At lunch yesterday I took advantage of the perfect sunny cool weather and put on my big funny looking high spf hat and took a stroll over to the east side of downtown to see what was happening. It has been a long cold winter and I hadn’t been exploring as much as what I usually do.
The east side is booming with condo construction. Find Out More about condo conversions here. Both new and conversions. Downtown Tulsa is now a cool place to be ever since the BOK Arena went in several years ago. I don’t know what came first after that, cool bars or condos but it is amazing the housing that is being built that accompanies the explosion of bars and restaurants. It wasn’t that many years ago that Michael Buble at a concert here joked that he left his hotel to check out the local action and all he he saw were tumbleweeds blowing down the street.
There is growing pains of course. The city has again started enforcing parking laws and the residents downtown are complaining. I’m told that parking in not prime areas averages about $70 per month. It may not sound like much to you big city folks but people in Oklahoma think that free parking is somehow in the Bill of Rights. A codicil of the Second Amendment I think.
The other thing is that the smaller the condo the bigger the dogs the owners have and there is not enough places for the dogs to go relieve themselves and I see people trying to coax their oversize dogs into small planters so the dogs can do their business. Something is going to have to give on that.
Anyway, it is great to see new construction going on downtown and people moving in and making it their home. I really do think that a strong downtown is vital to any city.
I love the image of the sign much better than the debris field on the sidewalk below it. I always thought I would like to live in a loft in a downtown setting, but I’m not sure that I find that to be true any more. Still, It is nice to see my hometown going trough some growing pains. Michale Buble was corriect. There was a time that downtown Tulsa turned into a ghost town after 6:00 p.m.
I considered cropping out the debris but you know the Fur Shop is an urban bar and the debris is part of the scene, just like the drunks passed out in front of Orpha’s. It’d be nice if the Fur Shop would have somebody police the area every now and then.
Lots of great changes in your part of the world over the past few years!! Things do look different AND better than when I was there many years ago!! Hope your week is going well!!
You’d be a good city planner. You and I are on the same planet here.
Development would be especially nice if old buildings get renovated.
Parking 70 bucks a week is a great deal , some lots in Seattle are $50.00 for one day! I lived in Tulsa in the sixties and early seventies and really enjoy seeing all your photos and posts from Tulsa,,thanks
P.S. parking for the Seahawks playoff games last year was $100.00 just to park for 4 hours or so!