Tulsa: May 2005 Archives

Hats off to Tim Williston, webmaster of www.tulsafreewifi.com, who has set out to document the free Wi-Fi hotspots available in the Tulsa area. He's got a list of 27 so far, including reviews of 4, and he's looking for Wi-Fi users to help expand his list and provide reviews and other content for the site. Most of the sites on his list are coffee houses like Java Dave's, Kaffe Bona, and Cafe Cubana, plus various Panera locations, and (this surprised me) three Mazzio's locations. If you have free Wi-Fi at your business, visit Tim's site and have him add you to the list.

I'm working out of the house now, but once in a while I need more quiet than I can get there, or at least a change of scenery, and it's nice to be able to grab the laptop and find some place a little different to set up camp and work.

Slightly off-topic: In answer to someone who emailed a while back with this question -- I don't know if there are any places around town where you can make a free wired connection to the Internet. Anyone? Wi-Fi cards for your laptop are pretty cheap these days, so I'm not sure there would be much demand for wired access.

One more Wi-Fi related item: This isn't free access, but if you're an SBC DSL subscriber, you can use the FreedomLink network for a nominal monthly charge. (I think it's $2 a month, but I need to verify that.) FreedomLink has hotspots at Barnes and Noble stores, UPS Store and Mailbox Etc. locations, and Wi-Fi-equipped McDonald's.

Just found this today: Guffey's Journal, which reports significant real estate transactions around Tulsa, has a web presence.

Guffey's website has a page of headlines about major transactions (the current issue announces that AMF has sold and leased back Sheridan Lanes bowling alley), a list of lots sold, a list of leases, and a list of "executive homes" sales. (In Tulsa, anything over $200,000 is an executive home. That buys, what, a garage apartment timeshare in Palo Alto?)

You can learn a lot about what's going to be happening around by following real estate transactions. If you're concerned about a rezoning in your area, watching for nearby sales may give you early warning of changes to come.

You can also learn who's moving up in the world and who's moving down. I remember the first time I glanced through Guffey's in the library and spotted the name of our plant's general manager, along with where his new house was and how much he paid for it. (In Oklahoma, you can calculate the sale price of a home from the value of the revenue stamps, which cost $1.50 for each $1,000 of value. The amount of the revenue stamps is in the county clerk's records.)

This is one I'll make a regular read.

Guffey's Journal is published by Neighbor Newspapers, which owns 19 Tulsa area publications, including the Catoosa Times and the Broken Arrow Daily Ledger. You'll find Neighbor Newspapers, with links to each of their titles and a few articles from each, on the web at www.neighbor-newspapers.com.

UPDATE: Well, fooey. Commenter Rob points out that the content on the web is months old, so either they got lazy and stopped updating, or they only intended to provide a sample of what's in the paper each week. You can still find the paper at the library, and I haven't checked, but I'll bet you can buy it at Steve's Sundry.

He's got a rebuttal to David Averill's call for at-large councilors, comments on Channel 2's story about city workers who are convicted criminals (in which he praises one of the other Michael Bateses in Tulsa, the City's HR director), and asks his readers to translate a Pakistani friend's comment about Mayor LaFortune.

I especially liked this from his rebuttal to Averill:

Here is the problem with the current council, Mr. Averill. Finally, some councilors get elected that are immune to the good ol’ boy network that has been in place for many years. These heroes of truth set forth to clean up the mess that already existed, and the good ol’ boys are scrambling to save themselves. The problem is not the “Medlock bloc”. The problem is writers like you that do not give the public the truth. The problem is that the good ol’ boys in Tulsa have teamed up with power and money, biased media reporting, and lies just to keep their little world of privilege in place.

Good wurk!

Mee Citee Wurkor is back online so go catch up! He's got commentary on local politics, he's got a cheesecake review, and he's discovered a St. Louis blogger and finds interesting parallels to Tulsa's situation. Site proprietor Goober sings the praises of backups and of Bluehost, the hosting provider that had him transferred and up and running in less than a day.

Neighborhoods along south Yale on the approach to the proposed private Yale Avenue toll bridge are having another meeting tonight, and Tulsa Mayor Bill LaFortune, County Commissioner Bob Dick, and City Councilor Bill Christiansen are all supposed to be in attendance. The meeting is tonight at 7 p.m., at St. James Methodist Church, 111th and Yale. Tulsa Topics has the details, and you can learn more at the Move That Bridge website.