Tulsa: August 2007 Archives

There's a great letter in today's Whirled from someone named L. D. Young who is tired of the whiny expressions of boredom emanating from some young professional types:

At a recent meeting on the proposed river development plan, I was irritated by comments from the Young Tulsa Professionals that, "There's nothing to do in Tulsa."

Are they in the same Tulsa area as me? A town that offers the breadth of cultural and social opportunities as Tulsa can hardly be termed "nothing to do." Let me direct their short attention spans to a few things to do.

The writer goes on to list museums, festivals, theater groups, art galleries, nightclubs, live music venues, coffeehouses, and places to see and be seen and then concludes:

Filling the river bed with water will just be another short-term fix for the mini-me entitlement generation who visualize life as an episode of "Sex in the City." Sorry, but that is not the real world. Quit your whining and find something to do.

The funny thing is that none of what's proposed in the river tax plan is going to produce the kind of excitement that these TYpros types say they're after.

Any parent knows that you can't cure kid boredom with more stuff. If you cave in when they complain of boredom and give them something new, in less than a day they'll be bored once more. The better path is to reintroduce them to something cool that they've forgotten or overlooked.

And that's what the grownups ought to be doing in this situation. The Tulsa Metro Chamber ought to be introducing these discontented youngsters to all the opportunities for fun around town, all the excitement being generated by private enterprise, aka "commerce," a word that used to be in that organization's name.

Instead, those with a vested interest in relieving taxpayers of their money are cynically exploiting the ennui of these young adults by telling them that it's not their fault that they're bored. No, Tulsa voters are the scapegoats, and if only those selfish naysayers would pay higher taxes, Tulsa would be transformed into a young single adults' paradise. Just like Surf City there'd be "two girls for every boy," but also vice versa!

Four years ago we listened to the tax proponents tell us how lousy Tulsa was -- stagnant, boring, dying. They told us if we gave them half a billion dollars they'd make it all better. Voters bought what they were selling. So how can they keep claiming that Tulsa is stagnant, boring, dying? Isn't that an admission that the package they sold us in 2003 -- Vision 2025 -- didn't work as promised? Or wasn't even what we needed?

A few months ago I linked to this wonderful testimonial to the free and inexpensive fun that Tulsa offers, and how you can find out about it in the events pages of Urban Tulsa Weekly. Tasha Does Tulsa has the same theme.

It would be nice if what was once known as the Chamber of Commerce and their affiliated young professional group (TYpros) would do more to talk up Tulsa instead of running it down.

Tiger Woods has shot a 63 in today's second round of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club. He just missed a birdie putt on the 18th hole which looped around the rim and back out toward him. Had he made the putt, that would have been the lowest round ever in major championship history.

His seven under par gives him a combined 6 under after two rounds and puts him in first place, two strokes ahead of Scott Verplank.

You can see the complete PGA Championship leaderboard here.

UPDATE: John Daly's training regimen of casino slots, cigarettes, and Diet Coke didn't serve him as well today. (Reminds me of "Decathlon Champion" John Belushi's commercial for Little Chocolate Donuts.) He shot 3 over par, putting him at par after two rounds, dropping him from 2nd place to a seven-way tie for 8th place.