One Oklahoma Town Among Slowest-Growing in the US

When it comes to the fastest-growing metro cities around the country, Utah and Idaho are booming. Those two states contain six of the top 10 fastest-growing cities the last time metrics were measured.

While Oklahoma isn't growing at the exponential rates of those two states, it is growing in the usual metro areas - Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

On the flip side of that, one Oklahoma town made the top 10 list of slowest-growing cities in the country, and it's not that big of a shock to those who live there.

Welcome to Lawton - the fourth slowest-growing city in America.

You may wonder, "Why is Lawton such a slow-growing city?" It's the most affordable city to live in the entire state of Oklahoma. With a bargain-basement cost of living, you'd think Lawton would be THE growing place in the state, right?

There are a few things to consider.

One, Lawton is known for being a dangerous place to live. Even as a kid, my SWOK-born and raised father used to tell us, "Don't go to Lawton, it's dangerous," and to be fair, it was in his day. Things did sort of turn around in the 90s, and while there's still a little gunplay, murder, and other violent crimes happening, it's on par for an average city of its size.

Two, those with the means are making an exodus from Lawton in search of even lower living costs. Tiny towns like Cache, Elgin, Fletcher, Geronimo and now Sterling have been booming the last two decades or so as people are opting for the lower tax rates even though housing is more expensive. There's arguably a better quality of life in those small towns too.

Why is that?

Likely the infamous mismanagement of tax dollars.

At the core of running a city, the local government is responsible for just a few basic things.

• Clean Water
• Sewer
• Trash and Refuse Service
• Roads and Streets
• Emergency Services (Police, Fire and 911 Operators)

That's it. That's all a city government needs to focus on. If they have money leftover after fulfilling the basic necessity services, they're more than welcome to shift into other projects like entertainment, green spaces, places for kids to have activities and such.

What those who run Lawton have chosen to do - over and over and over again - is ignore the base-city services and put focus on the additional things.

Case and point, even as the City of Lawton is building a sprawling "aquatic center" in Elmer Thomas Park, they claim a lack of funding is forcing the city to cut jobs and close fire stations.

Lawton also has ongoing issues with trying to pay for the police department, too. Even though they've made strides to improve pay, it's still nearly half of what similar-sized and even smaller town PD's are making.

Roads are another hot topic.

The roads across Lawton are notoriously bad. They've been neglected for so long that even the nice ones are starting to feel like a roller coaster.

Every politician has run a campaign to get elected with a plan to fix Lawton roads one way or another. But every time citizens choose to fund new roads, that money disappears into the secret projects nobody talked about until it was a done deal. Then you hear about which elected officials made a killing off of the whole thing.

You may drive down Cache Road and think, "They're working on the roads," but they're not. That's all water department work. Or bridge rehabilitations.

Rubber stamping.

It's ironic when you think about it. The only projects the City Council and Mayor's Office care about are those they get to put their own rubber stamp on - as if anyone is going to care about whose name is on what building after they're dead and gone.

With a shrinking population comes shrinking values. Eventually there will be nobody around to care about the pet projects these elected officials opt for instead of the basic municipal necessities.

The cycle shall continue.

Odds are, Lawton will continue to go the way it's currently going. Not enough people get out to vote in local elections, so our city council and mayor are overwhelmingly elected by people we wouldn't even want behind the wheel of a car, yet that doesn't stop people from complaining.

Literally, people will do anything to help our community except vote, as long as it doesn't also cost time or money. But since life is always about perception, look on the bright side - Lawton really has a shot at being number one at something in the near future.