J Magazine Winter 2019

Decades ago, an experiment to
add one-way streets nearly destroyed
downtown Oklahoma City.
So, they got rid of them.
Street
Smarts
By Steve Lackmeyer
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jacksonville is just beginning a plan to convert some
Downtown streets to two ways. Oklahoma City, nearly as large as Jacksonville,
has finished converting its downtown streets from one-way streets to two ways.
Oklahoma City, a sprawling 621-square-mile city,
was in the midst of a multi-billion dollar reinvention
at the start of the 21st century and yet it was
still topping some very undesirable lists.
The least fit city. Least walkable. It was enough
for newly elected Mayor Mick Cornett in 2008 to reach
out to an up-and-coming author and planner, Jeff Speck, to see what Oklahoma
City was doing wrong and come up with a list of fixes.
His report included a critique of downtown streets, so many of which
were still one-way corridors that had long intimidated visitors and locals.
And as part of covering response to the report, a photographer with The
Oklahoman was dispatched to get a shot of the street deemed worst by
Speck – Hudson Avenue.
ILLUSTRATION BY JEFF DAVIS
WINTER 2019 | J MAGAZINE 55