NBA Players Think OKC is Boring...boo hoo

[OKCisOK4me]

We do find things to do, I already said we try to find some smoke and beer then hangout at a friend's place playing xbox.

I'd really like it if there was a place a bunch of us could hang out at and do the same, yeah without the drugs and beer, I know. There isn't any such place. There's nowhere in this whole entire city to just hang after 10pm. Most of the clubs are lame, and the ones we can actually get into close way too early. There's no place to eat late at night unless you want to go to friggen Dennys.

This place sucks and I can't wait til I graduate to get out of here.

Are you related to jc4455? I'm guessing you're him with a different screen name back on your 'okcsucks' pulpit. Please quit dissing this city and the people who enjoy it.

[fredfredburger]

Wha?
I didn't dis anyone who enjoys it. I just can't stand it here, there's nothing to do for people my age unless you're a Jesus freak, or a redneck.

[dcsooner]

Penny, you are not being racist at all! As an AA male, one of the things that has really bugged me about OKC is its lack of a black middle class. Please don't think I'm some angry, fist waving nationalist. If anything, it wasn't anything I paid attention to until I moved here. Growing up in the Dallas suburbs, there is a pretty sizable base of AA (as well as hispanic and asian) professional class. I think its one of the reasons my mother was so apprehensive about moving back to Oklahoma when my dad got out of the military (although she never said it outright) especially considering we were coming from Atlanta of all places, and we ended up moving south after my father retired from the Air Force. I would later find out that she really wanted me and my sister to see people who looked like us who had "made it" in the world, versus the more stereotypical image of AA's. So it didn't surprise me that she was shocked when I told here I took a job up here and would be staying in OKC after I graduated from OU. Even now when we talk she will ask me, "so are you ready to move" as if I am in the third ring of hell. From what I heard from family and friends, OKC did have a small yet vibrant and connected community of black professionals, but many packed up and left after the oil bust in the mid 80's and its been diminished ever since.

To be prefectly honest, I'm really worried about even posting this because I know some people on this board will react so knee jerk and will think I'm blasting everyone in OKC as a racist. Truth be told, I work around people who are not my race here in OKC, and have been treated with nothing less but warmness and respect, largely becuase I try and treat everyone like that regardless of whatever ethnicity they are. And I figured if I want OKC to have a strong black middle class, it will have to start with people like me who will stay here and try to make it better. So far I've been impressed with what I've seen, and if we continue to improve our community, things will eventually change for the better. I really just think we need more professional jobs that will lure people here of any race.

Sorry I know this thread was about basketball but I just wanted to respond to Penny's post

ADaniel, I too am AA, OU grad now living in DC. I was born in Oklahoma and I love my home State. If I can convince my Indiana born wife, I hope to retire back in OKC in about four years, but, Oklahoma and OKC have been losing college graduates of all races to other cities to include Dallas and Houston for years. Many of my OU AA classmates are all over the country like me precisely because of the lack of so many options relative to a more upscale, urban way of life referred to by some in the national media. Oklahoma City and Oklahoma for that matter does not have a great reputation relative to other cultures (hence Charles Barkleys comment). Oklahoma City will continue to lose its best unless it commits to measurable improvement in employment, entertainment, and retail options young professonials of all ethic backgrounds demand. Celebrating the arrival of IKEA, and Jack in the Box won't do.

[okcpulse]

Wha?
I didn't dis anyone who enjoys it. I just can't stand it here, there's nothing to do for people my age unless you're a Jesus freak, or a redneck.

What a contradiction. And I'm not a Jesus freak or a redneck. Never get bored in OKC. But, you can't please everyone.

[okcpulse]

ADaniel, I too am AA, OU grad now living in DC. I was born in Oklahoma and I love my home State. If I can convince my Indiana born wife, I hope to retire back in OKC in about four years, but, Oklahoma and OKC have been losing college graduates of all races to other cities to include Dallas and Houston for years. Many of my OU AA classmates are all over the country like me precisely because of the lack of so many options relative to a more upscale, urban way of life referred to by some in the national media. Oklahoma City and Oklahoma for that matter does not have a great reputation relative to other cultures (hence Charles Barkleys comment). Oklahoma City will continue to lose its best unless it commits to measurable improvement in employment, entertainment, and retail options young professonials of all ethic backgrounds demand. Celebrating the arrival of IKEA, and Jack in the Box won't do.

I am of the opinion that Oklahoma City can offer incentives that will make Texas look like a welfare case, and people across the country won't give us a snowball's chance in hell. They should, but they won't.

As I've said many times before, OKC has to work 20 times harder than other cities to compete, and that's thanks to an American culture that looks down their nose at Oklahoma.

