would appreciate some feedback as to the general quality of life in Tulsa versus Austin,Tx. I%26#39;m a 49 yo single male, business owner, love cities, golf, sports, all the usual stuff, contemplating a move, both of these cities look good on my radar screen -does anybody have any info they%26#39;d care to share? %26#39;ppreciate it.Bobby.
need some feedback/Tulsa vs. Austin
Depends on what you%26#39;re after, Bobby. Austin is more liberal, probably younger, more into live music venues and night life, etc. And of course it%26#39;s the capital and has the huge university driving its economy. Austin%26#39;s an up-and-coming boom town with all the upside of that, and all the down.
Tulsa%26#39;s not exactly conservative but not liberal like Austin; I guess I%26#39;d call it ';traditional.'; Lots of old money. A couple of fine museums. The economy%26#39;s healthy and diverse, but it%26#39;s not a boom town like Austin is. Some great architecture and a few wonderful neighborhoods from 60-70 years ago. Tulsa Univ, a division one school, contributes a lot to the life style, but it%26#39;s tiny compared to UT.
If you were younger, I%26#39;d definitely say Austin. But when you%26#39;re our age (I%26#39;m a couple years older than you), the boom-town and night-life scenes aren%26#39;t as much fun as they used to be. I like Tulsa a lot; it%26#39;s got a nice feel to it.
need some feedback/Tulsa vs. Austin
I definitely agree with the other writer. Austin is very liberal, tons of great music, hip, very outdoorsy, very cultural. Supposedly has the highest percentage of college grads in one city. Tons of great (organic, healthy) restaurants and just REALLY GOOD food. Also, very expensive, much more so than Tulsa. Tulsa, I think (and disagree with the other writer) is VERY CONSERVATIVE, being home to Oral Roberts University, Rhema Bible College, etc. But also a very giving, loving, friendly place to live. Not as crowded as Austin. (Has a mor small town feeling than Austin.) Some great bike and running trails. It gets quite a bit colder than Austin of course. But Tulsa summers can be brutally hot. Tulsa is becoming more hip I believe, with more fun coffee shops, gourmet ice cream places, a growing downtown, and some active young, single professional groups. I lived in Austin as a college student and afterwards for a few years. I loved it there. I%26#39;m now a stay at home mom to two young kids in Tulsa, and feel like Tulsa is a great place to raise a family and be a homemaker. Good luck.
Yeah, Yoga, when you compare it to Austin, Tulsa does look pretty conservative. But when you live in the rest of Oklahoma (especially the rural part, like I do), then Tulsa and Norman appear to be the liberal spots; everything is relative, I guess.
And while Tulsa winters are cold compared to Austin, Oklahoma winters are very temperate compared with Waterbury where Rob is coming from. Personally, I%26#39;d rather have Tulsa%26#39;s shorter summer and cooler winter than Austin%26#39;s long summer and warmer winter.
One other thing, Rob. Coming from the east, you are likely to find the Tulsa geography more familiar. Northeast Oklahoma/Northwest Arkansas are hilly and treed, similar to New England (though not nearly as green). Texas makes a big deal of the Hill Country, but having moved here from West Virginia, I was extremely disappointed; give me the area north and east of Tulsa any time.
I think Tulsa is a good place to raise a family. Though the public school system has it%26#39;s down falls, it%26#39;s an all around good place for kids. As far as night life goes, you have several great places on Brookside, and in downtown Tulsa, there%26#39;s plenty of variety - the dance bars, the karaoke bars, the biker bars and yeah, the ';other'; bars as well. For sports, there is the Drillers baseball, the Talons arena football, the Oilers Hockey - the Performing arts center always has shows playing, a lot of big names come through there. Downtown Tulsa is beautiful and old, and very art deco. Chandler and Woodward and Oxley are good nature parks, LaFortune is good for Golfing at a public facility - then there are Bailey Ranch, Forrest Ridge, Cedar Ridge, Page Belcher... lots of golf place, though I don%26#39;t know how they compare.
We were considering moving to Dallas for a job, but we like the houses and the overall feel of things here in Tulsa. Wish I could be of more help, good luck with your decision.
Rob, definitely Austin. The best thing about Tulsa is the cost of living is very good and Northwest Arkansas is close by for outdoor sports. Austin has San Antonio to the south and Dallas is a couple of hours to the north. Austin has much more going for a single man and the golfing season is mostly year round.
