What IS "downtown" to you?

[betts]

It is only downtown OKC, but for some of us, it's as close as we can get. I'm quite sure the Bronx was never a goal of mine, but I do remember very vividly going on spring break in college and stopping to spend a night in Georgetown with an already graduated friend. I remember thinking, "I would LOVE to live here". I always had the same feeling when visiting cities that had neighborhoods of row houses and so, when I started driving downtown regularly to go to Hornets' games and got off on 6th Street, I saw the construction and thought, "This could have the same feel as the neighborhoods in the cities I love". I had never before contemplated moving downtown, but found myself driving by on weekends, getting out to walk the construction sites and the idea grew. Then, it took about a year to convince my husband who, despite missing his swimming pool, really enjoys it here too. It's funny to hear him explain, "It's just like living in a ranch house turned on its side".

[Double Edge]

Great! There's nothing like living in a neighborhood you like. My point is my house in the burbs is less removed from 'authenticity' than if I lived on the Upper East Side, Harlem or Brooklyn and wanted to go to SOHO for an art event.

I do know my neighbors in the burbs and do socialize with them. We have crime, places to eat, shop, drink coffee etc. And I don't burn a tank of gas a week driving downtown because I also work at my sitcom job with my sitcom employees near my sitcom house.

[betts]

Obviously, to each his own. We're all genetically programmed to be different, which is why life is so interesting. I don't see anything wrong with wanting to live in the suburbs, and I did it for quite a while here. Neither is more noble than the other. I think that downtown was viewed so negatively for so long and we've all heard people waxing poetic about the glories of shrubbery and a personal plot of land that many of we downtown supporters try to talk it up as much as possible. I'm not using any hyperbole when I say that I enjoy living downtown more than I did living where I did before. However, my life has changed, and it's easier to do so given my current circumstances. I would need two townhouses were my entire family still at home.

[Double Edge]

I would enjoy living downtown too, under different circumstances and perhaps after it develops more. Surely not trying to relocate my business or daily commute in and out of there. But if retired or some other situation, perhaps. I can say that's definitely not true for my spouse, who loves her green-spaces and finds little or no reason to go downtown save for occasional legalities, an infrequent ticket to the symphony or the theater.

[dwellsokc]

Great! There's nothing like living in a neighborhood you like. My point is my house in the burbs is less removed from 'authenticity' than if I lived on the Upper East Side, Harlem or Brooklyn and wanted to go to SOHO for an art event.

I do know my neighbors in the burbs and do socialize with them. We have crime, places to eat, shop, drink coffee etc. And I don't burn a tank of gas a week driving downtown because I also work at my sitcom job with my sitcom employees near my sitcom house.

Double Edge, excuse my use of metaphor to explain a concept; I never implied that sitcoms were inferior to reality TV (I hate reality TV). Meaning: I don’t think suburban life is inferior to urban. I had never tried to define what I thought was good about living downtown until Larry asked me… I was living happily-ever-after in suburbia, ignorant about urban living. I was on your side, and PennyQuilts’ side. I was SURPRISED by the improved quality of life we received by moving downtown. If that quality is described as “authenticity” in my mind, it doesn’t mean that suburban life is plastic… and just because I describe it as authenticity doesn’t mean that you would too.

Visiting the city, and living in the city are two different things. I can imagine what it feels like to walk on the moon, but I’m going to rely on Neil Armstrong’s depiction, not yours.

[Double Edge]

I've lived near Paseo and commuted to the burbs to work and shop. That's not as downtown as The Montgomery Tower Apartments but it's not the burbs of Edmond either so I'm not completely ignorant to what's different. (Though I have to say at one time it was the burbs, just not when I lived there.)

It's different. Period. Quality of life between the two can be measured by what scratches your personal itch.

My guess by your posts is the biggest contributors to improving your quality of life are living in a new house to your liking and dreams and getting rid of a commute, neither of which are directly related to downtown. (Unless your house dreams were to have one situated Downtown, which would just make fulfillment of the dream recursive, not necessarily better.)

[Larry OKC]

dwellsokc:

And I hope nothing was construed by anyone as an attack on your view point, was just trying to understand where you were coming from. I appreciate your response.

If I worked downtown, it could be a consideration, but since I work just off Broadway near Edmond, I certainly don't want to move someplace that is farther (or is it further) away and dealing with the described nightmare that Project 180 etc is having on getting in/out of DT (in addition to the normal traffic issues). The cost of getting a place that is smaller and costs more doesn't make any since for me either. The same reason I haven't moved closer to work, the places get smaller and more expensive. Views are nice but not really that important to me (unless we had the Rocky Mountains or something like that). But even then, I work a pseudo graveyard shift and sleep during the day, so I live in a virtual cave anyway. If Thunder games were a priority for me, again that might be a consideration, but at best, I am a casual sports person.

Again, not putting down any of those things if they are important to you or anyone else.

[OKCMallen]

Thinking in terms of the poll choices would only hurt what downtown is.