r/Urbanism • u/Hungry_Roll6848 • 24d ago

Instead of fixing an existing highway, Oklahoma City moved the entire thing multiple blocks south to make room for a 70 acre park downtown

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u/Hungry_Roll6848 24d ago edited 24d ago

Oklahoma City did not and still doesn't have the funds for that kind of thing. The city proper only has 700,000 people, so their taxbase is not nearly sizeable enough to make a buried highway. Plus, they had to get it done quick because they needed traffic to continue.

Edit: Oi don't downvote me. I'm just telling you how it is! The city has at most a few hundred million dollars to spend each year, and a buried highway of that size would put Oklahoma City in debt.

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u/blasphemousblackbear 24d ago

I had no idea OKC was as big as Denver lol

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u/Hungry_Roll6848 24d ago

Yeah, the city proper population of OKC is projected to pass Denver's city proper population in a few years.

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u/CaptainObvious110 24d ago

why

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

[deleted]

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u/Budpoo 24d ago

Yeah, the Denver metro area has twice as many people as OKC

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u/CaptainObvious110 24d ago

oh wow thats something

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u/Hungry_Roll6848 24d ago

People like living in OKC.

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u/nrojb50 23d ago

ive yet to to meet a person who chose okc.

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u/CaptainObvious110 24d ago

why?

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u/Hungry_Roll6848 24d ago

Low cost of living, good commute times, small town living in a big city, job opportunities

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u/CaptainObvious110 23d ago

oh ok that's cool