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Remote Workers Can Get a Cushy Apartment, Free Office Space, and $10K If They Move To Tulsa (nextgov.com)
Tulsa, Oklahoma is offering full-time remote workers in the U.S. free office space, a subsidized furnished apartment, and $10,000 cash if you move there and stay for at least one year. The city wants to attract so-called "digital nomads," who would, presumably, start paying taxes, launch businesses, and otherwise contribute to the economy of wherever they're drawn to. Nextgov reports: Tulsa Remote is one of several revitalization projects in the region funded by the George Kaiser Family Foundation. The Tulsa-based philanthropic organization was started by George B. Kaiser, an oil and banking billionaire who has signed on to Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates' "Giving Pledge," whose wealthy signees promise to give away at least half their fortunes to charity.
The organization has budgeted for 20 new remote workers in the program's first year, says Ken Levit, GKFF's executive director. Applicants must be at least 18, eligible to work in the U.S., already working full-time for an employer based outside the boundaries of Tulsa County, and prepared to move to Tulsa within six months. Applications opened Tuesday at the website TulsaRemote.com; the city hopes to settle the first new residents within the next three months, Levit said.
The organization has budgeted for 20 new remote workers in the program's first year, says Ken Levit, GKFF's executive director. Applicants must be at least 18, eligible to work in the U.S., already working full-time for an employer based outside the boundaries of Tulsa County, and prepared to move to Tulsa within six months. Applications opened Tuesday at the website TulsaRemote.com; the city hopes to settle the first new residents within the next three months, Levit said.
even then... It's Tulsa...
What a reverse advertisement. Would you take 10 grand and an apartment, if it meant Tulsa? Lol.
Tulsa's clearly a great town. Just kidding; the only part of it that didn't completely suck was within the four walls of Wild Oats Supermarket (it was lthe closest you could get to leaving that shitty state)... and Whole Foods put a stop to that a while back.
Sound like a smart and potentially effective programm to Kickstart local economy to me. If digital natives are what you're looking for this could work way better than throwing obscene amounts of tax cuts in Amazons direction.
Someone has been thinking outside of the box. That alone makes this program and it's proposal intriguing.
If I were an USian, I'd check this out.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Having lived in OK for a few years, more parts are shit-holish than not. There are small pockets of nice areas, but I'm pretty sure Tulsa isn't one of them. This seems like their gasping for new blood.
If your job can be done remotely be someone in Tulsa, it can probably also be done remotely by someone in India. Are you really willing to commit to moving to and living in Tulsa for company that WILL NOT commit to ensuring the job remains in Tulsa?
If they paid $10K a day or $70K a week after taxes I'd consider moving there. That's just to move and live there before finding a job.
This comment is redundant but who would want to live in Oklahoma. It certainly wouldn't be me. If I wasn't retired and was working remotely I can think of a thousand other places I'd rather live than Oklahoma. I guess if you're just getting started on your career it could be kind of attractive but you usually don't get the privilege of working remotely until you've proven yourself.
... but for it being in the USA, I'm not, and the TSA still exists.
Besides, though I could up and move on a whim, I'm self-employed, not working for someone else.
I've talked to multiple people from Oklahoma and who lived in, then left Oklahoma. It is a cultural and social shithole unless you are straight, white and one of God's Chosen People.
Seriously, Oklahoma is both more conservative and more corrupt than the rest of the south put together, while acting holier than thou.
Oklahoma is hurtling off of a fiscal cliff, and it's entirely self-inflicted. They must be getting desperate.
https://www.csmonitor.com/Busi...
https://www.economist.com/unit...
Feds could easily snap their fingers and send several thousand new knowledge worker jobs to Tulsa within the next 1-3 years just by giving marching orders to a few agencies to move out of metro DC and set up jobs in that general region. It would also save the taxpayers probably on the order of 25-40% on contract costs.
I have never understood why the other 48 states, particularly California with all of its collective bitching about paying more than it receives, has allowed MD and VA to grow fat on all of these jobs. Metro DC could easily be forcibly disassembled by the other 48 states legislatively if they chose to cooperate.
...well, this will see just how many people will hold true to statements along those lines.
TRAP
Oklahoma City might be able to pull it off. The problem is that DFW is not too far away, and they also have a relatively low cost of living.
Is that the same Tulsa that Chandler Bing went to in Friends?
I'm a freelancer who would love to get in on this idea. I don't qualify, however, as I am not a fulltimer. Good luck, Tulsa! Looks like North Carolina remains at the top of my list.
Ok, I'm going to break it down real simple for you because the point just flew over your head like a Space-X rocket over a Pacific cargo cult...
1. These are government jobs. "Duh free merkitz" don't apply to key aspects like location because the location is wherever Uncle Sam says it is.
2. Most of these are jobs are needlessly situated in one of the highest cost regions in the United States.
3. If the feds moved a few thousand large scale projects to Tulsa, many contractors would move there if the pay rates were comparable.
4. Pork barreling is when you send bullshit back to your district just to bring local money in. A realignment of the federal workforce to get most of the work out of metro DC is not pork barreling because it's--on paper--real work.
