Originally Posted by
Spartan
This is a rational approach to comparison, and I appreciate someone saying something other than, "OMG OKC > Tulsa no contest."
Just like urbanism is without a doubt OKC's biggest issue right now, I think you correctly identified Tulsa's big issue..jobs. Economy. More practical things, things OKC isn't worrying about right now.
Tulsa is steadily hemorrhaging major corporations, one by one. And it's been a really bad last two months up in T-Town. They lost Arena Energy (bought by SandRidge, 500 jobs moving to OKC), HBSC Accounting or whatever (500 jobs lost) and TPD laid off a thousand officers..one of the hardest police layoffs in the country. Look at it in the grander scheme of Downtown Tulsa.. downsizing at IBM, WilTel, Williams, losing Parker, SemGroup going bankrupt, and elsewhere in the Tulsa metro.. Great Plains Airlines going bankrupt, Whirlpool leaving, WorldCom going bankrupt, CITGO leaving..I could go on and on. It's been bad.
But somehow it hasn't been that bad. Overall in January, OKC added 6,000 new jobs remarkably. Top category: Government. Does Tulsa get any government jobs? Of course not, one in almost four (over five) jobs in OKC is government..nowhere near that in Tulsa. However while Tulsa added 6,000 jobs, Tulsa added 2,000--more modest, but it is ALL private jobs in small companies that can grow. Also Tulsa sustained 2-3 years at the beginning of the decade with population loss, but has since backed back and currently Tulsa's population is at 399,000...so it will probably finally go over 400,000 in the 2010 census. The difference though is all of Tulsa's ankle-biting suburbs which are also Oklahoma's 3 fastest-growing cities..Bixby, Jenks, and Owasso, and Jenks has everyone in Oklahoma in its dust in terms of retail development. Broken Arrow is also newly Oklahoma's 3rd largest city, recently eclipsing Norman, and Lawton a few years ago.
So Tulsa isn't "loosing jobs" it's just not adding any high-profile companies, and those high-profile companies are absolutely essential to building community support for downtown. I think for Tulsans, seeing all of the corporations leave left and right, has played a huge role in somewhat turning Tulsans against downtown. What's interesting is how in Tulsa private benefactors, like the Hamm family, Kaiser family, etc etc..keep supporting the local causes, like the river, the ballpark, the arts, etc.
In fact Tulsa has these some sort of resemblances to France, in my opinion, in this way. It's remarkable how Tulsa can basically not "create" economic wealth, not add innovative jobs at the same pace as the competition, and basically be economically stagnant and still retain and even continue to enhance its aesthetic and cultural edge. Why is Tulsa continuing to clean up its inner city, now focusing on the downtown, and still maintaining its excellence elsewhere in the inner city? Simply because that's the way it's always been. Just like how France is economically stagnant and still somehow maintains its high standard of living and cultural "superiority," Tulsa in my opinion is similar in this regard..so they're still a trendsetter culturally and aesthetically even if they're definitely not a trendsetter economically. Economics is Tulsa's shortfall, even if they have a significantly higher average income than OKC (and slightly lower cost of living, actually).
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