Wish list for downtown...

[Teatownclown]

I want to ask "what part of reality don't you get?"

To the Aggie, is your attack on me really necessary?

I advocate a (Devon) major event (miracle) BEFORE you move ahead with those wish lists...

I do appreciate the dreamers.

[TheArtist]

 My ultimate wish for what the Tulsa Art Deco Museum will do is become part of my original DECOPOLIS (The Deco City) idea.  This would roll in, Route 66 attractions, Movie and Film productions, incredible shopping and entertainment, and help Tulsa become a center for contemporary art and design.  

Bit more about the art and design part.  Often people "poo poo" our past and think we should focus on the future and creating something new.  Well, I believe that is true to a point, BUT....  My personal way about helping Tulsa become known as being a center of high design and contemporary art is to take what we are already known for and sell it for all its worth in order to lend more legitimacy and cache to the new stuff.   If I were to tell someone from elsewhere that Tulsa was a center for cutting edge design (furniture, paintings, sculpture, architecture, etc.) they likely wouldn't buy it, (though we do have some great artist here, who often do well in LA and NYC)... as much as they do when I first remind them of our Art Deco.  Remember Art Deco IS simply the first manifestation of Art Modern or Modern Art.  Pointing that out can instantly give you some great street cred and respectability.  The "insinuation" is that we have a rich history of cutting edge, high design that has carried on right up to today.

I purchased hundreds of small, black and white, rubber duckies that are made to look like they have costumes from the 20s on them, one looks like a flapper, another a gangster and so on, to sell at the museum.  Some on the museum board were looking at me like I was a bit crazy and thinking they wouldn't sell.  And frankly once I got them in they didn't even look as nice as they did in the pictures lol.  But, I had an ace up my sleve that I knew would get people to buy them.  I dumped the lot of them in an antique suitcase, printed up a little sign with a photo of the ducks on them, a deco border and in big lettering put.... DECO DUCKIES!    Those little buggers have sold like hotcakes.  Just about every third or fourth person who has bought something in the gift shop corner have walked by those things then stopped and said "Ooooh look they are Deco Duckies!" and bought some.

Aaaall in the marketing folks. I bet that if I hadn't had put "Deco Duckies" on the sign, people wouldn't have given them much attention.  I would do something similar when I was starting to sell stuff at the Tulsa flea market ages ago. I would fancy up my booth, and could buy something from another booth and put it just so, next to just the right other items and sell it for twice what the other person had been asking, but hadn't been able to sell it for.  

If in peoples minds, you put our contemporary artists works next to our already highly respected Art Deco heritage... you will get the kind of interest, believability and respectability you wouldn't get as easily otherwise.   We may know that Tulsa has some really top notch artists here with some incredible talent (but honestly so do other cities) but we have something that can push us up a notch in peoples eyes.  Take our well respected past and cleverly USE IT, ride those coattails for all they are worth to promote today and make us money.  

Thats part of my plan to help local artists as I move along with the Tulsa Art Deco Museum.  I would like Tulsa to be known as a center of cutting edge, contemporary art and design.  I hope my approach will be one way of helping that become a reality.  I would love to see lots of downtown shops and galleries that have high design furniture, sculpture, paintings, jewelry, clothing, every day items, etc. made or designed by local artists in them.  And us selling our artists work, our chic and respected "Tulsa look" around the world.    Santa Fe is known for its western/indian art, Taos is known for its "Taos" artists, etc.,,, well lets add Tulsa to the list. 

   

[AquaMan]

Everything I wanted to address, and more, was touched on by Blake. We are definitely on the same rail. I still see some distraction from what should be a narrow focus. Much of the things we all listed would be best described as tactical. The focus at this point should be defining in simplicity what best describes what we're going to end up with. Like Indiannapolis deciding to be a sports town. Simple, believable, attainable and marketable. Then the tactics to accomplish the goal just fill themselves in. I hope you are going to provide strong leadership for the process. Its kinda lacking.

