I usually step up to defend Tulsa in such discussions, but I can honestly say that after spending a lot of time there on business during the last year, it is a city in decline. Pretty? Only midtown. Even parts of Southern Hills are getting run down.

Don't kid yourselves, Tulsa has become much more of a blue-collar town than OKC. It is the strip bar capital of the world, a haven of crime, poor roads, and decrepit, rotting strip shopping centers.

Utica Square is nice, and so is Brookside, but the vast majority of Tulsa is going downhill.

And they shouldn't criticize us for sprawl, they are sprawling all the way to Muskogee. They have done nothing to improve their inner city, which is falling apart.

They have one semi-decent downtown hotel and another one that has been a dump for years but is finally undergoing a modest renovation. They got all excited about a Residence Inn locating downtown.

They have less than 10 percent of the downtown housing we do.

When I was there a couple of weeks ago, I was reading with incredulity the bitterness and hostility displayed between their council members and mayor. They can't even come to agreement on road projects.

Tulsa is on life support right now.