Day 5, US research trip, Believe No One
Believe No One takes Fennimore & Simms to the United States Mid West.
These blogs document the places we visited and people we met during the research trip.
Saturday, May 5th 2012
I always thought that sheriffs were rural law enforcement officers, but Tulsa has a Police Department and a Sheriff’s Office, and there’s also the State Bureau of Investigation with a headquarters in Oklahoma City and labs out in Tahlequah. Tulsa PD is a Municipal Police Department, which might make you think that municipal PDs are a feature of big cities, but a municipal PD may be just one officer, right up to 40 000. Some sheriff’s offices run a restricted service, such as keeping the county jail, or they might be responsible for countywide law enforcement. Then you’ve got Highway Patrols and State Patrols, and I haven’t even looked at the Marshal Service, yet. I can see that United States Law Enforcement is going to take some untangling.
We stumble upon this odd and marvellous pair of buildings – an architectural trompe l’oiel – each building looks blade thin until you’re right up to it.
Tulsa has a wealth of Art Deco buildings, but we also walk past acres of ‘vacant lots’ – entire blocks that have been razed to the ground. We’re told that much of this part of downtown Tulsa is earmarked for redevelopment: Oklahoma State University has building work planned and projects are ongoing in the Brady Arts district.
The adjacent ‘Blue Dome’ district’s derelict warehouses are slowly being reclaimed. We visit James E McNellie’s Public house favoured by students, and I have a very welcome glass of pear cider with my lunch. Low-rise, redbrick warehouses predominate in this quarter; a wholefood/deli type place is about to open across the street, and the area has a pleasant Bohemian feel.
High on the power cables we catch glimpses of a bright red bird. It’s the Northern Cardinal, and quite common here – in fact one scooted past us, flying low like a blackbird, at the hotel.
On the grass verges (which are kept beautifully trimmed), a crop of shaggy ink cap fungus, also known as “lawyer’s wig”.
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