Press - State of the City Address, October 4, 2007

Posted on: October 4, 2007

State of the City Address
Mayor Kathy Taylor October 4, 2007

Thanks Wes for that kind introduction and thanks to each of you for caring enough about the future of your city to join us today.

I must begin by thanking my family their patience and support of me over the past 18 to months, and indeed almost five years as mayor, and secretary of commerce (commuting to and from the state capitol) has been beyond compare. Thanks to my team, the Tulsa Chamber team and the amazing Jack Frank for putting together this event and the video and I appreciate the passionate Tulsa video stars!

My thanks also to Tulsa's 3,700 plus city employees. I could tell you the stories by name of so many who work hard every day to ensure the greatness of our city  and to the more than 600 citizen volunteers who serve on over 50 city boards, commissions and trust authorities.

And thanks to my peers and most important partners mayors and city managers in surrounding communities the Chambers and their great business associates especially thanks to those who dedicate themselves to education higher education, Pre-K through 12, public education, and my thanks to the private foundations who put Tulsa in the TOP of the nation in charitable giving and have supported the efforts of our region from beautification to river development.

This new kind of energy we see everywhere these days is the result of our great community coming together. This quote from Saint Francis of Assisi says best what I believe is happening in Tulsa right now: "Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible".

This ambitious timeline symbolized in those words is what we are doing together, because we know that we are nothing more and nothing less than the respect we show our neighbors the respect we show to each of our neighbors each day.

Each year, the State of the City address sets grand goals for us to accomplish together, goals that stretch us and change us and move us toward a vision of a community united for the very best for our future. In the 18 months since taking office, we have had some dramatic achievements and I would like to take just a few minutes this morning to recall these.

First, there is a new energy of accomplishment in Economic Development.

Our New Downtown Centerpiece

The BOK Event Center despite rising constructions costs we came together for a solution and one year from now an arena worthy of Tulsa's style and forward thinking will open.

A New and Vibrant City Hall

The City employee team we brought together in One Technology Center putting many city buildings back on the tax rolls and allowing for redevelopment. This is the creation of a new front door for our City, which signifies a new energy of growth and optimism.

Aerospace Investment Has Skyrocketed

With city, state and private investments, Spirit, American, Omni, Nordam, Lufthansa, and 300 other aerospace companies have continued to expand helping to keep the Tulsa unemployment rate much lower than the national average.

Entrepreneurism is Growing

The Tulsa Economic Development Commission, led by Larry Mocha, and others, supported my entrepreneurship initiatives by holding Tulsa's first ever entrepreneurship week, announcing, to a standing-room-only crowd at Semgroup's new headquarters, the Mayor's Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, sponsored by Spirit Bank, and received more than 60 business plans for the competition. The winner will be announced next month but truly Tulsa is the winner in this competition.

Jobs are Expanding

With our great partnership with the Tulsa Chamber job announcements from Coca Cola, Capitol One, Gannett and many existing Tulsa companies in all, together with the Tulsa Chamber we added more than 14,000 jobs to our community.

One BILLION Dollar Investment in Tulsa

Sinclair's state-of-the-art expansion of the Tulsa refinery is the largest private capital investment in Tulsa for many years and keeps us in the center of the world marketplace while continuing to foster our oil heritage.

And, We Have Found NEW Solutions to Old Problems

Through the creativity of city employees and the support and leadership of Councilor Carter, the Camelot Hotel a long time eyesore will now be the home to a retail center developed by QuikTrip Corporation.

And thanks to the passion of dedicated city employees and board members of Tulsa Metropolitan Utility Authority, our region has ensured clean water will be available for future generations.

Education accomplishments demonstrate a new energy of creativity.

New education initiates will improve public safety. We all know public safety is most positively impacted through an educated and employed workforce, and there is a direct correlation with crime, poverty, and the drop-out rate. With Tulsa's drop-out rate higher than the state average, decreasing the drop-out rate has been a priority of my administration.

As a result, two great programs were launched by the Mayor's office. First, the "Building A Safer Tulsa" Gang Summit, co-sponsored with U.S. Attorney David O'Melia was held where national experts spent two days working with more than 250 Tulsans on the BEST way to address gang activity. Second, the Mayor's Mentoring to the Max Program partnered with Bank of America, the Junior League, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and others to lead and send more than 100 mentors into high-risk schools last year and we will double that number this year.

And now our firefighters have joined the team with fire stations involved in pilot mentoring programs with their neighborhood schools.

We are meeting and exceeding best practices in education in so many ways. There is a new energy of collaboration in education with two Mayor's Call to Action initiatives.

First, all area educators in K-12 were called together and we shared best practices needed to develop a regional education system of excellence, because we know in this global economy, our workforce must keep us competitive.

Second, for the first time in our history, we brought together representatives from all our institutions of higher education in Tulsa with our pre K-12 leaders an historic collaboration of higher education. They are now ready to bring their resources into public schools to support teachers, students and labor development through curriculum alignment. We know that each child in our region must have access to the highest quality education.

And we know we have a new energy of hope for our kids with the Tulsa Community College (TCC) Tulsa Achieves Scholarship Program  ensuring that EVERY child in Tulsa County graduated from high school with a 2.0 will have the opportunity for a better life  and a two-year degree. This bold move has already changed lives forever and will make dramatic and groundbreaking changes in our labor force.

