My second impression of Tulsa (Keys: live, move, rail)

[Howest2008]

[quote=Ecovlke;15050679]I've basically grown up downtown. I was in the last graduating class of the downtown, Tulsa Central. We use to eat lunch at a little place in the Philtower. (some days). Going to high school in the 70's in a very cool, old building downtown was a blast! I'm so thankful Tulsa finally pulled their heads out of their you-know-whats, and stopped imploding our beautiful buildings. I still bemoan the loss of the Orpehuim Theater and I'm only 51, so I barely remember it.

I was in the class of 1970 at Tulsa Central High School.....and after
grad I worked at the Tulsa Club in downtown Tulsa..I believe that
they called it the (Tulsa Club) it's been a long time ago that this
happened and my memories comes back to me in bit and pieces.....
What building was the Tulsa Club located in...............

[swake]

[quote=Howest2008;15057511]

Originally Posted by Ecovlke

I've basically grown up downtown. I was in the last graduating class of the downtown, Tulsa Central. We use to eat lunch at a little place in the Philtower. (some days). Going to high school in the 70's in a very cool, old building downtown was a blast! I'm so thankful Tulsa finally pulled their heads out of their you-know-whats, and stopped imploding our beautiful buildings. I still bemoan the loss of the Orpehuim Theater and I'm only 51, so I barely remember it.

I was in the class of 1970 at Tulsa Central High School.....and after
grad I worked at the Tulsa Club in downtown Tulsa..I believe that
they called it the (Tulsa Club) it's been a long time ago that this
happened and my memories comes back to me in bit and pieces.....
What building was the Tulsa Club located in...............

Well, the snarky answer is that it was in the Tulsa Club Building.

It’s also the adult answer, but I would add it’s one of downtown’s greatest art deco buildings, it was designed by Bruce Goff and it’s easily, at least for now, downtown’s most tragic building in it’s current state. It's been empty for more than a decade and is now basically abandoned and occupied (and burned repeatedly) by the homeless. The city is fighting an absentee out of state owner that won’t take care of the building and won’t sell it at a reasonable price. He now owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines on the building and hopefully sooner, rather than later, he will either be forced to sell or it will be auctioned by the city to pay the fines. It’s a great building in a great location for lofts, it has a parking garage next door and ground floor space easily converted to retail. If it can be saved before it’s too late, but it may actually already be too late looking at it.


Photo from KOTV



http://kotv.com/newsimages/214/766d3b5b-2667-4fe8-9a69-b6e9079fc653.jpg (broken link)

[Howest2008]

[quote=swake;15065392]

Originally Posted by Howest2008

Well, the snarky answer is that it was in the Tulsa Club Building.

It’s also the adult answer, but I would add it’s one of downtown’s greatest art deco buildings, it was designed by Bruce Goff and it’s easily, at least for now, downtown’s most tragic building in it’s current state. It's been empty for more than a decade and is now basically abandoned and occupied (and burned repeatedly) by the homeless. The city is fighting an absentee out of state owner that won’t take care of the building and won’t sell it at a reasonable price. He now owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines on the building and hopefully sooner, rather than later, he will either be forced to sell or it will be auctioned by the city to pay the fines. It’s a great building in a great location for lofts, it has a parking garage next door and ground floor space easily converted to retail. If it can be saved before it’s too late, but it may actually already be too late looking at it.


Photo from KOTV

It's very common for a city government to move in quick and in
a hurry and SELL A VACANT PROPERTY FOR BACK TAXES I certainly
hope that the city of TULSA Does So...Bring back the lost glory of
THE TULSA CLUB! ! !

[gypsy2]

No second opinion here.. just love thunderstorms, would like to see "the best". 

Shame about the building.

[garus]

I am considering a move to Tulsa, would love to hear how schools are there, any good? I am single and have a 6 year old, would like to live in modtown area, but can I find any good schools there?

[swake]

Lee and Eliot schools in midtown are excellent top rated schools, or you can go the magnet school route and that whole system are great.

