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Tulsa Offered To Pay People To Move There. 50,000 Applied.

This Oklahoma city bet that remote workers would move to the city if offered a set of incentives, including cash. They were right.

When remote workers heard they could get $10,000 and a host of perks as an incentive to relocate to Tulsa, applications poured in. Since the incentive launched three years ago, roughly 50,000 people have applied for 2,000 spots. 

In this episode of the podcast, Next City Executive Director Lucas Grindley talks with Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum about how those 2,000 new residents sparked a “multiplier effect” across the economy. 

But this isn’t a municipal program. We also meet Justin Harlan, the managing director leading Tulsa Remote as it woos workers. They’re planning an expansion, backed by the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

“Our goal for 2023 is 1,000 more people,” says Harlan. “We want to continue to bring folks in. We really haven't seen any sort of dip in terms of application numbers or acceptance rate. So we know there's plenty of remote workers — maybe even more as the work environment continues to evolve and change.”

Listen to this episode below or subscribe to Next City’s podcast on Apple, Spotify or Goodpods.

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