The story of one Heartland city’s efforts to reinvent itself for the innovation age is a powerful example of the change America needs.
Every city in America wants to become a tech hub, yet so few succeed—and that’s the problem. Tech jobs, venture capital, and R&D are concentrated in a handful of big coastal cities, while the broad middle of the country is left out. But to thrive in the twenty-first century, cities must create innovation economies of their own and grow in more inclusive ways. In January 2020, Nicholas Lalla founded Tulsa Innovation Labs to help Tulsa, Oklahoma transition from its oil and gas legacy to tech. Lalla’s organization would go on to build the first tech-led economic development strategy in northeast Oklahoma’s history, raise over $200 million, and create thousands of tech jobs. This success catalyzed a massive, city-wide endeavor—the first time in American history a city has dedicated itself in such a concerted way to becoming a player in the innovation economy.
Drawing upon Lalla’s experience in Tulsa, Reinventing the Heartland lays out a bold and pragmatic plan for urban reinvention, showing cities how to reorient their entire civic ecosystems toward inclusive tech-led growth. Each chapter covers a core plank of the action plan—from how cities can establish their own tech niche based on existing assets to how they can rapidly up-skill talent in the era of AI to how to build urban-rural partnerships and compete for federal funding as a region. In Reinventing the Heartland, Lalla provides the path forward, not just for Tulsa, but for any city ready to embrace the future.
Praise
"A fascinating story of the bottom-up revival happening in cities across America. Steeped in his own experience in Tulsa’s incredible reinvention, Lalla provides the playbook for building a more prosperous and inclusive innovation economy.”
—RICHARD FLORIDA, New York Times bestselling author of The Rise of the Creative Class
“A gripping read about how to make progress in America. Lalla challenges American cities to work across sectors and harness tech to create good jobs to ensure opportunity extends far and wide. Reinventing the Heartland is essential for anyone interested in inclusive growth in times of rising inequality.”
—DARREN WALKER, President of the Ford Foundation
“Reinventing the Heartland arrives at the exact moment when the hierarchy of US cities and metros is being reshuffled by macro forces and mega investments. Lalla’s action plan is rooted in new economic realities which, if embraced and amplified, have the potential to transform lives and places.”
—BRUCE KATZ, Co-Author of The New Localism
“Lalla offers an invaluable proof of concept for what it takes to drive strong regional growth. For all those helping to create the quality jobs of the future, Reinventing the Heartland is for you!”
—MARIA FLYNN, President and CEO of Jobs for the Future
“Technology, demographics, climate change, and globalization are re-ordering our personal lives, but also the competitiveness of cities. Civic leaders need to bring a curiosity, a nimbleness, and an appetite for risk—not simply protect the status quo—if their community is going to thrive. Reinventing the Heartland brilliantly captures these challenges… it is a must-read for anyone that cares about the future of their community.”
—TOM MURPHY, Former mayor of Pittsburgh
“Get out your highlighter and notepad because Reinventing the Heartland offers an information-packed, clear-eyed, and supremely readable how-to on investing in cities. Lalla’s insights on growing a tech-fueled economy make this book essential for planners, civic leaders, and social scientists across the country.”
—MARY PATTILLO, Professor of Sociology at Northwestern and author of Black on the Block
“An inspirational blueprint for the future of the American Heartland. Lalla’s vision for transforming Tulsa into a tech hub offers a fresh, actionable strategy for cities looking to escape the cycle of economic decline. By focusing on inclusive growth and leveraging local strengths, this book shows how communities can create opportunities that benefit everyone.”
—MATT SIGELMAN, President of The Burning Glass Institute
“Economic development leaders need to read this book! A post-COVID playbook for inclusive growth, Reinventing the Heartland rings true even for big cities like Chicago which are also working to enhance their tech economies.”
—SAMIR MAYEKAR, Former deputy mayor of Chicago
“Nicholas Lalla has written a powerful book—powerful in the way it chronicles Tulsa’s journey to modernize its economic base and even more powerful in the way it charts a path forward for other Heartland cities. Reinventing the Heartland represents a critical map to inclusive prosperity across the region where the nation’s future will be decided.”
—HENRY CISNEROS, Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
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About the Author
Nicholas Lalla is an urbanist and social entrepreneur, working at the intersection of economic development and emerging technology. He partners with cities to build strategies and initiatives that catalyze inclusive growth. Lalla founded Tulsa Innovation Labs, an organization deploying over $200 million to build northeast Oklahoma’s innovation economy. He previously led Cyber NYC for the New York City Economic Development Corporation, a cybersecurity initiative The New York Times called "among the nation’s most ambitious . . . " Earlier in his career, at the Urban Land Institute, he launched a national resilience program for cities combatting the effects of climate change. Lalla has written for Newsweek, Fast Company, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Next City, among other outlets. He can be found online at nicholaslalla.com.
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