[dismayed]

Actually Fred has a good point. Most college-aged people are actually under 21. As has been discussed in other threads there is not a lot to do in OKC past 9 p.m. during the week, and on weekends it varies by venue with closing times often at 10 p.m. or midnight, or 1:30-2 a.m. if it's a bar. So we're talking few late-nite dining or fun options. Now consider of those few options how many are 21+ to enter. It means there really is not a lot for someone under 21 who is an adult to do late at night, which might be "late" for you or I but is probably prime time for them.

This very thing has been discussed many times in many ways, most often as being a crime driver in the city (e.g. there's a reason why there are tons and tons of kids just cruising the strip on 39th Expressway, or Janeway, or Lindsey, and so on). This also goes back to some of the things referenced in the other thread about keeping these out-of-state kids here in OKC after they graduate. If they're already so jaded by this place when they turn 21 that they want nothing to do with it when they graduate then that is really a problem for us long-term. Hitting them with "get off my lawn damn kids!" attitude doesn't help.

Part of the problem is that college kids are usually broke. In other states, these late-night venues we're talking about often survive based on patronage of older, wealthier adults who also like to go out late which allows the younger crowd some choice in things to do and see. The problem is that there just isn't that demographic here, not really anyway. Folks here get married on average around 21-23 whereas on the coasts it's more like 29-37. By 25 many are working on their second kid or first divorce. So there's just not a lot to drive demand for what he is looking for.

It's a big craptacular cycle. A lot of those problems we can only solve by graduating more folks from college and keeping them here, yet the only way to keep them here is by sustained business that can't survive until many have stayed here a while and established themselves. So our only choices are wait, perhaps a long time, and the market will eventually pan out, or permit some form of government or private intervention and hope to jump-start the process.

[okcpulse]

Oklahoma City will continue to lose its best unless it commits to measurable improvement in employment, entertainment, and retail options young professonials of all ethic backgrounds demand.

Actually, more and more young professionals are staying than in years past. It's the young professionals from the coasts that OKC has a hard time retaining. A lot of those people come here with an arrogant attitude toward OKC from the get-go.

Celebrating the arrival of IKEA, and Jack in the Box won't do.

Well, I think people are celebrating another shopping option, not necessarily commerce. And as far as Jack In The Box goes, well, some fast food joints have their following.

Like I mentioned in another post, the market has to be there to gain entertainment and retail options, not the other way around. And as long as young professionals continue to leave OKC, they're taking the market with them.

I think we're expecting OKC to offer the amenities of a metroplex of 6 million. It doesn't work that way. OKC is offering amenities for a metro area of 1.2 million.

If we gained 10,000 young professionals and they stayed, the market will respond accordingly. That's 10,000 permanent money-making residents for higher end retail.

[Bunty]

OKC is boring. I'm 19, a student at OCU, and unless I want to go to church lockins or craft fairs or "managed" social events, there's nothing else to do but try and find some pot or beer and hang out at a friend's house.

LOL, Isn't that what they say in any town big or small in Oklahoma?

[Bunty]

We do find things to do, I already said we try to find some smoke and beer then hangout at a friend's place playing xbox.

I'd really like it if there was a place a bunch of us could hang out at and do the same, yeah without the drugs and beer, I know. There isn't any such place. There's nowhere in this whole entire city to just hang after 10pm. Most of the clubs are lame, and the ones we can actually get into close way too early. There's no place to eat late at night unless you want to go to friggen Dennys.

This place sucks and I can't wait til I graduate to get out of here.

If you don't have a job, maybe you ought to be more worried about that.

[Bunty]

Actually Fred has a good point. Most college-aged people are actually under 21. As has been discussed in other threads there is not a lot to do in OKC past 9 p.m. during the week, and on weekends it varies by venue with closing times often at 10 p.m. or midnight, or 1:30-2 a.m. if it's a bar. So we're talking few late-nite dining or fun options. Now consider of those few options how many are 21+ to enter. It means there really is not a lot for someone under 21 who is an adult to do late at night, which might be "late" for you or I but is probably prime time for them.

So I would be surprised by the number of OKC people in their late teens and 20s who work and don't want to wait until the weekends to party late at night? I don't recall being like that when I was in my 20s. I worked for the weekends.

[dismayed]

So I would be surprised by the number of OKC people in their late teens and 20s who work and don't want to wait until the weekends to party late at night? I don't recall being like that when I was in my 20s. I worked for the weekends.

I don't disagree with that sentiment, but on the other hand I think you can have a late night on a weekday without getting hammered. Probably the best way to do that in OKC now is to do dinner with a loved one, catch a movie, and maybe have a drink or two afterwards and talk about the movie. Or go to the art museum when it's open later on Thursday nights, or to a play/musical/concert if one happens to be going on, and so on. I think the biggest problem is that in larger cities those types of things are always happening. Here the "big events" are more spread out. A lot of that is driven by our population size, but a lot is also driven by demographics.

