Where are the "better parts" of OKC?

[nschmoyer]

I'm a newcomer to Oklahoma (I've been around here for about 2 years now) and I would like to know where the nicer parts of Oklahoma City are.

I've been to Bricktown, Penn Square, and Quail Springs, but beyond that I have no idea as to where anything cool is shopping, dining, or entertainment-wise.

I actually went driving one day in hopes that I would magically run into something cool, but the only thing I found was 23rd street.

Anyways, next time I head up 35 to OKC, what should I check out?

[Centerback]

Try Western Avenue from NW 36th to Wilshire, there are some great shops and restaurants. Also try Edmond, some nice shops downtown and in the Spring Creek area.

[Midtowner]

Capitol Hill is interesting as well. It's on SW 25th between Western and Shields.

[Pete]

Visit Western Avenue - Oklahoma City's Unique Shopping, Dining & Entertainment District!

The Paseo Arts District

Downtown Edmond Business Development

The Asian District on NW 23rd & Classen

[mranderson]

Capitol Hill is interesting as well. It's on SW 25th between Western and Shields.

I guess if you like a dump. Then as the expression goes "to each his own." Give me areas like far north Oklahoma City (north of Quail Springs) any day.

[Pete]

Norman has a fantastic area of shops and restaurants:

Welcome to Historic Campus Corner in Norman, Oklahoma

[Patrick]

I guess if you like a dump. Then as the expression goes "to each his own." Give me areas like far north Oklahoma City (north of Quail Springs) any day.

It is a unique part of our history, and has some pretty decent Mexican restaurants.

[Patrick]

A lot of women like the quaint little shops in Northpark Mall at NW 122nd and May Avenue.

For typical run of the mill strip centers, they line I-240, NW Expressway, and Memorial Rd.

Penn Square is probably the nicest shopping mall in town, followed by Quail Springs. Penn Square is more upscale. 50 Penn Place has a few upscale shops as well.

Definitely try Spring Creek Plaza and Spring Creek Village in Edmond at 15th St. and Bryant. Their quaint little upscale outdoor shopping malls.

[Spartan]

Run of the mill strip malls line every freeway and major artery in OKC. But if you want something unique and interesting, there's little pockets of something neat here and there. Uptown, Midtown, Downtown stretch from I 40 to NW 23rd, there's some neat URBAN areas in there. There's a lot of quaint, old neighborhood north of there, and they seem to be centered around Western Avenue.

Capitol Hill (OKC's first suburb), I give an A-, as a good, urban district (it would get an A+ if there was more variety) and most suburbs have neat little downtown districts. Moore is planning a complete overhaul of theirs right now. Norman has quite a few trendy little historic areas that I've photographed extensively.

[BDP]

Good suggestions here. Just to reinforce some, my out of town guests usually enjoy spots on Western and the Paseo the most. At least these are the unexpected areas of Oklahoma City. Midtown and Automobile Alley usually impress in terms of potential, but they're not quite there yet in terms of stuff to do. OKC's most impressive neighborhoods are in the area, as well, like Heritage Hills, Mesta Park, Edgemere Park, and Crown Heights.

I think if you share your interests we could be more specific.

I guess if you like a dump. Then as the expression goes "to each his own." Give me areas like far north Oklahoma City (north of Quail Springs) any day.

I guess if you like treeless rows of McMansions and corporate chruches. To each his own, indeed. In terms of things to do, Capitol Hill is much more worth the drive than the sterile subdivisions north of Quail Springs.

[mranderson]

Good suggestions here. Just to reinforce some, my out of town guests usually enjoy spots on Western and the Paseo the most. At least these are the unexpected areas of Oklahoma City. Midtown and Automobile Alley usually impress in terms of potential, but they're not quite there yet in terms of stuff to do. OKC's most impressive neighborhoods are in the area, as well, like Heritage Hills, Mesta Park, Edgemere Park, and Crown Heights.

I think if you share your interests we could be more specific.



I guess if you like treeless rows of McMansions and corporate chruches. To each his own, indeed. In terms of things to do, Capitol Hill is much more worth the drive than the sterile subdivisions north of Quail Springs.