With that base, OK would have a shot of improving its tax base and have a core constituency that it can use to drive other programs to make people relocate.
The senior people who actually run the gov't on a day-to-day basis live in the metro DC area and that's not changing. Tribal knowledge is key. Two years ago I saw a senior purchasing contract officer try to retire and a large part of an entire agency was unable to buy anything for over six months. Out of desperation, they talked her into coming back part-time for awhile, but she eventually retired for good and shut the thing down for another year, forcing them to send out a ton of RFPs at the very end of fiscal just so they didn't lose funding. Many other parts still require submission of paper invoices and other documentation. Sure they've made progress, but the US Gov't is the world's biggest employer, and customer, and they're based in Washington DC. The investment in infrastructure alone to support even one decent sized Federal agency is staggering. You're living in a fantasy world if you think that's ever changing. On the contrary, as shown by Amazon and others, DC just continues to become more important.
There are few places that I warn people about and Oklahoma is one of them.
First off, about half of Oklahoma's power is generated from burning coal which something they take pride in. However you feel about coal energy, there are health consequences for living downwind from a coal plant. If you are still on board then perhaps you will be interested to know that Oklahoma is deeply Republican, very pro-gun, anti-abortion and anti-science.
However you feel about these topics, I just think people should know what they are signing up for before the find themselves in a situation they may be unhappy with.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
...I personally know a few people who worked in Tusla, and moved away as soon as they had the possibility of remote working.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
and i got nothing tying me down. Actually i already live in an RV, it would be a very simple and painless process to move (one state away) to Tulsa Oklahoma. And i could really use an extra 10k.
And theres no way in hell i'd do it. Screw oklahoma.. i dont even like driving through that shit stain of a state.... and this is coming from a Missourian, its no shining beacon either.
If you want people to move to your state, stop the fracking... or at least tell us what kind of odd chemicals youre pumping into the ground water. Also WTF is up with the racism there? Does your state have no education system at all?
Also if youre going to charge people for driving on your highways, you might try maintaining them.
Well the cushy apartment will be great for me, but where will my wife and kids stay?
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I don't work remotely, but if I was in an industry where all I did was remote work, I don't think I'd pick Tulsa. Would anyone?
If you need to be in a walkable large city with a diverse culture and lots of things to do, Tulsa doesn't fit the bill.
If you want to occasionally drive to a large city, there are better cities than Tulsa.
And if you want to take advantage of working remotely to explore the best of nature (skiing, hiking, mountain climbing, etc), there's still plenty of small rural towns with cheap properties available
Before you rush off to Tulsa for $10k and a little housing subsidy:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/...
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Real digital nomads know that US earned dollars taxed in US are FEIE'd.
Anyone who is worth their salt, USA citizen and real digital nomad doesnt work in USA.
I mean, Oral Roberts, the Klan and shit.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
I like this bot.
Ok, it's not so weird. But Tulsa has a couple of good things going for it other than these incentives. Albert G's BBQ, and a pretty decent effort at Oktoberfest (which a friend of mine, a local from Tulsa, tried to tell me was the biggest outside of Germany [quick trip to Wikipedia showed him it was my hometown ;-)])
Honestly, it's not the worst place in the world, friends there are overall pretty happy with it. Small airport and most flights have a connection (Chicago or DFW or Denver first, etc.) but the people are nice.
Oh, also... Evelyn's diner out by the airport. Thumbs up to that, bring Lipitor.
I mean Chinese and Indians..
Lots of flies and gnats and creatures like that? Then head to Oklahoma!
How about excessive humidity? They’ve got that in spades!
When I was a kid, we used to drive through Oklahoma every summer as part of our annual trip from our west coast home to visit my dad’s family in Indiana (speaking of bugs and excessive humidity...). Oklahoma was roughly where the environment started getting unpleasant.
Colorado, though? I loved Colorado.
#DeleteChrome
Sad, but true.
For many people, it just doesn't matter in their personal lives, so it isn't a priority. Same for pro/anti-abortion laws. No direct impact to me or my family. While it is important, it isn't THAT important, at least not to my family.
I've never been to Tulsa, but I have spent time in OKC and lived on the other side of the Ozarks in Arkansas for 3 yrs. You'd have to pay me $250K to live there. And in OKC, $250K is 3x more than needed for a fairly nice lifestyle. Tulsa looks to be a little nicer than OKC, unless you prefer __FLAT__.
Everyone has mandatory requirements for a place to live. My top 8:
* Interesting, well-paying, work.
* Comfortable climate - not too hot, not too cold.
* Near major airport hub. I like to travel internationally.
* Near plenty of social, academic, and outdoor activities within 1 day drive, 2 hrs is better.
* Top ranked primary and university systems nearby.
* Reasonable housing costs with land that aren't prone to flooding, earthquake, tornadoes, landslides, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc.
* GigE home internet for $100 or less.
* Family and friends should want to visit the location.
