[xHazelEyesx]

Right now my husband and I live in Norman. The other day he was offered a better position at another store in Lawton, and that means relocation. Well I've asked a few people around here where I live about Lawton and Chickasha and they've done nothing but cut both cities down. We need some kind of real help here because we haven't been here in OK for very long and we don't know much as of yet. They say both cities are really full of crime and such. Is this true?

I'd like to know how the school system is in both cities I have an 11 year old son.

I'd like to know also is what utility companies are used in both cities. Like Electric Company and Cable/Internet/Phone. I have Cox now and I know that neither city gets them. OGE is my electric company right now here in Norman.

I've done some online research and haven't found much, unless I'm looking in the wrong direction. I just need some help here. So thanks in advance to anyone who can help answer these questions.

[Hazel Eyes]

Yikes...another Hazel Eyes...

[Bobby H]

Both Lawton and Chickasha do have their problems with crime; however, lots of people really love to exaggerate the size of the problem. That especially goes for Lawton. The way some talk, a person who has never visited Lawton would expect to find ghetto conditions across square every inch of the town.

I can't really speak for Chickasha since I don't live near there.

The Lawton area has some decent neighborhoods. Generally, the best ones are on the east and west sides, although some areas within Lawton are pretty good (Fields and Dunning, parts of Old Town North, Pill Hill, Meadowbrook). Naturally, the very best neighborhoods also have pretty expensive housing.

Regarding schools, I tend to hear better things about the schools in Cache (that district gets a lot of money from Goodyear plant taxes). MacArthur Middle School and High School are pretty good.

There's a few decent smaller towns outside of Lawton that are not too far away in terms of commuting distance. Chickasha to Lawton is roughly 40 miles.

American Electric Power (AEP -formerly PSO) handles much of the electrical power in Lawton. Centerpoint Energy (Arkla) provides natural gas service to Lawton. Fidelity Communications recently took over Lawton Cablevision. Lots of people in Lawton subscribe to satellite TV networks -usually Dish Network since they have the local channels (DirecTV does not) and will be turning on the HD versions of the local channels sometime in the next month. AT&T provides DSL service. Fidelity has cable Internet.

[_redbird_]

I think you could easily drive to both cities in one day and get the feel of them for yourself.

I have family members in both cities and both are happy where they are. Having lived in Lawton in the late 70's, all I can say is Lawton (or Rotten as we call it) has really grown.

I would not care for the commute from Chickasha to Lawton on a daily basis though, because it involves the turnpike. Don't need any extra expenses on top of a commute.

Of course, you could take the country hwys, which is doable, but the wear and tear on the vehicle and the drive will get tiresome over time.

Good luck on your new venture and hope all works out well.

[SeaToby]

Lawton is an army town, Fort Sill nearby. Thus some of the main highways leading to the base have a large number of liquor stores and no tell motels.

But the residential areas are residential, which I consider safe. Being an army brat, Lawton is one of my favorite army towns. The best part of retiring in the Lawton area is the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, with some very nice fishing holes and picnic grounds.

Fort Sill and Lawton is much closer to larger cities than many other army bases. I look at army bases as low emission industrial zones, which have a country club feel than an industrial zone or warehouse zone in a larger city.

[eddie gein]

Chickasha is a nice town. Most of the crime is in certain parts of town you don't ever have to go to (north side). It is every bit of 45 minutes to Lawton. For that reason I would recommend you look at Elgin and Cache. Both are growing and have decent schools. Neither would be more than a 15 minute drive to anywhere in Lawton.

[Bobby H]

Lawton is an army town, Fort Sill nearby. Thus some of the main highways leading to the base have a large number of liquor stores and no tell motels.

The only "no tell motels" in Lawton are along Cache Road between Fort Sill Blvd. and 17th Street. Actually a lot of new, legit hotels have been built in recent years.

Mariott's Spring Hill Suites, Mariott's Fairfield Inn and Holiday Inn Express are all large, new hotels next to I-44 & Gore Blvd. A new Comfort Suites hotel is being built among that group with just as large a building. Construction recently began on yet another new hotel a little farther south along Interstate drive.

Hampton Inn & Suites was built a couple years ago just off Cache Road & 26th Street (next to Rinnie's restaurant and not far from Buffalo Wild Wings).

Another new hotel, I can't remember which brand, is being built behind the new shopping center that contains The Olive Garden. Baymont Inn & Suites is nearby, South of Cache Road next to Home Depot.

Those new hotels provide tough competition for older hotels, like Ramada Inn, Best Western (formerly Howard Johnson's), Quality Inn (formerly a Days Inn) and Executive Inn (which used to be a Holiday Inn and then a Red Lion Inn).

Rumor has it that a really large hotel may be built in downtown Lawton within the downtown redevelopment project. Lawton Urban Renewal Association is slowly buying up many parcels of old property to eventually bulldoze and make way for a new "lifestyle shopping center" that will transform 18 city blocks of that area. The large hotel is seen as a "phase 2" effort to gain a larger, more effective convention center.

[Vetteran]

I spent 6 years on Ft. Sill and loved it. That was back starting in 97 though. I recently visited Lawton considering going back. It has REALLY gone down hill! It has always had a small drug and gang problem, but now the drugs(and addicts) are out of control. Instead of gangs there are just thousands of wannabe's roaming around acting like idiots and trying to be everything that MTV says they need to be to be cool. It's sad that the military takes 90% of the rap for Lawton going to pot. We have been there for a long damn time and it was fine for most of it. Given soldiers and marines have a way of tearing up a town between friday and monday, but half of the businesses were established knowing that and thriving off of it.

[Bobby H]

I'll disagree with those comments of hyperbole. Lawton has been improving, although at a frustratingly slow pace. It's certainly made a lot of improvement over how it was in the late 1990s. Lots of new things have been built since then.

Regarding the MTV rap culture and wannabe kids imitating their fake gangsta thug music heroes, what's happening with the youth in Lawton embracing that crap is NOT unique to Lawton. That stuff is EVERYWHERE.

[Vetteran]

That's funny, I showed up there in 97' and it's FAR worse now than it ever was then. As for the wasted youth i agree....