Sorry To Break This To All Of You Oklahoma City Oklahoma Haters..... But OKC Is One Of AMERICA'S TOP TEN BOOM CITIES (Tulsa: 2014, hotel)

[eddie gein]

Originally Posted by Howest2008

I could not find one point off base in the post that bawac made , OKC should take a careful look at everything that AltGuy and bawac has to say about OKC , in order to improve the general desirability and attractiveness of the city , you need to look at your negatives.

The issue is not that their arguments don't have validity. It's just that they are exaggerated to the point of absurdity at times.

The weather thing in particular. While admittedly, we are just now entering tornado/hail season, the eastern US had an unusually active tornado season this winter.

As gr to okc said, the weather is "not that bad" here, and in the grand scheme of things it's actually pretty mild.

As to the political conservatism, yeah, it's bad, but OKC, Tulsa and a couple of other communities have a progressive community, LGBTQ community, atheist/humanist community, women's rights activists, etc.

[gr to okc]

My issue is people comparing the whole state to the city. Comparing alexandria, va to Oklahoma as a while is not fair because go down to Petersburg, va or in the Appalachians like blacksburg. Not much is different or either area.

[PsychDoc]

Originally Posted by manitopiaaa

Oklahoma will never have boom towns unless it can find a way to attract educated Millennials.

I lived in Tulsa for 16 years (from ages 6-22). I went to school at OSU and then went to get my Master's Degree at Johns Hopkins University. Graduated Summa *** Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Top 1% of my college class with a 3.97 GPA from the Honors College with a Fellowship at Princeton. I love Tulsa (it's a stunning underrated city, especially since the Blue Dome and Brady Arts became trendy) but I will never return to Oklahoma to live.

As others here have pointed out, Oklahoma's state government is so backwards and fanatically right-wing that Oklahoma is not a place where I want to raise a family. Schools are crumbling, infrastructure is low, rural areas are plagued by population decline and meth epidemics. Police in Oklahoma are some of the most racist I've experienced (I'm half-Hispanic). Yet you meet so many right-wingers who are so proud of Oklahoma and think it to be some paradise. Having lived in Tulsa, I'm puzzled as to how some can be oblivious to how badly the state is doing. Drive north of 41st east of Harvard and you have nothing but fast food chains, pawn shops, payday loan dealers and closed up shops.

It's quite sad to be honest. I wish Oklahoma the best (and would consider buying a home in Tulsa if Oklahoma became a swing state or blue state), but I've now made Virginia (beautiful Alexandria) my home. I don't regret my decision in the least.

Well said. I grew up in OKC and had a blast growing up there. But I moved away for school and training and would never even think about moving back due to this stuff. The kicker is that I am very conservative (when I lived in NYC I was accused of being a "far-right extremist" and a "tea-partier" quite a few times). But Oklahoma is dominated by a very virulent "stupid" conservatism. Not to mention the bizarre religious environment there. I'm Catholic and a lot of those Baptist nuts think the Church is the spawn of the Devil (despite the fact that the Church put together the Bible which they worship). On top of that, OKC is just butt-ugly. Its barren and desolate. I'm glad its a better place than it was 20 years ago, but the city has a long, long, long ways to go before I would ever call it a "shining" example of a city.

[bawac34618]

Originally Posted by PsychDoc

Well said. I grew up in OKC and had a blast growing up there. But I moved away for school and training and would never even think about moving back due to this stuff. The kicker is that I am very conservative (when I lived in NYC I was accused of being a "far-right extremist" and a "tea-partier" quite a few times). But Oklahoma is dominated by a very virulent "stupid" conservatism. Not to mention the bizarre religious environment there. I'm Catholic and a lot of those Baptist nuts think the Church is the spawn of the Devil (despite the fact that the Church put together the Bible which they worship). On top of that, OKC is just butt-ugly. Its barren and desolate. I'm glad its a better place than it was 20 years ago, but the city has a long, long, long ways to go before I would ever call it a "shining" example of a city.

Good post and I agree with all of it. Oklahoma has actually turned me into the liberal that I am today. The conservatism here is just beyond "stupid." Many right-leaning people in other parts of the country have a difficult time understanding how right-wing Oklahoma actually is. It has also made me very angry towards Christianity, specifically the Baptist variety. People have a strange idea of what "freedom" is here. This is the state where lawmakers love the phrase "freedom is not doing what you want to do but doing what you ought to do." i.e., whatever the Baptists tell you to do.

I also agree about OKC being very ugly. You get used to it after you are here for a while, but when first moving here from the east coast, one of the top things that stands out is how desolate everything is. In terms of education, I have no doubt the state government is intentionally trying to sabotage the public school system. They want parents to send their kids to private fundamental Baptist schools. School vouchers are probably the most popular form of education reform here for this reason.