As far as time thats a sore point with anyone around here over 40. We seem so anxious to do things just right, tasteful, intelligently and classy that we end up planning for ever and ever. Two words. The River. Seriously, you can plan for a fight only so long. Then you actually have to get in the ring and throw some punches and see what happens. Its time to do that. We've been sparring. We will make mistakes but waiting another 5 years to get it just right when 5 years from now we won't be the same city, is not working. My lifetime please!

And don't go off on The Clown so fast. He simply makes the point that dreaming is more likely to become reality when you have a Devon around to build headquarters nearby. True enough. And the jobs are great too. Don't see that happening right now but maybe a well executed plan downtown from guys like Blake make the miracle happen.

Blake, I like 1, 2, 5 and 6. I think 8 is awesome. They are tactics that can be accomplished quickly and will fit into any personality that the downtown ends up with.  "Creative Energy" is a great slogan. A little cerebral, but  better than mine, "This Is Not Reality...This is Tulsa".

[rdj]

Blake makes great points about downtown and I hope he (and other stakeholders) are able to move it forward.

A few things to point it and reiterate.

Yes, many people in the late Gen X/Gen Y and older millennials want to live in an urban setting.  However, those raised in this region don't see urban living as a "family" thing to do.  I have multiple friends that swore their allegiance to downtown/midtown until their first child reached school age.  Suddenly, their wish list goes from what they want to what's best for their child.  It's hard to fault them when the overwhelming opinion in our community is the best schools reside in the suburban areas.  It is imperative the city of Tulsa, area stakeholders and TPS work to vastly improve the urban school system.  A great example is moving Thoreau to the former Wilson Middle School.  Once the urban schools are close or on-par with the suburban schools more families will remain in the urban core.  The other piece of this puzzle, is in our region begin married and having children prior to early-30's is the predominant lifestyle.  Until this age creeps older we will have to aim our urban development efforts and younger YP's and we will struggle with retaining singles or "DINKS" as their age creeps into their 30's.

Bricktown was mentioned, and others are very correct in that the urban pioneers of OKC do not touch the area.  It is definitely the destination of the suburban residents and visitors.  That said, Bricktown is seeing a bit of a change.  UCO has located their school of music to the district and if managed correctly it could have a great impact on making Bricktown more of a destination for music and arts.

My wish list for downtown includes most of the things already mentioned but at the top are two things that are somewhat connected. 

1.  The fulfillment of the Ballpark Authorities promise to develop the lands around ONEOK Field.  I'd sure like to know why they continue to sit on approximately $25MM that is earmarked for development of this area.  Is it really national retailers scaling back due to the economy?  Is it waiting on Brady District to finish?  What is it?

2.  UCAT Land - while not technically "downtown" since it's outside the IDL it's still a part of downtown is many people's mind, especially since many consider the OSU-Tulsa campus to be downtown.  It's been how long since the city/TDA/UCAT cleared this land without doing a thing to develop it?  It is an absolute travesty that we've allowed these entities to sit on this land for this long without doing anything to push them.  We talk about making north Tulsa a better place, yet we allow the gateway to north Tulsa sit vacant with trash littered about, untrimmed vegetation in areas and original stoops from homes still in place.  You can call Pine & Peoria the gateway, but it's wrong.  The prosperity of midtown will never leach north via Pine & Peoria.  Pine is way too far north of the Pearl District to see any tangible impact for decades.  Development of the UCAT land will provide an immediate stimulus to the neighborhoods north of downtown.  The only drawback to developing this land with dense, urban housing is the perception it's in north Tulsa.  As The Artist said, that's all about marking.  A resident would be walking/cycling distance from restaurants, entertainment, grocery stores, multitudes of job opportunities, etc.  It could come close to surpassing Cherry St & Brookside in terms of walkability and urban desire.  In addition, you have a neighborhood school and higher education that is adjacent to the land.  I see this area having a a similar feel to Deep Duece in OKC or east 6th St in Austin. 

