kendall whittier/lweis/6th/demolition

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Lol...Good Lord....

What is "lol"? Do you ever have anything useful to add to the discussion?

[DTowner]

Can you blame TU for trying to close it off and keep their students safer with all of the crime, especially from nearby Kendall-Whittier district? Car breakins and thefts have been a big issue for a while. Having it as closed off as possible lowers access. TU is a private university and while the campus is semi-public, they don't want random vagrants or potential thieves walking through. They want those who aren't supposed to be there to feel unwelcome. Rebuilding Kendall-Whittier helps with that.

Agree.

With TU's entrance off of 11th, it is far more connected to the surrounding neighborhood than it was in the past.  Plus, with so many students now living on campus, the look and feel is so much better from when I was there and living at 5th & Delaware in the late 1980s.

[Townsend]

What is "lol"? Do you ever have anything useful to add to the discussion?

Breadburner always writes that.  It's like a spasm reaction on the keyboard.

[SXSW]

Agree.

With TU's entrance off of 11th, it is far more connected to the surrounding neighborhood than it was in the past.  Plus, with so many students now living on campus, the look and feel is so much better from when I was there and living at 5th & Delaware in the late 1980s.

Kendall-Whittier is safer now than it was a decade ago when TU built the apartments on 11th.  I would hope that if that project was planned now it would be something less closed-off and mixed-use at least along 11th.  

[davideinstein]

Can you blame TU for trying to close it off and keep their students safer with all of the crime, especially from nearby Kendall-Whittier district? Car breakins and thefts have been a big issue for a while. Having it as closed off as possible lowers access. TU is a private university and while the campus is semi-public, they don't want random vagrants or potential thieves walking through. They want those who aren't supposed to be there to feel unwelcome. Rebuilding Kendall-Whittier helps with that.

Most universities make the area around them better. TU puts up a fence around their entire campus, builds suburban apartments within and has security guard at every corner. I enjoy the people that go there but there are a lot of decisions made that hurt the community when they could be the change in the area. Just my $0.02

Edit: I don't think TU is bad for Tulsa at all, I just think they could be more forward thinking.

[davideinstein]

What is "lol"? Do you ever have anything useful to add to the discussion?

No, he doesn't.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Most universities make the area around them better. TU puts up a fence around their entire campus, builds suburban apartments within and has security guard at every corner. I enjoy the people that go there but there are a lot of decisions made that hurt the community when they could be the change in the area. Just my $0.02

Edit: I don't think TU is bad for Tulsa at all, I just think they could be more forward thinking.

I love UofMinn in Minneapolis and how it interacts with the area around it (trolley, urban downtown core, bike paths connecting everything) but most universities are a bit closed off from the cities as would be expected.

TU is closed off but it is because of being so close to rough neighborhoods for so long. 11th st is not the most sightly road. I don't see how they could open up anymore that wouldn't give even more access to thieves and vagrants. Maybe with the new developments west, they will open up that way a little better. But it is far from the core of TU. The fences along 11th have plenty of gates and students walk to QT all of the time. It is easy to press the button to cross 11th and enter the new U. I've never had an issue walking or bicycling to TU. It is a great area for that.

Whittier park is connected to the TU apartments by gate though and they are big stakeholders in the West Park developments (where 20+ units are leased to TU grad students). At least 1 professor bought one of the new places by Capital Homes. I see TU investing heavily in the area around it along with the Brady District Zarrow Center, Gilcrease Museum (a MASSIVE undertaking which got the $60 million in funding to expand) along with the Medical Center going into the old Blue Cross building downtown (http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/tu-to-locate-oxley-college-of-health-sciences-downtown/article_1b550411-c412-5a85-9557-f548708ce36f.html)

TU has "True Blue Neighbors" which focuses on community engagement  http://trueblueneighbors.com/ which provides many volunteering and services including tutoring of Whittier schools. They have a child development center and have helped the Kendall-Whittier school tremendously.

Besides GKFF and the other major non-profits (where that is their primary purpose), it is tough to find another institution helping Tulsa as much as TU is, especially no other academic institution (looking at you, ORU).

[johrasephoenix]

TU really needs a campus corner on 11th street.  If there was a way to calm traffic on 11th and put some student oriented shops/bars/restaurants in you could have a fun little strip. 

[Conan71]

TU really needs a campus corner on 11th street.  If there was a way to calm traffic on 11th and put some student oriented shops/bars/restaurants in you could have a fun little strip.  

It actually was a fun little strip before TU took out all the businesses as well as the remaining residential community north of 11th St. over the last 20 years or so.

