I don't mean to start an incendiary thread off the bat, but I think the question has been raised in several threads, and now it totally warrants its own discussion. I feel as though there are both tangible and intangible ways in which Norman has gone downhill. The biggest way that Norman has gone downhill is from losing the promise and potential that it was showing in 2005, when things were going very well, Norman was looking at an avalanche of great urban development, attracting more good jobs than anywhere else in the metro, the demographics were promising for bringing in retailers that existed nowhere else in the metro, and so on. Above all, Norman in 2005 was the undisputed epicenter of Central Oklahoma's urban professional culture.
Today all of those urban professionals have either moved to Deep Deuce or OKC's inner north side. Norman is losing more good jobs than anywhere else in the metro. Most of that promising development fell flat due to poor city development oversight and a city council that is far more interested in sprawl development at the expense of inner Norman. And now there is no way that Norman will live up to the potential it was showing in 2005.
Campus Corner has held on and remained healthy. Downtown Norman experienced a resurgence between 2005-2009. Now the Norman city council is actively preempting other areas from experiencing urban growth (saying no to high-rise development along Boyd). Furthermore, the only city in Central Oklahoma that used to be anti-sprawl, is now the epicenter of distasteful, low-quality sprawl development. Cheaply-built apartments on NW 36th, bring em on. UNP strip mall instead of a lifestyle center. So on and so forth.
It is fair to say that Norman is nose-diving. As far as college towns go, Norman used to be unparalleled in Oklahoma. Now Stillwater and Edmond have caught up.
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