Upcoming Appearances

Saturday, Dec. 2, 5:30 p.m. - "OKC Metro" on OETA (PBS)
Weekly in December on Cox Channel 20, "OKC Mayor's Show" (just look for the channel with the live shots of skating at Bicentennial Park)

Got Questions? We Might Have Answers!

Some of you may have questions as you read "OKC Second Time Around," or may want to know more about how we compiled this story.
We welcome your questions. Just leave a comment on this post or others, and we'll do our best to answer.

Interesting questions to date:
1. What do you think was the most viable building destroyed during Urban Renewal?
Answer: (Steve) Probably either the Criterion or Baum Building. Both were architecturally unique and stunning, both would have been very attractive candidates for restoration as tax laws and financing became more friendly to historic preservation in the early 1980s. Both were torn down to make way for one of the biggest failures of the Urban Renewal era - the Century Center Plaza.

2. What inspired you to write this book?
Answer: Insanity. Steve and Jack were hearing conflicting stories of who thought up the Bricktown Canal in the weeks leading up to its opening. It was then the pair of Oklahoman reporters realized they were witnessing history.

3. What stories stand out the most in OKC Second Time Around?
Answer: For Steve, it's the tale of how Neal Horton gambled everything to develop Bricktown and lost everything. For Jack, it's how close MAPS came to not even being submitted to voters.

Favorable buzz

Bloggers Charles Hill and Michael Bates talk about OKC Second Time Around:

www.batesline.com/archives/002895.html

http://www.dustbury.com/backlog/2006/11/saturday_spottings_e.html

More Signed Copies Available!

Writer's cramp? Let's hope not. But we have signed 180 more copies of our work at Full Circle Books, so there's plenty available (we were down to 1) -- but hopefully, only for a little while. Get them while you can, folks. Eventually, we will run out!

Update on Sales Locations

Full Circle Book Store, 50 Penn Place
The Painted Door, Bricktown
Myriad Gardens Gift Shop
Oklahoma City Museum of Art Gift Shop
Oklahoma City National Memorial Gift Shop (coming soon)
Best of Books, Kickingbird Plaza, Edmond (coming soon)
Bricktown Visitor Center (coming soon)
Oklahoma History Center gift shop (coming soon)

Our first, first review!

http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/2006/11/okc-2nd-time-around.html

Once again, thanks so much for the high praise. For those of you not familiar with attorney Doug Loudenback's web sites, he has assembled an impressive collection of vintage city images and stories that range from the early days of the Oklahoma River to old downtown theaters to Deep Deuce.

First Review

"OKC: Second Time Around" is a remarkable preservation of a slice of Oklahoma history that gives credit where credit is due and maps for future generations the elements of success that can be emulated in any major city in the nation. The book is a must-read for anyone interested in the story of the successful rebuilding of downtown Oklahoma City. "
- Sunday, Nov. 12 book review by Bob Burke, award-winning Oklahoma history author
To read the entire review, visit http://www.newsok.com/article/2969218/

OKC Second Time Around

Welcome to OKC Second Time Around, a blog established in connection the newly released book by the same title. Authors Steve Lackmeyer and Jack Money will answer questions addressed to this site, and from time to time will share additional bits of history that did not make it into the book.

So what is OKC Second Time Around about?

From the run of 1889 when 10,000 strangers came together in one day to build a city until the beginning of the turbulent sixties, Downtown had been the commercial, retail and entertainment heart of Oklahoma City. In the subsequent forty years, the city struggled to re-imagine and rebuild and in the process overcome the centrifugal forces of suburban growth and a brutally commodity based economy.

OKC Second Time Around is the narrative and visual history of that unique experience. Steve Lackmeyer and Jack Money's narrative pulls together the almost serendipitous combination of circumstances that resulted in today's growing, vibrant, downtown Oklahoma City. Illustrated with more than 250 historic photographs, OKC The Second Time Around will provide fascinating reading for those who have lived this renaissance, for students of Oklahoma history, as well as all those interested in the peculiar, frail and highly individual nature of a city's reinvention.

OKC Second Time Around is sold at Full Cirlce Books, 50 Penn Place, The Painted Door in Bricktown and the Oklahoma City Museum of Art gift shop. More sales locations will be added in the near future. Books can be ordered at www.fullcircle books.com.


Upcoming appearances:
5:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, KSBI TV, channel 52, Cox channel 9, Oklahoma News Tonight

7 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, KOKC 1520 AM, Steve and Jack visit with Randy Renner and will be available to answer questions, discuss topics in OKC Second Time Around with callers.