When Facts Get in the Way?
Let’s revisit the planned development of The Edge apartments at NW 13 and Walker in MidTown. The site was previously the old Mercy hospital, a six-story complex that stood boarded up and blighted across the street from Heritage Hills for almost three decades.
Urban Renewal has had three shots at developing this site, starting with an apartment complex approved in the late 1990s that was to be built by Nicholas Preftakes. Not once while covering this story did I hear any complaints from Heritage Hills about the prospect of apartments across the street, the development’s impact on traffic, noise, crime or the electric grid.
The development fell apart when Preftakes wanted additional properties to be acquired for the project.
Then, in 2006, Chuck Wiggin, himself a Heritage Hills resident, pitched a 109-unit development of for-sale condominiums. The development, approved by Urban Renewal, was to consist of four buildings, four- to eight stories high. Again, not once did I hear of any objections voiced by Heritage Hills. The development fell apart when the condominium market crashed.
So fast forward to 2010; another competition is held by Urban Renewal. A very public bidding process is overseen, with aspects of each bidder’s project reported repeatedly by The Oklahoman, Journal Record and the Oklahoma Gazette. The development also was covered by television.
The winner of the competition, Gary Books, pitched a complex that consists of 252 units, of which 163 are one-bedroom apartments, 79 are two-bedroom apartments, and 10 are three-bedroom apartments.
Rent for the smallest units starts at $1,000 a month and goes up from there.
A lot of comments are suddenly coming out of Heritage Hills about this project. I gave a critical eye to Brooks’ proposal when these bids first came in, and regular readers of OKC Central will recall I pointed out several cases where the evaluation conducted by Urban Renewal staff was flawed. I will use the same critical eye in examining arguments by Heritage Hills against The Edge.
While the story is still in the works, let’s kill another rumor going around in the neighborhood: that this will be a HUD Section 8 complex. That is entirely false. The Edge will be financed through the same HUD financing program that was used for the Sieber Hotel Apartments. It’s also the same financing mechanism that Heritage Hills resident and competing developer Chuck Wiggin was proposing for his project.
Another “Wow”
This photo was posted on Chesapeake's Facebook page (referred to us by Will Hider)
AS A QUICK UPDATE: I’ve been so busy covering the Mercy site development I’ve not added what is obvious from the comments attached – that this incredible photo was taken by COOPER ROSS. As always I try to give credit where credit is due, and when I first saw this posted via Will, I didn’t see a photographer credit attached to its original posting on the Chesapeake Facebook page. Cooper, please accept my apology and know we all found this photo to be a great capture of our changing skyline.
Conceptual vs. Reality
So now that we’ve gotten a good look at the Skydance bridge, both daytime and nighttime, in its completed form, let’s look back at the original designs conceived before ODOT and others added requirements that made the original design cost prohibitive.
The above rendering is especially interesting to view in light of the photos taken by Will Hider on New Year’s Eve. The metal rope cable system is obviously eliminated, but the sculpture itself is much more elaborate, with “feathers” and multi-colored lighting throughout the skeleton replacing what otherwise would have been a smooth steel surface bathed in regular white sculpture style lighting.
To see more original renderings, go here.
Why is There No Free Downtown Wireless Network?
Louisa McCune asks why is there no free downtown-wide wireless network?
The answer requires a bit more context than what can be provided through a 140-character response on Twitter.
There was a time when such a system was contemplated. Consider this story from Oklahoman archives:
Downtown to have wireless ‘hot spots’
Chamber dangles $150,000 incentive
By Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Edition: CITY, Section: BUSINESS, Page 1B
The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber is dangling a $150,000 incentive as part of a request issued Wednesday to Internet providers to create wireless “hot spots” downtown and along the Oklahoma River.
The request for proposals proposes establishing the “hot spots” — places where wireless Internet connections are available to the public — in Bricktown, the Arts District and Myriad Gardens, the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the Oklahoma River and the future American Indian Cultural Center.
