The New Downtown Guy?

With all the hubbub going on about the Ford Center Vote (and before that the various Centennial events, etc.), I've strayed a bit from my blog's principal focus ... Oklahoma City history. But, trust me, I've got some great projects "in progress" ... and they will come ... but not today, not yet. Those "great projects" are pretty time-consuming to put together, and, most likely, they'll have to wait until after the Ford Center vote on March 4.

Today, it is timely to mention what promises to become a great Oklahoma City blog which focuses on downtown and/or downtown development, which I'll get to in just a minute. But first, as this is a "history" blog, it is proper to note that the new blog is reminiscent of the venerable and great The Downtown Guy & his Downtown blog ...


But, as you can see from the above screen shot of the anonymous masked man's most recent post, the last post he made was on October 17, 2006! One of my first posts here was called, "Superman's Back!", but, alas, he went back into hibernation shortly thereafter. During his prime, he blogged on just about everything important to the city, be that the history of Delmar Garden or things more contemporary. Until his blog link no longer works, I'm leaving a light on in my left-side Downtown Links for him to find his way home one day.

But, wait ... who's that guy over there ... that blog ... might that be ... can that be ... The NEW Downtown Guy?


While he may not yet be able to leap tall buildings with a single bound (like The Downtown Guy did ... or so I claimed), Steve Lackmeyer, longtime business and downtown writer for The Oklahoman, may be just that, the New Downtown Guy! While he's barely had time to begin, his current post discusses and compares Bricktown to Dallas' once bustling but now not West End ... I've "shrunk the kids," below, but larger images are in Steve's blog post at blog.newsok.com/okccentral ...

Before ...

... and after

This is not Steve's first venture into blogging and/or web page stuff ... he and Jack Money already have such a thing for their most excellent book, OKC: 2nd Time Around, and their Oklahoma City History website, okchistory.com ...


Even though Steve's new blog will lack the glorious independence of The Downtown Guy since it is part of The Oklahoman's offerings, and, hence, the hall monitors lurking around there may have something to say about content, that fact will hopefully not prevent really good stuff being done and my hope is that the NEW Downtown Guy will have been found!

OTHER GREAT OKC PLACES TO VISIT. While I'm talking about Lackmeyer's new adventure, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention in the same breath some other great places to go on the internet for hot stuff about Oklahoma City! With no disrespect to those I'm not mentioning below, here are some of my favorite places ...

Jason Bondy's Photo Blog. This great blog, http://radio51.blogspot.com, contains some of the most high quality, elegant and interesting photos in and around Oklahoma City. Just looking today, I see this interesting picture which anticipates Valentine's Day ... for the guy in a hurry! I've shrunk the pic ... see his Valentine's Day post for the real deal ...


Jason's pics are always excellent, fun, sometimes breathtaking when appropriate (e.g., buildings, landscapes).

Adam Knapp's About OKC.com. Adam's blog is sort of a one-stop-shop for current events, articles, finding hotels, getting tickets, etc., in Oklahoma City ... correct web addresses are either http://okc.about.com/ or http://okc.about.com/b/, I don't think it matters.


Dusbury.com. Everything from witty to wise to mundane is to be found in Charles G. Hill's great and long-standing blog, www.dustbury.com.


Since Dustbury's founding on April 9, 1996, and as of this moment, his Sitemeter counter shows that his blog has been visited a mere 1,499,405 times! While Dustbury isn't only about Oklahoma City, when you're having a sleepless night and you get tired of hearing me spout off about the NBA in OKC, or whatever, go there for refreshment, as others have already done one and one-half million times!

Forums. And when you actually want to "talk" (or simply read what other {usually} nameless talking-avatars have to say), three places make my "must do" list ...
www.okctalk.com
This is the city's oldest and largest and most active talk forum.



www.okmet.org
This is Oklahoma City's 2nd oldest talk forum and is a good place to go.



www.hornetscentral.com - or www.sonicsbeat.com
This is where NBA junkies ... both Hornets and Sonics ... hang out.
It can get a little rowdy, but what the hey!


Surely, there are many more fine Oklahoma City oriented internet places to go. This just shows where Doug Dawg hangs most of the time.