The Oklahoman's Steve Lackmeyer covers downtown OKC brick by brick.

Bricktown Red Dirt Marketplace Grand Opening

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One Bricktown Merchant’s Approach to Parking

Got this from the Bricktown Red Dirt Marketplace and Oklahoma’s Red Dirt Emporium – what do you think?

Oklahoma’s Red Dirt Emporium and Bricktown Marketplace want you to shop with them, so they will give you a parking rebate of $1 per $10 spent for parking when you present your original parking ticket for that day.  The total limit is $5 on $50 (spent at either shop). The Red Dirt Emporium, which opened in 2007 on Canal Level, features Oklahoma made or themed goods that appeal to locals as well as visitors to the Bricktown entertainment district.  The Bricktown Marketplace, opened in June of this year, is home to 42 locally-owned mini-stores with everything from Barons hockey pucks and apparel to antiques, art to clothing and gifts.  The Marketplace is adding new vendors all of the time so be sure to check back regularly.

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Sunday Flashback: Dallas West End

This flashback began with a discussion between myself and the famous “door” at Edna’s bar along the old Classen Circle. With the addition of the Drunken Fry, 51st Street Speakeasy, a handful of other veteran bars and surrounding Belle Isle development, it’s fair to say this area has the potential to become yet another thriving entertainment district with and emphasis on bars and clubs. For whatever reason, the Door, friendly enough, makes it a point to promote the area at the expense of Bricktown (indicating parking and traffic is bad, area is expensive). At some point in this Twitter conversation I pointed out that West End is a reminder that districts like Bricktown are not invincible.

I spent a few days in West End, Dallas in 2006 not long after the landmark West End Marketplace closed. I returned last year and found that conditions hadn’t improved much. The marketplace was, and still is, closed. The area is now a forgettable mix of restaurants and clubs that include well-worn names like TGIFridays.

You might notice in this 2006 story that there was a hope in West End that development of Victory Park would reverse its fortunes. No such benefit has taken place. And Victory is, from what I saw, a far cry from being the 24/7 success story originally envisioned. Major projects have been shelved and the ground floor store fronts are dead and empty.

So now in 2010 we have another “victory” being pursued in an area we call “Core to Shore” – and we’re told Bricktown has had its share. No need for it to be included in Project 180, no need for it be a major recipient of MAPS 3. Thanks to Edna’s door, a fresh read of this story was well overdue.

THIS STORY WAS PUBLISHED IN 2006:

DALLAS — Fourteen years ago, a delegation of Bricktown developers and merchants traveled to the West End district in Dallas to learn what it takes to create a successful entertainment district.

West End was the region’s premier entertainment district, drawing millions of visitors and sparking a revitalization of downtown Dallas.

Greg Schooley, executive director of the West End Association, hasn’t seen the Bricktown visitors since. But they still may have something left to learn from one of the region’s oldest downtown entertainment districts.

West End, Schooley said, is in a transition. Others say it’s dying a slow death.

“On the face of it, it doesn’t look good,” Schooley said. “But as much as you see some empty space in the district, you need to know that there is still a lot here. A lot of deals are in the works, and the end result will be good.”

The West End Marketplace, once home to a 10 screen theater, five floors of retail and a Planet Hollywood restaurant, closed for good in June. Also dark is Dallas Alley, the former mega-club complex that once boasted the highest concentration of liquor sales in Texas. Gone also are landmark West End restaurants Dick’s Last Resort, Tony Roma’s and Lombardi’s.

Ed Shelton, strolling West End with his wife Cessnie, was shocked to see a district that on a Friday night two weeks ago was a virtual ghost town. Less than a dozen people were gathered to listen to a free musical performance in the plaza outside the West End Marketplace. The Oklahoma City couple didn’t see any hints of decline when they last visited West End six years ago.

“These streets used to be filled with people,” Ed Shelton said. “It’s totally changed.”

Standing in front of the darkened Tony Roma’s, the Sheltons said they were in Dallas for a friend’s wedding and thought the West End might be a fun night-time distraction. Instead, the only excitement consisted of hustlers selling flowers and Hare Krishna followers dancing, singing and offering out free cookies.

