Too many residents find themselves disconnected from city services and information about what’s happening in neighborhoods and at our local level of government.

With a second term, I’ll work with our city manager to secure funding to foster community outreach, create neighborhood associations where none exist, and provide additional resources to existing associations so they can thrive. Different than homeowner organizations, neighborhood associations provide opportunities for everyone from students, workers, and seniors to focus on community events and advocacy.

This funding is critical, so communities have a voice in implementing MAPS4, particularly its parks, community gardens, and youth center projects. With this funding, we can better connect residents to services, city departments, and leadership training. Same with our historic commercial district organizations.

This work can create a sense of belonging, collaboration, connection, cooperation, friendship, giving back, knowledge, stewardship, service, and home.

I’ll continue hosting Ward 2 meetups, where residents can visit one-on-one with City staff about remaining MAPS 3 projects, upcoming Better Streets, Safer City infrastructure improvements, MAPS4, 2023’s Bus Rapid Transit, updates regarding my public safety resolution initiatives, and our next general obligation bond.

When the pandemic began, many Ward 2 residents found recreation, reflection, and rest in neighborhood parks. After my council and teaching responsibilities shifted to virtual, I worked from home for a year, and I biked daily after work from my Paseo apartment to MAPS 3’s Scissortail Park for exercise and mental health care. Like many of you, I discovered infrastructure needs in even our most beautiful parks.

Fortunately—with MAPS4—we dedicated $69.6 million to existing neighborhood parks. With a second term, I’ll connect residents with our city’s parks department, Ward 2’s parks commissioner, and our ward’s MAPS4 representative, so we can learn about neighborhood needs. Such improvements could include activity facilities, bathrooms, furnishings, paths, playground equipment, shade structures, signage, splash pads, and trees.

This MAPS4 parks project also includes $500,000 for community gardens, so we can build on students’ work across our ward to provide healthier food for our people. With a second term, I’ll connect MAPS4’s community gardens project to existing operators, so we can share knowledge and best practices.

This parks project also provides $500,000 for outdoor basketball and pickleball courts and $16.5 million for an operations and maintenance fund toward these improvements.

While MAPS4’s parks projects represent an important investment in neighborhoods and quality of life, students and families continue to face a crisis in education. Sadly—even prior to the pandemic—Oklahoma reported America’s highest trauma statistics, and we remain number one regarding Adverse Childhood Experience scores. According to ACE studies, the rougher your childhood—think abuse, domestic violence, food insecurity, and neglect—the higher your score. A higher score leads to increased risk for mental health issues and physical health problems.

As OKC’s first teacher on council, I prioritized our children and neighborhoods, because we know from Stanford economic research every year a child spends in a better environment makes them less likely to have a teenage pregnancy, more likely to go to college, more likely to earn more as an adult, and more likely to have stable family situations.

We also know from this research our “worst-performing neighborhoods are correlated with segregation, income inequality, single-parent families, poor schools, and lack of social cohesion.”

Thankfully, from this research, we also know good government, “can effectively begin to boost mobility by investing in and fixing those neighborhoods.”

Though state government is responsible for education funding, I left my job as an OKCPS middle school college preparation teacher to represent Ward 2 on council, so I could craft MAPS4 to include $118 million for at least four new youth centers. With youth centers, we’ll provide OKC’s students a creative, safe place when school isn’t in session—a support system where they’ll thrive, particularly students from underfunded, underrepresented, and historically marginalized communities.

As Ward 2 councilor, I also made sure MAPS4’s youth centers include access for students and their families to mental health care and operators with knowledge of best practices related to healing from Adverse Childhood Experiences.

Currently, I’m working to connect Ward 2 students with MAPS4’s Citizens Advisory Board and MAPS4’s Neighborhood subcommittee, so our youth have a voice in implementing this critically important MAPS4 project.

I’ll also work to bring performing arts, theatre, and film production opportunities to students and their families in these youth centers, so we can provide support systems fostering creativity and possible future careers.

Importantly, I’ll continue work with Ward 2’s schools and OKC’s Youth Council to develop ways to connect students to free tuition programs at career techs and community colleges. We continue to face an education crisis, and we have a potential to address employment needs and vacancies in our various city departments, particularly as we work to implement MAPS4 and remaining Better Streets, Safer City projects.

