For decades there has been hushed talk among Oklahoma City planners about how to solve a problem like the south side. Core to Shore, the section of Oklahoma City south of the old I-40 down to the shore. Now that I-40 has moved further south, and directly into this district, the blight has become more visible, so the need to fix has become more urgent.
It is always important to clean up the aging parts of a city and find a way to revitalize and reinvigorate them. When buildings go vacant, their upkeep is neglected. This causes an area to become an eyesore, and others move to cleaner parts of the city. This intensifies the disuse of an area, and plummets prices. These lower prices allow bad seeds to come into an area and those bad seeds grow into crime. Just as a dirty, or abandoned out building attracts pests, dirty and abandoned parts of a city attract their own bad elements.
Usually, waterfront districts tend to be disable areas in towns and cities, but the Core to Shore district seems far from desirable these days. With it’s vacant lots, junkyards and boarded up buildings.
But now a strong effort is underway to bring back energy and vitality to the Core to Shore district and make it a clean, safe, thriving area once again. With the miles of landscaped water front paths, it is easy to see how this area can quickly be filled with bike shops, kayak and paddle board rentals, fishing equipment stores, and all manner of other outdoor activities shops that will bring in a younger, more health conscious crowd.
The Eastern side of the Core to Shore area has been earmarked by the city to become the area’s largest park. There is also going to be a new convention center and the obligatory hotels going in to support it. This alone should start to bring the service industries in to support those venues. I imagine it won’t be long before we start to see restaurants, shopping and apartments going in to house the new workforce for these businesses.
Oklahoma City plans to stimulate private and public development of the Core to Shore district by upgrading and enhancing utility infrastructure, creating new housing opportunities, and preserving historic resources with adaptive reuse of historic buildings.
At BRAVO! Group Services, we love love when a city revitalizes run down neighborhoods. We get excited by both new buildings, and new beginnings for historic buildings. We have teams in place in Oklahoma City that are trained and ready to install electrical systems, and HVAC systems in new buildings, and retro fit Historic structures so that they can run as efficiently as possible. Our cleaning and janitorial teams take pride in turning blighted places into beacons of shimmering, clean hope. BRAVO!’s Oklahoma City office sees a bright future for the Core to Shore district, and we can’t wait to be a part of its renewal. And don’t you worry, it may seem a little smudged now, but we can buff that out for you.