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2022 State of the City
AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY
Thank you, Rhonda. And my gratitude as well to Chairman Sean Trauschke, CEO Roy Williams, and everyone in the Chamber’s leadership. The strong partnership between city leaders and our business community continues to be a national model and one of the most important ingredients in our city’s success.
And to everyone here today, thank you for committing a little time this afternoon to the civic life of our city. Ultimately, our own individual economic and personal goals are made possible by the larger direction of the community in which we live. I know the life that Rachel, George, Maggie and I share would not be possible anyplace else. The community opportunities and challenges I’ll talk about today are intertwined with the goals you have for your own life, your own family, or your own career or business. I will cover a lot of ground today, and I want you to see yourself and your family in each of those narratives. I want you to envision your role in the future we will build together.
Of course, the future always brings echoes of the past. Some people this year brought us into our future by reviving our history. Of course, I speak of the rebirth of First National, and that is where I will start today. Imagine what it was like to live in this city in 1931 when the First National opened. The population of Oklahoma City was 185,000 people and its size was 30 square miles. The First National stood watch as this massive metropolis grew around it. It survived urban renewal, but by the turn of this century, one had to wonder if it would survive the relentless passage of time. If you think back to the downtown recovery that commenced a quarter-century ago, there were so many major historic structures hanging by a thread. One by one, this community addressed them, but First National had long been a missing piece. Now, it joins the Skirvin, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the Ford Model T Assembly Plant and other downtown successes that have reimagined major historic structures that have been here longer than almost anyone alive. This project was not cheap or easy. It’s a $300 million undertaking and it required significant public partnership. It required vision. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have made any economic sense. But the project was a gift to our city and our descendants, much as it was a gift to us in 1931. The remaining dining and retail will continue to open throughout the rest of this calendar year, but as of three months ago, you could once again see the Great Banking Hall in all its glory, and even spend the night upstairs. There are many people responsible for this success, but we certainly want to thank Charlie Nicholas and Gary Brooks, the developers who treated this not like a real estate deal, but like a legacy.
Undoubtedly present at the original opening of First National in 1931 was Dr. Angelo C. Scott. Dr. Scott had witnessed the land run and our city’s earliest days, in all its chaos. In 1913, Dr. Scott recorded a message for us. It was placed in a time capsule within the First Lutheran Church, and it wasn’t heard for one hundred years. Angelo Scott was perhaps the most accomplished and respected resident of his time, and was most qualified to speak to us on behalf of Oklahoma City’s first generation. In his message, he spoke of us and to us. He said:
Audio of Dr. Scott:
“And what manner of men and women will they be, I wonder, and in what array will they come? We cannot know; but it is safe to say, even if there be a touch of pathos in the saying, that they will be wiser than we, happier than we, better than we are. It is the law of growth, and we would not wish it otherwise.
“And so we the pioneers of Oklahoma City, with all of you, send our greeting across the century. Men and women of 2013! We, who shall have long been dust before this message falls upon your ears, salute you!”
We, who shall have long been dust before this message falls upon your ears, salute you…
Today, as we gather for the first State of the City address of my second term, my mind is on our future. Our future will someday be someone else’s past. What message will we leave for them? Last year, when we gathered in this forum, we looked back quite a bit. At a historic pandemic, at a generational call for racial equality, at an unprecedented time in our lives. We needed to process that a little bit. But today, we move forward, for we too have messages to leave, legacies to write. I sense an energy in this city that rivals any before it. The people of 1889 had it. The people of 1993 had it. And I believe the people of 2022 have it as well. I saw some of that energy in February, when you were kind enough to renew my contract for another four years. That sort of thing happens from time to time, but not the turnout. More people voted in this year’s mayoral election than in any mayoral election in 60 years. You’re ready for what’s next, and so am I.
Beginning a second term, emerging from a once-in-a-century pandemic, these are milestones that signal a new chapter for our city. Another milestone was also reached since we last gathered, one that further signals a new day, one that we have never seen before, and it will shape everything about our community as we move forward. I am speaking of our official arrival as America’s 20th-largest city. To put that ranking in some perspective, I want you to understand that in 1970, a date not so distant for many in this room, we were the 37th-largest city in the United States. Barely top 40. Top 40 is nice, I suppose, but there’s a big difference between top 40 and top 20. You know who’s in the top 40 today? Cities like Colorado Springs and Omaha. Lovely towns, but no one’s wearing their jerseys in Paris. But you know who’s in the top 20? The greatest cities in the world – the cities we used to study. In 2005, this Chamber led a delegation to Nashville, to study that city because we aspired to be like them someday. You know who we passed this year to enter the top 20? Nashville.
