Posted on 11/18/2018 2:37:32 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
In an effort to beef up the citys tech workforce, the George Kaiser Family Foundation is offering $10,000, free rent, and other perks to remote workers who move to Tulsa for a year.
Im a California, New York guy, Michael Basch tells me. I figured Id be really bored here.
Here is Tulsa, the second-largest city in Oklahoma, known for its new $465 million public park, the Gathering Place, and its annual Chili Bowl. Since moving there earlier this year, Basch says that he hasnt been bored at all. The city may be 1,640 miles and a world away from his old home in Manhattan, but it has its own charms: Tulsa is super hip, super unique, and exclusively un-exclusive, he says. He calls it the Paris of the Heartland. (Apparently, nobody else does, yet.)
Another big plus is that Tulsa is much, much cheaper to live in than New York City. The median home price here is about $120,000, not nearly $700,000. And, for about 25 lucky telecommuters looking for a change of scenery, its about to get even more affordable.
Starting this week, remote workers from all over the country can apply to move to Tulsa in exchange for $10,000 in cash, a housing stipend for a fully-furnished apartment in a building downtown, and a desk at a local co-working space. The program, called Tulsa Remote, is being fully funded by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, a Tulsa-based philanthropy (where Basch now consults), and was planned with the citys cooperation.
Program applicants must be over 18, eligible to work in the United States, and able to move to Tulsa within six months. They have to come from outside Tulsa County, and be doing full-time remote work for a company thats based elsewhere, or be self-employed. And to get all the cash, they have to stay the full year.
Folks in the countrymaybe particularly on the coastsin this technologically changing environment can literally live anywhere and do their jobs, says Ken Levit, GKFFs executive director. According to Flex Jobs, a remote job-finding site, 3.9 million U.S. employees work regular remote jobs at least half of the timea share of the workforce that grew almost 10 times faster than the rest between 2005 and 2015, and now includes everyone from virtual golf instructors to virtual neurosurgeons. Of everywhere remote workers can work, Levit says, were bullish on Tulsa.
4.3 percent of Oklahoma residents work remotely; it ranks 30th out of all 50 states.
But Tulsa is not the only region thats identified this growing fleet of non-office-bound employees as a valuable community asset. The project is the latest in a string of tactics aimed at incentivizing workers to move away from ever-more pricey superstar cities and into less-booming towns.
In May, Vermont passed legislation that lets it offer $10,000 in tax breaks to remote workers who live there for two years, which it will start giving out this January. In October, Maine expanded a program that offers student loan forgiveness to certain recent graduates who choose to live and work (not only remotely) in the state. Both are efforts to stymie brain drain and population loss as the regions residents age. Similarly, Montana invites people who grew up in the state but have since moved to Come Home to Hunt each hunting season, giving them reduced license prices in the hopes that theyll remember how nice their hometown was.
Newton, Iowa, population 15,000, has one of the longest-running variations on this theme. Since 2014, its given new home builders and buyers $10,000 in cash plus a welcome package worth $3,000 (which at one point included a free ride-on lawnmower) to spur development and stanch population loss after the towns Maytag factory closed in 2007. When Maytag left, we saw our population drop maybe 500 people over a couple of years, says Bruce Showalter, Newton Housing Development Corps housing director. We did a housing study, and they basically said we were dying.
But Newton has started to turn its situation around. Since the first $10,000 subsidy was given, 55 units have been permitted; 46 percent of them to new Newton families.
I love seeing these trends of the second- or third-tier cities trying to bring in talent, says Sara Sutton, the CEO of Flex Jobs. It brings jobs and people to areas that dont necessarily have a lot of either.
Think of these perk packages as Amazon HQ2-style incentive wars, except in miniature. Instead of trying to woo whole companies with billions of dollars in tax breaks, cities and states are paying individual workers thousands. The boost in employment may be more gradual, but the per-employee cost is much smaller: If Amazon meets its hiring goals in Long Island City, for example, the state of New York has offered to give the company $48,000 in tax incentives for each job they create.
Beyond the individual impact of each new job (plus those workers households, as some remote workers will also bring spouses who are then employed locally, and kids who grow up to be, too), Sutton says that fostering a strong remote worker base helps keep homegrown talent within the community for generations. Say you have a rising star in tech or medicine from the local community college or high school. In order for them to get a job in their field, they have to move away. By de-stigmatizing work-from-home jobs in the community (some people dont think telecommuting is a legitimate thing, she says) and making them readily available, you can keep those stars invested.
Vermonts $10,000 payouts have drawn criticism, however, because the long-term economic benefits seem uncertain. Attraction and retention are notoriously difficult to prove, state auditor Doug Hoffer told the Vermont weekly Seven Days. Where is the evidence that this will return at least as much to the state [in economic growth]?
