(PROJECT) A Gathering Place For Tulsa

[rebound]

guido didn't describe it quite right - it was much more than "just fine".  It was one of those little things that added together with others makes a city an interesting destination point.  Riverside Drive used to be an exceptional, quirky, nice road feature in an otherwise homogenous, boring landscape of roads/traffic lights.  Tulsa screwed the pooch in a BIG way with the unrestrained rush to "development" and ruined it.  OKC has/had nothing like it.  Most cities don't - they sold out to the traffic light mentality decades ago.

It was our version of the Seattle Troll.... but with real value as a transportation lane that actually got people to an fro.   Now,.... well, it's just another road....

I guess I've just never been enamored with the type of drive you describe.  For example, I've spent a ton of time in San Francisco and a lot of people really like to cruise the Embarcadaro.  But I'd rather be one of the ones I see on a bike or jogging on the trails rather than touring it in a car.  (Actually have done that, pretty cool area once you slow down and enjoy it...) 

Obviously JMHO, but I'd rather slow it down and see the area full of parks and trails and other activities, and water in the river, than a fast multi-lane thoroughfare.   

[Just threw the "water in the river" piece in to annoy people...  ]

[Conan71]

I guess I've just never been enamored with the type of drive you describe.  For example, I've spent a ton of time in San Francisco and a lot of people really like to cruise the Embarcadaro.  But I'd rather be one of the ones I see on a bike or jogging on the trails rather than touring it in a car.  (Actually have done that, pretty cool area once you slow down and enjoy it...) 

Obviously JMHO, but I'd rather slow it down and see the area full of parks and trails and other activities, and water in the river, than a fast multi-lane thoroughfare.   

[Just threw the "water in the river" piece in to annoy people...  ]

I'd rather ride down the middle of 111th st at 15 mph and really piss Guido off.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I guess I've just never been enamored with the type of drive you describe.  For example, I've spent a ton of time in San Francisco and a lot of people really like to cruise the Embarcadaro.  But I'd rather be one of the ones I see on a bike or jogging on the trails rather than touring it in a car.  (Actually have done that, pretty cool area once you slow down and enjoy it...) 

Obviously JMHO, but I'd rather slow it down and see the area full of parks and trails and other activities, and water in the river, than a fast multi-lane thoroughfare.   

[Just threw the "water in the river" piece in to annoy people...  ]

We like the car ride as well as the motor bike and pedal bike rides.  The big benefit we see to the car ride is we can get a "taste" of the experience when in a limited time-frame; would rather get 20 minutes of that than miss out completely due to lack of 2 hours to ride/walk.  And rides like the Tallgrass Prairie are certainly viable for Harley and/or bicycle, but take more time than we generally have available.  And riding on 15 miles of gravel kind of takes some of the "relaxation" factor out of it.  Vacation is for Harley rides, and casual pedaling around is for bicycle....we don't do serious pedal bike anymore.

Yeah, Riverside is just a city street, but before any of the lights and all the "improvements" for traffic control, it was a nice ride where you could just set the cruise on about 30 - 35 and except for rush hour, have a nice ride past the park areas there - similar to the walk/bike thing, but in a car.  I don't remember ever walking more than just a few hundred yards on the trails, but have ridden a bike there quite a bit and I think it is magnificent!!  Way better than anything OKC has!

Rush hour was always a 50 mph mess on Riverside road.  Still is.

[Conan71]

We like the car ride as well as the motor bike and pedal bike rides.  The big benefit we see to the car ride is we can get a "taste" of the experience when in a limited time-frame; would rather get 20 minutes of that than miss out completely due to lack of 2 hours to ride/walk.  And rides like the Tallgrass Prairie are certainly viable for Harley and/or bicycle, but take more time than we generally have available.  And riding on 15 miles of gravel kind of takes some of the "relaxation" factor out of it.  Vacation is for Harley rides, and casual pedaling around is for bicycle....we don't do serious pedal bike anymore.

Yeah, Riverside is just a city street, but before any of the lights and all the "improvements" for traffic control, it was a nice ride where you could just set the cruise on about 30 - 35 and except for rush hour, have a nice ride past the park areas there - similar to the walk/bike thing, but in a car.  I don't remember ever walking more than just a few hundred yards on the trails, but have ridden a bike there quite a bit and I think it is magnificent!!  Way better than anything OKC has!

Rush hour was always a 50 mph mess on Riverside road.  Still is.

"Gravel grinding" has become hugely popular now.  There's a 200 mile race starting in Emporia, Ks. called Dirty Kanza 200 that is run in May.  Stillwater has a race which is really growing called "The Land Run 100".  Oklahoma has some great gravel roads for pedaling.  Frames are very similar to road bikes, but the forks and rear stays are set wider to accommodate wider tires as well as disc brakes or cantilever brakes rather than the standard road brake.  Tires are similar to "commuter" tires.  

I personally enjoy it more than riding pavement any more for the simple fact there's far less traffic to deal with though there is the occasional overly friendly farm dog or bridge out no one knew about.  I have a horrible fear of heights so I elected to carry my bike over briars to the creek bed 25 feet below and portage over a beaver dam.  This was out NW of Bristow last weekend.

[Townsend]

It's a Taco Bueno.

Thumbs up emoticon

[Townsend]

I'd rather ride down the middle of 111th st at 15 mph and really piss Guido off.

Stay off my street, grill meat.

[heironymouspasparagus]

"Gravel grinding" has become hugely popular now.  There's a 200 mile race starting in Emporia, Ks. called Dirty Kanza 200 that is run in May.  Stillwater has a race which is really growing called "The Land Run 100".  Oklahoma has some great gravel roads for pedaling.  Frames are very similar to road bikes, but the forks and rear stays are set wider to accommodate wider tires as well as disc brakes or cantilever brakes rather than the standard road brake.  Tires are similar to "commuter" tires.  

