Commentary: Forbes and Fortune have Oklahoma listed

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Sep 24, 2008 by Ted Streuli

We love lists.

We, being everybody, and we, being The Journal Record. Heck, we love them so much at The Journal Record we have a whole book full of them.

Forbes and Fortune love lists so much I tend to forget which magazine is which. Fortune, for the record, is the one that lists the 500 largest companies, the 1,000 best companies to work for, the 2,000 fastest-growing companies, and so forth. Forbes likes to list the wealthiest people.

Chesapeake Energy is No. 324 on the Fortune 500 and No. 61 on the Best Places to Work list. Devon shows up at No. 221 in size and No. 48 in places to work.

For profitability, Devon is No. 50 in the country. For return on revenue, they're No. 6; Chesapeake is No. 34.

Oklahoma has seven companies on the Fortune 1,000 list. Besides Devon and Chesapeake, OGE Energy is No. 573, and in Tulsa, Oneok ranked at 192, Williams at 208, Dollar Thrifty Automotive at 956 and Helmerich & Payne at 1,000.

Pretty good, but the city's making other lists, too.

Forbes told us last week that Oklahoma is home to six of the 400 richest Americans: George Kaiser (26); Harold Hamm (108); Lyn Schusterman (165); Aubrey McClendon (220); Tom Ward (220); and David Green (271). Kaiser, worth an estimated $11 billion, comes up just shy of being richer than the other five combined. Together, Hamm, Schusterman, McClendon, Ward and Green are worth an estimated $11.7 billion.

The good news: The youngest guys on that list are a year older than I am. I still have a chance!

Also on the up side, Business Facilities magazine, which is read by folks who help decide where companies should move, put Oklahoma City on its list of Editor's Location Picks this month as an economic development rising star.

On the down side, neither Oklahoma City nor Tulsa made any of Kiplinger's Best Places to Live lists.

For your Good to Know list: No Oklahoma city on the most dangerous cities list from Morgan Quitno Press.

For your Less Good to Know list: No Oklahoma city was on their safest cities list, either.

On the brown list: SustainLane this week ranked Oklahoma City 49th of the 50 largest U.S. cities for our sustainability practices, or lack thereof. OKC beat Mesa, Ariz., but lost by one to Tulsa, which slid to No. 48 after being No. 40 two years ago. Columbus, Ohio, jumped from dead last to 30th. Oklahoma City rocked in housing affordability, lack of congestion and water quality, but was way down the list in things like LEED certification, planning and land use, and use of public transportation.

Hot list: American Cities Business Journals this month put Oklahoma City eighth on its list of the 100 hottest job markets. Tulsa came in at No. 17. That same organization in March put OKC at the very top of their list of most affordable home markets.

There are plenty of other lists, I'm sure, and Oklahoma City would be at the top of many: Best Cities for Cool Walking Tunnels, for example. Best Cities for Steaks. Worst Cities for Vegans. Worst Cities for Luge.

Oddly, Oklahoma City is one of the best cities for small boat sailing and is becoming one of the best for rowing.

We have made less progress as world-class destination for cliff diving and surfing.

The question shouldn't be, "Did we make the list?"

The question should be, "Are we creating a great city, and do I like living here?"

If I can honestly answer "Yes," then it's at the top of my list, which is the only one that really matters.