Is your smaller town(pop 25K>) growing or dying? (Oklahoma City: apartment complex, rental)

[Grantcounty]

I am just curious. Is your smaller town growing or dying? I had looked at buying an established business in Pawhuska, OK but when I saw that wal-mart had pulled out I was like forget it.. I think the fact that the town is the county seat is what holds that town together...

Ponca City is another. It was stuck on Conoco always going to be there when other big business tried to come there (GE 15 years ago) they ran them off and there has been more than one. The population has only decreased some but you can see the money is no longer there. The once stuck up Country Club is now begging for members when it used to be an "invite" only. Cut off your nose despite your face.

[Dingfod]

My town, Sapulpa (pop. ~20K), has grown 7.6% since 2000. But, it's near Tulsa.

As for Pawhuska, I've been in and out of there a bunch of times in all directions and I've never seen a WalMart. It barely hangs onto a Dollar General store. In the past couple of years it got a Sonic.

[Reverend]

The Wal-Mart in Pawhuska closed in the early 90s, if not earlier. I can't remember exactly when it was. There was a Sonic on main street for the longest time, but it closed down a few years ago. I haven't been back in quite a few years, but old friends from the area tell me that a new Sonic has opened up. Before I left in '97, a Subway had opened up as well and was still there last I visisted.

I dunno though. Pawhuska has been going downhill for a while, really.

[Quill]

Perkins is enjoying a boom right now. It is located just south of Stillwater at the intersection of Highways 177 and 33. Lots of people have been moving here to enjoy small town life, but work in Stillwater. Oklahoma City and Tulsa are both about an hour away.
There have been highway improvements north and west of Perkins, with more planned to the west, east and south. There's been a lot of new businesses come to town within the past 10 years, with housing booming. Just to name a few of the businesses, there are Sonic, three new branch banks, a storage facility, an apartment complex, and a shiny new Piggly Wiggly grocery store. In the works are a steakhouse and a strip mall, plus the exciting new Oklahoma Territorial Plaza, which will feature statues of Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton and Chief Notichimine of the Iowa Tribe. The plaza will also host a mini village with originial area buildings like historic cabins, schools, etc.
The 2000 census puts the population at around 2,000, I think, but the town has grown a lot since then. Plus, the school district is huge. In fact, a new high school was recently built and they had to add onto it only a few years later. This year, the new sports complex was started, with the last football game being played on the new field.
Perkins also has a great art community with several well-known artists living here. Mike Larsen has his studio downtown.
Believe it or not, this is only part of what's been going on around here!

[Atman]

Ok Bartlesville may not be exactly tiny but we kind of come and go.

We are a one horse town tightly tied to phillips pet. or aka conoco phillips. Other than that we are a retirement villa with a lot of old money.

Phillips likes to brag about hiring people but then fires them at Christmas time. That's a trend they started several years ago. It's sad but true. Right now, however, they are promising 700 new jobs to be brought in so a housing boom has been going on. New housing additions have sprung up all over the place and the rental market has flourished. I mean from what friends have told me you simply can't rent a place anywhere.

We probably have (in three or four new neighborhoods) over 100 new houses ready to be moved into at prices from $100 grand to over 300 grand.

Now who can afford to build spec houses like that is beyond me but they're building them as fast as they can. In one addition there are a bunch of $300,000 houses finished up and just sitting there empty. He put in a totally new addition, streets, sewer, elec, and all and the homes are now sitting empty.....