World is a news magazine edited by past OCPA speaker Marvin Olasky. It is very different from Time or Newsweek, for example, and I highly recommend it. The March 10 issue has a section on U.S. cities which are now “joining the big leagues,” for which I contributed an article on Oklahoma City.

Not long ago Oklahoma City was just another small city in flyover country, perhaps best known as the site of the deadliest pre-9/11 terrorist attack in U.S. history, the 1995 bombing of a federal building that killed 171 people (including three unborn children). But today Oklahoma’s capital city, with its low cost of living, low unemployment, high level of entrepreneurial activity, and exciting young NBA team, “could represent the future of America,” according to Atlantic senior editor Derek Thompson.

The full article (subscription required) is available here, and I also recommend Olasky’s back-page column on the importance of competition. He says history teaches us that “in area after area, whether looking at for-profit organizations or their nonprofit cousins, competition among institutions increases creativity. … [C]ompetition is important not just in economic markets but in schools, social services, journalism, music, art, and beyond.”