[okcpulse]

I don't disagree with that sentiment, but on the other hand I think you can have a late night on a weekday without getting hammered. Probably the best way to do that in OKC now is to do dinner with a loved one, catch a movie, and maybe have a drink or two afterwards and talk about the movie. Or go to the art museum when it's open later on Thursday nights, or to a play/musical/concert if one happens to be going on, and so on. I think the biggest problem is that in larger cities those types of things are always happening. Here the "big events" are more spread out. A lot of that is driven by our population size, but a lot is also driven by demographics.

I agree. But if people here want the demographics to change, more people with those types of wants need to move to OKC.

What would OKC be like with 2.5 million people and 900,000 in OKC proper? I can bet you we would have everything that you just described above. But if everyone shares fred's sentiments, OKC inching toward 600,000 won't cut it.

[ljbab728]

I agree entirely. If we had the population to support the kinds of things that Fred wants I'm sure it would be happening. No one is going to operate businesses that will lose money even if it would be popular with a small segment of the population. Population isn't something that's going to change quickly so we will just have to be patient for some things.

[fredfredburger]

If you don't have a job, maybe you ought to be more worried about that.

I'm not too worried about a job. There's recruiters here all the time with starting positions at like 20 companies around the country, there's headhunters galore here all the time too.

When it comes time, I'll have no problem at all finding work, especially out of state.

[fredfredburger]

I agree entirely. If we had the population to support the kinds of things that Fred wants I'm sure it would be happening. No one is going to operate businesses that will lose money even if it would be popular with a small segment of the population. Population isn't something that's going to change quickly so we will just have to be patient for some things.

What are you talking about? we do have the population here. There's a very large number of college students in and around OKC. The problem is that all the crap that's supposed to be for our demographic costs too damn much to go to, unless you're one of the trust fund brats. There's not enough of them to support whatever it is you people think we want, but there's plenty of regular students like me with not a damn thing to do for entertainment.

[Richard at Remax]

I'm sure the thunder players would love to play in Minneapolis after that awesome crowd they had at the game last night

[fredfredburger]

What a contradiction. And I'm not a Jesus freak or a redneck. Never get bored in OKC. But, you can't please everyone.

dude, you don't even live here.

[bretthexum]

I'm sure the thunder players would love to play in Minneapolis after that awesome crowd they had at the game last night

Yeah wow, I saw that. But man... Minneapolis nightlife is AWESOME. 1st Avenue baby.

[okcpulse]

dude, you don't even live here.

No, but I spent the first 27 years of my life there, and I return for a visit three times a year for family and friends, and will be returning as a resident in a couple of years.

But nice try, though.

[okcpulse]

What are you talking about? we do have the population here. There's a very large number of college students in and around OKC. The problem is that all the crap that's supposed to be for our demographic costs too damn much to go to, unless you're one of the trust fund brats. There's not enough of them to support whatever it is you people think we want, but there's plenty of regular students like me with not a damn thing to do for entertainment.

Well, what is it you like to do for fun?

[fredfredburger]

No, but I spent the first 27 years of my life there, and I return for a visit three times a year for family and friends, and will be returning as a resident in a couple of years.

But nice try, though.

Nice try? You don't live here. You act like there's all these things for people my age to do and state that you're never bored in OKC and you don't even live here.

If I came here only 3 times a year, I wouldn't be bored either, but I live here, unlike you.

[okcpulse]

Nice try? You don't live here. You act like there's all these things for people my age to do and state that you're never bored in OKC and you don't even live here.

If I came here only 3 times a year, I wouldn't be bored either, but I live here, unlike you.

Did I say in my previous post that there was all these things for people your age do to? No. I just said I am not a jesus freak or a redneck.

I was in my early 20's when 2000 rolled around. Was never bored then, and I was living in OKC. Wasn't bored then and I am not bored when I visit. Won't be bored when I am living there again.

This has nothing to do with my current place of residence. I am an Oklahoman born and raised and I still have the right to make that remark.

[Rover]

For those who only want to go bar hopping, get drunk or more, and pick up easy girls, then I guess OKC may be boring. Otherwise, there is plenty to do. If you want that other life, move to Las Vegas.

Dallas has always been known as "Plastic City" for its superficial, image is everything attitude and therefore has attracted many of that ilk. It is a great singles city where many singles go. OKC will never be that, but it isn't Salt Lake City either.

[MadMonk]

Well, what is it you like to do for fun?

I'm wondering the same thing. I understand that you're bored. What is it that you can do elsewhere that you can't do here? Just curious.

[fredfredburger]

If you want that other life, move to Las Vegas.

That's what we're all doing.