All that leads me to...I'm happy to see OU/TU taking the Hartford building off the city's hands but why didn't they take the UCAT land that is already allocated for higher ed that's a mile away and develop a building there?  Don't tell me money, those institutions can find the money if the will to complete the project is there.  If they can get a low interest "loan" from the Kaiser Foundation to build a $35MM performing arts center on campus they can figure out to build a med school from scratch.  By buying the Hartford Building they should have to carve out an equal parcel of UCAT land and offer it to private developers.  I would have loved for the med school to be located at the intersection of Boulder, John Hope Franklin & Main St.  With the completion of the Boulder Bridge it would make a great transit route to OSU Med Center & OSU Med School creating a "medical corridor".  It would also provide easy access to Morton Health and the Tisdale Medical Center on Apache.  In addition, great housing options for the students in the Brady District, Brady Heights and even farther north like Reservoir Hill.  Hard to cry over the spilled milk on that project, but OSU Tulsa could certainly do more to develop the area.  With the completion of the Helmerich research facility what is OSU doing to attract professors and students?  I hear classes are meeting in the HRC that have no use for the tech they've invested in for that facility.  Why doesn't OSU build housing across Cincinnati that will help attract grad students that can walk or bike to a world class research facility?  Regardless, the time is now to begin pushing the UCAT trustees to do something with the land or give it back.  It's shameful we've done nothing to stop higher ed from holding this land hostage.

[Jeff P]

I advocate a (Devon) major event (miracle) BEFORE you move ahead with those wish lists...

What exactly has Devon done that's a "miracle."  Building a new headquarters building?

Just because Devon is doing something flashy doesn't mean it's a "miracle."  It's a large oil & gas company with its headquarters in downtown OKC.

Tulsa has two large oil & gas companies with their headquarters downtown: Williams and ONEOK.

So help me understand what "miracle" Devon provides for OKC.

[AquaMan]

I got lost a few years ago driving through the area that Devon is constructing their building and campus on. It was riddled with railroad tracks, dilapidated housing and open unused land. I won't speak for OKC because I only know whats been printed about the development but my understanding is that it was driven by the Devon presence,was controversial and large in scope. Apparently they razed a large part of the area I drove through and are upgrading it.

Having a large activist oil company build headquarters in your downtown may not be a miracle, but it is a good thing.

[Conan71]

My wish list.

1. Improved Parking Solutions
Our downtown parking situation is a mess. We have all kinds of issues: broken meters, unfriendly enforcement, poorly designed on street parking, unfortunately placed parking structures and ugly and abundant surface parking lots. The whole thing needs an overhaul.  

2. Additional Police Presence
As has been mentioned, the issues we have with visitors feeling safe are easily solved with an increase in uniformed presence. My suggestion to solve the parking enforcement problem with a new class of police officer is a step towards this solution.

