Shown during its eternal construction phase in 2008, H.A. Champman Centennial Park is located at Sixth and Main streets. File
Apparently, I only thought I was through complaining about H.A. Chapman Centennial Park, the downtown green space that was designed to commemorate Oklahoma's centennial.
Remember the centennial? Maybe not. It was 2007, but for downtown workers it was the year that kept on giving.
A year ago –
in this blog – I declared my kvetching about the never-quite-done park to be at an end after the space was dedicated.
It had taken forever to build (a one-block park that's mostly grass) and the construction require an amazing length of street closings for no apparent reason except to provide free parking to the construction companies.
A couple of times I compared it to the building schedule of the Empire State Building, and the park never came out looking good.
But when the dedication came, the streets reopened and the green space was pleasant and I was going to let bygones be bygones.
At the time I noted that the amphitheater didn't look done, but I figured the exposed conduit would eventually go somewhere.
Well, that somewhere has finally shown up.
They've installed a ridiculous billboard advertising the city's centennial walk route right in the middle of the amphitheater.
It's absolutely silly looking, the most inappropriate backdrop for the space you can imagine.
So, nearly three years after the state's centennial, the park we built to celebrate it is finally getting finished, and will provide us all a reason to laugh and scratch our heads into what remains of the state's second 100 years.
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