Tulsa is ranked 77th on Forbes Best Places for Business in 2005. We were ranked 99th in 2004, and 35th in 2003 (the year before they started factoring "Culture and Leisure" categories).
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/1/Rank_4.shtmlHere's how we ranked out of 150 cities:
#77 Tulsa OK
Population: 833,000
RANK
Engineers
65 Cost of Doing Business
3 Cost Of Living
41 Crime Rate
106 Culture & Leisure
92 Educational Attainment
88 Income Growth
111 Job Growth
134 Net Migration
105Overall
77Change in rank from 2004:
Advanced Degrees*
+41 Cost of Doing Business
sameCost Of Living
-4Crime Rate
-4 Culture & Leisure
same Educational Attainment
-2Income Growth
-25Job Growth
+2 Net Migration
-40 Overall
+22* this has changed. Last year it was "advanced degrees", this year its "engineers". I couldn't find an explanation for the change in methodology, maybe the engineers can explain that (in 10,000 words or less, please)[
]. Regardless, it must be weighted HEAVY, because we were the same or worse in every other category.
Huge loss in net migration, no doubt the final throws of our economic downturn.
OKC is 36th, down from 32nd in 2004. They got burned on the switch from "advanced degrees (43rd)" to "engineers (75th). Other categories haven't changed much.