Tulsa’s Young Professionals, aka TYPros, announced Wednesday it would stage its annual Street CReD event along the Route 66 corridor of west Tulsa’s Red Fork neighborhood on April 13-14.
The news release states:
The goal of this year’s Street CReD, titled Red Fork Revival, will be to bring back some of this history and show the community the potential of the area. Volunteers will clean up old buildings and storefronts, creating a spruced-up venue for vendors to set up temporary shops, booths and exhibits. This will make way for a weekend-long event featuring local businesses, street vendors, classic cars, and even a carnival. A trolley connecting three distinct areas — Crystal City, Main Street and Route 66 Village — will transport patrons between attractions.
Brian Paschal, executive director of TYPros, said: “Our goal is to work with community partners and businesses to pump life back into the Red Fork area through economic development and new business, emphasizing and marketing the tourist draw through the Route 66 connection and beautification.”
If you want to volunteer to plan or help with Red Fork Revival, cal Paschal at 918-560-0286 or email brianpaschal(at)typros(dot)org. (Disclosure: I’ve volunteered some consulting for the event.)
Last year, TYPros staged a similar cleanup / festival in Tulsa’s Pearl District at Sixth Street and Peoria Avenues. This video helps show what happened:
Since then, several businesses have opened in that long-neglected district, and more are planned.
Excellent news and thank you, Ron, for aiding this project. I became a Red Fork Main Street volunteer soon after moving to West Tulsa 6 years ago. This area is loaded with caring, hardworking, and talented people (just look at the Frisco train in Route 66 Village, beautifully restored by train enthusiasts and volunteers) but it has sorely missed economic redevelopment. Red Fork was once a thriving town but most of it was destroyed when it was bulldozed for the building of I-244 years ago. That story is painfully familiar to Route 66 towns, isn’t it? I will call to volunteer for this event. Thanks, for spreading the news,Ron.