Mayor of Tulsa

Tulsa has approached each new challenge during the past year as an opportunity to advance as a globally competitive, world-class city. Our goals are to strengthen public safety, create opportunity and build the city we want to leave to the next generation.

For a direct impact on public safety, we are focusing on retention and recruitment for the Tulsa Police Department. After recently increasing pay for our current police officers, we also are working to hire more officers. To help accomplish this goal, we have added $15,000 stipends for police academy graduates to address our current shortage.

As another enhancement to our public safety strategy, we are implementing a Real Time Information Center at City Hall, to observe data from cameras that monitor areas and can identify a crime occurring. After seeing initial success with license plate readers helping us recover stolen vehicles and arrest key suspects, we expect the Real Time Information Center to help move law enforcement to an even higher level in Tulsa.

We also have strengthened our Tulsa Fire Department, now fully staffed and increasing its effectiveness with an added fire station — the new Station 33 — supporting our ongoing efforts to ensure Tulsans receive timely service, keeping with TFD’s Insurance Services Office rating of No. 1. Also last year, we approved the largest pay increase in City of Tulsa history for the Tulsa Fire Department — an increase that will help retain great firefighters and attract the next generation of firefighters to our city.

Creating opportunity in Tulsa starts with the basic need of having a place to live. To combat homelessness and improve housing availability in Tulsa, this year we are launching three initiatives. The first is to open a low barrier shelter to provide facilities for those who cannot utilize existing shelter facilities. Second, we will work with the faith community to certify religious facilities throughout Tulsa as emergency shelters during extreme weather. Third and most important is the Tulsa Housing Challenge, a goal for our community to spur and support over $500 million in the next two years in total housing investment across the city. Recently completed through extensive community engagement with north Tulsa residents, the Kirkpatrick Heights and Greenwood Master Plan is set to restore opportunity for north Tulsans to decide on uses for land where the 1921 Race Massacre occurred and where Urban Renewal cleared the land decades later. This plan is a vision for development on 56 acres of publicly owned land in Kirkpatrick Heights and Greenwood — a plan that is expected to result in a mix of uses and will serve as a model for equitable and inclusive development.

Building Tulsa for ourselves and for the next generation, we marked notable milestones for Vision Tulsa projects in the past year. The Hardesty National BMX Stadium has opened in the Greenwood District. A new Gilcrease Museum also is under construction after a historic groundbreaking last year. This will be a space worthy of Gilcrease’s priceless collection, one of the major assets owned by the citizens of Tulsa.

Our city’s achievements have been made possible through the support of many Tulsans. I want to thank everyone in our community for working together to help move Tulsa forward.

G.T. Bynum Mayor of Tulsa