Eyesores on Every Block
I’ve covered downtown development for more than a dozen years. In that time, I’ve heard one discussion after another about various eyesores downtown and potential solutions. Not once have I heard mention of the most obvious eyesores to be found pretty much everywhere downtown – our parking meters. To the left is what we see right now. They’ve not changed much – regular old meters on ugly poles installed decades ago. Maybe, just maybe, city crews brushed on a new coat of silver paint on the poles. And that’s it.
Ward 7 Councilman Skip Kelly has been challenging the status quo with these meters. He asked a good question over the summer – why is parking banned at some meters between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.? The restrictions were placed years, if not decades ago. City staff did an analysis of traffic patterns and guess what? The restrictions weren’t needed at all.
This sort of thinking must be spreading because someone has tackled another pretty obvious question involving parking meters: why must they be so ugly?
The photo on the top of this post shows a parking meter along Dewey Avenue just south of Main Street. The photo to the left shows another parking meter on the same block with a new cover on the pole. Is there any question as to which one looks better?
I don’t know who is installing these covers, but I’m curious as to whether we might see these covers added throughout downtown?
And is there any chance of painting the meters black so they match the poles? I’ve got more questions coming soon.
Why?
Today we start off with a new feature at OKC Central – Why?
I now know that this blog is getting read by an interesting mix of people throughout downtown. So why not use it to ask some really uncomfortable questions? And while we’re at it, let’s just send a photo to the appropriate people with just one question: “Why?”
So, the following photo is going out via email tomorrow to Planning Director Russell Claus, Mayor Mick Cornett, and the two people in charge of the city’s fire code inspections, Deputy Chief Bryan Heirston and District Chief Kellie Lee.
Let’s see if they respond. In the meantime, any of you readers care to take a shot at this same question?
The apparent junk yard at NW 10 and Harvey. Why?
Another Eyesore About to be History
This beauty at 100 NE 8 has looked like this for quite some time. And until 2006, it was owned by the Corsair Cattle Co., which also owned the former Pat’s Lounge building on NW 10 now being renovated by Greg Banta.
The billboard is an interesting approach to zoning. This property is visible to thousands who travel I-235 into downtown.
The property was sold to the Triangle development group in 2006 for $353,000, and they are now seeking to have the building torn down.
History?
I can’t remember a time when these duplexes along Broadway Drive at NW 11 were anything but trouble for downtown. Several years ago they were well known crack houses. Hand Up Ministries bought them, fixed them up, and then turned them into halfway houses for sex offenders. The neighborhood didn’t like that either, and by last fall, authorities were responding to complaints that they were illegally within the prohibited range of a school (the Oklahoma School of Math and Sciences). Anyway, by winter, they were history.
They’ve quickly fallen into disrepair, extensively vandalized – likely by copper thieves. Anyway, Bert Belanger admits they are his now, and he is preparing to tear them down for an undisclosed future development.
Now, what would work well on this site (and realize his holdings will including the junk yard to the east on NW 11 and the boarded up nursing home across the street, which he also says will be cleared).
Read my story here.
UPDATE: Old Downtown Guy, a man definitely in the know about what’s happening in the city, comments on Bert’s past work and predicts that housing may be on the way for Broadway Drive. Read his comments here at www.okctalk.com.