“We might as well go back to the hotel,” said a disappointed Cessnie Shelton, clutching a small flower bouquet. The couple said their first thought was of Bricktown as they first encountered the quiet West End.

“I think we’re seeing in Bricktown what was here five years ago,” he said. “I’d hate to see it get to where it is like this.”

Perception problems and solutions

The Bricktown Association estimates the downtown Oklahoma City entertainment district now draws more than 10 million visitors a year, rivaling West End’s popularity at its peak in the early 1990s.

But Bricktown is battling complaints about parking, that it’s becoming too touristy and after some recent shootings that it might be dangerous late at night. West End fought off similar image problems.

And West End is no longer the exclusive downtown hot spot in Dallas. In the past decade, competition emerged in the off-beat Deep Ellum and the more urbane West Village, Greenville and McKinney districts.

Josh Adkins, one of hundreds enjoying a hot, hazy Saturday afternoon recently at a West Village restaurant, took comfort in thinking that area is also off the radar of out-of-town visitors.

Adkins cited a list of reasons why locals have abandoned West End: no free parking, street hustlers and a gang element late at night.

“West End is for tourists,” said Adkins, a Dallas resident. “I’ve not been there since college — back when Reagan was president. I’ll bet nobody else around here has either.”

But even tourists arriving at West End are disappointed. The district was a favorite downtown Dallas destination for Oklahomans throughout the 1980s and 1990s. But as they return, they’re seeing a West End that falls short of the district they knew and loved.

“I’ve not been here in five or six years,” said Marilyn Wallace of Altus. “I’m just kind of shocked this has all dried up.”

Like the Sheltons, Wallace and Edmond resident Denise Kramer’s discovery of a locked up Marketplace spelled the end of their brief visit to West End.

“There is no retail here anymore, so it’s only restaurants,” Kramer said.

“Bricktown is trying to incorporate a lot of clubs and bars and retail, and stuff to do other than eating, so that’s good.

“I’m impressed they’re turning it around, it’s really expanded beyond the Bricktown area and I think they’ve really cleaned it up a lot.”

Schooley warns against declaring West End dead, and says it is emerging from years when it wasn’t quite sure whether it wanted to be a family destination or an adult club district.

“We had our heyday in the late ’80s and early ’90s,” Schooley said.

“That’s when Dallas Alley was open, we had all the nightclubs, and they were rolling. In the ’90s, we stayed flat — we were stagnant.”

Part of that stagnation is blamed on the Dallas city council’s refusal to create a business improvement district (BID) in West End to pay for security, marketing and cleanup — even as BID assessments were set up for other emerging districts including Deep Ellum and Victory around the American Airlines Arena.

Tax Increment Financing for new development also was withheld from West End even as it too was extended to competing entertainment districts, including West Village.

“The city turned us down every time,” Schooley said. “We would get a pat on the head and be told ‘you’re the West End — you’re doing just fine.’”

So to this day, the district’s upkeep and operations are supported only by association dues and special events.

Forced to stand out on their own, Schooley said district’s merchants and property owners had to decide, “what do we want to be?”

West End made its choice, and is now looking at everything in terms of whether it will draw families.

Special events, including the Taste of Dallas and OU/Texas Weekend, still draw tens of thousands of visitors, and Schooley said the district hasn’t had to turn away people because of a lack of parking.

West End might not be what it was, but better days are ahead, Schooley said.

“We actually have chains leaving, and local stuff coming in,” he said.

“We’re drawing more attractions — the House of Blues is coming in, the Museum of Nature and Science coming in, the Holocaust Museum coming in.

“And with the House of Blues coming in, we think that will bring back the clubs … I’m proud of the fact the district has survived as well as it has.”

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Bricktown Continues to Progress

You’ve got to give it up to these folks – they’re really stepping up their development, marketing and event efforts. If you don’t visit their website, www.welcometobricktown.com, you’re missing out on material like this:

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The Emergence of Bricktown Retail

I’ve seen a lot of fits and starts when it comes to Bricktown retail. Let’s review a bit….

