Guest: Economic conditions can help heal Oklahoma's rural, urban divide
What might we learn from November's midterms? On both sides of the aisle, pundits and politicians are offering explanations, claiming victories and assigning blame. But look at the results soberly, and one thing becomes abundantly clear: America is a land divided, with partisan affiliation setting in deep, rancor rising, and the possibility of civic discourse and real change fading away fast. Looking at the returns, you may be forgiven for thinking that the country is tearing at the seams, split more or less down the middle between two warring camps that shall never meet.
But we can fix it, and the path forward may be simpler — and more profitable — than we think.
First, let’s begin by correctly diagnosing our condition. What, exactly, is it that truly sets Americans apart from one another? Sure, Democrats versus Republicans is one helpful distinction, but look at any electoral map and a much more significant one quickly emerges: The real dividing line is between people who live in rural areas and people who live in cities and suburbs.
Like much of the country, Oklahoma has both vibrant cities and rural communities. And, in Tulsa, we’re working to help bridge the divide by connecting assets in each and expanding opportunities for all through a regional approach to economic development.
Cornell University’s Professor Suzanne Mettler, for example, had researched this topic for years. The title of her published conclusions says it all — “When Urban and Rural Become ‘Us’ versus ‘Them’: How a Growing Divide is Reshaping American Politics.” The reason for this divide, Professor Mettler suggested, was simple: it’s the economy, stupid.
“For decades,” Professor Mettler said in a recent interview, “the U.S. has experienced deindustrialization and various other changes in jobs and the economy, and rural areas have really suffered. Urban areas have adapted more effectively and created new jobs in technology, the service sector, and the knowledge economy. We think that economic deterioration has perhaps led to more resentment and grievance-style politics.”
And if economic conditions brought on this divide, economic conditions could very well heal it.
Take Tulsa, for example: Recently, the U.S. Economic Development Administration awarded our city $39 million in federal funding, making us one of the 21 American cities to benefit from the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, part of President Joe Biden’s massive economic recovery plan. This significant infusion of cash will be used to boost our mobility, automation and drone industries, which will not only create new jobs but also bind together the city and its rural environs in an industrious and profitable partnership spanning across 14 counties.
Take, for example, one of the initiatives that will benefit from this new initiative, the TRAM Corridor. Just outside Tulsa’s city limits, the Osage Nation has a drone port, Skyway 36, where they test unmanned aerial systems beyond the city’s visual line of sight, taking advantage of the rural area’s wide open spaces. A short car ride away, in Tulsa’s downtown, we’re building LaunchPad Research and Technology Center, a facility dedicated to developing rapidly-evolving needs in drone technology.
When we bring these two together — the rural area’s physical and technical infrastructure, and the urban area’s knowledge and technology — we’ll have a real partnership that creates not only economic growth but also real, meaningful relationships between people who otherwise might have been prone to see the other merely as an abstraction. And this connection, we hope, will grow even more meaningful when research and collaboration will enable us to vastly expand the use cases for drones, transporting, for example, medicine to rural communities far removed from hospital systems and helping improve the community’s overall quality of life.
Such partnerships are a great first step, but they’re by no means the solitary tool we have in our toolbox in the fight against the widening of the urban-rural divide. Regional partnerships are another important strategy: Tulsa, for example, recently teamed up with Northwest Arkansas, to leverage our complementary assets in Advanced Mobility to create more economic opportunities for rural and urban communities alike.
Finally, there’s the inevitable and essential truth that space matters. If you create public spaces that allow people who live in the city and people to live in the country to come together, it’s likely that they will, which, in turn, leads to less discord and animosity and more potential for collaboration. In Tulsa, we’ve The Gathering Place, repeatedly voted one of America’s best public parks and a green oasis where communities which might not have otherwise caught a glimpse of each other can cross paths and spend a lovely and serene afternoon.
As we recover from one rancorous electoral cycle and gear up for the next, just around the corner in 2024, we should take these ideas to heart. The Urban-Rural Divide is threatening to cleave America in two, an outcome few want. With some insight and some investment, we can turn things around and prove, once again, the wisdom of that ancient American credo: E Pluribus Unum, out of many comes one.
Nicholas Lalla is the founder and managing director of Tulsa Innovation Labs.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Economic conditions can help heal Oklahoma's rural, urban divide