This isn’t Angelo Scott’s Oklahoma City, or even your parents.’ Heck, we were 27th when I gave this speech two years ago. As of the most recent population data, Oklahoma City is the home of 687,000 residents. As recently as 2010, that number was 579,000. That means that on average, for each of the 4,000 days in between 2010 and when this data was taken, 27 people moved here every single day. This growth is happening fast, and it validates everything this community has done for three decades to build a city where people want to live. I make pitches to job creators and other interested parties almost every week, and we continue to be successful because I can tell them that 1) we offer a unique combination – all of the cultural amenities you expect in a big city – an amazing arts community, world class dining, major league sports, unique museums - but uniquely combined with the ease of living, friendliness and low cost of living you expect in a smaller place. 2) This is a mission-focused community that is hungry, knows how we got here and knows how to stay here. Fully 75 percent of our residents say we are heading in the right direction, a number dramatically higher than other big cities. Our optimism is contagious. 3) It is easy to do business here, something that has been documented in many studies, and our people have a great work ethic. And 4) the catalyst for our success – MAPS and its investments in our city – are guaranteed to continue for another decade. We know we have a billion dollars worth of improvements yet to come thanks to MAPS 4.
This success and this growth means we’re no longer a mid-sized upstart. We’re a big city, there’s no way around it. One of the 20 biggest cities in the most influential country in the world. That presents new challenges and new opportunities. We are now America’s 20th-largest city, and we will have to act like it. Today, we’ll talk about what that means.
First of all, anytime we talk about the civic aspirations of this city, we have to start with core services, the things we do collectively, largely through your city government, that cover the basics. These efforts cost money, of course, and fortunately, our economy is booming, and tax proceeds reflect that. Sales tax receipts have been breaking records for much of the last year. That’s a great indicator of our local economic strength, but it also means that at City Hall we can generally provide services at the level you’ve grown accustomed. Now, I have said here before – what you’re accustomed to here looks different than in other big cities. Oklahoma City historically places a lower tax burden on you than other cities and we have a uniquely large geographic area to cover.
On the first point, by far the majority of our city tax resources go to personnel – our nearly 5,000 city employees. That is actually far fewer city employees per capita than most other large cities, and employees per capita have declined over the last decade. We continue to do more with less.
On the latter point, regarding our geographic size, I try to come here every year with a new way to shock you on this topic, so here goes. The city limits of Oklahoma City clock in at 620 square miles. That means we are the size of eight Cleveland, Ohios. Washington, DC? Yeah, we could take ten of those. Pittsburgh, PA? We’re 11 Pittsburghs. Miami, Florida? Sure, we are 17 Miami, Floridas. How about this one: Inside the city limits of Oklahoma City, at the same time you could fit Berkeley, CA, Alexandria, VA, Providence, RI, Newark, NJ, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Miami, FL, Tempe, AZ, South Bend, IN, San Francisco, Boston, Anaheim, St. Paul, MN, AND Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Oakland, CA, and Buffalo, NY. Imagine all the infrastructure and city service challenges of all of those cities, combined into one. That’s Oklahoma City.
Having said that, it is what it is, right? We have to face things as they are. Fortunately, this community stepped up in 2017 and approved the largest infrastructure - and specifically the largest street repair - package in city history. That initiative, known as “Better Streets, Safer City,” is still underway.
Just in streets, that initiative amounts to nearly $800 million and has completed 132 projects, has 101 projects underway, and 200 more projects still planned. That’s a total of 433 projects. What has been accomplished so far is making a difference.
For example, there is a national scale called the PCI – Pavement Condition Index – that rates pavement on a scale from 0 to 100. Eight years ago, our citywide average was 63. This fiscal year, we expect to bring that citywide average up to 71. The threshold of 70 is pretty important. That’s considered “satisfactory” in the pavement world, and it’s the kind of number that would be in line with the national averages. This is unquestionably the most dramatic improvement in street conditions we’ve seen in our lifetime.