Way, way back when, there was a small flower shop started up as part of a failed attempt by Neal Horton to turn a decaying district of old brick warehouses into something special. It didn’t last long, but in the early 1990s we saw the opening of the Bricktown Mercantile. And it lasted for several years – but as Jim Brewer would say, it was too much, too soon, and too ahead of its time.

The opening of the Bricktown Canal in 1999 ushered in another wave of retail – names like the Laughing Fish, an art gallery, a Mexican gift store … all of them failed to take root. I’m not sure if they were entirely bad concepts, but they were all spread out – there was no cluster of retail to draw the increasing crowds being drawn by the canal.

City leaders thought they could kick off retail by priming the pump – chipping in $19 million to help build a Bass Pro Shops and jump start the Lower Bricktown project.

Some retail did follow – clothing stores like LIT and Firefly. Both were trendy clothing shops. But was this the retail concept to match what people visiting Bricktown were looking for? Bass Pro is doing fine. But LIT and Firefly both closed this past year. Maybe they would have fared better if they had been situated next to each other. Instead, developer Randy Hogan had them on opposite ends of the canal as it meanders south of Reno. The LIT space is being replaced by a restaurant. Don’t be surprised if a restaurant takes the Firefly space as well.

So now we move onto the current wave, which I’d argue is kicked off by Chad Huntington and Bob Bekoff with the opening of the Oklahoma’s Red Dirt Emporium in 2007. Not too much earlier we see The Painted Door opening around the block facing Sheridan.

Oddly, just as the Emporium opened, the only retail tenant on the canal level, a Native American gift shop, relocated to Stockyards City. That is now the only space empty on the canal level of the Miller Jackson Building, with the remaining space attracting an art shop, a winery, a convenience store and now the Bricktown Red Dirt Marketplace – all together, all offering a mix that might just be the right draw for visitors.

Below I’ll show the free standing stores, followed by a glimpse of the retail now open in the marketplace – are we about to finally see a critical mass on retail along the canal?

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Positive for Bricktown?

That’s the question when it comes to a certain bar along the Bricktown Canal that in the past has been known to hang up posters in windows – visible to families and kids – of scantily dressed porn stars.
A report by Capt. Steve McCool today adds to this particular nightclub’s reputation the following:
- Allowing an underage Thunder player into the premises;
- Exceeding legal occupancy by 50 percent after being warned not to do so at a meeting just days earlier.
Care to guess the identity of this stellar Bricktown venue?

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Bricktown Canal Maintenance Revisited

A couple of weeks ago I hit the Bricktown Association and Brad Hogan on what appeared to be a trashier canal walkway following the transition of maintenance from the city parks department to Hogan.
I included photos like this:

Jim Cowan, director of the Bricktown Association responded promptly with this:

So it’s only fair that I show what I saw on a follow-up visit timed on a Sunday afternoon – the same sort of afternoon that coincided with my last of round of photos. Here is what saw:

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Red Dirt Marketplace Progress

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The Bricktown Blog

I’ve been following the blog at www.welcometobricktown.org for a few weeks, waiting to see it would be a flash in the pan or the real deal. For now, it’s the real deal. And the latest post has a Texan singing Bricktown’s praises. Go here.

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Everyone’s Talking Transit, but is Anybody Listening?

Today’s guest blogger is Blair Humphreys, who ,has had a great influence on my understanding of urban planning over the past couple of years. I don’t pretend to know as much as Blair knows – but I’m often awed by his ability to beyond conventional thinking and to propose solutions not considered. Blair’s experience includes real world urban development, time spent with Hans Butzer, one of the city’s leading design professionals and professor of architecture at OU, an internship at the Oklahoma City Planning Department, and of course, a front row to seat to the city’s political scene. Blair, a national merit scholar at OU, won national recognition and honors while attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated last year with a Master in City Planning and Urban Design Certificate. Blair is now an instructor and researcher at the University of Oklahoma, and has been following the Let’s Talk Transit far closer than I.
After seeing comments already made by respected Oklahoma City blogger Doug Loudenback questioning whether real public input was taking place with the downtown transit, I asked Blair to share his insights.

