When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, Cynthia Rollins had been working remotely as the COO of a software company, based out of San Francisco. With the lockdowns limiting her days to her relatively tiny apartment in the city, she started looking into potential places to move to when she came across Tulsa Remote, a program that has incentivized over 2,500 remote workers from around the country since 2018 with $10,000 of monetary assistance to move to the Oklahoman city.
Even though she didn’t know anyone in Tulsa, she took a shot and applied. In November of 2020 she made the move.
Although the program’s requirement for the grant is to stay in Tulsa for a year, 88% of participants end up staying for longer, Tulsa Remote reports.
“I’ve lived in New York City. I lived in the Bay, LA, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, and out of all the places I’ve lived in, and I want to bring those places up for a reason because they are all dope spots, I have to say my favorite place is Tulsa,” says Tawny Ann De La Peña, an ex-journalist turned personal coach and a fellow Tulsa Remoter since 2021.
CNBC Make It spoke with three Californian remote workers on their experience moving from the golden state to Tulsa, and why they aren’t looking back.
‘I can build my business and take a break if I want to’
California has seen mass migration out of the state in recent years, particularly following the pandemic and the rise of virtual work, a phenomenon that observers have named the “California Exodus.” Between April 2020 and July 2022, the number of people who moved out of California surpassed those who moved in by 700,000 people.
One of the first things that stood out to Rollins when she came to Tulsa was the ease of life.
“One of the unexpected consequences of moving here was that it freed up all of the part of my brain that was still spent on logistics,” Rollins says. Parking worries are alleviated, she says, as it’s relatively easy to find space and it’s free all day on the weekends and every…
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