By MIKE JONES Associate Editor on Jul 17, 2008, at 3:27 PM Updated on 7/17 at 3:27 PM
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I am seldom surprised by things downtown. I have worked down here for 37 years or so. In all those years I have always found Boston Avenue to be my favorite street. It is anchored by the towering BOk building on the north and the beautiful art deco architecture of the Boston Avenue Methodist Church on the south. It is lined by many of Tulsa's most historic and beautiful buildings. It is the street where almost all of the tall buildings rest.
On a recent drive home from work is when I got my pleasant surprise. For 37 years I have been driving only north on Boston, because it has always been a one-way street. With the changes in downtown and the improvements to the streets Boston was one of the first of what soon will be almost all of the streets to become two-way.
I have to admit, for years I resisted the proposals to make downtown streets two-way streets. I always believed that one-way streets were the mark of a city. Two-ways were for burgs. I was wrong.
For the first time in my life I was driving south on Boston and looking at the Boston Avenue Methodist Church at the end of the street. It's not really the end of the street but that is where downtown streets make that shift to becoming north-south streets rather than northwest-southeast streets. So, it looks as if Boston ends there.
It wasn't just the view or the much-improved surface. It was the feeling of a real downtown. There were lots of folks walking and jaywalking. There were some vehicles double-parked in the lane near the sidewalk. There was simply a busyness to it. It helps that the new surface makes the trip much smoother.
This is what I am now hoping for the rest of downtown. The city will resurface 50 blocks downtown, adding new sidewalks and other amenities for most. All streets will become two-way except for Cincinnati Avenue, which feeds southbound into the Broken Arrow Expressway, First and Second streets which are feeders and exits for I-244 and Seventh and Eighth streets, which service the BA as well as U.S. 75 and I-244.
The two-way streets will make getting around downtown much easier for those unfamiliar with it but the expressway feeders will make it convenient for people to get in and out .
I am a big fan of downtown. I know there are people who are not. They have had some legitimate gripes about downtown in the past. But things are changing for the better. My drive south on Boston Avenue reminds of that almost every day.
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