Hey Everyone,

It has been a while since I last blogged over at www.imaginativeamerica.com!  I recently moved back to Oklahoma City and am enjoying being home.  While a new job (and a new house, and new puppy, etc) have kept me from blogging lately, I believe this issue is extremely important and hope you will find the post worthwhile.

I will be at today’s Lets Talk Transit meeting at 11:30am – hope to see you there!

Best, Blair

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INTRODUCTION

The first Let’s Talk Transit meeting was held on March 29, 2010  and the process will finish on Thursday, May 27, with meetings at both 11:30am and 6:00pm.   Let’s Talk Transit is the public’s opportunity to interject their thoughts into the decision-making process for the $120 million MAPS 3 streetcar system:

“This is why these meetings are being held so the public can have a voice about what is most important to them.  The public’s opinion is vital in meeting the needs of those who work, live and visit downtown.”

- Rick Cain

I was able to attend the first meeting and have kept up with the process by completing surveys, watching videos of meetings, and reviewing the meeting agendas.  In fact, Let’s Talk Transit has done a great job making information on the process available.  All of the images and/or quotes in this post come from public documents available at: http://www.letstalktransit.com/meetings (#1 – see note).  As I have watched and listened, I have developed my own opinions on the best routes for the MAPS 3 Streetcar, and have found myself in agreement with much of the public input to date, but now I am beginning to wonder whether the output of this “public process” will truly represent the input the public gave.


APRIL 13 MEETING

At the second meeting on April 13, 2010, members of the public worked in small groups to layout proposal for the new streetcar routes.  There were six tables each of which was asked to take-on the perspective of a potential streetcar rider: resident, worker, and visitor.  Figure 1 shows the various proposals that the citizen groups came up with.  All of which were aggregated by the consultant to produce the frequency map shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1 – Routes Proposed by Citizens at April 13 Meeting

Figure 2 – Frequency of Routes Proposed by Citizens at April 13 Meeting

So what did the citizens say?  What routes had some consensus?

Top routes selected by the citizens at the April 13 meeting:

• Broadway Avenue – 5 out of 6
• Sheridan Avenue – 5 out of 6
• Walker Avenue – 4 out of 6
• N. 10th Street – 3 out of 6
• Stiles Ave – 3 out of 6

Interestingly, if you take a closer look at the individual maps, you find that a majority – 4 out of 6 of the groups – selected both Broadway Avenue and Walker Avenue as a north-south pair with Sheridan Avenue and/or Reno Avenue serving the accompanying east-west connection (#2).  In fact, most of the routes are also similar in their use of straight lines and few turns (#3).  Given the number of possibilities, to have such a consensus on preferred routes is incredible.  It certainly got my attention.  But apparently did not impress the consulting team.


APRIL 29 MEETING

The consulting team returned at the next meeting and provided the meeting participants with north-south and east-west route options.  There were six north-south route options presented by the consultant – see options – but the Broadway/Walker pair favored by a majority of citizen groups at the previous meeting was not included, and there does not appear to be any explanations as to why. The consultant presented these route options and then, once again, asked the citizens to work in groups to sketch out their own route proposals.

Figure 3 – Routes Proposed by Citizens at April 29 Meeting

Figure 4 - Frequency of Routes Proposed by Citizens at April 27 Meeting

Once again, the citizens showed a very clear consensus on routes with at least 5 out of 6 groups proposing a route that included Broadway, Walker and/or Sheridan.  The bright red line – visible in Figure 4 – outlines the core of a simple system on which the majority of the public participants agreed (#4).  When you combine the preferred routes from the April 13 meeting with these proposals from the April 27 meeting you get the following:

North-South Routes:

• Broadway Avenue – 10 out of 12
• Walker Avenue – 9 out of 12
• Lincoln Boulevard – 6 out of 12
• Walnut Avenue – 5 out of 12
• Hudson Avenue – 5 out of 12
  
• Stiles Avenue – 4 out of 12
• Robinson Avenue – 1 out of 12
  

East-West Routes:

• Sheridan Avenue – 11  out of 12
• N. 10th Street -  8 out of 12
• Harrison Ave – 6 out of 12   (#5)
  
• N. 4th Street – 5 out of 12
• N. 13th Street – 4 out of 12
  
• The Boulevard – 3 out of 12
  

So what is the public saying?  The only routes shown on a majority of the citizen’s proposals were Broadway and Walker running north-south, and Sheridan and 10th Street running east-west.  Also noteworthy is the strength of both Lincoln and Harrison, which speaks to a desire by the public to connect to the Health Sciences Center complex (#6).  And once again I will point out the public’s consistency in producing simple systems made up of straight-lines and few turns.


