Empower yourself and your city

Hundreds of people at a workshop earlier this year covered giant maps of Tulsa with ideas for boosting job growth, improving transportation and enhancing neighborhoods.

As I looked around the room at the participants at the PLANiTULSA public workshop, I was uplifted by their enthusiasm to help create our city's next comprehensive plan.

They replaced abandoned factories and salvage yards with high-tech industry and research centers. They brainstormed a better transit system and offered retail and commercial solutions for underserved areas of the city. I was encouraged to see so many young people involved, as well as a racially diverse crowd.

We all went home feeling good about the opportunity to provide input. But our work is not done. In fact, we are now in the most critical phase of the planning process. Residents have until June 18 to complete a survey about the four scenarios that were developed as a result of the public workshops.

The scenarios incorporate common themes that emerged from the 10 workshops that attracted more than 1,500 participants. Tulsans said they wanted to create more jobs, concentrate new growth in the city's core and provide more options for all age groups.

Each scenario tells a different story for the future of Tulsa. They show how different land use and transportation patterns determine where people work, live and play and how they get around town. Each scenario leads to different lifestyles, opportunities and community experiences.

This all sounds

great, but what does it really mean and how will it happen? There are certainly reasons to be skeptical of the process. Tulsa, and especially the north Tulsa community, has seen a number of grand plans come and go without much to show.

How is this plan different?

[Read the Marla Mayberry editorial at Tulsa World]