This top 20 city will talk again in the next four years about our basic infrastructure needs, and when we do, we’ll need to aim high. Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure law enacted last year, we may have more federal help than ever before, but we’ll still have a tremendous need.
Core services aren’t just streets, of course. Public safety is actually the biggest investment that City Hall makes every year, and we have increased that funding for police and fire the last two years. Satisfaction levels remain high in citizen surveys we conduct every year. The most recent found that 91 percent of residents are satisfied or very satisfied with their fire service and 73 percent are satisfied or very satisfied with their police service. Even with relatively high satisfaction levels, we have always felt we can improve every city service. Our work towards public safety receives the most funding and the most attention, because we sincerely want all communities within our city to feel safe.
Two areas have been the focus of much discussion the past few years – police staffing levels and police use of force. On the latter, an inclusive task force worked with national experts for almost two years to develop 39 recommendations that were received by the Council in March. The Council and city management have committed unprecedented energy and resources to pushing those recommendations into reality. On the topic of staffing, this community approved the funding in 2017 to add over 120 additional police officers. Usually, securing the funding is the end of the story, but challenges have stood in the way of filling those positions. Knowing what I do about the mountain we have to climb, I recognize it will still take years, but city leadership, OCPD leadership and the Fraternal Order of Police are all focused on the challenge and working together to address it so we can bring staffing levels where we want to see them.
Even as we’ve dealt with those challenges, violent crime rates have consistently declined in Oklahoma City since 2017. This is in stark contrast to what is happening in many other American cities. Some people get their news from national sources, so they repeat information that may be true about the nation but is false about Oklahoma City. So, it bears repeating – in Oklahoma City, almost all of our violent crime rates are going down, and have been for five years. The data doesn’t lie. Our Police Department deserves our appreciation for that.
By the way, the county jail is by definition not in the city government’s jurisdiction, but I recognize how much this community needed to see a resolution there, and it brought people together from many different perspectives. Of course, work still remains for Oklahoma County to implement the plan that the voters approved last month, but just getting to that important point took two decades and a very unified effort, and I commend everyone involved, especially this Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, Oklahoma County officials, the Criminal Justice Advisory Council and the Jail Trust, among many others.
Your core services – and a lot of other things that make this community great – continue to be led by a fantastic City Hall team. The residents recently said by a 14-to-1 margin that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their overall city services. We continue to have the highest bond ratings, and a new study from WalletHub recently said we are the 8th-best run city in America.
Special gratitude to City Manager Craig Freeman, our nearly 5,000 city employees, and our hundreds of volunteers who serve on boards and commissions. Can we show our appreciation? Also, to Councilmembers Bradley Carter, James Cooper, Barbara Young, Todd Stone, David Greenwell, JoBeth Hamon, Nikki Nice and Mark Stonecipher. Can we thank them for their service as well?
Another rising issue of importance in America’s 20th-largest city is public transit. This is certainly another issue impacted by the geographic size of our city. We were unquestionably built around the automobile, but in the last two decades, our residents have asked for a higher priority on public transit, and we have responded. Also, with the population growth we have seen and anticipate, planning for alternatives is critical if we don’t want to find ourselves with traffic that undermines our quality of life.
Back in 2005, our transit system – COTPA, branded as Embark – adopted a transit master plan that had four major elements: Regional commuter connections with our suburbs, most notably Edmond and Norman; Bus Rapid Transit to destinations within the city; better regular bus service; and a downtown streetcar to circulate people downtown once they arrive via these other methods. In the last four years, we have opened the streetcar. We have improved bus service on numerous fronts - adding Sunday bus service, adding holiday bus service, more routes, frequency and hours. MAPS 4 will provide 500 new bus shelters and funding for better bus service. And, now, we are constructing Bus Rapid Transit for the first time.
We have matched a major federal grant for a Bus Rapid Transit line up Classen and Northwest Expressway that will provide quick, convenient service to the 40,000 people who live within easy walking distance of the line. That construction got started at the end of June and will reach completion a year from now. Dubbed the “Rapid,” this new service will redefine how our residents think of public transit. High frequency, simple route, high level passenger experience. In other cities, Bus Rapid Transit has become an option of choice, rather than an option of last resort. And MAPS 4 funds two more lines, one to the South and one to the Northeast.
