Why do we "need" a 41st Street Bridge?

[Wrinkle]

quote:Originally posted by YoungTulsan

Turkey Mountain needs to be developed.

Also, Musicians and artists have nothing to do with a frigging street across the river.  What the hell is wrong with you helmuts?  Infrastructure is about giving people easy access around the economy.  Not about the liberal arts.

We need to increase our tax base, and West Tulsa has a plethora of lowly populated land which could be turned into densely populated and/or revenue generating retail space.  It is one of the final frontiers of growth for the City of Tulsa, since we are boxed in by Broken Arrow, Bixby, Jenks, Sand Springs, and Owasso.

Turkey Mountain was donated to the City of Tulsa on the SOLE condition that it never be developed, i.e., remain a wildlife refuge. The donor would surely be upset over the amount of development which has already occurred there (water tower, which was built broken and now not even used).

But, a 41st Street Auto/Ped Bridge would allow development of many of those other open areas, thus increasing our tax base, which would be good.

[YoungTulsan]

Who DONATED a mountain to Tulsa?  A person, or a city?  Tribe?  Someone who had territorial rights to it I suppose?

But either way, hard to imagine someone DONATING a MOUNTAIN

I say develop it, theres plenty of wilderness out there

[Conan71]

I personally won't use a 41st St. auto bridge to get to and from work, though I might use it to go get lunch on Brookside or to venture out on sales calls in the near area.  Personally, I'd hate to see them knock out the 41st street park on the east side and create some sort of traffic monolith to get cars on and off without creating havoc on Riverside Dr.

There is really nothing to develop on the west side of the river from 31st to roughly north of the 71st St. bridge.  PSO won't cede that property any time soon, not even God has the kind of money it would take to clean up Sinclair, and there are water works plants on either side of I-44 which is where the trails logically stop now.  I don't believe the area along Turkey mountain leaves any space for trails or other development even if there weren't some sort of covenant attached to the donation of that land.

Sinclair and Rainbow concrete (at 41st & Elwood) have both recently been investing in their operations, so I don't see either being willing to sell at a price which would make sense.  There are also other industrial businesses which are good for the west side that I don't see moving off anywhere else in the near future.

The next opportunity along the west side for development is the old **** farm at the 71st St. bridge, but I don't know how soon that area can be ripe (excuse the pun) for development.

[akupetsky]

quote:Originally posted by YoungTulsan

Turkey Mountain needs to be developed.

Also, Musicians and artists have nothing to do with a frigging street across the river.  What the hell is wrong with you helmuts?  Infrastructure is about giving people easy access around the economy.  Not about the liberal arts.

We need to increase our tax base, and West Tulsa has a plethora of lowly populated land which could be turned into densely populated and/or revenue generating retail space.  It is one of the final frontiers of growth for the City of Tulsa, since we are boxed in by Broken Arrow, Bixby, Jenks, Sand Springs, and Owasso.

Well, now, I think developing Turkey Mountain is a great idea.  My kids can just go hiking at the Woodland Hills Mall.  It's safer there anyway - safe from the heat and pollution caused by overdevelopment to the South and East and a downtown that is paved over with concrete buildings and parking lots but no real infill development.  I think you may be kidding, but you present a great opportunity to remind people that development, while based on economic supply and demand, cannot be left to occur solely as supply and demand dictate.  The market cannot ensure that the community in which we live is an attractive place to live.  Many people in Tulsa believe this, which always makes development that doesn't take community preferences into account very difficult and time consuming.  So, when you say that development and infrastructure is not about arts and music or touchy/feely things like that, you are just singing the tune (or painting the picture, take your pick) of a segment of the population that has had very little success making Tulsa the world-class city that it should be.  (Now, I'm not sure what "helmut" means, but if it means someone who wants to keep a lid on traditional black/white views of development and looking for a new approach, I'll take it.)