Lower expectations

Reno Avenue — um, Johnny Bench Drive — separates Lower Bricktown, a wholly-separate development, from Bricktown proper. Inevitably, the two sections find themselves in competition; however, Lower Bricktown has taken the lead in Web presence, although someone needs to update the events calendar, stat. Check out the official Lower Bricktown Animation: it strikes a nice balance between low-key and high-energy, and someone had the temerity to drop an Audi R8 into the scene — appropriately, since much of the new Lower Bricktown development will arrive about the same time as the R8, which is late 2007-early 2008.

It should be noted here that some of our urban purists object to Lower Bricktown for being insufficiently, well, urban, what with a Bass Pro Shop and something with Toby Keith's name on it, fercrissake: visions of mobile homes evidently are dancing in their heads. I'm inclined to be a touch more forgiving, if only because the fevered rush that led to the founding of this city in 1889 practically defines "haphazard," and I'm keen on tradition, especially when it annoys people.