Tulsa Offered to Pay People to Move. The Program Got 10,000 Applicants

[brooklynite]

Next City

Megan Villanueva had never been to Tulsa. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and moved to Washington, D.C., in 2017, for a job with the Global Press Institute. But fairly quickly, she says, she and her partner found themselves “reprioritizing.”

“We were tired of paying for astronomical rent and all the amenities that we weren’t really leveraging living in a big city,” Villanueva says.

She had heard Emily Kaiser, a native Tulsan and chair of the Global Press Institute, speak highly of her hometown. So last year, when the George Kaiser Family Foundation announced it was launching a program called Tulsa Remote, which would pay remote workers $10,000 to move to the Oklahoma city, Villanueva was intrigued. She applied. She visited. And then she moved. Now she lives in a 110-year-old house with much more space than she knows how to use, four blocks from the Arkansas River and a mile outside of downtown Tulsa. The rent is $1,650 a month. And although the Tulsa Remote program only asked for a yearlong commitment, Villanueva says she and her partner are going to start looking for a place to buy.

Last year, as Next City reported, Tulsa Remote invited remote workers from all over the country to move to Tulsa, in exchange for $2,500 in moving costs, a $500-a-month stipend, and a $1,500 payout at the end of the year. The program also gave participants access to a coworking space in downtown Tulsa and opportunities for discounted rent. Though rent is already cheap in Tulsa compared to other U.S. cities, as Aaron Bolzle, a program manager at the George Kaiser Family Foundation, pointed out at the time. Bolzle was expecting a decent amount of interest in the program. But he wasn’t expecting 10,000 applications, which is what the program had received by the time it stopped accepting applications after ten weeks — at which point they were still receiving about 125 applications a day, Bolze says. Now, the program is looking to expand, and plans to accept 250 to 300 new applicants in 2020. And it’s also touting the decision by the Holberton School, a software-engineering program that defers tuition as part of an income-sharing agreement, to open its third U.S. campus in Tulsa.

Perhaps it's changed, but my wife did a Judicial Clerkship in Tulsa (Stephanie Seymour, short-listed for RBG's Supreme Court seat) and found the city to be very "old fashioned" in its attitude towards women.

[MagickMuffin]

1. Well with new incentives maybe more liberal minded people will change that

That's how it usually works. Change the culture with newer forms of ideas.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. Tulsa is the home of Oral Roberts University.

I don't know how much of an impact the school makes on the character of the city. I have a friend in OKC who says he would prefer to live in Tulsa. That offer to move is very tempting, but I have a good situation where I am now. I can certainly see how someone living in one of the over-priced cities on the East or West Coast would be interested.

[brooklynite]

3. My wife took square dancing lessons when she was there...

...but when she tried to pair up with a man in the class, he said he didn't want to dance with someone smarter than he was...

[Zambero]

4. Presumably he would never marry a Democrat for the same reason

At any rate, his brutally honest self-analysis coupled with a less-than-positive take on human intelligence is something to behold!

[LuvNewcastle]

5. Your wife must be something else!

You must be proud.

[rownesheck]

6. I read the headline

and thought it meant they offered to pay people to move away from Tulsa.

[IndyOp]

7. My mother's parents lived in Tulsa. It's a year behind or decades behind.

Our family visited Tulsa multiple times a year. Tulsa caught on to national fads about 2 years behind everywhere else - tube socks, Smiley faces. It was just weird.

In regards to attitudes about women - think "very conservative Evangelical" or "The Family" - people featured in Netflix documentary. Man the head of the family and what they say goes. Women are to "glory" in serving men - it is how they serve God.

[Runningdawg]

8. Decades

My father who recently passed would never allow a woman in his house wearing pants. Including me.

[IndyOp]

9. I'm sorry to hear about your father's passing...

No matter the nature of the relationship, the death of a family member can be hard.

Your Dad was tough. My grandmother wore pantsuits after age eighty and my mom wore business suits (skinny legs). My grandfather was pretty much obsessed with his little white poodle, "Roro" by that point. Also, his stroke brought him down quite a bit.

[Vinca]

10. It would take an 8 figure bribe to get me to move to Tulsa.

And I'd move at the earliest possible opportunity.

[bluecollar2]

11. Spent 3 years in Tulsa

Working for American Airlines as a structural repair mechanic.

A city of contrasts but really way too religiously conservative for my liking.

[pecosbob]

12. My family is from Texas and Oklahoma

An old Texas proverb refers to Oklahoma as the state with more churches than bars.

[sinkingfeeling]

13. Tulsa: Just a few steps from Gilead.