A look at Tulsa’s Vision 2025 Route 66 project (Part 1)

Tulsa County voters in 2003 approved the Vision 2025 sales tax for massive capital improvements. One of those improvements was to the county’s length Route 66, to the tune of $15 million.

To put that in perspective, the Route 66 Corridor Act approved by Congress in the late 1990s was authorized for just $10 million over 10 years. And the Corridor Act has been given a fraction of that money, less than $500,000 annually for each year but one. Vision 2025 money dwarfs all other Route 66 government projects. So it’s fair to say that Vision 2025 gained a fair amount of attention in the Route 66 community.

For months, I’ve heard a lot of insider chatter about Vision 2025 and Tulsa Route 66, but few specifics. And I’ve heard the final recommendations for what will be done and what won’t are reaching a critical point.

It’s worthwhile to look over the early days of planning a big project to see how it proceeds. So I obtained a copy of the “Vision 2025 Route 66 Enhancements and Promotion Master Plan of Development.” The research for the report was done by the Littlefield marketing firm. Not only were Route 66 advocates interviewed during the research, but so were locals and regular people as far away as St. Louis, Kansas City and Dallas. The survey sought opinions on what might attract them to Route 66 in Tulsa.

One thing that stuck out in the survey results is that a “generation chasm” may hamper future interest in Route 66. Anyone born after the final baby-boom year of 1964 “sees this highway as an old, worn-out piece of technology,” the report said. So Littlefield and Vision 2025 figured they had a tough job on their hands — make Tulsa’s Mother Road appeal not only to more receptive folks like baby boomers and hardcore Route 66ers, but also spark interest to the more skeptical, young, tech-savvy travelers.

Here are the guidelines in the Route 66 plan, some of which are paraphrased:

— Celebrate the county’s Route 66 heritage
— Eventually restore the historic 11th Street Bridge
— “Create an urban energy — (Generation) Xers want a cool downtown, where Route 66 runs right through.”
— Foster creativity (especially through artists)
— Create memories through food and entertainment
— “Make it hip — in the era of iPods and blogs, Route 66 desperately needs a cool factor”
— “Inspire — Let visitors discover the magic for themselves”
— “Think BIG — better to do one thing right than lots of little things wrong”
— “Create life — Let’s plant the seeds for new life along 66 … A crossroads of America … Where old meets new, east meets west, history meets the future, comfort meets nouveau cuisine and tradition meets change.”

I think the researchers did their homework and made sound conclusions. Yes, they loaded with master plan with buzzwords. But speaking from experience, a generation gap does exist with Route 66, and I generally agree with those findings.

However, retro styles remain popular with the young as well as the old. Then there’s the “it’s so square, it’s hip” factor. Then there’s the valued rap motto of “keepin’ it real.”

Route 66 is square, and it’s real. To sterilize or Disney-fy it would ruin it. I’m not saying Vision 2025 would necessarily do this, but they should be cautious about trying too hard to capture the youth market and alter Route 66 into something unrecognizable.

Next on Part 2: a look at the Tulsa Route 66 proposals and their costs.

2 thoughts on “A look at Tulsa’s Vision 2025 Route 66 project (Part 1)

  1. Our nation’s first interstate bicycle Trail …ROUTE 66 Bike Trail
    “Tour de 66” is my grassroots attempt to support the building and maintaining of a transportion lane/road/path along old route 66. Only by a free flow of ideas by many great hearts and minds can such a bold,brave and nice thing come to be. Please Link Up. We could have a great race across our land and down Main Street U.S.A. The Mother bike Trail. Tour de 66

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