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Bay Area applicants flood program that pays them $10k to move to Tulsa

sfgate.com

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Re: Bay Area applicants flood program that pays them $10k to move to Tulsa

#21

Post by junkrat002 »

symlinkk wrote: post #19
techsupporter wrote: post #17

I (truly) wish these people good luck and hope they find the happiness they seek. I am from near Tulsa and there's absolutely no way in hell you'll ever catch my family moving back to there. It's hot, humid, comes with tornadoes, you have to drive everywhere (and everywhere is set up on the assumption you will drive). Plus, I will never forget the clerk at the licensing office who, after the rules changed to require…

You’re delusional if you think California is the only place that has good weather and isn’t racist

(S)He didn't say anything about California.

Re: Bay Area applicants flood program that pays them $10k to move to Tulsa

#22

Post by eindiran »

bla3 wrote: post #12

> "We've had over a thousand applicants just in the last two weeks alone How many tech people are in the Bay Area? Is this around one percent?

The Bay Area has around 7.75 million people, so 1k people is around 0.013% of the population. So even if only 2% of the Bay Area works in tech, this would be 0.64% of the tech workers. According to this, it looks like it is closer to 12% of residents work in tech: https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/06/14/tech-employment-bay-a...

So that would mean this is about 0.12% of the tech workers in the Bay Area.

Re: Bay Area applicants flood program that pays them $10k to move to Tulsa

#23

Post by ketzo »

symlinkk wrote: post #19
techsupporter wrote: post #17

I (truly) wish these people good luck and hope they find the happiness they seek. I am from near Tulsa and there's absolutely no way in hell you'll ever catch my family moving back to there. It's hot, humid, comes with tornadoes, you have to drive everywhere (and everywhere is set up on the assumption you will drive). Plus, I will never forget the clerk at the licensing office who, after the rules changed to require…

You’re delusional if you think California is the only place that has good weather and isn’t racist

It might not be the only place, but it’s sure as shit better than many.

Re: Bay Area applicants flood program that pays them $10k to move to Tulsa

#24

Post by nostrademons »

throwawaygh wrote: post #15
wrsh07 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love for Tulsa to succeed at creating a "new silicon valley" It could be great for the area, great for the people who are early movers, etc I don't think it will be, but I think ideas like this are good experiments. You need a certain amount of gravity before you have a good tech scene, and I am interested in knowing "what does that gravity look like? How can such friction to becoming a tech hub be erased?" H…

This won't happen, and Oklahoma/Tulsa needs to fess up to that reality and make a real plan for their economic future. If we're honest, DC/AZ/OR are the "third tech hubs" after SF and then Seattle/Boston/NYC. The ambition for a midwest tech hub to join those ranks is not insane in general. Pittsburgh could make a reasonable play because, unlike Tulsa, in Carnegie Mellon it actually does have a continuous pipeline of…

DC/AZ/OR seems like an odd choice for third-tier tech hubs.

If I had to rank U.S. metro areas in terms of favorability for tech, I would do:

Tier 1: Bay Area

Tier 2: NYC, Seattle, Boston

Tier 3: Research Triangle, Pittsburg, Chicago

Tier 4: Austin, Boulder, Portland, LA/Santa Monica, Ann Arbor

Tier 5: Everywhere else.

There's some industry-specific tech support in various other cities (eg. oil in Houston, automotive in Detroit), but in terms of a general tech industry, they don't really register.

Re: Bay Area applicants flood program that pays them $10k to move to Tulsa

#25

Post by cortesoft »

symlinkk wrote: post #19
techsupporter wrote: post #17

I (truly) wish these people good luck and hope they find the happiness they seek. I am from near Tulsa and there's absolutely no way in hell you'll ever catch my family moving back to there. It's hot, humid, comes with tornadoes, you have to drive everywhere (and everywhere is set up on the assumption you will drive). Plus, I will never forget the clerk at the licensing office who, after the rules changed to require…

You’re delusional if you think California is the only place that has good weather and isn’t racist

The comment you are replying to never even mentioned California, they are just saying they would never move back to Tulsa.

