I hate to make a pessimistic post, but I've been to the canal several times this spring, and I'm extremely disappointed. It's been 10 years now since the canal opened, and it still looks the same as it did when it opened, in fact maybe worse. There are still buildings that are boarded up and have mounds of dirt sitting out in front of them. The area under Zios looks absolutely horrible. The basement of the Oklahoma Hardware building looks like a bomb shell hit it. Chelinos has broken down furniture located on their canal level. The big dragon out in front of the dungeon ride looks cheesy and circus-like, and the whole concept doesn't really fit in with what I picture as a nice upscale outdoor retail and restaurant district.

I had initially hoped that the canal would've become an open air retail and restaurant center similar to The Grove in LA, Branson Landing, The Legends in Kansas City, or other similar outdoor lifestyle centers. Instead, greedy building owners have sat on their properties at our expense (we paid for the canal). I'm extremely disappointed by the way the canal has turned out, and I'm afraid that many others in this city may be starting to feel the same way. I haven't hear of any new announcements of anything exciting coming to Bricktown lately. It seems like the momentum in Bricktown is coming to a screaching hault. If there's one thing I wish the city would've done, it's that they would've bought up all of the buildings along the canal before the canal was built, and leased out the space themselves, or sold all of the space to a major developer to develop a lifestyle center within them.

Also, the parks dept. isn't doing the greatest job taking care of the landscaping on the canal. There are several trees that have been cut down and the stumps left, there are very few flowers, etc.

Lower Bricktown is a little better (did I say that?????), but I'm still annoyed by the sea of parking along the canal, and the empty lot next to Toby Keiths.

I think if we don't do something to alter the course of Bricktown, it will end up the same way as the West End in Dallas.