MAY 11 MEETING

At the May 11 Meeting the consultants presented three “conceptual” alignments – see Figure 5 – that were “drawn based on input from past public meetings and the results’ of [the consultant's] analysis.”

Figure 5 - Consultants Conceptual Alignments Presented at May 11 Meeting

Of the three “options” presented, none include the Broadway/Walker north-south pair favored by the public.  In fact, only one includes N. Broadway at all, despite the overwhelming support of the public for this route.  And while Sheridan is partially included in all three options, none of the consultant’s three options use the straight route on Sheridan found in the majority of the proposals by the public.  Also gone is the simplicity of the system favored by the public’s proposals, replaced by an ever-winding path of turns and loops reminiscent of our much maligned rubber-tire trolley system.  Some of this winding is done in order to incorporate two options with a Boulevard route, even though this route had little support from the public.  According to the meeting summary, Option #1 was the favorite of the citizens in attendance. However, the summary also mentions that a number of concerns were vocalized, including a plea for Broadway to be used instead of Robinson. Of course, this begs the question: how could the consultants take the input of the public which favored Broadway in 10/12 compared to Robinson in 1/12, and decide Robinson was the better choice? Surely the citizen’s input is worth more than that?


MAY 27 MEETING

It was my hope that the routes to be presented at the May 27 meeting would revert back to the public’s wishes and provide a simple system incorporating Broadway/Walker and Sheridan, but the newest “options” – see Figure 6 or download pdf – continue to stray from the input given by the citizens.  While the exclusion of Broadway has been changed in 2 out of 3 of the options, the clean Broadway-10th-Walker connection favored by citizens is confused in a series of interconnected loops and bends.  And the continuous east-west connection along Sheridan that was preferred by the citizen groups is forfeited, it would seem, so that two of the options can include a Boulevard route.  There is no simplicity, few strong corridors, and very little evidence of citizen input.

Figure 6 - Consultants Final Options Presented at May 27 Meeting

CONCLUSION

These routes will be presented by the consultant today – Thursday, May 27 – in public meetings held at 11:30am and 6:00pm in the City Hall Council Chamber.  While the consultant will no doubt claim that these routes were “created using the input received from citizen surveys, hands-on exercises and through open discussion,” all evidence points to the contrary.  This is not an insignificant fact.  The consultant’s “options” will be placed in the hands of decision-makers that select the final routes and they will be told this represents the public input received during the Let’s Talk Transit process.  Mr. Cain stated at the beginning of the process that these meetings are being held so that “the public can have a voice,” but what good is a voice, if no one will listen (#7).

notes

1. Give it up for the meeting planners and public relations team.  Thank you!
2. The April 13 groups that included Broadway & Walker for N-S, with Sheridan and/or Reno for E-S are: 1, 2, 3 & 5
3. This typically provides a system with higher degrees of legibility for the user
4. Once again, notice that the public recommends simple routes with few turns
5. A Harrison line typically connects east-west via N. 4th Street or  north-south via Walnut Ave.
6. I have heard a lot of people say that even though the HSC has no housing or retail attractions, it makes sense because the workers will ride the trolley to lunch in Bricktown.  Sounds great.  However, it will take at least one mile of track – or $20 million – to connect to the HSC.  And with a 127 passenger capacity and no better than 10 minute frequency between cars, you will not see more than 500 riders per day (or 500 x 250 work days = 125,000 riders per year).  Even at municipal bond rates (5% per year on $20 million) this works out to a cost of $8 per rider per year in infrastructure investment (not including operating costs). And the likely routes feature comparitively very little in adjacent development opportunities
7. Thank you to Steve for giving me the opportunity.  And once again, I apologize for the length of my post(s).

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