Info on All Things Tulsa, Please! (Broken Arrow, Stillwater: apartments, rental, mortgage)

[jeharbour]

Hello!

My husband has received a job offer in Broken Arrow that would give him a substantial increase in salary, and we are evaluating the pros and cons of the move right now. We currently live in NW Arkansas, Fayetteville to be exact, and had no plans of leaving until this offer appeared b/c we love this area. But, it's hard to turn down an offer that nearly doubles his salary. We're looking to rent, as we'll be keeping our house in Fayetteville and renting it out.

Here's some questions I have:

1) Overall, we live in a really safe town right now. We literally leave our cars sitting unlocked and have left keys hanging in the door without any problems. We have three kids and would like to stay in relatively safe neighborhoods. We're looking at Midtown/Riverside,and Broken Arrow. Are Midtown/Riverside pretty safe? Are there specific roads I should use as the bounds to my search?
2) A few of the houses I've looked at are zoned for Kendall-Whittier. We'll have a 1st grader and a 4yr old. The test scores for Kendall-Whittier are low, but that doesn't bother me as much as the size of the school, which is nearly double my daughter's current school. Anyone have any experience with Kendall-Whittier Elementary?
3) I'm more inclined to look at houses in Midtown/Riverside because I like the older neighborhoods and the higher walkability of the area. We currently walk to the park, grocery store, and church. My husband REALLY wants to be in Broken Arrow, he insists he wants to ride his bike to work. (I have no idea when this became a priority, lol. He doesn't do that now.) Are there any neighborhoods in BA that would be walkable? I have three kids, and HATE piling them all in the van to go everywhere, lol.
4) Tell the truth- Are people in BA snobs?

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by jeharbour

Hello!

1) Overall, we live in a really safe town right now. We literally leave our cars sitting unlocked and have left keys hanging in the door without any problems.

That's very hard to believe, because you sure can't do that in Stillwater, especially if valuables are visible in the car.

What is Lock It Or Lose It?


Lock It Or Lose It is a campaign to prevent car burglary in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Up to 95% of car burglary happens in unlocked vehicles. Each year $1.26 billion in personal items are stolen from unlocked vehicles. Lock It Or Lose It works to decrease the percentage of theft due to cars being left unlocked in Stillwater.

Most of the cars are burglarized between the times of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. Theft is occurring most at bars, restaurants, apartments and other hotspot areas. Don't leave your possessions in plain sight.
These items can include:

• Phones
• Loose change
• Purses
• Wallets
• Laptops

[jeharbour]

I'm not saying it's a good practice to leave them unlocked, I'm just saying that we do and haven't had any thefts. But honestly, if anyone wanted to steal something out of my van they'd have to dig through the kid mess first, and that's some pretty scary stuff.

Anybody have any input on the questions I asked?

[bagelw]

I just moved to Tulsa from Fayetteville back in November. So far, so good. We are enjoying Tulsa. It's difficult to compare Tulsa to Fayetteville since Tulsa is so much larger. What I've found interesting though is that eventhough Tulsa is much bigger than Fayetteville it's very easy to get around. I lived in west Fayetteville off Mount Comfort Road and if I wanted to get somewhere in east Fayetteville on 265 it could take 20 minutes eventhough the distance wasn't that far. In Tulsa I can get pretty much anywhere in the city in less than 20 minutes.

It probably does help that I live in Mid-town (Florence Park) so I'm pretty much directly in the center of the city and less than 10 minutes from downtown. We looked around for houses in BA and Jenks but you're right about having to drive everywhere. BA and Jenks have some decent areas but they are just typical suburbs centered around the automobile. I also work downtown and didn't want to fight with traffic everyday eventhough traffic is not bad here.

I don't have kids so I can't help you with the schools and we did not look at homes north of 11th street because several people including my realtor said to avoid it. Now that I've lived here a few months it seems like the Kendall-Whitter area is fine but it can get bad once you cross I244 and the area to the west is a little sketchy. You will definitely need to start locking your car doors because break-ins seem to be noticably higher here than in Fayetteville. That probably goes for anywhere in the city. However, I had two friends broken into in Fayetteville so it can happen anywhere.

If you stick with Mid-Town you should probably keep north of I44, south of 11th, west of Sheridan and east of the river. As far as walkable areas you should look at Brookside, Cherry St, Swan Lake, Yorktown, Lewsiton Gardens, Florence Park, Renaissance, Maple Ridge and Bryn Mawr. It also depends on your budget because places in Mid-town can get expensive. I tried to find a rental but ended up buying because a mortgage was cheaper than rent.

