Vandalism Taking Away Magic Of Tulsa's Center Of The Universe

Downtown Tulsa will soon welcome big crowds for The Center of the Universe Festival this weekend, but we found the concert's namesake in rough shape. Vandals have done much damage to the downtown landmark.

It’s one of Tulsa’s main attractions, an echo chamber with cool sound effects, but some tourists and Tulsans said the Center of the Universe has lost some of its magic.

Jeremy Lewis was just one of many to try out the Center of the Universe.

"Sounds like I am in a bubble, very weird. It’s vibrating,” he said.

That's the reaction city leaders want from those trying out the echo chamber, but as soon people look down at the attraction they see missing bricks and graffiti.

“Yeah it's a bummer,” said tourist Johnny Sterns about its condition.

It’s a bummer for visitors and embarrassing for some Green Country natives like Billy Bristol.

"People not appreciating what we have and tearing it up, all the graffiti, but what are you going to do," he said.

The city of Tulsa crews come out weekly to undo the handiwork of vandals. They try and cover the graffiti and maintain flower beds.

Paul Strizek with the city of Tulsa said the damage never stops and it happens when nobody is looking.

"Nowadays kids are going online and ordering their own design, little stickers and you pull the back off and you slap your tag and it’s much quicker," he said.

In 2008 concrete was missing from the center; now a chunk of concrete is missing from the outside.

"I don't know why they are uniformly gone. It seems like somebody did steal it," said Stearns.

The mischief doesn't stop at the missing bricks and the graffiti. There is another problem, noise pollution, and people live a stone throw away.

"They come up here, bang, bang, bang,” Strizek said.

He said the noise pollution, litter, graffiti and destruction isn't just inconvenient, but costly.

"If somebody walked into city hall and robbed us of $100 you would imagine what a huge news story that would be, but in essence that what the vandals are doing every year. They are stealing $100,000 from the taxpayers," said Strizek.

The fine for vandalism is $500 and up to one year in jail. The graffiti and tagging may look bad, but the sound effects of the 13-brick circle still work well.