My trip to NYC

[TheArtist]

  Well, just got back from my first trip to NYC.  Though lived upstate in NY for a few years while in the Army, never got down to the City.  Was there for about a week and absolutely, totally enjoyed every day there. Now I have been to big cities before; London, Paris, Cairo,,,, but hadn't been to one since coming on here, learning about urban design, and working with folks to try and get Tulsa to be more pedestrian/mass transit friendly (have been to Houston recently which is a big city but not at all like NYC especially when it comes to being pedestrian friendly).

 First off want to note that being pedestrian/transit friendly isn't the sole pervue of BIG cities.  One of my favorite, pedestrian friendly, places to visit is little Santa Fe for instance.  

 But here is my take on having gotten to visit NYC and having walked aaaaall over the place.   LOVED IT!

Couple little things I noticed....

Distances change, as in after a while I suprisingly found myself saying things like  "Oh, its only about a mile away, lets walk."  You would, for the most part, simply not do that here.    

 You will pass by more interesting stuff in just a few blocks there than you will driving for miles here. More places to shop, eat, work, live, etc.  There is SO much to see.

 You enjoy walking.   Let me reiterate.  You ENJOY walking.  You ENJOY... exercise lol.  Going some places was fun.  Far more fun than driving places here.  One thing I noticed when I got back was how lonely and desolate it seemed here. You drive around and don't see people. Its kind of sad and depressing actually in comparison to all the life and the people you see there.

 Speaking of people, we found them to be quite nice and friendly.  They would often go out of the way to help you. Now granted, I got the feeling that if you were on the street headed some where and you try to ask directions or something of someone else who is also obviously heading some where, well, its hit and miss.  But as soon as people were stopped and were at some place, on the train, in a store, etc. they were just as chatty and friendly as people here, perhaps more so.  Also, I am old enough to remember hearing about how "bad" NYC was.  But I have heard a lot about how NYC has cleaned itself up, cracked down on petty things like jaywalking etc.  The bad was what I was still expecting, even though I have heard that things are different now.  What I found during my brief stay was the clean, friendly, safe feeling NYC.

 Weather... It did get kind of hot there a few days and is definitely humid.  But even here I found some pedestrian friendly things to take note of as we try to make parts of our city more pedestrian friendly and encourage more people to walk.

 The shady side of the street was cooler, and with decently sized buildings, there was always a shady side of the street lol. Obvious, but to many "suburban/sprawl city" dwellers, not always something some seem to be aware of.  Trees really helped, a lot.  Narrower streets were MUCH cooler than wider streets.  There were a few areas in the city where there were some buildings that were obviously built in the 70's or 80's that were not pedestrian friendly, were set back, had large, blank walls and that had some wider roads... You would walk from a wonderful street and look out onto such spaces and immediately look for an alternate route.  Fortunately there werent many of those bad spots and there were always plenty of interesting, alternate routes.        

 Now for a couple of non-urban design comments.

The food was WONDERFUL.  I did not eat one single thing the entire time I was there that I had ever had here.  Close, like I did have pizza one day, but it wasn't like any pizza here. Tooo Diiiie For.   Canolies... O M G.  We had dinner and drinks at an Italian place that was basically shared appetizers of different cheeses, I have GOT to find some of those cheeses here, meats, jams and sauces you put on the meats and cheeses, and breads and bruschetta.  Delectable.  Had dumpling soup in Chinatown.  The soup was IN the dumplings. Very interesting to try and eat.  Ate breakfast at one place and had Eggs Benedict.  Perfectly done, you could tell the egg was opened and drop boiled and swirled in the water, not the typical lump you find here, the side of fruit was even perfect. Every bite of fruit was not a bit sour or too old, but perfectly sweet and ripened.  And this appeared to be an average place, nothing special.  I could go on and on but will spare you.

Shopping... What can I say.  Clothing, ran the entire gamut from super expensive $15,000 and up, sweaters and jackets, to very affordable.  H&M was one of the less expensive discoveries, they had very stylish and very cheap stuff, cheaper than Wal-Mart, but trendy and stylish. Plus, my favorite thing... they had pants that FIT ME!  29 x 34 pants, no problem.  Euro/Athletic cut shirts and jackets, were the usual.  

