We definitely do need more hipsters, metalheads and liberals in general. As much as people may want to turn a blind eye to this, conservative places simply do not thrive as cultural hubs. There may be fine arts and orchestra in such places, to cater to the wealthy snobbish folks that litter conservatism, but as you may know it’s the underground arts that keep the otherwise-rotten core of a city going. OKC has one band that gives it any credibility (the Flaming Lips), and the rest are largely generic indie crap, noise filler. The vast majority of the Paseo art I’ve seen is weak and uninspired.

Something I noticed growing up here is that although there are loads of people who would strike you as more of an L.A., PacNW or Austin type, the universal attitude is cliquish. I’ve always been a metalhead, and when trying to engage with other metalheads on the street (wearing t-shirts of bands that I dig), snubbing was usually the reaction. Cliquish tendencies do not a successful scene make, and without successful scenes you don’t have the vibrant life of successful cities. You have quiet districts with empty buildings that could be filled with record stores, book stores, cafes and music venues. You have a Bricktown that has this great old architecture, but almost every space is filled with a restaurant or a bar. If you don’t want to see a movie, eat or get drunk, what good is Bricktown? And seriously, that’s the pride of OKC!

If they want to give this town a personality, they should spend a bit of time in Portland, living like a Portlander. We have nothing like the Hawthorne District or Belmont. Compare our downtown to downtown PDX: what’s missing? The reason Portland would be such a good model for us is that our cities are almost identical in population size (though their metro area is much more populous).

A few years ago, a Californian that I knew who was living in OKC at the time noted that she’d never seen a state that makes so many mentions of itself. I didn’t notice it until then, but it’s really true, and it’s a bit lame. We have to keep pumping ourselves up, cheerleading ourselves, because that’s the only way we can feel good about ourselves as a state/city. And this is further illustrated in naming this grand boulevard-to-be “Oklahoma City Boulevard”. You don’t become great by insisting upon your own greatness!

If this OKC think tank consulted me, I would tell them to stop emulating the shells of greater cities, and start emulating the cores of these cities. Find out what makes a district like the Hawthorne District of Portland great, and offer incentives for similar small businesses to cluster together in areas of OKC.