Bartlesville - That town to the north.

[erfalf]

I know there are probably other things going on in town. Businesses opening and such, but I just wanted to touch on the recent Bond election that saw all measures pass for park improvements.

The 2018 G.O. Bond Election will include the following projects:

Price Fields Phase 3 (Quad Configuation) - $3.6 mil - adding 4 new fields and parking I believe. There has been a lot of work on this area. It's the cities megaplex of baseball diamonds. It was pretty sad looking not more than 10 years ago. This should make it to where you couldn't tell if you were in Owasso/Bixby/Jenks (any Tulsa uppity suburb) or Bartlesville.

Price Tower Green - $1.75 mil - This is actually rather ambitous, but does involve closing down a street. While a good urban planner would be against that sort of thing I would think, I really don't see this being all that big of a deal. In this part of town, I would guess this street probably gets on the order of a dozen cars passing down it a day. Silas St/5th Street dead ends anyway at the tracks and at Shawnee where the street grids mismatch. Hopefully this will help get this area utilized a bit more.



Multiple Street Rehab Projects, the most significant of which are some downtown streets.

Some other items included are lighting for soccer fields, pathfinder parkway rehab, Veteran's Park Playground and Memorial, Splash Pad @ JOhnstone Park, among other improvements to parks around town.

Also plans for an improved entry to Kiddie Park.



vs the current entrance...
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.7547499,-95.9732034,3a,75y,249.37h,86.8t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBoZmrLCc-xMbCXCxcYj6Xw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Also in town, the Boys & Girls club completed their move to their new facility at the beginning of the year. Plans for an athletic field are in the works too apparently.
https://sites.google.com/a/bps-ok.org/website/home/news/boysgirlsclubclosed127to13forbigmove



Interestingly the Cal Ripken, Sr. foundation played a part in the design and construction of this playing surface.

[shavethewhales]

Man I can't believe how much stuff has gone on in Bartlesville in the years since I have left. Did they have a complete change-over in leadership, or what? We just didn't see this kind of stuff in the two decades I was growing up there.

Seems like its always a few movers and shakers behind the scenes that really make the important stuff happen. Even with the upheaval in bartlesville's core industries they are able to pull off so much revitalization.

[erfalf]

I don't know so much about a change in leadership. I will say that the current City Council seams far more "progressive" (read willing to spend out money) than previous iterations.

As you probably know, the financial support for non-profits in this community has always been outstanding, similar to Tulsa. So projects like the Boys & Girls club came about due to huge donations, not because of civic projects.

This group of civic projects is one of the more significant I have seen in my time. Most have been just rehabbing what we already had. But in the last five years, we have added a lot of sports fields and park space, even a fishing lake (Lee Lake). And now recently retail has made a huge push, while at the same time things are looking dire at the mall. It's kind of just shuffling the deck chairs around in regards to retail if you ask me.

We've also been dealing with the constant layoff drumbeat at the companies that we shall not name. In addition, several other smaller (but major to Bartlesville) employers have announced layoffs or moving of jobs. Wal-Mart, Siemens, Sitel have all made major announcements with hundreds of employers effected. However, it just seems like someone else always comes into fill the void. As I understand it, nearly all the laid off Wal-Mart employees will be hired by a new company doing literally the same thing Wal-Mart was doing (worker comp claims/benefits I believe).

On the whole I would still say Bartlesville has some positive momentum going at the moment, even with all the job dislocation. More so than I have seen in my 12 years living here.

[TylerBGoode]

I'm super excited about the Tower Green. I really think it could be a Guthrie Green type game-changer for downtown Bartlesville.

[erfalf]

I'm super excited about the Tower Green. I really think it could be a Guthrie Green type game-changer for downtown Bartlesville.

While I would like to agree, there are some decided differences between the two. Guthrie Green is nearly in the center of the most up and coming area in all of the state. Tower Green...not so much. Outside of event nights, once or twice a month, and church on Sunday, this area is pretty devoid of any activity of any kind. Hopefully that will change. The library is across the street. My pipe dream is that they could someday turn that AT&T building into some sort of Children's museum/Art Museum, and truly make this area the cultural hub of the city. But that's incredibly unlikely. While the Price Tower has a hotel, I believe it's only like 10-15 rooms. Dewey Avenue has the potential to be a focal point for retail, the best secondary street (to Frank Phillips) in downtown anyway. Johnstone has just way too many institutional/office buildings to really get anything going. Who knows, maybe this is the beginning of something cool.

[TylerBGoode]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Guthrie Green help the Brady District become one of the most up and coming areas in the state?

I'm just excited about the possibilities. I love the fact that the Guthrie Green has become such a great family destination and I think that the Tower Green can be something similar. It may not spur a ton of retail development in the direct vicinity but it looks to be a wonderful addition to our downtown. My hope is that it gets used to its full potential by scheduling regular movie nights/concert nights as well as other activities that have been discussed. 

[TheArtist]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Guthrie Green help the Brady District become one of the most up and coming areas in the state?

I'm just excited about the possibilities. I love the fact that the Guthrie Green has become such a great family destination and I think that the Tower Green can be something similar. It may not spur a ton of retail development in the direct vicinity but it looks to be a wonderful addition to our downtown. My hope is that it gets used to its full potential by scheduling regular movie nights/concert nights as well as other activities that have been discussed.  

The key to that is the city or some philanthropic entity putting up the time and money to keep the park in good shape and very importantly doing lots of programing and promotion.  Its not the space, its all the other stuff that makes it active that  keeps the people coming.

