Latest / The Dry Line Podcast / Ranking OKC’s Coffee Shops, Plus Ella Langley Versus Tulsa PD and OKC’s Olympic Glow-Up

Transcript

Ranking OKC’s Coffee Shops, Plus Ella Langley Versus Tulsa PD and OKC’s Olympic Glow-Up · The Dry Line Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Dry Line Podcast,
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: where every week we discuss Oklahoma's strangely endearing culture,
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: its unbelievable weather,
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: sacred sports, nefarious politics, burgeoning food scene, and damn fine people.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: In 2016,
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: 10 years ago,
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: the Oklahoma City Metro had,
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: by my count, two excellent world-class coffee shops, Coffee Slingers and Elemental.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe a handful of other serviceable assault spots like Cubbies and Joe,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Evoke and Edmond,
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: District House,
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: now defunct, that was in the Plaza District, and maybe Grey Owl down in Norman.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: That was it.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: For a city metro of a million people, Its high quality coffee needs were severely underserved.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: And to be clear,
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: when I say like really good coffee, I mean,
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: to my taste,
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: really good drip coffee and espresso here,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: not flavored coffee or anywhere that features syrups in their marketing.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I understand some people love that kind of coffee, not me.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'll define my difference in how I quantify good versus great coffee here in a little bit.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: But flash forward to today in 2026,
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: where Oklahoma City,
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: to my taste buds again, still only has two excellent world-class coffee shops.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'll name those two in a second.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: But now suddenly,
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oklahoma City is swimming in really good coffee shops that serve cups of drip
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: that I could not have dreamt would have been possible in the places
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: that they're currently being served.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: To my count.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: In addition to the two great shops, we now have 11 more really good coffee shops.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: I find this a pretty remarkable development, honestly.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: We have transformed from a niche coffee city into a really good coffee city all
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: the way across the entire urban core.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: But only one of these shops exists outside of Oklahoma City proper.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: I find this really sad.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope we start to see some growth in our like high quality third wave coffee scene.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: We start seeing them move out into more South Dakota City,
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yukon, Midwest City, Yukon, or yeah, I already said Yukon, even Norman maybe.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because I believe in the deepest trenches of my soul that one grape cup
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: of coffee can change your life.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, to light the fuse of something really cool in your life, I think that's all it takes.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: One great cup.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we need more of those cups being served around the city because all
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: of us benefit civically from a better coffee scene.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell how much I love coffee?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: This morning,
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: or I guess that would have been yesterday,
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I published the first,
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: as far as I know,
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: comprehensive analysis of Oklahoma City's coffee scene on drylineokc.com.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's over 3,000 words.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it could have and probably should have been longer.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even get to an analysis of five or six shops
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: that I think really need their due,
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: but I did go all in trying to figure out where the cream
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: of our coffee shop crop is right now in 2026.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: We do a lot of rankings around here, which to me is really fun.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I like the process of comparing and thinking And like trying
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: to delineate what makes something better and what makes something excellent.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I love our food scene here, but I do not like the critiques that are a part of it.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like I'm handing out grades to these small business owners
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: who have poured their entire life's work into their business
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: and have sacrificed time with their families and so much money invested in
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: that process.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And because I frequent these places so often and because I know a lot of the owners,
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: I want to do this podcast in a way that had a little more play to it than like
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: a dog-eat-dog like, here's the top 20 coffee shops in the metro list.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I named a five coffee shop starting lineup.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Also given because we're like...
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Five days away from the Thunder playing the Spurs.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Five days, people.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Get excited.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I named my five coffee shops in the starting lineup.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then I put in a three-bench player rotation after that.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: First three shops off the bench.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Then followed it up by a supporting cast of G-Leaguers,
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: two-way contract guys,
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: who are ready to fill in admirably when needed and another shop is closed.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: I just remembered another great shop.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Make that 12 really good coffee shops where you can reliably get a great cup
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: of coffee now in the city.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to get to the roster here in a second.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: But first, some background on how I went about this analysis.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is like my rubric, like five rules for a great shop.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Rule number one, the shop must feature drip coffee.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: I won't pretend that drip coffee is the only way or even the best way to consume coffee.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate the efficiency of espresso, acid cutting, virtuosity of a cortado come afternoon.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: But drip coffee is the highest, most nuanced form of drinking coffee.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: All the tasting notes are present along with the mouthful,
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: but It's in a more spacious,
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: subtle environment,
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: sort of like enjoying your favorite band in an acoustic setting versus like
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: an ear-splitting concert setting.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thus, my lineup of shops is entirely prejudiced toward a shop's willingness
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: to serve great brewed coffee on drip and not French press coffee
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: and never flavored coffee.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: All right, second rule.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: The coffee must create a sense of possibility.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Average or even bad coffee can get you through something you'd rather not do,
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: like that quarterly feedback review with your boss that's obsessed with how
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: to win friends and influence people.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Good coffee can help you understand yourself a little better,
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: like light a little spark in your life, but great coffee Great coffee inspires.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just Pike's Place.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a caffeine jolt.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a buzz in your chest.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: It starts with a pop on your tongue.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the first time I felt this.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was at a coffee shop in Helena, Montana.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was like 23 years old.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a sip of a Brazilian single origins.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: No lie, the mandarin orange just crushed my mouth, just surfing right across my taste buds.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it was clear as the stars on an autumn night in Oklahoma.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: This sounds dramatic, but this is how I experienced it at the time.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then right after I had it, I just felt that rush of dopamine.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a new experience.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's what a great cup of coffee is.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the difference between good and great coffee.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Selfishly, I want to expose myself and my city to as many moments as possible.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, rule three.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: The owners and employees need to live for the coffee, not for the vibes.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm one of those people who asks, what is on drip every single time I get a coffee?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: This probably annoys my wife.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've never had a great cup of coffee after an employee response to that question
