Originally Posted by
adaniel
I tend to agree with this. I actually had a flight delayed last month and struck up some small talk with the lady next to me. She was from Chicago and went on and on about how much she liked it here. The people around here, all natives I assumed, seemed stunned that someone wasn't slamming OKC. It was a bit surreal.
The inferiority complex comes more from Oklahoma than specifically OKC. In fact, I'm starting to hear the following statement more and more:"I really like OKC but I don't like Oklahoma." Lets face it, this state as a whole has some serious problems, such that OKC may eventually hit a ceiling per say as far as development is concerned. But for now I think people are pretty happy to live here. Look how high our city scores with QOL surveys. Also, remember that OKC was one of the few cities to notch a large of a population gain for cities with 500K or more.
I really don't hear a lot of disparaging comments about OKC, moreso than I hear pointed complaints about specific areas like, "this road is in really bad shape" or "this neighborhood really needs to be revitalized." If anything, I consider this a good thing because, while yes this city has made remarkable progress we still do have a ways to go and people are not satisfied with just okay. MAPS and associated development succeeded in getting this city to a level comparable to other majors cities in metros with 1-1.5 million people. We are now transitioning to a level in which we are competing with the Kansas Citys and San Antonios of the world. Unfortunately we have nothing like Country Club Plaza or the Riverwalk or things those caliber of cities have, but the pieces are in place, the money is surprisingly there, it just needs good execution and leadership to happen.
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