Re: Bay Area applicants flood program that pays them $10k to move to Tulsa

#26

Post by [deleted] »

symlinkk wrote: post #19
techsupporter wrote: post #17

I (truly) wish these people good luck and hope they find the happiness they seek. I am from near Tulsa and there's absolutely no way in hell you'll ever catch my family moving back to there. It's hot, humid, comes with tornadoes, you have to drive everywhere (and everywhere is set up on the assumption you will drive). Plus, I will never forget the clerk at the licensing office who, after the rules changed to require…

You’re delusional if you think California is the only place that has good weather and isn’t racist

[deleted]

Re: Bay Area applicants flood program that pays them $10k to move to Tulsa

#27

Post by xfitm3 »

throwawaygh wrote: post #15
wrsh07 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love for Tulsa to succeed at creating a "new silicon valley" It could be great for the area, great for the people who are early movers, etc I don't think it will be, but I think ideas like this are good experiments. You need a certain amount of gravity before you have a good tech scene, and I am interested in knowing "what does that gravity look like? How can such friction to becoming a tech hub be erased?" H…

This won't happen, and Oklahoma/Tulsa needs to fess up to that reality and make a real plan for their economic future. If we're honest, DC/AZ/OR are the "third tech hubs" after SF and then Seattle/Boston/NYC. The ambition for a midwest tech hub to join those ranks is not insane in general. Pittsburgh could make a reasonable play because, unlike Tulsa, in Carnegie Mellon it actually does have a continuous pipeline of…

There are plenty of successful states that aren't focused on tech. I moved to one of them, and I'm enjoying my life a lot more.

I was miserable in California – it's not for everyone. I'm betting that tech won't come to my area any time soon and that's a great thing.

Re: Bay Area applicants flood program that pays them $10k to move to Tulsa

#28

Post by HarryHirsch »

A few years ago, there was a similar incentive scheme by a businessman to revitalize the Jewish congregation in Dothan, AL that he grew up in. The plan was launched with great fanfare (see here: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/us/an-alabama-synagogue-o...) but failed badly: https://www.timesofisrael.com/billionaires-scheme-to-revive-...

None of the newcomers stayed, too much casual racism, no qualified jobs and bad weather.

You'd think this Oklahoma scheme will work out just the same. In Tulsa you get unbearable heat in Summer, tornadoes in Spring, bad schools (the private school for your kids will really bust your budget), driving everywhere, and racist rednecks, lots of racist rednecks. Good luck to anyone who avails himself of this program, they'll need it unless they are native Oklahomians and know what they are getting themselves into.

Re: Bay Area applicants flood program that pays them $10k to move to Tulsa

#29

Post by qppo »

wrsh07 wrote: post #13
xivzgrev wrote: post #6

Sure. If I rented, my job was secure, and all of my friends are packing, of course I would take a free $10k to move somewhere else for a year. The pandemic is probably going to take at least that long to wind out. I can always just move back if SF picks up again.

I would love for Tulsa to succeed at creating a "new silicon valley" It could be great for the area, great for the people who are early movers, etc I don't think it will be, but I think ideas like this are good experiments. You need a certain amount of gravity before you have a good tech scene, and I am interested in knowing "what does that gravity look like? How can such friction to becoming a tech hub be erased?" H…

Any place that wants to be the new Mecca for tech has to be pro tech worker and not pro tech company.

Re: Bay Area applicants flood program that pays them $10k to move to Tulsa

#30

Post by seltzered_ »

"If selected, applicants are required to strictly stay in the Tulsa city limits."

Once you factor in relocation costs, the fact that urban apartments in major cities are offering revised rates & X months free, and that you're still in a city (free coworking doesn't make sense if you're concerned about the pandemic), it's moot.

Thinking wildly aloud, maybe one idea is to have collective bargaining rather than money. Say, X number of remote employees offer to move to Tulsa and participate in their economy in exchange for say, giving Oklahoma tribes back sovereignty for their land (see https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/05/indigenous-lead... )

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