As the Covid pandemic raged around them, Ari Kaplan, his wife, Hannah Phillips-Kaplan, an interior designer, and son, now 13, were looking for somewhere new to live after nearly two decades in Los Angeles. “We wanted to raise our son somewhere more wholesome and with a stronger sense of community,” said Mr. Kaplan, 50, the chief financial officer for e-commerce company Mamenta. “And we talked about Austin, Portland, Charlotte, Denver and New York,” he said. The Kaplans’ list quickly whittled down to New York and Denver. But in the former “I’d just be changing one crazy for another crazy,” Mr. Kaplan said, while the latter felt just “too liberal and crunchy.” And so the Kaplans landed in Tulsa, Okla., the hometown of Ms. Phillips-Kaplan, 43, spurred by family connections, the city’s booming tech scene, its reasonably priced upmarket housing and its middle-of-the-road political climate.

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