3. A developed 5th Street Corridor
The conversation here thus far, if summarized speaks to the reality of our downtown development situation. It is going to have to consider visitors and residents, young and old, suburbanites and urbanites, wealthy and not wealthy, etc. A 5th street retail corridor would do the following things:
a. Connect the civic center plaza with the East Village.
There is a good amount of interest in developing the East Village, which includes a park, new housing, new retail, and even maybe a movie theater. Using the 5th street corridor to connect that activity around Elgin (which is already a growing hot strip) with our city's Convention facilities.
b. Take advantage of our most walkable and visually stunning streets.
5th Street is great. Bartlett Square is cool (even cooler with a real fountain) and of course Boston is our best looking street and home to some cool things already happening in restaurant and retail.
c. Take advantage of the existing real estate situation.
5th street already has a good amount of small (and often empty) storefronts all along it, and is home to residential in the YMCA lofts, Mayo Hotel Lofts, Mayo Lofts, Vandever Lofts, Philtower Lofts, and the new ones planned at 5th and Elgin.
d. Give our convention sellers an arrow in the quiver.
A significant retail district would be a nice attraction for downtown visitors, especially those staying in the Mayo, Aloft, Marriot, Holiday Inn, and Hyatt. It's tough for our CVB to sell Tulsa when similar cities have a much more visitor friendly downtown area. As much as I love what's happening downtown, until we have a more dense retail area, we're not in the same league.
e. Give suburbanites and surrounding rural folks a reason to visit downtown.
Today, downtown's biggest selling point is its local restaurants. The few retail places (especially Dwelling Spaces, Fleet Feet, and Lee's) we have do a great job of pulling people into the IDL, but they can't really do it alone. Suburbanites are not coming downtown for dinner. They're very happy with their food options in South Tulsa and BA. They'll travel to Dallas to shop, though. Putting a unique selection of retailers that don't exist elsewhere in Tulsa would attract folks from all around to shop in the urban environment (think Denver's 16th Street). Picture Nike Town, Lucky Jeans, Urban Outfitters, The Puma Store, Northface, Levi's, Apple, etc. These are the types of stores you typically find in urban shopping districts like Gaslamp in San Diego or at Union Square in San Francisco. Naturally some of our local flavor would exist in the mix. It already does in places like Spexton, which is a great fit. Add in some basics like a Radio Shack, CVS, and a bookstore like Denver's Tattered Cover and you'd have a heck of a shopping destination. Take a drive down 5th next time you're downtown and picture what I'm talking about. Know that it wouldn't just be 5th Street. It would likely go a block in each direction north and south of the main spine on each of the north/south streets. The property owners on the strip want this to happen and the city has folks looking in to it, but it needs my item 1 to happen first...and will need parking structures at each end and maybe a free street car/bus loop from convention center to 5th and Elgin.

4. More diverse housing options
To create a true community, we're going to have to have some more affordable housing for the younger folks. You'll find that the majority of our new downtown housing is full of older folks. The young downtowners live in places like The Blair or Central Park or Gunboat Park or in little apartments above businesses here and there. More of them would live downtown if we had small, simple, affordable units. This could/should include student housing options for our downtown college students.

5. New transit/connectivity solutions
Tulsa's biggest problem is connectivity. Our best districts are just far enough apart to be a problem. Brookside, Cherry St. Utica Square, 18th and Boston, Downtown, and the up and coming Pearl District, Kendall Whittier, The River, and hopefully Rt. 66 are all great and getting better. They just need to be better connected. This same issue exists downtown. Deco District, Blue Dome, Brady/Greenwood, Arena are all great, but just a bit too disconnected. Until those areas have grown into each other (which will make the whole thing more walkable), improved transit will be vital to connecting them to each other. I, like many of you, would like that to be in the form of street car/fixed rail. It's time to start thinking about what all of these things will be in 5-10 years and planning for it now. I don't want us looking back when these districts have really come to life and wish that we had started solving the connectivity problem a decade earlier. This item also includes little things like getting people over the tracks from Blue Dome to Greenwood/Brady in a better way, fixing one way streets, adding and improving signage, etc.

6. More art, streetscaping, trees
It may sound silly, but Tulsa's really lacking in public art in our downtown area. We need more statues, structures, murals, etc. Our surface parking lots at least need landscaping and trees. Part of the whole walkability thing is having nice things to look at. I'd love our reputation as a creative city to grow. Part of that will be putting that type of thing in our downtown so that everywhere a visitor looks, they're seeing the results of our creativity.

7. The return of DFest or the emergence of a new one to replace it
Someone mentioned this. DFest was great for us and had a chance to be even better. It's a real shame that it's gone. It looked great on Tulsa. Perhaps we can get back there. Large music festivals in urban areas aren't that common. Ours showcased our incredible looking downtown and some of our great venues. You want creative young people to want to live in Tulsa? Things like DFest are a part of that allure.

