Comments on: Just a comment on MAPS 3 and the Canal Extension

By: Walt

Walt — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:56:28 +0000

I agree with Curt’s observations, too – the Convention Center should be at the cotton compress site, with a grand view to the south and southeast. The park should spread, amoeba-like, throughout Core to Shore, connecting Wheeler Park to a Central Park (great lawn), north to the Myriad Gardens and east to the boathouse district. Also, bring the canal from it’s southern turnabout/terminus west, along today’s 5th or 6th streets, through an extension of the park. The canal (imagine a large backwards “C” shape) could include a dock on the south side of the convention center, then under the tracks/Shields, and another dock on the south side of the main convention hotel south of the Ford Center. (The hotel would have an extension of the park to the west of it, along with trolley access). The view from the convention center south, then, would have in the foreground a green extension of the park and canal, followed by the Union Pacific tracks, I-40, and the Boathouse and river walkway beyond. Visitors to the Central Park would be able to view the Land Run statues by foot or by boat, on their way to and from Bricktown. Downtown/C2S residents could jog alongside or through the park, or could walk or bicycle or take the trolley or water taxi to various destinations.

Doug Loudenback has noted that the deed to Wheeler Park requires it to be used as a public park in perpetuity. Might as well integrate it into the new park plans for Core to Shore, and put condos on the bluff overlooking it, along Shartel. Great view to the southwest.

The transit station should be a reconstruction of the elevated BNSF tracks, with moving sidewalks within like those used at airports to move people around. Come in by rail, take an escalator down, then be able to move in climate-controlled comfort anywhere between Kerr and, say, around S 4th or 5th without taking up a square inch of land that can be otherwise developed. Connect it underground to the Santa Fe parking garage and the Cox Center, both of which have lower levels and would provide a place to park to access the rail lines and trolley system.

Great site! Thanks!

By: Blair

Blair — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:47:26 +0000

Hey NaptownEd,

I did not mean to denigrate the Indy Canal in anyway. In truth, your link to the pictures of the Indy Canal was merely the jumping off point for a stream of thoughts focused on Oklahoma City’s continued failure to get urbanity right. We try to fix our urban fabric with large projects – like canals – but have, as of yet, been unable to do the small things with mundane public works and development oversight that create the types of urban places people most enjoy.

I really do appreciate you posting the pictures of the canal. Again, it is a very nice canal. I only hope that Oklahoma City will keep downtown focused on creating excellent urbanity. If a canal is the best way to do that, then it works for me.

By: NaptownEd

NaptownEd — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:27:58 +0000

The purpose of my posting was to reference some value-added photos of Indy’s canal that could ‘possibly’ be a potential opportunities for Bricktown (i.e. housing, park, zoo and museums), which are all present on the Indy canal. It is very disappointing that many comments on this web site only wanted to view a few selected photos to promptly draw their opinion without doing some due dilligence of their part.

By: laura miller

laura miller — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:54:07 +0000

The Indy Canal is and has been a dead zone since its most recent “upgrade”. Notice the people and activity in the pictures posted….not. The Bricktown canal is one of the most successful man-made waterways/perdestrian walk ways in the country. Parks attract tree huggers and are neither traffic generators nor well attended. You have a great product going, expand upon it. You could not afford to continue the operating expense of a comprehensive fixed path transit system for more than a year. Capital for transit is easy. Operating money is the killer. And OKC lacks another ingredient necessary for successful transit:traffic. It may be a popular buzz word for the politicians, but will be a financial killer.

By: Blair

Blair — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:31:04 +0000

Definitely a dependence on cars that too greatly determines development downtown. The truth is, much of it is just a mindset from another era. Many transportation engineers were taught to only worry about moving cars without any consideration for its effects on the public realm and the city as a whole.

On the parking requirements issue, I believe that the municipal code has been amended to waive parking requirements downtown. So while there are no doubt places where are code could be improved, the city deserves some credit for taking a proactive stance on parking requirements.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:51:36 +0000

I think that the city thinks that if the canal is extended throughout the city, development will magically occur along it – similar to what has happened in Bricktown. The canal is short sighted and doesn’t deal with OKC’s biggest problem, which is the reliance on cars. You can then open up a whole new can of worms because city codes require so many parking spots based on building occupancy. The codes in the city suck.

I live 1 1/2 miles from downtown OKC, but I still have to drive to get there, instead of hopping on a train or a bus (better bus system would be brilliant). Smart blog.

By: MikeOKC

MikeOKC — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:02:03 +0000

Excellent post, Blair. You nailed it. I’m glad you couldn’t sleep that night!

By: Blair Humphreys Looks at Bricktown, Core to Shore | OKC Central

Blair Humphreys Looks at Bricktown, Core to Shore | OKC Central — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:53:25 +0000

[...] can all connect? Blair has some thoughts…. yahooBuzzArticleId = window.location.href; Categorized under: [...]

By: Blair

Blair — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:19:08 +0000

Okay, I see where you are coming from. I don’t know Indy very well and should have been more clear that I intended to critique just the urban fabric directly lining the canal, And I like the post on canals. Thanks for putting that together.

By: NR, again

NR, again — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:46:10 +0000

Well, the Indy Canal Walk, when I saw it in person, is actually very well suited for an urban environment. It is what the Bricktown Canal could become if it was only surrounded by Lower Bricktown. As time passed infill happens, but the thing is completely ruined by what you said, heavy facades and a small area in the middle of buildings that don’t completely fit in. The part of your assessment that I disagree with is that the heavy facades and unsuitable development actually only describes a small portion of it, however you’re very correct in that the results powerfully speak for themselves. The canal is dead, but it is still very nice to walk along.

Ironically, I just wrote a lot about comparing canals the other day (in response to something that stirred my mind on SkyscraperCity), which was written in a hurry and not very academically.
http://downtownontherange.blogspot.com/2009/07/canals-galore.html

The main point to sum up is that in my opinion Indy has one of the most evolved downtowns in the nation. Top 10 at least. The core is compact, with so many important assets. It’s so jampacked with monuments and hotels and mega convention centers and stadiums that you hardly even notice the canal because it is separate from all of that and it isn’t the most utilized space because some crappy development in one spot hurt it a lot.