Former Oklahoma City Mayor Comments On MAPS Success

We're hearing from former Oklahoma City Mayor Ron Norick on the success of MAPS.

This comes amid this week's historic vote extending the MAPS one-cent sales tax to fund a new downtown Paycom Center arena.

Former Mayor Ron Norick is the father of MAPS.

“When MAPS 1 passed, that was a leap in faith by the voters in Oklahoma City,” Norick said.

It started in 1993 with improvements to downtown, including the Bricktown Canal and the Ballpark.

Over the years, the one cent sales tax has been used to improve the Cox Convention Center, Oklahoma City Schools, the Paycom Center, Scissortail Park, the street cars, Riversports… and with this week's vote, a new arena.

“I don’t think anybody could have guessed how far it’s gone,” Norick said.

Norick says the credit for Oklahoma City's transformation goes to the mayors who came after him and the citizens of Oklahoma City.

“If you want to thank anybody, thank the voters,” Norick said. “They had the faith in what I was trying to put forward, to believe me.”

Now with the landslide victory in favor of building a new arena and the Oklahoma City Thunder pledging to play here until 2050, he's reminded there's good, even in a traffic jam.

“When I was coming down to a Thunder game six or seven years ago, my wife and I were driving down Broadway and I started griping about the traffic. She said ‘wait a minute, wait a minute, isn't this what you wanted?,’” Norick said. “And I said, ‘You’re right, that’s what I wanted.’ I wanted people downtown. I wanted the city to be alive. So I don’t gripe anymore about the traffic, I just flow with it and I’m happy with it.”