Before TU's expansion fronting 11th St. from Harvard to Delaware, there was somewhat of a student-oriented commercial community.  Arby's had a spot at 11th & Harvard, Metro Diner and Wendy's were further to the west, JR's was a very popular TU beer bar and student hang out to the west of the stadium, you had Starship records near Delaware and south of 11th has always had convenience stores, restaurants, and a bar or two as it does now.  There used to be a residential street to the east of the stadium where the Reynolds center is now with brick gingerbreads and bungalows.  I think there was another bar on the south side of 11th before Arby's relocated there- someone help me on that one, I just don't recall what was there.

The Buccaneer on Harvard has always been a mix of TU students and people from the surrounding neighborhoods.  In the 1980's the Tap Room on 15th was another favorite TU haunt.  I've never thought of Ed's Hurricane lounge as very student-oriented since it's been a biker bar for as long as I can remember.  

There were several good attempts at student-oriented businesses in the building to the west of the center Ed's is in but the rent was always too high for a local business to make a long go of it.

[davideinstein]

I love UofMinn in Minneapolis and how it interacts with the area around it (trolley, urban downtown core, bike paths connecting everything) but most universities are a bit closed off from the cities as would be expected.

TU is closed off but it is because of being so close to rough neighborhoods for so long. 11th st is not the most sightly road. I don't see how they could open up anymore that wouldn't give even more access to thieves and vagrants. Maybe with the new developments west, they will open up that way a little better. But it is far from the core of TU. The fences along 11th have plenty of gates and students walk to QT all of the time. It is easy to press the button to cross 11th and enter the new U. I've never had an issue walking or bicycling to TU. It is a great area for that.

Whittier park is connected to the TU apartments by gate though and they are big stakeholders in the West Park developments (where 20+ units are leased to TU grad students). At least 1 professor bought one of the new places by Capital Homes. I see TU investing heavily in the area around it along with the Brady District Zarrow Center, Gilcrease Museum (a MASSIVE undertaking which got the $60 million in funding to expand) along with the Medical Center going into the old Blue Cross building downtown (http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/tu-to-locate-oxley-college-of-health-sciences-downtown/article_1b550411-c412-5a85-9557-f548708ce36f.html)

TU has "True Blue Neighbors" which focuses on community engagement  http://trueblueneighbors.com/ which provides many volunteering and services including tutoring of Whittier schools. They have a child development center and have helped the Kendall-Whittier school tremendously.

Besides GKFF and the other major non-profits (where that is their primary purpose), it is tough to find another institution helping Tulsa as much as TU is, especially no other academic institution (looking at you, ORU).

11th needs to be made into a two lane road with a turning lane, then put bike lanes on each side similar to Delaware. There are some city failures that have failed in how isolated TU is as well. Thanks for the link regarding the program, good to see that.

[davideinstein]

It actually was a fun little strip before TU took out all the businesses as well as the remaining residential community north of 11th St. over the last 20 years or so.

Before TU's expansion fronting 11th St. from Harvard to Delaware, there was somewhat of a student-oriented commercial community.  Arby's had a spot at 11th & Harvard, Metro Diner and Wendy's were further to the west, JR's was a very popular TU beer bar and student hang out to the west of the stadium, you had Starship records near Delaware and south of 11th has always had convenience stores, restaurants, and a bar or two as it does now.  There used to be a residential street to the east of the stadium where the Reynolds center is now with brick gingerbreads and bungalows.  I think there was another bar on the south side of 11th before Arby's relocated there- someone help me on that one, I just don't recall what was there.

The Buccaneer on Harvard has always been a mix of TU students and people from the surrounding neighborhoods.  In the 1980's the Tap Room on 15th was another favorite TU haunt.  I've never thought of Ed's Hurricane lounge as very student-oriented since it's been a biker bar for as long as I can remember.  

There were several good attempts at student-oriented businesses in the building to the west of the center Ed's is in but the rent was always too high for a local business to make a long go of it.

Metro Diner was the best.

[davideinstein]

TU really needs a campus corner on 11th street.  If there was a way to calm traffic on 11th and put some student oriented shops/bars/restaurants in you could have a fun little strip. 

Their bookstore is caddy corner to the Reynolds Center but the intersection is not pedestrian or bike friendly at all. I'll put blame on the city for that one.

[Bamboo World]

Their bookstore is caddy corner to the Reynolds Center but the intersection is not pedestrian or bike friendly at all. I'll put blame on the city for that one.

The City is too busy with halting sidewalk cafés downtown ...    

[davideinstein]

The City is too busy with halting sidewalk cafés downtown ...    

And they aren't even successful at that... 

[Bamboo World]

And they aren't even successful at that... 

How can you expect them to be?  They're awaiting that downtown walkability study, you know.  Absolutely nothing can happen until the final downtown walkability report is completed.