Remarks by James Cooper
100 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 4 of 4
- Play at 3:57:23
“Yeah, thank you. And then Rotary Park. And this might be more of a director Todd or city manager question. Do we know where we are? Those neighbors have been since I won back in 2019 obsessed with a sidewalk on Tulsa. They have a lot of speeders who will get off 50th Street or expressways right there at 63rd where things get really kind of janky, you know what I mean? So I don't know where we might be with sidewalks up and down Tulsa with this project.”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 3:58:13
“It's between northwest 50th to the south and then 63rd. Yeah. You know where Northwest Expressway turned off the 630. Yeah. A lot of resident drivers will slip slide down now. I'll double check on that. Thank you so much, director. And thank you again. Thank you.”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 4:13:59
“I'll vote yes too. Maybe my computer's mad at me for referencing Plato earlier or something.”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 4:15:45
“Good. Good work, Commissioner. And thank you, David. I will move for approval. I will verbally move. Well, no. Yeah, I'm going to have to verbally move for approval. Please.”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 4:17:00
“I vote aye. And it's, I think, going to just be this way for a bit.”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 4:22:58
“No, I do publicly just want to say about my mother. She and I went to go see The Odyssey recently, and it just really meant a lot because she did not know that story. She dropped out of school in the seventh grade, and so she never found herself assigned that story. But she found herself in my apartment picking up that book just randomly when we went to lunch. And I said, do you want to go to the IMAX? And so a week later, we... went out there and watched that film and she just loved it. And I'm just so happy that my 82 year old mother, who again dropped out of school in seventh grade, but…”
City Council · Aug 18, 2026
- Play at 46:14
“May I have two notes on that? First, a note of gratitude. I believe it's the anniversary for you recently of several years serving in this role.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 46:29
“Congratulations. I thought I saw something on Instagram like that, so I appreciate your service. On Councilwoman's note, and I believe I've mentioned this before, And so I'm gonna ask everyone up here to think a little bit outside the box. You know, there was a time, I wanna say 2008, when I was in grad school in Stillwater and I would come down to visit friends here, and I saw the improvements to the Western Avenue district, the infrastructure improvements that really slowed traffic down enough where people started saying, wait, I'm gonna maybe go to this restaurant, go to this store, It was…”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 47:48
“These three paid folk, two part-time, right, are putting on events that are getting national recognition. The mural, I mean, good lord. And I just would want us to start thinking less about the big businesses out there that we could be investing in to bring here, which we have, but what happens when we invest in our main streets all across the country? Oklahoma City, whether it's Capitol Hill, Stockyards, Paseo, Plaza, Uptown, 39th Street, Britton District, Windsor District, and really said that, hey, you all have, and I'm so sorry if I left out, I of course know there are more, but that's…”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 57:23
“Yes, but the applicant is here, right? I would like to have a bit of a public understanding of this rezoning, please.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 58:16
“Can we go back to that screen, please? Okay. Well, I'm glad to see the parking not so prioritized at the front of May like that. I think that's good. It's an improvement on what I often see over there. All right, well, I'll move for approval. Do I need to do that verbally? Are we back to screens? Okay.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:06:36
“I'm looking at our two former planning commissioners right now. Do y'all have thoughts? I mean, I'm not trying to step a course on, I know Councilman asked you to carry it, I'm just curious.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:08:29
“I just wanted to hear people with planning Commission background speak to the gentleman's concerns. I didn't want it to seem like we were just boot scooting right past that. So that's all thanks.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:12:55
“Yeah, is the applicant present for that? Getting those steps in, we don't do that enough. That's what I hear from data. He's got some .”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:21:02
“I don't... Well, I guess I can make it as a question. Can you help me understand this location, like why the developer chose Heppner and County Line?”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:23:40
“Thank you for the context from both of you. I think this is more for the council and maybe for the developer, I'm not sure. It sounds like you know what you're talking about. I know Kathy absolutely does. My concern about this location is, and I'll play it out. I want to see how this goes. But my concern, and it's what you just talked about with the highway and 400 of these units. One of my best friends just bought a car. Had one, but it was a very old one. And spent... over $25,000 to buy that car. That's the first thing. We also know annually it's about $12,000 maintenance and gas. When…”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:32:05
“Okay, thank you very much. Relatedly, you know a school district that just passed a bond and is doing all kinds of improvement is Oklahoma City Public Schools. They're building flex spaces for career tech training on campus, so I'd love to see you back here. I like, it sounds like you're minding your heart or heading in some places where I think there's some good collaboration in the future, but.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:33:19
“It's called regulating one's emotions and not just responding. Okay, sorry, go ahead.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:33:30
“This is something that voters just approved in October, this $50 million for the first time in our history investment in affordable housing. And the council member's not wrong. We have for all of these years, we did not even have Sunday bus service, as you all recall, until 2018. For all of these decades, the buses did not run on days that people go to places of worship, when they go to grocery stores, to see their families, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We did not prioritize public transportation, and that is why Ward 4 and Ward 7 and Ward 5 and Ward 8 are not served by public…”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:39:54
“I'll have more to say about this later. I don't want to keep the developer and Kathy.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:44:53
“And thank you because I just did a transit.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:44:59
“Look to what it would be like to go from City Hall to these apartments. And there's, you know, right there within a couple, not even walking distances, even the right word for it. But so this is the sort of stuff because you would take the 8 to the Rapid. So no, I really like that. So thank you for thinking here.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:50:46
“A few things. First, city manager, or maybe it's for Amy, and it doesn't have to be this meeting. Maybe it could be the next one, but something that's been on my mind for a long time, but then over the weekend really accelerated. It could be brief, but I would like for the public to hear a walkthrough of not the agenda items, but the agenda categories. Like, what is concurrence? What is consent? What is items for individual consideration? Like, how, what, like, I just don't think, I know for a fact, as someone who, until I served on this body, I had no idea what each of those terms were. So,…”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 1:52:06
“So thank you for that. And then a question before I have some comments. We had some council members who went on a trip recently to Salt Lake City, and I was just curious how your trip went for the one tranted. How'd it go? It was all right. All right. Well, on that note, with the affordable housing conversation earlier, I had already planned to ask for this presentation, but I think we would all benefit the council and the public for maybe a bit of a presentation on transit oriented development. I think that would go a long way to helping people understand why we need to be strategic about, I…”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026
- Play at 2:23:46
“May I see that? And can I, I just want to go make a copy for myself and my colleagues. I just heard about that last night. Thank you.”
City Council · Aug 4, 2026