And finally, regional transit, commuter rail connecting our suburbs to Oklahoma City, is a major opportunity that continues to get closer to reality. In the next four years, our growing metropolitan area will finally have the chance to adopt this vision. Three cities now comprise the Regional Transit Authority that was first formed in 2019, and they are three of the five largest cities in the state. All metro cities were offered the opportunity to join the RTA, and some have come and gone, but these three always represented the major energy behind this concept. A rail line that begins in the north in Edmond, comes down into downtown Oklahoma City and then proceeds to the south to Norman is the future that America’s 20th-largest city must embrace. I-35 can be widened no more, and if we want to have alternatives that keep traffic from choking our city, we will have to pursue concepts like this. The RTA is a separate government from us, and it is chaired by Chairman Brad Henry, our former governor. They’ll be finalizing their proposals in the not-too-distant future.
And by the way, while on the topic of rail, everyone at every level of government will be working with Amtrak in the years ahead to capitalize on the opportunity presented by the Bipartisan Infrastructure law to extend the Heartland Flyer to Kansas, connecting us with the entire Amtrak system.
Now, let’s pivot to talk about a critical issue we have to address in the next few years, and this one gets to the core of who we are and how we got here. This topic is arguably one of the most important I will address today, partly because today is the first time I am having the chance to share its urgency with you. There are so many changes that have come in the last three decades in this city, but unquestionably, one milestone stands apart – our city’s arrival as a major league sports city.
In America, there are cities with major league professional sports and there are cities without, and most of us are old enough to tell you the difference. The arrival of our Thunder and the NBA changed everything in Oklahoma City. Yes, it gave life to our downtown at least 41 nights a year and gave us something to rally around as a community that we had always lacked. And yes, the on-court experience has been amazing. We’re excited for this new rise that is already underway, and we’re grateful to have hosted some of the greatest players in history. Eleven currently active NBA players were recently named to the NBA’s all-time team celebrating its 75th anniversary, and five of those 11 players have played for Oklahoma City. But even more importantly than all of that, this gave us something that changed the way the world sees us, and the way we see ourselves. For the first time, for many around the country and the world, we existed.
Look at this picture I took just last month in Athens, Greece. I ran into this gentleman from France at the Acropolis Museum. Practically everyone in this room has a story like that, a moment beyond our boundaries where we realized that Oklahoma City had a profile like never before. Being a major league sports city has been worth an incalculable amount to our city, economically and by every other measure.
Our economy and our population have exploded in the same time frame that we have been a major league sports city. The signal that is sent by having a major league sports team is critical. Having a major league sports team sends an implicit message to the world that this city has the people, the corporate presence, and the general wherewithal to host one of the world’s strongest brands. It sends a message that this place matters, and clearly that message has been received by people around the country and around the world.
And I do mean the world. No franchises in sports are as well-known both in America and around the world as the 30 franchises of the National Basketball Association, and we in Oklahoma City have one of them. It is a truly global sport, so not only did we luck out having a major league sports team, but we got the best one we could have hoped for.
This, however, is not something you can take for granted. If your city wants water, you have to build lakes and water pipes. If your city wants police, it has to build police stations and buy police cars. If your city wants major league professional sports, it has to have the facilities. The infrastructure for professional sports is not optional if you want to have professional sports. We absolutely have the discretion to be or not be a major league sports city but we have no discretion as to what that requires. It is what it is, especially for a city our size. And though you have heard me brag today about our growth, this is still the most exclusive club that there is, and even with our growth, we live on its margins. Only two NBA markets are smaller than ours. And 18 metropolitan statistical areas in this country that don’t currently have an NBA team are larger than ours. Our ascension into the ranks of NBA cities was remarkable because it lifted us into an entirely new group of peer cities. However, that means we now exist in a hypercompetitive environment, an unforgiving environment. We are not in some junior version of the NBA, we are in the same league with teams who play in billion-dollar arenas, and we have non-NBA cities checking our pulse every morning. Bottom line, if we want to be a top 20 city, we have to act like it. If we want to maintain a long-term relationship with the NBA, we have to be proactive.
