CORE Downtown Tulsa

[carltonplace]

Anyone know who these folks are? Sounds like CORE and TulsaNow share some synergy

TULSA WORLD 1/26/06
Building preservation pushed
By ROBERT EVATT World Staff Writer
1/26/2006

A group opposes razing downtown structures to make way for parking lots.
Though many people are focused on the future of downtown Tulsa, an organization is urging developers not to erase its past.

A group called Current Opportunities to Reinvent and Energize Downtown Tulsa, or CORE Downtown Tulsa, recommends keeping as many historic buildings intact as possible rather than bulldozing them for parking lots, group representative Bruce Bolzle said Wednesday at a breakfast sponsored by the Tulsa chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.

"Downtown is where our community began," he said. "We just can't ignore or forget it."

The group's efforts were launched in October during a presentation by the Tulsa Preservation Commission to the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission.

Bolzle said the downtown area has lost a number of landmarks over the decades, including the original Tulsa County Courthouse, the Ritz Theater, the Skelly Building and the Cimar ron Ballroom.

Most of the razed buildings have been turned into parking lots, but that has not alleviated the gripes of motorists who drive downtown, Bolzle said.



"After 50 years of actions to create more parking areas, Tulsans still think there's no place to park downtown," he said.

Bolzle added that the average downtown block with buildings on it is assessed by Tulsa County at $1.6 million, while a block that consists of a large parking lot is valued at $676,000.

He said CORE Downtown Tulsa wants to address multiple issues as people seek to improve the area.

"Our goals are to preserve our historic buildings, answer pressing questions on parking and ask what we can do now," Bolzle said.

Specifically, CORE Downtown Tulsa hopes to do a comprehensive survey of buildings, promote residential development, improve coordination between public and private interests, issue a moratorium on building demolition and research other cities' attempts at revitalization.

Bolzle said successful efforts by other cities to improve their downtown areas have included some form of historic preservation.



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