I drove through downtown today, and took a good look at the office buildings in the CBD. Seems like everytime I go to downtown, I focus on a different aspect of the area. I happened to notice that we have a lot of 3 or 4 story structures filling valuable space that could be used for more urban, office towers.

I do agree that Urban Renewal demolished several historically significant structures back in the 1960's and 1970's, but what some don't remember is that they also demolished some real eye sores as well, and replaced them with impressive large modern office towers. If it wasn't for Urban Renewal, we wouldn't have the impressive skyline we have today. Sure, we're nowhere close to Dallas's or Houston's skyline, but it's a huge impovement over the skyline of the 50's and 60's.

I do think we need to preserve structures that are historically significant. The Skirvin Hotel, First National, the Hightower Building, and the Colcord Buidling are fine examples. But other, less significant structures aren't as valuable historically, especially those that are an eyesore.

I think Urban Renewal needs to continue their mission, only more conservatively than the methods they used in the 60's and 70's.

New buildings will continue to be built downtown, as the area grows. I seriously think we need to start coming up with some rules that will allow our downtown area to grow in density. As I said, we have too many or 4 story building downtown, and we need to create a more dense downtown area.

I'm proposing that we place a height minimum on all new downtown office buildings in the CBD. We could create a minimum of 15 or 20 floors! Or, the corresponding height, if you wanted to use that method. Exceptions could be granted in rare instances, i.e., the Federal Campus, for security reasons.

New parking areas should be garages with at least 6 levels. No surface parking.

New hotels should be at least 10 floors.

New buildings should be built close to the street, not distanced away from the street like Bank One Tower and Kerr McGee Tower.