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Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy
You mean like the renovated downtown areas that are now centers of entertainment, upscale condos, etc? We have an area of Wichita called "Old Town" that is an old downtown warehouse district transformed into an area of bars, restaurants, shopping, and condos. KC has a similar area called "Power & Light District", OKC has "Bricktown". All are pretty cool areas, we go stay at KC P&L pretty frequently when my wife and I escape from the kids for a weekend. It's appealing because we stay in a restored early 1900s hotel (Hilton President) that has major charm, and there's plenty to do within a block's walk. I'd say the common theme is that the cities have to go all-in, this is an entire area that has been completely renovated and repopulated, with major attractions and upscale entertainment. All three feature some form of arena, and all have a pretty significant police presence to keep away the previous inhabitants.
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I remember going to the Oklahoma City bricktown warehouse district back when it was still a warehouse business district. I remember thinking I would not want to go down there at night. Downtown OKC was a empty place 25 years ago. Now it is a great place to be.
We passed a 1 cent sales tax and paid for everything with that money. It was called Metropolitan Area Projects or MAPS. That has evolved into Project 180.
Now we have a top NBA team an official Olympic training center, a canal and a lot more. It is really an amazing transformation with more yet to come.
Other cities send their own city leaders here to see how we did it.
Oklahoma City MAPS 3 Initiatives - Brief History of MAPS, FAQs, Status and List of MAPS 3 Initiatives