So, you all elected me to tell you the truth. At least, that’s the way I see it. Here are some truths about our city’s professional sports infrastructure – our arena - that you need to know.
Our downtown arena celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. The decision to build it was made by the voters a full three decades ago, when the first MAPS passed in 1993. At the time of that decision, our existing arena – the Myriad – was 21-years-old. The decision to build the new arena was brilliant, and for all the reasons I’ve just stated, it changed our city forever. We have learned that a state-of-the-art arena is critical to a city’s overall growth. In our case, it established our ability to host major league sports and world class entertainment. Our arena has hosted everything from the NBA Finals to Paul McCartney. It’s given us a lifetime of memories. However, the comparisons to our peer city arenas are no longer as favorable as they once were.
Our downtown arena – Paycom Center – is one of only two NBA arenas that were planned and constructed in cities that did not have the NBA at the time. The other is New Orleans. This fact led to decisions in the creation of this arena, both in cost and overall size, that we have overcome to this point, but…
It is important for you to know the relative scale of our facility, both in cost and size, as compared to our competitors. As one example, our arena opened in 2002 at an original cost of $89 million. The year before – 2001 – Dallas opened American Airlines Center for the Mavericks at a cost of $420 million. And by the way, the Mayor of Dallas recently announced plans to work with the Mavericks to construct a replacement for their arena, as they now consider that $420 million arena to be nearing the end of its life.
In fact, NBA arenas have never been known for their longevity. All NBA arenas except for Madison Square Garden opened in 1990 or later. That means that the oldest NBA arena other than Madison Square Garden is just 32-years-old. And though it might technically be old, Madison Square Garden received a $1 billion renovation in 2013. If you leave Madison Square Garden out, the average age of all NBA arenas is 21.2 years, exactly how old Paycom Center will be one year from now. That is also exactly how old the Myriad was when our community voted to replace it.
Of course, to secure the Thunder, we made a further commitment to the arena and now $190 million in total has been invested in Paycom Center. When compared to the cost of all other NBA arenas in 2022 dollars, that total ranks ahead of only one NBA arena - Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.
After the Los Angeles Clippers complete their new $2 billion arena currently under construction, 10 of the 30 NBA arenas will have construction costs that were all originally in excess of at least $475 million. All you have to do is look at the pictures to see the difference. But there are some differences that may be more subtle, and are even more important.
Other than cost, one of the most illustrative comparisons for NBA arenas is total square footage. Total square footage reflects the amenities available to users as well as the opportunity to provide further amenities. The less the total square footage, the less potential a building has. As I mentioned earlier, our arena was not planned with the NBA in mind. And at 586,000 square feet, Paycom Center ranks dead last out of all NBA arenas in total square footage. For some perspective, 22 current NBA arenas exceed 750,000 total square feet and the three largest exceed 1,000,0000 square feet.
This is the current state of affairs as it pertains to our competitors in the NBA. Perhaps even more relevant is the fact I cited earlier that there are 18 metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. larger than Oklahoma City that do not currently have an NBA team. Several of those communities have opened or have announced the development of NBA-level arenas.
Are you picking up what I’m laying down?
Look, here’s the bottom line. The NBA has changed our city forever. The vast majority of our residents know that and want that relationship to continue. The facts speak plainly that we can never rest on our laurels and we must always be proactive. I am extremely optimistic we can and will secure a long-term relationship with the NBA because we have great partners in the Oklahoma City Thunder. And the time to open that dialogue with our partners is now.
So, you probably didn’t have a calendar reminder set for the expiration of the Thunder’s original agreement to play in Oklahoma City, but that’s why you have us. In 2008, the Thunder signed a 15-year agreement to play here. I’m sure you can do the math, but I’ll go ahead and tell you that means there is one year left. The agreement provided an opportunity for a three-year extension, that could be exercised by the Thunder. Notice of that extension had to be received a year in advance. Last month, that notice was given, and the Thunder extended our agreement three more years, through the 2025-2026 season. The purpose of the extension is to give us both time for a collaborative dialogue, where we will jointly develop a plan that secures Oklahoma City’s long-term future with the NBA, major league professional sports and the world class entertainment we have come to expect, but can never take for granted.
