What's in store for Tulsa in 2012?

With the new year approaching, I thought I'd share some plausible hopes and goals for Tulsa this coming year.

I think the one of the biggest focuses of downtown in 2012, will be the Brady and Blue Dome districts. Already, we are seeing the north side of downtown fill in. This will be further amplified when many of the projects that are currently under construction, are completed sometime in the coming year. There is already a huge amount of synergy in these neighborhoods, and I think that developers will really play on that when they announce several new projects in 2012.

Another area that will see considerable new development, while not as much as the Blue Dome and Brady, will be the area including and between the CBD and the BOK Center. Already we are seeing this with the recent flurry of development, and I see no reason for this trend to change. I would have to say though, that my biggest hope for this area is that some of those pop up shops become permanent. It doesn't have to be the exact same stores, in fact I would love it if they were ne ventures, but I would like to see at least two or three of those pop up spaces filled.

Towards the end of 2012, it is my hope that the southern, as well as the east ends begin to relish in the same success that the north and central parts of downtown are currently experiencing. I would love to see TCC further develop its long range plans, and I would love to see a couple infill projects here and there throughout these areas.

All of this is simply my speculation though. I hope it happens, but who knows? Perhaps, we could be surprised with more than we expected. Yeah, there's my hopie for 2012. Let's be pleasantly surprised with more than we expected of our city.

Please tell me some of your hopes for Tulsa in the new year below. And of course, it does not have to include downtown. Any section of the metro is up for discussion.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this blog! I received a new iPad for Christmas so be expecting more blog entries than you,re used to. Have a wonderful day hopefully spent with family and those you love.

How far we've come...

Look at this picture. Stunning. Beautifully composed. Now think about how long it takes to create a picture like this. For all the photographers out there you know that this would have to be taken from a tripod, and that it would take a few shots of messing around with the settings and framing to get that perfect shot. To achieve results like this you can't just put the camera in "Auto" and click away.

Okay, so that's established. It takes a long time to take a good picture, but why is that relevant? Consider how empty the streets must have been. The photographer was obviously standing in the middle of the road, most likely for several minutes. Sadly, he or she was not in anyone's way. If this same person were to go back tomorrow and try to take the same picture, they would be honked at, blocking the way of many cars, and simply be causing problems.

Our little city has grown up so fast. With all the restaurants, businesses, stores, and the new hotel that are in this area now, along with the recent opening of Edward Delk's, Boston Avenue is no longer a pretty little ghost town. It is a vibrant, living, breathing part of the city. It has become a place where people want to be, not a place that scares you away because of its sheer emptiness.

This one picture is true for pretty much most of downtown for the time it was taken. You probably could have stood in the street anywhere you wanted and taken pictures. Heck, you could have layed down and taken a nap! It's nice to step back and think about all this and admire the progress that is being made.

Along with all of the tangible improvements downtown, I've noticed outsiders' perception of it is slowly changing as well. Maybe it's just me, but it seems as though we're hearing fewer and fewer people complain about how dangerous, boring, or waste of time downtown is.

Tulsa is back, and it's ready to fight.

I forgot to include the Tulsa Art Deco Museum in my list of new places along Boston Ave. yesterday. Thank you William and all others who have contributed to this fantastic project.

Rail Discussions STILL Being Held Up

I was reading an article today, that further frustrated me with our government. It is no secret that our government, be it city, state, or federal, is a slow worker. Think about all the projects that have been talked about over the years, but have either never happened, or are "still in the works." Get back to me with a list, will ya?

So, while I was not surprised, I was disappointed to hear that rail talks, which were scheduled to begin at the end of August, have still not begun. In fact, it is not even known if the committee has even been formed yet. The committee's job is to create a presentation over the prospect of developing a rail link between Tulsa and OKC. This presentation was to be complete by December of 2012. Hmmmm....wonder how that's coming along when the committee is not even formed yet.

Honestly, I am not a huge fan of this project, at this time anyway. What good is it going to do to for people to ride a train either to OKC or Tulsa and then have to attempt to navigate both cities' crappy bust systems? We need to first construct at least a basic rail system constructed here in Tulsa (something that OKC is preparing to do) before we make a connection to OKC. If we did this within the next five years (yeah right) then we could immediately start making plans for a connection to OKC. But first we need to spend our money in the cities themselves, not between them.

As a side note, does anyone have any pictures of the Metro at Brady apartments? If you do send me an email with them and I'll post them on here (unless you don't want me to). I'd also like to see some of the One Place development as construction continues there. I would give full credit to you of course.

Christmas in Downtown Tulsa 2011

These two pictures show a side of downtown Tulsa that I am so happy to see return. For years downtown was dead around the holidays except for the annual Parade of Lights. After that, nothing happenned. People went home. Now there's something to do throughout the holiday season downtown. You no longer have to just come to the parade and leave. There is ice skating, shopping, dozens of restaurants, shows at all the downtown venues, or you can just take a walk and enjoy all of the Christmas lights.

I haven't been downtown yet this winter at all, and I'm hoping that I can go sometime pretty soon. It's not hard to entertain me. I'm one of those people that just walking around for a while outside suits me just fine.

All of what is going on right now is what is needed in order to sustain a healthy, vibrant, and growing downtown. Now, we don't have to beg people to go downtown just for the sake of going downtown. There's actually stuff to do now. This sure is an exciting time to live in Tulsa.

Merry Christmas...errrrrr...happy holidays.....I mean, whatever. Have a great rest of whatever you prefer to call this season.

One Place is coming along...

I'm sure most of you have already seen this, but if you haven't here is the link to the construction camera for One Place. It's coming along pretty quickly, with much of the base already poured, and just today they raised the crane that will be used to construct the tower.

This building has recieved much criticism in its design. While I do sympathize with some of what the critics are saying, I really don't think it's all that bad. It sure isn't eye catching, but it isn't hard to look at, espescially at street level, which is where it really matters. And although the rendering doesn't seem to depict this, I've read somewhere that the building will include two retail/restaurant openings along 2nd Street and one along Cheyenne. If that is to be the case, then I see this building as a major win along 2nd Street, where currently there is hardly any activity. If these two retail spaces did actually happen, then they would help soften it up, espescially around the area where it is most important, the blocks near the BOK Center.

I guess we'll know for sure how everything is pretty soon, as I don't imagine it being very long before we get a good look at what the base is actually going to look like.

So here's my verdict.

If the two said retail spaces fronting 2nd come to fruition, major win for the area.

If they don't, I won't consider it a complete fail but it is a large missed oppurtunity.