Not all empty-handed

I was able to accomplish one of my goals for the blog this semester, which is to create a BIG downtown map. This will enable me to illustrate downtown-wide concepts. Has anyone ever seen a single map that encompasses all of the exciting projects, all the way from the river up to 23rd Street? Of course not, I imagine because of the sheer geographic vastness of OKC's center city.

We don't realize it, but downtown sprawls just as much as this city does. So, when people talk about "turning this city around" just by turning downtown around, they're talking about some very substantial progress across an area that is far more significant than locals realize. Downtown is compact and uber centralized, but the whole area actually encompasses a couple square miles and could easily create more new rooftops than Edmond or Moore...just as it has been one of the metro's fastest-growing areas in the last few years.

I'm looking forward to being able to do some big mapping projects.

Dusting off the blog

My apologies to anyone who's been checking this and expecting a post at some point. I've been a terrible blogger lately. However, I still care tremendously. I'm not giving up! Yes, the pending demise of the Stage Center makes me want to just give up on OKC, but we all know I'm way too stubborn for that. I've just been extremely busy finishing up my degree lately, and I've never been so overwhelmed in my life before.

In the meantime, I need some content to put up in here. I really should be writing about the Stage Center, I mean wow. I should be covering this "House of Bedlam" brouhaha as well, calling out Chris Johnson for the shoddy businessman he seems to be. There is also a major Bricktown masterplan effort underway, a long-awaited move by the City to show that they actually care about Bricktown.

I should be ratcheting up the pressure on these convention center and boulevard pending failures. There's a lot of exciting progress happening with the transit subcommittee as well that should be covered. SO MUCH new development in the pipeline, too.

I even took a ton of pics of construction progress before I left OKC earlier this fall. I didn't get very far away from the intersection of NW 9th and Broadway when it comes to posting those pics. Now it might be too late? What I really need is a co-writer on this blog, if anyone was interested in helping out. Or maybe I could just ask one of these protesters to "occupy" my blog while I'm too busy...