2024 Fall Issue of Urban Land - 34

PHILANTHROPIC IMPACT
spread out, with ample vacant land
ripe for development, Oklahoma City
had a downtown made up of office
buildings, with no apartments or
housing, no schools, little retail, and
no " action, " according to Klingbeil.
That had not been true in the
first half of the 20th century. The
city more than doubled its populace
during the 1920s, and it had
an extensive streetcar system and a
bustling downtown. Oklahoma City
even earned a mention in the popular
1946 song " (Get Your Kicks on)
Route 66. "
After the streetcar system went
out of service in the late 1940s, to
be replaced by buses, downtown
Oklahoma City eventually became
unfriendly to pedestrians-more a
place to pass through and less of
a destination. Retail moved out of
downtown and into new shopping
centers in the suburbs; buildings
were demolished and replaced with
parking lots.
In 1993, Mayor Ron Norick created
the city's first Metropolitan Area
Projects (MAPS) capital improvement
program, designed as a funding
mechanism for major undertakings
in the city through implementation
of a temporary sales tax. It allowed
projects to be paid for in cash, rather
than by incurring debt. It was a start
toward reviving the urban core.
The ULI Advisory Services Panel's
1995 report recommended that the
city encourage development of
apartments downtown. The panel
included three urban planners, all
of whom urged city leaders to take
advantage of the abundant land and
create new parks. Bringing more
people downtown outside workday
hours would encourage more retail
and entertainment uses after hours.
The report also recommended that
city leaders consider building up the
Brickyard neighborhood, a former
warehouse district that had fallen
into decline by the 1980s and consisted
mostly of abandoned buildings.
" Our
job, and kind of the reason
I took the chairmanship, was [that]
we had to give them hope . . . we
had to give them a future, " Klingbeil
says of the city's residents. " Because
they were in bad shape before [terrorists]
blew up the FBI building,
but after that, [residents] were really
depressed. They were just looking for
hope. And [ULI] gave them a lot of
hope. But it was tough going. "
Downtown renaissance
The Oklahoma City National Memorial is a site that honors the victims,
survivors, rescuers, and all who were affected by the April 19, 1995
Oklahoma City bombing.
In 2004, when newly elected Oklahoma
City mayor Mick Cornett
arrived for his first day of work, he
found his office empty-except for
the 1995 ULI report on his desk. " I
don't remember anything else being
there, " Cornett says. He describes the
report as a fresh look at downtown,
a roadmap to a revival badly needed
for years. Although much work
needed doing, he felt his predecessors
had already done a tremendous
job of planting seeds and setting the
stage for great things.
" It's so easy when you're running
a city on a daily basis to be thinking
about tomorrow and not 10
years from tomorrow, " Cornett says.
" I think that report forced us to sit
down and take a look at what we
wanted the city to become, what we
wanted our downtown core to be. "
In part, the report outlined how the
federal government could be part of
the next iteration of the area where
the bombing took place, and how
local government and the state could
work together with private-sector
partners.
At the time Cornett took office,
Oklahoma City was still a very cardependent
city. During his time as
mayor, he began promoting the idea
that a city built for the automobile
could rebuild itself for people.
As a result, Oklahoma City began
spending money on additions that
were people oriented-landscaped
jogging paths, on-street parking, and
better urban design. From 2010 to
2012, the city undertook a thorough
excavation of downtown, digging up
all the streets and redoing the entire
urban core. Cornett believes that
present-day Oklahoma City has one
of the nation's most modern, most
walkable downtowns.
Unfortunately, a lasting imprint of
the 1995 terrorist attack was that
many Americans began thinking of
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URBAN LAND FALL 202 4
ULI AD VIS OR Y SER VICES
2024 Fall Issue of Urban Land

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