Considering a move to Tulsa - Would love some thoughts
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I've lived here my entire life (44 years) and I would not recommend to anyone to move here. In fact, I'm trying to decide where to move to myself and it will probably be Texas. Tulsa USED to be an awesome city back in the 70's, 80's and some of the 90's. Now it's just a dilapidated place with horrible roads (and I can't stress that enough- in fact there are parts of town I refuse to go to simply because of the damage done to my car by the streets I have to take to get there), corrupt 'good ol boy' politicians, road construction that makes no sense whatsoever
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Originally Posted by SoonerGirl67
howest2008 reply I agree with you whole heartingly on all of the negatives as well as the positives of tulsa oklahoma during the 1970's and 1980's. tulsa has turned a corner and is heading in the opposite direction since vision 2025 was put into play.
(they're widening roads as opposed to repairing them when the population is declining anyway so wider roads are not needed), and idiotic 'leadership.' In addition to that, the sales tax here is not exactly low- it's higher than Dallas, Houston, and even Scottsdale, Arizona. We pay full sales tax on groceries and we pay state income tax. Groceries are higher than in Texas (the actual price of the item- even before adding the sales tax) and I know this because I have spent a lot of time in both Dallas and Houston over the last 3 years, as my
howest2008 reply city streets are horrible and you can't take a interstate to Little Rock , Memphis , Kansas City , Wichita , St. Louis , Houston , Dallas and Oklahoma City without getting on a Oklahoma Turnpike - for crying out loud.
daughter lived in Houston and if I wasn't down there we were meeting up in Dallas. If you live in Jenks, prepare to either 1) pay the turnpike toll to get out of Jenks or 2) waste lots of time and gas taking the long way around i.e. the side streets. Highway 75 is absolutely horrible and you have to pay $2 each way to travel on it. Again, I cannot stress enough how bad our city streets are in addition to this. I can't for the life of me figure out what's being done with all of our tax dollars, but it's not being used
for the streets or the schools, so...All of this being said, I will say that I like my neighborhood and I do like the fact that it's an easy city to get around in and crime is relatively low in the suburbs.
I liked the fact that you ended on a positive note , and crime is low in downtown tulsa oklahoma and in the rural sections of north tulsa - tulsa toughest neighborhood.
Pollution is going to be a much larger issue in the near future , if Tulsa doesn't do something with it's remaining refineries , and switch to clean burning " buses and electric light Rail "...to cut down on it's Pollution Levels. There's already too much pollution in Tulsa for (me) right now (I) can't tolerate Pollution having lived in California more than 30 Years ( I Need Clean Air For My Remaining Years of Life) .
I've lived here my entire life (44 years) and I would not recommend to anyone to move here. In fact, I'm trying to decide where to move to myself and it will probably be Texas. Tulsa USED to be an awesome city back in the 70's, 80's and some of the 90's. Now it's just a dilapidated place with horrible roads (and I can't stress that enough- in fact there are parts of town I refuse to go to simply because of the damage done to my car by the streets I have to take to get there), corrupt 'good ol boy' politicians, road construction that makes no sense whatsoever (they're widening roads as opposed to repairing them when the population is declining anyway so wider roads are not needed), and idiotic 'leadership.' In addition to that, the sales tax here is not exactly low- it's higher than Dallas, Houston, and even Scottsdale, Arizona. We pay full sales tax on groceries and we pay state income tax. Groceries are higher than in Texas (the actual price of the item- even before adding the sales tax) and I know this because I have spent a lot of time in both Dallas and Houston over the last 3 years, as my daughter lived in Houston and if I wasn't down there we were meeting up in Dallas. If you live in Jenks, prepare to either 1) pay the turnpike toll to get out of Jenks or 2) waste lots of time and gas taking the long way around i.e. the side streets. Highway 75 is absolutely horrible and you have to pay $2 each way to travel on it. Again, I cannot stress enough how bad our city streets are in addition to this. I can't for the life of me figure out what's being done with all of our tax dollars, but it's not being used for the streets or the schools, so...All of this being said, I will say that I like my neighborhood and I do like the fact that it's an easy city to get around in and crime is relatively low in the suburbs.
Neither the city of Tulsa nor the metro area are losing population, both are growing. Tulsa is spending something like $700 million to repair streets right now, not to widen them. The state is spending hundreds of millions more the highways. In Jenks the Creek Turnpike is a toll road but literally right next to it is the free 96th St bridge. US 75 in Jenks is in fine shape, the whole length of it through Jenks was completely repaved in the last five years. And it is not a toll road and does not cost $2 to use.
Neither the city of Tulsa nor the metro area are losing population, both are growing. Tulsa is spending something like $700 million to repair streets right now, not to widen them. The state is spending hundreds of millions more the highways. In Jenks the Creek Turnpike is a toll road but literally right next to it is the free 96th St bridge. US 75 in Jenks is in fine shape, the whole length of it through Jenks was completely repaved in the last five years. And it is not a toll road and does not cost $2 to use.
I live in Jenks. I think I know what I am talking about.
Here is the website for Tulsa’s $563 million dollar five year plan to fix (not widen, fix) streets with millions more from the county and an additional $400+ million being spent by the state on highways such as rebuilding the IDL, completely rebuilding I-44 and repaving I-244 and then the almost $100 million project to widen the Creek Turnpike to six lanes. The suburbs are spending millions more as well. Fixing Tulsa Streets ODOT Traffic Advisories
All together it’s well over a billion dollars going into area streets and highways. It’s badly needed, but you can’t say that nothing is happening or that it’s just widening roads, most of the money by far is being spent to rehab or rebuilt roads.
