South Tulsa Section 8

[Gaspar]

Section 8 housing shifts to south and east parts of city

By MIKE AVERILL World Staff Writer
Published: 5/10/2009  8:16 PM
Last Modified: 5/10/2009  8:16 PM

Tulsa Housing Authority data shows a strong shift in Section 8 housing during the last 10 years from the north and west to the south and east of the city.

"A lot of it has to do with people wanting to live in an area of town that's close to grocery stores and employment," said Chea Redditt, THA executive director. "A lot of the families don't have transportation so living within walking distance to those services is more appealing."

The largest increase in the south is in the planning district from Lewis Avenue east to Sheridan Road and Interstate 44 south to 91st Street.

In the east, the largest increase was in the area from Memorial Drive east to 193rd East Avenue and from Admiral Place south to 51st Street.

The housing authority is allocated 4,681 vouchers and has 4,540 leased units.

Of those leases, 2,621 are located east of the Arkansas River and south of Admiral Place, more than doubling the 1,294 leases in 1998.


I thought South Tulsa was deemed "unwalkable"?

[TheArtist]

"Walkable" is a very broad word and in different contexts can mean different things. Not very, "Pedestrian Friendly" I would say is a more fitting term. I can indeed "walk" 10 miles to work through just about anything. But if I had the choice of walking just one or two through the same "anything", I would choose the latter. That doesnt mean its a "pedestrian friendly" walk, nor does it imply that the area is "walkable or pedestrian friendly" in a good, urban way which encourages everyone to walk. Which is easy, efficient, convenient, and even somewhat pleasant.



If you have few or no sidewalks, wide roads, huge open spaces, etc, in an area where most of the jobs would be 4-10 miles away, versus an area which had,,,, few or no sidewalks, wide roads, huge open spaces, etc, and most of the jobs were only 1-3 miles away,,,, I would say the second area is an improvement.   

[Gaspar]

And grocery stores, and restaurants.

[TheArtist]

One thing to note though. I see people walking and biking in the area where I live over by the Promenade and the Highway. There are a lot of apartments south of the highway, and lots of restaurants, shops, a grocery store, etc. North of the highway. But even here we have a "division of uses" type thing with fairly dense housing clustered all in one spot, then the restaurants, shops, etc. clustered in another.

Good mixed use, pedestrian friendly, areas would be a better solution. I hope we at least begin allowing that to happen in more areas. Right now its pretty much illegal. This area could infill and become much more pedestrian friendly, if we zoned for it.