Tulsans Hope To Return 'Crystal City' Area Back To Its Glory Days

<p>People in Southwest Tulsa want their neighborhoods back; they said they're tired of boarded up homes, ten-foot tall grass and absentee landlords.</p>

Wednesday, August 27th 2014, 11:11 pm

By: News On 6


People in Southwest Tulsa want their neighborhoods back; they said they're tired of boarded up homes, ten-foot tall grass and absentee landlords.

Back in the day, the area known as Crystal City was a vibrant shopping center, a jewel of the route 66 corridor; it's fallen to pieces in the last few decades, but resident are trying to bring it back.

A grocery store, Subway and beauty parlor are just a few of the stores set to come to the area; and now southwest Tulsans are taking that momentum and pushing it towards the neighborhoods.

There are rows of former apartments abandoned and boarded up with the electricity and water cut, but neighbors say it is still drawing unwanted activity.

Juan Galvan deals with spiders, trash and grass taller than his truck.

“Demolish or clean it up or something; but if somebody can help us we would appreciate it,” he said.

A few neighborhoods away, weeds and grass make some homes hard to even see; and the trash sits in front lawns.

Linda 1 2702 “I think this is beyond a foreclosure. I think, you know, some family has it somewhere and they're just not, you know, taking care of it,” said concerned Tulsan, Linda Fitzgerald.

She is just one member of the grassroots organization known as the Southwest Tulsa Area Restoration, or STAR Coalition.

More than 100 members have signed up to join alongside city councilor Jeannie Cue in her crusade.

“Tulsa's known as America's most beautiful city, and wanna bring that back, and we're gonna do that by getting residents involved with their neighbors,” Cue said.

It isn't just failing landlords; she said the group will focus on the elderly and disabled as well.

“We're not out here to judge and we sure don't want a big code enforcement fine placed on someone that can't pay it anyway because that's not gonna help any of us,” said Cue.

Fitzgerald said, “People are calling us, ‘I wanna get involved. I wanna get involved,' we haven't had that in a long time.”

The pamphlets they will be handing out highlights some of the top code violations that neighbors might not even know about.

They hope as word spreads other neighbors will step up to help and volunteer. 

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