Sound smart growth policies benefit businesses when it comes to recruiting and retaining a well trained workforce, by increasing access to jobs through better transportation options, by contributing to the vitality of downtowns. By attracting the millennial generation and creative class, smart growth helps workers, businesses and customers connect. By locating in smart growth areas, businesses can remain competitive and reduce turnover.
Small businesses in Tulsa, including restaurants, bars and retail stores, rely heavily on foot traffic. Creative smart growth communities with homes, shops and jobs nearby provide a steady stream of customers to help businesses remain profitable. Retailers who locate along well-lit main streets with wide sidewalks, in town centers or near transit stations have a built in advantage.
In growing numbers nationwide, businesses support smart growth investments for the economic benefits they provide to their businesses and customers alike. Local businesses thrive when we keep local dollars in the community, which benefits the entire economy.
Cities like Oklahoma City have benefited greatly by increasing investments in public transportation, reinvesting in existing neighborhoods and urban renaissance. OKC’s smart growth strategies have not gone unnoticed. Oklahoma City was ranked the Most Cost-Competitive City in America by KPMG, the #1 Best Place to Launch a Small Business by Fortune and the #1 Fastest Growing Large MSA in terms of Per Capita Income by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
