Could Downtown Oklahoma City Accomodate Families Living in its Midst?
Pssstttt….. want to hear a secret?
There are families living downtown. Real live families – mommies, daddies, kids in strollers, teens – I promise they’re out there. I’ve seen them. They’re not talked about much, but after reading a story about the “kid boom” in downtown Minneapolis, I wonder if Oklahoma City is prepared for a similar demographic shift in years to come.
After all, we’ve got a downtown elementary coming on line in a couple of years. We’ll have a streetcar system. We’ll have a more family friendly Myriad Gardens. And I estimate we have at least 1,000 new housing units coming online in the next few years.
What do you think?
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Comments
Also, the type of residential development will attract a certain population to the downtown core. If you build upscale 1-2 bedroom loft/condos, you are more likely to attract the young/urban/single professional. In contrast, if you build 2-3 bedroom townhomes/apartments adequately priced, you are more likely to attract families.
Why should families be separated from single / young people downtown? Where I live there Is a healthy mix of both, and I don’t see why being downtown would make a difference.
Real cities have something called diversity…where people of all kinds live in the same neighborhood. Go figure!
Why not? I have two dogs and live downtown. It’s a lot more complicated to raise a dog without a yard than a child without a yard. And yet, my dogs are thriving. They run up and down the stairs instead of around the yard and they hang out on the porch and chase birds. They’ve got the same hottub as Russell Westbrook. Life is good. With the new school on the horizon, I fully expect to see more families living downtown. They’ve got the Myriad Gardens and will have the new central park for recreation. I can imagine hot summer days at the public library or the Art Museum. And I think it would be great fun to take a streetcar to school instead of riding in mom’s suburban. Downtown is great for walking, and the river isn’t far away for bike riding. I can think of lots of reasons why to live downtown with a family.
I believe the downtown core can support families, however, they need to be separated from the single crowd/demographic. Keep the single, young, urban crowd in Deep Deuce/Bricktown area, and let the family demographic emerge south of the new downtown elementary school area, and west Core 2 Shore area.