Keeping it Mainstream

The formerly near-vacant, downtrodden 100, 200 and 300 blocks of east Main Street, are now home to a close-knit community of local businesses and a destination spot for Norman visitors.

Main Street now has new businesses joining their local business army every year, and very few businesses leaving. New local businesses come for the camaraderie and several Main Street events bring in revenue to the area, said John Woods, President of Norman’s Chamber of Commerce.

Main Street wasn’t always flourishing; about 10 years ago it looked like the main drag of a ghost town. A $3 million downtown renovation in 2003 and 2004 brought the area back to life, according to a Norman Transcript article.

The Downtown Norman Project committees got down and dirty renovating the street. The plan was to enhance the street as a roadway, with new lighting, replace old infrastructure and make the areas over businesses able to be lofts, according to The Transcript article.

Private and public funds banded together to add about 135,500 square feet of new retail space, 107,700 square feet of new professional space and offices, 795 new parking spaces and 248 new residential units, according to The Transcript article.

“It just saw the city was putting money and effort into downtown so the rest of the community, especially the downtown community, started putting effort into it,” said Stephen Koranda, Norman Convention & Visitors Bureau executive director.

Woods said the cluster effect continues to grow the number of local businesses in the area. When one business sees other local businesses flourishing in an area, then they too want to move to the area so similar businesses can stick together.

New events to the Main Street area, like Norman Music Festival and the Norman Arts Council’s 2^nd Friday Circuit of Art have also helped bring businesses downtown and bring people to the downtown businesses.

Woods said the influx of locally-owned businesses will continue with the upcoming openings of a new breakfast restaurant called Syrup and a new German restaurant.

Local art galleries on downtown Main Street rely heavily on the 2nd Friday Circuit of Art for business. Gallery 123 makes more of its business on 2nd Friday's than it does at any other time of the month. VIDEO BY: Carmen Forman

Discounts bring customers, network to local businesses

PHOTO BY: Carmen Forman Employee Matthew Clinton at local business Stash watches over shopping customers.

One discount card in the Oklahoma City metro area is bringing local businesses more customers and creating a local business network in Oklahoma.

The Keep it Local OK program gives cardholders discounts at participating local businesses as a way of keeping local money in the Oklahoma area.

The program started in Oklahoma City and due to its success, it has spread to Norman, Edmond, Yukon, Mustang, Moore and Midwest City.

The project is the brainchild of Bryce Bandy and Chris Branson. They had seen similar programs implemented in other cities and wanted to start something in Oklahoma.

“We saw a lot of different initiatives out there to encourage people to shop local, but none of them really gave them the tools to do so,” Bandy said.

So their idea to really make a difference was to have local businesses provide incentives to patrons that purchased the $10 Keep it Local OK card. The 26 local businesses that are a part of the program in Norman offer incentives from 10 percent off food and drinks at Crimson & Whipped Cream to buy one get one free snow cones at Eskimo Snow.

Bandy and Branson started the business in the hopes of keeping money within Oklahoma, rather than it leave the state when spent at chain companies.

The businesses that participate in the program pay a flat fee of $500 to be a part of the group and recoup some of that money by selling the cards.

According to the Keep it Local OK website, $73 of every $100 dollars spent at local businesses stays in the local economy. While only $43 dollars stays when spent at non-locally owned businesses.

Stash employee, Matthew Clinton said Keep it Local also provides valuable advertising that draws in customers.

“They do a really good job of promoting people on Facebook,” Clinton said. “If you post something, they’ll repost it, which goes to a whole new group of people that aren’t on your Facebook likes.”

If a business is having a promotion or sale then Keep it Local will post it on their Facebook wall or tweet about it, Clinton said.

Clinton said Stash recoups some of its $500 fee when people buy cards and when people come into the store to shop. People can purchase cards online at keepitlocalok.com or buy them at Stash, Crimson & Whipped Cream or Forward Foods, among other places in Norman.

“They join because they want to reward loyal customers, and they hope to get new customers from being tied in that network,” Bandy said of local business.

Keep it Local OK’s upcoming projects include a mobile app to find places where shoppers can use their cards and a local business gift registry. The projects hope to be started in the new year, Bandy said.

