Tulsa Wants Tesla In A BFF Way

Another Elon Musk Tweet, another scramble. After the Tesla
TSLA
CEO posted recently that he was scouting locations in the middle of the U.S. for a place to build the upcoming Cybertruck, things got busy. And once we learned that at least two of the finalist cities were Austin, Texas and Tulsa, Oklahoma, the people of Tulsa said: we got this.

First there was Tulsa mayor G.T. Bynum’s Tweet about the city police force buying local for its fleet if Tesla builds the Cybertruck nearby. The mayor is ready to talk to Musk in a big way, a spokesperson told me. “Mayor G.T Bynum is excited to explore deals like this with Elon and it’s a testament to the ways that Tulsa would open its doors to work with Elon to truly integrate Tesla into the city,” she said.

In its efforts to get the Cybertruck plant, “any economic development proposals that Tulsa puts forth will maintain a strong focus on investing in public infrastructure and assets that support a project’s long-term success,” the spokesperson said. “The focus will always be investing in the people of Tulsa and ensuring that economic development efforts translate into increased opportunity for Tulsans. No matter what, any proposals will be strong, competitive, and based on a presumption of firm partnership.”

That sounds positive, but as should surprise no one, Twitter responses to the mayor’s Tweet, um, ran the gamut from the polite to the unseemly. Someone did make a good point that the local government could already be buying some locally produced fleet vehicles, since IC Bus makes school buses in the area. The mayor’s spokesperson could not confirm that the local schools use those buses, but did say the city buys from other local companies like the Summit Truck Group and the United Ford parts suppliers.

Then there is the BFF. That’s not a best friend forever, but a Big F*cking Field. The BFF pretends to be sentient and has a website that says itself is a great place for Tesla to build on in the Tulsa area. The page is over-the-top with memes, but it makes a point: Tulsa has the space and the workers. The site gives the BFF a personality, who says, “Yes, I’ve heard the news — it’s between me and Austin. The choice seems pretty clear. And if it’s not… allow me to assist” and then it links to an “Austin Says No” site that points out some of the negatives about the Texas hot spot.

Interestingly, the BFF domain name was registered over two months ago, back on March 13, 2020, according to WhoIs information, while the Austin Says No site is just five days old. Not sure what to make of that but maybe someone in Austin can figure it out.