Which city is becoming less relevant as its population increases? (pros, nightlife)
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Maybe there is a connection to the theme of this thread, though OKC didn't get many votes.
What exactly has OKC done since acquiring the Thunder other than add population (there might be something and I just don't know, genuinely asking)?
I don't think you're missing anything. That proposal strikes me as pure pie in the sky.
Oklahoma City does post Sunbelt rather than Midwest growth rates — the MSA growth rate in the 2010s (13.8%) lay roughly in between that of Dallas-Fort Worth (18.8%) and Kansas City (9.1%) — but its metro population (1.4m) is only 2/3 that of Kansas City's (2.1m), and even with the differential in growth rates, it's not likely to catch up with KC in the near future. (Wichita lies in between OKC and KC, but it's an order of magnitude smaller than either as an MSA (650k)).
OKC continues to lie in the shadow of both of the larger metros within 400 miles of it. A project that size would likely suck up all the available oxygen for growth in the area were it to get built. I can't see how it would pencil given the size and number of its various components.
The National Severe Storms Forecast Center did move from KC to OKC in the 1990s. Given that the center of tornado activity has migrated to the south and east of "Tornado Alley," however, this move actually makes some sense.
But the reason OKC isn't getting more votes is because, stats aside, it remains about as relevant now as it was 20 or 30 years ago. And it does have one thing other cities should copy: a system of financing improvement projects for the metropolitan area that pays for itself (out of a one-cent sales tax surcharge) and gets renewed periodically, with a different set of projects financed each cycle (the voters approve each round):
But the reason OKC isn't getting more votes is because, stats aside, it remains about as relevant now as it was 20 or 30 years ago. And it does have one thing other cities should copy: a system of financing improvement projects for the metropolitan area that pays for itself (out of a one-cent sales tax surcharge) and gets renewed periodically, with a different set of projects financed each cycle (the voters approve each round):
The current round of projects, approved in 2019, is the fourth.
I am beginning to think that is the very purpose of the outlandish project. Not that it's actually going to get built, but to get people talking about OKC, and it's working. Everyone is taking a look at OKC wondering what is going there to warrant this.
It might not drum up additional projects but it will remind folks that OKC exists
I am beginning to think that is the very purpose of the outlandish project. Not that it's actually going to get built, but to get people talking about OKC, and it's working. Everyone is taking a look at OKC wondering what is going there to warrant this.
It might not drum up additional projects but it will remind folks that OKC exists
FWIW, MAPS isn't pie in the sky; on the contrary, the projects it funds are quite practical.
ISTR hearing an apocryphal tale that the impetus for creating MAPS came when an airline that had announced it was going to move its maintenance base to OKC called the move off after it surveyed its employees and found out that it was the last place they wanted to live.
San Antonio and then maybe Charlotte. San Antonio was long the third metro in Texas, and has been surpassed in relevance by Austin even while itself growing at breakneck speed. It seems the clear winner (or loser) here. In Charlotte's case, it's relevance is not in much danger of being surpassed, and it's still speeding by national peers (as is San Antonio). But like SA, it's regional peers (namely Nashville and the Triangle) have caught up.
As for the two leaders, Phoenix seems similarly relevant as always. Cheaper alternative to living in Cali, desert alternative to retiring to Florida. As for Jacksonville, it feels like the 4th wheel in Florida, which it kinda always did. Not sure I see the argument for either to be honest.
FWIW, MAPS isn't pie in the sky; on the contrary, the projects it funds are quite practical.
ISTR hearing an apocryphal tale that the impetus for creating MAPS came when an airline that had announced it was going to move its maintenance base to OKC called the move off after it surveyed its employees and found out that it was the last place they wanted to live.
Yes, United was the airline. But what is happening in OKC goes back to the 1960s. OKC chose a guy named IM Pei who was a famous and supposedly visionary architect/developer to redo the downtown and make OKC the envy of the nation. Instead, everything went to hell. They tore down the old downtown and replaced it with soviet style buildings (brutalism was kind of in). Many of the proposed projects didn't get built (downtown mall). In the end, the downtown was ruined.
Then in the 1980s they were going to try to do something with the river downtown besides mow it and they had this project called "String of Pearls"... which was going to revitalize the river. Failed to happen because the oil industry went into the tank.
Then the United thing didn't happen... and the city decided they had had enough of "downtown" being an embarrassing ghost town. For the most part, the downtown is hopeless... even today. But the fringes of downtown are being developed in every direction. And at a feverish pace as OKC continues to try to show it has something to offer.
No matter what happens with this "Pie in the Skyscraper" thing... the area is going to continue to be developed simply because it is already going on.
And although we aren't really connected to KCMO in any real way, DFW and Houston have sucked the life out of OKC and Tulsa by taking all our oil companies for the last 80 or so years. It will be interesting to see if this new generation of companies will end up going down there (Devon, Continental, Chesapeake). But OKC is a lot less cumbersome than those places are anymore and people are starting to see value in that.
Overall, if your city has a below-average dating scene like the ones getting a lot of votes in this poll, you're not going to be "cool" with the mingling crowd, since the only reason why the San Antonios, Charlottes, Indianapolises, and OKCs of the world (namely their suburbs/exurbs) grow is for people escaping a higher cost of living city or even a college downtown for an affordable alternative as well as supporting a family, while working in a mundane role such as a sales associate, call center worker, or some other "back office" job. This results in a lot of watered-down, family-friendly entertainment from being the main events in a lot of these communities along with more time simply being spent at home watching TV, playing games, or enjoying social media. They don't provide emerging cultural scenes like the Raleigh/Durhams, Austins, Orlandos, or Boises do which have a larger percentage singles/DINKs. Jacksonville has the combo of both settlers and retirees moving in, and is part of the reason why I passed on a trip to that city later this year from my father who will have a conference there.
Re OKC, how is Scissortail Park doing? It looks like that plus Myriad Botanical Gardens are fantastic parks on the south side of Downtown, even the extension south of I-40 it appears. But there's not much around them in the Google Maps view.
Five of those cities are state capitals and are unlikely to lose importance in their state or region.
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