We lead the nation in Pre-K education. Don't take my word for it. From New York to California, the country is talking about us. We provide our 4-year olds with the best opportunities for jumpstarting their success in education. And we are working to develop the leadership of tomorrow with the Tulsa Youth Council; engaged high school students are getting involved in city government and making a difference.

 We know that the responsibility of education lies not just with our teachers, but in fact it lies with each of us. And for Tulsa and for our region to be successful we need to work together and join our resources to ensure excellence in education is available AND accessible for EVERY child this is imperative.

Public Safety accomplishments demonstrate a new energy in partnerships to insure a safe city.

Neighborfest is opening doors and joining hands. On Tulsa's summer Tuesday nights we have brought together more than 3,000 members of our community out of their cars and their houses and into our city parks. Our goal is to develop relationships, discuss solutions and begin to build a common vision. It's a time to celebrate together as we focus on strengthening and supporting and forming new neighborhood associations; it's a vital partnership to make our neighborhoods safe.

Increased Police protection is working. From Operation Bullet Trap to Operation Safe Cities, there is a growing feeling of safety with an increased police connection with Tulsans and increased visibility downtown. These efforts are coordinated by Officer Jennifer Mansell and over 50 police officers who volunteered to be trained and purchase their own uniforms to form a bike patrol.

Tulsans are providing leadership in the first ever statewide Gang Task Force thanks to the energy of a young man in the Mayor's office Monroe Nichols, with the support and counsel of the U.S. Attorney's Office, District Attorney, Tulsa Police and Sheriff's Department, Department of Corrections, Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa, and many others.

My fellow Tulsans, this new energy we see here in our community, in our city and across our region, in economic development, education, and public safety is a direct result of the positive energy of collaboration, the energy of partnership, and the energy of progress. For what was our city built upon, but energy.

The year ahead will show the energy of change and the energy of moving from the necessary to the possible, to execute and deliver what has been for decades deemed the impossible.

We are proud to have the new Morton Health Care Center but it is not enough, we know access to healthcare in certain parts of our community must continue to be improved.

We know we must complete our streets in a way that speaks to the future of our population  a future that doesn't just depend on cars but allows for bicyclists, wheelchairs, baby strollers and pedestrians AND mass transit.

We know we will have put mentors in high-risk areas with the Mayor's Mentoring to the Max initiative, but we can't stop until we dramatically lower our drop-out rates.

We know that we must work to attract retail to underserved areas of our City. I applaud the work of those in west Tulsa, particularly Councilor Westcott and the Southwest Chamber for executing not just Tulsa Hills, but Tulsa' first Main street program, which is already attracting new retail to west Tulsa.

 We see an energy of change as Tulsan's awake to the responsibility that we must ensure future generations have clean water, clean air and renewable forms of energy on which to rely we have begun by outlining a city energy conservation plan which addresses financial and environmental needs, by working to reopen our city CNG filling stations, and even moving to a new City Hall which will decrease energy use.

There is an energy of accomplishment in Tulsa and an energy of change. But what the next year truly holds is the energy of a future with unlimited promise as we see the dream for Tulsa of the positive and the possible is within our reach.

I know it is possible.

• It is possible with the great civic leadership of Dewey Bartlett and Sharon King Davis to complete our streets.
• It is possible to have a vibrant downtown.
• It is possible to engage and revitalize our neighborhoods one at a time and make them safe in partnership with the city's WIN employees and police and educators.
• It is possible to update our comprehensive plan for our future.
• It is possible to regain and increase the beauty of our city through the efforts of our city employees, Up With Trees, engaged citizens, and the commitment of the Tulsa Beautification Foundation.
• Making Tulsa at the forefront of this nation in every area, so we retain good jobs and attract the creative young workforce needed to fill the jobs of tomorrow is possible.

We have a dream for our future that builds on the success of VISION 2025, and builds on the strength, which lies in the diversity of our population,

As I have met and talked with children, grandparents, business and community leaders and city employees at Neighborfest, in parks, coffee shops and on the street over the past 18 months, I have learned:

• That city employees care deeply about our City and make a difference in our lives
• That Tulsans embrace change and will ALWAYS step forward to help
• That there is more that binds us together than can possibly tear us apart
• That a common set of values runs though us all. It is a thread of hope woven into our existence as a community. We must celebrate our common values, our successes more vibrantly than when we listen to the negative voices
• And I've learned that we must each take responsibility to address deficits to bring every square mile in our community and bring every citizen the same opportunity for the possible, for the dream.

This Centennial year is certainly an opportunity to reflect on our past, but more importantly, it is a moment we can seize to define our future. Make no mistake: it is OURS to define. I need your help. Last year I asked you to make a difference in the life of a child by becoming a mentor. Our need for mentors continues, but today I am asking you to make a difference on a broader scale. Have the courage to help Tulsa move forward, not become stagnant like water with no movement.

Help us one neighborhood at a time get involved in your neighborhood association, get involved in a neighborhood that has challenges by organizing your business, faith or even running group. Spend a Saturday with friends beautifying this city, even plant a tree every chance you get. We must bring back the beauty in our city one neighborhood at a time.

We have come a long way the past 18 months, but working together, the opportunity for us to achieve our dream is unlimited nothing is beyond our reach, if we reach for it together.

We have started by doing what is necessary, then what's possible and now I am confident we will be doing what others have perceived is impossible.

Thank you for the most amazing and humbling opportunity the opportunity to serve you, as your MAYOR.