Saw this editorial online today - must have been an editorial in the Oklahoman? Either way it speaks very well to the OKC/Tulsa "rivalry."

May 09, 2008 (The Oklahoman - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- -- CAPITAL envy, which has been on the back burner in Tulsa since voters there passed a MAPS-style capital improvements program, boiled over last week after Forbes magazine named Oklahoma City the most recession-proof big city in the land.

A dismissive Tulsa newspaper editorial claims Oklahoma City topped the Forbes list "probably" because of its large government employee base. This is an oft-heard lament regarding the capital city, whose development is a decade ahead of Tulsa's largely because of MAPS and the private investment it's attracted.

Forbes doesn't mention government employment. Were that "probably" the reason for a city's recession-proof status, Washington, D.C., would lead the list every year and the rest of the list would be all be state capitals.

The conventional view is that Oklahoma City had an inferiority complex vis a vis Tulsa and Oklahoma had an inferiority complex vis a vis the nation. The latter has been assuaged by the success of OU football and Oklahomans who became famous. The former was obliterated by the rebirth of Oklahoma City in the wake of MAPS.

The relationship between Oklahoma City and Tulsa has evolved into a big brother-little sister equation, with the sister occasionally squeaking her high-pitched frustration with the older sibling. The headline on the Tulsa World editorial was "Recession proof?" The question mark speaks volumes, marginalizing the report and challenging Oklahoma City to put up or shut up.

We choose to put up with this sniveling because we think Tulsa's accomplishments are mighty and beneficial to the entire state. We wish Tulsa's opinion leaders shared our sentiments instead of retreating into petty provincialism.

The second-largest employer in Tulsa is a government entity -- public schools -- and the next two are nonprofit medical complexes. So profit-centered jobs don't exactly dominate the employment picture in Tulsa.

Envy is one of the seven deadly sins. In Tulsa it's a default setting.