My wildcard
8. A sound stage/miniature studio city
I'd love to see us work to establish Tulsa as a place for filmmaking and creativity in general. The economic impact of filmmaking is tremendous and Tulsa has a great deal to offer in terms of geography, architecture, multiple seasons, etc. We also have a creative talent base here and a history of excellence in film and music. Tulsa has a bit of an arts personality. It would be tremendous if our citizens could recognize this asset and work to exploit it. Tulsa is often considered to be a city without an identity. When we're mentioned, our past is referenced, which is nice, but I'd like to be known for what we are right now...and I'd like for that to be that we're a leader in creativity (film, music, art) and energy (oil, gas, alternative energies). Creative Energy. We can get to the place where people think of us and think nice things, but it will have to be because of bold decisions about where we want to go. Look up how Indianapolis just decided that they were going to be a sports town. They built an NFL stadium with no NFL team. They're hosting this year's Super Bowl. You guys referenced Austin, Portland, etc. Those cities all attract young, creative people (which in turn attract the types of employers that employ them). This should be our primary objective...keeping and attracting creative talent.

Summary. I really like this conversation. You guys have made some great points and shared some really cool ideas. I like the comments about figuring out who we're aiming at and defining our personality. I couldn't agree more. My thoughts there, having profiled my guests at the restaurants over the years, is as follows.
- Our downtown working crowd has room to grow. There's plenty of office space downtown and we should be working to fill it. Part of that will come from doing things like the 5th street corridor I mentioned earlier. All of those commercial property owners agree that if their bottom floors have cool things going on, their top floors will increase in demand. Regardless, the comments regarding downtown workers are right on. More workers = more housing demand = more entertainment options = more workers.
- Our residents should/will continue to be a mix of newly divorced people, traveling professionals, college students, empty nesters, and young singles or young marrieds with no kids. I know some people want us to be New York and have something for families, etc. That's fine, but that's not our target market. If people want to try to raise kids in downtown with no yard and a smaller floorplan, that's their decision...most Tulsans are not going to do that, and frankly, downtown doesn't need them to. Tulsa has places for those folks. My family is like that. We're not moving downtown. There's nowhere for the trampoline.
- Tulsa can do better with visitors. We've got a top notch facility in the BOK Center, an amazing asset in The Cains Ballroom, and Rt. 66 running right through our city (and our downtown). I think "visitors" is our largest potential area for growth. They're great for the local economy and they use far fewer resources than citizens. The new museums will also help this as people from the area will also come to visit. Back to Rt. 66 for a second. The fact that we've failed to capitalize on the presence of Rt. 66 in our city is more of a shame than people act like it is. Look up some stats on Rt. 66 tourism. We're really missing it. Downtown has a great opportunity to capitalize on it, as does The Pearl District, Red Fork, The River, Kendall Whittier, etc. If this works, it will be the thread that connects all of the significant up and coming areas in Tulsa...with downtown and The River at the center of it.

Forgive the long post, but I couldn't resist. I'm a dork for this stuff.

Ever think of running for public office?  I think you'd make a great councilor for district 4.

[Conan71]

I got lost a few years ago driving through the area that Devon is constructing their building and campus on. It was riddled with railroad tracks, dilapidated housing and open unused land. I won't speak for OKC because I only know whats been printed about the development but my understanding is that it was driven by the Devon presence,was controversial and large in scope. Apparently they razed a large part of the area I drove through and are upgrading it.

Having a large activist oil company build headquarters in your downtown may not be a miracle, but it is a good thing.

Actually that sounds more like you were on the south side of the I-40 corridor. 

[rdj]

What exactly has Devon done that's a "miracle."  Building a new headquarters building?

Just because Devon is doing something flashy doesn't mean it's a "miracle."  It's a large oil & gas company with its headquarters in downtown OKC.

Tulsa has two large oil & gas companies with their headquarters downtown: Williams and ONEOK.

So help me understand what "miracle" Devon provides for OKC.

It's more than the building.  They received a TIF for the project.  Rather than using the money for themselves they turned around and funded Project 180.  This project is in the midst of completing a major, but not without some controversy (see yesterday's Oklahoman), overhaul of OKC's downtown streets and streetscaping, including the Myriad Gardens.  My ASSumption is this is miracle the clown speaks of.

