IN THRIVING TULSA.... NYTimes Article

[Kenosha]

So the article was written in 1982, this is still who we are, right?

 

quote: IN THRIVING TULSA, FEW WORKERS' HANDS ARE IDLE  

By WILLIAM K. STEVENS, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES (NYT) 1153 words
Published: February 11, 1982

TULSA, Okla., Feb. 4 -
John and Mary Bross, two refugees among the great stream arriving here from the economically stricken North, have never stayed in the $423-a-night executive suite in downtown Tulsa's understatedly elegant new Excelsior Hotel, where neither the nearzero freeze of Oklahoma winter nights nor the economic chill afflicting most of the country can penetrate.

They have never seen the white linens and red roses and crystal that grace the tables of the Excelsior's restaurant, which opened only a week ago; nor have they listened to the harpist's music there, or tasted the filet of sole or the oysters Rockefeller, or overheard middle-aged oilmen and their wives at nearby tables talking of face lifts and ski trips, of breakfast rides in the Rockies and salmon fishing in Alaska.

But the Brosses, the Excelsior and its guests are all part of an economic success story that flies in the face of the current recession. At a time when the national unemployment rate is approaching double digits for the first time since the Depression, Tulsa's rate is a microscopic 3.6 percent. That makes it the most fully employed city in the country, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It has achieved that distinction because it has a robust economy partly based on computers, metal fabricating and aerospace activities, but mostly animated by oil and gas production.

The opening of a place like the Excelsior at a time like this would be unthinkable in much of the nation. Here, it is part of a $600-million-a-year building boom that just keeps on building.

And for the 28-year-old Brosses, the atmosphere inside the old blue school bus they have converted into a temporary home at a campground just east of town is just as warm as the atmosphere at the Excelsior.

The Brosses might be called the new Okies. But, unlike the desperate nomads of ''The Grapes of Wrath'' in the 1930's, they have not fled from hard times in Oklahoma. Instead, in an economic turnabout of some irony, they have migrated to good times here from their home in Holt, Mo., in a part of the depressed Middle West that lies just northeast of Kansas City.

''There was just no way you could make an honest living back north,'' Mr. Bross said. So last September, the Brosses piled themselves and their daughter, 9-year-old Willi, their son, 6-year-old Chad, and their half-wolfhound, half-St. Bernard into a pickup and headed south.

''We just decided to pack light and travel fast,'' Mr. Bross said. Starting Out in Pup Tents

They lived here in pup tents for a while, then graduated to a larger tent, then took over the bus when another couple left the campground. This is the first winter in four that Mr. B ross, who is equipped with multiple construction skills, has worked . Here he builds swimming pools, themselves an everyday artifa ct of life in a local economy where, according to an analysis based on census data last year, 42 percent of all families had annual i ncomes of $25,000 or more. Snug in the ir blue bus, with shag carpeting on the floor, television an d radio in place and plants in pots, and with the children in s chool, the Brosses look forward to moving into a house or apartment here within the year.

Things are not perfect. The Brosses say a boom-town housing shortage makes it impossible for them to afford a decent apartment. And Mr. Bross makes far less money than he did in Missouri, $7 an hour as against $13. But had he stayed in Missouri, he said, ''I would be unemployed, sitting at home, and my unemployment would have run out, and I'd have no income.''

There is no great mystery about what has made Tulsa's economy so strong. First and foremost, there is energy. Tulsa is home to about 800 petroleum-related companies. As in other Oklahoma and Texas cities, these companies underwent tremendous growth as oil and natural gas prices soared to undreamed-of levels in the last decade.

''Companies that five years ago had 20 employees may have 200 now,'' says Clyde Cole, director of the Chamber of Commerce. Oil is not the whole story, though. Rockwell International, American Airlines and McDonnell Douglas maintain a variety of manufacturing, maintenance and computer operations here, employing about 13,000 people. Enough companies maintain data-processing operations here to enable Tulsa to claim more computer capability than Dallas, itself a major center for that growth industry. The area's metal fabricating industry makes it the country's No. 1 manufacturer of heat exchangers.

As a result of this array of activities, the number of jobs in metropolitan Tulsa grew by 6.7 percent last year, from 310,400 to 332,200, according to Mr. Cole. The rate of growth is about double the 3.3 percent estimated for the same period for Houston, which is frequently viewed as the ultimate boom town.

Job creation at such a pace naturally spurs an accompanying growth in population. Tulsa County's population increased by 17.7 percent from 1970 to 1980, and if anything, the growth appears to have accelerated.

With all this, there are exceptions to the general prosperity. Government jobs are disappearing as the Reagan Administration's budget cuts take effect.

''A lot of black people are being laid off all over our city'' as a result, said the Rev. B.S. Roberts, a black clergyman. The city's population is about 10 percent black. Still, Mr. Roberts said, ''We're fortunate in this community, in that those who have skills and work in the private sector have jobs.''

''Skills'' is the key word. For just as in other Sun Belt cities, only those with a needed skill need apply. The unskilled and those with inappropriate skills are no better off here than in the North.

Engineers, machinists, draftsmen, machine-tool operators, nurses and secretaries, for example, are in demand. Out-of-work Oregon lumberjacks and some kinds of Detroit automobile workers are not.

There are those who fear that some of the vim is about to go out of Tulsa's boom. ''The national economy at some point will hold us down and maybe start pulling us down,'' Mr. Cole said. ''You can't buck the tide forever without having some ill effects.''

And according to Mr. Bassett, employment growth in the oil and gas industry may already have crested. Still, for now, as Mr. Bross says, for people like him in Tulsa, ''if you don't want a job, that's the only reason you won't get a job.''