I can’t emphasize enough, this is a collaborative partnership with Thunder leadership, led by Clay Bennett, and we are on the same page. We want the same things for our city that we love. We have the same aspirations, and I think they are shared by every person in this room. The potential of America’s 20th-largest city is dynamic and limitless. And we know what it is to dream big and follow through, because we have done it so many times before.
We don’t yet know specifically where this dialogue will lead, but we go in with clear eyes to the realities of being America’s 20th-largest city and the realities of maintaining our place in the ranks of big league cities. To do all we can to prepare, we are taking some prudent steps immediately.
First of all, I want to remind you that it takes years to execute large public projects. The MAPS arena opened nine years after voter approval. The convention center in which we sit opened almost 12 years after voter approval. This is one of the primary reasons we have to plan now. We want to develop a plan we can fully execute before the end of this decade, and though that may seem a long way off from 2022, it is not. In any case, wherever this dialogue leads, Paycom Center will still be the proud home of the Thunder for years to come. As such, we obviously can’t let it collapse in the meantime. Fortunately, the maintenance necessary to preserve its operability has already been secured through MAPS 4. MAPS 4 is already slated to provide routine improvements to the arena in the near term, including new seating and mechanical and technology maintenance. However, beyond those necessary items already underway, we are asking the MAPS 4 Citizens Advisory Board to pause further work while we determine the best future use for the remaining MAPS 4 arena funds. That will allow for approximately $70 million to remain available for use in the vision we develop. Preserving it is good planning. The Thunder will also pause their plans for a Thunder Alley development while we create this larger vision for our city’s future.
There is obviously a lot of work that lies ahead, but I’m excited at the opportunity we have here. This dialogue we will embark upon is not just our chance to secure a long-term relationship with the NBA, but it is a chance to cast a new vision for our city, to “believe in our future,” as the campaign slogan proclaimed in 1993.
Our city must continue to pursue ambitious aspirations. Otherwise, our momentum evaporates. As our beloved sage Will Rogers once famously said, “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
We have to keep moving. We must ask ourselves, who do we want to be in 2030, 2040, in 2050? Those are choices we’re making today, and they’re questions we will answer in this process. This is an opportunity for this generation of residents to leave our legacy on Oklahoma City’s renaissance story.
Now, speaking of legacies, MAPS is the well-known engine that has made everything possible, and its legacy is still being written. Since we last gathered, work has continued on MAPS 3, as it nears its completion. Scissortail Park has become such an essential part of OKC life that we can hardly imagine our city without it. So the news I’m about to share is especially exciting – Scissortail Park is about to double in size! This September, the lower part of the park will open, bringing the north and south parts of our city even closer together and giving us more of a great thing. And the work to revive Union Station still lies ahead. Meanwhile, MAPS 3 senior wellness centers in far South OKC and Northeast OKC are well underway.
The last two and half years have been a time of planning for MAPS 4, but those plans are soon to yield gold shovels. Look for the first MAPS 4 groundbreakings to come this Fall. No doubt I’ll have much more to say about MAPS 4 in future State of the City addresses, but suffice it to say, no other city in America has a billion-dollar quality of life initiative already committed. As you recall, this MAPS is focused on neighborhood and human needs like never before. We are on track for dramatic parks improvements citywide, youth soccer upgrades, Oklahoma River investments, state-of-the-art youth centers, a fifth senior wellness center, mental health and addiction facilities, a new home for Palomar, the transit investments that I mentioned earlier, sidewalks, bike lanes, trail and streetlights, funding for truly affordable housing to address homelessness, the investments in sports facilities I mentioned, a new animal shelter, a new fairgrounds coliseum, a diversion hub for justice-involved individuals, the Clara Luper Civil Rights Center, beautification along our major corridors, a new multipurpose stadium, the Henrietta B. Foster Center for Northeast Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and major investments at the Innovation District that, by the way, have already jumpstarted the $180 million Convergence development. Most of those projects will include public art, of course. And on top of it all, thanks to innovative planning, we will enjoy perpetual operating and maintenance dollars to support these MAPS 4 projects. Cities across this country would consider any one of the MAPS 4 projects to be a major achievement, and we have 16 such achievements arriving in the decade to come. The older I get, the more I think that looking forward to something is one of my favorite emotions. Well, thanks to MAPS 4, our community gets to enjoy that feeling for another decade.