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: with, I don't know actually, let me check.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: I've only had exceptional cups of coffee when
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: the employee response was something like,
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: ooh, Yeah, we got a washed Guatemalan on today.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's really good.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Has a surprising amount of maple coming through.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: I actually heard that at Prelude earlier this week.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Again, there in our starting five.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy a shop with vibes.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a guy that's against vibes.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: All right, vibes make the world go round.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: But if I go to a coffee shop and I order coffee,
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: The vibes start to ring pretty hollow when the staff is more interested
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: in vintage fashion and camouflage hats
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: than remembering how their own roasters process the beans.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want people that love coffee.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I want to feel it when I'm in the shop.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: As in everything, especially in drip coffee, man, God is in the details.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Rule four, the shop's environment must be one of one.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: This I think is the hardest one of these to nail,
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: probably because interior design is extraordinarily difficult
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: and serving great coffee is already extraordinarily difficult and demands a lot
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: of energy and attention,
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: which doesn't leave much room to give a shit about what goes on the walls.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: But when the ambiance really comes together,
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: like gelling and amplifying the shop's identity and mission,
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: this is the special stuff.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's the good stuff.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And ambiance,
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think, is often the differentiating factor between a good and a great coffee shop.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Rule five.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: You should leave the shop feeling better than when you arrived.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's a simple enough thing, but a surprisingly hard to find characteristic in coffee shops.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but you feel it when you feel it.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's get to the starting five.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can look at this as a ranking of sorts,
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: because I did rank them that way,
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: but I like to look at these shops as like a functioning,
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: cohesive collective that provides just about everything you could ever need in
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: a coffee shop, which is what I think we have right now in Oklahoma City.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, first member of the Oklahoma City coffee scene, starting five.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's Elemental Coffee.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy to think that before Elemental,
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: high quality coffee did not exist in Oklahoma City until 2008 when they opened.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: How wild is that?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Today, Elemental is the city's unquestioned coffee leader.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I consider it like the alpha shop and it's the first of our two great shops in
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: the city and I think Personally, Elemental has some SGA-like qualities.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: They make the little things look way too easy.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like having a honey and natural processed blend of Brazilian and Ethiopian on drip
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: and ready to send cavalry charges into your soul and out
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: of your eyeballs every single day.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: The quality of their coffee, that's how I feel when I drink their coffee, obviously.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: The quality of their coffee has been so high for so long that you almost take
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: for granted how good their coffee is.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's inevitable.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: That when you go there, the coffee is going to be excellent.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the highest compliment you can pay a shop.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Also something that I thought was really cool.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: In the credits section of Boomtown, author,
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: New York Times colonist,
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sam Anderson credits Elemental with all the caffeination he needed to write
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: that definitive history of Oklahoma City.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty cool testament to your business.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yet again...
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're staring into some critiques briefly here.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like SGA, Elemental's getting kind of expensive.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: These prices are obscene.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Soon enough, I expect their cups to drip to fly past the $5 per cup mark for a 12-ounce cup.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Also, if you buy a 12-ounce bag of their flagship blend,
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: the 228, It's a borderline reasonable $21.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I understand this.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the tariffs have catapulted coffee into extraordinary costs.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: But that's about as cheap as their beans come,
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: with most of their specialty roasts hovering at or above the $25 mark.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Some of those high as like $28.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: If this is the price that we Oklahoma Cityans must pay for really excellent coffee,
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: then I will gladly continue paying that cost.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: But at some point, like even for me, A great cup of drip coffee is only worth so much.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got to say this too.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: At times,
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: as a customer who loves their coffee and I love their business
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: and I appreciate everything they've done,
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: especially like they kind of launched H&A too.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Elemental is like royalty in the Oklahoma City hospitality scene.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: I do feel like at times when I'm in there,
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: That I should be paying their staff just for allowing me to hang out around them.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wait, I am paying them.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: For now,
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: the quality of Elementals Coffee does supersede some of the pretentiousness I feel
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: in there.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I do think they could take a page out of SGA's Guide to Humility and remember
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: that even the best basketball player on the planet
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: before every single game signs 250 autographs for his fans.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Second player in our starting lineup, Zero Tolerance.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Zero Tolerance is the most unorthodox but excellent coffee shop you'll ever enter.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Located off Britain in the recently,
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know,
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: I guess you could call that gentrified,
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: but there's a lot of investment in a lot of local people
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: who really care what's happening in the Britain area.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: But Zero Tolerance has been there before this newest wave of renovations and everything.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: So they've been around for a long time.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think they opened in like 2016, 17.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: But Zero Tolerance,
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: when given enough time and when visited on their very particular
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: and ever-shifting hours of operation,
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: the variety in their offerings is worth whatever inconvenience you got to pay.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so about their coffee.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: They serve Vietnamese coffee occasionally.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I had the last time I was there.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: They had a cup of Vietnamese.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: And Vietnamese coffee is always a risk.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like playing Dion Waiters used to feel.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was rarely a rewarding decision to insert him into the lineup, but it was also never dull.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: But Zero Tolerance mixes in a high-risk, low-altitude Vietnamese being into their lineup.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody else in the city does this.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: They also serve coffee regularly.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Regularly.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: From Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Sumatra, Peru.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Again, nobody else is doing this.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is on their standard drip too.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: They rotate their drip better than any other coffee shop in the city.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of places have a standard drip coffee that they serve every day of the year.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: They get beans from the same regions,
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: they roast them similarly,
