Greg Cerveny at urbanmonarch.com emailed today and had this to say:

I’m looking for the pedestrian friendly neighborhoods of OKC.  Something with grocery stores, entertainment, and dining within walking distance.  Any suggestions for places to start?

Initially, I though, “Dang, what am I supposed to tell this guy?.”  I mean, surely we have something to offer, but it is not immediately clear which neighborhood can really provide all of this within close walking distance.  But after thinking through it for a little while, I sent him back this list as my recommendations for the best pedestrian friendly neighborhoods in Oklahoma City.  It definitely not meant to be a comprehensive list (though sadly it might be), but the good news is that nearly every neighborhood I considered is trending towards a more pedestrian friendly future.


PEDESTRIAN FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOODS IN OKC

1. Mesta Park / Heritage Hills / Winans (between NW 13th on south and 23rd on north; Classen Blvd east to Robinson) – These are probably the most walkable neighborhoods.  Midtown is directly south across 13th street providing a growing selection of restaurants and bars.  There is a Homeland at Western and 18th that while not as yuppie-ready as a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, does handle most of your grocery needs.  Also, there is a solid group of restaurant and retail establishments along 23rd street to the north, including: a just opened market named Market C (owned by the Cheever’s restaurant group) with great take-home dinner options and Cuppie’s and Joe, a new cupcake and coffee shop with outstanding cupcakes.  Plus, I would say that the long-term prospects for both Midtown and 23rd Street are very good.
2. Jefferson Park / The Paseo / Sparrow Park (directly north of 23rd Street) – The restaurants and galleries of the Paseo along with the aforementioned energy of 23rd make a walkable lifestyle a real possibility here.  You will find smaller houses, better values, great parks, and still tons of untapped potential.  Most grocery runs will require a trip in the car, or at least a short bike ride; but the previously mentioned Market C and a few corner convenience stores may make the necessary trips few and far between.
3. Midtown – There lots of new energy and new restaurants, including: McNellie’s Irish Pub, Irma’s Burgers, 1492, Café de Brazil, and Prairie Thunder Bakery (which has wonderful breads).  Great potential and within walkable distance to the 18th street Homeland, but there are still so many gaps in the fabric and there are not enough residents for it to even be considered a neighborhood.  Still, if you want to be a pioneer give it a shot.  The Sieber Hotel redevelopment looks to be a nice place to call home.
4. Crown Heights – This is a wonderful neighborhood within close walking distance to the Western restaurant corridor with lots of great dining and bar options.  Not too many other neighborhood amenities are currently available along Western and the neighborhood DOES NOT have sidewalks of any kind.  I love this neighborhood and was happy to call it home for a couple of years.  You probably can’t practice a fully walkable lifestyle here, but it still has its moments and is a great place to live.  (I would probably put Edgemere Park in the same category.)
5. Downtown / Bricktown / The Triangle – Similar to Midtown, all of the “urban” neighborhoods have yet to really take hold.  Bricktown probably has the best breadth of services, but has only limited living options.  The Triangle is within walking distance to Bricktown, but not much else.  Downtown has some terrific amenities like: the OKC Museum of Art, Civic Center Performance Center, Downtown Library, Ford Center Arena, restaurants, etc; but virtually every housing unit – if not 100% – is sold with a parking spot, which should give you some idea.  In my opinion, these neighborhoods are wonderful options if you have the money, but better values can be found in all of the previously mentioned locations.  Still, I have heard that prices are dropping in at least one new downtown housing development – Maywood Park – so maybe it is worth investigating further.

RESPONSE

What do you think?  After reading it again I am thinking that I definitely should have put Crown Heights at the bottom of the list, but am still pretty confident with the idea that Downtown / Bricktown / The Triangle are not currently the best options – probably #4 – though hopefully they will be at the top of the list sometime soon.  Also, I would be interested to get your thoughts on the neighborhoods I missed.  Perhaps I should have mentioned the campus area of Norman – which is probably the most walkable neighborhood in all of central Oklahoma – but I was thinking only in OKC proper.

One note, I realize that almost all of these neighborhoods (with the exception of Bricktown and the Triangle) are in the northwest quadrant of the city.  This points to a limitation on my own perspective and experience, but also to the historic growth pattern of the city.  So if you have ideas about completely different parts of the city that you think offer something special, please let me know as I would love to check them out.

I am always cranking on ways to promote Oklahoma. The ideas range in terms of size and saneness, but every now and then I have one that I think just might work. The other day I was considering how everything you hear today is sustainable this, or sustainable that, and you hear it most often when discussing design, development, and housing. In truth, the term is used so often and applied in so many different ways that it is quickly losing any real meaning. But no denying, right now sustainability is in and we need to take advantage by letting people know that Oklahoma has been employing sustainable practices for a long, long time.

Really, Oklahoma has a tradition of sustainability? When I look at the list of cities adopting LEED standards I don’t see anything about Oklahoma City or Tulsa?

Well, okay, we aren’t necessarily ahead of the sustainability curve now, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t living more sustainable lives in the past…

OKLAHOMA’S HISTORY OF SUSTAINABILITY

HOUSING

Oklahoma has a long history of sustainable housing types including:

The earth house (commonly referred to as a soddy or dugout) was a popular form of earlier Oklahoma settler housing and is considered to have a “small ecological footprint.”

The grass house (pre-fire alarm no less) also housed many early Okies.

And of course, we can’t forget the teepee which has been housing residents on Oklahoma soil since before the Land Run.



TRANSPORTATION

Speaking of the Land Run, we must remember that it was a Land RUN! If everyone had come in their SUVs then it would have probably been called the Land Race. But the soon to be residents of Oklahoma chose more sustainable transportation options, and traveled to stake their claim by train, on horseback, and even on foot!



ENERGY

Okay, so there have been periods where we may have contributed more than our fair share to America’s oil dependence problems, but we are also the place where “the wind comes sweeping down the plain” and we have been turning that wind into usable energy for a long, long time. In fact, now with the emphasis on clean natural gas and new wind farms we are beginning to embrace the sustainable energy tradition of our past.

THE IDEA: WE NEED A SWEET T-SHIRT!

So here is the idea. I want to make sure everyone knows that Oklahoma has been doing this sustainability thing for years and I have decided the best way to get the word out is with a sweet t-shirt. So to get things started, I am offering $100 for the best original t-shirt design that focuses on sustainable housing in Oklahoma. I would suggest you include one of the following slogans or something similar:

“Oklahoma has been doing sustainable housing for years!”

or

“We’ve been doing sustainable housing for years!”*

*include some reference to Oklahoma


Other Slogans

If you have more ideas on what would make a good slogan, please post them in the comments below.

CONTEST RULES

Obviously, I am no expert at holding t-shirt competitions, but here are the basics:

deadline: all submissions must be received by November 30, 2008.

specs: all designs must adhere to the requirements of the Cafe Press 10×10 template (found here).

submitting: please email design in .jpg or .png format to blair.d.humphreys@gmail.com.

prizes: winner: $100 / runner-up: $40 / note: depending on the number and quality of entrants I may raise the prize amounts and/or award more entrants

selection: winners will be selected at my discretion and please no family members or employees of imagiNATIVEamerica.com

ownership: all entrants must turnover ownership of submitted design(s) and all rights to their use. Granting me the sole right to reproduce, print, sell the design, or use it in any way I deem appropriate.