Thoughts about Better Block
Let’s start with what strikes me the most: as a member of Generation X, I readily admit I sometimes engage in mocking the Millennials. But Better Block OKC is, very much, the coming out party of Oklahoma City’s next wave. And if this is a hint of what they’re capable of, this Generation Xer is quite happy to welcome them to the ongoing effort of remaking our community.
Better Block is an exmaple of what’s possible. People want community, they crave community, and if the framework is established, the people will come. The cost to pull this off was actually quite minimal. The sweat equity invested by our city’s 20-somethings was priceless. Generation X at this age dreamed of this sort revolution. We watched movies like “Singles” and visited Austin and complained, “why not here?” I’ve seen my generation (and younger Baby Boomers as well) try to tackle the issue of making Oklahoma CIty a more exciting place to live, work and play. But for the most part, it involved BIG PICTURE, MAPS style efforts. Today’s 20-somethings recognized the need for a block by block battle – and the war is now commenced.
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Comments
As a genxer and a dad like Steve, I thought this was great. I took my sons around to the food trucks and explored the popup stores. The popup Full Circle made me wonder about all the cool stores we still need downtown. I’m sure steve is keeping a wishlist in his head. 
The more events like this the better.
I think the Baby Boomers and GenerationX’s tax dollars should be given a lot of credit in keeping more of the Millenials around, including this x’er. Without any of the MAPS, this would never have happened.
I meant the whole generational thing in general, not just
about better block. It’s kind of divisive.
better block looks cool, but i’m a little puzzled. were these real businesses, or was this just a demonstration? namely, did anybody buy anything? if so, why did they stop? how did they obtain the cooperation of the property owners? are the stripes gone? the streetlamps? who paid for it?
regardless of the answers (which i really would like to have), i think it was a good idea to show what we can do. how about doing this stuff for keeps?
David, yes these were real businesses for the night. There was a mini Full Circle bookstore, an art gallery, a flower shop, and a mini farmers market. I spent at least $60 myself and I saw other people buying things as well. The street is pretty much back to the way it was before the event. The murals on the buildings are still there.
There were both kinds of businesses, pop-up and the currently existing ones. The flower shop and artist made store were both businesses that have been thinking about actually opening shops, so this was a good test to see if they are ready to take that direction. Full Circle was our example of a business that currently exists that may want to test the waters for expansion into a different location (ours hopes at least!). All the shops had great sales. We expect the event will have a big role in their future decisions.
We simply asked the property owners if we could use their buildings in effort to show off the area and their spaces. It was a great opportunity to show the property owners that breaking up the building into smaller spaces works well for small retail. Also, the more we went along, the more open to our ideas they were. We asked for small improvements and they made them, and they even assigned their maintenance worker to help us during the event which turned out very helpful.
We will be power washing the stripes. We were demonstrating reverse angle parking at the event, but without permanent signs cars will pull in head first.
We partnered with Pelco Products for the street lamps, benches and trash cans. There were 3 street lamps that were broken, and Pelco replaced the actual lamps. It’s our hope the property owner decides to purchase them considering the free installation and discount they will get. Actually, I noticed the maintenance worker Friday night was still working when I left and I asked him why. He mentioned they noticed how dark the building was and he was looking at installing lights on the building.
Who paid for the event- ULI Oklahoma presented Better Block, and we specifically raised funds ($3500) through sponsorship to pay for the event.
So, overall the event is a demonstration to the community and city leaders to show how our streets can be used for good on so many levels of economic development and quality of life. I imagine we will be seeing some stories over the next few weeks of impacts the event has made, and we will be reporting them!
Don’t you think the whole generational thing is a little
overdone and contrived and kind of insulting?