I think my place as a skeptic on sales taxing our way to prosperity is fairly well known on this board. However, Heir, you are forgetting that the renovations they are doing in the Rose District area do help raise property taxes in addition to sales tax. BA also does have the benefit that this area seems to be importing sales tax dollars from other areas since they have done a very good job of promoting the district in the Tulsa region. I would also assume the Rose District has likely kept some people home in BA on date night instead of migrating to Cherry St or the Brady.
We go through there (Rose District - RD) quite a bit - usually every weekend at least once. We love the chocolatier!! Amazing, world class chocolate!! Love, love, love...!! Did I mention amazing...??
We haven't gotten to go to the Main Street Tavern yet - it is always busy, though. There is a restaurant across from them to the east - Franklin's Pork & Barrel - that is going for a kind of classic yuppie place. Breakfast not great. Don't know about lunch/dinner since it was so underwhelming the first time we haven't been back. Seems to get good reviews, though.
Books & Bistro is cute little place - very good food...have been there a few times - but seems very quiet when we go by. Nice little underappreciated 'jewel'.
And Rollo's Bakery - we have to keep threatening each other so we don't go there all the time!! It is dangerous!!
Andolini's we went to in Tulsa was "meh", so we haven't bothered with the BA one yet.
Fiesta Mambo is typical bean/rice/burrito/taco Mexican slop. Not gonna make you sick, but just like all the other Mexican restaurants. (There is a nice little Mexican restaurant in another area of BA called El Sombrero that I like a lot, but SWMBO is less enthusiastic - since this is my comment - it is great!) Not sure Mambo is still there - last time through, there was 'stuff' going on in that area and I couldn't really see well.
Still waiting to go to The Rooftop, but by the look of their menu, it is going to be formulaic yuppy "kitchy" place - decent food at higher than justified by the taste/flavor/quality prices with the "ambience" justifying the attitude. Likely uninspiring. Will let you know....
And one of the best restaurants is miles from the Rose District! Smokies. Should not say that...they are always too busy when we go out there as it is...
Downtown is always busy now days. Good to see. We remember driving through in the dead old days. Family likes most of it, but there still is the gentrification/displacement/urban renewal issues surrounding downtown that I have touched on previously. When you have two mega churches running things, it gets a little strange...almost like a real world Truman Show! It is becoming Tulsa in way too many ways.
The BA museum on the south end is a cute little jewel - haven't been in a while, but they used to have that old log cabin on display that sat at Persimmon Hollow for so many decades! Very glad to see some of that building didn't get trashed....would love to have gotten that for the new place! Can always use another old log cabin!! There is also a very small military museum on north end of RD...haven't been yet.
Oh, yeah...almost forgot - they tore up the farmers market to put in a splash pad. Overall, I think/thought that was stupid, but now we see lots of kids there having a ton of fun, so I really don't mind spending money like that to make it nice for the kids. Rather have my sales taxes there going to the kids than some other things...
I don't think they are importing sales taxes so much as just keeping the locals spending at home - I think you are very right about that...keeping them home. BA is 100,000 people now - about what Tulsa was in early 60's. Tulsa had a much bigger "boom town" run-up than BA ever did, so in the 50's and 60's there was much more 'happening' in Tulsa than there is in BA today at the same size population. They are trying to keep people "home" and make a real city out of it. Sadly, that has translated so far into them becoming Tulsa instead of their own identity. And they are in the "urban renewal" phase right now...copying all of Tulsa's screw-ups, too!