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: and they try to produce a similar tasting cup so people can come back and have
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: a consistent experience.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Zero tolerance does not do that.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Zero tolerance takes big swings.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And their beans to water ratio is so tight.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've asked them how they get these cups of coffee to taste so damn strong.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the baristas cite their batch brewing equipment.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Cyclops Immersion Batch Coffee Brewer, which doesn't even exist.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can't even buy this anymore, they told me the other day.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this is basically like an archaic antique.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: So stop by and watch that thing brew coffee sometime.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: All right, when I do, I feel pure wonder.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of like how I felt at the Omniplex as a kid.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: The staff there is also like jovial, joking.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: They don't mind my relentless questions about the coffee process.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Ambiance is really unorthodox again, but entirely authentic.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: You got tapestries on the walls, lamps lighting up, antique furniture.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Sun is kept outdoors with like thick black outliners on the windows.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: I know I'm not painting a glowing picture here, but trust me, it just works in there.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: They also serve homemade gelato.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they are a legit chocolatier.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Let me repeat that.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: They are a chocolatier.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: You can watch them making truffles from a window in the back and then you can buy it
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: from their chocolate counter up in the front.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: So when you go to zero tolerance,
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: you are guaranteed a stiff and uncommon cup of coffee in
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: an atmosphere that's irreplicable.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: This cannot be said about any other shop on the list.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And for that, I consider Zero Tolerance our other great coffee shop now.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: Shop number three in the starting lineup, Prelude Coffee Roasters.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Prelude isn't a bells and whistles here for the Graham and the Latte Art coffee shop.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: All right, I say coffee, coffee shop.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Prelude is a first class dispenser of caffeine.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I sometimes wonder if Prelude is intentionally hiding from the city's full embrace.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because to stumble into Prelude, you have to be a coffee sicko like me.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Or you have to just day drink at Prairie Artisan L's,
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Prelude's neighbor in the 8th Street Market building.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Then be in need of like an afternoon jolt before going back to work.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't day drink last week, but I did wake up 12 times overnight with my 4 month old.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I found myself in need of a red eye.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, first red eye I've actually ever had,
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: which red eye is a cup of black coffee with a shot of espresso in it.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've always wanted to have an opportunity to do that.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Fatherhood presented that opportunity for me last week.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Prelude was the only shop that I even thought was up for this task,
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: and they delivered a superb red eye.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I'll ever have a better red eye.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Daily, they serve a rotating blend on drip.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think they rotate it every couple weeks.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, It's a blend.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then they have a rotating single origin on pour-over.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Very simple menu, coffee menu-wise.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: They got one thing on drip, one thing on espresso, one pour-over option.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: But they do mix those up.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Espresso is awesome.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Ambiance-wise, I think its main offering is that it's a quiet place to work.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yet, it's never a ghost town.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I was working on writing that article this week,
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: and I was there at 4.45,
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: and all of the tables and all of the slots at the bar were taken at 4.45 in
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: the afternoons.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And again, you gotta go find this.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have an open retail operation where you can just walk into their shop.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: You have to know about Prelude.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm impressed by what they're doing.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: The upstairs spaciousness of their loft too in that 8th Street Market building lends
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: a little something to the creative working process that's unique in Oklahoma City.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Feels like big city-ish.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: The staff is also really kind, very genuine.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Pricing is fair.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Cups of drip under $4.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can subscribe weekly for like $17 a bag.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that's real value around here in Oklahoma City.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking like A.J.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Mitchell level value on that contract.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: All right, fourth member of the starting lineup is Stitch Coffee Shop and Cafe.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, here's my thought about Stitch, my first thought.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: If Stitch was named after the provider of its coffee,
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: its sister business here in Oklahoma City,
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Clark's Coffee Club, I think Stitch might just be the best coffee shop in the city.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: All right, because I think the coffee's that good.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: But Stitch also sells you succulents, tacos,
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Kraft Pop-Tarts, and various other like Southwestern flair orientation and stuff.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: The result is consistently superb coffee served through a distracting filter of vibes.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not the business owner.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what's going on there.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think what they do is probably necessary.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: They have a huge space.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so to just sell coffee out of that space seems impossible.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: And their food is really good.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: I really like their food.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: I had their breakfast burrito a couple weeks back.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was awesome.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, I understand that.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: I just think how good their coffee is isn't always coming through inside of what Stitch is.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because at their heart, I think they're just an awesome coffee shop.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: But again,
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: because Stitch is so many things,
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think their cafe and their bar is actually the coolest place to drink coffee in
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: the city.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're looking to just go somewhere and enjoy a cup and feel like you're
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: a part of the city, go to Stitch.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Even though there's something about that place.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't really feel Oklahoman.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, it feels like deeply Oklahoman.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like if Powerhouse were a coffee shop that also served tacos
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: and Pop-Tarts and houseplants.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Their coffee, Clark's Coffee, is loud.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the flavors, like, rip into your mouth.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: They nearly always leave, like, this remnant of some kind of fruit, stone fruit, berries.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: The African naturals are never withheld from their blends.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: If I wanted someone to turn the lights on,
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: or if I was introducing someone trying to turn their lights on to what, like,
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: great coffee tasted like,
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: someone who had not yet, like,
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: tasted the punch of an Ethiopian, like, blueberry note, I'd take them to Stitch.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Stitch also has the deepest menu of four of our options in the city.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: They got anaerobics,
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: honeys, naturals, Ugandans, single origins from just about every possible continent.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Blends containing coffee from all those possible continents.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they have it all on their menu.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And their standard drip option is excellent.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Just lots of flavor.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Very robust.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hits that, gets that feeling in your chest going, that buzz.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: And their love for coffee is evident in every sip.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like Chad and the people over there do an excellent job.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: But when I think about getting coffee, sometimes Stitch isn't like my first impulse.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's because Stitch is also a cafe and they serve food and they have
