"This is a 50 to 100-year project, and we all want to get it right." - Mike Mize, ADG Consultant (20:21 into this week's MAPS 3 Oversight committee)
Are any of us ever going to see feasible urban transit in our lifetime?? It would be nice to see before I die, and I say that as someone in my younger 20s.
Can anyone see why in spite of "all this wonderful progress" it is still compelling to just give up and walk away from OKC? Who is to say it's not a sham? To get a new convention center at any cost...
What does MAPS 3 stand for? What does OKC stand for right now?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Apparently OKC stands for economic development based on outdated models at the expense of improved quality of life for its citizens.
However, the streetcar core route is at least still on schedule and the park will be completed within a short time either way of the opening of the Boulevard.
Off topic, I think the Boulevard really is going to be ugly at first, even if it is pedestrian friendly. It will go up against the parking lots at Bass Pro and Toby Keith's; the wonderfully blank wall that is the back of the Harkins Theater; and, of course, the empty convention center site. The only thing that will be inviting is the interaction of the new arena entrance and hopefully the park.
Your comment reminds of of the original bicycle path master plan. It was announced at its beginning that it would be a 50-year plan. I'll be long dead before it is anything remotely capable of supporting bike commuting.
I'm with you on the frustration. For sure.
Wife and I just spent a week in Seattle, carless (albeit lodged in an apt in Belltown, with the main transit street downtown (3rd Ave) right outside our door).
When we returned I once again had to remind myself that OKC will simply frustrate when compared with cities that developed with pedestrian thoughts in mind and weren't gutted by a uniquely devastating blend of urban renewal and oil reliance/crash and white flight and cheap gas...sigh.
When I relax and realize some things just won't be a part of OKC for a very long time, then I can handle it. Of course, I also then think about moving to Seattle finally...
I think it boils down to looking at how much one wants to help spur on difficult development and better urban life in a highly non-urban city (or rather, one that uses its urban spaces for parking lots and Bass Pro shops)-OR if it is simply more in tune with one's life to live in a place that already has it going on, and participate in that.
I really don't know which one I am, I'm both most days. I walked to Big Sky bread the other day across 4 or 5 broken up by parking lot sidewalks with nothing but an energy company on the street level. Then I realized they were building more sidewalks here and a Whole Foods will be across the street in hopefully a few months. I can't decide which one I am.
Post a Comment