PHOTO BY: Carmen Forman

Stash, a local store that sells everything from art to unique knick knacks, encourages shoppers to spend money at local businesses by being a part of the Keep it Local program.

'Dead child reporters' teach dedication

Photo By: Carmen Forman

Former reporters, Britten Follet and Cherokee Ballard talk to Gaylord students about the Kelsey Smith-Briggs case.

After extensively covering the case, the two decided to publish a book of their findings called, "Who Killed Kelsey."

Two "dead child reporters" talked to Gaylord students about the importance of holding state agencies accountable in order to promote transparency in government.

Oklahoma journalists Cherokee Ballard and Britten Follet took on the Oklahoma Department of Human Services and tried to make it more transparent in the crusade to find out who killed Kelsey Smith-Briggs.

Ballard and Follet started covering the Briggs case in 2005 after Kelsey's death at age two.

The two journalists dug deeper into the multiple child abuse reports made to Oklahoma DHS to try and find the killer. They also covered the trials of Kelsey's mother and stepfather.

Both Briggs' mother, Raye Dawn Smith and her then husband Michael Porter are serving more than 20 years in jail time for child abuse.

The two reporters had a tough time getting any information out of DHS as to why Briggs was put back into the custody of her mother after reports of child abuse were filed. Ballard and Follet also questioned why the caseworker on Briggs' case was not fired after the death of the two year old.

"When you try to hold a state agency accountable you get a lot of doors slammed in your face," Ballard said.

Follet said they tried to get both sides of the story but DHS never shared theirs. DHS avoided saying it had done anything wrong.

Follet did a story on Briggs' caseworker, who, after Kelsey's death, was put on another case of a child being abused. After placing the child back in the custody of father, the child was killed.

Follet would also do stories on calls she received from other people reporting cases of child abuse or flaws on the part of DHS.

Stories by these two journalists during and after the Briggs' trial helped hold DHS at fault for the abuse and death of innocent children.

"Reporters can help hold state agencies accountable," Ballard said.

Occupy OKC mourns loss

Friends and family of a deceased Occupy OKC protester mourned their loss at a memorial service Saturday.

Mourners shared tears, laughter and stories about the deceased at the service, and vow to keep him in their thoughts and actions always.

18-year-old Louis Cameron Rodriguez, who went by "The Poet" was found dead in his tent at the Occupy OKC protest in Kerr Park Monday, friend Mark Faulk said.

Members of the Occupy OKC movement banded together to bring Rodriguez's mother and two sisters in for the service and the burial, friend Beth Isbell said.

A friend of the deceased, who did not wish to be named, paid to fly his mother in for the memorial service.

"I feel kind of blessed that I was able to meet him, so when I found out the family couldn't afford to get here I just wanted to do what I could," Rodriguez's friend said.

Rodriguez came to the camp about two weeks before his death, Isbell said. The homeless Florida-native traveled the country and joined the Occupy movement when he came to Oklahoma City.

At the service, mourners spoke animatedly about Rodriguez and read one of his poems, called "Occupy." Mourners then placed flowers around Rodriguez's tent and shared anecdotes about the man over a community dinner.

"It's not easy to fall in love with someone in a couple of weeks," Faulk said.

The cause of death has yet to be determined.

Video By: Carmen Forman :46

La Luna Mexican Cafe to move locations

La Luna Mexican Cafe will close its doors and turn off its lights for the last time at its Campus Corner location Nov. 26.

One University of Oklahoma club will also have to find a new meeting place with the loss of their regular meeting locale.

According to the restaurant’s website, the business was started in 1974, and has had a location on Campus Corner for the past ten years, manager Donyae Lindsey said.

The decision to move to Newcastle came from a want for a more stable location. Lindsey said it was hard getting used to an influx of people during the school year, but fewer people in the summer.

The owners of La Luna were also looking to buy their own property, as opposed to renting on Campus Corner.

The Panamerican Student Association held its regular meetings at La Luna and will now have to find a new venue for meetings.

PanAm president Edwin Villarroel Jr. said the club met at La Luna because the affordability of renting the venue and the Latin American food and decor.

