Are you serious? What is the deal with the paranoia in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City has one the safest downtown areas I have ever visited. What could happen between the santa fe garage and bricktown that couldn't happen between a bricktown garage and a restaurant.

I can guarantee you that most out of town guests from any decent size city are going to feel as safe or safer than they feel in their own home town. They are probably used to walking MUCH farther in their respective urban entertainment districts to get to their destinations.

I'll never understand it and I cringe every time I am in bricktown. Our unjustified paranoia and laziness are going to prevent bricktown from being a major player for sure. We're going to develop more parking area than destinations and the next generation will still be leaving Oklahoma to go where the action is.

I was just in LA visiting family and we went to the 3rd st. promenade to kill some time. That thing is like 6 blocks long, with major retailers, thousands, maybe millions of more visitors a year than bricktown, and you can't even see 1 parking space from the front door of a single merchant on the entire strip. And this is Los Angeles. I guarantee you that at least 75% of the visitors DROVE there. Why is it so popular? Because it's not a freaking parking lot and it's a dense mix of easily accessible merchants. Once you've parked and walked a few blocks, you have easy access to dozens of retailers. Bricktown will never be that, because our perspective on parking is so backwards. We want to spread everything out for the parking and then, guess what, it's not longer worth even going because the whole place is one big ugly parking lot with a few merchants sprinkled in. It is 100% the wrong way to do it, but I think we're so insecure we just can't try to do it any differently than how the rest of the city is built and we’re too lazy to walk a few blocks, even if it’s the same distance as any mall parking lot.

[quote=BDP;109889]1. I just read the summary of it above and it sounds like half the people are ignorant to the other report that said we have plenty of parking downtown even for multiple major events going on simultaneously. My own personal experience bears that out. Parking is EASY downtown. It's the walking people seem to have a problem with and, for that, you can't blame anyone but the people who bitch about it.

2. Well, we can have strip malls, memorial avenue, and 7-11s. Granted, "nice" is subjective, but, yeah, the fact people won't walk anywhere is why they city is basically one big surface parking lot. Then, we get a nice area downtown and people whine because they have to walk or pay a little bit to visit that area. Again, that's the product of people's laziness, not because of any concrete infrastructure problem.


I agree ,and you wondered how the national media can say Oklahoma is FAT, dued to obession with zero tolerence for walking, or obese tendecies.lol

I think gmwise hit the nail on the head. There's not a parking problem downtown, unless by "problem" you mean "have to walk a couple blocks from your parking spot to your destination... maybe." Most of the time, I go downtown and find a spot right off the bat.

I'm not downtown a lot (3-5 times a month, some day/some night), but I LOVE walking downtown. Cutting thru the Myriad Gardens with folks going to the Ford Center. . .walking up the "avenue" in front of the Rennaisance and Skirvin. . . in front of the park at Civic Center and over to Il Trat. . .looking UP as I go into Leadership Square. We've grown SO much. . .and I love that "big city" feel we are closing in on.

For what it's worth, I think that having to pay to park is just a part of urban life. The key issue isn't that we have to pay occasionally, rather it is how much we are asked to pay.

When the parking lot owners finally come to understand that high-priced parking, for whatever reason, is detrimental to Bricktown in the long run, then the parking debate will go away.

Everyone has their own "reasonableness" meter. Mine pegs at about $5.

...and what's up with this?

We pay EUR 35 a day (about USD 40) per day to park on the street in Amsterdam, which of-course encourages people to take public transportation or walk. The trade off is a wonderfully vibrant and walkable city center that draws people by the bus load! This is not the case for many other European cities that have embraced 'car culture' so it is a question of choice, even here in Europe.

It would be great if my hometown, OKC, could learn just a little from this example about how people interact and what urban life really means. This ridiculous discussion about parking is a dead-end street. The simple truth is if you want more density and the higher quality of urban life that goes with it, then you do away with the 20th century notion that everyplace has to be reachable by a car.

When will OKC ever learn this? Unfortunately not soon enough for me.

Mick Cornett recently said that "Perception is reality." IMO that statement describes the Bricktown Parking "Problem." Its not the people who will walk and enjoy the urban life that have a problem. Its the out of towner or infrequent Bricktown visitor who sees the sign "Parking $5.00/10.00/20.00." The sign itself is repulsive to most who are used to free parking. You never get a second chance at a good first impression, so the infrequent visitor may never stop/return, or their "perception" of Bricktown is tainted from the start. My solution, make all lots that charge above say $3.00 post signs reading "Valet Parking" and provide valet service. We all know they are making enough $$ to pay valets. That may actually create the good first impression that business is booming and parking is in demand.

its not the perception of the out of towner......cause they dont care (they will pay anyway just like a $50 steak from Red Prime.....which is great) !!!!! It is the local media and how they perceive it....its a story! Why Valet when everything is going great? ask city officials and big 12 board members if $20 was too high and they would say "I'm supprised they didnt charge $30" Everybody has to grow up sometime (cities included)dont you agree...........okc move forward

I agree, the out of towners don't care about the prices. When they come here for an event, they expect to pay.