US75 is not a toll road, check any map or try driving it. It’s simply not a toll road, never was. I don’t know who you are paying $2 to drive on it, but you need to get your money back. The whole length through Jenks and going south was repaved in the last five years. Part of 75 in Tulsa by I-44 is horrible but that’s not what you said. The Creek Turnpike is a toll road, but it’s a different highway than US75, the two highways do cross in Jenks but are in no way the same road. If you don’t care to pay the toll, the 96th Street bridge is only a couple of hundred yards north of the Creek. The Aquarium sits right between the two bridges. Anyway, toll roads are the way of the future and Texas has toll roads too. And horrible traffic, really horrible traffic.
Sales Tax in both Houston and Dallas is .0825 vs .08517 in Tulsa and .0835 in Jenks, very little difference except in Texas you don’t pay taxes on groceries. Texas does not have income taxes but they have really bad property taxes. Overall Texas has slightly lower taxes than Oklahoma. Texas is ranked third among all states for lowest income/sales/property taxes but Oklahoma is not bad ranked 12th. Neither is a high tax state.
Texas roads are better, but they pay for them. The difference is due in no small part to having much higher motor fuels taxes. Texas taxes gasoline and diesel at 20 cents per gallon each. Oklahoma only taxes it at 16 and 13 cents. Weather plays into it as well with all the freeze/thaw that happens all winter in Oklahoma. Gasoline tax information - Texas Gas Prices
Lastly, the population is not dropping. As of July 2011 the city of Tulsa’s population had grown by 1.2% since the 2010 census and passed 400,000 people over this summer. Tulsa’s CSA was at 998,438 as of July 2011 and was due to pass the one million mark before the end of 2011. At current growth rates the city will pass 440k by the end of the decade and the CSA will top 1.1 million. Tulsa's population grows 1.2 percent | Tulsa World List of Combined Statistical Areas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Well, I was born in Okla and lived here in Tulsa in the 80's. We moved back here recently from Texas, and I do think Tulsa has changed, and not for the better. I'm sure I've changed too...but honestly, we are horrified at the violent crime and crime in general here. I don't know if the casinos and gambling have contributed to that or not....but neither were here when we left. Statistically, I have a 1 in 15 chance during a calendar year of being the victim of a crime. REALLY? The schools...even Jenks....just can't compare to most public Texas schools and no one seems to really care or there would be money being spent in education. Education beyond high school doesn't seem to be valued here. Education in K-12 isn't valued either. Look at the number of private schools and home schoolers....people who really care are finding a different way of educating their kids. Parents who don't have this option due to economic reasons are stuck. There is a reason on a nationally normed test (PSAT's) that Oklahoma gets a 3-4 point break when announcing national merit scholars. The kids simply aren't being educated to the norms in other states. How sad. How frustrating. I'm sure the recession had an impact, and some visionaries are trying to improve their communities - all to be commended, but it is not enough for us. After 18mths of being back...we will sell our home in the spring and go back to Texas. This move will have cost us $ and effort and precious time in our lives. People here are friendly but the positives does not out weigh the negatives.
Well, I was born in Okla and lived here in Tulsa in the 80's. We moved back here recently from Texas, and I do think Tulsa has changed, and not for the better. I'm sure I've changed too...but honestly, we are horrified at the violent crime and crime in general here. I don't know if the casinos and gambling have contributed to that or not....but neither were here when we left. Statistically, I have a 1 in 15 chance during a calendar year of being the victim of a crime. REALLY? The schools...even Jenks....just can't compare to most public Texas schools and no one seems to really care or there would be money being spent in education. Education beyond high school doesn't seem to be valued here. Education in K-12 isn't valued either. Look at the number of private schools and home schoolers....people who really care are finding a different way of educating their kids. Parents who don't have this option due to economic reasons are stuck. There is a reason on a nationally normed test (PSAT's) that Oklahoma gets a 3-4 point break when announcing national merit scholars. The kids simply aren't being educated to the norms in other states. How sad. How frustrating. I'm sure the recession had an impact, and some visionaries are trying to improve their communities - all to be commended, but it is not enough for us. After 18mths of being back...we will sell our home in the spring and go back to Texas. This move will have cost us $ and effort and precious time in our lives. People here are friendly but the positives does not out weigh the negatives.
It's your prerogative to move back to Texas , but Booker T. Washington is one of the best schools in the United States of America and I would even go so farther and say in the world K - 12 grade. Ranked 124 in America out of 22,000 schools that in the top 1% of USA schools.
Tulsa University is also one of the best University in the world for theirs Petroleum Department , and one of the best overall University in the United States of America Ranked at 83 in the USA.
Well, I was born in Okla and lived here in Tulsa in the 80's. We moved back here recently from Texas, and I do think Tulsa has changed, and not for the better. I'm sure I've changed too...but honestly, we are horrified at the violent crime and crime in general here. I don't know if the casinos and gambling have contributed to that or not....but neither were here when we left. .... People here are friendly but the positives does not out weigh the negatives.
There has been more high profile crimes committed though with violent break-ins and killing of witnesses this year. The crime rates in DFW or Houston aren't that much higher or lower than Tulsa. It will be intersting to see if crime falls below 600 per 10,000 as it seems to hit that metric and then bounce higher again.
I agree on education not being highly valued in this state, other than as a resource for foo'ball. Most of small town Texas isn't any better.
I think Tulsa is changing this and TPS wants to lead the charge against the idiot dentist that is running the education department currently. I'll take my chances with a district that publicly acknowledges they have issues and is trying to remedy them. Remember that we, the parents, have the greatest influence on our children's performance in school. Even more than the teachers. It takes time and effort to overcome poor teachers but it can be done. The sad fact is that a lot of parents aren't willing to turn off the TV to tutor or educate their children past what the school teacher provides.
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