[jeharbour]

Thanks for the info, bagelw! I have noticed a price difference between Midtown and BA, but I'm willing to live in a smaller house if its a better location. Moving becomes so much more complicated when kids are in the picture, lol. The biggest con to Midtown for me is the public schools at this point. A friend from Tulsa tells me that, while she thinks Midtown would be the best fit for us in terms of personality and lifestyle, most families in midtown send their kids to private schools. I am pretty anti-private school, but also recognize that some public schools aren't able to provide my kids the best opportunities to learn.

Since you're from NWA- could you tell me how the outdoor activities around Tulsa compare to NWA? We spend lots of time outdoors, just got back from a morning trip to Devil's Den, and are wondering if we'll have anywhere near the variety of hiking trails and natural areas in OK that we do here.

[Griffis]

Tulsa is far preferable in many respects to OKC as far as metro areas in Oklahoma go to my mind. I prefer the city and its suburbs/surrounding areas to OKC by several orders of magnitude.

I gotta say, though, Fayetteville is one of my favorite towns in this entire part of the country. I think it will be an easy transition for you. And heck, you're not all that far from F'ville if you wanna visit.

[bagelw]

Originally Posted by jeharbour

Thanks for the info, bagelw! I have noticed a price difference between Midtown and BA, but I'm willing to live in a smaller house if its a better location. Moving becomes so much more complicated when kids are in the picture, lol. The biggest con to Midtown for me is the public schools at this point. A friend from Tulsa tells me that, while she thinks Midtown would be the best fit for us in terms of personality and lifestyle, most families in midtown send their kids to private schools. I am pretty anti-private school, but also recognize that some public schools aren't able to provide my kids the best opportunities to learn.

Since you're from NWA- could you tell me how the outdoor activities around Tulsa compare to NWA? We spend lots of time outdoors, just got back from a morning trip to Devil's Den, and are wondering if we'll have anywhere near the variety of hiking trails and natural areas in OK that we do here.

I haven't really been able to spend any time outdoors since the weather is just now really starting to get nice. However, I plan on checking out Turkey Mountain on the west side of the Arkansas River that is supposed to have some nice hiking trails. I've hear Mohawk Park does as well. I'm sure there are some hiking areas within a short drive as well but I'm just not familiar enough with the area yet.

The river trail system here is as nice or nicer (in parts) than Fayetteville. The only disadvantage the river trails have compared to Fayetteville is that they aren't designed as an alternate means of travel. They pretty much just circle the river so if you aren't living near the river then you have to drive to them to get access. Fayetteville on the other hand runs right through the middle of town which allows you more opportunity to live near an access point.

[bagelw]

Originally Posted by Griffis

Tulsa is far preferable in many respects to OKC as far as metro areas in Oklahoma go to my mind. I prefer the city and its suburbs/surrounding areas to OKC by several orders of magnitude.

I gotta say, though, Fayetteville is one of my favorite towns in this entire part of the country. I think it will be an easy transition for you. And heck, you're not all that far from F'ville if you wanna visit.

Huh? The OP wasn't asking about OKC. Why the short comparison?

[swake]

Originally Posted by bagelw

I haven't really been able to spend any time outdoors since the weather is just now really starting to get nice. However, I plan on checking out Turkey Mountain on the west side of the Arkansas River that is supposed to have some nice hiking trails. I've hear Mohawk Park does as well. I'm sure there are some hiking areas within a short drive as well but I'm just not familiar enough with the area yet.

The river trail system here is as nice or nicer (in parts) than Fayetteville. The only disadvantage the river trails have compared to Fayetteville is that they aren't designed as an alternate means of travel. They pretty much just circle the river so if you aren't living near the river then you have to drive to them to get access. Fayetteville on the other hand runs right through the middle of town which allows you more opportunity to live near an access point.

The trail system is a lot bigger than just around Riverparks. South Tulsa, Jenks, Sand Springs, Broken Arrow and all the way up to Skiatook are all connected together.

http://www.incog.org/Transportation/...lsmap11-12.pdf

[bagelw]

Originally Posted by swake

The trail system is a lot bigger than just around Riverparks. South Tulsa, Jenks, Sand Springs, Broken Arrow and all the way up to Skiatook are all connected together.

http://www.incog.org/Transportation/...lsmap11-12.pdf

But the center of the city (Mid-town) doesn't have any trails. I have to drive my car to get to the trail. Fayetteville has a trail that runs thru the middle of the city and separate trails branch off of it to different areas of town. Some of those bike lanes in the middle of Mid-town need to be actual trails.