From The Oklahoman | By William Crum | Published: December 1, 2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mick Cornett raised the central question on a day when the Oklahoma City metro, ceremoniously at least, shed a bit of its parochial nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have acted individually for a long, long time,\u201d Oklahoma City\u2019s mayor said at a gathering of leaders from six cities that have agreed to work together, leveraging transit to promote economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cornett said 2016 will begin to answer the question of when metro-area residents will be ready to fund regional services \u201cthat can continue to drive commerce and jobs to central Oklahoma.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elected leaders already are there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cornett, along with the mayors of Edmond, Midwest City, Del City, Norman and Moore, met at downtown Oklahoma City\u2019s historic Santa Fe Station to sign an agreement pledging their cities\u2019 cooperation in developing options such as commuter rail and express buses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elected leaders from each city have agreed to pay a share of $511,000 that is to be spent in coming months to organize a Regional Transit Authority task force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Oklahoma Legislature in 2014 gave central Oklahoma communities the power to seek voters\u2019 approval and funding for transit services that will cross city and county boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The six cities anticipate spending $2.1 million over the next three years to determine how a Regional Transit Authority will take shape, including governance and service boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elizabeth Waner, chairwoman of the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments board of directors, said the Oklahoma City metropolitan area is expected to grow from 1.1 million residents to 1.6 million over the next 25 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She reviewed more than a decade of regional transit planning and said Tuesday\u2019s ceremony was a moment \u201cwhere we reflect on where we have been, where we are at the moment and where we are going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark the date \u201cnot necessarily for everything that we\u2019re saying here but for what is going to happen as a result of what we\u2019re doing here,\u201d said Waner, who serves on the Edmond City Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Del City Mayor Brian Linley called the day an \u201cimportant regional milestone,\u201d and Norman Mayor Cindy Rosenthal said more transit options for residents \u201ccan\u2019t come soon enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cornett noted that Interstate 35\u2019s capacity is set. He said that \u201cshould be a wake-up call to the entire region, that we\u2019re going to have to come up with different modes of transportation if we\u2019re going to continue to expect to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Edmond Mayor Charles Lamb looked ahead to when planning gives way to building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt has been my experience that planning is generally easier than implementing so the real hard and challenging work is still to be accomplished,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rosenthal said the agreement to work together is a turning point \u201cin thinking about regional cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs we look at what\u2019s happening around the country and where investment is going and where new growth is going, and energy, it\u2019s in regions that work together,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have an opportunity,\u201d Rosenthal said, \u201cto make central Oklahoma the most vibrant region in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From The Oklahoman | By William Crum | Published: December 1, 2015 Mick Cornett raised the central question on a day when the Oklahoma City metro, ceremoniously at least, shed a bit of its parochial nature. \u201cWe have acted individually for a long, long time,\u201d Oklahoma City\u2019s mayor said at a gathering of leaders from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ontracok.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ontracok.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ontracok.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ontracok.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ontracok.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ontracok.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":637,"href":"https:\/\/www.ontracok.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions\/637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ontracok.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ontracok.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ontracok.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}