The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

22 May 2007

Are we downtown yet?

One of the trickier aspects of planning downtown Oklahoma City, apparently, was that no one was entirely sure what "downtown" really meant: the middle was pretty obvious, but where does it end?

A quarter-century ago, Neal Horton, now acknowledged as the Father of Bricktown, projected that downtown would eventually span 13th to the river and Western to Lincoln. Now the Planning Department, the Chamber of Commerce and Downtown OKC Inc. have defined downtown according to Horton's boundaries, with one exception: they're bumping out the eastern edge to Lottie, so as to take in the entire Oklahoma Health Center.

Then again, it's not like this is really startling news: the Downtown Strategic Action Plan, approved in 2003, covers 13th to the new I-40 alignment and Western to Lincoln, and that "Core to Shore" business from last year extends the focus down to the river's edge.

Still, at least there's a working definition now, and it's as important for what it excludes as for what it includes: residents of Heritage Hills, for instance, really don't seem to live "downtown" in any sense of the word.

Posted at 1:20 PM to City Scene


So, the VA Hospital is "downtown," but Heritage Hills is not downtown? I'm not sure either is, but those boundaries seem a little odd.

Posted by: MikeSwi... at 5:07 PM on 22 May 2007

Is 'downtown' still important? Isn't it all about malls now? Hoboken doesn't have a downtown, but something even more quaint - a main street, called Washington. Manhattan has no 'downtown', except in a literal sense ('The Bronx is up, the Battery's down').

Posted by: Mister Snitch! at 7:00 PM on 22 May 2007

Malls are so 1980. (We've lost our first one, which is now an office complex, and two more are on the endangered list.) Inasmuch as downtown Oklahoma City used to be pretty much a mausoleum after hours, I tend to cheer for anything that brings people in instead of driving them away. We have a Main Street with the name, but it's not so important: it's not even the dividing line between northside and southside. (That would be Sheridan Avenue, two blocks to the south, and it's small potatoes compared to Reno Avenue, two blocks farther south, which is a section-line road running to the very edges of the county and beyond.)

Given this town's quirky history — as in "nonexistent before 22 April 1889" — our time references might seem a bit unusual: for instance, I live in a quasi-historic district that won't celebrate its 60th anniversary until next year. Up around New York, sixty years is a drop in the temporal bucket.

Posted by: CGHill at 9:38 PM on 22 May 2007