AMERICANWAY

OPPOSITE PAGE: BRICKTOWN: CLASSICSTOCK/ALAMY; GARDENS: CARL SHORTT JR. pretty quickly. We did not have a city that any employers would want to move to — at least not if they were think- ing about their employees. It became obvious to me that before we could talk to anyone about coming to town and building a plant, we had to make it a place where they would want to live and where they would want their employees to live." That's how MAPs — Metropolitan Area Projects — was born. That's how Oklahoma City built the Bricktown Ca- nal and a riverfront to give downtown an allure similar to that of the Riverwalk in the tourist haven of San Antonio. That's how Oklahoma City built an arena that attracted an NBA team and a baseball stadium that is one of the best minor league facilities in the country. That's how Oklahoma City renovated its Civic Center Music Hall, the Cox Convention Center and the Okla homa State Fairgrounds. And that's how Oklahoma City built a four- story library — named the Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library — that replaced one built in the early 1950s. That's also how Oklahoma City became a city that in recent years has been named the No. 1 job market in the U.S., based on unemployment rates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and one of the top 10 places to live in the country, according to RelocateAmerica. But it's the way MAPs was funded that makes Okla- homa City unique. In 1993, voters approved a 1 percent sales ta x to be collected for five years, but no project began until there were enough funds — $360 million, according to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce — to fully pay for it. "It had to do with investing in ourselves," Norick says. "People understood that it was pay-as-you-go. We didn't borrow any money. We paid for it with tax receipts, and when it was finished, we were debt-free. There were no bonds issued. We had the money first." The results have been spectacular. Oklahoma City is now a vibrant place not only to live but also to visit, which is most apparent in the bustling entertainment area called Bricktown that was once "a warehouse district of dirt and rock streets and dilapidated warehouses," ac- cording to Michael Carrier, president of the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Now we have more than 80 retail establishments, restaurants and bars, and the great thing is that almost all of that is local development." hen avis scaramucci was first approached in the late '90s about moving her successful restaurant from the southern part of the city to Bricktown, she giggled. "People were trying to get me to invest in that area when property was a nickel on the dollar," Scaramucci says. "My comment was, ' W hy in the world would I want to be in Bricktown?' Anybody who knew it then would agree it was a totally undesir- able place to be." But that was changing. The first MAPs endeavor, com- pleted in 1998, was the minor league facility, now called An estimated 50,000 people were camped for miles out- side territory the U.S. federal government had opened for settlement. At the stroke of noon — with the sound of trumpets, the crack of gunshots and the boom of can- nons — U.S. military officials signaled the official start of the great Oklahoma Land Run of 1889. By nightfall, approximately 10,000 people had successfully claimed land in an area that would later include Oklahoma City. A century later, the mayor of Oklahoma City could relate to those homesteaders. In 1889, the land that so intrigued them was barren, but they saw possibilities. They would be landow ners. They would have homes. Nothing could limit their dreams of a rewarding future. Ron Norick became mayor of Oklahoma City in 1987, and during the early years of his administration, he looked at his city and saw a barren one by modern-day standards: The dow ntow n area was comatose. Busi- nesses considering relocation would look at it and catch the next flight out of town. Major stores preferred sub- urban shopping malls. Massive change was needed. Norick loved his hometown, but he also understood why others might not. " We had people working down- town, but there was nothing else there," Norick says. "There was no reason to be there past 5 p.m. There were no restaurants — nothing." In the early '90s, a large company that had announced plans to build a new facility in either Oklahoma City or Indianapolis chose the latter. Shortly after that, Norick was on a business trip to Indianapolis, and he decided to investigate the city. "I drove downtown," he says, "and I saw people on the streets. There were restaurants with people sitting outside enjoying lunch. There was traffic. There were hotels. There was activity. So I figured it out ON THE MORNING of April 22, 1889, Oklahoma City was an opportu- nity that had lured dreamers from far and wide but was not yet a reality. Officially, it did not exist. But that would soon change. "When we got the NBA, that just put us at a different level." W 74 O C TO B E R 2 01 4 A A .CO M/A M E R I C A NWAY

• Cover