Tulsa Question

[TU1NNJ]

A couple of points to preface my question
- I grew up outside of Tulsa and went to school/graduated from TU
- I always considered Tulsa a very aesthetically attractive city ( the river, hills and cleanliness were key attributes)
- I have not lived in Tulsa for 25+ years but visit 3 - 4 times a year.
- So I am not coming to the question from a historically negative position nor am I wanting this to turn into a political debate so....
It seems to me that the City/residents do not take the same level of pride or upkeep has they once did.
Specifically when you look at the physical maintenance of streets, buildings , homes (throughout not just selected areas) that Tulsa has slipped while OKC (a place I do not care for) has vastly improved. Also people within the city use to rally around things related to the city based on what I have read and am told that is not the case. I remember when TU football needed attendance for a game many years ago against Montana St they appealed to city pride and people came out. Would that be the case today? I get the impression but hope I am wrong that by in large Tulsan's have become apathetic.

If you disagree about my premise tell me why. If you agree what has changed and what could be done?
This post was edited on 11/11 7:37 AM by TU1NNJ
This post was edited on 11/11 8:42 AM by TU1NNJ

 

[el duran]

As far as the TU part goes,i think they treat us like a pro team in a mid sized market.When we're doing something of national relevance it's a sea of blue and gold but even when we're good if it's not jammmed in their faces we get 22k at games.To your other question the city has changed demographically so much you can't compare it to 25 years ago,most of those people now live in BA or another burb where huge chunks of the city look like south texas.Of course there are still a lot of great things about the city but it's just different.

 

[Gold*]

I think there is a lot of civic pride. George Kaiser has done some pretty great things. Downtown has really come on.

The roads are another issue. We have had very poor urban planning for about 30 years. A considerable portion of the population lives outside of the city proper and that eventually hurts sales tax.

It's really hard to compare Tulsa and OKC. OKC has had better poltical leadership, but even now, Tulsa has more going for it in terms of quality of life. It's just a nicer city. OKC is great if you like the NBA and fake rivers. They don't have anything like Utica Square, Philbrook, Gilcrease, TU, and so on. They don't even have QT. C'mon.
Posted from wireless.rivals.com[/URL]

 

[TU1NNJ]

+1 on QT comment

Thanks for the comments so far. I hope to get other perspectives as well.
This post was edited on 11/11 8:43 AM by TU1NNJ

 

[Barlass]

It's really exciting to see what is happening with Tulsa's downtown. It has come a long way in the past five years. I would take the Blue Dome/ Brady District over Bricktown any day.

 

[Gold*]

Downtown is really turning out nice. It used to be spread out, but it's feeling in nice. Cain's is a world class music venue. The bars and restaurants are fun. I hate to say it, but to get the families and kids down there, they may need some chain restaurants. Then again, one of the things that's cool about downtown is it's almost 100% Tulsa-centric.
Posted from wireless.rivals.com[/URL]

 

[TUBballJunkie]

Streets are a disaster, yes.

But otherwise, Midtown Tulsa is heaven on earth.

The premise is a bit vague to really dispute...unless this is a rehash of the two downtowns forever debate? Both cities have great and not so great people, but OKC still sucks.

 

[TU1NNJ]

My thoughts were based on trips to Tulsa over the past few years. I have taken different family and friends fom outside the state to visit on numerous occasions. I am biased in favor of Tulsa and years ago most guests agreed that Tulsa was a better place to visit. Unfortunately the last few years that has not been the case. The one exception is the TU campus which makes a very favorable impression.

 

[TU 1978]

I grew up in Tulsa and lived there until my graduation from TU in 1978. What I witnessed was a rapid growth to the southeast during my time there, so much so that even though new subdivisions at the time were located on major streets (Harvard, Yale, 51st, 61st, etc) that were two lanes and needed badly to be upgraded in advance of the growth in their direction. It appears that playing catch up has strained the limited resources where the older streets have not seen rebuilding as is probably needed by now.

Even more telling for me was driving in on I-244 and noting the deterioration of the bridge over the river. I had a hard time remembering it being this bad as 244 was fairly new when I was still in Tulsa. I now realize that much of it is 40 years old, and has suffered from wear and tear. I must be getting old.



When I lived in Tulsa, we didn't have a ward form of governance, we had a mayor - commissioner form (water / sewer commissioner, street commissioner, etc). I could argue that this form of governance was better in some ways than having the ward politics I see discussed on here and the World from time to time. Of course, if you have a really bad street commissioner all bets are off (Sid Patterson, anyone?). Sid was street commissioner in the 1970s when chugholes reigned supreme on Tulsa's streets and KOTV had a segment on their news with the 'Chughole of the Week'. The most memorable one was large enough to hold a piano which was hauled to the chughole, while a TU student played it for the segment. The embarrassment of these segments led to getting some bad areas fixed, but it shouldn't have to be this way. The only way that KOTV would do something like this now would be if the street problem was in OKC.
This post was edited on 11/12 8:59 PM by TU 1978

Chughole of the week

 

[t-townpod]

Great thread and from a guy that has lived here for 50 of 60 years have to agree with your comments re: apathy for the town. Really sad and I also think it is related to our change in govt structure. We no longer put the city as a whole first. We have had some major defeats at voting on infrastructure which was directly relate to our form of what's in it for me form of government. It is indeed sad that the only improvements in Tulsa proper recently are related to business doing something with the city on coast. This leads to a lack of respect for the city and pride. Unfortunately the university support than suffers.