What new establishment would you like downtown?

[nathanm]

Require? No. Encourage? Absolutely.

[Red Arrow]

Require? No. Encourage? Absolutely.

If the business case is there, they will do it.

Chicken and egg.

[jacobi]

I know of two that used to be in near north Tulsa.  One was at Archer and Quanah (the building is still there, I rode the bus to Stilly with a guy who used to work there), and Main and John Hope Franklin (Part of the big vast wasteland just north of downtown that will become OSU-Tulsa around the time my body converts into petroleum).  Both of these, from what I hear, were closed due to crime problems.  The things is that those neighborhoods are changing, fast.  The question to ask is: do you really want a big bright and loud QT within 30ft of your house?  IMO, Just go to the QT at Gilcrease hills it's close enough but far away enough.

[AquaMan]

I understand QT's concerns about shrink and employee safety but then how do they justify locations at 15th & Denver and 11th & Utica? Both of those have the same clientelle as a Pine & Tisdale would have with the added concentration of homeless, crack heads, crazies and drunks.

Wherever I have gone to a convenience store north of 51st I have encountered what I consider marginal risk patrons. Beggars, drive-offs, drunks, stoners etc. They are magnets for lowlifes.

If QT thought there was enough money and they could adequately staff one without too much hazard pay, they would do it I'm sure.

[Boksooner]

I understand QT's concerns about shrink and employee safety but then how do they justify locations at 15th & Denver and 11th & Utica? Both of those have the same clientelle as a Pine & Tisdale would have with the added concentration of homeless, crack heads, crazies and drunks.

Wherever I have gone to a convenience store north of 51st I have encountered what I consider marginal risk patrons. Beggars, drive-offs, drunks, stoners etc. They are magnets for lowlifes.

If QT thought there was enough money and they could adequately staff one without too much hazard pay, they would do it I'm sure.

I disagree with your assessment of the 15th and Denver store. You mostly see professional types and blue collar workers during the day and the pre/post party crowd from downtown and 18th and Boston at night. There is an occasional transient, but I see more at the 51st and Yale store. There are often police there and I have never felt remotely at risk, even late at night.

That store was a little rough 5-10 years ago, but it has improved as downtown has improved.

[AquaMan]

I disagree with your assessment of the 15th and Denver store. You mostly see professional types and blue collar workers during the day and the pre/post party crowd from downtown and 18th and Boston at night. There is an occasional transient, but I see more at the 51st and Yale store. There are often police there and I have never felt remotely at risk, even late at night.

That store was a little rough 5-10 years ago, but it has improved as downtown has improved.

We're probably on different time schedules. I see transients and low lifes there all day long (between 9 and 2 then after 5). Keep in mind there is a pawn shop directly across the street, the crack apartments that often catch fire just south and west, the synagogue they actually burned down just east and a straight shot down Denver to the courthouse plaza. I am not being judgmental. They add balance and color to the area and juxtapose nicely with the attorneys, blue collars and local residents. I'm just saying that wherever you have a convenience store that is well located for traffic...these people will show up. They follow the money.

Yesterday, I stopped by to get some beer and cash there and was immediately hit up for pocket change as I entered. A year ago a good friend left the pump there to go inside and the car next to her filled up his car on her card!

[Red Arrow]

A year ago a good friend left the pump there to go inside and the car next to her filled up his car on her card!

Your friend must have left the pump on while she went into the store.  I'll guess she doesn't do that again.

[Conan71]

I got hit up by bums more regularly at the QT across from Skelly Stadium than any other place.  I’ve never been hit up at the 15th & Denver or Gilcrease store.  I was just thinking how I hate the layout and traffic in and out of the QT @ 51st & Union.  Turns out they appear to be building a new one on the NE corner behind KFC.

They will now have had one on three of the four corners at that intersection.

[Teatownclown]

I got hit up by bums more regularly at the QT across from Skelly Stadium than any other place.  I’ve never been hit up at the 15th & Denver or Gilcrease store.  I was just thinking how I hate the layout and traffic in and out of the QT @ 51st & Union.  Turns out they appear to be building a new one on the NE corner behind KFC.

They will now have had one on three of the four corners at that intersection.

Conan, on the old Warehouse Market location? Or did they demolish some of the retail strip?

[AquaMan]

Your friend must have left the pump on while she went into the store.  I'll guess she doesn't do that again.

Details were sketchy. IIRC she left the pump going with her youngest in the van and went in to get the child a frozen drink. The car next to her had been waiting for an opportunity. He pulled the nozzle out of her car, filled his car then put it back before she came out. She was surprised to see that her van held so much gas.

[nathanm]

I got hit up by bums more regularly at the QT across from Skelly Stadium than any other place.  I’ve never been hit up at the 15th & Denver or Gilcrease store.

Of course you got hit up by bums regularly, you lived down the street. In all seriousness, I do get asked for change once every few months. There never appear to be any hard feelings when I have nothing to give, so it doesn't bother me in the slightest. My SO used to get asked for money at least weekly at 15th and Denver. She doesn't fuel there as much now that we don't live clear on the other side of town, so I don't know how it changed after the rebuild.

What I find odd is that I have never seen a homeless person sitting outside the store at Admiral & Delaware.

[carltonplace]

Of course you got hit up by bums regularly, you lived down the street. In all seriousness, I do get asked for change once every few months. There never appear to be any hard feelings when I have nothing to give, so it doesn't bother me in the slightest. My SO used to get asked for money at least weekly at 15th and Denver. She doesn't fuel there as much now that we don't live clear on the other side of town, so I don't know how it changed after the rebuild.

What I find odd is that I have never seen a homeless person sitting outside the store at Admiral & Delaware.

I live at 15th and Denver. The population and regularity of "grifters" asking for money is greatly reduced since the new QT store, the new credit union, the new Carthage Ave were completed. The population of "drifters" seems to be steady, I see people hiding or sleeping along the BA around Denver Ave. I wonder if the loss of the downtown YMCA and the economic downturn are to blame? Overall downtown I experience fewer people (pretending to be homeless, lost, in need of surgery, broken down on the highway) asking me for money these days.

[rdj]

I don't know that I've ever been asked for money at the 15th & Denver store.

I've long held the belief that homeless people (or anyone we might perceive as undesirable) are everywhere, but we only notice them when the numbers are in "their" favor.  The population at the QT at 15th & Denver & 11th & Utica is typically so diverse and the place so crowded that it easy to feel like the numbers of "undesirables" are less.  It's the same with downtown.  Part of the reason you seem to see less "undesirables" hanging around is because you now see so many other people that they no longer stand out.

NYC has many more homeless people walking the streets than Tulsa will ever have, but you don't notice because they are so greatly outnumbered by all the people.

[Conan71]

Simple cure for panhandlers:

When one approaches, ask him/her for $5 or if they manage to hit you up before you can ask them, tell them you were just going to see if you could bum money off them. 

[TheMindWillNotLetGo]

...new establishment...

bucking fascist

heh heh