Essential English phrases

The city's own nickname for itself, used without irony on murals, beer cans and radio station idents. 'Green Country' is the regional name for north-east Oklahoma and the reason nothing here looks like the dust-bowl image people arrive with.

The district north of the railway that was known as Black Wall Street until a white mob destroyed it in the massacre of 31 May and 1 June 1921. It is the most important place in the city and it is spoken about here with precision, not euphemism. 'The Race Massacre' is the correct term; 'the riot' is what it used to be called and is not.

Eleventh Street and Southwest Boulevard carry more of the original alignment than any other city, and Tulsa markets itself as the capital of the road. The neon, the Meadow Gold sign and the roadside sculptures are a genuine and ongoing civic project, not nostalgia decoration.

The University of Oklahoma's teams, and — in Tulsa — usually said by someone whose loyalties are actually with Oklahoma State. Bedlam is the OU–OSU rivalry, and getting caught guessing wrong is a genuine social hazard.

Since McGirt v. Oklahoma in 2020, Tulsa is understood to sit within the Muscogee (Creek) Nation reservation, with parts of the metro in Cherokee and Osage country. This is live law with practical consequences, not history, and locals discuss it as current affairs.

North-east Oklahoma: hills, oak forest, and more lakes than anywhere people expect. Grand Lake, Keystone and Fort Gibson are all inside ninety minutes and this is where the city goes at weekends.

The two midtown restaurant and bar strips — 15th Street between Peoria and Utica, and Peoria south of 31st. Between them they are most of Tulsa's walkable nightlife, and 'meet on Cherry Street' needs no further address.

The wind-and-hail excess on an Oklahoma homeowner policy, quoted as a percentage of the dwelling limit rather than a dollar figure. On a $300,000 limit a 2% deductible is $6,000 out of your own pocket before the insurer pays. It is the biggest financial surprise for newcomers.

Freezing rain that coats every branch and line, brings the tree canopy down and takes the power with it. The storm of late October 2020 was among the worst in the city's history and remade Tulsa's tree cover. Locals rate winters by ice, not by snow.

The programme that pays remote workers $10,000 to move here. Over 4,000 people have come through it since 2018, and it is common enough that 'are you Tulsa Remote?' is an ordinary question to ask a newcomer.

The private offices that handle vehicle registration and licensing on the state's behalf. Formally they are now Service Oklahoma licensed operators; everyone still says tag agent, and 'getting your tag' means registering the car.

The Broken Arrow Expressway, and the Inner Dispersal Loop — the rectangle of elevated motorway that encloses downtown. Directions here are given by highway, and 'inside the IDL' means downtown proper.