A week ago, the so-called “panhandling ordinance” dominated the Oklahoma City Council meeting, with several residents taking advantage of the public comment period to voice their concerns.
But during discussion of a separate item on the docket, one resident brought up broader issues of race and community in Oklahoma City. Item IX R would allocate about $2 million from the Northeast Renaissance tax increment finance (TIF) district to the Northeast Shopping Center project along NE 36th Street between Lincoln Blvd. and Santa Fe Ave. The goal is to bring businesses to a lower income, historically African-American section of the city.
Councilman John Pettis, whose Ward 7 includes the project, moved to strike the item from the agenda and add it to the October 13 docket, and thanked developers.
“This redevelopment in the northeast shopping center is definitely a game-changer in northeast Oklahoma City,” Pettis said.
Even though the council voted unanimously to strike the item from the agenda, Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett allowed resident Michael Washington to address the council. He delivered a very passionate address accusing Pettis – the council’s only African-American and minority member – of selling out the community’s interests.
“Why should I have to spend my taxpaying dollars, and yours as well, and promote some rich person, who already has money due to a so-called TIF project, called “tax increment financing.” What a preposterous idea,” Washington said. “And also to put up projects, apartment buildings, that are designed to move the African-American community from their houses into apartment projects like y’all took 2nd Street from us.”
Washington is referring to the Deep Deuce neighborhood that lost much of its character when construction started on Interstate 235, and the balance between economic demands and cultural expectations city council members face.
Pettis told The Journal Record’s Brian Brus he’d like to see a more diverse city council as Oklahoma City diversifies, and the Hispanic population in particular continues to grow.
“It’s better than when the first black member of the city council was appointed,” Journal Record managing editor Adam Brooks said. “That was Charles Atkins, and he was appointed by a court. Pettis also noted that he backs the development because he thinks it's good for the ward, not because it's good for any one ethnicity. He just thinks economic development will help the area as a whole.”
2013 U.S. Census data shows Oklahoma City is about 14.5 percent African-American. With eight wards, plus the mayor, Pettis makes up 11 percent of the decision-making on the council. It’s a slight underrepresentation, based purely on statistics. But Pettis only represents Ward 7, not the needs of the city’s entire African-American community.
Attorney and former city council member Ronald “Skip” Kelly told Brus he felt the same kind of pressure as a public servant, and a lot of people of color see an authority figure as a voice for the entire community:
Kelly said a lot of black residents who went to school or attended church in Ward 7 maintain strong ties to the area. A doctor may live across town in a much larger house but still expect Ward 7 representation because she graduated from Douglass High School, Kelly said. “Sometimes people in other wards felt more comfortable coming to me in Ward 7 just because I was African-American,” Kelly said. “But that doesn’t affect your judgment calls in reference to how they affect the entire city.” Kelly said it might benefit the city to have a few more wards, which would allow greater granularity of racial representation on the council. Pettis doesn’t like the idea of adding wards; it’s more a matter of effective leadership arising regardless of the racial mix of a particular ward, he said. A change may well hinge on finances, Kelly said, because any successful political race requires money and the backing of other influential people. He said smaller wards could help reduce that impact and bring campaigns closer to the neighborhood level.
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