How is an ugly, sesspool of urban blight worth the drive? My dad had his office on Commerce during the heyday of Capitol Hill, and I watched it wither away. It reeks of deteriorisation.

[Martin]

deteriorisation? that's unpossible! -M

[Midtowner]

deteriorisation? that's unpossible! -M

If we still had the thumbs up things, you would have earned one right there.

They took them away because they didn't like the fact that I was winning

The man is keeping me down.

[Spartan]

Sometimes older, poorer parts of town have a lot of character.

[mranderson]

deteriorisation? that's unpossible! -M

So my spelling is off a bit. So sue me.

[BDP]

How is an ugly, sesspool of urban blight worth the drive? My dad had his office on Commerce during the heyday of Capitol Hill, and I watched it wither away. It reeks of deteriorisation.

How is the endless expanse of sterile bland suburban sprawl worth the drive? I'm not even sure if an outsider is allowed on the street above Quail Springs. You have to get by the gates first.

There's no reason for a visitor to go north of Quail Springs, because there's nothing to do or see. No doubt it can be improved, but at least Capitol Hill won't bore you to death.

Anyway, for the original poster you can make the choice: Capitol Hill is the center of Oklahoma City's Hispanic population with many locally owned and operated businesses in older, more run down properties. North of Quail springs is the center of Oklahoma City's gated communities with an expanse of mass produced model homes and a variety of new high volume churches. 7-11s and other nationally owned convenience operations dot the landscape and make up the bulk of commerce in the area.

[Swake2]

You could always visit Maple Ridge, Forest Hills, Bolewood, Utica Square, Brookside, Florence Park, Cherry Street or several other old money areas in Tulsa.

Older does not have to mean dilapidated.

My least favorite thing about Oklahoma City was always the way it neglected the great old neighborhoods. It’s a classic donut city always moving ever outward with and ever growing rotten core. It’s not unusual in this country, it’s just sad. I was in OKC a month ago and drove north from downtown through Midtown and Heritage Hills and up to the Asian District and it’s (very slowly) getting better, but not a lot better, and that’s unfortunate.

Anderson’s attitude is just so damn typical (and stereotypically redneck) and makes reversing sprawl so hard. You see the attitude in Tulsa in the sniping from suburban rightwing mega church types when they complain about “Utica Square Liberals” or “The Midtown Money Belt”. That is a lot of the political division you hear so much about from Tulsa. To hell with the old, Jesus wants me to have a new house and big new church away from where I might have to see poor people, or, God-forbid, immigrants. Besides, downtown areas have bars and sometimes even gay people.

[Pete]

Here's a great brief history lesson on Capitol Hill, which has always had a Hispanic foundation (from dustbury.com):



The Capitol Hill area, across the river from downtown Oklahoma City, was settled around 1900, and was incorporated as a city in 1905, though Oklahoma City proper had already spread south of the river itself — Wheeler Park was established in 1903, with the first incarnation of the Oklahoma City Zoo following in 1904. (A flood destroyed much of the park in 1923; the Zoo was relocated across town.)

In 1911, Capitol Hill was annexed by Oklahoma City, but was never quite wholly absorbed; the southside area had its own chamber of commerce, its own community newspaper (the Beacon, still being published), even its own downtown along Commerce Street, which hardly anyone, even today, calls Southwest 25th Street, even though technically that's what it is.

How the two sides of the city grew so far apart over the years is open to debate. It seems reasonable to infer that since city offices, located downtown, are north of the river, the movers and shakers of Oklahoma City's early years tended to spend most of their time, and presumably their efforts, on areas north of the river. W. H. Dunn, as far back as 1909, had envisioned a circular boulevard surrounding the city, and the circle was incorporated into the city plan around 1930. But it wasn't all that circular, nor was its center near the center of town; the northern loop of the eventual Grand Boulevard was built more than five miles north of downtown, beyond NW 63rd Street, but the southern loop was less than a mile south of Commerce Street, along SW 36th Street. It's hard to imagine this asymmetry being accidental.

