We seem to be pretty much stagnating. I find some stats that say we will gain, some that say we will lose population. Found this from a 2009 Tulsa Chamber report for instance...
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:47hV_oykFoAJ:ww3.tulsachamber.com/upload/file/Economic%2520Development/Tulsa%2520Demographics%25202009.pdf+Tulsa+racial+demographics&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=usWhich shows that though we went up a bit around 2008, we have since lost and will continue to lose population for a while, 2013 pop projection = 380,851
I suspect we gained a bit last year, but with the recession finally starting to bite Tulsa now, we could once again be on the losing end. When your average growth is so slow, you essentially end up stagnating with your population numbers being carried with the wind.... oil does well, population up a bit,,, recession hits, population down,,,, businesses come and go, etc. etc. Seems we were happy with 2 and 3 % growth during the good times which gave us very little breathing room when things inevitably get worse.
As for growth in parts of east and southeast, a good chunk of that could be redistribution of where people live.
Mid-town is an interesting case, we have both lost and gained housing. Lost housing where the Bomasada development was to go, several apartment complexes and homes where the highway is being widened, lost a small apartment complex behind Utica Square, gained Utica Place, lost some homes and such for a development behind the strip center on 41st and Peoria behind Lambruscos, got a few new homes before they stopped construction of that development, etc. etc. I suspect we have gained in mid-town due to new neighborhood infill developments, but not as much as one might suppose at first glance.
Downtown will likely have gained a few hundred and will surely continue to gain. (I would suspect we need about 10,000 downtown residents within the IDL to make it a sustainable neighborhood and attractive to retailers.)
My guess would be that we will languish for the first half of the decade, up a bit, down a bit, then once downtown starts to really take off and give the city a more positive image and outlook, then we will begin to see some real growth again. Remember, Detroit still has some; great, beautiful, wealthy, suburbs with good schools, low cost of living, etc. but... its a hard sell getting companies, jobs, and people to move to the area with the central city in tatters. Even our suburban growth is paltry compared to many in Texas for instance. Texas itself gained more people last year alone than all the people in Tulsa and Broken arrow combined. And many of the small cities there make BAs growth look absolutely pitiful and anemic.
Tulsa would have a LOT to offer if it were a real city with a good urban core. I know so many people, and businesses for that matter, that would have moved here in an instant IF it werent for them having experiences like this.... From City Data
((( I visited both cities a couple of weeks ago, out of curiosity, just to compare the two. Two days in each city. Not a lot of time, but I didn't have a car so my judgements are based on staying in each of the downtown areas, and what was to be enjoyed there without a car, walking distances from a downtown hotel.
From that perspective, Oklahoma City won me over with their Bricktown area, and I feel OKC is ahead of Tulsa with adding more life and housing into their downtown core area.
Myself, I'm always on the lookout for small, neighborhood, organic pubs (not yuppie bars) and I found enough of those in OKC around Bricktown, but none in the downtown core itself, which was disappointing.
In Tulsa I only found one older pub called the Lounge downtown. That was it!
And, being a smoker, I could even smoke there, not so in the high-priced bar off the lobby at the Doubletree where I stayed.
If I were to live anywhere in this country, I'd live in the downtown area, as I hate being car dependent. Both cities have a long way to go to attract me to live in either. But OKC shows a lot more promise, to me, than Tulsa....
What's holding Tulsa up anyway? It's a beautiful city and has skads of potential. Too bad the river doesn't come closer to the downtown area.
That was quite a hefty walk on a very cold day from downtown to the river and back, and very little of anything to distract one along the way.
I had asked the hotel clerk if I could walk to this hyped-up Cherry Street area and she advised against it as too far to walk, but perhaps I was wrongly advised. I somehow got the impression that it was right off the downtown core area. Never saw it. )))
I have run into gobs of people having similar experiences in Tulsa and am sure everyone here has as well. They fly in, get to downtown and feel trapped in desolation. Just glad he was comparing Tulsa to OKC lol, at least there we still have a fighting chance, kinda. But, I do believe that experience will change in the next 5 years.