USA Today article on Oklahoma

[betts]

Very large, positive article that headlines Section B.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/econom...oma12_CV_N.htm

[Pete]

Another great PR piece on OKC.

Many know I moved to Southern California in 1990, after spending my first 30 years in Oklahoma. I was sad to go but the economy was horrible and there was almost zero opportunity in OKC.

I have started to think about moving back myself. The biggest deterrent is the brutal, long summers... I just don't think I could handle that.

[ultimatesooner]

good pub for OK

I love the OK summers - I wish it was 105 and humid everyday - I just don't like the electric and water bills that go with them

[Thundercitizen]

Mods, please delete my duplicate thread. Thanks.

[Bunty]

Another great PR piece on OKC.

Many know I moved to Southern California in 1990, after spending my first 30 years in Oklahoma. I was sad to go but the economy was horrible and there was almost zero opportunity in OKC.

I have started to think about moving back myself. The biggest deterrent is the brutal, long summers... I just don't think I could handle that.

And then add to that the long cold awful winters when you got to live with the nuisance of putting on and taking off a coat up to several times a day.

[okclee]

Am I the only one that thinks this (Californians moving to Oklahoma) could be a bad thing?

[stlokc]

In-migration a bad thing? Especially since these migrants are likely to be on the educated and affluent side? (if the people profiled in the article are somewhat representative). I don't understand.

[bretthexum]

In-migration a bad thing? Especially since these migrants are likely to be on the educated and affluent side? (if the people profiled in the article are somewhat representative). I don't understand.

They might be evil liberals.

[stlokc]

LOL. I wonder if that's the context. I consider myself center right, but if OKC can't handle and embrace a few thousand liberals, it doesn't deserve to be a "big league" city. Or maybe some are worried the next GOP presidential candidate will carry Oklahoma by 64% instead of 65%. Or maybe the concern is something nebulous like "traffic." OKC should (and it sounds from the article like they are) be embracing of these newcomers. I think this article is nothing but a positive.

[bretthexum]

LOL. I wonder if that's the context. I consider myself center right, but if OKC can't handle and embrace a few thousand liberals, it doesn't deserve to be a "big league" city. Or maybe some are worried the next GOP presidential candidate will carry Oklahoma by 64% instead of 65%. Or maybe the concern is something nebulous like "traffic." OKC should (and it sounds from the article like they are) be embracing of these newcomers. I think this article is nothing but a positive.

agree 100%

[dankrutka]

LOL. I wonder if that's the context. I consider myself center right, but if OKC can't handle and embrace a few thousand liberals, it doesn't deserve to be a "big league" city. Or maybe some are worried the next GOP presidential candidate will carry Oklahoma by 64% instead of 65%. Or maybe the concern is something nebulous like "traffic." OKC should (and it sounds from the article like they are) be embracing of these newcomers. I think this article is nothing but a positive.

Do I have to move then? Because I'm a Oklahoma born and bread liberal living in OKC. I hope everyone is okay with me being here.

[jmarkross]

Am I the only one that thinks this (Californians moving to Oklahoma) could be a bad thing?

Most came from Oklahoma anyway...this is just a sort-of 'Grapes of Wrath II' (with better cars)...generally speaking...I am not sure one can really be an Okie if one has not spent at least an obligatory 5 years in California...nice weather there, though...

[stlokc]

Kilgore Trout, on the contrary, I'm happy for OKC that you stayed and are obviously supportive of, and contributing to the city. Although I'm (slightly) to the right, I have found that many of my favorite places in this country lean decidedly to the left. OKC needs all the diversity of thought that it can possibly find.

[Rover]

I am in LA this week....actually preparing to move part of a company to OKC and to start another subsidiary in OKC. Owners are from LA and Chicago. It was unanamous to move the companies to OKC. Lots of momentum, escpecially coming from southern Cal. It is ripe to move companies from Cal to OK, and especially from LA area to OKC. These news reports are just excellent in helping. Believe me, they get read here in LA.

[Doug Loudenback]

Put me in the liberal column, too. Born here in 1943. And what a neat report, Rover!

[bluedogok]

Am I the only one that thinks this (Californians moving to Oklahoma) could be a bad thing?

Quite a few Austinites think that way about the ones that have moved here.

[soonerguru]

Very large, positive article that headlines Section B.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/econom...oma12_CV_N.htm

More of an article on OKC. Except, of course, the non-sequitur quote from Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett and the bizarro Oklahoma statistics that were reported. Did anyone else find it weird the entire article was about OKC and then suddenly they quote statewide livability stats and suggest it's a problem for OKC? Yes, we know life in Holdenville does not compare favorably to life in Greenwich, CT or Montpelier, VT!

[Architect2010]

Liberal born and raised in OKC as well. I'm not really sure if I'm happy about the Californians moving here either. I really don't want OKC's vibe destroyed by traffic-crazy, rude, and egotistic people. Bring the diversity and affluence on, leave the California attitude and financial thinking in the Golden State please.

[Dustin]

QUICK! BUILD A MOAT!! FILLED WITH GATORS AND SHARKS!

They ruined their state, we don't need them ruining ours.

[BG918]

Quite a few Austinites think that way about the ones that have moved here.

Californian's moving to Austin turned that city from a sleepy college town to a high-tech mecca. Just think of what they could do in Oklahoma...

[spamking]

good pub for OK

I love the OK summers - I wish it was 105 and humid everyday - I just don't like the electric and water bills that go with them

No way . . . 105 and humid everyday would suck. It's a heckuva lot easier for me to stay warmer in the fall/winter than stay cooler in the summer.

[adaniel]

Yes, we definitely need to build a moat to keep out all of those rude, egotistical people in Kalifornia, since the entire state is like that. I mean, we don't them changing our culture, which is completely free of people like that, right? Oh, and their awful political views...pretty soon Oklahoma will only be going 60% GOP in the presidential election....

Sweet jesus, people from another state want to move here, set up shop, bring their businesses and badly needed jobs and tax revenue to a state that for the majority of its exisitence has suffered net outmigration and people still find a reason to complain?

[metro]

oh yee think short term adaniel

[BG918]

Damn Californian's bringing their earthquakes too!

/sarcasm

[Pete]

Over the years, there have been several cities that have greatly benefitted/grown due to the influx of Californians: Phoenix, Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas, Denver and Austin being chief among them.

I said several years ago that OKC may become the next quasi-boom town... All those other cities have become pretty crowded and expensive themselves.