Getting to Know Tulsa, a Live and Let Live City

My Uber driver oriented me to Tulsa as we drove from the airport to my downtown hotel. “People in Oklahoma get along even if they believe very different things because everybody respects American ideals and that piece of paper written by our founding fathers,” he said of the US constitution, “And especially the Bill of Rights.” I contemplated his eccentric facial hair and the blocky wooden cross hanging from his rear-view mirror, wondering what this city had in store for me.

It turned out to be a nonstop parade of friendly people with, as my driver foretold, all different points of view. In the next few days, I encountered fabulous Art Deco buildings, a surprising amount of vegan food, a queer indigenous art show, and a 76-foot-tall golden statue of an oilfield worker “dedicated to the men of the petroleum industry who have created from God’s abundance a better life for mankind.”

I also saw an art show called “We Protest,” a collection of photos spanning from the 1950s up to 2024 of people protesting all sorts of stuff in various ways–from Black civil rights sit-ins to 1970s people picketing porn shops, and abortion rights protestors both pro and con. I started to think there was something to my Uber driver’s words about how people coexist in Tulsa. For sober folks, that means drink or don’t drink, whatever. It’s your life.

Tulsa is a city on the upswing. More people are moving to the long-abandoned downtown. The city has innovative programs for artists and remote workers to attract more talented young people to move to Tulsa. After losing out to Austin on a bid for a Tesla facility, Tulsa is also amping up training opportunities to build a bigger tech workforce. The Atlas School offers a 20-month coding program. “Many people retrained from other careers,” Shun Brisby of Experience Tulsa told me as he showed me around on a Friday morning. There’s no age limit for admissions, and no GREs are required. “The admissions test is to build a simple website,” Shun told me. “They want to find the tinkerers. Those are the people who do best.”

It seems like city planners and other Tulsa citizens are actively trying to think of ways to make this a better place. Unlike many cities, Tulsa doesn’t take it for granted that people have to live here.

Lots of healthy outdoorsy stuff

I’m standing on the bank of the Arkansas River, getting a preview of Tulsa’s newest outdoor recreational feature. Created by a new dam, Zink Lake is opening to the public this Labor Day weekend. Jeff Edwards, CEO and executive director of River Parks Authority, shows me the new flume. Engineers can control water flow and make different parts of the flume perfect for surfing, whitewater kayaking, and gentle tubing. He points out the impressive trails connecting Zink Lake to downtown in one direction and Turkey Mountain—popular with mountain bikers and hikers—in the other. “Our entire paved trail network is really connected together with all these recreational amenities and features,” Edwards explains. “That’s kind of the mission of River Parks is the development of the corridor of the Arkansas River and recreational features in and along that stretch as it goes from any part of Tulsa County.”

Right by Zink Lake is one of America’s most beloved public parks. I’d heard that Gathering Place has won all sorts of accolades, but I didn’t understand the big deal until I visited. This 100-acre park has about 20 separate play areas for different age groups, featuring networks of slides, a swinging pirate ship, and climbing spaces. It looks more like an amusement park than a free children’s playground. Sydney Brown, marketing specialist at Gathering Place, gave me a tour. “This is the iconic piece of our playground,” she said, gesturing to a tower decorated with dragons. The play structures were designed by a playground equipment company from the Netherlands and Germany. “It’s designed for kids to play through journey, experimentation, and risk,” she said. My favorite is a beautiful climbing structure shaped like two giant blue herons. I also took advantage of the free kayak rentals from the Gathering Place boathouse to paddle around Peggy’s Pond and watch turtles sunbathe.

Black Wall Street

While Tulsa may be tolerant now—at least according to anecdotal evidence from my Uber driver and town boosters—it wasn’t always the case. In 1921, white vigilantes torched one of the most prosperous Black areas in the US. One local citizen with an airplane dropped bombs on people’s houses and businesses in the Greenwood neighborhood, also known as Black Wall Street. The aftermath: the whole 40-block neighborhood was destroyed, 10,000 people were homeless, 170 businesses were ruined, and up to 300 people died. No help from the city or insurers. Everything lost and blamed on the Black residents.

The Red Cross came in and set up a refugee camp. Some Black people stuck around and rebuilt their neighborhoods to a new peak by the 1940s. Many left. The government rewarded the tenacious rebuilders’ efforts 50 years later by claiming eminent domain during urban renewal and wrecking the neighborhood again, this time with plans for a freeway.

