Mr. Bates,

I am glad there are people working to improve the urban fabric of Tulsa. When I was exploring Portland, Oregon recently I imagined that Tulsa may have looked similar had it not torn itself apart.

I doubt it's possible to have a thriving urban core with the critical mass of residents needed to sustain it in a city so uniformly conservative and intolerant of gays.

The red states are filled with cities devoid of life, like Tulsa. The blue states are filled with cities teeming with life and culture, but are overrun with the homeless, plagued by crime, and are crushingly expensive.

I'd like to see a nation where we can agree to disagree, live side by side, and work together on things we agree on. There are many people on the coasts who would love to live in the downtown area of an affordable city with urban amenities, like the Tulsa you envision.

The far right and the far left are equally corrupt when their power is unchecked. Both sides have a lot to gain by driving this national polarization. San Francisco, where I live, is run like a kingdom. And nationally the Republicans throw out social issues like a smoke-screen to distract us from problems like the horrific national debt.

With this kind of polarization I don't hold out hope for any of America's cities. While I don't think your vision for Tulsa will fully come to life in our time, I'm sure the city will be the better for your efforts.

Dean Andoe
San Francisco

Anyone else notice all the now broken links in your Urban Tulsan article at http://www.urbantulsa.com/article.asp?id=3107

seems about half have been unlinked.

California is run like a kingdom? (referring to Dean's comment) CALIFORNIA'S Republican
Governor with two democrat senators like Barbara Boxer
and Democrat Dianne Feinstein politics must be
very interesting living in California.

California sales tax is high and cost of living enormous. When my husband was offered a job in California the company offered him twice what he was making here in Tulsa. Still the house we own in tulsa would cost over a million dollars in California. The time it would take to commute
to work from a decent neighborhood would make it even worse! I won't even go into the possibility of problems if there was a earthquake in your housing district or work area or their energy problems for people.

I always wondered why Oral Roberts and his wife
previously "retired" in California when it is outrageously expensive there. Richard and Lindsey, ORU, and their grandchildren are in Tulsa. We realize Oral must still have loads of money to fly back and force from California to Tulsa. He doesn't have to depend on medicare to help pay for any prescriptions. There was a lot of controversy several years back when Oral Roberts was asking for millions or he might die, but the Roberts families still lived like millionaires in their large expensive homes, etc. Oral Roberts and the University made millions when Ewing helped
Oral Roberts come up with his form of marketing for donations. With the downfall of Tilton and others that were represented by J.C. Joyce, an ATTORNEY, that has one of the nice offices in downtown Tulsa and SAINT MATTHEWS CHURCHES is also money receiver direct to J.C. Joyce (aka) St. Matthews Churches, on Main in downtown Tulsa,
there is still interesting activity going on downtown
to draw investors to downtown Tulsa. Tulsa prices are a bargain compared to NEW YORK
or CALIFORNIA.

Tulsa used to have neighborhoods with a grocery nearby, a laundry, schools like Brookside area and the Florence Park area where.

I think Michael Bates would make a very good Tulsa Mayor.

I also believe we could use MORE affordable senior living where seniors that can still take care of themselves could live on their social security but have enough square footage to make it feel comfortable. Many senior living places are still over $24,000 a year and that is still too expensive for many elderly when you consider they still have expensive medicine to buy, doctor visits to pay for and other expenses that must come out of their social security checks.