I mentioned the investment MAPS 4 is making in truly affordable housing to address homelessness. Being America’s 20th-largest city brings challenges and obligations along with opportunity. Homelessness is an issue motivating good works in our city like never before, but these efforts follow many years of commitment.
This chart illustrates the number of people experiencing homelessness each year since 2005 in our city’s annual “Point In Time” count. The most recent number this year was 1,339. As you can see, during a time period where our city’s overall population has grown by 30 percent, the population of those experiencing homelessness has slightly declined or has been held essentially flat. That’s really quite remarkable and a testament to the dedicated people who work in this field and are doing a lot of innovative things.
And in the most recent data available from 2021 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Oklahoma City ranks 82nd among American cities for people experiencing homelessness. Whether you look at us as the 20th-largest city or the 42nd-largest MSA, ranking 82nd in the number of people experiencing homelessness means we are far below the per capita count of our peer cities.
While I am grateful that fewer people experience homelessness here than in other cities our size, I recognize that the overall number doesn’t matter if you yourself are experiencing homelessness or have a family member who is, or if you’re in an area of the city that engages with the population daily. That’s among the reasons why the issue is very much a priority.
Here’s another important data point: 69 percent of the people experiencing homelessness became homeless while living right here in Oklahoma City. Another 14 percent came from a different city in Oklahoma. Only 15 percent of the people experiencing homelessness came from somewhere else. In other words, these folks are us, they are our neighbors. Every human life has value and we know from countless success stories that no matter the challenges facing a person, they can live a life of safety and fulfillment, given the proper support.
Three years ago, I asked a broad group of community leaders – led by Bob Ross and Sue Ann Arnall – to develop a unified strategy for addressing homelessness in our community. That task force delivered its report last year, and combined with the ongoing work of the nonprofit sector, the business and philanthropic communities, city staff and OCPD, and utilizing the $50 million in truly affordable housing coming from MAPS 4, we have every reason to believe we will continue to make progress in meeting this challenge. As our top 20 city continues to grow in the years ahead, this issue will not abate. We will have to stay focused on it.
Our ascension as a city also continues to present opportunities to shine on a global stage, thanks to aspirations we pursued nearly two decades ago. On this point, I am speaking of RiverSport, where we continue to establish Oklahoma City as one of the leading cities in the world for paddlesports, canoe/kayak and rowing. OKC is so established now that when several major events had to be quickly relocated out of Russia, the International Canoe Federation immediately reached out to us. I mean, just let that sink in. Oklahoma City is the go-to place that the world’s canoe/kayakers thought of. Those events will be here the last weekend in August. Several more international events for years to come have also been awarded to us. RiverSport is hosting regional, national and international events all the time. Cities like to brag when they are clearly the best at something. We have long had rightful claims to being the horse show and softball capitals of the world. We’re heading towards being the paddlesport capital of the world. This status also gives us a unique place in the Olympic movement, one of the most important movements in modern civilization. It is a deepening relationship we will continue to pursue in the years ahead.
Public education remains an important issue for America’s 20th-largest city, and we must continue to elevate it. In our form of government, it is separate from City Hall, but we certainly recognize its importance to our future. There is one major effort underway this year you need to know about. The city’s largest district, and the one that covers the center of the city – Oklahoma City Public Schools – faces the many challenges of a large urban school district, and yet historically receives less public tax support for infrastructure than its peer districts in our metro and across the state. Prior to MAPS for Kids in 2001, it had almost no resources at its disposal for infrastructure. The lack of investment before 2001 put the district in an enormous infrastructure hole. The MAPS for Kids assistance of half a billion dollars from the city was a huge boost, and in that time period, OKCPS also got into the routine of passing its own bond issues. But the reality was that MAPS for Kids was a one-time infusion and the rate at which OKCPS was receiving ongoing infrastructure dollars was still far below other districts. We can’t let our city’s largest district fall behind again. OKCPS is preparing a bond issue proposal for voters to consider, perhaps by the end of this year, and this city needs to rally behind it. The Oklahoma Constitution doesn’t do school districts in this state any favors. If they so much as want to replace a broken air conditioner, they have to ask the voters. And they need 60 percent approval. The single most important thing each of us in this community can do for public education this year is support that OKCPS bond issue vote when it comes. It is going to take all of us.
