In addition to my article about Oklahoma City’s transformation, I also sat down with Mayor Mick Cornett to have him describe it in his own words. If the audio embed doesn’t display for you, click over to listen on Soundcloud.
We covered a number of topics during the talk, including.
- 0:00 – Introduction and the effect of the federal building bombing
- 4:20 – The Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS) program
- 5:33 – Is Oklahoma City’s economy just oil and gas?
- 7:32 – Securing water supplies for a city in an arid region
- 8:51 – OKC has had a Republican mayor for 28 years – what is the local GOP philosophy of governance?
- 10:37 – Perspectives on government investment in technology, and talent attraction
- 14:04 – What is Mayor Cornett’s ambition for Oklahoma City?
- 15:26 – Putting Oklahoma City on a diet
Click over to listen to the whole interview.
Best line ever: Cornett describing Republican big-city mayors as “tax-and-spend Republicans”.