Boom Town
- 448 pages
- 16 hours of reading
A lively and introspective look into Oklahoma City, where colorful city officials, business leaders, artists, and sports fans have transformed an unassuming Southwestern city into a thriving metropolis with a dazzling basketball team. Sam Anderson, an award-winning critic and journalist, presents a stunning, insightful, and raucous portrait of Oklahoma City, an iconoclastic outpost in America's heartland. Anderson reports on the remarkable revitalization that has occurred over the last 20 years, beginning with Oklahoma City's adoption of the MAPS program. He illustrates how the city's vibrant leaders—its mayor, police chief, and a few local celebrities—have built up this city into a thriving urban center, full of artists, musicians, and sports fans. Anderson tracks the dramatic story of how a consortium of business leaders purchased the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics, relocated the team to Oklahoma City, and renamed it the Thunder. He also discusses Wayne Coyne, the wild frontman of the Flaming Lips, and Gary England, the beloved meteorologist who became a folk hero after the 2013 tornadoes, to paint a comprehensive picture of this unique American city.