Downtown Tulsa’s Main Street divides East and West Tulsa. Admiral Avenue divides North and South. Anyone familiar with Tulsa knows there is more than a physical divide between these areas; there are huge economical and social divisions, the extreme being the latter.
When it comes to growth and sustainability, most of Tulsa’s focus is on Midtown and the South. North Tulsa is usually ignored. If you’re unfamiliar with Tulsa’s socioeconomic divide, I’ve assembled a photo essay that illustrates this difference:
“¢ South Tulsa Housing
“¢ North Tulsa Housing
“¢ South Tulsa Shopping
“¢ North Tulsa Shopping
“¢ South Tulsa Dining
“¢ North Tulsa Dining
“¢ South Tulsa Church
“¢ North Tulsa Church
“¢ South Tulsa Auto Repair
“¢ North Tulsa Auto Repair
“¢ South Tulsa Entertainment
“¢ North Tulsa Entertainment
“¢ South Tulsa Neighborhood Park
“¢ North Tulsa Neighborhood Park
“¢ South Tulsa School
“¢ North Tulsa School
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(For more photo fun, check out Mayoral Candidate Muppet Lookalikes.)
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Unfortunately, OKC mostly resembles North Tulsa, for the most part. I have always been aware of Tulsa’s great divide, and wondered how Tulsans fancied themselves these snobby sophisticates, when they are mostly just posers. We are siblings — OKC & Tulsa — from the same family; Tulsa just has the more delusional genes. Lest we forget that the Ozark Mountains are not too far away — and the hillbilly mentality is alive and well in Tulsie! Finally, (3) words to sum up the scariness of what Tulsa is really about: ORAL ROBERTS UNIVERSITY — a place even more embarassing to the State of Oklahoma than OPUBCO, or our crazy bigoted right-wing affiliated politicians.
So what you’re saying is that North Tulsa is far superior to South Tulsa?
i guess i don’t see the problem. there are new & old, rich & poor parts to every town. it is most peoples’ goal to get (or stay) out of the poor part, and live it up in the rich part. i lived in a double-wide trailor for a while as a kid, moved to 5 or 6 houses around town because my parents had money problems, and i’d prefer to get as far away from that as possible. i went to college & i am working hard to get into the nicer parts of town. i don’t feel bad about that. there’s nothing wrong with wanting what is best for oneself and one’s family.
Accepting that there are socioeconomic differences, and that they’re not unique to Tulsa, I’m guessing that the solution is to improve the bad while maintaining the good. So what’s the answer? And remember, neighborhood blight is more difficult to fix than something like Bricktown, which only required investment and vision to make dramatic change seemingly happen overnight.
In North Tulsa, a greater public and private financial investment is again imperative, and in greater amounts, but is a lessor part of the overall equation. Real, sustainable change can only come to North Tulsa and similar areas if the people who live there change what they, consciously or unconsciously, believe is their norm.
Last week, a former NFL player was talking about his family members who lived in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward. As they rebuilt from Katrina, people moved into homes much, much nicer than they had before. When he went back six months later, he said their storm door had broken and was standing on the porch. A few months later, cars were again on blocks in the front yard, and that shiny new neighborhood had quickly begun to revert back to what it was before the hurricane because the people who lived there had not inwardly changed.
I wish I had the answer to how we affect real inner change. Because if and when we figure that out, only then will we begin to see lasting improvements in their lives.
I tend to agree with the general sentiment of the comments.
I think a lot of what IrritatedTulsan does is pretty funny, but this falls under the realm of “Captian Obvious.”
You could do this same “photo essay” for any decent-sized city in the country; these socieo-economic divides are commonplace.
How about go look at shopping/entertainment/schools in Highland Park down in Dallas and then compare them to the same things south of downtown. Not a pretty picture.
Super Targets, Fish Daddies, Mega-Chruches, and McMansions? Holy Edmond! money really can’t buy happiness…
I think every one of the south Tulsa pictures were taken within a 3 square mile radius of one another, so to say it’s an accurate representation of ALL of south Tulsa is a little misleading. As I recall, you also posted a lot of pictures recently of the worst Tulsa apartment complexes, more than a couple of which were located on the south side. You could probably say this is the Union School District vs. the worst of north Tulsa. Even so, I can’t think of one decent place on the north side of Tulsa to counter anything shown here. It truly is a pit of despair.
Having previously attended college and delivered pizzas in Edmond, I can say that there are quite a few Section 8 housing projects and half-way houses scatter throughout.