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: the houseplants.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: So Stitch has a lot of things going on.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Just do not forget that they are like an excellent purveyor of coffee.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, fifth starter in the lineup.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's a surprise.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Even, I think, for me.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think this one could be debated, but I had to go with the hard here.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: This was a hard call.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Final starter.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's Cafe Evoque.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: There were a ton of good options here.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking like an embarrassment of riches because I'm telling you,
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: we got so many good coffee shops.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to know who to start when you can play A.J.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Mitchell, Cason Wallace, or Jared McCain, but somebody has to start.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now the dork got traded.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I went with my heart.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Evoke is on Broadway, for those that haven't been, in downtown Edmond.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the only shop that is outside of the urban core.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And Evoke, like Stitch, it is not an exclusive purveyor of coffee.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Their food menu in itself is reason enough for people to go to Evoke.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, whatever they do with that breakfast burrito, it's the best in the city.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is kind of a sidebar, but a great breakfast burrito...
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Greater than like two-thirds of every bite needs to be eggs in my mind.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's got to be dense eggs.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want like half the burrito to be peppers and potatoes, okay?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I want eggs in my breakfast burrito.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: And Evoke, I think the ratio is like 95% eggs.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is so good.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: All right, but as good as their food is, the coffee is even better.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've been going there for over a decade.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like ever since my wife and I started dating, my in-laws live up in Edmond.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And back when we were flying in from out of town, we would always go get breakfast there.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I bet I've been there over 20 times with them.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I probably went there 20 times after they opened.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think they've been open for like 10 years now.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: I would go there and study a lot.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And every single time I've gone there, they have served excellent drip coffee.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: At one point, whenever they were owned by the first owner, they grinded beans from Topeka.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: I've never known how they pronounce it, but the Tulsa Roastery.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it was excellent then.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now under new ownership, they...
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: And actually the same owners own Bluebird Books down the street
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: and Twisted Tree Bake Shop.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, now they brew...
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Proud Mary, which is an Australian and Austin-based roaster.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not local coffee,
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: which I consider a knock given how many high-quality roasters we have in the city.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: But Evoke's out-of-state beans are so choice that, man, it just doesn't even matter.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And their prices are fair, the service is friendly, knowledgeable, really fast.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like a really well-ran establishment.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: And being on Broadway on that thoroughfare lends an extra bit of juice to the ambiance too.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's fun to sit in that window and just watch people walk by.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: We don't get a lot of that in Oklahoma City, you know, because we don't have a lot of sidewalks.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Evoque has,
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think,
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: in my mind,
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: the highest combined average of food and coffee served in the same place in
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: the city.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe like cup for cup,
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: the most consistently flavorful and balanced cup of drip in the metro.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that was our starting five.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Recap, yeah, Elemental, Prelude, Zero Tolerance, Stitch, Evoke.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now let's go to the bench rotation in order of entry into the game.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, first off the bench, Gold Dome, Coffee Stop.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: When his playing days are over,
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: if Alex Caruso were reincarnated as a coffee shop,
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: that dude would be returning to Earth as Gold Dome.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: This gold and black painted shack off North May in the middle of
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: a lock plumbing supply store parking lot possesses the most verve of any coffee shop
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: in the city.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: And subsequently, Gold Dome has a cultish following.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, cars are always like snaking around the parking lot.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: They're known for their latte and matcha drinks.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Name things like Kiss of Delight, Moneyball, Flamethrower.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: And they feature unusual ingredients like Sarsaparilla, Smoked Chilis, Banana Cold Foam.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Even I, the devout drip drinker, am tempted by these creations.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I, being the devout drip drinker, never, rarely steer away.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm rewarded there because Gold Dome serves Topeka blends on drip and espresso.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And both of them are excellent.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: They just do a really good job.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And their owners and the staff are amazing.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I really appreciate how willing they are to do post-game thunder analysis
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: while you're waiting on your drink.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I really enjoy this.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yet, and I wish this weren't reality.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Gold Dome's line is a frequent barrier to enjoying Gold Dome.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: And too often,
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: I've had to turn around and go elsewhere for fear of having to wait like 45 minutes
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: in their parking lot.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: Cool testament to their business.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: I just wish that they had like a walk-up window for drip coffee and thunder conversation.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, second coffee shop coming in off the bench, Caboose Coffee.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: This, I believe, is the best-kept coffee secret in Oklahoma City.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, the only good coffee within striking distance of Western Avenue and Nichols Hills.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: I love their owner.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: I love the vibe.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: They co-spaced with Bookish.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: A really finely curated used bookstore.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you have not been inside Bookish yet,
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: or if you went to Bookish when they first opened a couple years back,
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: you should stop back by now because they've expanded some.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is like every inch of that place is filled with a book that was selected
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: by their owners.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's a cool vibe, cool place to work too.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: I love their coffee, obviously.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's served from Clark's.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's a specialty blend made just for caboose.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: And their cortado that they served I don't know what they're doing with that thing,
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: but it's the best Cortado I've ever had.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: All right, this is the Cortado spot in the city.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I just, I don't know.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I'm there, I wonder why more people don't go to Caboose.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe enough people do go to Caboose.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have access to their financials, but I don't know.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: I just feel like it's a really good coffee shop,
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: like right in the heart of an area that needs good coffee shop.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the problem is the locations.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Caboose is tucked into Crown Heights behind where the old Bruno's furniture used
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: to be, bookish to.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the shop's entrance is off of 36th Street.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: The traffic driving on Western can't see it.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then the traffic on 36th Street barely has time to realize there's
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: a coffee shop inside a bookstore before it's time to turn on Western.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: And importantly,
