Fairground Flats

[DoctorTaco]

The first thing that bothers me is the use of "Flats" in the name. I always heard the area from May to Penn and 10th to Reno referred to as Mulligan Flats. Not a positive, it was a white trash slum through the 1980s-90s that was improved (and I mean improved in a 100% positive manner with zero downside) by Hispanic immigrants and Habitat for Humanity housing. As a long term neighbor, I read "Flats" as "Slum". Like they are sticking out their tongue and telling me they are building a "Pre-slum".

With 216 apartments on 3 levels and over 420 parking spaces, it appears to me that it will have more asphalt than anything else. With the vinyl siding and overall design, it just looks cheap. I don't see green spaces or water runoff control, like stuff on the north side uses. Just asphalt and cheap buildings. It looks like the early version of those apartments in the 10th to 23rd, along MacArthur-ish area wound up being. It's not that I can easily see, it's that I can't see anything other than theses apartments going into default in 5-10 years and City government supporting a plan to convert them into Section 8 housing. Because it fits so well into the Social Services focus of the area along General Pershing.

And then I have to wonder how this supports that large economic driver in OKC, which is State Fair Park?

This is a very thoughtful response.

[Bill Robertson]

I wonder if using "Flats" is an attempt to make the term less negative in relation to the area.

[April in the Plaza]

I thought that "Flats" were normally considered to be very posh apartments in the UK?

[SouthSide]

The first thing that bothers me is the use of "Flats" in the name. I always heard the area from May to Penn and 10th to Reno referred to as Mulligan Flats. Not a positive, it was a white trash slum through the 1980s-90s that was improved (and I mean improved in a 100% positive manner with zero downside) by Hispanic immigrants and Habitat for Humanity housing. As a long term neighbor, I read "Flats" as "Slum". Like they are sticking out their tongue and telling me they are building a "Pre-slum".

With 216 apartments on 3 levels and over 420 parking spaces, it appears to me that it will have more asphalt than anything else. With the vinyl siding and overall design, it just looks cheap. I don't see green spaces or water runoff control, like stuff on the north side uses. Just asphalt and cheap buildings. It looks like the early version of those apartments in the 10th to 23rd, along MacArthur-ish area wound up being. It's not that I can easily see, it's that I can't see anything other than theses apartments going into default in 5-10 years and City government supporting a plan to convert them into Section 8 housing. Because it fits so well into the Social Services focus of the area along General Pershing.

And then I have to wonder how this supports that large economic driver in OKC, which is State Fair Park?

My mother who was born in 1935 and attended Central High School used to speak of having friends in the Mulligan Flats area. It was indeed a very poor area and her parents preferred she be home before dark when visiting her friends there. I don't think many OKC residents are familiar with Mulligan Flats. I realize it is a common term but I don't care for the term "white trash" especially where children are concerned.

[jedicurt]

I thought that "Flats" were normally considered to be very posh apartments in the UK?

it's actually the opposite. in the UK, "apartment" is used to describe and upscale, posh flat. in the UK pretty much any single residence in a building that you rent is a flat.

[April in the Plaza]

it's actually the opposite. in the UK, "apartment" is used to describe and upscale, posh flat. in the UK pretty much any single residence in a building that you rent is a flat.

dang, i guess these Tulsa boys were confused then!

https://www.villageflatstulsa.com/

[jedicurt]

dang, i guess these Tulsa boys were confused then!

https://www.villageflatstulsa.com/

there seems to be a lot of confusion between the two words between the US and the UK.

[Bill Robertson]

A side note. Not all of Mulligan Flats was poor. I went to NW Classen with a girl whose family lived there because they owned a septic tank/sewer line cleaning service. They were very successful. They lived in the Flats because the residents and the city gave them no hassle about parking the service trucks in the neighborhood.

[Swake]

Flats used as a name of a geographic location is a different meaning from the word flat for an apartment. It’s a flat low area near water. As for flats vs apartments in the US and UK. The meanings are flipped.

https://www.apartments.com/blog/the-...ents-and-flats

[Pete]

Work has started:

[bombermwc]

it's actually the opposite. in the UK, "apartment" is used to describe and upscale, posh flat. in the UK pretty much any single residence in a building that you rent is a flat.

This is not "posh". It's definitely on flat land though. LOL.

It's just a run of the mill siding faced apartment complex, and not a particularly large one at that. Nothing to write home about, but it's newer housing in an area that doesn't typically get much of that. So its still a win for the area.

[Pete]

[truthiness]

I had missed what was going in here, interesting to see this development! Thanks for sharing. My drive takes me on General Pershing and it will be very interesting to see how this area will develop. I feel like it's already changed a lot in the past few years!

[soonerguru]

I will never cease to be impressed with how much available land OKC still has available for infill. It's unreal.

Glad to see more affordable housing units coming online soon.

[Pete]

^

Yes, still tons of empty or highly under-utilized property everywhere in town, including a lot more near this project.

We tend to overlook this because so much infill has taken place but that just goes to show how patchy OKC has been since the 70s. It wasn't that long ago the entire Midtown area was vacant (the 1980s) and areas such as NW 23rd and the Plaza were virtual wastelands.

Takes a very long time and lots of money to undo decades of neglect, especially on such a massive scale. We're already trying to unwind the I-235 canyon which was only opened in 1989.

[SEMIweather]

Even in the Paseo area, there's still so much unused land to the north of the Pump, and also at NW 30th and Hudson where the burned down church used to be. A lot of vacant lots in the neighborhood to the south of Metro Park that's in a weird pseudo-industrial zone, and the same thing in the Riverside neighborhood to the south of the I-40 realignment and west of the Lower Scissortail Park. Heck, the neighborhood in between I-235 and Washington Park is just about completely abandoned, and that's about as close to Downtown as you can get. So we certainly have a ways to go until we run out of spaces for infill.

[soonerguru]

Even in the Paseo area, there's still so much unused land to the north of the Pump, and also at NW 30th and Hudson where the burned down church used to be. A lot of vacant lots in the neighborhood to the south of Metro Park that's in a weird pseudo-industrial zone, and the same thing in the Riverside neighborhood to the south of the I-40 realignment and west of the Lower Scissortail Park. Heck, the neighborhood in between I-235 and Washington Park is just about completely abandoned, and that's about as close to Downtown as you can get. So we certainly have a ways to go until we run out of spaces for infill.

Isn't that land owned by Marva Ellard? Perhaps I'm mistaken about that.

Whoever has it is dragging their feet. That should be a premium residential / mixed use opportunity. The foot dragging with developers here is extremely frustrating.

[Pete]

[Pete]

[rayvaflav]

That's gonna' be a whole lot of residents to complain about the late-night weekend noise from the Fairgrounds Speedway. Wait ... Never mind.

[Brett]

The Fairground Flats looks to be close to completion.