Below you can see a model drawing of the height and design.

As you can see from the image above this is a very large development and will certainly change the appearance of Oklahoma City from every direction.  The image below shows a scale model that was revealed at the meeting this morning.  I must say that I am pretty excited about this.

With this building reaching 925 feet tall, it will be about four feet taller than the Bank of America building in Dallas, Texas.  I have already heard some skepticism that this project will never happen and I can understand the sentiment except this time with fuel prices between $3.00 and $4.00 per gallon, this company can afford this easily.  I read a report that they made $5.2 billion profit this first quarter of the year.  This project is less that $1 billion.

This rendering came from RLC Development in Oklahoma City.   To see larger images, just click on the link and visit their site.  The city has been moving dirt for some time trying to re-route the creek that goes through the area so flooding will not be an issue.  This development is way over due as far as I am concerned.

There have been concerns for a long time that this undeveloped piece of prime real estate could never be developed because it was too close to Tinker AFB’s runway.  As you can see, this picture taken from Google Earth shows this is untrue.  I drew a line straight off the end of the runway and you can see that it crosses right over the Tinker Industrial and Business Park long before it gets to the area being developed.  This development is more than 8,000 feet off the end of the North West runway anyway.  If you would like to see a bigger image of this map, click on it and it will take you to Flickr where you can click “All Sizes” and view the larger image.

Del City has long suffered from not being able to grow because they are surrounded by Oklahoma City, Tinker AFB, and Midwest City.  The limited land they do have has been off limits for a number of years because everyone worried that putting things next to the base would make them vulnerable to being closed down.  I believe these worries are completely unfounded as former General Burpee, now sits on the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce uses the unprecedented Base Realignment and closure (BRAC) closures to scare people.  It seems that every since he has been associated with the OKC chamber, there is a new initiative or bond issue going before the voters to take more Oklahoma City area land and make it off limits all in the name of “Saving Tinker AFB” from impending doom.  I am not saying he is maliciously trying to take over the world but sometimes I do think he overstates the dangers.  The BRAC has never happened before and when it did, it was done to a point where there were too many cuts.  Many of the bases that were closed, such as McClellan AFB, and Kelly AFB, actually moved their work load to Tinker.  This workload did not simply go away. The closest thing that I can think of that compares to the save Tinker hysteria would be the never ending mantra “We have the lowest paid teachers in America” from those wanting more money for the University of Oklahoma.  They advocate raising taxes over and over and over again to help the low paid teachers but somehow the money never makes it to them.  I have come to the point that I will vote no on any initiative that is earmarked for education without being more specific because the money continues to go to OU.

Back to the Del City development…

I think this new development is critical to the survival of Del City because many of the homes there are old rent houses without much potential for tax dollars.  The large F-5 tornado in 1999 though terrible at the time actually improved Del City in the long run. When all the rebuilding began, the city had some opportunities to clear out some old homes and businesses and build new ones.  The Mid-Del area is no different than the rest of the Oklahoma City metro area in that growth has been exceding expectations.  In Del City specifically this growth has been slow because they are surrounded with no place to build.  The only places that are vacant are in flood prone areas near the Oklahoma River betwee N.E. 10th and N. E. 23rd Street.  This development is right across the freeway from the new Wal-Mart store and the hotels across Sooner Road in Midwest City.  Lets hope we hear of more of these developments in the area.

John 14:6, KJV

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Holy Cow!  No way I am tackling that upgrade this soon!  I think I would need a valium to calm my nerves this soon after going through that just a week ago.  Actually I have updated to the newest version before but last week I made a mistake with the database upgrade without backing up first. That was my own fault.  Still I thought that was funny seeing that upgrade notice just one week after I upgraded.  I think I will wait a little while before doing this again.

Included in the implementation of this program came a measuring tool called the AFSO21 maturity assessment geared toward measuring the Air Force buy-in and implementation.  Each organization is given points for training, process improvement projects, and letters of commitment from senior leaders among other things.  This tool ensures that all levels of Air Force management are actively participating in projects to eliminate waste. This sounds very good and I agree completely that we need to eliminate as much waste in the government as we can. The government has a bad reputation for not being good stewards of their resources.

What makes it awkward for me is being over the “Group” program, I am over several squadrons as well as a few organizations that report directly to the Group. I was appointed this position as an “extra duty” in addition to my normal job as a trainee. This extra duty is taking up 75 to 80 percent of my time and I have no time for learning my actual job that I was hired for. In addition to this there are many people that out rank me that are very vocal in their dislike for this program even though they have no choice. My duties among others are to train others and get them to participate in these activities they clearly do not like. These are the same people that I depend on to train me in the job I was hired for. Since I am over the Group level program, despite my lower grade, I have the potential to cause them great distress.

This puts me in a very uncomfortable position because these people are very good at what they do and I need their expertise to teach me. When I report to the Wing, I have to coordinate through my chain of command before the Wing commander buys off on my reports. This is a very high profile position where I report to colonels and my much higher ranking coworkers are being forced to perform duties they dislike because of me. So far my coworkers seem to understand that this is way over my head, and theirs, but I wonder at what point I am seen as the bad guy in all this. To a point, I like the high profile aspect of being seen in a positive way by very high ranking people. On the other hand you never know when you are going to be moved to another office and be expected to know your job. Admittedly I know very little of my job right now with very little prospect of learning it in the near future. I have heard rumors that my position is suppose to be a much higher grade than I am so I may be removed from this position at some point. I am not complaining but concerned that I may never learn the job that I was hired to do.