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: the clientele within close proximity to their store is likely not
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: a clientele that's entirely open to its progressive leanings.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's probably more likely to meet up with their friends at Starbucks
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: before heading to Pilates.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I think foot traffic doesn't necessarily come easy to Caboose.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: But still,
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: like two years now in the authenticity of Caboose and its owner,
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Mia, alongside the shop's incredibly high quality coffee from Clark's.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And they also know how to brew it.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're beginning to draw like a devoted tranche of supporters, including me.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited by what they offer, where they're offering it.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: That area has long deserved some better coffee and finally we have it.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, last and maybe the most controversial entrant into this lineup.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: Last player off the bench, the Harvey Bakery and Kitchen.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: When I thought about the alternatives here and how often I frequent them for coffee,
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't think of a place that I go to more than I go to the Harvey for coffee.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Their big goods are exquisite, as are their sandwiches.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's really all I have to say about that,
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: because if you need to hear more about the Harvey to go there and eat some
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: of their food, you don't need to hear from me.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just go eat.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: And their coffee, though, from Onyx Coffee Lab out of Bentonville, is surprisingly great.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: It does not have to be.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is the most popular cafe in Oklahoma City.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe Oklahoma.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the vibes and ambience are unmatched, all right?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a cool space with the windows and the high ceilings.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Their reputation, I feel like, is somehow, like, ever expanding.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, every time I go there, the line is, like, longer and longer.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: I say that because they could reasonably just throw some,
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: like, average garbage beans through the grinder and get away with it, all right?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: They got so many other things going for them.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: But the Harvey doubles down and serves some bomb ass bottomless drip coffee at
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: the same coffee as everyone else is serving their 12 ounce pours.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: The Cortados also cut above.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: They possess inside their building to about like six legitimate spaces indoors
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: and out to choose from.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you're meeting up with friends or looking to be productive and get some afternoon work done.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Choosing the Harvey here when there were some other choices is
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: a mainstream inclusion in this list, but sometimes.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: The mainstream choice is the right choice.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we cannot be afraid to get a great cup of coffee from a cafe
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: where everyone else is ordering pumpkin spice lattes.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let the right choice feel wrong.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Just enjoy the coffee.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: List of two-way contract players.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: These are shops that could get called up from the G League,
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: play some admirable minutes when another shop is injured close.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Could easily also rise up this list.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: And end up as like a starter, like a year from now.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to start with Willow, okay, over there in Deep Deuce.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Classen Coffee Company, off Classen.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Coffee Slingers, still doing good things.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: 30th Street Market, serves really good coffee also from Clark's.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: Clarity, serves really good coffee, got locations all across the city.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: The Red Cup, the classic shop, best vibes in town.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Iote, in the shop I forgot,
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: but certainly does have a really good cup of coffee, toast and coffee.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: In Jefferson Park, off Robinson.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Bet you didn't expect that there was that much coffee to discuss in Oklahoma City.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Neither did I, but gotta follow the heart where it leads ya.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, before I get into this week's Oklahoma News Roundup,
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: let's talk for a second about the documentary Kill Barry Print.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: So this was released earlier this year in 2026.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: And on social media,
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: after The Dry Line posted my podcast discussions about Trump's visit to Durant
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: and Mike Mazze's victory over Gittner Drummond and the MAGA stronghold
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: that is Southeastern Oklahoma in its heartbeat,
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: McCurtain County, I was told repeatedly to go watch Kill Barry Print on Peacock.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I just finished it two days ago.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: And wow.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: That was an excellent documentary.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you to everyone who sent that recommendation over.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you're listening to this and you have not watched that yet, do it.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Kill Barry Print.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Shows the power struggle between media and government officials
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: and just how delicate and dangerous the battle for truth is in rural communities
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: where officials have extraordinary power over the message.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: It also illustrated something that we've talked about on this show a couple times.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: Which is how Drummond, getting her drumming, lost by such a margin to Mazie down there.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: We've discussed that Drummond lost by 2,000 votes to Mike Mazie in the Republican runoff.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: And 750 of that 2,000, a huge stake, over a third.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: Those people did not forget.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: It really explains it.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: Next week, I'm going to publish a full review of Kilberry Print onto drylineokc.com.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to get that,
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: you can sign up for free to our newsletter by tapping the link in the show notes
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: below this podcast wherever you're listening to it.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's get into a loaded Oklahoma news roundup.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Ben Gamla Charter School.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: A Jewish National Charter School from Hollywood,
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Florida was rejected this week a second time from opening in Oklahoma on Monday.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you're wondering how they even needed to get rejected a second time,
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: or if you're curious why a National Charter School from Hollywood,
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Florida is interested in coming to Oklahoma,
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: or if you're wondering how a charter school,
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: a school funded at least partially by taxpayer funds from the state,
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: can be a religious school,
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Then you're lucky,
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: because I took that very convoluted journey to answering those questions,
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: and I took that path into a complicated legal jungle this week.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think I read about this,
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know,
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: for like two hours, just trying to figure out what this story was.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: And what I discovered was that this is just,
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know,
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: sad, I guess, and representative of what's happening in national MAGA politics.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even going to call it Republican politics.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so here we go.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Into the school choice muck.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: First, let's get to know the characters involved here.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: So Ben Gamla, I'm saying Gamla, I don't know if it's Gamla.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say Ben Gamla Charter School is
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: a Jewish national charter school originally led by a guy named Peter Deutsch,
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: a former house rep from Florida who is an advocate,
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: prominent advocate for school choice.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: So school choice is a recent movement that allows parents the ability
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: to send their kids to any school they want,
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: even outside their district, with taxpayer dollars.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: This means now that a parent in UConn Public Schools can use a voucher and receive
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: a tax credit too for enrolling their child at Cassidy.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why would we want this?
