Is North Okc losing the battle to the South Okc suburbs?

[PennyQuilts]

I just don't understand why the unnecessary and erroneuous comparisons. Anyway, I thought this forum was more about downtown where we can all come together, not the tired old devisive north vs. south, east vs west posturing.

Oh, well, it is an old feud and people have fun with it. But I didn't think BG was engaging in that - he just seemed (to me) to be describing something he'd observed without making an issue of it.

[windowphobe]

In every city i've ever lived, North=good South= not so much.

You've obviously never lived in Tulsa.

Let's see if we can start an Eastside versus Westside feud.

[Spartan]

I don't want to sound defensive because the last thing I feel the need to defend is the southside.. but for those who think the southside is full of ignorant blue collar folk, that's interesting because I'm from the southside and my whole family lives on the southside.

The only dichotomy that exists in my mind is that the north side is more urban, or more successfully urban I guess we should say, whereas the southside is less successful in its urban parts. And it's really a huge shame because the Capitol Hill region of town (which is really a large area, from the river to 44th) has a lot of hidden gems and just tons of potential. Really, the only thing I've ever liked about C2S is its potential to awaken the adjacent parts of Capitol Hill (the north half of it I guess).

I would totally second Steve's sentiment. It's not one suburb losing to another. It's the center city (I-240 to I-44) losing to all the suburbs combined. Yeah, it's Moore competing with Edmond, and other suburb v. another suburb. But the inner city isn't even competing. Look what happened to Crossroads, and frankly, OKC deserved to get its tax base robbed if that is the best that OKC can offer up for the south metro. If anything, it speaks to how much the southside has evolved that people were no longer willing to support that crappy mall. OKC needs to evolve at the same pace that the rest of the south metro does. And OKC is going to need to compete in its own unique way, not offer up more of the same that Moore already has a monopoly on. OKC will no longer even be able to compete with those sprawly Moore strip malls, and this is a good thing.

Let's face it. If someone is more inclined to want the mega strip malls with huge wasteful parking lots and drive-thru lanes and traffic gridlock--Moore is more strategically positioned at the center of the south metro, and that will be able to trump anything that OKC is able to do--to that end it doesn't even matter that OKC doesn't have the land to start up a massive area similar to Memorial Rd or 19th in Moore. OKC will need to put forward something that can lure in an entirely different, and perhaps even more affluent, piece of the south metro demographic. I would really really encourage them to get creative with Capitol Hill and other existing areas inside 240. People that live in the affluent neighborhoods in 73170 mostly work downtown already and would support retail between their homes and downtown if it offered something unique and worthwhile. There is no reason to believe they would stay away from the so-called "barrio" because many use Western Avenue (a strategic corridor for development) for their commutes, and everyone loves to get authentic Mexican food in that part of town..many graduated from Capitol Hill and U.s. Grant back in the day. There is no rift between affluent southside and poorhouse southside despite that I-240 clearly divides the two.

I think even though Moore is closer for most of the southside than downtown, traffic in Moore is getting so bad and hectic that I think more upscale inner-south retail would almost even have a convenience advantage, as hard as it is to believe. The southside Target is at 44th and Western, and they will probably never close that store. The city does have a masterplan for the 44th corridor that if actually enacted, we could see a competitive business area emerge.

[Spartan]

You've obviously never lived in Tulsa.

Or Kansas City. St Louis. Pittsburgh. Charlotte. Nashville. Denver. And so on.

And actually, in more places than I can think of, north is actually the bad area..OKC, Raleigh (I assume being what OKC Heel is basing his claim off of), Dallas, Atlanta, etc are just an anomaly to that. West/East is certainly a more common divide, such as with Houston, Philly, LA, Minnie, Austin, Little Rock, and so on.

[soonerfan_in_okc]

Im not so sure why some of you seem inclined to hate on the north side. yea, im biased, because that is where i grew up and my parents still live, but it still is a great place. I graduated from PCN in 08, and all of the hate on the PC school district seems to be a bit ridiculous. The district just passed a huge bond issue to keep it up to par with the other districts, so there is no need to think it is going to go down hill anytime soon. Unless of course you are racist, and think that the influx of minorities to the area means it is going to get worse. My education in HS has served me fine here at OU too. There are plenty of people from other districts around the state and texas that people consider elite, yet we all learned roughly the same things and came into OU with the same skill sets.


I think the NW side/pc district has a large amount of 125-200k homes that do need to be taken care of better, but at the same time there are a number of places around PCN at least that still are selling new homes. There is land, and people still want to live in the city.

[kguff]

OK i'll just state facts! not adjust facts to suit myself

Northside has more restaurants
the highest grossing zip code in the state is on the southside
drugs are more prevalent on the northside
more murders happen on the northside
the southside loco's are in jail or deported

[betts]

It's nice not to care. I like the middle!

[BoulderSooner]

It's nice not to care. I like the middle!

+1