I try to put this in God’s hands and just try to do my best and hopefully this will turn out fine in the end. I have a knack for being put into high profile jobs when I am not seeking them. It just amazes me how some people crave to be in the limelight and I fear it. I genuinely avoid being seen and somehow I keep finding myself in these positions. Maybe at some point I will overcome my fear of being in the public and embrace it but so far it stresses me out. I am thankful for the opportunities but very uncomfortable, or insecure to be in them. Again, I leave it to God to handle and help me make the right decisions. I supposed there are certainly worse positions to be in.

Here it is August 16th and the blog is back up better than ever and we have had six inches of rain over the last week. The weather people have been forecasting 3 to 4 more inches before the weekend is over and I love it. My grass is actually green again and it is nice and cool 70 degrees outside. Additionally my wife picked out another cat for me.  She is very cute and lovable but she does not photograph very well. We still have not named her yet and she is shiny black with a white nose, and white feet. I have not been very successful at getting a good photo shot of her yet.  It seems that everything is going very smooth and life is good.   I really have no complaints as it is not often when we can boast 70 degrees with an overcast sky in the middle of August.  This is about as good as it gets.

Today was the first day of school for my kids and that made this cool foggy morning seem even more like fall. It is supposed to be cooler all week only reaching 90 degrees twice. I think this rain really helped us out and I will take it. Looks like football season is about to start with OU playing their first game in only 18 days. Soon after that we will get to see our new NBA basketball team begin to play and I really cannot wait for that. I am getting pretty excited about that.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out the new look for the blog. It took me nearly three days to get it back up again but now it is back up fully operational.

In the above photo, you can see one of the new buildings that is almost complete in the Maywood Park neighborhood.  This is just one example of the homes that are being built at a record pace and are going for $300,000+.  While I was here, there were many people that were going through the open house on the left and from what I hear, they are having no trouble finding buyers. Below is another photo of the Maywood Park housing that is going up as I write this blog post.

Below we find another group of housing units being built downtown in The Hill at Bricktown development.  This is just another example of the different housing projects going on downtown that start at $300,000 and just North of the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark.  As you can see the area is still fenced off because it is still considered a hard hat construction area.  This is less than a mile West of the Oklahoma Health Center that is also growing at a rapid rate.

In the photo below, you can see one of the Deep Deuce neighborhoods that is North of the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark but west of the The Hill at Bricktown development.  In this view you can see just one more example of the new interest in living downtown Oklahoma City.  This view will be be improved significantly with the new Devon Tower to be built in this view soon.  I am hearing that the Devon tower will make be the tallest building in the state.  Just walking distance to the South of these houses, is the Bricktown entertainment district that has really transformed the downtown area.  This has become a destination spot instead of a place to avoid as it use to be.

Below is another housing district called Block 42 that is North and East of the Maywood Park neighborhood that is almost complete.  There are other buildings in this group that is not included in this photo.  Directly across the street from this building is another condominium project called 444 Central that is almost complete as well.  These housing units are going up so fast that and they still cannot build them fast enough.  This is good news considering all the bad news you hear on the national news about the bad housing markets in other cities.  Fortunately Oklahoma City has been doing well in the housing development.

And finally the final photo is an effort to illustrate the proximity of these housing units to the Bricktown Entertainment district.  In the photo below you can see the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark on the left with the new Hampton Inn Hotel almost complete on the right.  This picture was taken right in front of the units in the third picture above at The Hill in Bricktown development.  From what I hear from the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, they have been hearing many more requests for development projects since the announcement of the NBA team being relocated here.  I find this very exciting that my hometown leaders have had a strong vision and the ability to convey that vision to the citizens of this city.  Without public buy-in to these developments, they would have never happened.  Add to this, you have the Oklahoma River developments and the relocation of the I-40 freeway and the future looks very bright for our city.   There are so many new developments that I did not include in this post because it would be an excessively long post.

In the photo below you can see the newest Oklahoma City police precinct in the Bricktown area.  This was constructed to reflect the red brick of the surrounding area.  It look a lot nicer than the photo appears.

Man what an absolutely wonderful morning we had today.  We have been so dry for such a long time that my grass was dead.  We have been over 100 degrees for some time.   Today we woke up to rain and it continued for at least four hours.  It is still completely overcast and I love it.  It is not often you have 70 degrees in an August afternoon in Oklahoma City.  All I can say is “Praise the Lord”!  The kids start school tomorrow and I took off work this afternoon.  I had class this morning at work.  I am very happy today with this wonderful fall like feeling and the rain.  Now that the blog is finished, I am even happier.  Lets hope that good times are ahead.

We just had a small shower move through and it was nice though we need much more.  We started off the year way above normal and then somewhere during June, it dried out and we have had very little rain since.  My grass has not been mowed in more than a month.  I am so glad to get some rain to give my lawn a little bit to survive on.  I just checked the National Weather Service page and they are forecasting a high of 82 and a low of 62 degrees on Friday.  I sure hope they are right because that would be incredibly cool for this time of year and this would be great!

This summer actually went pretty fast this year and I can hardly believe that school starts on Tuesday, August 12th.  This is amazing that it is already time to go back to school.  I have been off for the last week from the University of Oklahoma and do not go back until August 25th.  Two weeks have past since my father in-law’s dog chased my cat away and she has never come back.  This is a little sad because I have had her for six years.  I have pictures of my mom and my wife’s mom with the cat and they are both gone now.

It is funny how the NBA team still holds off on announcing the name of the new team when everyone knows it will be Oklahoma City Thunder.  Even now you can go to http://www.nba.com/thunder and it goes to a blank white page while nba.com/anything goes to a page not found.  Last Wednesday they goofed and put Oklahoma City Thunder schedule on the page on the day they released the 2008 - 2009 schedule.  I can only imagine the reason they are holding off on the announcement because they want to have all the shirts and artwork ready.  Lets hope they make the official announcement soon. I will be anxiously awaiting on the edge of my seat.