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7.07.2004
"You're a bitter man," said Candide "That's because I've lived," said Martin ----- I've been trying for the last few days to think about Tulsa, in all its good and bad graces. Today whilst driving I noticed a small scale oil well planted in a overgrown field, put there as ornament. It stood about four feet tall but reminded me of the history of this city. Tulsa has become a city without a reason to exist. People used to come here to benefit from the oil. Its was the lifeblood of the city. The older, more orate buildings sprang up then. People have to have a reason to be or go some place. Most follow the opportunities that present themselves. Thus when Tulsa was flush with oil money people came and stayed, they built homes, they built community and the city grew. When the oil business dried up people moved on. In the not to distant past Tulsa's fortunes were tied to the aerospace business. Its still not uncommon to run into people that used to work for American or McDonnell Douglas. But that business too is drying up. In the last decade or so most corporations have learned how to grow legs and to use that new mobility to shop for incentives. A small city like Tulsa has a difficult time putting up the kind of dough most of these players are looking for. In a way, any city of a certain size will have its own inertia. The people here serve the other people here. The waiter shops at the grocery store and a certain amount of economic activity simmers. But without an influx of money from the outside its a meager existence that has little fuel to grow. We've seen development, but its been a building up of chain stores and restaurants. These businesses, while providing some jobs for the service biz, end up draining more out of the community than they give back. The developers make a bit, the construction people make a bit and the city makes a bit, but in the long run that money leaves Tulsa and goes elsewhere. Tulsa will not survive by building Walgreen stores on every corner. People won't be moving here to work at Chedders. They won't be tempted to stay here when those jobs exist in every other city as well. Why wait tables and live in a dinky apartment in Tulsa when you could do that some place with a beach, or a music scene, or better yet, a nicer job? What opportunity does Tulsa have to offer people looking for a better life for themselves? That question is answered by the scarcity of young professionals here. Its seems that anyone with ambition and a drive to succeed is forced to flee out of necessity. Being a reasonably educated single thirty something is a lonely situation here. So why am I here? Good question. The short answer? Family. The long answer? For another post. |
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