Anywhoo,,, nough of all of that.  Here are just a few of the pics I took.  Mostly Art Deco of course lol.  There are more Art Deco Buildings in NYC than there are buldings in Tulsa.  Not exaggerating.  Sorry bout the quality of the pics, only had a little pocket camera.    

View from where we were staying in Weehawkin.  Shows about a third of the skyline. Off to the far right, not in the photo, was were the financial district started.
 

Looking down to the financial district which would be on the far top of the photo. The bright building near the top right is the new Freedom Tower.


Looking the opposite direction.


Sure you have all seen pics of the Empire lobby, but I had never seen this neat skybridge in one of the hallways.


Front of a deco skyscraper


Neat grate in another building.














NYC is definitely going to be one of those places I visit regularly.

[BKDotCom]

Artist,
Have you been to Boston?

I visited NYC in 2001..  And I visited Boston last year.   I found Boston to be a much neater and more pedestrian-friendly city.   Of the large US cities I've visited (NYC, LA, Boston, SF, Seattle, and Houston), Boston is at the top of my list.   The architecture can't compete with NYC though

[Red Arrow]

 Though lived upstate in NY for a few years while in the Army, never got down to the City.

I can relate to that.  I used to live in suburban Philadelphia, PA (no secret to anyone here). One time I went to the Customs house to get some nautical charts of the Intracoastal Waterway.  I walked right past Independence Hall and thought I need to stop in sometime and see the Liberty Bell sometime.  Never did do it and now I live here.

[hello]

H&M is on my list of dream stores for Tulsa to get, as well as CB2. 

[TheArtist]

  Was actually thinking that some place like Boston or Philadelphia might be one of my next US trips to take. 

Either way, one of the points that I would like to make is that good, pedestrian friendly areas are an absolute delight and I think they could be a big asset to Tulsa.  And they aren't just for "young people" who want to live downtown as many people here often say are the ones who may want to live in downtown Tulsa.  NYC was full of aaaall kinds of people and of all ages. 

What I don't want to see for Tulsa is for it to have a downtown like say Dallas.  You can grow a lot and it not turn out to be pedestrian friendly.  The Tulsa area can indeed still have the potential to have all the sprawl and growth it wants, but infill wise for the heart of Tulsa itself, I would really like to see good, superb, high quality, pedestrian friendly/transit friendly growth.  And its not going to happen naturally.  Its not going to happen naturally in the middle of our car oriented culture.

I want the best for Tulsa.  I think we can do better and make ourselves very attractive and competitive.  We are at the point in our development where we can make a few changes and descisions that can evolve our city into one thats absolutely wonderful.... or not.  Plain and simple, its a choice.  You either make the descision to do it, or you do not.

Are we going to choose to have our little downtown be high quality, pedestrian friendly, or not?

[TheArtist]

H&M is on my list of dream stores for Tulsa to get, as well as CB2.  

One of our friends commented that H&M is kind of like the Ikea of clothing.  What a coup if we could get either in Tulsa lol. Would definitely help Tulsa become one of the regional draws as "the place to shop".   We get the museum/entertainment district going along with that.  Then you will get peoples attention.  Of course I am a fan of locally/organically grown shopping too.  But would love to see that happen in the middle of a really good pedestrian friendly downtown area.

One of my favorite finds in NYC was Efor. http://www.eformen.com/eformen/default.asp  It was their only store in the US.  They had stuff that fit tall skinny people like me.   You know how you go into a store around here and see something on a mannequin in the window or on a photo of a model that looks like it will fit?  Then you go into the store and they don't and look at the back of the mannequin and see that the shirt is actually pulled back and clamped in the back lol?  Not so much in NYC.  The stuff actually fit the way it looked in most of the stores there.  Efor you would pick the shirt or jacket up and it was V shaped, and there were no clamps on the back of the mannequins either lol.  