[erfalf]

I think I have mentioned this before, but Shortie's Food Truck had previously openned a fixed location on Frank Phillips. Last year they announced they were moving into the garage space behind the Pioneer Building on Dewey. Literally you access this place from the alley. I have already been several times (as I am a sucker for their street tacos) and it's actually pretty cool. The food truck is actually the kitchen and they just hand the food to servers through the window. I have never seen anything like this to date, but it seems brilliant. Not sure what kind of codes the building must adhere to or if that would ever be a problem. No kitchen inside though so I figure that has to make things a bit easier.





Also, a new fancy pants coffee house has opened.



And the tiny, well little, houses are coming along on the west side.

[Conan71]

I think I have mentioned this before, but Shortie's Food Truck had previously openned a fixed location on Frank Phillips. Last year they announced they were moving into the garage space behind the Pioneer Building on Dewey. Literally you access this place from the alley. I have already been several times (as I am a sucker for their street tacos) and it's actually pretty cool. The food truck is actually the kitchen and they just hand the food to servers through the window. I have never seen anything like this to date, but it seems brilliant. Not sure what kind of codes the building must adhere to or if that would ever be a problem. No kitchen inside though so I figure that has to make things a bit easier.





Also, a new fancy pants coffee house has opened.



And the tiny, well little, houses are coming along on the west side.

Nice stuff going on there in Bartlesville.

A restaurant opened in Mosquero, NM (Population 94) about 90 miles from here in roughly a 2000' square foot open span building.  Instead of a costly kitchen build-out, they brought in a food trailer, re-habbed the bathrooms and brought in a bunch of tables.  It's an all sanitary set up and much cheaper than trying to bring an old building up to sanitary and plumbing codes.  That kind of thinking would help many more businesses in brick districts I'm sure, so long as the buildings are structurally sound.

[heironymouspasparagus]

At risk of causing you dismay and consternation, that looks very cool and we will get up there as soon as we can!  Also want to see the tiny houses...

[erfalf]

At risk of causing you dismay and consternation, that looks very cool and we will get up there as soon as we can!  Also want to see the tiny houses...

I know this may be hard to believe, but I do draw the line and am pleasant to everyone regardless of background (or opinions  ).

Are there no little house developments in Tulsa. Not that I'm trying to steer you away, but I am genuinely curious.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I know this may be hard to believe, but I do draw the line and am pleasant to everyone regardless of background (or opinions  ).

Are there no little house developments in Tulsa. Not that I'm trying to steer you away, but I am genuinely curious.

Haven't heard of any.  The realtor/builder/property tax collective is too strong, I think.  Limits to minimum sq ft you can build - not sure about current, but a dozen years ago or so I was asking about it and heard 1,500 sq ft min.  Hearsay so if any knows for sure, would appreciate the input.

[erfalf]

So really REALLY sad news. Yocham's Custom Leather Furniture Store has burned to the ground, literally. Lightning strike caused the blaze in the early hours. Fortunately no one was injured (that I am aware of).

If you have never been before you really missed something really unique in this state. They still hand made saddles and other ranching related leather products. You could walk right in and watch as long as you wanted. I personally couldn't afford any of the big furniture pieces but they are of the utmost quality I am told. My prior employer outfitted their office with furniture from there (they were working a western motif) and it was nice to put it mildly.

[erfalf]

So in happier news, The Johnstone-Sare Building is starting to market the apartments in their building. They admittedly are pretty impressive. They are calling them the Jewel Box Hotel Apartments.






There are many more pictures on their Facebook page. Look to easily be the nicest downtown. And in a building that arguably has the most activity with feet of the front door. https://www.facebook.com/JohnstoneSare/

Elsewhere downtown, Boomerang Diner is moving into the former Shortie's spot on Frank Phillips. Simple Simon's Pizza moved into the former Quench-Bud's space in the Rogers State Building (because we needed more pizza downtown). Level 8 VR moved into part of the space where Hopestone Cancer Support center used to be in the Keeler Building. Jay's Automotive moved one block east into the former Oakley dealership garage on Cherokee and 2nd (much better space for them).

And Tinker's Glass House is really coming along (I see it everyday). Really hoping this place does well. It's east of the main part of downtown so traffic moves MUCH faster in front of this place. And there is really no parking. I know in big cities (my example is Michigan Ave in Detroit) you have to park in neighborhoods and this is totally acceptable. But here I'm not so sure it's going to work. My office parking lot is across the street and apparently the owner has been approached about parking. But then you would still have to cross a street that has absolutely no slowing mechanism and terrible sight lines coming from the west where everyone is speeding up around the corner. I hope of all things parking isn't what dooms this place.

Another sad though, longtime lone retail spot downtown Sweet P's closed down. The owner finally decided to retire and obviously didn't have anyone to hand off the business too. This place had been there as long as I have lived here and even expanded next door not that long ago to make space for an expansive high end consignment furniture business.

[heironymouspasparagus]

So really REALLY sad news. Yocham's Custom Leather Furniture Store has burned to the ground, literally. Lightning strike caused the blaze in the early hours. Fortunately no one was injured (that I am aware of).

If you have never been before you really missed something really unique in this state. They still hand made saddles and other ranching related leather products. You could walk right in and watch as long as you wanted. I personally couldn't afford any of the big furniture pieces but they are of the utmost quality I am told. My prior employer outfitted their office with furniture from there (they were working a western motif) and it was nice to put it mildly.

That is sooo sad!!   It was also such a cool looking building!!