Chamber president Roy Williams said the “potential” $150,000 assistance would come from community partners — possibly including the city — and is meant to show a willingness to share in the risk.
“In the event that would make a difference, that someone saw the community being a partner as being critical, we would consider that,” Williams said. “We want to make sure people understand there is some infrastructure assistance.”
Williams hopes the hot spots can be in place by later this year. Responses to the request will be due July 31.
Wireless hot spots were ranked among the city’s top needs in the fall 2004 “Project Next” forum at the Cox Convention Center, and is touted by the chamber as a key to promoting tourism and convention business.
Rhonda Hooper, chief executive of Jordan Associates and co-chairman of chamber’s Wi-Fi committee, said planning for the proposal request started in January 2005. Discussions initially focused on possibly of expanding use of a citywide municipal wireless system being constructed for public safety.
But that idea was discarded, Hooper said, when the committee learned of quality assurance issues and risks to the city’s system.
But the urgency of establishing some “hot spots” grew with recent listings ranking Oklahoma City 82nd among 100 major cities in providing wireless Internet access.
“We’ve talked to a lot of people, we’ve done our due diligence,” Hooper said. “Technology has changed rapidly — every month it seems. We didn’t want to just jump into this.”
Hooper said the chamber’s request envisions a system that is supported by advertising or sponsorship revenues, and would be self supporting.
Efforts already are underway to create hot spots at State Fair Park and the Cox Convention Center. Access is already in place at Will Rogers World Airport.
Williams said potential contributors to a system could include downtown housing developers and businesses wishing to enhance services to customers.
“We believe Oklahoma City is as technologically savvy as any place in the nation,” Williams said. “This project will help display the ingenuities and knowledge of our community.”
SO, WHY IS THERE NO DOWNTOWN FREE WIRELESS FIVE YEARS LATER?
In April, 2009, I got the following explanation:
“We got involved thinking it was something we needed to do because Oklahoma City had to have it,” said Drew Dugan, who oversaw the project on behalf of the chamber. “Once we got into it, we realized the bottom line was the private market was already providing that service. With all the 3G technology coming online, people can get connected with any device they want with a pretty low cost.”
The chamber’s decision to drop the wireless effort was followed by announcements in Philadelphia and San Francisco that provider Earthlink was going to cease service that was similar to that of the service Oklahoma City was hoping to establish.
“The bottom line is, if you look around the country, most of the folks who spent time doing wireless systems found out it’s a waste of money,” Dugan said.
Now, all that being said, two major wireless providers provide free connections in Bricktown. And I can’t remember a time since either system went live when I could rely on either signal for very long.
Will Hider’s Latest Photos of Downtown
Will Hider, a frequent contributor to OKC Central, has once again captured some stunning images of our ever changing downtown skyline. If this how the start of 2012 looks, I can’t wait for the end!
To view all of Will’s stunning photography, visit http://s83.photobucket.com/profile/UnFrSaKn
My Defiant Start to 2012 – Goodbye 2011. 2012, Take Your Best Shot!
New Views of the Skydance Pedestrian Bridge
We’ve seen lots of photos of the Skydance bridge as it’s gone up over the new Interstate 40. But have you seen it lit up? These photos were first posted at OKC Talk, and permission has been given to post them at OKC Central.
Let the Day Begin
New Views of OKC
Thanks to the NBA, an entirely new image of Oklahoma City is going out nationwide. We’ve enjoyed the Nike/Kevin Durant commercials. Now we’ve got some great new shots going out during tonight’s nationally televised NBA game on TNT thanks to the Thunder. This is a nighttime view of the new Devon Ice Rink at the Myriad Gardens I saw for the first time ever – on TNT.
Define “Major League City”
Here is one definition: when the downtown OKC skyline is prominently featured as the last image you see in a national campaign ad that is a montage of basketball being played in some of the nation’s greatest cities.
