Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols acknowledged there are some “intense headwinds” facing Black Tulsans but he believes his administration is making progress in confronting those issues.
“We know our history here,” Nichols said Saturday during the second State of Black Tulsa conference. He called Greenwood “the city within a city,” referencing the resiliency of the district that went through the 1921 Race Massacre, redlining and urban renewal “that really choked off the district for good.”
Now, the mayor said the area is left with challenges of affordability, health outcomes, inequity in education and quality of life issues. “But the question is, what are we doing about it?”
He highlighted efforts like the city’s Safe Move initiative to combat homelessness, public safety investments that include specialized teams trained to respond to mental health crises and his goal of building 6,000 new affordable housing units by 2028 as steps in the right direction.
However, “none of this suggests that the work is done.” He said he hears from residents who want increased enforcement of city codes in their neighborhoods, additional street lighting and continued efforts towards reducing crime.
Here are five takeaways from the event at 36th Street North Event Center:
Employment and wealth building
Jonathan Long, the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce’s senior vice president of community development, talked about the need for increased employment and economic development opportunities for Black Tulsans.
He presented data showing that nearly a third of Black Tulsans live below the poverty line. “Access only gets us into buildings, opportunities determine whether we can advance when we get inside those buildings,” Long said. “Expanded opportunities are how legacies are built, or in our case, rebuilt.”
Housing affordability and availability
Nichols said “we’re going to have a rapid increase of affordable housing all across the community.”
Anthony Scott, vice president of the Tulsa Housing Partnership, said the city would need an additional 2,730 units to achieve functional zero homelessness over the next 10 years.
Scott highlighted the role that homeownership has historically played in wealth-building but cited additional data that showed 63% of Tulsa’s lower-income residents are housing cost-burdened, meaning more than 30% of their income goes towards housing and utilities.
“When you’re spending all your money trying to house yourself, it’s very difficult to be able to save money for wealth or invest in other things,” Scott said.
Launch of the North Tulsa Wellness Initiative
Tulsa will use a $17.3 million Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Legacy Grant to launch its North Tulsa Wellness Initiative. The city is partnering with several organizations to fund more health and wellness services in north Tulsa as well as projects like new biking and hiking trails, a micro grocery store and an urban farm.
“That’s what health care needs to look like,” said Jabraan Pasha, the city’s chief health officer. “We need to start to develop neighborhoods that can build healthy communities.”
Continued crime reduction
Ashley Philippsen, who in January resigned as CEO of ImpactTulsa, discussed the city’s violence interruption program. In partnership with organizations like the Terence Crutcher Foundation, Tulsa has enlisted the help of community-based, credible messengers for conflict mediation and crime prevention.
“Not strangers, not outsiders. These are individuals with lived experiences, people with trusted relationships in north Tulsa,” she told the audience Saturday.
The foundation is also entering the next phase of Greenwood North. The revitalized center will include a retail space and food hall and bring more than 250 jobs to the area.
“The question isn’t whether change is possible, it’s whether we will continue to organize ourselves to scale it,” Philippsen said.
Opening Greenwood Entrepreneurship at Moton
Rose Washington-Jones, CEO of the Tulsa Economic Development Corporation, said while Tulsa’s Black businesses are in industries like retail, beauty and wellness, there hasn’t been enough invested into industries like manufacturing, tech, major construction or engineering.
“What can we do together? We can create more entrepreneurship development opportunities,” Washington-Jones said.
She announced TEDC will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony April 30 for the Greenwood Entrepreneurship at Moton — a training center and entrepreneurship incubator space that was formerly the site of Moton Hospital.