Nothing drives me crazier than people in Tulsa who, mostly by way of comments to Tulsa World.com, complain about every aspect of city living as though they are unique to Tulsa. “The streets are bad…traffic sucks…there’s crime…there are crappy neighborhoods…there are homeless people…there are migrant workers…etc.”
These problems exist in every metropolitan area unless you live in the Jim Carrey town in The Truman Show. Fact is though, that all of those problems are better in Tulsa than cities larger than it. Traffic is better than in Dallas, there is a lot less crime, and there are far less amount of ghettos. I get sick of people who complain about this stuff all the time yet continue to live in Tulsa. If you don’t like it, then move!
p.s. This is not a rant against the Irritated Tulsan because I understand that what he does is in jest. The comments on here just made me think of how irritating whiners on TW.com can get about how “aweful” city living is in Tulsa despite the fact that we have it pretty good in Tulsa for a medium to large metro area.
The thing I remember about living in Tulsa was how proud the people who live in South Tulsa were of how well defined the segregation of rich and poor is there. That was the number one thing I heard about why Tulsa was superior to Oklahoma City where the wealthy still have to mingle with the downtrodden.
Oh, and trees.
Any body else find it funny that South Tulsa has a fancy subdivision named after the place where they chartered the United Nations?
I’m sure I missed the point, is it just the lines are so distinct? If so, time will change that simply. What used to be middle class will become lower income and the wealthy will continue to move the opposite of the poor encroachment. Slowly to be consumed until there is nowhere left to go. Then the wealthy develop little enclaves within the former poor areas abandoned. There are several examples throughout OKC and throughout the world for that matter ROME, LONDON, MEXICO CITY, AMSTERDAM and so on. It will eventually happen in T-town. Downtown revitalization programs I think they’re called. Does that sound familiar to anyone in OKC. But don’t worry, the wealthy will always isolate themselves from what the deem unworthy. That’s my 2 cents…OH shit is that copyright infringement.
That’s funny Clark, because I live in Tulsa and I think one of the WORST things about Tulsa is the cookie-cutter McMansions and chain resturaunts that define South Tulsa.
Midtown Tulsa is where it’s at. Woot!
Navplion: Are you saying you’re not a fan of the brilliant architecture that is ORU?
Patrick: Yes.
MartzMimic: Well said.
Jeff in Tulsa: Really? You find my stuff funny? I knew someone out there would admit it. By the way, this post wasn’t really meant to be humorous. I was short on time to write this week and I wanted to start a dialogue. (For the record, Midtown is where it’s at.)
jordosbaloney: You’re right, it’s not all of South Tulsa. There are seedy locations in South Tulsa and there are nice locations in North Tulsa. I wanted to capture to personality of these areas. I think I did.
dandanthetulsan: I understand what you’re saying. I get annoyed at those first few TW commenters that start screaming “Queen Taylor” and “Thanks to Obama.”
Clark Matthews: Yes, don’t forget the tree fetishes.
Just remember, any of us are only one costly illness, one horrible accident, or one act of violence away from slipping down the economic ladder.
We can look down on those around us, and think they should live their lives differently, or realize that “without Grace(defined as blind stinkin’ luck) there go I.”
Or, we can just get drunk and make fun of everyone else…basically it depends on the day.
Yet the artistic center of Tulsa lies on the north side at The Cain’s Ballroom.
So, are their cookie-cutter McMansions better or worse than our plague of cookie-cutter McMansions?
Oh, thank you! Thank you! The ol’ “Tulsa has trees” is back. It is just like the tide (or severe weather in the Oklahoma springtime). It just has to happen. Tulsans NEVER acknowledge North Tulsa, by the way. To the MidTowners and South Tulsans, the Northside simply does not exist.
I’d prefer to eat at Ralph’s Fishburger over FishDaddy any day.
The thing that sucks about all this is that the North/South Tulsa thing isn’t about old neighborhoods or suburbanization. The North/South divide is racial and originates from one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history. If you don’t what I’m talking about, then stop with this ridiculous “you could show this with any city” stuff.
Danny,
Whatever. The Tulsa Race Riot was a horrible thing, for sure, but even if it didn’t happen, there would still be a socioeconomic divide that is largely geographic, just like everywhere else.
Dallas didn’t have a race riot, but there is a fairly stark socioeconomic divide once you go south of downtown.
Does the average Highland Park or Preston Hollow resident regularly “acknowledge” the uglier parts of south Dallas?
There is just as much white Trash (if not more)as their is black in the North Side. Race has nothing to do with the divide.