BOK Center is #9 in the WORLD!!!!

[Red Arrow]

Red Arrow, I'm glad you post here and don't get dismayed by all of the "insider Tulsans". You have a lot of knowledge about transit and give a good unbiased suburbanite view of downtown. Considering that you have lived urban in other cities but choose to live suburban here, I think you would make a great case study as to why Tulsa's core is not as desirable to people that move here. There are literally thousands like you and your input should be valued. You can help us to be better.

Except for 4 years in a college dorm and an additional 4 years in Navy barracks, I have lived at some level of suburbia. I have visited with cousins and friends that have lived truly urban.  One cousin lived for several years on Commonwealth Ave in Boston within walking distance of Beacon Hill and the Esplanade (sp?). I even got to see the Boston Pops live on the 4th of July.  My first 20 years were in suburban Philadelphia, PA.  We lived about 500 ft from a (real) trolley stop. (See SEPTA route 101.) There were also some local stores on the next streets. A grocery, barber, Hallmark card, beverage (beer & soda pop), pharmacy, dry cleaners, delicatessen, shoe, women's hair salon and variety shops. Artist and others would like that there were apartments over some of the stores where the owners frequently lived and the shop fronts came up to the sidewalk. There were a few apartment buildings with 4 apartments each the next block over.   The next trolley stop outbound from Phila had a hardware store and some others I don't remember.  It was also accessable by bicycle (I was still a kid).  It was suburban but not quite as much as here in north Bixby.  The main drag (not Main Street) was about a mile or so away.  I haven't been there for nearly 30 years so I don't know what it's like now.   It was not by accident that my parents chose that location.  At the time they only had one car.  The school system had a good reputation.  Most of the homes in our immediate neighborhood were single family or duplexes.  There was a nearby park to play in if you needed more room than your own back yard.  It was also no accident that we are in north Bixby.  More room for the dogs with a fenced in back yard. Good school system reputation (my sister was starting High School).  In 1971, it only took a few minutes longer to get here than the outer edges of Tulsa proper at 51st and Memorial.  I don't know if the equivalent was available in Tulsa city limits at the time.  My parents actually spent more for this place than the place we left so it wasn't a location just to save money.