What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk is dedicated to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts.

This week at OK Policy, we posted the second blog in a three-part series on “Oklahoma’s Unemployment Gap,” examining the persistence of racial disparities in unemployment.  Oklahoma’s Unemployment Gap (Part Two): Why the labor market isn’t colorblind, explores the causes for the state’s black-white unemployment gap and suggests reasons for its persistence.  We alerted you to an upcoming event next week – UCO will host a lecture by Andrew Ross Sorkin on August 31st, New York Times journalist and author of the book, “Too Big To Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System – and Themselves.” Read the rest of this entry »

In this half-hour broadcast of OETA’s Oklahoma Forum, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett and Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett discuss the successes and challenges facing their cities with host Dick Pryor.  The Oklahoma Forum blog succinctly sums up the challenges facing each of Oklahoma’s most populated cities:

The cities have their special challenges – Tulsa is now looking at changing its form of government and is facing population migration to the suburbs.  In the last decade, while Oklahoma City was showing a 15% increase in population, Tulsa recorded a slight decline.  Meanwhile, Oklahoma City’s “Core to Shore” development that is a significant part of the MAPS 3 project is facing opposition from some on the City Council who believe the opening of the renovated Myriad Gardens makes the Core to Shore park unnecessary.

View other clips from OKPolicy’s “Watch This’ video series:

Living Through the Oklahoma Dust Bowl

Reducing Infant Mortality

What is Sharia Law?

Panic Nation

A story  in USA Today, “Oklahoma City defies recession,” focuses on OKC as the city with the 2nd lowest unemployment rate in the country. In response to questions about OKC’s secret to success, Roy Williams of the OKC Chamber said it is

Luck, as much as anything. We’re doing the right things, in the right place, at the right time.

At least one of the “right things” that Williams refers to includes investing in the community. The story focuses on what happened in OKC when a 4-million square foot GM plant closed. The closure of an auto plant hardly makes OKC unique. What the people of OKC did next is what distinguishes us.

Voters agreed to pay $55 million for the GM property and lease it to the military. The military is investing about $100 million over five years to convert the plant. “We’re hiring right now,” [Air Force Col. Randall] Burke says.

This was just one in a long string of projects which voters in OKC agreed to fund to improve the community. Starting with the Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS), which was narrowly approved by voters in 1993, the city has been able to invest in improving quality of life, schools, and even the economic landscape of OKC..

All of this makes me think as I read a quote from Mayor Cornett in the article which has the same humble sentiment as Roy Williams’.

Oklahoma City tried to become a hub for manufacturing airplanes, expanding on the aerospace industry that surrounds the Air Force base. Then comes the recession. People don’t buy new planes. They repair what they’ve got. Oklahoma City does repair and overhaul. Voilà! Better be lucky than smart.

I can’t help but think that this humbleness displayed by Mayor Cornett and by Roy Williams may be misplaced. I am not saying that there was no luck involved, but sometimes you create your own luck. The voters of OKC gave Williams and Mayor Cornett the ammunition they needed to make good things happen in OKC and the ability to capitalize on “opportunities” (isn’t that what consultants tell us to call challenges now?). The voters of OKC deserve credit for being forward thinking enough to invest in our community, which is smart. I hope we keep the progress going when it comes time for the next MAPS initiative.

So, is it better to be lucky than smart? Who knows? It looks as if the people of OKC have made some smart decisions and had a little luck on our side too. Would it be too boastful to think that we are both lucky and smart?