To Jeff Speck: Yes, Broadway Once Had Angled Parking
It was, I admit, a quick answer that might have even been tainted by a bit of ego. Visiting with author and consultant Jeff Speck last week during a dinner with members of ULI, the discussion turned to Broadway and how ridiculously wide it is.
Speck, author of “Suburban Nation,” has been hired by the city to prepare a plan on how to make downtown more friendly to pedestrians. Nobody at the table seemed to believe that Broadway once had angled parking. I spoke up and said “yes it did” without hesitation.
The pressure was on after that. A.J. Kirkpatrick, one of the city’s bright up anc coming assistant planners, was at that table and I know he reads this blog. By giving such an answer, and being so cocky about it, I had to come up with the proof to back up my assertion. I knew I had seen an image of angled parking along Broadway, and sure enough, after doing some searching in my archives at www.okchistory.com (a private history site maintained by myself and Jack Money), the above illustration is at least a start at providing evidence to Speck. This 1920s image appears to be looking north from Sheridan Avenue.
-Steve
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[...] through sheer boosterism and asphalt, to imagine itself as some Chicago of the plains? Evidently, it once had angled parking downtown; that, like two-way streets, were done away with by overzealous traffic engineers. It begs [...]