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: You might be asking yourself.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, The Republican side of the argument,
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: and one that I can understand a little bit,
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: is that it improves the educational opportunities at the disposal for every child,
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: making private schools cheaper and more accessible for everyone,
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: even kids that live in school districts that have not performed well
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: on national metrics.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: The Democratic side of that debate centers on how
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: the system incentivizes private school enrollment over public school enrollment.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: Which public schools, you know, usually are religious institutions.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it incentivizes that enrollment into private schools and pays private schools
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: with general taxpayer dollars.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: Democrats would say this is inherently an anti-democratic process or at least
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: in violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause,
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: which argues for the separation of church and state.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: They also say school choice weakens the weakest of public schools
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: by removing vital sources of funding, which also weakens communities, etc., etc.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: Apologies for all this background.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: I just think it's really pertinent in trying to understand what is happening in this situation.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's school choice.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: A MAGA priority in Ben Gamla,
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: the Jewish Charter School,
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: which would be operating in an online capacity only in Oklahoma,
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: would obviously benefit from this.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: This passage, because then they could get Oklahoma enrollees.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, okay.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: The founder we discussed earlier,
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Peter Deutsch,
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: though a previously elected Democrat,
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: more context, endorsed Trump in 2024, by the way.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Deutsch is a, as we said, prominent proponent of school choice.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: And Ben Gamla got rejected the first time by Oklahoma School Board
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: for Charter Schools back in February of this year.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: Ben Gamla then appealed the school's decision to the U.S.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: District Court,
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: which was supported by state law that said that charter schools had to be,
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: so let me backtrack.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: So Oklahoma state law said that charter schools had to be non-sectarian,
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: basically non-religious, okay?
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: And Ben Gamla challenged this in the U.S. District Court.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it appeared on the docket of a federal judge,
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: David Russell,
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: a Reagan appointee, and yeah, first on that is like, how old is this guy?
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: Man, here's a Reagan appointee?
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: So Judge Russell argued that the state of Oklahoma was not only not supported by
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: the First Amendment in asking its charter schools to be non-religious,
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: but he went on to say that the state was actually in violation of
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: the First Amendment because of this decision in excluding a charter school
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: from being able to have access to taxpayer funding.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: So he overruled the state law saying that
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: the charter school funding could not be restricted based on religion
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: as this would violate the First Amendment.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that decision came three weeks ago.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: And all of this comes in the backdrop of the 2024 decision that involved,
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: that got all the way to the Supreme Court,
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: which was when a Catholic charter school applied in a very similar process.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: And they were denied by the Oklahoma State Board because of the Oklahoma State law
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: that was there that said it had to be non-sectarian.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: And...