EDIT:  In addition, by building a massive HQ, they freed thousands of class A sq ft.  Sandridge took most of it, then Continental Resources moved their HQ from Enid because of now available space due to Devon & Kerr McGee moving to HOU.  OKC scored a major win when they attracted Continental.  They are a great company run by a family that is deeply philanthropic.  If they had chosen Tulsa we all would be doing giant somersaults.  

[AquaMan]

Actually that sounds more like you were on the south side of the I-40 corridor. 

Could be. I was in sight of the skyline and felt some trepidation for my safety. I knew if I just kept driving I'd hit a main thoroughfare eventually.

[Jeff P]

It's more than the building.  They received a TIF for the project.  Rather than using the money for themselves they turned around and funded Project 180.  This project is in the midst of completing a major, but not without some controversy (see yesterday's Oklahoman), overhaul of OKC's downtown streets and streetscaping, including the Myriad Gardens.  My ASSumption is this is miracle the clown speaks of.

EDIT:  In addition, by building a massive HQ, they freed thousands of class A sq ft.  Sandridge took most of it, then Continental Resources moved their HQ from Enid because of now available space due to Devon & Kerr McGee moving to HOU.  OKC scored a major win when they attracted Continental.  They are a great company run by a family that is deeply philanthropic.  If they had chosen Tulsa we all would be doing giant somersaults.  

I understand all of that, but in the context of the discussion I didn't understand the "miracle" part, since his original argument was about employment in downtown.

My point was that Tulsa also has two great companies and corporate citizens downtown (Williams and ONEOK).

I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Williams did 30 years ago what Devon is doing now.  Built a headquarters building, hotel, and other major investments (PAC, Williams Green, etc.)

The difference is that our downtown laid mostly stagnant for three decades after Williams' initial investment.

[rdj]

Actually that sounds more like you were on the south side of the I-40 corridor. 

Most likely correct.  The area where Devon is building their HQ is across from Myriad Gardens and adjacent to a failed shopping mall plan from the 80's.  But, there were some dilapidated buildings to the west of their HQ.  What is now called Film Row was pretty much Skid Row just a few years ago.

[AquaMan]

Would have been around 2005.

I remember fondly the Williams Forum, Jeff. It was quite popular for awhile but iirc it became a victim of poor economy and declining population downtown. The theatre was top notch, the shopping and dining were good and my kids had birthday parties on the rink. Miss it, I do.

Glad to have OneOk and Williams. We lost a lot of energy companies in the last decade or so. Those activist players I miss as well.

[rdj]

I understand all of that, but in the context of the discussion I didn't understand the "miracle" part, since his original argument was about employment in downtown.

My point was that Tulsa also has two great companies and corporate citizens downtown (Williams and ONEOK).

I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Williams did 30 years ago what Devon is doing now.  Built a headquarters building, hotel, and other major investments (PAC, Williams Green, etc.)

The difference is that our downtown laid mostly stagnant for three decades after Williams' initial investment.

It's great that Tulsa has two major employers downtown.  However, due to Devon building a new a tower (and leaving of Kerr McGee), downtown OKC added two additional employers and corporate citizens that are nearly equal (off the top of my head) to ONEOK & Williams.  Sandridge, which was founded by a former founder of Chesapeake, was set to build a suburban campus similar to Chesapeake prior to the chunk of Kerr McGee & Devon space opening up.

Sure, Williams did do something similar in building Williams Tower & the PAC.  However, they also chose to let it languish until recently and some urban planners and downtowners would assert by shutting off Main St & Boston Ave they retarded the development of the Brady District by essentially cutting if off from the core of downtown employees.

Don't let your love of Tulsa keep you from recognizing and appreciating the success OKC has achieved as a result of political, private and corporate cooperation and investment.  Rather, let it be a model of how the success a community can have if we lay aside our differences and come together for the common good, even if that moment comes as result of our horrible tragedy (Murrah Building boming) and the misfortune of others (New Orleans).  We may disagree with the look or feel of their end result but there is no denying their success and process in which they've created that success.

[Conan71]

Chesapeake's ever-growing and sprawling campus seems incredibly impractical and inefficient.  Any idea why they chose this route instead of going vertical?