During my first campaign, a majority of Ward 2 residents prioritized making our neighborhoods more walkable, advocating for sidewalks lined with streetlights, trees, and bike lanes, ADA-accessible enhancements to our ward’s existing infrastructure, and traffic calming improvements.

I campaigned on this vision to honor the history of our city’s oldest commercial district outside of downtown, Ward 2’s Paseo—a place celebrating its centennial this decade and designed at first as a walkable neighborhood with sidewalks guiding residents to their daily needs in a centralized area safe for pedestrians and people riding bikes as transit. Unfortunately, local government let walkable neighborhoods become a long-ignored priority for decades until my predecessor, Sam Bowman, championed including $7 million for sidewalks in 2009’s MAPS 3.

As councilor, I worked with residents and Councilwoman Hamon to honor this history, creating MAPS4’s $96.5 million investment in Sidewalks, Bike Lanes, Trails, and Streetlights, so students, workers, and seniors can navigate their neighborhoods and city safely. With a second term, I’ll steward implementation of these infrastructure improvements. I’ll continue working with our Planning Department to implement MAPS4’s sidewalks and bike infrastructure projects, specifically using BikeWalkOKC, our city’s pedestrian and cyclist guide.

I’ll also work with our Parks and Utilities Departments to identify parks, neighborhood roads, arterial streets, and trails most in need of trees for shade. With MAPS4’s funding for streetlights, I’ll also work with city staff and OG&E to identify parks, neighborhood roads, and arterial streets in our ward most in need of additional streetlights for safety.

2017’s Better Streets includes streetscape improvements for historic commercial districts across Ward 2, including 39th Street, Paseo Arts District, and Uptown 23rd. Our 39th Street placemaking project concludes in 2022.

This streetscape work also includes upcoming placemaking improvements to Walker Avenue from NW 23rd to NW 36th Street, North Portland along Will Rogers Park between NW 23rd and NW 36th Street, Shartel between NW 23rd and NW 50th, and NW 50th between Western and I-235. With a second term, I’ll continue work with nearby residents and city staff to steward implementation of these improvements.

Building on placemaking projects in Better Streets, I worked with residents and Councilor Hamon to craft MAPS4’s streetscape improvements for Britton District, Windsor District, Capitol Hill, Stockyards, and Clara Luper Corridor.

Potential placemaking improvements include wider sidewalks for pedestrians, traffic calming, streetlights, bike lanes, landscaping, trees, public art, and sustainable infrastructure. With a second term, I’ll steward implementation of these infrastructure improvements and work with residents to learn about district needs.

With a second term, I’ll also work to craft additional placemaking investments in our upcoming general obligation bond. To prepare for our upcoming general obligation bond package, I’ll work with residents and Planning to make sure we continue to address additional sidewalk, bike infrastructure, streetlight, tree, ADA-accessibility, and historic commercial district needs in Ward 2.

2017’s Better Streets, Safer City includes Bus Rapid Transit service. Starting Fall 2023, Northwest Rapid will provide public transportation from covered bus stations every 15-20 minutes—7 days a week—for the first time in OKC’s history. This service builds on OKC’s past, running from downtown along our old streetcar route on Classen Boulevard, travelling west on NW Expressway, and turning around at Expressway and Meridian at a new park-and-ride near Lake Hefner.

Northwest Rapid also will include:
➡️ sidewalks along Classen and NW Expressway
➡️ wide crosswalks at intersections along Classen and NW Expressway
➡️ covered, well-lit stations with enhanced stops, which means level boarding for universal access, boarding, and alighting
➡️ real-time arrival information at each station
➡️ upgraded seating and lighting for enhanced comfort
➡️ wi-fi throughout the bus
➡️ fare collection via our mobile app, Token Transit, or via kiosks located on each platform
➡️ provide reliable, frequent service, thanks to the implementation of traffic signal prioritization

With a second term, I’ll continue to steward implementation of this project.

Moreover, I worked with Mayor Holt and Councilor Hamon to make sure MAPS4 expands Ward 2’s Northwest Rapid with two new BRT routes, connecting downtown to South Side and Northeast OKC—think Capitol Hill, Adventure District, Ralph Ellison Library, Springlake Metro Tech, OKC Zoo and Science Museum, Tinseltown, Cowboy Hall of Fame, and OKC County Health. As a transit trustee and second-term councilor, I’ll steward implementation of these projects.

