Being a Tulsana: the First Ten Days

We recently moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. My husband, Sandeep's job brought us here to Tulsa, a region of the Oklahoma state known as 'Green Country'. Tulsa, the 46th largest city of the United States was known as the 'Oil capital of the world' for most of the 20th century and the success of the city at the time reflects in the Art Deco style architecture of the buildings in the downtown area. It is internationally acclaimed for the several permanent dance, theater and concert groups and centers constituting its performance arts milieu.

The downtown area of Tulsa, OK

During the first ten days of our stay here we lived at the Holiday Inn at the city center. For the first time during my stay in the United States I actually lived in the heart of a city and got to actually experience the truth about the decentralized American city. Streets, the backbone of every city, are part of the public realm that allow designated space for cars and people to move through the city without conflict. In Tulsa downtown, however, there were no chances of conflict between vehicles and pedestrians due to the lack of both, vehicles and pedestrians! However, I should say that that was a very convenient situation for me to cross the roads as slowly as I wanted or even dance on them without being noticed or being hit! I enjoyed being in the midst of the downtown architecture and my dog, Roxy, enjoyed her uninterrupted walk.

The point at which I was taken by surprise was when I found out that the restaurants and cafes in the downtown area are open only for lunch hour. These food outlets targeted the only sector of population that would bring them substantial profit: the working population of the downtown. Sandeep and I would have to drive to the nearest suburban food outlets for dinner to take a break from the food served at the Holiday Inn. The same would be the scenario if one had to do any kind of shopping including clothes, grocery, shoes, etc. The proliferation of the suburbs with their shopping mall prototype is a phenomenon that not only renders a city center homogeneous but also makes it close to impossible to accommodate such functions by attempts of revitalization of the city center.

One of the main factors that made our stay pleasurable was Sandeep's job; he could walk to work unlike his previous assignment in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had to drive for an hour to work from home. The close proximity between work and home not only saved travel time and energy but also increased his work efficiency. The conventional planning methodology of placing offices and homes close together was not bullocks after all. This is the element that goes missing in the suburban way of living. In short, even though Tulsa downtown had its disadvantages all three of us, Sandeep, Roxy and I, enjoyed being Tulsanas!!