 Btw, the people walking the streets in NYC compared to the ones walking the Wal-Marts here.... night and day.  You could probably find as many over weight people in one Wal-Mart check out line here as I saw the entire time I was in NYC.   Walking apparently keeps you slim.  Who da thought?  Wouldn't it be nice to have places here where you could get out and really, really enjoy a good long walk?  Not for a moment be bored?  I think I actually toned up a bit and lost some weight the week I was there.  And it wasn't work, it was enjoyable.  You wanted to get out and walk there.  Kind of like here where I like to go and take a drive lol. But the walks were far more enjoyable than the drives here.  So much more to see.  And good pedestrian streets are designed to be interesting. They don't have big blank walls. There are windows and doors at street level. There is interesting architecture at street level, even on contemporary buildings. And of course you can't beat the people watching.

[Conan71]

Deco?  What is that?

Wow! Some great examples you provided.  Sounds like it was a great trip!

[custosnox]

Artist,
Have you been to Boston?

I visited NYC in 2001..  And I visited Boston last year.   I found Boston to be a much neater and more pedestrian-friendly city.   Of the large US cities I've visited (NYC, LA, Boston, SF, Seattle, and Houston), Boston is at the top of my list.   The architecture can't compete with NYC though

I'll be heading to Boston in less than two weeks, would love any insight as to where to go while there.  I only have one free day to actually do anything, though the freedom trail is being covered another day.

Just got back from Seattle a couple of months ago and that place is all about pedestrian friendly as well.  I was thoroughly empressed with their public transportation system, but I was able to get even the most overweight of our group to walk to the convention center from the hotel, even though it was just under a mile away.  It's amazing how much of a difference the streetscape can make.

[Ronnie Lowe]

Artist, you didn't mention Soho or the galleries on 57th Street or the art auctions or the Museums.  Is the East Village still bustling with little cutting edge galleries with emerging artists?

There really is nothing else like New York City.  It sets the standard.  I lived there for a few years in the early 80s on 34th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues.  New York was and still is the center of the world.   And it is the place to make your mark if you want it to count in a worldly sort of way.  One could go on citing all its many virtues but here's a short list of what New Yorkers would have to come to Tulsa to find:

-A place to rest and let down their hair
-An old fashioned state fair
-A roadside stand with ripe tomatoes and Porter Peaches
-Room to stretch out
-Kid friendly environment

[erfalf]

I spent a couple of months interning in New York in 2005. I was also extremely impressed with the cleanliness of the city. That perception was totally inaccurate. I also found myself saying "It's only 25 blocks". The other perception that was completely blown out of the water was the neighborhood like feeling. I rented a place on the eastside in midtown. Everyone that goes to New York goes to 5th and Madison Ave and those areas are crazy busy. My neighborhood, however, was filled with local restaurants, tiny markets, dog walkers and baby mamas with strollers. It was a total shock. It was not a 24/7 environment everywhere, it was predominantly a residential area, where people want to live not party. The weekends were nice and quit.

I'm no expert in creating a great downtown, but I know that Tulsa will never be like New York. Being land locked created much of what is New York. Also, New York was build predominantly when people lived in really little apartments and cars weren't even a dream yet. Plus the amount of poor people that were housed in that city created thousands of tiny little apartments for them to live in. Gentrification has turned that New York into its current form.

Building a city like this in today's economy is near impossible. It doesn't hurt that every other Fortune 500 company is headquartered in New York. Tulsa on the other hand isn't even the primary location for companies in our top sector of energy, or aerospace either.

I am a huge property rights advocate; so much of this downtown planning is hard for me to get on board with. But if you could just show/convince people that including commercial space at street level would be a huge benefit for the company. It is long term thinking, but it would help more than anything else to get an area active all day.

[rdj]

When my office was downtown it was no thing to walk the 5-6 blocks to the Blue Dome District for lunch or park in my garage and walk the 6-7 blocks to the BOK center for an event.  For some reason now that my office is out south walking a block to the closest restaurant is a chore!  And, its only been 90 days!  Funny how perception changes when cars are zooming by, you don't have a parking lane to protect you, your car is an easy out/easy in and you don't have a building wall along the way.  To paraphrase Jack Crowley, downtown gives you the sense of place you don't have in a suburban area and encourages you to get out and explore.