Whatever the reasons, Capitol Hill eventually went into a tailspin. Many businesses closed; others relocated farther south, closer to the proposed Southwest Expressway, now I-240, which began construction in 1961. And in 1972, the Finger Plan, intended as a remedy for school segregation, proved to be the impetus for massive white flight, much of it to the Moore school district, whose northern boundary was SW/SE 82nd Street.

There had almost always been a community of transplanted Mexicans in the city. Many had worked on the railroads following the Land Run of 1889. The Mexican Revolution of 1910 sent thousands of refugees north of the Rio Grande, and not all of them stopped in Texas. In 1914, three Discalced Carmelite nuns, fleeing the wrath of Pancho Villa, wound up in southeast Oklahoma, serving the Spanish-speaking missions of the Church; in 1921, the order set up a central mission in Oklahoma City at SW 11th and Walker, which became the full-fledged Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Therésè of the Child Jesus in 1927. St. Therésè's humble self-description as a "little flower of Jesus" stuck; to this day, the church on Walker, arguably the center of Mexican-American culture in Oklahoma City, is known familiarly as Little Flower Church.

And when in recent years the Latino population began to grow beyond the immediate vicinity of Little Flower, they moved to the west, toward the Stockyards, and north from there; and to the south, across the river, and into Capitol Hill. The Capitol Hill Elementary School, built in 1920 at SW 27th and Robinson, is these days about 60 percent Hispanic; Heronville, built in 1928 on SW 29th east of Blackwelder, is about 75 percent. (Heronville, incidentally, is getting a major facelift and expansion from MAPS for Kids.) None of this, of course, was predicted in that 1930 city plan. But cities, being composed of people first and infrastructure second, have a way of evolving that defies easy prognostication. If you've been thinking of Oklahoma City as a white-bread Protestant sort of place, you haven't been paying attention. One of the reasons I write these pieces is simply that for many years I wasn't paying attention either.

[BDP]

Older does not have to mean dilapidated.

No one said it does. And it doesn't always mean that in Oklahoma City, either.

But you are right that those attitudes exist and leads to neglected neighborhoods in our respective cities. The irony is that those hiding out in their gated communities are the ones who are abandoning their city and leaving it to decay. Thankfully, enough people do care about the city to maintain the neighborhoods in OKC and Tulsa like the ones you mentioned. And it keeps getting better in OKC as more and more people are interested in the city again and, possibly, in a way that its never seen before.

[Patrick]

Busing didn't help anything. It forced the white folks out to the burbs. Of course, Tulsa wasn't faced with that, so that's why they're in better shape.

[mranderson]

Busing didn't help anything. It forced the white folks out to the burbs. Of course, Tulsa wasn't faced with that, so that's why they're in better shape.

Plus, it taught us a new appreciation for a certain obsene gesture. (hint: anyone remember the judge that caused the bussing plan we were under?)

[The Old Downtown Guy]

I guess if you like a dump. Then as the expression goes "to each his own." Give me areas like far north Oklahoma City (north of Quail Springs) any day.

You are free to roam all of those distant lands at your leisure Mr. Anderson. Enjoy.

[The Old Downtown Guy]

How is an ugly, sesspool of urban blight worth the drive? My dad had his office on Commerce during the heyday of Capitol Hill, and I watched it wither away. It reeks of deteriorisation.

Are you off your meds again?

[Pete]

I'll be in OKC in a few weeks and am looking forward to taking a stroll through Capitol Hill. I know the vacancy has gone way down and it looks like there are some interesting businesses and restaurants.

Here's some good photos of the area I found on the web:

Capitol Hill - a photoset on Flickr

[The Old Downtown Guy]

Busing didn't help anything. It forced the white folks out to the burbs. . . .

If you want to start a discussion of white flight Patrick, we better fire up a new thread. But, I'll go ahead and put in my .02 one time here.

Busing was a plan designed to correct years of opressive laws and practices purputrated on people of color living in Oklahoma City. It was an illconceived plan; on that I will agree, but the flight of whites to the suburbs was a choice on their part based in and driven by their racial attitudes. Oklahoma City is still a largely segregated city. That is sad, unfortunate and to our discredit. There can be little disagreement on that point.