Visitors can learn about this heinous history at the Greenwood Rising Black Wall Street History Center. This excellent museum sets the tone of memory without victimhood by starting with a three-minute video in which Maya Angelou reads her poem “Still I Rise.” Her words are juxtaposed against images of cruel and humiliating historical happenings, a Black woman doing an artistic dance in the sand, and proud portraits of Black people today. Then visitors traverse exhibits explaining how Black Wall Street came to be, stories about the community leaders, and the terrible night when an angry mob attacked the neighborhood—complete with sound effects and snippets of recordings of survivors talking about the bullets raining down, fire, and the airplane flying over and dropping bombs. Obviously, this is an intense museum. But very well done.

While much of the neighborhood is still bare land—after being torn down for a highway that was never even built—there’s a business district and some beautiful murals. I visited Silhouette Sneakers and Art, where Michiah McQuarters, a salesperson and apparel designer, gave me a tour and shared his passion for sneakers. The shoes on display range from around 200 dollars to over two thousand, with some displayed in a locked glass case.

McQuarters picked up one sneaker and told me, “When it came out, nobody paid attention to it; nobody was doing anything with it. But then, literally like two months ago, people started buying it. So now you see what the price is. Five hundred. It was 180 when it came out. It’s just skyrocketed because people see people wearing it. That’s the big thing about shoes. You’ve got to see somebody wear it first and be like, oh, okay. It looks good on a foot.” Real sneakerheads either display their shoes wrapped in protective plastic or wear them till they fall apart. And yes, he said, you can wear sneakers with absolutely anything. Including wedding attire. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “That’s the world of shoes.”

Music scene

Most of the people I talked to raved about the local music scene. If you’re so inclined, you can catch live music—often for free—every night. I was on an earlyish bedtime and early rise schedule, so I missed out on this Tulsa feature.

In addition to musical performances, Tulsa has major attractions like the Bob Dylan Center and the Woody Guthrie Center. You could easily spend a day touring these museums and learning about these two legendary performers.

Other musical highlights include Cain’s Ballroom, originally built in 1924 as a garage and later host to many of the world’s most famous acts. In 1978, Sid Vicious lost his temper and punched a hole in Cain’s wall. Punk rockers still visit that hole today.

The famous boy band Hanson is from just south of Tulsa and has a shop downtown. I regret not stopping in to see what they sell there. The R&B/funk group, the Gap Band, is also from Tulsa. I learned that GAP is an acronym for Greenwood, Archer, and Pine streets, the heart of Black Wall Street from whence they came.

Mocktails in Tulsa

I found a few places that offer good mocktails. On my first night, I ate dinner at The Vault, a modern-looking restaurant in an old bank building.  They have lots of vegan dishes, plus two mocktails. I had the herbal spritzer with rosemary syrup, Peychaud’s bitter, seltzer, cranberry, and lemon juice.  Valkyrie is a downtown cocktail bar with a larger mocktail menu. The WEL Bar inside the Mother Road Market offers monthly Sober Sips Happy Hour events with NA drinks. Even if your visit doesn’t coincide with Sober Sips, visiting this food hall is well worth it. I especially liked Pure Food and Juice, which makes healthy meals and juice drinks. My best coffee drinks were at Topeca and Chimera Café.

Spiritual and sober side

One of my tour guides, Shun Brisby of Experience Tulsa, intrigued me with tales of the Transformation Church. He moved to Tulsa to do an internship with the church and said many others have also moved there to be part of it. The church founder started the church to reverse the curse of bad race relations in Tulsa, Shun told me. I didn’t get the chance to go to a service, but with its tagline of “Represent God to the lost and found,” it might interest people in recovery.

Sober Black Girls Club also offers periodic meetups in Tulsa. If you’re a Black woman visiting Tulsa, you might want to see if they have anything planned while you’re there. Follow them on IG @soberblackgirlsclub

All in all, I had a great time in Tulsa. There was lots to do, people were friendly, and downtown had cool architecture stemming from the early-1900s oil boom. If you have the chance to visit, you’ll probably have a good time, too.

About Teresa Bergen

Teresa Bergen had the great good fortune to quit drinking very young and has enjoyed long-term sobriety. She lives in Portland, Oregon but travels all over the world as a travel writer. She also works in the oral history field, helping to document and preserve history. Learn more HERE.

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