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: That went all the way up to the Supreme Court.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: In the Supreme Court,
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: the Supreme Court split four to four,
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: and basically they couldn't issue a ruling on it.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the Catholic Charter School,
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: which had a lot of widespread support from the Catholic community in Oklahoma City,
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: was not allowed to open.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: That was in 2024.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: So finally, we are back to the second rejection that happened this Monday.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Given the first decision was deemed unconstitutional,
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: By the federal judge,
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: it was expected that
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: the charter school board would approve Ben Gamla's application this time.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they did.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Four to three.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: But the board, per state law, needs five votes, not four, to approve a new charter school.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: And one member of the board did not show up to the meeting.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Classic move for a board member in Oklahoma during a critical vote.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: So Ben Gamla's application got denied again.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the board is now in violation of state law per that latest federal decision
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: by Judge Russell.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: So this is going to get appealed.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually it would appear that Ben Gamla is going to be instated as
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: a religious charter school that teaches Hebrew to enrolled students
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: with general taxpayer dollars.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: The ACLU and other national groups are trying to prevent this from happening.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: It seems inevitable that this whole thing is probably going to end up back in
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: the Supreme Court again, just like that 2024 Catholic charter school case did.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I presume this is just how the Trump administration wanted this to happen.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, closing thoughts.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Deutch, the leader that started this Ben Gamble charter school thing,
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: he has no ties to Oklahoma or the Oklahoma Jewish community.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Which apparently is against this charter school coming to Oklahoma,
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: which is different than the Catholic school, charter school.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: To me, I don't know,
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: this just like signals a clear strategic move of a pawn on the chessboard of trying
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: to further insert like Christianity and religion into government by the MAGA folks.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: And this just,
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know,
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: it doesn't feel very democratic to me,
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: the idea that anybody's dollars could go to educating someone in
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: a particular religion.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, it seems like a clear blending of church and state.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm a Christian.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody wants to send their kid to a private school where they can learn more
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: about the Christian faith or Jewish faith or any other faith, I am all for this.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this is America.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: But, I don't know,
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: it just doesn't seem,
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: it seems just not like what we've done historically
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: to use other people's tax dollars to pay for that process.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it just doesn't seem democratic.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: It just seems more like a way to advance one particular way of viewing the world.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, interesting story.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: No doubts.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: Or no doubt, yeah.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be keeping some tabs.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: Next.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: Last Friday night, Ella Langley.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the most famous country music star.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe even the most famous musician in the world right now.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: She's of choosing Texas fame, obviously.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: The song that recently set the record for most weeks as a Billboard No.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: 1 single.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: She was set to perform at the BOK Center in Tulsa last Friday night.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: And just hours prior,
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: at 4.45 p.m., Ella and her team canceled the show because of a bomb threat.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the statement that Ella put out on social media.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: Quote, The safety and well-being of everyone involved is our absolute priority,
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: and after careful consideration, we have determined that the show cannot proceed.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: Unquote.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: Under that graphic on Instagram, she included in the caption these words.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: Quote, This decision was made under the advisement of local authorities,
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: the venue, and my security team.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: Everything so far.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Makes sense, right?
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Bomb threat, local authorities advised them to cancel.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: Makes sense.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: 19,000 people is a lot of people to place in danger.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: Understandable.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: Then,
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: in a since-deleted video that got posted to the police department's social media
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: by Captain Richard Mullenberg,
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: the police chief said this,
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: We advised the group that was supposed to be performing tonight
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: that we could not find a credible threat.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: We would never tell anybody if we couldn't find a credible threat to cancel their event.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: So they made the decision to cancel their event tonight.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry that had taken place.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: The most disappointing thing is that thousands of people were here for
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: a sold out event to come and enjoy the show and they can't be here.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: So the person who called this in was a phone call and it disrupted this entire event
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: for all these folks.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: The next day in Lubbock.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: At her tour's next stop,
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: Ella Langley had this to say during the concert about why she canceled
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: the Tulsa stop.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to keeping you safe and making sure that this show is a safe place
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: for us to come and enjoy our music, then it will happen.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: But the second it feels like it's not, I'm not doing it.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: No concert is worth a human life.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so, I would have made yesterday's decision 10 billion times over.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'd do it tomorrow, and I'd do it the next day.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously,
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: she feels strongly about her decision,
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: and I think she got kind of defensive probably about the Tulsa police chief
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: and his comments, or captain.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, some thoughts on this.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: When someone says they're going to bring a gun to an event and shoot people,
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: credible threat or not, it's really scary now.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like as a performer,
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: when 19,000 of your fans are coming to see you and you knew about
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: that threat beforehand,
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: a threat of which we still don't even know the particulars about,
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm sure Ella knew the threat of the particulars.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine putting people in any kind of harm's way.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we have to start there and trying to understand this decision.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we can appreciate why she called it off.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: I read someone's analysis on a country music blog that speculated
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: that she may have also had a stipulation in her insurance policy about threats
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: and needing to cancel based on what she'd agreed to in that contract.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know that for sure, but can't rule out that that might've been involved here.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't shock me at all if that was in the policy.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: From the fans perspective, I can also understand why you'd be incensed.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like threats happen all the time.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's a mass shooting almost daily.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime we all go out in public,
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think we kind of assume there's like a risk of these types of things.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: Tulsa Police said that they checked the scene once before, once after the threat.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: They found nothing credible in the music industry,
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: especially like high profile performers in their concerts.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine this isn't like an uncommon thing, right?
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't know.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: I get why fans are pissed.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: People are probably driven like 10 hours to come to this event, hotels.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: She refunded all the tickets,
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: by the way,
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: so that's obviously not involved here, but you can't get a refund for that hotel.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I get why people are upset.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: The Tulsa police probably could have been more professional here,
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: not just thrown Ella under the bus,
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: but I get their anger too because they did their job,
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: and it sounds like Um,
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: they did not tell her to cancel the show,
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: even though Ella's statement made it sound like they did.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I kind of get where the Tulsa police is coming from.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: Still, I think they could have taken the high road.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: To me, it seems like Ella and her people got spooked,
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: which makes sense, and they made the safest call.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: It sucks.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's ultimately understandable.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you guys remember the Ariana Grande suicide bomber back in 2017
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: at her concert in England.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that was horrible.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I can remember Ariana talking about that afterward and how it, like,
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: Just like change the way she processed the world and guilt and performing
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: and was it all worth it?
