On Thursday, city councilor, businessman and Route 66 booster Blake Ewing presented recommendations from the Route 66 Task Force he helped form a couple of years ago.
The recommendations for Route 66 in Tulsa to the city’s Urban and Economic Development Committee can be downloaded here. However, here’s a summary of the findings:
— Establish a Route 66 authority in Tulsa that would oversee the road’s promotion and development. “The Authority could be given the ability to collect voluntary dues or given the power to tax property and/or business owners adjacent to 11th Street, Southwest Boulevard, and Admiral Place.” It also seeks to host one or two events per year on the road.
— Improve streetscaping along the Route 66 corridor in Tulsa. That would include restriping the road, checking to see whether there are enough directional signs, develop a maintenance plan for the Route 66 planters, and joining with the University of Tulsa to clean up its part of the 11th Street corridor.
— Promote the use of neon signs. That includes amending codes that would allow more neon signs along the corridor, plus investing more in public art that features neon.
— Create a high-frequency Route 66 bus line. The bus stops could become informational kiosks for Route 66 tourists, and the buses would be retro-style models.
— Create a Route 66 business association that would promote events and business, offer educational opportunities, and build some advocacy for legislative issues.
— Update the city’s Route 66 master plan, which was enacted almost 10 years ago after the Vision 2025 sales tax was approved.
Of these, I think the Route 66 authority and adding neon signs would be the most beneficial to Tulsa. But the recommendations might prove useful for other Route 66 communities.
UPDATE 10/19/2013: The Tulsa World published a follow-up story on the group’s recommendations. Ewing said:
“We’ve seen with things like the River Parks the value of having a permanent, dedicated focus group overseeing the actives and the development of that asset,” Ewing said.
“That’s not something that I want to leave up to the chance of elected people who turn over every couple of years and some are passionate about it and some are not. … Let’s make this a community commitment that we can staff and support and make this an ongoing thing.”