MAPS4 also converts most of our existing stops to covered bus shelters. With a second term, I’ll steward these MAPS4 transit project, as well.

Because of our work, we’ll have our city’s first reliable public transit system when MAPS4 concludes in a decade, better connecting residents, neighborhoods, and our historic commercial districts.

During my first term, I also worked with Mayor Holt, my transit board, former Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry, OKC Public Schools Foundation CEO Mary Melon, and five metro-area cities to create our first-ever Regional Transportation Authority of Central Oklahoma. Our goal is to connect Edmond, OKC, Tinker Air Force Base, and Norman with commuter rail, enhanced bus service, and modern streetcars. With a second term, I’ll continue our work to connect our metro area to Ward 2.

With a second term, I’ll continue to advocate doubling our existing bus fleet and doubling our public transportation budget, so all city buses arrive every 15 minutes, provide service until later at night, operate additional routes, and serve more of OKC. Fifteen minutes or less is the industry standard for a reliable transit system, and we can achieve this goal with a dedicated revenue source for public transportation.

At our 2022 council budget workshop, Public Works requested a dedicated revenue source for funding street maintenance, and we should prioritize this need.

2017’s Better Streets invested a historic $800 million in street improvements. I’ll continue to steward the implementation of these projects. However, Public Works estimates nearly $1.5 billion remains to address OKC’s street resurfacing needs.

With a second term, I’ll advocate for a dedicated funding source for street maintenance and transit operations—similar to our dedicated sales tax for public safety, our airport, and zoo. This funding source should include also street cleaning, traffic calming improvements, and landscape maintenance along major corridors. We’ve delayed this work for decades, and it is time we make this item a priority.

Moreover, our next general obligation bond package should also prioritize a major investment in street maintenance needs, and I’ll work with residents and city staff so it does.

I’ll bring Public Works together with residents in a second term to identify neighborhoods and arterial streets most in need for resurfacing and lane re-striping, so they’re up for consideration as additional funding becomes available and in our next general obligation bond package.

Along with resident input, Public Works will utilize improved data collection technology tools to provide further understanding of street maintenance needs and rely on updates to our local Pavement Condition Index.

We should also create a funding source for a proposed speed abatement program, specifically providing residents with traffic calming options in their neighborhoods.

OKC faces a housing crisis. As a community, we’re confronting this crisis with compassion, determination, best practices, MAPS4 funding, and recommendations from Mayor Holt’s two-year long Homelessness Task Force. I served on this task force with respected and knowledgeable community members, service providers, advocates, and—with a second term—I’ll steward implementation of MAPS4’s investments and the task force’s recommendations.

During my first term in office, we also dedicated $55.7 million for homelessness in MAPS4, as per a request from Homeless Alliance and our Fair Housing Authority, where they can leverage these funds for $400 million in permanent supportive housing and replenishing our existing public housing inventory, specifically to address our city’s housing shortage. This “housing first” approach also allows homelessness agencies to better connect those experiencing housing insecurity to human needs services and case management social workers, who work with these folk to prevent them from falling back into this cycle.

With our 2022 city budget, we also approved A Better Way, OKC’s new groundbreaking employment program offering beautification work to people who panhandle.

With a second term, I’ll continue to advocate additional funding for A Better Way and further funds to hire additional case management workers, so these professionals can provide a necessary support system for permanent supportive housing residents. This funding should also include hiring more street outreach workers, so service providers can meet unhoused residents across our city, build trust with those in need, and connect them to services and housing. This funding is critical, if we’re serious about a successful “housing first” approach to addressing homelessness.

With a second term, I’ll also advocate addressing our recent Affordable Housing Study, where we learned—from 2010-2019—we have 19,400 residents in need of 1-2 bedroom housing units and only 3,600 available units. At the same time, we only have 7,000 residents in need of 3-5 bedroom housing units, 21,700 available units and—disturbingly—too many developers have built this type of housing mostly along the outer rung of our city.

