Any plan to improve north Tulsa needs to have clear goals and be economically based, according to local executive Sam Combs.

Combs, the former president of Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. and now a member of Giant Partners, was the keynote speaker recently at the graduation of Class 2 of the North Tulsa Development Council.

About 25 people participated in the eight-month NTDC. I was one of them.

One day a month, we toured north Tulsa, talked to business people and residents, and studied the history of the area.

It was a diverse group. We had blacks, whites, professionals, nonprofit workers, government employees, small business owners, northside residents and nonresidents.

By the time of our final meeting, we'd laughed, cried, agreed, disagreed, scratched our heads, asked a lot of questions, worked on projects together, shared meals and generally bonded with one another.

We didn't specifically ask Combs to try to tie together everything we'd experienced during the year, but that's what he wound up doing.

"The problems of north Tulsa are substantial," Combs said. "Everyone should understand that we all want a vibrant, robust city. But to do that, any economic development effort must be regional in scope.

"It sounds simplistic, but the payoff would be tremendous."

As we saw firsthand, it's doubtful anyone could drive through north Tulsa and believe it is receiving anything close to a balanced share of interest from developers and investors. There are many reasons for that, we learned.

Fighting stereotypes

One of the most common stereotypes is that north Tulsa is unsafe. But we met with a half-dozen merchants and business owners whose own experience said otherwise.

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be," said Julie Yeabower, who runs Bulldog Film and Video with her husband in the Lansing Industrial Park, 717 E. Marshall St. In fact, she enjoys the area so much that she lives in Reservoir Hill, a nearby housing development.

Even small businesses with heavy foot traffic said the north side worked for them.

To further break down the myths, the Tulsa Police Department offered details that showed south Tulsa, the boom area, has crime problems that are in some ways worse than the north side.

Food an issue

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of some very passionate and proud northsiders, the unflattering image of the area lives on.

One costly result is that the area is a "food desert," or lacking in a variety of grocery stores where nearby residents can get healthy food. Instead, too many meals come from convenience stores or fast-food joints. Add to that a lack of access to health care, and you have a part of town where residents die 14 years younger than the rest of the city's population.

There are hopeful signs, though.

Antonio Perez, a local entrepreneur, opened a large grocery store, Gateway Market, that is developing a steady customer base.

A major medical center, the Wayman Tisdale Specialty Health Clinic, is under construction at 36th Street North and Hartford Avenue. The 44,000-square-foot building, which is expected to open next spring, will offer specialty care, diagnostic testing, outpatient surgery, urgent care and chemotherapy.

The clinic will join other state-of-the-art facilities including Catholic Charities, Tulsa Educare, the W.L. Hutcherson YMCA and the expanded and upgraded Saint Simeon's retirement community.

On the edge of the northern region also is the ONEOK Field baseball park and the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park.

These facilities are bringing a fresh, modern look to the north side, something observers say the area needs.

Along with new bricks and mortar, north Tulsa also needs more educational and skills training opportunities, more jobs that pay higher wages, and in general just more attention from those in any kind of leadership position across the city.

The Race Riot

When I started the NTDC class, the organizers warned us that we "definitely would be taken out of our comfort zone."

Indeed, two of the first speakers on our initial class day were historians A.E. Dunn and Robert Littlejohn. The two men described the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot and included original research that sometimes was at odds with what has become the "official account" of the event.

Their stories and a later viewing of a documentary, "Before They Die," which included interviews with aging riot survivors, made up some of the most emotional moments of the class. Some survivors told harrowing tales of watching family members shot to death or hiding under beds while men set their homes on fire.

Littlejohn, who died a few months after speaking to us, and Dunn prefer to call the riot a "disaster" because of the one-sided result.

And what a result it was. Up until the event, Tulsa had developed a prosperous "Black Wall Street," where there were many successful black-owned businesses of all types. Photos from the time show well-attired men gathered at banks and supply stores, not far from the substantial homes they built for their families.

Blacks were not the only beneficiaries of the financial district. According to Dunn and Littlejohn, some of the early white oil drillers borrowed money on Black Wall Street to begin exploration.

The disaster came, though, and Black Wall Street was burned to the ground. Anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred people - primarily blacks - perished, depending on the account. Most of the pioneering black families lost not only loved ones, but also their homes and all of their accumulated wealth, which in many cases was substantial.

And Tulsa lost part of its uniqueness. The northern part of the city never recovered.

Need for reconciliation

During our class days, the riot/disaster came up over and over again, as it was mentioned by speakers or discussed casually.

Some wondered, what would have happened if there had not been a riot? Would there be dozens more black families among Tulsa's most affluent today? Would an intact Black Wall Street draw history buffs and other tourists? Would the north side have any stigma?

Combs, in his remarks to our class, compared the riot to America's atomic bombing of Japan.

"Dropping those bombs broke the will of the Japanese people," Combs said. "Their leaders were left with the monumental job of trying to rebuild the country, its spirit and the economy. Does this sound familiar?"

What we can learn from the outcome of that event, he said, is that U.S. leaders met on equal terms with Japanese officials and worked out plans for an economic recovery. Those plans became very successful, and Japan soon became the envy of the global economy.

In the case of the Tulsa Race Riot, there has been little economic opportunity offered. Efforts a few years ago to bring financial reparations to survivors and their families failed.

Combs and others noted how the riot generally was not discussed for decades.

"People in north Tulsa were afraid to speak of it - afraid the other shoe might drop - while people in the other parts of town were ashamed to talk about it," the executive said.

"The question for our city is: Why haven't we reconciled? When are we going to reconcile?"

One city

Combs, Dunn, Littlejohn and others seemed to agree on one message: Tulsa is not about black, white, Hispanic and Asian. It's about being one united city - a city that is stronger together than separated.

"All of this is not about who's right and who's wrong," Combs said. "It's like when you have a fight in a family - when is it over? When someone steps forward and says he's sorry."

Tulsa still has an opportunity to get all sides together and go forward. The result could be powerful, Combs says.

"Diversity is cool right now. People want to be involved in it. We need to build partnerships here across boundaries."

What would reconciliation look like? Combs was asked by an NTDC member.

"It would look like this class," he said.

North Tulsa Development Council

Created: 2009

Classes completed: 2

Parent organization: Leadership Tulsa

Committee chair: Thamara Barthelus

Information: 918-477-7079

Original Print Headline: Partnerships needed to ensure north Tulsa's recovery