Grew up in Tulsa, moved away in 2003.

[clubtokyo]

Whats changed? Are people moving back into midtown, instead of the burbs?

High paying jobs? (Besides oil and gas)

Shopping?

River has water?

Nightlife?

Crime?

[cannon_fodder]

Whats changed? Are people moving back into midtown, instead of the burbs?

Downtown and midtown are very popular. Price per square foot is far higher in those areas than the burbs. But plenty of subdivisions being thrown up still... BA has gone up ~40k in population while you were out. Jenks and Bixby have doubled. Owasso is a thing now.

High paying jobs? (Besides oil and gas)

Citgo left town. SemGroup went bankrupt. Hilti is leaving. Boeing closed their Tulsa operations. Dollar General was bought by Hertz. The Ford glass plant went bankrupt. BizJet is shutting down their luxury jet division. And Williams was just bought.  Our economic model is to provide low regulation, low taxes, and cheap labor. So... (but unemployment is low and we have great entrepreneurs!)

Shopping?

We have many new strip malls in the aforementioned suburbs. There is also this new thing called Amazon.

There are a few cool new shops downtown and in the Brookside area. Ida Red, Decopolis, and Dwelling Spaces come to mind. They are building a new retail development downtown out of shipping containers downtown.

River has water?

For the low-low price of $250mil it can... vote coming up next year. But Turkey Mountain has turned into a busy recreational area and is free!

Nightlife?

Brookside and Cherry Street still rocking it - but so is the Blue Dome district and the Brady District. The BOK Center gathers headlining concerts from around the world. Cain's has AC now... and is also a top venue in the country for smaller acts. Downtown BA has also come alive, calling it the Rose District (all those building they wanted to clear in the 1990s).

Crime?

It still exists, generally same patterns. But since you left the Tulsa police faced several Federal indictments, a few officers have been arrested for murder/rape/ect., and the Tulsa County Sheriff was indicated by a grand jury and recently resigned. So, umm, progress?

Welcome home.

[re-reading this post it is NOT a glowing endorsement. Things really are better than when you left!]

[edit] fixed typo, still worked in the plug![/edit]

[clubtokyo]

Thanks for the update! Sure wish Tulsa would have landed a pro sport. Nfl or mbl.

[TheArtist]

"There are a few cool new shops downtown and in the Brookside area. Ida Red, Decapolis, "DECOPOLIS" and Dwelling Spaces come to mind. They are building a new retail development downtown out of shipping containers downtown."

Decapolis is the name given in the Bible and by ancient writers to a region in Palestine lying to the east and south of the Sea of Galilee. It took its name from the confederation of the ten cities that dominated its extent. The Decapolis is referred to in the New Testament three times: Matthew 4:25; Mark 5:20; 7:31.

DECOPOLIS is the name created by William Franklin to mean "Deco City" a play on the word "Metropolis" which means "Mother City".  

[saintnicster]

Boeing closed their Tulsa operations.

Ish?  They split them off/sold to Spirit Aerosystems.  Spirit's sold some gulfstream stuff Triumph, recently, but the work is still in Tulsa.

[Hoss]

Thanks for the update! Sure wish Tulsa would have landed a pro sport. Nfl or mbl.

Never happen.  Not in my lifetime.  Wouldn't want it either.

[carltonplace]

If you left in 2004 then much has changed, especially in downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods. I bought my downtown area house in 2004 and back then downtown was a ghost town after 5. At the time I was certain I had made a huge mistake.

Today Downtown housing construction cannot keep up with the demand
Today Downtown has five times more hotel rooms than it did then and more on the way, the Mayo Hotel was not even open in 2004
Today Blue Dome and the Brady Arts District and the East Village are now thriving districts full of local joints.
Back then Boston Ave was one way, so was Main St, the trains were still blasting their horns all day and night when they rolled through.
There was no baseball, no art galleries, no Glacier Confection, no Decopolis, no Deco Museum, no BOK center and buildings were coming down rather than going up.

Yes, 11 years later the Tulsa core looks much different, feels much different and the future looks even better.