Jim Norton's downtown update on DTU website

[swake]

This is a letter on the DTU website by DTU president Jim Norton, there are some interesting tidbits in here including an update on the park at 6th and Main and the 2025 Housing funds.

Well, Vision 2025 projects are popping up all over the place. Centennial Walk and the accompanying master planning effort is moving along nicely. The final path of the walk is set, the tablet locations and subjects are in the final stages of being composed and selected, and the new park at 6th and Main has almost completed its design phase. Also, in late June the Mayor's Housing Review Committee finished its review of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for Vision 2025 Housing Funds and the Vision 2025 Oversight Committee will review the RFP at its meeting on July 7th. The RFP will then be widely distributed both locally and nationally, with a mid-November time frame for submission deadlines. Hopefully 60-90 days after that, selections will be made and recommendations made back to the Oversight Committee and Mayor. So in 6 months or so we should have a good feel for what and where our housing projects will be and know what phases of the Centennial Walk will be funded initially. It is really an exciting time downtown.

Also, plans continue on the Arena and Convention Center with some really exciting milestones coming up. Groundbreaking for the Arena should occur sometime mid to late August and final design on the Convention Center improvements are scheduled for that time frame as well. In addition to that, there are some significant projects taking place downtown with the Philtower Lofts and Wallace Engineering's rehabilitation of the brick warehouse directly south of Spaghetti Warehouse. In addition, both Blue Dome and Brady are "retooling" to include a central ownership management team as opposed to individual night spot owners. This will eliminate a number of the security issues and will also lead to a more coordinated approach of events in both districts.

Finally, through the efforts of Councilor Baker, we are having serious discussions with the Tulsa Police Department about creating a downtown security force with a satellite Police Station somewhere downtown. Deputy Chief Andrus is receptive to the idea and is compiling a budget and manpower needs which we can hopefully plug into next year's budget beginning in July of '06. Well that's about all that's on my plate right now (as if it isn't enough) but we really will be expecting to see some dirt turning here in the next few months. Have a great hot season and remember football season is right around the corner.

Jim Norton, President