Thunder

Water taxis in Bricktown, Oklahoma City's reclaimed warehouse district.

Seattle readers can, and should, stop here and read other posts.

The Oklahoma City Thunder is in the NBA Finals. I think of 1976 and the Suns and Gar Heard's Shot Heard Round the World. Even though the league has been much degraded since then, pro sports will never get sweeter for a city than this moment. Enjoy, whatever the outcome. The Thunder — the former Seattle Supersonics, moved away by a new owner in a civic wound that refuses to heal — are also the capstone of downtown Oklahoma City's remarkable comeback from the grave. This in an even redder state than Arizona.

By the late 1980s, the state's oil industry was in a depression and downtown Oklahoma City was suffering all the familiar ills of urban America: Major corporations had decamped for the suburbs or a big office row in the northwest part of the city or been shattered by the economy, and shopping had gone out to malls. As Steve Lackmeyer of the Daily Oklahoman writes, "Oklahoma City's corporate base was dying. City Hall struggled to keep up with a record number of boarded-up homes. College professors were instructing students to seek opportunities out of state." Consolidation among railroads and changes in their business had left a vast area of warehouses just east of downtown empty. The old titan/stewards were dead or dying. Even worse, a misconceived "revival" effort involving famed and overrated architect I.M. Pei had only gotten about as far as tearing down many irreplaceable historic buildings, leaving blocks and blocks of nothing. I remember this desolate downtown from when I was teaching at a college in the southeastern part of the state and later working for a newspaper in Lawton.

Imagine my surprise when I returned a couple of years ago. The old warehouse district had been turned into Bricktown, a lively entertainment district making great use of these wonderful multi-story buildings from the early 1900s. The puddle of the nearby North Canadian River had been rechristened the Oklahoma River and was a series of lakes and channels for recreation. The stately Skirvin Plaza Hotel was being returned to life. A new minor-league ballpark, arena and library were up.

The Skirvin Hilton, first opened in 1911 and now restored.

It was not Seattle or Denver or even Dallas. Most of downtown Oklahoma City lacks inviting walkabilty, suffers from too many surface parking lots and retail is long gone. Transit is inadequate. Still, this is the most remarkable downtown turnaround I've ever seen for a mid-sized city, particularly the one that had to also rebound from the 1995 white/right terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building (the memorial that replaced it is post-modern but very simple and moving, drawing huge numbers of visitors). Just a comparison to nearby Tulsa, built on more attractive, gently rolling hills and the Arkansas River, is striking.

Another view in the office district.

The game changer was MAPS, the Metropolitan Area Projects campaign, which was championed by Mayor Ron Norick and business leaders, passing in 1993. It established a sales tax to build and rehabilitate downtown amenities. The benefits of MAPS didn't happen at once and took many years of effort. But by the time Oklahoma City faced the loss of Kerr-McGee Corp. in a 2006 merger, it wasn't fatal to downtown. Supporters of MAPS expected it to lure around $140 million in private-sector investment. Instead, the amount is near $2 billion and rising, including the sleek new Devon Energy Center. The glass prism is wildly out of scale and offers many breakables in an Oklahoma twister, but still, it is downtown, a major private investment that is luring more. As with the Thunder this season, downtown was winning far more than it was losing. (You can read Lackmeyer's columns here, although some might be behind a pay wall).

Downtown OKC, with the Devon tower under construction, 2011.

I don't know what Phoenix readers can take away from this. Oklahoma City is smaller (580,000 in a metro of 1.3 million). It's younger, being established in a single day in the 1889 land run. But oil, agriculture, railroads and proximity to eastern markets made it a much richer city much sooner than Phoenix. It had more than 185,000 people by 1930 (Phoenix, 48,000), so even with the tear-downs, OKC is rich in beautiful buildings from the first quarter of the 20th century. These continue to provide the good bones for the central city's progress. Nobody moves to Oklahoma City for the weather. Thus, the people there, even if predominantly conservative, truly value their community. And it has a real economy, chiefly natural gas and oil, not a bunch of real-estate hustles in search of one. (Oklahoma is also among the states worst hit by climate change, with much hotter summers...)

Phoenix has not wanted for big projects to revive downtown, from the original Civic Plaza to pro-sports Keynesianism. But there's something for the smaller, sustained efforts, too. This is especially true when they lure high-paid jobs and corporate investment, as happened in Oklahoma City. Even with the energy economy rebounding, the benefits could have gone to the fringes — or just been consolidated to Dallas and Houston. That downtown benefited, and is in many places lovely and reclaimed, worth caring about and cared about, is a major civic achievement. As for Seattle, a hedge-fund manager has assembled an ownership group including Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and the Nordstroms to bring a new NBA team and build a downtown arena (if Seattle doesn't shoot itself in the foot). Good things come to places with real economies and civic stewards.

 

 

Comments

[Chris M]

Nice try. I almost started to like Oklahoma City until I remembered that's where the Sonics are!

BTW, have you seen housing prices in downtown PHX recently? Everything is worth 50k more this year over last by my recollection. There is a shortage of houses for sale between Central and Scottsdale around Camelback and Indian School. Anyway I'm surprised ...

[morecleanair]

Enjoyed a great 10 year consulting gig with an OKC-based company and witnessed the early emergence of Bricktown, 2 comments:
1) As Jon observes, "Good things come to places with real economies and civic stewards." This brings to mind an elderly Jack Stewart, (Camelback Inn icon) who fathered the Fiesta Bowl in the early 70's. We won't talk about his politics, but I was there in the initial meetings and saw his civic pride on display.
2) OKC, by contrast, is driven by folks with deep roots in the community. Phoenix, as we know, is burdened by too few HQ leaders and too many uncommitted transplants, for whom the Midwest will always be "home". Feed them meatloaf, but don't talk about that vision thing.

