State of the city

2004: A Turning point for Tulsa?

There’s reason to think that 2004 was a turning point for Tulsa - for the better. Progress was made on Vision 2025 projects – the Arena, Centennial Walk, the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, Convention Center, Route 66; not to mention the dramatic improvements to the Main Mall and streetscaping in the Blue Dome district. These projects matter: they’re adding a visible coating of confidence to the private sector entrepreneurs who are already reviving Downtown Tulsa. Downtown matters: it’s the key to the future prosperity of our region, including the suburbs.

At TulsaNow we also look forward to the output of the Neighborhood funds, Vision 2025’s Cinderella, along with the Arts. In the future, neighborhoods should play a bigger role in a broader strategy for the way we foster livable, sustainable communities.

It was good to see other new, civic-spirited groups emerge in 2004. ‘Home Owners for Fair Zoning’ arose from the 71st & Harvard fiasco; SaveTulsa.org protested the demolition of Downtown’s Skelly building. ‘Young Professionals of Tulsa’ hit the streets, dedicated to providing more diverse amenities and a more open, urban culture for young people to match the attractions of other US cities. Our ability to attract and keep young professionals in Tulsa will be among the most decisive factors to our future prosperity.

To which economic point, make no mistake: Tulsa is competing for business not just on a regional level with places like Dallas and Denver - but with Bombay and Beijing too.

Even the Metro Chamber is swinging around like the proverbial ocean liner, confronting new paradigms brought by the digital revolution, the creative economy and demographic change.

TulsaNow exists to stimulate objective civic debate that leads to intelligent strategic decisions about our community’s future. Among the less enlightening of 2004’s small-town politicking is the ongoing ‘recall’ effort to eliminate two of the City’s more inconveniently opinionated Councilors, Medlock and Mautino. This self-serving initiative - denounced by virtually everyone, including the Mayor and Tulsa’s GOP – has the aroma of a rancorous and rattled old boys’ club that’s run out of ideas but resents the harsh light of day intruding into the comforting fug of the locker-room. We see those Councilors as elected representatives asking good questions. Let’s spend more time on the issues in 2005 and less on character assassination.

Back in Downtown, the closing days of 2004 saw the Library system’s failure to win over its own users with its vision of a new Grand Central Library and upgrades to the region’s libraries. This was a colossal setback. Among TulsaNow’s early proposals to the County’s Library system was and is to design a Grand Central Library that helps create a genuinely walkable and vital, urban neighborhood around it. The Library’s visual concepts ignored this option, presenting an auto-oriented ‘icon’ that spurned the pedestrian. TulsaNow hopes to work with the Library’s managers on a reworked strategy that can ignite public support next time around.

From Land Run to Planned Run

How did TulsaNow do in 2004? (Permit a paragraph of cheer-leading here). Considering we’re a bunch of grass-roots volunteers with day jobs: not too badly. We formalized and publicized our mission, strategies, values, and set priorities; and we broadcast them on our website. We focused our attention on the region’s Land Use policies, because these affect every aspect of our daily lives and because they’re not working any more. We hosted a ‘Land Use’ forum for candidate Councilors in January which reverberated productively for the rest of the year, and which is beginning to generate a sea-change in attitudes. Several TulsaNow Board members joined Vision 2025 Oversight teams. We participated in the Mid-Town Coalition of Neighborhoods, in the 6th St. Task Force, with the Metro Chamber, and we gave presentations to neighborhood groups. We participated at November’s Local Government Day (an under-advertised but laudable Council initiative). We provided research-based advice when (frequently) asked. Individual TulsaNow Leadership team members are participating in real-life projects in and around Downtown. We even made on-line membership a reality, thanks to the wizardry of Rex Brown, our web guru extraordinaire.

2005 Priorities

TulsaNow’s focus in 2005 will continue to focus on Land Use and Downtown revitalization in 2005 as being two urgent, economic imperatives. Land Use policy affects our health, taxes, traffic congestion, transit options, pollution, zoning, schools … you name it. Our present policies are out-dated and uncompetitive. They’re inefficient, expensive and socially divisive. Bureaucratic rivalries serve to hinder rather than encourage change. Acrimonious ‘Developer vs. Neighborhood’ disputes are just one symptom of the growing pains we’re facing that relate to land use.

Many cities around the US have taken imaginative and successful steps to fix the same land use problems that we have, arising from growth; and 70% of US cities have set about revitalizing their downtowns in the last 15 years. Most have taken decisive measures to create urban, walkable, human environments that you can’t find in a mall. Why is Tulsa among the laggards? Presumably because we’re locked into the way the City has grown for 40 years and navigating change - for developer, bureaucracy and neighbors alike - is a real challenge. As TulsaNow sees it, not changing offers a much greater, long-term threat to our neighborhoods and livelihoods.

These concerns are all the more significant as we contemplate an ‘Arkansas River Plan’ for development of many miles of the River. The projected, 30-year time-frame requires long-term strategic thinking about the environment, demographic change, macro-economic factors, etc., of which TulsaNow sees few signs. At present it looks more like a business-as-usual bean-feast for builders and developers.

Preserving Value

By natural extension TulsaNow looks forward in 2005 to adding a more energetic civic discussion about Preservation to these issues. We see preservation in broad terms: as being about the productive re-use of our older buildings and existing infrastructure, not the archiving of past glories. We want to see the preservation and reinvigoration of the City’s living, breathing personality - particularly at the heart of our City. This may well require some imagination, clear thinking and backbone from present and future Administrations. TulsaNow is glad to offer all three attributes at no charge. But there are grounds for hope here: whilst the World’s decision to demolish the Skelly building outraged many, including TulsaNow members, owners of other Downtown buildings such as the Philtower are seeking to add value to their buildings instead of destroying it, by converting them to residential living spaces as well as offices. Now that’s preservation.

Day-to-day news reporting dwells more on detail (pot-holes, zoning disputes) than on the underlying policies that caused the problems in the first place. Public policy doesn’t fit into sound-bites. So we want to help Tulsans make sense of the public policies that affect all our daily lives. We intend to provide more articles and links on our website featuring the wealth of strategies and experiences of other, more - let’s be frank - innovative communities. Our mission is to help citizens get ready for change. We plan more public forums, starting in Spring.

Adding Value, Subtracting costs

Tulsa can compete effectively for business against other cities, but we’ve been losing ground despite occasional good tidings such as IBM’s upcoming boost to Downtown. We must be more open to new ideas. We have to focus on making Tulsa a more livable, diverse and tolerant city. We must welcome and accelerate the transformation of Downtown Tulsa and core neighborhoods. As we deliver that transformation, we’ll attract more added-value jobs and retain more young people. We must adopt forward-looking urban design and sustainable development policies. These will increase the City’s sales tax base, help to reduce the high infrastructure costs that Tulsa tax-payers bear, and reduce the scope for neighborhood/developer conflicts.

Now more than ever we need imagination, courage, clarity of vision and a cooperative determination to carry through. The visionaries of the 1920s and 30’s are gone, and we can no longer depend on our founding philanthropists to decide what’s best for us. It’s up to informed citizens to take charge of our own destiny. TulsaNow aims to help by organizing and invigorating working groups of people who come to the table with ideas and solutions.

I was about to say ‘Watch this space’. Don’t. Get involved instead. Start by joining us at www.Tulsanow.org. Here’s to a ground-breaking year of visible progress and rational, purposeful, civic discussion.

Jamie Jamieson

Outgoing President, TulsaNow