Bobby,
I couldn%26#39;t figure out for the life of me why everyone was talking about liberal vs. conservative and it just hit me you are in Connecticut which is known for being liberal! It%26#39;s late and I%26#39;m a little slow at this hour! So, yes Tulsa would feel quite conservative in comparison. Nothing wrong with that though! Anyway! I moved to Tulsa from Erie, PA 16 years ago and love the mild winters. The downside to that is in the spring and fall, allergy season is a big fat drag! I didn%26#39;t have allergies until I moved here! Missouri and NW Arkansas are both a couple of hours away and are beautiful. Tulsa and it%26#39;s suburbs are constantly growing and my parents can%26#39;t get over it everytime they come to visit. Great developments going up all around the river area which brings in a lot of new shops and restaurants. Real estate is very diverse meaning anyone could find a house here I think or build one which seems to be the thing to do around here. Big new arena was approved for building downtown which is intended to draw in some of the major events that we have gotten passed up for in the past and have gone to Oklahoma City. Tulsa is a well kept city with several different growing communities around it which account for about 1/2 a million people. I don%26#39;t know enough about Austin to comment on it other than it seems like a great place to visit since a lot of people I know like to go to Austin for long weekends here and there but I don%26#39;t know anyone who lives there. Now Dallas and it%26#39;s suburbs are like a Tulsa on steroids and would be my choice of city if I were looking for a move... but that%26#39;s just me! Anyway! I hope you get the information you need to make your decision!
Good Luck!
I agree totally with yogamamma. Tulsa is VERY conservative, strongly Republican-influenced. Welcome to the ';buckle'; of the belt. Huge churches here--predominately Baptist and non-denominational. Tons and tons of ministries here. A number of bible schools here as well. People come from all over the world to train for ministry and some businesses even cater to the strong Christian influence. What was unusual to me when I moved here, was hearing Christian songs being played in the background as I shopped. Great place to raise kids.
Hello people, sorry for my tardiness, but I want to thank all of you for your opinions.....it is great to have this type of feedback. I guess that I want to take a broad look at all the major components of day to day life and then go from there. In late January I took a road trip and went to Charlottesville,VA, Louisville,KY, Nashville,TN. Memphis,TN, Tulsa, back to Louisville and then back to CT. (A lot of driving in a week!). The cities I liked the most were Louisville and Tulsa, but it was mostly Tulsa that I kept thinking about upon my return, can%26#39;t explain why. Of course, Austin and other Texas cities are still in my mix, but having lived in Texas 15 years ago, I feel like I know those cities fairly well. I just want a nice, clean, hip city with a diverse population, I%26#39;m a man of pretty basic tastes. Connecticut actually has a pretty good climate, we get nasty cold from late December until late Feb., but thats only two months,and we get nice ,long, moderate springs and falls, summers are a little bit short. That may be one reason I like Tulsa, it seems a little warmer and humid than Connecticut, but managable. Politically, I lean more towards the Republican/Libertarian side of things, even though Connecticut is a very old school Democratic state, that is what is choking it, public money is handed out like it grows on trees, most of it is mispent, of course this is all tax money; property taxes just keep getting higher and higher, electric rates just went up 23% - where does it end? I%26#39;m just trying to earn a living....%26#39;nuff said, thanks for all your feedback, I won%26#39;t be so tardy the next time! Later, Bobby.
Rob - I lived in Dallas for 11 years and started my family life there. We moved back to Tulsa in 1998 and have enjoyed it very much here. Summers are filled with water skiing on area lakes and going to college football games either in Stillwater or Norman depending on your preference. Tulsa also has a local team at TU. College sports are big here. Also big here is gardening and being out of doors in general. You will find that Tulsa is a good place for clean air and water. In comparison to Dallas, where I used to live, we have much less crime, poverty, and traffic. We also have less shopping and nightlife. Were a bit smaller and a bit behind, but we really have fine bones for a GREAT city, we just need to develop it and make it better. IMHO, between Austin and us is a HUGE difference. Austin is a good bit bigger, more crowed, has more traffic and is a MUCH more expensive place to live. All the Dallas folks that we lived around in the downtown area wanted to live in Austin. Mostly because of the lakes and outdoors, thing is so many people shared that idea that now its priced out of the market and the lakes/outdoors are crowed to use anyway. Yeah Austin has better weather, shopping, and a huge University but I prefer the size of a Tulsa. Job wise, Tulsa is slower paced and our labor market is smaller than in Texas Cities (less Hispanics) so it’s sometime harder to find good help from the labor pool. Good luck in your choice, both are nice cities and if I were a single and younger (I%26#39;m 40) I might choose Austin, just depends.
erack, yea theres a bunch of different factors to consider - but I want to look at the overall quality of life, relative to the things I like to do.I do like the general vibe in Austin, but the past couple times I was there I noticed a lot of traffic, plus I can see that Tulsa has a more moderate climate, usually 5-15 degrees cooler than Austin. I know that Austin is considered a great place for singles, but some of these surveys are little more than ';how many bars per capita';. I don%26#39;t want my life to revolve around how many bars are close by. It looks like there are plenty of bars and nightclubs in Tulsa, I%26#39;m not a big bar guy anyways. I%26#39;m much more into how close are golf courses, YMCA, local sports, basic shopping, how little traffic is there. I%26#39;m actually looking at a few other Southern cities, but Tulsa is looking pretty good at this point. Anyways, I can always move again if need be (ugh!). I think Tulsa has a tremendous upside and future. Thanks for the post.Bobby.
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