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think I get the whole thing all around and I think the whole thing just sucks.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's disappointing she didn't get to perform.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of people are pretty bummed by that.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, moving on to some better news.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: Some stuff, some more sunshine in the world.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: Oklahoma City.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is getting its pre-2028 Summer Olympics glow up.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: Everywhere.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: The pressure's on.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're like, what?
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a year and a half away from that?
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's wild.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so let's start with the airport first.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: Reporting, as always, done by the Oklahomans, Steve Lackmeyer.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the airport wants to increase its capacity from 5 million annually.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's annual travelers to 20 million annual travelers over the next 15 years.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: So not all of this is related to the Olympics,
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: but it's sort of like when your in-laws are coming into town for a trip
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: and they're staying at your house.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: The pressure's on to get those home improvements done.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you got to get them done.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: Except the in-laws here are a delegation from every country in the world that kayaks
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: and plays softball.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: Terminal drive, the road leading into the airport.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: By possibly as soon as 2027 is going to feature six lanes now and a roundabout
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: to carry more traffic.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: And in the center of that roundabout,
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: there will be a landmark statue of Will Rogers on horseback.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that means.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what a landmark statue looks like of Will Rogers,
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm excited to see what the city comes up with.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: When I say, sure, why not?
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, let's do it.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: But this is all I have to ask.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: Please, please, please.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: Keep those 100-foot metal arrows that are sticking up out of the ground.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: As a kid, I thought those things were so cool.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: I still think those things are so cool.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: Please don't get rid of the arrows.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: Inside.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: The bathrooms are getting a complete overhaul remodel.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: The click, click, click, click,
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: click tile floors are getting replaced by smooth ones that don't go click,
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: click, click, click, click.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think I might actually miss that.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: The sound of home.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: Bringing the carry-on straight through the terminal.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to miss that sound.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: The upstairs drop-off zone is getting a bigger weather protection canopy.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: And all I have to say about that is that that thing better be battened down.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because every time I feel like there's a severe tornadic storm that comes through
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: the metro, it rips past the airport.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: That thing needs to be secure.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: And because this is Oklahoma,
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: and because we care a lot about parking,
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_00: A new $90 million five-story parking garage is coming just to the north of
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: the current parking lot.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: Seems like a lot of money to invest into a parking garage,
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: but hey, man, can't have people's Dodge Rams.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: The F-250 is getting dinged up by hell while they're down in Cabo.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually,
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: later on too,
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: as the air traffic continues to climb,
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_00: or travelers come to the airport and that number continues to go up,
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: there are plans to add on to the concourse.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Add more gates, etc.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: Overall, this is a massive investment into the airport.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it'll be pretty cool.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: Plans look really good.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the airport is people's first impression of our city.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, how often do you think about an airport whenever,
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: you know, a lot of times you comment on an airport when you go to a place.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know, you want to make a good impression.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I think this is going to end up being something that's a net positive for the city, no doubt.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: And there are plans to install a park at the junction of Amelia Earhart Lane,
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: Meridian, and Terminal Avenue.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it's going to be named after Bessie Coleman,
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: a one-time Oklahoma resident who was the first African-American woman and
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: the first Native American, too, to hold a pilot license.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty cool.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's a MAPS 4 funded project.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: And this description of the project, when I read it, I was like, is this really going to happen?
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because this sounds like way easier.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_00: Way too cool.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really hoping this happens.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what they have planned.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's going to be a shaded observation deck.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to be a beautification park.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: Some history there.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: I would guess like plaques,
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: educational experiences, and a substantial like garden and sidewalk setup.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: Apparently there's also going to be speakers that pipe in
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: the air traffic controllers as they guide planes in for landing.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's also supposed to offer like really good views of the runways.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: I can barely believe this whenever I was reading it.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: Again, really appreciate the reporting from Steve Lackmeyer and the Oklahoman on this.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: Makes me excited.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: The other significant glow up is a new pedestrian bridge that will span
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: the Oklahoma River somewhere along the rowing race route off of,
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_00: in between the River Support Complex.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's unclear to me in the reporting where this bridge is exactly going to go,
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: but somewhere...
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: Along the Riversport-Oklahoma River route,
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: there's gonna be this new pedestrian bridge where you can walk across.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: So apparently while these races have been happening over the past decade,
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_00: like spectators have been standing on the Lincoln Bridge,
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: which doesn't even have room for spectators, which is really unsafe.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: So this should enhance and create a quote, stadium-like experience per Mare Holt.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: Note, we are hosting softball and kayaking, not rowing in the 2028 Summer Games.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: But this bridge and its accompanying $4 million arch,
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: which is being paid for with city bond funds.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's the only bit of city funds that's going to pay for this bridge, by the way.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: This arch,
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: I would expect,
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: is going to be featured a lot in NBC's B-roll footage during the Olympics.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's certainly not going to hurt the city's skyline aesthetic
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: to have this new bridge, new arch.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like it's just going to kind of complete that river look and
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: As they eventually hopefully get televised rowing races and international races on
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_00: the river, it's going to look really cool.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a cool place for all of us to watch these races.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I'm excited by this.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_00: We've got some big things happening.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: Get in the Olympics.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to be another one of those things
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: that permanently reshaves how we look around and experience Oklahoma City.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: The plans are looking good.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to our show.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you love the city as much as we do,
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_00: tell someone about The Dry Line Podcast and follow us on TikTok or Instagram
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: at drylineokc.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_00: But most importantly,
• 51:56
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• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: Until next week, you'll know where to find us.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: Powerhouse.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plains.