Jumping the lizard

Solving some of Tulsa’s weightiest issues requires long-term perspective

Carlos Moreno grew up in San Jose, Calif., and got his start in a computer lab during the early years of the Silicon Valley boom. He moved to Tulsa in 1998 to be with his future wife and later opened Toy Drum, a graphic design company that developed websites for several successful Tulsa businesses, Kathy Taylor’s 2006 mayoral campaign, Vision 2025 and other government-related topics. His work on Taylor’s campaign set Moreno on track to become one of the sharpest civic-minded young people in Tulsa. He’s now a graphic designer for the Community Action Project, president of the grassroots organization TulsaNow and a leader of Code for Tulsa. 

The Tulsa Voice: First, tell us more about Code for Tulsa. 

Carlos Moreno: We’re a local brigade of Code for America. It’s all about taking public data and making it more accessible for everyone. And when you get to start thinking about that, that’s a lot of stuff. It’s fire, it’s police, it’s infrastructure, it’s water, it’s sewer, it’s land, and everything that land entails. And it’s pollution, and recycling, and mental health, and homelessness, and benches and sidewalks and parks and—just keep goin’.

For example, the mayor said [at the Nov. 24 sidewalk forum], “Let’s make an informed decision [about the Gathering Place sidewalk] rather than a decision based on speculation.” So, if you take the mayor at his word, then the next question is, “OK, if you want to make an informed decision, what data do you need? And how can someone like Code for Tulsa help provide that data and analyze it, and help the city make an informed decision?”

TTV: So Code for Tulsa is a resource for the public, the media, city officials—anyone?  

CM: All of the above. And it marries very nicely with TulsaNow, because TulsaNow is also about civic engagement. The things that we fight for at TulsaNow are transportation, which is one of the No. 1 issues that face low-income families. Housing choices. Homelessness. Social justice. TulsaNow tries to look at the bigger picture. How can we as a city improve these things? Same with Code for Tulsa—what information can citizens access, or what government services can be made easier, to help the people who need it most? 

TTV: On top of those two volunteer involvements, you work full-time at the Community Action Project. And the depth of analysis you’re doing on the TulsaNow blog requires a lot of brainpower. How do you have time for all this stuff? 

CM: I don’t play video games [laughs] and I don’t watch sports. I read the 400-page City of Tulsa budget for fun. That’s—I don’t know—

TTV: You’re into it. 

CM: I’m into it. Yeah. So you make time. You find the time. Because you love it. 

TTV: Between the sidewalk and homelessness, Turkey Mountain and issues of land use, it feels like Tulsans are dealing with some really fundamental questions right now. These issues appear to be separate, but—

CM: It’s all connected. 

TTV: I felt that at the sidewalk forum. Sure, it’s about the sidewalk, but it also seems to be something much deeper we’re talking about.   

CM: It’s about who’s welcome in this neighborhood. We’re growing, and these are growing pains. 

TTV: Speaking of growing neighborhoods and who’s welcome in them, we seem to be at a crossroads with how to address homelessness—especially downtown.

CM: [Some organizations estimate] there are roughly 4,000 homeless people in Tulsa. That’s a manageable problem. You can solve that for about $20 million, I think. [With the Tulsa Housing and Recovery Program in 2009] we threw $2 million at the problem, building permanent supportive housing. And it worked really well. So, if we can build houses for a few dozen homeless people, then let’s just multiply—let’s just scale that. It can’t be that hard. 

TTV: Say you have $20 million. What’s the first step?

CM: I would put at least $15 million into permanent supportive housing. Don’t have a house? We’ll build it for you. I mean, how do you solve homelessness? Give people a home. I know that sounds like something that my 7-year-old came up with, but it works. And it’s proven. And you can look at reports and statistics and data and all that stuff that says that it works. And I’d take at least the other $5 million, if not more, and increase the services that we have for mental health, and probably combine the two programs.

So, if we can get you better, great. If we can’t, we’ll support your housing. This is an open book test. We know the answers. We know what works. 

TTV: Well, what are we doing? 

CM: I don’t know what we’re doing. We’re spending $647 million on streets. That’s what we’re doing. $36 million of that $647 million is for one mile of road. It’s between 81st and 91st on Yale. So what’s our priority as a city? One mile of a road, or solving homelessness? I vote solving homelessness. I know the people on that road probably would say the road. But, you know, the nine people who are in Maple Ridge don’t want a sidewalk. I don’t know—it’s the tail wagging the dog.

TTV: Are you hopeful? 

CM: I am. I think these are conversations the city hasn’t had in decades that I’m seeing more and more of. I think five years ago TYPros might have been too afraid to step into that conversation [at the sidewalks forum], and now [they] were the first people to speak. They voted unanimously in support. I don’t know how many thousands are in the TYPros, but these are the people that ONEOK and BAMA and Williams and QuikTrip and everybody is saying, “If we don’t attract and retain these people, we’re sunk.” And the organization that is the organization to attract and retain young professionals says we want a frickin’ sidewalk. I’m hoping that resonates with whoever’s pulling the strings. Maybe not the Mayor, but—

TTV: Based on the similarity of his closing remarks to how he opened the forum two hours earlier, I’m not sure he was listening. 

CM: He wasn’t. Right. So, what’s it going to take? I don’t know. But, the conversation happened, and it was an incredibly well-reasoned, informative, multi-faceted discussion. And we’re seeing more and more of that.

TTV: Young people—and people of all ages—are starting to take more of a seat in Tulsa and talk about what kind of city we want to be. It feels like an important moment.

CM: I think it is. I wrote this blog post last January called “Believe,” on TulsaNow. And it was kind of about that. It was about, do we believe that we can be all the things that we say? Do we believe it? We’re saying that Tulsa can be this great place. We have the answers. We have the policies. We have the staff—the planning staff and the staff at INCOG are phenomenal brains—we have it. We have everything. We just have to want it.

TTV: What do you say to people who are getting discouraged?

CM: I think that these conversations end too quickly. After the 24-hour news cycle, everybody sort of forgets, and it’s on to the next big hot flaming topic. And what we lose in that is, if we hadn’t given up, we’d have probably accomplished what we set out to do.  We just gave up too quickly. And so to the person who’s watching what the mayor said [at the the sidewalk forum] at 6 o’clock and then watching what the mayor said at 8 o’clock, it’s not over. That meeting wasn’t the end. It was the beginning. The Gathering Place is going to be under construction for three years. We’ve got three years. And more. It is discouraging that you kind of need to think about the long haul, about the long term, and keep going. But you do. 

TTV: That cycle of knee-jerk emotional responses is pretty strongly conditioned in us.

CM: You have your lizard brain, your mammalian brain and your human brain. That’s what’s you learn in Psychology 101. So all the media stuff, all the stuff that’s on CNN and your Facebook feed is back here—it’s your lizard brain, the visceral reaction. When we start thinking [from the human brain], we think long-term, and we think how all these things are connected, and we think about creative solutions. 

For more on Tulsa's big questions, check out DeJon Knapp's cover story on the criminalization of homelessness, Matt Cauthron's Editor's Letter on walkability or Molly's story on the proposed Turkey Mountain outlet mall.