Quote Originally Posted by bchris02 View Post
Exactly. Just look at OKCTalk.

This city's biggest cheerleaders on this board are living elsewhere, some having moved very recently and by choice. There are a few more posters that I know are planning to leave soon, and these are positive people, not debbie downers. I know people have different reasons for living where they do, but if OKC is really a city that has "arrived," why are OKCTalk's young, educated cheerleaders leaving by choice for places like Seattle, Denver, Austin, etc? It's easy to admire the progress in OKC and look at it through rose colored glasses when you live in some higher tiered city that already has all the amenities that OKC can possibly get within the next 10-15 years and you don't have to deal with the frustrating things about living here.

How can OKC become a city where people WANT to live in even when presented with other options? It's a real problem that so many people, even those who are happy with the direction that OKC is going, still want to leave for greener pastures. That means, despite all the progress, there is something that OKC is still doing wrong.

As for the attitude you speak of, the only way that is going to change is to have a big transplant boom like Raleigh and Charlotte have seen.
This is dumb. Most of the people that participate in this forum that have left OKC have done so primarily because of great job offers in other cities. Also, there is nothing wrong with people, who have lived here there whole lives, moving to other cities to try something different.

Also, I can see why you mentioned Austin, but using Denver and Seattle as examples of destinations is pretty weak. Denver and Seattle both have advantages that OKC as well as Dallas, and Austin will never have. If I chose to move to Denver, which I've considered, I would do so because of proximity to the mountains and the cooler summers. Aside from adding a white water rafting facility, those are advantages that OKC and other southern/midwestern cities can't compete with. It would have nothing to do with city amenities or my feelings about OKC as I can do most of what I would do in Denver in OKC. Seattle has the Pacific Ocean, is cooler (temperature wise), and is close to the mountains. Again, OKC can't compete with that if those are the amenities you seek.