Spent Saturday exploring north Tulsa neighborhoods. (It started as a trip to Dawson Salvage, but they were closed on weekends.) One of the coolest finds was the old Dawson schoolhouse, built in 1908. (Corner of East Ute Place and N. Kingston Place)
It looks like it was used as a city park building/community center, but it's basically boarded up now. A quick Google search indicates that the city wanted to tear this down a few years ago. (Crazy!)
Don't know what's worse: that the city wanted/wants to tear this building down (it's listed on the National Register); or that we don't have a viable park in this neighborhood (or many others!). To me, one of the easiest and most transformative things we could do for Tulsa's under-served neighborhoods would be to have fully funded/staffed parks and community centers offering a rich variety of programming to meet the community's needs.
Instead we under-fund them, close them and spend our money on...what? Wider streets in south Tulsa? Unnecessary expressway expansions?