Last Monday, The Huffington Post published a summary of a study conducted by something called WalletHub detailing the 10 worst large cities to live in. WalletHub, a website that apparently wants to help you “Do More With Your Money,” named Tulsa – Oklahoma’s very own Austin (stop saying that) — as the ninth worst big city in the U.S.
The list ranks 62 cities with 300,000 people or more on four categories: livability, education, health, and local economy and taxes. This is a big blow to the former meth capital of the nation, but no press is bad press — or whatever. Sure, Oklahoma may have dumb politicians, uphold incredibly regressive liquor laws, and listen to Stoney LaRue and LifeChurch.tv. But it’s possible to get a good, cheap meal here, so it can’t be that bad, right?
WalletHub disagrees; they clearly don’t want you to move to Tulsa, ranking it 54th out of the 62 cities included in the study. The city ranked 36th on livability, 62nd on education, 55th on health, and 23rd on local economy and taxes, but it’s not totally clear what these numbers mean. Each score comes from previous WalletHub studies on different cities, and uses data from deeply flawed and obviously biased organizations such as the FBI, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and, for some reason, Yelp. Nine so-called “experts” were asked their thoughts on finding the right place to live. Unfortunately, “What cities have the best sports teams and most churches?” wasn’t asked, as Oklahoma City came in at number 44, aka the 19th worst big city.
Read more about the methodology behind the rankings and leave comments claiming Oklahoma’s superiority. Maybe next year we can do better on WalletHub’s inevitable list of the 62 Best Internet Comments from Irrationally Angry Oklahomans.
