Comments on: Staring Down the 800 Pound Elephant in the Room – Part One http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2011/10/18/staring-down-the-800-pound-elephant-in-the-room-part-one/ The Oklahoman's Steve Lackmeyer covers downtown OKC brick by brick. Thu, 16 May 2013 02:42:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5 By: GenghisKDuck http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2011/10/18/staring-down-the-800-pound-elephant-in-the-room-part-one/comment-page-1/#comment-38308 GenghisKDuck Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:25:34 +0000 http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/?p=6589#comment-38308 http://www.comune.venezia.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/EN/IDPagina/8

]]> By: andy http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2011/10/18/staring-down-the-800-pound-elephant-in-the-room-part-one/comment-page-1/#comment-38299 andy Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:06:45 +0000 http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/?p=6589#comment-38299 The Canal brings up a reoccurring thought. I would love to get a Venetian Style Gondola and put it on the canal for folks to ride. Wondering how to get permission for such a thing.

]]> By: Larry OKC http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2011/10/18/staring-down-the-800-pound-elephant-in-the-room-part-one/comment-page-1/#comment-38128 Larry OKC Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:16:12 +0000 http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/?p=6589#comment-38128 Chad, while that may certainly well may be the case, I have found that most are aware of the Canal’s existence where few are aware of the other. At least if someone bothers to ride the Canal, they will be exposed to the Landrun sculpture.

Sure wish they could find the funding to COMPLETE it as pitched (was supposed to have had a 77 statues (one representing each of our counties). But think the total planned, but not fully funded, total is a little better than half that amount. The City’s website still has 45 listed but think it had been cut a couple of years back to the 30s??

]]> By: david ball http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2011/10/18/staring-down-the-800-pound-elephant-in-the-room-part-one/comment-page-1/#comment-38118 david ball Thu, 20 Oct 2011 22:43:47 +0000 http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/?p=6589#comment-38118 way back when mark schwartz said that we don’t want bricktown to just be bars and restaurants, (i must admit) i wondered why (not). now i understand. given that he said this LONG before the demise of the west end, he looks smarter all the time. too bad we lost him.

i’ve wondered for a long time why they don’t rent out the upper floors for residential. look at all the wasted space in the spahetti warehouse, where it all began. if there are people, retail will follow. people live in deep deuce, people live downtown, but who lives in bricktown? by the way, surface parking is really crappy planning for an urban (i.e. non-suburban) district. how much of that do you see in manhattan or san francisco?

]]> By: Chad http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2011/10/18/staring-down-the-800-pound-elephant-in-the-room-part-one/comment-page-1/#comment-38104 Chad Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:59:01 +0000 http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/?p=6589#comment-38104 Larry OKC, the single sign pointing out the Land Run monument is one sign more than the number that even MENTION the Bricktown Canal.

]]> By: Mike N. http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2011/10/18/staring-down-the-800-pound-elephant-in-the-room-part-one/comment-page-1/#comment-38098 Mike N. Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:36:21 +0000 http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/?p=6589#comment-38098 Another possibility is what helped slow traffic in the West End was “entertainment districts” popping up all over the DFW Metroplex. Same thing is beginning to occur/mature in in OKC with the Plaza District/Midtown/Edmond venues.

Bricktown parking is not really a problem now but anybody who was here and frequented Bricktown in the early years knows it was a problem in the past.

]]> By: Jim http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2011/10/18/staring-down-the-800-pound-elephant-in-the-room-part-one/comment-page-1/#comment-38084 Jim Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:04:23 +0000 http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/?p=6589#comment-38084 Bricktown isn’t going to change significantly until new property owners buy out the old ones. There is an overall lack of leadership and direction in the district. They need to decide what they want to be and how they are going to get there.
It’s an opportunity for someone with the right capital to go in and buy up property and be able to quickly influence the direction of the district, but that’s assuming the “sellers” would sell at a fair price. Too many owners have held on to property in hopes of selling for a big profit. Once they realize that’s not going to happen, maybe they will sell to someone with a clear plan and experience developing. The district is becoming irrelevant to locals, but will continue to thrive with conventions, arena business, and tourism. It’s sad that they can’t have both.

]]> By: Todd http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2011/10/18/staring-down-the-800-pound-elephant-in-the-room-part-one/comment-page-1/#comment-38058 Todd Thu, 20 Oct 2011 04:45:33 +0000 http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/?p=6589#comment-38058 I always thought the Rock Island Implement Company building would be an excellent Hard Rock Cafe. And I agree with Mr. Kirkpatrick that Bricktown would be better served with more on street metered parking.

]]> By: Larry OKC http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2011/10/18/staring-down-the-800-pound-elephant-in-the-room-part-one/comment-page-1/#comment-38043 Larry OKC Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:38:49 +0000 http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/?p=6589#comment-38043 Hadn’t really noticed the Canal being hidden so much but the Landrun Monumnet (on the Canal) definitely is with it being tucked at the end of the Bass Pro overflow parking lot. It is one of the few things DT that I would bother insisting that visitors see and I know of only one directional sign for it.

]]> By: Jill http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/2011/10/18/staring-down-the-800-pound-elephant-in-the-room-part-one/comment-page-1/#comment-38042 Jill Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:16:35 +0000 http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/?p=6589#comment-38042 I’ve mentioned it on OKCTalk, and I’d like to suggest here that we look at what Omaha has done with their Old Market – or what has happened naturally, as I’m not sure how it evolved. I was up there visiting family who recently moved there and I was shocked at the difference betweeen it and Bricktown – and it doesn’t even have a canal of which to boast. I’m going to include a link to their website, and it’s particularly interesting if you click on dining and shopping. You’ll see many local, non-chain restaurants and a lot of varied shopping. Some of the best restaurants in Omaha are in their Old Market. I cannot imagine they get significantly more convention business than Oklahoma City, so how can they support this much dining and shopping? I suspect it’s because people who actually live in Omaha go there. I was not impressed that parking was significantly easier than in Bricktown, and the lot that we parked in charged comparable prices. So, I don’t think the parking issue in Bricktown is a reasonable excuse.

It’s likely a chicken and egg thing. Because there are many dining and shopping options, people tend to go there who live in Omaha, which encourages more dining and shopping. Or, because people went there to begin with, the dining and shopping flowered? I don’t know. Oh, and speaking of flowering, one of the appealing things about the Old Market is that many of the buildings have large metal awnings that allow shaded dining beneath, out of the sun and rain. Those awnings are lined with flowerboxes, which have a built-in sprinkler system (I asked about how they stayed beautiful when it wasn’t raining much there either).

http://www.oldmarket.com/

So, whether it evolved naturally, or the city gave it some help might be worth discovering, as I believe Bricktown could benefit from some of the lessons learned in Omaha.

Someone mentioned making Reno a boulevard. That’s not a bad idea. It also might be nice to put more decorative signage up as you enter Bricktown from the west. A few flowers associated with it wouldn’t be bad either.

]]>