How does Sonic headquarters make you want to come to Bricktown? Who cares? It’s a corporate anchor that brings a sizeable amount of execs to Bricktown EVERY DAY. They spend money in Bricktown every day. Are you really telling me you don’t get that?

All the Residence inn does is stay filled virtually all the time with folks that again, spend money daily in Brictown. Again, who cares if you think it’s not the perfect design. You want a hotel to be right on top of Reno- RENO? Again Michael, very questionable design sense on your part. A new hotel’s success is being, interestingly enough, a hotel. You want a destination hotel go stay in the Skirvin- comparing apples and oranges. For a long time the RI was the only hotel in Bricktown and the only reason the district has the Hampton (Which I’m sure you love) now is because of the success of Residence.

Bass Pro brings people into Bricktown that would have never stopped in OKC to begin with. It’s the PERFECT retail for Bricktown. It has the name that draws people off the highway. Name me another retail shop that can do the same. You’ll come up with the same type of concepts – Cabela’s, etc. People come in, eat lunch, see all the stuff, and decide that perhaps the next trip they’ll stop. Again, a win for Bricktown. For anyone to suggest that a limited number of people shop there either is ignorant of Bricktown or has an agenda. The facts simply can’t support your claim.

Who are you – Moshe Tal? “Synergy” is a subjective term and ffrequently manipulated by those with agendas. It’s very curious to concede that basically every component is a success but the district is a failure. To compare LB to Moore is another manipulative, silly remark since none of the elements you speak of (Sonic, Bass Pro) would never give Moore a sniff. When you sit outside of Sonic or Starbucks and see the big buildings of downtown, any suggestion of suburban must be rejected. Sorry.

Also keep in mind that actually, Bricktown is an Entertainment district not an urban district. Lower bricktown was actually not urban at all, just a bunch of undeveloped land.

If you really want to do something for Bricktown, quit complaining about Lower Bricktown, which currently carries the district, and spend more time splashing your hate on the Upper district, which has been absolutely killed by real estate investors owning property rather than developers. I don’t know Mr. Hogan but, like him or not, he’s the only person that seems to have been able to get something done, while canal front property on the upper side sits idle for over 10 years now.

retail REQUIRES TRAFFIC, either by foot or car. since people aren’t going to give up their mobility, you either have to have suburban development or heavy foot traffic for retail to exist. the concepts are actually simple. it’s the application that seems to be vexing.

f’rinstance, when i was a kid, downtown still had shopping. it was jammed with traffic. main street was called “shoebox row,” because it had so many stores dealing in footwear and associated services. today, norman has the state’s largest and best automobile market (with apologies, but i’ve shopped them all). why? because everybody knows that if you want to go car shopping, there is a huge market there.

i hope we can work together for better development. i think what they ought to try to get next to bass pro is academy, sports warehouse, h&h gun range, etc. i say this not because downtown needs sporting goods, but because it would likely succeed.

How does a corporate Sonics’ headquarters make me want to head to Lower Bricktown? It’s a harsh design for pedestrians and is certainly not inviting, and that’s not even taking into consideration that it serves no purpose for visitors in Bricktown. The Residence Inn looks like something straight out of Moore. It doesn’t border the street, and it doesn’t even border the canal except for about 20 feet. Heck, is a gate seperating it from locals; It is not good design. It does nothing for the canal area, It is merely a placeholder cookie cutter development. The only success about it is that it’s a hotel. The line stops there. BassPro. Sure. It’s a success I assure you, to the limited, very limited amount of people that shop there. It is destination retail, but the wrong kind. The people that shop there rarely spend anytime in Bricktown. They go only for the store itself. It might as well have been put along I-240. Oh and I guess you think those wonderful parking lots east of Falcones, east of Sonic, and bordering the length of the entirety of the canal after Toby Keith’s are just pure genius don’t you?

Put some sidewalks on the riverwalk in Moore and you’ve got the canal past Earl’s Rib Palace. I’m actually drawing back the line even more. Yes I agree. The Centennial Plaza is nice and it does attract more foot traffic. It is not bordered by one parking lot and while standing near the fountain, you actually feel sort of closed-in. It’s great. But, it by no means, makes up for the rest of that hideous development.

What are you? Hogan’s personal fan? It seems to me your qualifying it’s success by the individual components of the development and not the synergy of the entire district relevant to the pedestrian experience. Suburban thinking.

I thought this is an urban district. Or so it is called. A 17 year old can see this with his own eyes. I don’t see why you can’t.

The Plaza District has done a good job of engaging property owners, partnering with a conerstone nonprofit entertainment and educational institution (Lyric), encouraging locally-based, interesting retail that caters to existing, pent-up demand, and its Main Street Program does an excellent job of promoting the retailers through PR and other means.

Bricktown certainly can (and has) incorporate(d) some of those same strategies, including partnering with and fostering the emerging presence of the Academy of Contemporary Music @ UCO in lieu of Lyric. While the scale might be different, and while the shop mix might not be exactly what Bricktown needs, to say that we can’t learn from one another’s success and failures ensures nothing but a repeat of the failures.