I personally enjoy it more than riding pavement any more for the simple fact there's far less traffic to deal with though there is the occasional overly friendly farm dog or bridge out no one knew about.  I have a horrible fear of heights so I elected to carry my bike over briars to the creek bed 25 feet below and portage over a beaver dam.  This was out NW of Bristow last weekend.

I made a ride on the HD one summer (Aug) through Death Valley, several months after spring rains had washed out the road - 12 miles of coarse gravel on the back of the "air cooled" heater - at 124 degrees outside air temp.  It put me off any kind of gravel for a long, long time - on any 2 wheeled conveyance.  I have noticed in the last 3 or 4 years while car driving some of our gravel roads that they looked like they would be fun on a bicycle.  Glad to get your input on that - I didn't even know where to start to look at it....

Nice picture - looks like a bridge at about mile 156 on the Turner Turnpike that they finally replaced a few years ago!!  Bristow, huh?  Used to be a nice little barbeque place there that we would go to once in a while....can't remember the name, but it was outside town, I think on southeast side....  I think it started with a B.   ?

The bikes in your pic look kinda conventional...are they setup that way you are talking about??

[Conan71]

I made a ride on the HD one summer (Aug) through Death Valley, several months after spring rains had washed out the road - 12 miles of coarse gravel on the back of the "air cooled" heater - at 124 degrees outside air temp.  It put me off any kind of gravel for a long, long time - on any 2 wheeled conveyance.  I have noticed in the last 3 or 4 years while car driving some of our gravel roads that they looked like they would be fun on a bicycle.  Glad to get your input on that - I didn't even know where to start to look at it....

Nice picture - looks like a bridge at about mile 156 on the Turner Turnpike that they finally replaced a few years ago!!  Bristow, huh?  Used to be a nice little barbeque place there that we would go to once in a while....can't remember the name, but it was outside town, I think on southeast side....  I think it started with a B.   ?

The bikes in your pic look kinda conventional...are they setup that way you are talking about??

Those are all gravel bikes or cyclocross bikes.  Basically a road frame geometry which will take the wider knobby tires.  The tires I use are more of a file tread with very small tits and larger knobs on the side for better cornering.  Less drag.  Typical road tires are 700 x 19 or 23.  Most gravel guys prefer a 700 x 34 to 40.  40 is about a 1" wide tread patch.  Much more than that and you are into mountain bike territory on tires.

The only BBQ place I can think of in Bristow was in the south part of downtown right where 66 cuts back west.  It's gone now.

Sorry for the sidetrack folks, oh Marshall's is doing growler fills from noon to 6 today of their Mosaic IPA.

[Ed W]

After interviewing Dewey and Paul Zachary, head of the city's engineering services, City Auditor Cathy Criswell cleared his honor the mayor of ethics complaints.

I can only imagine the conversation was something like, "Did you commit any ethics violations in squashing this proposed sidewalk?"

"No, I did not."

"Thanks, I'm glad."

In today's Whirled:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/government/city-auditor-clears-tulsa-mayor-of-ethics-violation-in-riverside/article_1c685363-506c-5923-88ef-e0af49cb6c62.html

[Townsend]

Some Building Underway at the Gathering Place

http://publicradiotulsa.org/post/some-building-underway-gathering-place

There's a new building going up at the site of the under-construction Gathering Place.

Project manager Jeff Stava says the temporary office building will have space for Manhattan Construction — the company building the park — and everyone else involved.

"They'll have their procurement people, their site supervision, a lot of their costing and administrative type folks, so there will be a lot of people there," Stava said. "Plus our architects, MVVA, will have an office there, the foundation will have an office, too."

The 7,200 square foot building is 19 feet tall. It will be at 31st Street and Boston Place. The temporary metal building will be gussied up a bit.

"On the exterior, to the north and on the east side, we're actually putting up 3.5 feet of a stone veneer, and then it's got a shake-shingle board — that's kind of a painted board that's used then," Stava said. "And then we put shutters on all the windows to kind of make it fit in."

Right now workers are laying the foundation and running utilities.

"And by the end of the month — we'll continue to work and get the interior built out — but by the end of the month, the first of January, we should have it complete," Stava said.

The metal building will be torn down when the park is complete in 2017. Stava said it can be reused. There may be some lane closures on 31st Street while it's being built.

[PonderInc]

I couldn't be at the "Dive Bar" town hall on sidewalks tonight.  If anyone was able to go, I'd really like to hear how it went.  Any new info about Dooey's unintelligent intransigence re: a sidewalk for Riverside?  Any more discussion about the ridiculous widening of Riverside and how it will increase traffic speed?  (For me, this relates directly to the sidewalk issue.)

[rdj]

I heard something about he is now proposing a redesign of Riverside Dr to accommodate the sidewalk.  Was this discussed last night?

[carltonplace]

Did you guys see this hilarious vidja that some of the neighbors produced?

http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2014/12/3/friday-news-digest-12514?utm_content=buffer1fd65&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[AngieB]

With all those cars that are apparently jumping the curb all along the way, I am surprised there are any fences or trees left! 

[dbacksfan 2.0]

About 2:45 in they show Bob and Jodi Pielsticker. Any relation to Arrow Trucking?

Also, you can see in this photo how terrified people are of cars going past at 50mph.

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.5706251,-111.90437,3a,75y,156.56h,77.95t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sLrAKsK-d3bTOsQfzdyJbqw!2e0?hl=en