TU communications professor John Coward has set up a blog called Tulsa Street Stories as an experimental journalism project for his news gathering course.

In the coming weeks, the site will publish reporting and personal journalism by members of the Fall 2006 News Gathering class at TU. These stories will provide glimspes into the lives of interesting people in and around Route 66 and give TU journalism students an opportunity to share their writing and reporting with others interested in this 'grassroots' journalism project.

His students began by writing about restaurants and other places around Tulsa -- Claud's Hamburgers, Mario's Pizzeria, Tie-Dyes of Tulsa, Greenwood Avenue, the Tulsa Rose Garden, and (alas) Starbucks.

The mood is unique at Starbucks—it can’t be compared to any other coffee shop that I have ever been to. I believe that every time I go to Starbucks I get the entire coffee shop experience. Maybe it’s just by watching the people that work there, or maybe it's watching the customers enjoy their time, or maybe it’s just the time I spend talking to the people that I with. No matter what the reason is, I always leave Starbucks satisfied and anticipating my next visit.

Someone get that young lady directions to Shades of Brown, stat!

The latest assignment is to write about a colorful character from Tulsa. Since many of the students are out-of-towners, it should be interesting to see what they learn about our city that we townies have overlooked.