[Rogue Columnist]

You were warned, Chris.

[Buford]

I'm a Seattle area native and I don't miss the Sonics. I understand the allure and the economic returns, but I can't seem to care about a sports franchise.

Another downtown sports arena? We rebuilt the one in Seattle Center in a failed attempt to keep the team. Now we need taxpayers to approve another one? Oh wait, the taxpayers won't be allowed to decide. Whether we vote for it or against it, the politicians will build it anyway. We'll just have to pay for it.

I was only in Oklahoma one time, for a Thanksgiving in Durant.

Good luck to Oklahoma City. I hope you can build on your success and keep it going through the next few election cycles. (that ended up sounding more cynical than I intended).

[cal Lash]

Thats ok Buford. Professional sports is just another economic segment of Organized Crime paying tattooed monsters to maim each other. (now thats cynical)

[koreyel]

I don't know what Phoenix readers can take away from this...

I saw mention of an onerous regressive sales tax to get the ball rolling for Richy Rich to come and play businessball in OKC. Did I miss a shout out to the efficacy of OK tax cuts?

If there is one thing we know in AZ, it is that Richy Rich needs those cuts too, or else he won't come and play. He'll go someplace else where the poor dumb slobs are more eager to please...

[Chris M]

I was warned for sure. As a family however it took 18 months to get the ball rolling. We are still moving ahead, even though we've had a couple offers already rejected that I thought were quite reasonable. I should think this is good news to you since it proves that the move back into the city core is in progress.

[cal Lash]

Cris M said, "I should think this is good news to you since it proves that the move back into the city core is in progress."

Maybe the fact checkers can back up this "good news".

I recommend an acre in the Dakotas, with a sustainable well.

In my Opinion the movie "the Hunger Games" is more realistic than Arizona politics.

[pat L]

I know several folks who worked at Key Arena for the Sonics. Their jobs are long gone, and they have left town. So I would welcome 40 plus home dates for an NBA team for downtown businesses- if Seatttle doesn't debate this to death!

[cal Lash]

Thanks Jon for this article.
How a Mexican drug cartel makes its billions || NYT Magazine

[Sacred Cattleprod]

Oklahoma has a city?! :o

[Emil Pulsifer]

Well, surprisingly, this IS a fascinating and different (yet remarkably consistent with Rogue Columnist themes) blog.

I'm reminded a little of Canary Wharf.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Wharf

No doubt the comparison is superficial, but I thought I'd throw it in for what it's worth.

The Bricktown website is impressive and inspiring, by the way. Tasteful and holistic promotion of a neighborhood, where the success and vitality of each business doesn't merely reflect upon itself but feeds back into the rest.

I found this quote at one of Lackmeyer's columns:

"Dolts and curmedgeons will always exist. At some point an adult has to put them in their place so progress can be achieved."

Several commenters raised important questions: who pays for this, and who benefits (primarily)? The taxpayers pay and the toffs benefit, it seems. Still, a healthy city center radiates health rather than blight into surrounding areas.

[Emil Pulsifer]

Here's some interesting information from an Arizona Republic article dealing with exurban development in the metro Phoenix area:

"Estimates vary, but at least 35 percent of metro Phoenix's population is in the southeast Valley, while less than 20 percent of the region's jobs are located there."

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2012/06/13/20120613mesa-developers-new-tactic-build-jobs-then-homes.html

This, from an article headlined "Mesa developer's new tactic: Build jobs, then homes".

"Building homes dropped on our priority list in Eastmark during the crash, and building a bigger regional economy became the obvious priority," said Drew Brown, a founding partner and chairman of DMB."

"DMB realized in 2007 that to fill a large development far from metro Phoenix's core with as many as 100,000 people, its east Mesa community would first need much more than housing."

So far so good. Bless me though, I can't tell from the article what the developer is doing to build jobs or the regional economy.

The article mentions some front group, formed to make sure that Boeing could keep testing its helicopters in the area despite residential development; they also brought a military-contractor's "record keeping lab" to the area (250 jobs).

So, shmoozing with the military to preserve existing facilities and slightly extending the presence of defense contractors on the margins qualifies as regional economic development?

The article mentions that the developer paid for the land six years ago but the first housing won't go up "until next year".

"DMB is known for building infrastructure and amenities in its large developments early on."

Wow! I can't wait to see all the infrastructure they've been developing in advance of the houses. It only took six years between the time the City of Greater New York was consolidated in 1898, the realization by the new government that the core of future rapid transit would be subway trains, the issuance of bonds to finance it (since no private company was willing to put up the enormous capital necessary for the project), and the completion of the first contract section (from City Hall to the Bronx) in 1904.

The article also cites the Urban Land Institute "a Washington, D.C.-based real-estate think tank" in labeling the developer's DC Ranch/Silverleaf community in north Scottsdale "one of the nation's best planned large mixed-use projects."

Maybe so. Money can buy a lot of amenities, and that's an expensive community. Still, I wonder if Mr. Talton is familiar with that development and whether his opinion diverges from that of the Urban Land Institute.

[AZRebel]

I spent a week in Oklahoma one day.

[Emil Pulsifer]

Well now, here's a coincidence. Drew Brown, the "founding partner and chairman" of the east Mesa development company quoted in the Arizona Republic article, is (or was) also Vice-Chair of the "technical assistance program" at the Urban Land Institute, the D.C. based think-tank that touted his company's DC Ranch. Brown is also a member of the Arizona Commerce Authority.

[Sprig Canticle]

"I spent a week in Oklahoma one day."

LOL :)

One day, I will.

[morecleanair]

My 10 years' worth of regular visits to OKC were sort of like visiting my Midwest clients . . only with the added twang. Their word was their bond.