“As much as everything has an ending there is always room for a new beginning,” Villarroel said. “Therefore, I am confident that the new venue that PanAm will be using will bring as much or even better memories.” PanAm has not yet figured out a new location for its meetings, but is considering whatever new location goes into the La Luna space on campus.

La Luna intends to open there new location in Newcastle sometime in the middle of December.

Chris Lusk: Editor-in-chief

Being an editor at The Oklahoma Daily can easily lead to bad grades and a lack of sleep because some editors make their job at The Daily top priority, a former editor-in-chief of The Daily said.

Except for the times he goes to class, curent editor-in-chief Chris Lusk is usually found in The Daily’s newsroom Sunday through Thursday, leaving him little time to sleep or have a social life.

Lusk is more than just the editor-in-chief of The Daily, he is also the design chief and editor-in-chief for The Daily’s pre football game publication, Inside the Huddle.

When Lusk took the editor-in-chief position he was enrolled in 17 class hours. He has since dropped to six hours, because he works about 70-80 hours a week at The Daily. With about 14 more hours to complete to graduate, Lusk plans to take a five-hour intersession class over winter break and the rest of his credits in the spring semester.

“It’s hard to be an editor, any of the top editor positions at The Daily and also be a top student academically because they put in so many hours here,” said Judy Gibbs Robinson, Daily editorial advisor.

Lusk usually gets to the office between 9 a.m. and ten and then leaves between midnight and 2 a.m., with the paper being sent to the printer around 10:30 p.m.

“I still get a fair amount of sleep I feel,” Lusk said. “Maybe it’s not your recommended eight hours a day, then again, we’re in college, so who is getting eight hours a day?”

Lusk concedes to not being able to have much of a social life, and says the one he does have revolves mostly around the people he works with.

Lusk hopes to attend graduate or law school after receiving his bachelor’s degree in journalism. Though, Lusk studied for the LSAT over the summer, his studies have fallen to the wayside because of his responsibilities at The Daily.

Slideshow by: Carmen Forman 1:41

Local Businesses Screen Artsy Cult Films

Dreamer Concepts and and Anty Shanty on Main Street screened "Fantastic Planet" and "The Red Balloon" in the alley behind their stores Friday as a part of the Films in the Alley Series. The Films in the Alley Series was started about four years ago by the owner of Dreamer Concepts.

Two local businesses are working together to bring unusual films to an alley behind Main Street.

Owners of Anty Shanty and Dreamer Concepts on Main Street have expanded their film selection for the Films in the Alley Series to bring films never before screened in Oklahoma

to the alley behind their stores.

The Films in the Alley Series showed French films "Fantastic Planet" and "The Red Balloon" Friday.
Amber Clour, owner of Dreamer said she started the series about four years ago, a year after she opened her art gallery. The owners of Anty Shanty became involved after opening their store in March. Anty Shanty helped out with their first film in the alley in August when they screened "Urgh! A Music War" in August.
Anty Shanty owners, Julia and Corey Gingerich have changed up the style of movies shown in the alley since they started helping with the event. The couple, used to work in a film studio in Los Angeles, and said a lot of their inspirations for movies they choose come from the work of Cinefamily.

Anty Shanty owner, Corey Gingerich, talks to people about the Films in the Alley Series in the alley behind Dreamer Concepts. This was the second time Corey Gingerich helped with the Films in the Alley.

“I don’t think anything is too weird for Oklahoma,” Corey Gingerich said. “If you’ve spent some time in the art scene, I’d say the art scene here could rival any other scene or major city.”
The owners of the two stores keep their businesses closed when screening the films because it is hard for them to run their stores and enjoy the films. Moreover, attracting business to their stores seemed to be the furthest thing from theirs minds.
“This is all about the artist’s cinema,” Corey Gingerich said. “It’s almost an afterthought that I run the store, if anything I send my customers over here.”
Clour said she hopes to eventually get a screen installed inside Dreamer so she can show films even in the winter.
Films in the Alley’s next movie will be 'The World According to Monsanto' at 7 p.m. October 20, according to Dreamer’s website.

Anty Shanty owners, Corey and Julia Gingerich, watch the opening credits of 'The Red Balloon' as a part of the Films in the Alley Series. Corey and Julia Gingerich sponsor and help run the movies in the alley.