[TheArtist]

I spent a couple of months interning in New York in 2005. I was also extremely impressed with the cleanliness of the city. That perception was totally inaccurate. I also found myself saying "It's only 25 blocks". The other perception that was completely blown out of the water was the neighborhood like feeling. I rented a place on the eastside in midtown. Everyone that goes to New York goes to 5th and Madison Ave and those areas are crazy busy. My neighborhood, however, was filled with local restaurants, tiny markets, dog walkers and baby mamas with strollers. It was a total shock. It was not a 24/7 environment everywhere, it was predominantly a residential area, where people want to live not party. The weekends were nice and quit.

I'm no expert in creating a great downtown, but I know that Tulsa will never be like New York. Being land locked created much of what is New York. Also, New York was build predominantly when people lived in really little apartments and cars weren't even a dream yet. Plus the amount of poor people that were housed in that city created thousands of tiny little apartments for them to live in. Gentrification has turned that New York into its current form.

Building a city like this in today's economy is near impossible. It doesn't hurt that every other Fortune 500 company is headquartered in New York. Tulsa on the other hand isn't even the primary location for companies in our top sector of energy, or aerospace either.

I am a huge property rights advocate; so much of this downtown planning is hard for me to get on board with. But if you could just show/convince people that including commercial space at street level would be a huge benefit for the company. It is long term thinking, but it would help more than anything else to get an area active all day.

Property rights....  I get what your saying, but no matter what part of town or city your in, they still have some rules of some sort on development.  In south Tulsa you have to have a certain number of parking places, a certain amount of greenery, etc. for instance.  Why not exchange those types of rules for a different set of ones that say, build up to the sidewalk and have entrances/windows on your "A" pedestrian friendly streets?  New suburban neighborhoods often have rules, just make a different set of ones for new urban infill ones.

True we can't be like NYC, and I wouldn't want us to be.  But we can be better than we are.  One of the things a poster mentioned above was "Kid friendly environments".  Someone once told me that if you can make an urban area thats both pedestrian friendly, and kid friendly, you will have a place that everyone will enjoy.  If you keep children in mind when designing your urban areas it will steer you in the right direction.  One thing that I think NYC was missing compared to say Paris was lots of small parks.  Now would be a good time for Tulsa to lay out where in downtown its parks could be.  It would then be nice to have midrise living around some of them for they then become "eyes on the street" or park.  All those windows with people looking out on the park day and night help create a safer environment.  Put in retail and a bustling sidewalk on the lower levels adds a little more.  Thus you have a safer park for the kids, for everyone.  

We say where living, parks, highways, residential streets, retail, industry etc. can be in other parts of the city.  Basically a downtown area is an entire city in microcosm so everything is on a condensed scale.  In a downtown, some streets we may want to be our "A" pedestrian friendly streets. These others can be "B" streets with parking garages along it or large structures like a convention center, have perhaps one way streets leading to highways, even drive throughs.  These other areas can be for living, have parks, etc.  All of the areas we can have mixed use, like retail below and living above (where as they are illegal in most other parts of the city).  We are ok with what seems to be the norm, the usual set of rules for suburban living, but when it comes to making a set of rules that helps an urban environment work well,  we then wonder about property rights.   You could say that the number of "property rights infringements" may be exactly the same, or even less in an urban area, just different set than what we are used to in the suburban areas. 

I think its probably illegal for me to put in a shop or art gallery in my home in the neighborhood where I live.  I don't even think its legal for me to put in another house or apartment behind mine, though there is plenty of room.

[SXSW]

I want the best for Tulsa.  I think we can do better and make ourselves very attractive and competitive.  We are at the point in our development where we can make a few changes and descisions that can evolve our city into one thats absolutely wonderful.... or not.  Plain and simple, its a choice.  You either make the descision to do it, or you do not.

Are we going to choose to have our little downtown be high quality, pedestrian friendly, or not?

Right now we are choosing not to be.  Case in point the new CVS at 21st & Harvard, the Blockbuster at 36th & Peoria, the auto-oriented design of Tulsa Hills, and others.  It will take more weight on the small areas plans and zoning code in general before that changes.

[Red Arrow]

... the auto-oriented design of Tulsa Hills,

Tulsa Hills requires an auto but is at the same time auto un-friendly in the parking lot and traffic flow layout.

[DolfanBob]

Tulsa Hills requires an auto but is at the same time auto un-friendly in the parking lot and traffic flow layout.

You got that right. I have only been out there twice and have no desire to return unless absolutly necessary.