The worst decision I ever made in my life was moving back to OKC and I hope to one day be able to get out. To be fair, Oklahoma City itself isn't near as bad as the state as a whole, but it's just not large enough to pull enough weight to counter the rural interests in the state legislature.

Originally Posted by manitopiaaa

Exactly. Oklahomans appear to have Stockholm Syndrome. They don't even care that the State Legislature is destroying the state at this point.

All the lawmakers have to do is wave the Bible and most Oklahomans will forget all about all the damage they are doing to the state.

[Atlguy39]

You know its funny, maybe I'm just numb to it after 4.5 long years. I don't hate it as much and finally have a nice circle of friends. Dating is still a challenge, but working my a*s off at meeting people is paying off. Its just 10x harder here than any other city insofar as meeting people in general and dating. The weather sucks, but use to it (winter was great since it was mild). I'm still trying to move, but I won't rush it and will make the best decision for my career. In the meantime, travel, travel, and travel some more to get away. Love how easy the airport is.

[bawac34618]

Originally Posted by Atlguy39

You know its funny, maybe I'm just numb to it after 4.5 long years. I don't hate it as much and finally have a nice circle of friends. Dating is still a challenge, but working my a*s off at meeting people is paying off. Its just 10x harder here than any other city insofar as meeting people in general and dating. The weather sucks, but use to it (winter was great since it was mild). I'm still trying to move, but I won't rush it and will make the best decision for my career. In the meantime, travel, travel, and travel some more to get away. Love how easy the airport is.

I can agree with this.

Though I am still quite negative regarding OKC, it's not quite as bad these days as it was my first few years here. I have a hard time justifying leaving my job for the unknown in order to get out of here. I still get extremely angry regarding the state legislature and especially how their tactics are fine and dandy with most Oklahomans. Most of my beef with OKC these days is the politics and not what amenities the city doesn't have. In terms of things to do, its getting quite a bit better. If I were laid off however, there would be no way I would try to find another job here. I would take a risk and just move.

[Atlguy39]

Originally Posted by bawac34618

I can agree with this.

Though I am still quite negative regarding OKC, it's not quite as bad these days as it was my first few years here. I have a hard time justifying leaving my job for the unknown in order to get out of here. I still get extremely angry regarding the state legislature and especially how their tactics are fine and dandy with most Oklahomans. Most of my beef with OKC these days is the politics and not what amenities the city doesn't have. In terms of things to do, its getting quite a bit better. If I were laid off however, there would be no way I would try to find another job here. I would take a risk and just move.

Exactly. People at work wonder why I haven't bought a house yet. I mean, why would I do that as long as I'm single. I'm not going to spell it out for them, but I'm sure they get it since 95% of my co-workers are married. So my hatred for this place has improved to strong dislike, but not hate. As for the politics, I only care about the idiotic liquor laws, bad roads, and of course, taxes.

[bawac34618]

Originally Posted by Atlguy39

Exactly. People at work wonder why I haven't bought a house yet. I mean, why would I do that as long as I'm single. I'm not going to spell it out for them, but I'm sure they get it since 95% of my co-workers are married. So my hatred for this place has improved to strong dislike, but not hate. As for the politics, I only care about the idiotic liquor laws, bad roads, and of course, taxes.

I would love to buy a house, but I won't do so in Oklahoma since I don't want to stay here. I might reconsider if there was a miraculous shift in the state legislature to respecting individual rights over the interests of the Southern Baptist Church. However, I don't see that happening any time soon. For me the things that anger me the most are the liquor laws, the fact the government is trying to increase the penalty for small amounts of marijuana at a time when other states are legalizing it, and their obsession with making life miserable for LGBT people.

[KayneMo]

Pretty cool to see OKC on that list. As a non-religious, liberal millennial, I enjoy OKC. Yes, OKC has ugly areas but also has beautiful areas as well. I agree, I don't care for the ridiculous state government, but I don't think it's totally fair to apply that to OKC as well. Inner OKC's state representatives are mostly democrats (including both my representative and senator), along with a couple of senators. Even the state's first openly gay man (Al McAffrey) and first open lesbian (Kay Floyd) elected to the State Legislature were both first elected from my House district and both then went on to be elected to the State Senate. Kay Floyd succeeded Al McAffrey in both the House and Senate where she is currently a State Senator.

[KayneMo]

Originally Posted by harrishawke

A co-worker of mine used to live in OKC. He said the job market there was abysmal.

Maybe for a couple of sectors but not for the city as a whole. The unemployment rate has gone down to 4.0% in December 2016 (latest data from BLS), still lower than the national average of 4.5%.