Mick Cornett Quotations

We've seen the kind of social impact a professional sports team has on a city. A team brings high-profile role models into your community who are healthy and they're great images for the city to gravitate toward, especially for kids.

We're growing, we've prospered and all we needed was just a chance. The old image of Oklahoma City being a minor-league city is outdated. We've always been a great place to live with low-cost housing, virtually no traffic congestion, fresh water and clear air. But we've never been perceived as a great place to vacation. All our positives started to mushroom up in the last 18 months.

If this team is going to return to Oklahoma City next season, it needs to be because the city of New Orleans is not yet ready. We have not been negotiating for next year, and it wouldn't be appropriate to do so until they determine that they cannot play in New Orleans. And I haven't heard that word yet.

There are a lot of things that government doesn't do well. One of things that government does do well is build stuff.

We've got to get people out of their cars, out of those drive-thru windows, get them walking, get them in parks and get them more active.

This urbanization that's taking place around the world is very real. But if it's people that are seeking an urbanized environment out of desperation, that's not going to be helpful long term.

I've said all along, no way we would be in any competition with Louisiana. If the games can be played there (New Orleans), that's where they should be played. But if they couldn't be played there, I was very interested in trying to be a temporary relocation center for the team. This team is absolutely going back to New Orleans.

People say the seats at sporting events are too small. My response is, 'That's why we're trying to work on the size of your rear end!'

They made it clear that they liked what they saw and that our arena was appropriate for NBA games.

It's extremely dry and about every other day it's extremely windy. You put those in a combination and it's a dangerous combination. I'm concerned it may get worse before it gets better.

I walked out of there with the clear perception that there was really nothing in the city's future concerning the NBA. I've been trying all along to get a tenant for our sports arena. It was built for an NBA or NHL team.

Any urbanist has to appreciate New York City and the way it works. The public transit is astonishing.

I'm learning a lot about the culture of weight loss. I didn't know there were bloggers out there who were proud to be fat.

I'm concerned that the worst may be yet to come. There's no rain in the forecast.

If you can attract highly educated people from other parts of the country and keep your own best and brightest, chances are the job creators are going to be successful.

If your city's being populated by highly educated twentysomethings with choices, you're probably going to succeed.

In Oklahoma City, we know all about tragedy. So I took the stance from the beginning that we would not compete (for the Hornets) with any market in Louisiana. When I contacted the league, I made it clear that if the team decided not to play in Baton Rouge or New Orleans, only then would we be interested. It's my belief that if this team can, then it should go back to New Orleans. Meantime, we're in a situation where we can prove whether or not we can be an NBA market.

Cities have to realize that whatever the federal government is going to do, it's not going to be enough. And cities that proactively take control of their own quality of life initiatives are going to be the cities that ultimately attract the highly talented young people and create the jobs.

I'd rather we were rebuilding Philadelphia, as opposed to Kabul...There are American cities with serious infrastructure problems and we're not addressing them.

People look for their leadership to lead.

People in Oklahoma don't wake up every morning wondering what the government is going to do for them.

Cities have to realize that whatever the federal government is going to do, its not going to be enough. And cities that proactively take control of their own quality of life initiatives are going to be the cities that ultimately attract the highly talented young people and create the jobs.

I've never seen a tornado and I've lived in Oklahoma City basically my whole life. It's not like we're infested with them on a continual basis. But you learn to live with the warnings. And you learn what to do if one is coming your way. And then you cross your fingers and make the best judgments you can.

The bottom line is that we have entered an age when local communities need to invest in themselves. Federal and state dollars are becoming more and more scarce for American cities. Political and civic leaders in local communities need to make a compelling case for this investment.

Jobs follow people. People don't follow jobs.

It is not OK for anyone to be obese. There needs to be a cultural shift.

We had a branding problem. We have allowed ourselves to be branded by our tragedies. If you said 'Oklahoma City,' chances are the next word out of your mouth was 'bombing.'

The spoiled superstar brat wouldn't get far in Oklahoma City. We're very value-conscious. Our city was settled in a land run. Those 10,000 people were desperate for a better life.

When you have a lot of construction going on, it sends a message of vitality that builds up consumer confidence. It gets people to spend money when they see that energy, that things are happening.

I believe in infrastructure, I believe in investing in your hard assets. Where I think government starts to fail is when it starts getting itself weighed down with the social programs. And I think the American public just feels like a lot of that money is tossed aside and wasted.

We need a better strategy for poor people...because what we're doing isn't working.

If your city's being populated by highly educated twentysomething s with choices, you're probably going to succeed.

We did such a great job of creating the interstate highway system in Oklahoma City that we don't have traffic congestion. You can actually get a speeding ticket during rush hour in the city. That's how great our traffic flows.