Hundreds of Californians have been paid $10,000 to relocate to Oklahoma. Did they find paradise?

Los Angeles Times ^ | Aug. 15, 2025 3 AM PT | Hannah Fry

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Cynthia Rollins doesn’t hate California — far from it. The sun-drenched shores of San Diego, the vibrant desert oasis of Palm Springs and the hustle of San Francisco all held special places in the California native’s life story.

But in 2020 — at the height of the pandemic — Rollins’ typically serene Ocean Beach neighborhood became crowded with people desperate for an outdoor place to congregate. She couldn’t leave her 650-square-foot apartment without worrying about finding a parking spot when she got home. She was isolated working a remote job for a tech company, but still overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people around her.

Tulsa, Okla., had never been on her radar. But months earlier she read about a program, Tulsa Remote, that pays remote workers to relocate to Oklahoma’s second-largest city for at least a year. She decided to give it a shot and visit. By November 2020, Rollins was a full-time resident in the Sooner State.

Tulsa Remote has attracted more than 3,600 remote workers since its inception in 2019. More than 7,800 Californians have applied to the program and 539 have made the move, cementing California as the second-most popular origin state behind Texas. More Californians have moved to Tulsa through the program than those hailing from other coastal states such as Florida and New York.

Similar programs have popped up in Alabama, Kansas, Arkansas, West Virginia and other states looking to reverse population decline. The programs, which are a boon to small and medium-sized towns in the middle of America, highlight a troubling, years-long trend of Californians uprooting their lives and relocating to less expensive locations. The transition to remote work following the pandemic has made leaving the Golden State even easier.

From 2010 through 2023, about 9.2 million people moved from California to other...

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TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: lastineducation; no

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

It’s actually those other states paying California residents to move to their states.

[TexasGator]

“California paying Democrat voters to move to a conservative state. Isn’t that special?”

You have it backwards.

[fidelis]

Hundreds of Californians have been paid $10,000 to relocate to Oklahoma. Did they find paradise?

Probably not, because paradise on earth does not exist. But if they were your typical ex-Californians (not counting exceptions, of course, my self included), they probably made the place worse.

[sjmjax]

Did they find paradise?

Not if they didn’t leave the California mind set behind.

[revivaljoe]

Tulsa ok is a great place to live- low housing costs- great freeway system - and if you get bored you can goto okc or Dallas

[riverrunner]

Like buying a lemon of a car.

A choice one regrets until it is gone

[Sequoyah101]

This stupid program was started by the Tulsa mayor at the time, a preppy looking neerdowell supposed repooblican named G.T. Bynum (I often confuse him with P.T. Barnum). He also dug up what seemed like half of Tulsa looking for dead black people from the ‘21 “black wall street” riot. I don’t think he found any of them but he kept the flame of protest and grousing alive for the blacks and their full of self-guilt liberal associates.

Tulsa is little more than an extension of St. Louis. It reminds me of one of those pods at the end of a perspex tunnel called I-44. It was once billed as America’s Most Beautiful City, no more. A growing slum on the banks of the Arkansas River full of busted roads. Even the new part of town that moved south toward Bixby and Jenks is looking a little thread bare.

At least they finally built the river park and that will be nice for awhile until a big flood washes it away and they don’t have money to fix it. That tale is not unique to Tulsa.

[AndyJackson]

The sun-drenched shores of San Diego

Written by someone who has never experienced the cold fog that rolls in over San Diego. Pacific waters are cold, even that far south.

[Myrddin]

My former employer tracked hours worked by zip code. It was a nightmare at tax time in years that I had to travel. The upside was some of the destinations had no state income tax. Nevertheless, I had to purchase a TurboTax state version for each state and often the taxes recovered barely paid for the special state version.

If the person(s) described in the article were employed by my previous employer, the zip code shift means paying Oklahoma state income taxes instead of CA state income taxes. That might well be a win at tax time. OK has more issues to consider given the native American reservation boundaries and legal issues that need to be addressed.

[Just mythoughts]

All you said and lying Paul Ryan married into OK liberal money...

Family and Political Ties
While her husband is a conservative Republican, Ryan comes from Democratic roots and has been labeled a “practical conservative.” Ryan's uncle, David Boren, was a Democratic governor and U.S. senator. His son, Ryan's cousin Dan Boren, is a Democratic U.S. representative. Additionally, Ryan's family was friendly with Democratic U.S. Representative Bill Brewster, for whom Ryan worked as a congressional aide for some years.

https://www.biography.com/celebrities/janna-ryan

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Drop me off at Archer and I’ll walk down to Greenwood.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

My wife and I went to San Diego one spring and didn’t see the sun the whole week we were there. She had to buy a $40 souvenir sweatshirt when we were visiting Seaworld because it was so cold and windy that day.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

I remember when I lived in Manhattan in the mid 1990s and I got a video tape from the state of Pennsylvania. On it the governor said that “We want you back” because I moved from PA to NY. I later learned that it was part of a program that PA had to get certain people back to the state. It was bizarre but I guess things like that have always happened.

[thinden]

Tulsa Remote has attracted more than 3,600 remote workers since its inception in 2019.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

they just wanted to move to oklahoma to be closer to their family that never left the dust bowl & moved to cali

[bankwalker]

Okies ...

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Decades ago, around 1970 or so, there was a news report on how Okies from the 1930s had done in California. 60 Minutes or some such show.
The first generation to move there in the 1930s did well.
The second generation as kids from Oklahoma or born in California did well.
The Third generation born in California were all on welfare.

[Vendome]

“why doesn’t Texas fall into the Gulf of America?”

Because Oklahoma sux

Tell me something bad about Tulsa
https://youtu.be/TBnm-qu5Rtc?si=LcSqtebdAZRbx6y1

Some times I wanna move back but, I love California and have way too many friends.

[Resolute Conservative]

How did she handle the back to the office mandate (if her company did it)?

[Vendome]

That was me.

I was constantly driving to Dallas/Ft Worth, San Antonia, KC and Atlanta...

Now I’m older and trying to move to more rural area to get away from people

might need to buy an island