Tulsa enters elite 8 for most surface parking

[sgrizzle]

Tulsa is crushing it.  80%

[JCnOwasso]

Just about time to queue Queen and take our lap with the cup!

[Townsend]

This has gotten some coverage by local media but i'm not sure they're 100% about what this means.

[Red Arrow]

This has gotten some coverage by local media but i'm not sure they're 100% about what this means.

On either Ch 6 or 8, they seemed to understand that it's not a good thing to win.  I forget which channel I saw it on.

[DowntownDan]

At least the Brady and Greenwood districts are filling in.  I think the southern part of downtown is hopeless so long as TCC and the churches desire oceans of parking. 

[carltonplace]

At least the Brady and Greenwood districts are filling in.  I think the southern part of downtown is hopeless so long as TCC and the churches desire oceans of parking. 

I wish they desired the Cathedral Square concept instead. Holy Family Cathedral is so much prettier than St Louis Cathedral.

[BKDotCom]

I started a thread about this "tournament" on reddit

In response to someone claiming there's hardly enough parking downtown as is, I went on a parking tour...  and took photos!  (with awful blackberry camera)

Here are some pictures from my trip.

[BKDotCom]

After Tulsa walks Since Tulsa walked away with this, I think the award should become known as the "Tulsa award for scorched earth urban parking" (TASEUP) or some such

[TheArtist]

  Was looking at some other competitor cities downtowns "development rundowns" and was struck by how much construction there is going on.  Also saw an article showing how those "trendy" cities that were faster growing cities before the recession have weathered the storm (like Austin, SLC, Denver, etc.) the stats are showing that they have been faster and stronger on the rebound than other cities too.  Just looked at Denvers downtown (where my younger brother moved too) construction stats and currently there are 4,254 new living units under construction right now with another 1,858 in the planning stages, and there are 10 "cranes in the air" building new highrises with more on the way this year.  That's one way to get rid of some surface parking.  Interesting to note that the one new highrise we got recently was, a Denver company. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=142548&page=20  

[Oil Capital]

 Was looking at some other competitor cities downtowns "development rundowns" and was struck by how much construction there is going on.  Also saw an article showing how those "trendy" cities that were faster growing cities before the recession have weathered the storm (like Austin, SLC, Denver, etc.) the stats are showing that they have been faster and stronger on the rebound than other cities too.  Just looked at Denvers downtown (where my younger brother moved too) construction stats and currently there are 4,254 new living units under construction right now with another 1,858 in the planning stages, and there are 10 "cranes in the air" building new highrises with more on the way this year.  That's one way to get rid of some surface parking.  Interesting to note that the one new highrise we got recently was, a Denver company. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=142548&page=20  

Denver's downtown development is indeed impressive.  But to be realistic, that 4254 under construction right now and 1858 planned are not all downtown.  There are all within a 1.5 mile radius of the center of their downtown.  A bunch of them are in near-downtown neighborhoods but not what would be considered downtown.

[SXSW]

Downtown Denver had, at one time, more surface parking lots per capita than Tulsa.  They still have a lot, even in highly developed areas with good transit i.e. along the 16th Street Mall and even directly across the street from Coors Field, and all around the Pepsi Center.  They have infilled a lot of those lots in the past 15 years as downtown made a comeback and population growth increased. 

Downtown Tulsa is making a comeback and is similar to how Denver was when Lodo was gaining in popularity back in the mid-90's.  However Tulsa does not have the job or population growth, especially in the key 20's/30's demographic, to drive this type of widespread development.  What development happens is slow and steady, and at that rate the parking lots will also be filled in slowly.  It will take a sea change like a massive employer relocating to downtown or, like I mentioned before, TCC expanding faster on its own or with OSU in south downtown, to really accelerate things.