With a second term, then, I’ll work with city staff to identify, preserve, and rehab Ward 2’s existing 1-2 household housing inventory, and I’ll work to secure funding to build this type of housing for our people, focusing especially on our median-income workforce such as teachers, public health workers, and our service industry employees—i.e. baristas, bartenders, servers, etc. We’ll do the same for our 3-5 household housing inventory. I’ll work so our next general obligation bond addresses this critical $1 billion housing need.

Our city should also purchase Ward 2’s existing dilapidated historical landmarks, rehab them, and convert them into housing, mixed-use developments, and cultural centers for surrounding communities.

As we address our housing needs, we should provide incentives for public service workers, particularly considering our public safety, public health worker, and teacher shortage.

If we don’t address this attainable, affordable housing crisis in our city, we’ll find many of our residents facing homelessness and falling into a hard-to-break cycle of housing insecurity, homelessness, and poverty.

Moreover, I’ll work to secure further funding for our existing down payment assistance program, further funding for our existing financial literacy and homeownership program, and incentives for developers to build missing middle-income housing.

Following local protests during Summer 2020 resulting from the police-involved murder of George Floyd, OKC City Council voted unanimously to approve a resolution I authored with municipal attorneys to create a working group of local residents, hire a consultant specializing in community policing research, and, working together, conduct a study on six public safety policy proposals.

Specifically, this resolution results from attending trauma-informed police training, use-of-force training, reality-based training, and police ride-alongs with both Ward 2 police divisions—all at my request after taking office. This resolution results also from community engagement, discussions with fellow councilors, conversations with Chief Gourley, and discussions with City Manager Freeman.

With our most recent budget, council approved 1.3 million dollars toward investing in those six proposals, including an initial $300,000 investment in an alternative response to mental health calls. For the first time in OKC History, we’re also hiring street outreach teams with mental health professionals and case managers to respond to those experiencing homelessness, connect unhoused residents to services, and place them in housing, as available —a best practice which helped reduce Houston’s homeless population by 63 percent.

For eighteen months following the protests, residents volunteered their time and worked with city staff and our consultant to serve on my resolution’s working group, Councilor Nice’s Human Rights Commission Task Force, and Mayor Holt’s Law Enforcement Task Force, which focuses on de-escalation policy, rethinking OKCPD’s citizens advisory board, and revisiting the accountability process surrounding police misconduct. I served on Mayor Holt’s task force.

The final recommendations appearing before council are the result of that work and hours of community outreach and input.

With a second term, I’ll provide accountability for my public safety resolution’s initiatives and the recommendations from Councilwoman Nice’s and Mayor Holt’s respective task forces.

I’ll continue to steward drainage improvements from 2017’s Better Streets, Safer City.

Unfortunately, Public Works estimates current drainage needs at around $500 million, and our current funding for drainage projects doesn’t meet this need. With a second term, I’ll work to make sure our next general obligation bond package addresses drainage infrastructure improvements in a substantial manner and with an emphasis on sustainability.

With a second term, I’ll work with our Office of Sustainability to learn more about sustainable infrastructure needs facing our city, so we can prepare projects for our next general obligation bond package. I’ll connect residents doing similar work with city staff, so they can add their voice and knowledge to this conversation.

Since March 2020, our city has faced a historic global public health care crisis. From its start, I prioritized public health and science, advocating for social distancing, N-95 masks, COVID-19 tests, personal protective equipment for our frontline and health care workers, and contact tracing. At council, I authored a resolution and fought to secure $122 million in federal funding to make up for lost revenue facing our city due to COVID-19, specifically for public health, infrastructure, and community needs.

With Councilors Nice and Hamon, I co-hosted well-attended virtual town halls with doctors, eviction experts, legal aid providers, mental health professionals, etc. to educate residents on the pandemic and connect people to everything from food, rental, small business, venue, non-profit, and utilities assistance.

During the height of the Delta variant in Fall 2021—before a vaccine existed for children—I advocated at council for a mask ordinance to keep our schools open and safe, and protect our students.

Working together with public health officials, we have the tools we need going forward to live our lives safely. We’ll prioritize vaccines to keep our economy and schools open—to protect our children. We’ll invest the $122 million we received from the federal American Recovery Program in our city’s public health, infrastructure, and community needs. We’ll focus on preventative, emergency support programs to prevent our workforce from facing eviction and falling into homelessness.