"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
2 May 2008You win some, you lose someOklahoma City, says Forbes, is right now the most "recession-proof" town in the land:
Did someone say something about a recession? With falling unemployment, one of the strongest housing markets in the country, and strong growth in agriculture, energy and manufacturing, Oklahoma City might not have received the recession memo, and it looks best positioned of the nation's metropolitan areas to ride out the current crisis. Booming valuations of Oklahoma City's largest companies, like Devon Energy and Chesapeake Energy, suggest the energy sector is the right place to be.
On the other hand, AskMen.com says you might not want to drop by for a visit:
The weather is frighteningly unpredictable, with blizzards often descending on the city and winds that could knock a high rise clean off its feet. It is, after all, located in the direct path of "Tornado Alley." The worst time to visit would be from March to August, when the severe weather season makes Dorothy's Kansas look positively calm. One of the most powerful tornadoes on record — an F5 with wind speeds of 320 mph — devastated much of the city in 1999.
Unpredictable, certainly; frightening, not after you've been here a little while. And I was here for the 1999 twister: do I look devastated? Don't answer that. Posted at 7:03 AM to City SceneTrackBack: 2:24 PM, 3 May 2008 » Tornadoes up my alley from belhoste ...I still don't have any fear associated with them (not exactly sure what that says about me though). Although, it seems that their fear of tornadoes may not be all that uncommon....[read more] Was that second site "AskMen" or "AskWusses"? Seriously, it sounds almost like an effete 19th-century British upper-middle-class twit wrote that. Posted by: fillyjonk at 7:37 AM on 2 May 2008Heehee, "*much* of the city"? Pretty lame. Posted by: Rhology at 9:35 AM on 2 May 2008You've got to be made of tougher stuff than those Connecticut Yankees or California Sensitives to cut here. Last night, when the tornado sirens were blaring, most of my neighbors didn't take cover. They stepped out of their homes onto the road and looked to the sky to see where the funnel cloud was. Some of the younger crowd even went stormchasing up thru Choctaw to Jones and Luther. I daresay that most Okies can read a radar signature of a thunderstorm better than most professional weather-droids back east. Posted by: Dan B at 10:03 AM on 2 May 2008"much" of the city? It never ceases to amaze me how frightfully uninformed most Nokies are about tornadoes. Posted by: nate at 10:18 AM on 2 May 2008Sorry, I just can't resist. Yes, you do look pretty devastated to me, and I can't even see you. Dan B.'s comments above perfectly sum up my notions of life-and-times in Oklahoma as well: But also, I've always noticed that Oklahoma's economy lags behind the other 49 by roughly 6-18 months. Right now here in rural SE Ok, there's a real building boom going on, and unemployment is finally decreasing in all the towns/cities that I visit. Posted by: localmalcontent at 4:20 PM on 2 May 2008I think the AOL/AskMen.com article is B.S. Oklahoma City is not that bad. Yes, we have lots and lots of storms but at least we're not in a warzone. There's so many worse places to live. Posted by: BPD in OKC at 9:36 PM on 2 May 2008Heck, I said on this very site, more than a decade ago, that we had "the most perverse weather this side of Baffin Bay." Posted by: CGHill at 9:41 PM on 2 May 2008And it looks like they've pulled that section, at least from the link I used. I found this posted at OKCTalk.com: Hello Oklahomans! — Thanks for all your posts. We certainly admire your quick defense of your capital, and please understand that its place on this list isn't a commentary on it as an economic center, a sports town, or a place to live and raise a family. This article was commissioned and written as a lighthearted travel feature. What guided us in choosing the cities that we did? In seeking out the world's least travel-friendly destinations, we looked for diversity in terms of what characterized each of them as such, hence the reference to "Type of Hell" within each subheader. So when it came time to choose a city that was characterized by natural disasters, OKC — home to some of the world's most frequent and powerful tornadoes — was a natural choice. Signed by James Bassil, Editor-in-Chief. I guess it's at the "Okay, we've had our fun" stage. The writer, one Nicholas Clarke, hangs out in Marbella, Spain. I guess they have nice weather there. The complete list in a handier format (we're still there) is here. Posted by: CGHill at 9:50 PM on 2 May 2008 |