Tulsa Downtown: November 2006 Archives

I received an e-mail from the Tulsa Police Department with street closings and information for Saturday and Sunday's Oklahoma Centennial kickoff events in Tulsa. Here's the gist of it:

Downtown: Main Street (between 4th & 7th), and 5th Street (between Boulder and Boston) will be closed from noon Saturday to 4 p.m. Sunday for the Route 66 marathon pre-staging area. Starting at 10 p.m. Saturday, 4th, 6th & 7th (between Boulder and Boston), and Main (from 3rd to 4th) will also be closed until 4 p.m. Sunday.

On Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. the Route 66 marathon race course will be closed. This will affect Main Street from 6th to 11th, 11th Street from Main west to (and including) the 11th Street Bridge, the 23rd Street bridge, Riverside from 21st to 96th, Peoria from 18th to 41st, 36th from Riverside to Peoria, and 18th from Peoria to Main. The only places to cross the course will be at 9th & Main, 15th & Main, 21st & Peoria, and 31st & Peoria.

Here's a 700 KB PDF with a map of the course and the full advisory.

Also, for the laser show Saturday, the TPD issues this advisory:

Saturday, November 18, the “The Great State of Oklahoma Centennial Extravaganza” takes place in Downtown Tulsa. Crowds in excess of 40,000 are anticipated to attend this Oklahoma Centennial Laser Light Show and Pyrotechnics Choreographed Celebration, which begins at 7:00 PM. 8th Street, 9th Street, and 10th Street between Boulder Avenue and Cincinnati Avenue and Main Street and Boston Avenue between 7th Street and 11th Street will be closed from Noon to 10:00 PM for the Pedestrian Viewing Area. Vehicles parked within this area including designated parking lots will be towed.

Public parking will be available along parking lots adjacent to Detroit Avenue, Cincinnati
Avenue, Boulder Avenue, Cheyenne Avenue, and Denver Avenue south of 10th Street
including other parking lots within the Downtown area.

Drivers who are not coming to watch or participate in this event should avoid this area.
1st Street between Cincinnati Avenue and Cheyenne Avenue and Boulder Avenue and
Main Street between Archer Street and 2nd Street will be closed from 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM
for the Fireworks Launch Site. These areas are closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
Vehicles parked within this area including designated parking lots will be towed. In
addition, pedestrians are prohibited within this area per the Fire Marshall.

Motorists and pedestrians should avoid this area. Thank you for your cooperation.

It might have been easier to say what streets will still be open. Best I can figure (no guarantees, now) on Saturday, these streets will be open to traffic for coming and going to the big event downtown.

2nd Street, 3rd Street, 11th Street (but not where it turns into 10th), and streets further south. Cincinnati, Detroit, Elgin Avenues and avenues further east, Boulder, Cheyenne, and Denver Avenues and avenues further west. It appears that Brady Village and the Blue Dome District will be unscathed.

It's a shame that the pedestrian viewing area is at the south end of downtown, but I guess that's where all the big parking lots are. It would have been nice for people to see that they could go into McNellie's or Mexicali Border Cafe or one of the other fine downtown establishments for a bite to eat or a drink after the big show, but everyone will be on the wrong side of downtown. Anyone who comes to the show and doesn't know downtown will probably note how dead it all looks from the vantage point of 9th & Main.