Homeless Population

[Pete]

Does anyone know if that camp still exists along the train tracks behind Chesapeake's campus? I remember seeing photos or maybe a video of it before and it was very established.

Yes, actual structures in those woods.

I can see it on the 5/23 aerials.

[Canoe]

OKC Blvd and Western also goes through periods of looking like multiple dumpsters overturned in a tornado and being relatively cleaned. In the past couple days, they have cleaned it up a bit more again.

And the new 7/11 (great gas prices, btw, $2.79/gal) has a police camera / beacon / trailer-with-a-blue-light-and-camera-thingy. It seems to be a significant struggle for them to maintain the area there now.

Plus a newly broken out window.

[bucktalk]

Penn/I44 -drove by today. Its the worse I've seen in years. 1/2 dozen homeless -one ton of debris and trash. Bad, bad.

[Celebrator]

Penn/I44 -drove by today. Its the worse I've seen in years. 1/2 dozen homeless -one ton of debris and trash. Bad, bad.

Report it to the Action Center. I have gotten results with them lately on this same issue with the encampments under the Belle Isle Bridge complex as well as the overpass at N. May and NW Expressway. https://www.okc.gov/residents/action-center/report

[Shortsyeararound]

240 and Western has makeshifts on every corner and under the overpass. Sad.

[jompster]

Report it to the Action Center. I have gotten results with them lately on this same issue with the encampments under the Belle Isle Bridge complex as well as the overpass at N. May and NW Expressway. https://www.okc.gov/residents/action-center/report

They already come out to that location nearly every day and clean it out. Everything is back again with a day or two.

[Plutonic Panda]

I wonder where they’ll go when they redo the Belle isle bridge and place it below grade. That happens later this decade into the early 2030s.

[BoulderSooner]

I wonder where they’ll go when they redo the Belle isle bridge and place it below grade. That happens later this decade into the early 2030s.

do you have a link to this plan or anywhere where it is discussed?

[sooner88]

Report it to the Action Center. I have gotten results with them lately on this same issue with the encampments under the Belle Isle Bridge complex as well as the overpass at N. May and NW Expressway. https://www.okc.gov/residents/action-center/report

There was a firetruck there this morning putting out a fire that they had started.

[Mountaingoat]

I wonder where they’ll go when they redo the Belle isle bridge and place it below grade. That happens later this decade into the early 2030s.

How? It's in a creek-bottom.

[Plutonic Panda]

do you have a link to this plan or anywhere where it is discussed?

This is all I could find from the Journal Record:

OKLAHOMA CITY – State transportation officials will vote Monday on an engineering contract to study the removal of the Belle Isle bridge.

MacArthur Associated Consultants is being considered for a $1.9 million preliminary engineering design contract that would examine the structure and also plan for reconstruction of part of Interstate 44.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation has recently finished rehabilitation work on the bridge, and more work is scheduled to begin this fall, ODOT spokeswoman Mills Gotcher said.

In April 2015, the bridge was narrowed to two lanes while workers rehabilitated the piers, some of which had disintegrating rebar and concrete.

The Belle Isle section of the highway sits over a large commercial development and intersects with major city roads like Classen Boulevard and Pennsylvania Avenue. The bridge also connects to the southeastern terminus of the Northwest Expressway.

The engineers will evaluate how the bridge could be lowered and otherwise improved.

“We’ll look at everything from the height, to how far we want to reconstruct it to its impact at different intersections,” Gotcher said. “There are a lot of interesting intersections along that area, so we’ll have to examine all of those.”

There will also be an environmental study ordered because of a former water park in the area.

When the engineering work is complete, the Belle Isle project will go on the department’s eight-year plan, a long-term list of projects.

“We just have to get this out of the way and put it in the rotation,” Gotcher said. “We’re looking kind of far out there.”

- https://journalrecord.com/2016/06/02...ridge-capitol/

Spoke to the resident engineer for the project at the time and said they are leaning towards a below grade segment from Classen to NWE and widening it to 8 lanes from I-235 to Hefner Parkway. None of this is set in stone but utilities and ROW are in 8 yr plan as is the actual reconstruction of the SH-66/SH-74/I-44 interchange which could give us more insight on the amount of lanes the freeway will have.

[Plutonic Panda]

How? It's in a creek-bottom.

That’s what I thought too but I’m not sure.

[Shortsyeararound]

8 lanes to Hefner Pky would be a nice flow. The 44/Hp interchange in both directions is an absolute sh&t show.