Cities in America rarely ascend as we have without economic diversification. After the experience of the 1980s oil bust and four decades of effort, we now clearly have that diversification. Aerospace, including our ongoing project to expand Tinker, bio, tech, innovation in general are all thriving. The visitor economy continues to take off. Just this week, we had 750 state legislators visit us from around the southern United States. And the film industry continues its growth. Green Pastures in Northeast OKC is doing great work, and as you know, we entered a unique partnership with Prairie Surf Media to turn our old convention center into a production facility. Now, our city is hosting “Tulsa King,” created by Taylor Sheridan with Terence Winter, and starring Sylvester Stallone. Sly just celebrated his 76th birthday last week right here in Oklahoma City.
And we’re seeing real estate development announcements like never before. I mentioned Convergence at the Innovation District earlier, but it is also worth noting that dirt is now moving at the exciting $342 million Chickasaw Nation development around First Americans Museum.
This diversification has led to historically low unemployment. We recently had the lowest unemployment rate on record – 1.6 percent. We have now been below three percent for a full 11 months, the longest such streak since 1999.
As part of this economic success, this top 20 city continues to also strive for inclusive and equitable growth. We continue to see exciting developments along Northeast 23rd. Since we last gathered, 91-year-old Florence Jones Kemp, Victoria Kemp, and Florence’s Restaurant became the first in Oklahoma history to receive one of the most prestigious awards from the James Beard Foundation, and developers announced plans just this week for a boutique hotel to continue growth around the award-winning Eastpoint development. And while we speak of inclusion, it is worth noting that since we last gathered, we also announced the exciting plans to permanently commemorate the city’s historic and groundbreaking sit-in movement, just a few blocks from here. Those sit-ins, led by Clara Luper, were the core of our city’s civil rights movement, and must be appreciated right here in the heart of the city, where they occurred.
We continue to strive for inclusion in everything we do, and as I have detailed here before, we continue to bring more diversity to boards and commissions. As one example, since we last gathered, I made 54 appointments to the MAPS 4 subcommittees. 52 percent of those appointments were women, 41 percent were people of color, including 26 percent of all appointments being Black residents. Meanwhile, our Council will soon consider the restoration of our city’s Human Rights Commission, following two years of task force work. The effort was a response to the historic cry for racial equality in the summer of 2020, and it mirrors similar efforts in cities like Lawton, which created a Race Relations Commission after those events. Tulsa has had a Human Rights Commission for decades, as have most large American cities.
Making sure that everyone is a part of our story is critical as we continue to grow. Top 20 cities are diverse cities. We are now a city that includes people from every life experience and every corner of the world, a fact I acknowledged when I asked Afghan refugee Dr. Feroz Bashari to administer my oath of office in May. America’s great cities celebrate and include their diversity in their narrative, and so shall we.
I became mayor of a city in 2018 that I thought had already arrived. I had lived through the era that began in 1993 and in comparison, I could hardly recognize the city we had in 2018. And yet today, just four years later, I am mayor of a very different city once again. I became Mayor of America’s 27th-largest city and now I am Mayor of its 20th-largest city. People who don’t come here for a couple years invariably say the same thing – “Wow, this city has changed.” The improvement is relentless. Perhaps Dr. Angelo Scott said it best 109 years ago. “It is the law of growth, and we would not wish it otherwise.”
Are we wiser than Angelo Scott’s generation, as he predicted? Happier? Better? Perhaps. We have certainly exceeded his wildest dreams, and those of even more recent dreamers. I believe we are worthy to hear the message that Dr. Scott left us, and we are capable of leaving our own, to fall upon the ears of those listening across the century. Today, I have previewed some of those messages that I hope we will leave in the years ahead.
The state of our city is dynamic, and it is unified. We are setting aside the things that could divide us and we are finding common purpose. We resolve disagreements through discussion and compromise and we move forward as One OKC. We are lucky to live in this time and in this place, in America’s most unified and dynamic city.
Now, let us get to work. It is many years before we are dust. We have big dreams yet to be realized, and messages we must leave. Like Dr. Scott, I salute you. Thank you for this time today and thank you for the honor of being your mayor.