BTW, I've lived in 11 states, travelled to 45 states for at least a week and travelled internationally - 6 continents. Oklahoma isn't high on any list that I'd like to live. Nebraska and ND and SD are much higher on my list.
My list assumes there are nice people everywhere, which is generally true across the world. 1% just happen to suck. Picking a location in the USA is mostly about climate, local foods, recreation, and avoiding disasters. I'd miss good BBQ in OK, for example.
The general consensus here is that Oklahoma is a shit hole and no way I'd ever live there...etc. I have been to Oklahoma many times and it's not nearly as bad as some here are casting it. Tulsa does have some bad neighborhoods, like nearly every city in the USA, but it isn't terrible. Given the choice I would choose Oklahoma City over Tulsa because there seemed to be more to do. But we did manage to find some very good restaurants there are some nice neighborhoods too.
On the plus side, if you are young and starting out you can buy a really nice house for surprisingly little money. Think about that while you are scratching a rent check for 4K a month for some closet sized apartment in Silicon Valley. Traffic is not bad either, a nice change from a lot of large US cities. Weather? It's not terrible as long as you can avoid the tornado paths, which always seem to strike the same places year after year.
Personally, I am fully settled and not looking to move anywhere but if I were young and mobile I would give this some thought. After all, it is only a 1 year commitment.
The south side of the city has beautiful architecture. It's basically one giant suburb with everything from Swiss chalets to Spanish-style to ultra-modern.
There's only a few good coffee places in town. That's a problem anywhere outside the east & west coasts. The best shop is Nordaggio's, right across from Oral Roberts U, which I'd put up against anybody for quality. Oral Roberts U looks beautiful in a tacky 1960s gold-plated sort of way. I didn't get to tour the campus, because it's mostly locked down with secure entrances. The downtown area is desolate most of the time. It's hard to tell where the real action is... downtown on Sunday morning is kind of brisk because of all the big churches. Evenings lots of people come out walking along the river.
They have a super-weird traffic system. They have 4 lane major roads almost everywhere there's a road that goes more than a block. Usually, this is more than adequate. You'll be driving down a 4 lane road in the middle of the day and maybe see one other car. And yet they manage to congest Peoria Avenue during rush hours. The average speed on the interstates (they have 3 thru town) is about 80-85 mph. Tulsa just opened up this huge playground/park on the river, and I mean huge. It has shops, performance venues, skate parks (multiples), and it ties together the bike paths along the Arkansas river. A grand circuit of that bike network is like 40 miles of paved bike path. So long as you don't mind ingesting a few gnats, it's a great ride. There's a pretty strong biking culture.
Right now what they lack is a social scene that isn't built around going to church or eating. I think that's why they built the huge expensive park. They have a number of universities, but they are pretty insular. Their temporary housing market sucks. You're going to need the money to bribe people to give you a short term lease in case your remote work evaporates. Obviously, there's a strong demand for IT workers for the petroleum industry. But if you don't have those skills, getting a development job locally is going to be tough.
Their biggest problem is homeless drug addicts and theft. Seriously, all the Walmart parking lots have conspicuous blue light towers with cameras. Lots of armed guards at the supermarkets. I got stolen from, and I was only there two months. I would go back if I could. It takes a while to find your way around, but it's basically good people there.
I am a full-time remote worker who can live anywhere, so this is interesting...but the problem is Tulsa's 4.87% combined state and city income tax. I currently live in a state with no income tax, and paying that extra tax would more than wipe out the $10k. If OK wants to make itself attractive to high-earning teleworkers who can live anywhere, maybe rethinking the state income tax would be a good place to start.
Your method is the best way to run into budget problem or useless empty places. You do a first study, then an initial program with very few places like their 20. THEN if a lot of people start to want to participate, you increase the programs budget and size of available places.
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Just need a full-time remote worker job, how do I get one of those? I would even settle for a full-time job. All I can find is contract work, zero benefits, limited hours.
Take that, Nazis!
no thanks.
Although you don't have to use it, of course.
Also, kinda odd that the offer page is advertising *local* job listings...
Should be an interesting experiment.
It's really a beautiful city. The photo in the picture shows the large building, the BOK (Bank of Oklahoma) building, not scene to the west of this photo is the BOK center, hockey, basketball and large concerts. In May they close off the entire downtown area for a festival. Good times. Yeah, there are bad sections of Tulsa, as you would expect in any major city, but it has the Arkansas River area which is being built up, a beautiful Oklahoma Aquarium, and many things to see and do. I'm from southwest Missouri, 3 hour drive and I'm down there about 5-6 times a year. Never had a bad time in Tulsa. Now, the traffic on 71st near the mall can be a zoo most of the time, or on 71st, around the Rhema Bible Church during Christmas with their HUGE walk through Christmas light display. And, you might have to put up with a tornado from time to time, but they usually skip over most of the city proper.
If I am working remotely, why does it matter where I live?
I put in my time stationed at Fort Sill. The common saying was: Fort Sill isn't Hell, but you can see Hell from the front gate.... and they weren't shitting.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
Texans hate Oklahoma because the states are exactly alike. They're just unaware.
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