it sure is popular and fun.

I think they filled the truck before the event was over.

There were some dogs out there ready to be rescued. We are full up with our three mutts. I tried to get brother Bob to get a dog but he didn’t want one.

There was lots of selfie action going on. I love to take pictures of people taking pictures. Don’t ask my why.

Here is some more selfie action going on.

I mentioned that this was a low budget, low pressure, run. Well, I didn’t hear a gun to signal the start but Bob said, “Look they are running.” So off we went. It took a while for the starting group to unpack. There were all sorts of runners, walkers, waddlers, dogs, baby strollers on the course but we just ran around them and others ran around me.

Bob gradually pulled away and I was going on at an easy pace. My legs were a little sore so I just loped along enjoying the view. We still have lots of fall color up in the trees. I just love it.

And then I got to wondering just how long was this race. I told Bob that it was about three miles but we just ran and ran and the turnaround wasn’t until 2.7 miles. I caught up with him there. And then he took off again while I stopped and got a drink at the water fountain cuz in this low budget wonderful race there are no water stops with no huge mess of water cups left over by the runner. I was surprised the water fountains were still running this late in the year.

There was a family playing football on the rugby field What a way to spend Thanksgiving morning right? I mean if you don’t feel like running. And anyway I caught up with Bob just before the finish line. We grabbed a cup of coffee and went home to get cleaned up.

We had Thanksgiving over at Nana’s house. I had smoked a couple of turkey’s on Wednesday plus we had all the usual trimmings. It was wonderful. Afterwards Bob and I watched the Dallas Cowboys lose to the Philadelphia Eagles. You can tell that Bob made friends with Nana’s Fiona. Bob should have got one of those rescue dogs is what I think.

I suck at inside Turkey Day photographs. Here is Heather and her mother Nana working in the kitchen.

And here is Heather and Nana working over my son Logan in a cutthroat game of Farkel during the game. They are way past the old let the kid win phase. He can hold his own in Farkel even against his cutthroat Mom and Grandmother.

So, I had a great Thanksgiving. How was yours?

Skywatch Friday – Thanksgiving

It is Thanksgiving. My brother Bob drove up from Corpus Christi to spend the holiday with us. My dad decided that traveling during the peak air travel time of the year was too hard so he is having Thanksgiving with friends of his in Idaho. So we are going to be a small group. Heather, Logan, brother Bob, and Heather’s mom, Nana.

Still we will have a good time and remember those who are no longer with us and who can’t be with us. Eat some great food and watch the Dallas Cowboys and we’ll be thankful that we we are all together. Well, I’ll be watching the Cowboys.

Skywatch Friday

Woodward Park Squirrel

One of the many squirrels hanging out at Tulsa’s Woodward Park. He is a little more inquisitive than most of them who when they see you don’t have food lose interest in you. I liked this guys big eyes. I hope that he has got his food cached for the winter because this winter is supposed to be cold.

I used Topaz Labs Impressions to give this photo a painted look.

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