The good, the bad and the ugly.

[The Old Downtown Guy]

Though I am absolutely delighted with most of the forward looking real estate development downtown, think that our present City Council is the best I have seen and would still rate Mick Cornett as being in the top five mayors we have had, am very pleased with the appointment of Dennis Clowers to the important position of Director of Public Works, am pleasantly surprised by the turn toward the middle of the road by our still rather sad daily newspaper, am happy with the good selection of alternative press, enjoy a broad and growing selection of good restaurants, find little need for a better selection in the arena of arts, entertainment and sports, am generally satisfied with the quality of city government services and in general feel fortunate to be living in Oklahoma City at this point in time . . . . . there are a few things that I am concerned about . . . . that I feel a need to bring up, point out, bitch about or whatever.

1. What’s the deal with all of the bollards popping up around the public buildings down town? I know that security issues are important, but ringing our public buildings with a bunch of ugly-assed steel and concrete posts does not make me feel safer and their growing presence, IMO, will tend to engender more of a sense of fear rather than security in the general public.

2. Goodbye to the nice view of the Chesapeake Boathouse from the south end of the Bricktown Canal. The poorly planned and designed new I-40 corridor passes directly north of this signature Rand Elliot designed building and the concrete barrier walls being built along side the new ten land monstrosity now obscure all but part of the roof of what was a grand view. There is nothing that can be done at this point. In the future, how hard would it be to think this kind of thing through a little better before we make such dumb blunders?

3. Billboards . . . . billboards and more billboards. I am sick to death of these gigantic awful signs being inflected on my view as I drive, walk, ride, and run or however I get around town. Many progressive cities and states around this country have taken steps to ban further construction of these horrid examples of commerce at the expense of the public good and it makes no sense not to take the same steps here in OKC before there is nothing left to look at without having one of these obnoxious pieces of carp in the line of sight.

4. We need to build more sidewalks everywhere. We are so far behind in construction of sidewalks that we should not build one more new street until we get caught up on sidewalk construction. I don’t mean just in neighborhoods either. I’m talking about along major streets. There are paths worn in the grass along so many streets where people walk that it is a total disgrace. For example, the people that live in the neighborhoods near Penn Square that might want to walk to the best shopping venue in Oklahoma City can’t do it without putting their lives in serious jeopardy. The same goes for the whole damn city. Really . . . come on.

5. Design standards for new commercial construction are almost non-existent in OKC. Developers continue to build the worst looking strip commercial centers on this planet right here in our home town and there is no reason to allow it to continue. Many other cities have implemented design standards that require better materials, more detail and definition in facades, more landscaping and the result is better looking commercial buildings. With all of our tax money that we have spent on public projects, why do we continue to allow this kind of low rent, lame brained throw away commercial development?

I’m going to wind this up at a list of five because I think it is a manageable number. All of these things fall into the purview of OKC public policy and can be addressed by a few simple changes in Oklahoma City’s processes and ordinances.

Half of our City Council seats are up for election this spring and these are the topics that I will be bringing up with each of them. I plan to work in at least a couple of campaigns, help out with mailing, phone banking, walking neighborhoods, putting up signs etc. and I encourage everyone to do the same. Just voting doesn’t get it done in building relationships with elected officials.

So . . . a new year begins and what an exciting year it should be. With so much new residential development in and around downtown and the associated retail and service development that will follow, there will be no shortage of topics for threads on local blogs and no shortage of stimulating discussion with friends sharing a table and enjoying a beverage together.

FANTASTIC !

[floater]

I especially agree with 4 and 5. You see 4 and people wonder why OKCers are so overweight. The city really needs to approach this as a public health issue. Mayor Humphreys claimed that OKCers will never tire of their cars, but there are negative consequences with being too dependent on the automobile. Building neighborhoods where residents can easily walk to the post office, church, cafe, bank, grocery store, etc should be a guidepost for new development.

[MadMonk]

I think #4 is a good idea, but for different reasons. More sidewalks will help keep people off the streets and out of the way of the cars. Nothing is more frustrating than some SOB on a bike riding down the street and backing up traffic. More sidewalks will make things safer for them and for the automobile drivers.

[jbrown84]

Definitely agree with the last two wholeheartedly. As for number 1, I can't say I've even noticed. Again with #3, I haven't noticed any new billboard really. Where have new ones gone up? I know there is a ban on them on the new Crosstown.

And #2 seems unavoidable, as the new I-40 has to cross the train tracks there.