[Plutonic Panda]

8 lanes to Hefner Pky would be a nice flow. The 44/Hp interchange in both directions is an absolute sh&t show.

We'll see what happens. I’m sure we’ll get an update via a public outreach meeting before 2030 and I would guess it will be in next 2-3 years.

[warreng88]

Noticed a new homeless camp pop up this weekend, well it, it is new to me, maybe not everyone else. It is just south of NW 36th Street on the west side of 44. If you were to go from 36th south to get onto the I-44 on ramp, it is right there to the right. I went to gym early this morning and early Saturday and it was exactly the same. It is pretty visible from the highway.

[cinnamonjock]

downtown norman posted on Instagram that a restaurant worker was stabbed by a homeless man during an altercation and is basically asking that they be banned from downtown. Not exactly sure how a ban would be enforced or if it is even constitutional, but apparently we are at that point.

[jedicurt]

downtown norman posted on Instagram that a restaurant worker was stabbed by a homeless man during an altercation and is basically asking that they be banned from downtown. Not exactly sure how a ban would be enforced or if it is even constitutional, but apparently we are at that point.

the post says that they want to work with city reps, police and sheriffs to return downtown to a safe district. i don't read that as an ban on them from downtown... i think that is a jump in logic to a conclusion that isn't even inferred.

[Bill Robertson]

Noticed a new homeless camp pop up this weekend, well it, it is new to me, maybe not everyone else. It is just south of NW 36th Street on the west side of 44. If you were to go from 36th south to get onto the I-44 on ramp, it is right there to the right. I went to gym early this morning and early Saturday and it was exactly the same. It is pretty visible from the highway.

I'm that way often and haven't seen it before. Must be pretty new.

[cinnamonjock]

the post says that they want to work with city reps, police and sheriffs to return downtown to a safe district. i don't read that as an ban on them from downtown... i think that is a jump in logic to a conclusion that isn't even inferred.

The text in the post (a screenshot of a post by Brady Sexton) says "they need to keep unsafe people off of our sidewalks. The idea that the rights of those people supersede the rights of my employees to be safe at work is unreasonable. The fact that the right to camp overshadows our rights to own and operate a business is outrageous." The next screenshot is poorly cropped, but says something to the effect of he doesn't call the police unless someone is being violent because they won't do anything about it anyway.

I could be misreading it, but that's how I took it

[jedicurt]

The text in the post (a screenshot of a post by Brady Sexton) says "they need to keep unsafe people off of our sidewalks. The idea that the rights of those people supersede the rights of my employees to be safe at work is unreasonable. The fact that the right to camp overshadows our rights to own and operate a business is outrageous." The next screenshot is poorly cropped, but says something to the effect of he doesn't call the police unless someone is being violent because they won't do anything about it anyway.

I could be misreading it, but that's how I took it

yes. that is what the screenshot post said.... but their post in which they shared that does not contain that language or anything so specific. except wanting to return downtown norman to a safe district.

so some person who works at a restaurant said that, but not the downtown norman group. i

[cinnamonjock]

yes. that is what the screenshot post said.... but their post in which they shared that does not contain that language or anything so specific. except wanting to return downtown norman to a safe district.

so some person who works at a restaurant said that, but not the downtown norman group. i

The posting the screenshots feels like an endorsement of the point of view.

[Dob Hooligan]

I'm that way often and haven't seen it before. Must be pretty new.

Been there many years. I thought it was permanently memorialized by the Target shopping cart that has sat on the west side of I-44 there for a couple years. At least it seems like one has been there that long. I think it is 2-3 blocks from the Police Briefing Station.

[warreng88]

Been there many years. I thought it was permanently memorialized by the Target shopping cart that has sat on the west side of I-44 there for a couple years. At least it seems like one has been there that long. I think it is 2-3 blocks from the Police Briefing Station.

I never noticed it until this weekend. I think maybe it has become much more prominent recently.

[tvkokc]

I live about 4 blocks from the 44 & nw 36th camp. Its usually hidden by the trees next to the ODOT ROW and you'll see it more during the fall/winter. I ride my bicycle on the trails over here a bunch and usually its fine; just people sleeping at the covered benches. I have noticed a few random small tents in the park every now and again. It was wild to see people on the east side of 44 camping by the city park maintenance building.

[dheinz44]

https://www.okc.gov/Home/Components/News/News/4652/18 glad to see the city taking some action and I hope it can make a difference for some. I did notice this weekend that they have large concrete blocks under the I-44/Penn bridge to prevent shopping carts from being pushed in and looked like they had some kind of steel blocking off the areas at the top of the slope where people were sleeping.