Tulsa City Councilors are set to consider a resolution Wednesday to apologize and commit to making tangible amends for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and for
Credit Oklahoma Historical Society
The Tulsa City Council unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday night acknowledging and apologizing for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
It also says they and the mayor will establish a community-led process by the end of the year to look at various proposals for reconciliation, including those from a state commission 20 years ago that call for reparations. Still, the council made it clear reparations are not part of the resolution.
More than two dozen people at the council meeting to comment on the resolution were overwhelmingly in support of reparations and had the support of the Rev. Jesse Jackson; former Asheville, North Carolina Councilman Keith Young, the architect of that city s reparations plan; and Evanston, Illinois, Alderman Robin Rue Simmons, who led the charge in her city approving a first-in-the-nation reparations plan.
Tulsa city councilors are still mulling over updates to regulations on backyard chickens.
In their latest round of proposed changes discussed last week, the minimum distance for a chicken coop to be from a residence is cut from 40 feet to 35. A significant portion of the city is zoned residential with lots a minimum of 60 feet wide.
District 4 Councilor Kara Joy McKee said fresh eggs can make a big difference in some Tulsans’ diets. And if we’re at 35 feet, that eliminates a lot of people from being allowed to have chickens, but a 25-foot limit, I think, could really it’ll be safe, it’ll be clean and it will be inclusive, McKee said.
Credit City of Tulsa
Several city councilors said Wednesday they are concerned about Tulsa’s mask ordinance expiring April 30, but an extension is not currently on the table.
In Tulsa County, COVID-19 hospitalizations are manageable and new cases rates are back to levels seen before the ordinance was enacted last summer. Despite those trends, District 4 Councilor Kara Joy McKee is not ready to drop the mandate. Wastewater testing has detected at least one coronavirus variant in the city, and McKee said not enough people are fully vaccinated yet to get rid of a proven mitigation strategy. I have not heard a case made that it s actually time to set the masks down, that it s actually safe to set the masks down. I ve just heard, Well, we were said we were gonna as soon as we could, McKee said.
Credit City of Tulsa
Tulsa s city council voted unanimously Wednesday night to extend the expiration date of the city s mask ordinance.
It requires people 10 and older to wear masks in public places and was set to expire at the end of the month. It will now be in effect until midnight April 30. This is so important to our city. We are not out of … our pandemic. Just because people are getting vaccinations does not mean this is over, Councilor Jeannie Cue said in a committee meeting Wednesday afternoon.
Tulsa County recently had a run of six consecutive new COVID hospitalization highs and remains within touching distance of its record seven-day average. Councilor Phil Lakin said if the mask mandate weren t extended, something else would have to happen.