Looking for America (in Tulsa)

Recently, my husband and I visited New York City. We met in New York at law school, and my husband grew up in Manhattan, so the city is quite familiar to us. We wanted to simply roam the city, seeing as much of different neighborhoods as possible. The one touristy activity we did was attending the Tenement Museum in the lower east side. For those who have never been, the Tenement Museum is incredible. The building itself is filled with over a century's worth of wallpaper, paint, graffiti, and other relics of the past. I love old buildings, and the history they present. They are archeological sites that involve, not digging dirt, but scrapping off past histories from the walls. The museum is in the lower east side, an area of New York that, year after year, has housed the current wave of immigrants. To me, this is the real America, the country where poor peasants fled their homes, with nothing but a few bags and hopes of a better life. The America that opened its arms to anyone who had enough initiative to come here. The people who ended up in the lower east side were not famous, and few will ever know their names. But each wave brought something new to America—new tastes, new ideas, new religions. Each new wave pushed our country in a new direction, ensuring that America was constantly changing.

After touring the museum, we wandered through the lower east side, then over to Chinatown and Little Italy, and eventually up to the East Village. It was an eating tour. We dined at a Kosher deli on the lower east side, with some of the best Matzo ball soup I have ever had (many apologies to my mother-in-law). We had cannoli's and espresso in the little Italy. And finally, a dinner at a wonderful Indian restaurant on 6^th Street in the East Village. Diversity in a city creates so many opportunities. You can see it in its food--each immigrant brought their own to New York. The unique smells and flavors waft through the streets, and people, who have never even left the city, suddenly discover something new. Tastes and foods from India to China to Mexico are remixed to create something distinctly American. Like food, new ideas and new ways of thinking come with the immigrants. And anytime you bring together large groups of diverse people to interact, you are likely to get new ideas, new approaches. As I said before, cities are like chemical reactions, and the more diverse the chemicals, the more likely you are to get a reaction.

I wish Tulsa did more to highlight its diverse population. For such a small city, we do have a good deal of diversity, but it's spread out, without visible signs. Unlike large cities, we have no Chinatown. No Italian flags conveying this is where to stop for a pastry. Not even a Market Square, like San Antonio, lined with brilliantly colored Mexican goods. These places make you feel transported, as though you have traveled to an exotic country while not really leaving your home. I suspect that Tulsa doesn't have a large enough population of any one group to create a neighborhood. Perhaps then the solution would be to have an "international" neighborhood. Create a global street downtown devoted to ethnic stores and restaurants, a place where Tulsans can go to experience unique cultures. Obviously, I wouldn't suggest that any restrictions be placed upon who could open a business in a given location, but perhaps through incentives, we could encourage entrepreneurs to open businesses that reflected their heritage.

It also would be nice to have some sort of international festival, one that is outdoors, and involves as many nationalities as possible. I know that we already have some great ethnic festivals, and I wouldn't want to detract from those. And Tulsa Global Alliance does a wonderful job with Kids' World, but that is really designed for kids, and doesn't offer much food. A weekend devoted to music, food, and crafts from different parts of the world would certainly be something I would attend.

Growing up

Much has been said about Blake Ewings recent blog, "Grow up, Tulsa." There are many things to like about it, especially its focus on the unique aspects of Tulsa, and the call on leaders to celebrate those aspects, instead of trying to become something Tulsa is not. I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment.

However, his premise that Tulsa can be like other cities, such as Austin and Portland, if we all just get on the same page and stop bickering really alarms me. In my experience, when someone says we all need to get on the same page, what they really mean is that we all need to agree with him or her. And the idea that other cities don't have their share of petty squabbles and political wranglings is naïve and myopic. As I wrote previously, political struggles are as old as Moses. It is simply human nature to fight for your cause. Tulsa is not unique in that aspect.

Quite frankly, it is the political systems in which we hear no dissent that should alarm us. When we hear fighting, we know that everyone has a voice in the process; when we hear nothing, we should worry that people are being silenced. Some of the biggest mistakes we have made as humans have been the result of "group think." In his blog, Mr. Ewing says that we need to ignore the "few angry idiots" who show up to protest something new. Not only do I find that elitist, I find it quite dangerous and un-American. Like the lone Chinese student standing up to a tank, we love the individual who fights the good fight. As a Planning Commissioner, we frequently get a "few angry idiots" who come to protest something. And while I may disagree with them, and even vote against them, I have tremendous respect for those people who believe with all their heart they are fighting for their city, for their homes. And sometimes, though admittedly not often, it is the lone dissenter that in hindsight proves to be correct. Among those "few angry idiots", you never know who might be the next Jane Jacobs or the next child who sees the emperor has no clothes.

So then, how is Tulsa to "grow up" as Mr. Ewing implies? Part of the problem I see is the assumption that somehow great cities are "grown up." Cities, like people, should never be grown but should be constantly growing, changing and evolving. To "grow up" connotes an ending, not a process. What we need to determine is how we can continue evolving as a city instead of stagnating. While bickering is normal, it must move us forward, must produce new ideas and compromises. But it is actually the bickering that produces something new. Think of the city as a large chemical reaction: when the chemicals are frozen and still, they are the least likely to react. When heated, the atoms move quicker, badgering and bumping each other, until something new is formed. We need to figure out, not how to all get on the same page, but how the bumping and badgering will produce something new. I don't presume to know where our city needs to go; it will go where the entire city pushes it, and I am just one person in that process. But I do have some ideas of how people can help that process. Here are my suggestions.

