Anyone who thinks Tulsa is boring or there is nothing to do here isn’t trying very hard. I might have agreed with that assessment 20-25 years ago.
I do agree aspiring urbanites would be underwhelmed with Tulsa today and they will find more options elsewhere. However, look at the options which have sprung up in the last five years like GreenArch and the lofts in the Brady. Building an urban core takes time in the absence of a huge explosion of wealth like there was in the oil boom days. Give it another five or ten years and I suspect we will have a much more adequate housing inventory in the IDL for those who aspire to an urban lifestyle.
Every time I have stayed in a city where I didn't have to drive and where there was a nice amount of pedestrian friendly development, and then came back to Tulsa... well it's that perspective that I am talking about. I remember coming back from such a place once and then driving down 71st between Memorial and Mingo, an area here we might often think of as being "chock full of stuff" traffic, buildings, restaurants, shops, etc. but from my new perspective saw it as being cut your wrists depressingly isolating and boring. Didn't see anyone, everyone was in a car. There is more to see in a couple blocks of pedestrian friendly urbanity than miles of suburban sprawl. You feel alive in those places, not isolated and cut off in some vast, blah, emptiness.
Think of Main Street and the area around Blue Dome during Mayfest/Blue Dome Fest, or Cherry Street on a Farmers Market. Whats an exception here, with all the people and activity, live music, street vendors, art activities, etc. in many places is a normal, almost everyday occurrence, street after street, after street after street. Versus mostly street after street of strip malls with hardly a human in sight, and autos. Then on top of that the things we have like concerts, games, museums, parks, etc. There is an old saying in "urban circles" that if you have to have "festivals" and such to get your streets to be alive... your not doing it right. Also, a good street is one that, if your driving down it, you should feel awful that your not already out of your car and out there enjoying yourself with all the other people, or you should wish that your out of your car wishing you were walking down enjoying that beautiful space, that's what good streets are like. I get that feeling driving down parts of Brookside and Cherry Street, and down Boston Ave.
It's also not just about having more housing in the IDL, though that will indeed help. Dallas has more high-rise housing for example than we have by far, but I would dare say that we have almost as much good, pedestrian friendly urbanity as they do and I think we can actually, quite easily have a far better balance of urban/suburban living quicker than they will. Brady Arts-Blue Dome, Cherry Street & Brookside... versus their "Uptown" I think we can give them a good run for their money. And they are a whole lot bigger and faster growing than we are. But, it's just that kind of example that wets ones appetite to want to try to really take it up to the next level and show em all how it's really done. And we so have the potential to do it if we could only make a few minor changes, and or at least keep putting that dream out there so other developers "get it", and pushing for it ourselves.
