I understand the post-Oct. 9 disappointment; though I contemplated and researched and talked to many, many people both close to the tax and plain, ordinary citizens before I decided to vote no, I still wondered if I was missing something.<br/><br/>When I'm going to vote on an issue, especially when an increase in sales tax is involved, I place my vote with the side that presents the most cogent argument. The Yes campaign, I thought, was not convincing. The parameters of their P.R. campaign couldn't/wouldn't allow them to show their work as to the economic impact/jobs numbers they touted, and they couldn't prove that their plan (which was not the Master Corridor plan, as I had come to understand it) was workable; but, they had a lot of pretty pictures, said the right things, and felt comfortable making the promise that if Tulsa would just do this one thing, we'd see county-wide revitalization.<br/><br/>Any time someone pushing a tax says something to the effect that it will bring on a renaissance, it says to me that person/group doesn't have much real, solid ground to stand on. Promises without publicly available facts, completed studies and numbers is propaganda, and for this voter, it's a losing argument.<br/><br/>What caused my initial suspicion of the yes side was during the period when I was asking questions of both sides to learn more about the issues. My questions were not well-received by the yes folks. The no side treated me with respect, even when I asked for help in understanding something; some people on the yes side were condescending in answering my questions. They also demonized the no side, which reminded me of the whole b.s. argument that people who don't support the war in Iraq or H.B. 1804 are not patriotic and are even "un-American."<br/><br/>I'm not convinced Tulsa needed to tax itself to get private development along the river. At the success of projects like Jenks Crossing and Tulsa Landing, I think we'll see more and more development on riverside or near-river properties. Kaiser gave more than $12 million to spiffy up the river trails, too, and let me tell you all, they're going to be fabulous. I plan to lose all of my baby weight along Riverside Drive.<br/><br/>I don't buy the thinking that this tax or river development right here, right now was THE answer for Tulsa. Besides, without denying that the Arkansas River is an integral part of Tulsa and Tulsa County, there's a lot more to this metro than that. We here at TDT aim to prove it as we beef up the civic pride side of the "Which comes first - commerce or civic pride?" equation.