1. Engage in the process. What the city needs is more, not less, voices. Whether it's PlaniTulsa, the next election, or your local school's PTA, we all have something to add, including you. If no one is listening, talk louder.
   
2. Fight passionately for what you believe, but always remember you could be wrong. When we become rigid, we stop growing as individuals and as a city. The problem I see is not that our city is fighting; it's that we aren't listening to each other. Couples don't break up because of a fight; they break up because they don't care what the other has to say. Listen to the other side, take what is good about their argument, and redefine your position. Do this again and again.
   
3. Never reject something just because it's new and unfamiliar. Be excited about novel ideas and approaches, constantly willing to try something different. Ironically—and at the risk of offending my parents—it is often grownups who are often least likely to accept change.
   
4. Celebrate the discord, and be proud of Tulsa's diverse points of view. Austin and Portland didn't get where they are by all being on the same page. In fact, what makes them great cities is the fact that they celebrate the individual, and include them in the process. It is wonderful that so many people care so deeply about this city. After all, it is the cacophony of competing ideas and points of view that slowly become the symphony of the city.

The first step is to admit we have a problem

Ask just about anyone in Tulsa and they will tell you that City Hall is a mess. Open the paper, and yet another chapter in the saga of our city government unfolds. Given the daily dramatics, it isn't surprising to hear the drumbeat to change our current form of government. But what you don't hear is any careful analysis as to whether the current system is actually causing the current problems in our government. We all know that correlation does not prove causation (i.e., just because two things happen at the same time doesn't mean one caused the other). Yet many seem so quick to lay blame at our city's form of government. Perhaps we first need to actually define what the problem is. Just saying something is a "mess" doesn't really get you anywhere.

People will disagree about specifics of the problem in City Hall—some would argue that there is too much "ward" politics; some would say the Mayor's behavior is the source of the problems; some would say that City Council is acting outside of the Charter. We can all agree, though, that at its core the problem is that our elected officials are fighting too much, and that the discord has reached such an extent that day-to-day operations are affected.

So, the big revelation is that our elected officials are not getting along. Wow. How is this any different from the rest of our country? Not for the first time, the Federal government is on the verge of being shut down because of fighting between the President and Congress. As for state governments, we all recently witnessed Wisconsin's civil war. This is nothing new. From the time governments were formed, there was fighting, political wrangling, and struggles to gain more power. It is why people go into politics. If you believe that you are the best person to run a city, state, or country, then you must believe passionately about what is right and wrong. You must have a strong conviction on how things should be done, and a strong desire to lead your city/state/country. And people who are passionate about their beliefs fight for them, as they should.

Why, then, are we so shocked that our city government is no different? And if we believe that the disruptions in City Hall justify a change to our form government, shouldn't we also consider changing our state and federal government?

I'm not saying that we should just accept the fighting. I'm just saying that changing governmental systems because of fighting is like changing clothes because you have a fever.

Introduction

I'm a boom-a-rang Tulsan. If you don't know what that means, I grew up here, moved away in college, and stayed away for many years but then came back to my hometown. I moved back to Tulsa in 1999—one year before the new millennium. While I was away, I lived in various other cities, including New York, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Dallas, and Alexandria, Virginia. I loved those cities, but they weren't home. Something about Tulsa called me back, and so my husband, a native New Yorker, & I came back here to raise our kids and live our lives. When I try to explain the appeal of Tulsa to my friends who still live in big cities, who live high-paced adventurous sleepless cities, I simply say, "life in complicated; Tulsa is easy." Sometimes we just need things to be simpler.

When I first moved back here, I had no interest whatsoever in local politics. It seemed so dull. I was still living with an east coast, big city mentality pretending that keeping up on the latest in the former eastern bloc counties was somehow more important to my life than the election of my city councilor. Then someone decided to knock down three houses in my neighborhood and replace them with a surface lot. Our home, at that time, was in the Yorktown historic district. For those who live in a historically zoned district, you know that there are some inconveniences—you must get approval before you make most changes to your home to ensure that those changes are consistent with the historic character of the neighborhood. So your storm door and windows must comply with certain standards. For the life of me, I could not figure out how a surface parking lot could in any way be consistent with the historic nature of our 1920's neighborhood of bungalows. It was then that I had my crash-course on local politics.

Since then, I've become much more immersed in local issues. I have served on the Planning Commission and the Preservation Commission. I was significantly involved in PlaniTulsa, and helped in several local campaigns. As my term on the Planning Commission nears its end, and Tulsa approaches an enormous turning point this fall, I have decided to take some time to write down my thoughts. I believe that the city needs more avenues to discuss and reflect upon issues that directly affect citizens. I hope that my blog provides one such avenue.