[Raelyn28]

I have been reamed for my comments about what I think of Tulsa so thanks for the back-up here. I lived in the Tulsa area for a year and hated the entire experience. I fortunately was able to escape and now live in Texas which I enjoy. I was born in Omaha Nebraska and thought that nothing or nowhere could be worse...but guess what? Tulsa was worse than Omaha.

And once again...now after being gone and living in another state...the traffic in Tulsa was TERRIBLE and the drivers are RUDE. I don't have any driving problems here in Texas. The drivers are curtious and even the teenagers here in Texas drive better than the adults in Tulsa.

The city needs to take a good look at itself and make some much needed improvements and quit being defensive when someone calls it by saying it like it is...

Anyway thanks for your great post. Honesty is a blessing to many people.

Originally Posted by The_Sage1

My wife and I just returned from Tulsa yesterday. My second impression of Tulsa was definately not the same as the first one. My wife and I were very disappointed with our stay there for various reasons.
The people we encountered there in general are very polite, so I didn't have too much of a problem with the people. I can definately see why people have a hard time meeting friends in Tulsa, though. The people do seem a little closed off, but that is kind of a midwest mindset.

My disapointment is mainly that the city has very little character to it. It's like if a vortex of dispair opened up from the sky and spit out a bunch of brand new corporate chains and franchises all over the place randomly. The way the city is layed out and traffic is horrible. People are right when they said the city is not walkable but I didn't expect it to be that bad. Getting around in the city sucks. You can never find everything you need in just one area. I barely saw any grocery stores. It seems to me that people that live there have to drive 20 minutes in one direction to shop, 15 in another direction to get groceries and another 25 minutes to another shopping area. The traffic was so bad and the drivers are amongst the worst I've seen. I've lived in Florida so I know what bad drivers are like. I noticed Tulsa drivers in general are lead footed and like to cut people off all the time. I also got stuck at every traffic light so it made travel time even worse. Tulsa's not THAT big of a city, so why is the traffic so bad? Omaha is about the same size and their traffic is tolerable, at least. My wife and I were so stressed driving around in Tulsa. I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn on S. Mingo Rd so maybe it was just the area I was in. I did make an effort to venture into other areas. We checked out Cherry Street and Brookside and it seemed decent but with the same traffic problems. Honestly there wasn't as much shopping and restaurants in that area as what I was expecting.

A couple positive things: We did enjoy the weather. I loved sitting outside at night and having dinner a drink. Tulsa's got a lot of good eating places. The cost of living there is excellent not enough to get me to move there.

I'm just wondering if anyone else experienced the same thing as me. Maybe I was there on a busy couple nights, but it seemed like the traffic never let up.

[okie1962]

Sorry Raelyn28 that Tulsa didn't work out for you. But it is kind of hard to take you seriously when we say the traffic is Tulsa is worst than it is where you now live. DFW metro is famous for their traffic problems and aggressive drivers.

[Bill236c]

Tulsa, like any city, will have its detractors, but the rantings of trolls and those with an obvious axe to grind have no place here.

[tookey]

Originally Posted by Raelyn28

I have been reamed for my comments about what I think of Tulsa so thanks for the back-up here. I lived in the Tulsa area for a year and hated the entire experience. I fortunately was able to escape and now live in Texas which I enjoy. I was born in Omaha Nebraska and thought that nothing or nowhere could be worse...but guess what? Tulsa was worse than Omaha.

And once again...now after being gone and living in another state...the traffic in Tulsa was TERRIBLE and the drivers are RUDE. I don't have any driving problems here in Texas. The drivers are curtious and even the teenagers here in Texas drive better than the adults in Tulsa.

The city needs to take a good look at itself and make some much needed improvements and quit being defensive when someone calls it by saying it like it is...

Anyway thanks for your great post. Honesty is a blessing to many people.

Raelyn you are now in Texas you are happy in Texas and that is a good thing. Why continue to rail about Tulsa? You hated it here and that is ok I respect your decision to leave but why continue to come here and bash us? Stay in your lane and we will stay in ours.