Tulsas program, which has already attracted more than 1,800 applicants in its first two days, will likely be met with less resistance: Though the city has put resources toward promoting the project, the money offered is private, not public. This doesnt mean Tulsa is ruling out more competitive public bidding. The city bid on HQ2 last year, offering the company city-owned property and an increased sales tax. Tulsa didnt make Amazons shortlist, but it did pick up a commitment from the company to open a 1,500-worker fulfillment center. We have a very active effort for [attracting] secondary offices, headquarters, and advanced manufacturing companies, Basch says. But were not as strong as wed like to be in tech and data sciencethings that are important for 21st-century companies. In order to make the best hypothetical pitch to the HQ2s of the future, theyll have to home-grow that talent first.
Levit says Tulsa wont recruit from any field in particular. But unlike some of the other regions intake schemes, Tulsa also wont fund just any workers move. The application, available on Tulsa Remotes website, is pretty involved: It asks applicants for their social media handles, reasons for leaving the place theyre currently living, how much they travel for work, educational background, and hobbies. It also probes these future Tulsans personalities by asking how much they agree with statements like I highly value being part of a tight-knit community in the city I call home, and Ease of living (low traffic, affordable housing) is a high priority at this point in my life. If workers make it past the initial vetting, next comes a video interview and a site visit. Only 20 to 25 winners will make the cut, Levit says.
With this casting process, Tulsa is looking for people that will do more than bring their job here and live here, says Levit. Folks that would like to come to a city like Tulsa of our size, and our personality, and invest themselves in trying to make a real go for it beyond just the year.
As for outreach, theyre looking to poach newcomers from pricier citiesplaces where people might be thinking, Im working so hard to live in this small apartment and just get by. Does it have to be that way? says Basch. But Tulsa also is looking to recover people who once called Oklahoma home. We think there could be a powerful boomerang effect for this, says Levit. I think a lot of moms and dads and cousins and brothers and sisters are going to be sending this to their favorite cousin that really needs to move to Tulsa.
To make sure participants dont just snag the cash and then hie away to Portland or Seattle, the foundation will space out their checks: Workers will get an initial housing stipend up front, but will have to pick up $500 per month in person, and wait to get the rest of the bonus at the end of their first year.
And to make them stick around for longer, the program is designed to build community, with social events like wine tastings and panel discussions programmed just for this cohort. Theyll all work for free at 36 Degrees North, a co-working space that calls itself a basecamp for entrepreneurs. And, if they want to take advantage of a rent discount, three months of free utilities, and a year of free furniture, theyll even live together in the same building in the Tulsa Arts District, right around the corner from 36 Degrees North.
No one has to participate in this group bonding, of course. (And if workers skew older, and bring their familiesan unlikely but plausible scenariothey probably wont.) But throw a bunch of untethered young people together in a hip renovated building, guide them through various team-building activities, and make sure they both work and sleep adjacently, and youve pretty much created a reality TV reboot. Itll be an interesting social experiment, says Basch.
Welcome to The Real World, Tulsa.
Exactly.
If I were a recruiter, I would be focusing on small colleges in areas where hunting is abundant and a way of life since Oklahoma has a lot to offer in that respect........
I would rather hire a stay at home 4 year college graduate whose parents couldn't afford to send them to a major university than one who went to the major university..There's no difference in the quality of education, only the name of the University they graduated from.
Wannemakers gun show twice a year at the fairgrounds. it’s Fricken huge.
Along with 2DV, let me know your interest areas and skills. I’m very well connected and informed on manufacturing possibilities in Tulsa.
As to this $10K offer from the George Kaiser Foundation, I’m intimately familiar with the co-working space they are offering. It seems very well occupied right now without paying for more users.
Unfortunately they will show up and start bucking for more government this, that and the other thing (to channel Gilligan).
Stay away. Hottest place ever in summer. Like a big bowl of swelter. New level of crime reports every morning.
Emmylou Harris, Tulsa Queen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbaz_T6BN3g
Live version, and it’s a killer.
I get to see Tulsa on the TeeVee alla the time. Watch First 48 - you will be treated to the dregs of druggies, killers and the hookers that are part of that landscape.
Tulsa is a hard town...and like most US cites, it has a drug problem.
The last time I drove through Tulsa (about 1980 or so), I was amazed at all the oil company office buildings there. It was staggering how much petroleum dominated the city. I don’t imagine that has changed much since then.
Left Kansas tornadoes in 1960 for California earthquakes (haven’t been in The Big One yet). OK is not much different than Kansas. Hot humid summers and every creepy, slithering, flying stinging biting creature you can think of. I don’t miss that, though CA politics are pretty bad.
I saw ads for that gun show in the Shotgun News back in the mid-70’s. I worked at a gun shop, and worked gun shows from Shreveport east. Good times for a 19-year old...
Move to Tulsa!!!!
Is the Chili Bowl another college football game or an event for Tulsa residents to participate in?
Trying to turn Georgia blue, now they’re working on Oklahoma.
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