Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation Operating System
The greatest contribution the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation can make to decrease barriers and positively impact equity in the Tulsa Market District without causing gentrification is to create additional opportunities to build generational wealth among residents and business owners.
As we learned in “Color of Law” by Richard Rothstein, generational wealth is often built through property ownership and sometimes through business ownership. Historically, home ownership was out of reach for nonwhite citizens due to de jure policies that systematically prevented access to federally guaranteed mortgages: redlining and restrictive covenants preventing deeds to pass to nonwhite homeowners. Generations later, the effects of these policies precluded the accumulation of assets that promote generational wealth.
In addition to acquisition of real property, launching and growing successful business is another path to build generational wealth. According to the Small Business Association (SBA), 99.7% of businesses are considered small businesses (less than 500 employees) and, of the number, 78.4% employ fewer than ten people. In Tulsa, 86% of the city’s tax dollars are generated by small businesses.
The Tulsa Market District is ripe with opportunity to build and sustain generational wealth through ownership of residential and commercial properties and launching and growing small businesses. We have an opportunity to celebrate and support the people who live, work and do business in the Tulsa Market District today as we also welcome a new, diverse maker community into the district that will compliment the incredible community of neighbors and businesses already in existence.
To that end, Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation developed an operating system to advance our goal to build Tulsa Market District into an inclusive destination district.
The LTFF Hypothesis:
Advancing equity, pride of place, physical infrastructure and economic activity will decrease barriers to building generational wealth within the Tulsa Market District.
Advancing equity: Equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances, requiring us to identify and overcome intentional and unintentional barriers arising from bias or systemic structures
Pride of Place: A feeling of pride fostered through building a vibrant, cohesive and inclusive social environment that is reflective of community history and identity
Physical Infrastructure: Improvements that support a built environment that is accessible, flexible and advances community health and resilience
Economic Activity: Transactions that come from making, providing, purchasing or providing goods and services
Overlapping the three areas of focus in LTFF’s inclusive destination district yields greater results than addressing each element independently. Combining equity, economic activity and improvements to physical infrastructure allows greater opportunity to build generational wealth.
As the LTFF operating system illustrates, combining equity and economic activity with improving physical infrastructure creates opportunities to build generational wealth. When the built environment is improved, more economic activity is possible.
Improvements to physical infrastructure can also appreciate commercial and residential property while increased economic activity increases the revenue of small businesses in the area. Appreciation of property and increased business profitability create an opportunity to build generational wealth.
In the Tulsa Market District, the public/private partnership between Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation and the City of Tulsa will improve the physical infrastructure through “streetscaping.” By increasing the width of sidewalks to encourage multimodal transportation, improving lighting to increase safety, planting native plants and trees to build upon the area’s natural beauty and developing branding that identifies and unites the district as part of Route 66, it will create intentional spaces for accessible convening.
Improvements to the built environment and physical infrastructure will promote economic activity because the district will feel inclusive, safer and more accessible, bringing more visitors, more density and more economic activity and, through them, the opportunity to create generational wealth for underestimated Tulsans.
When economic activity combines with equity to build upon pride of place, an inclusive destination district emerges. The Tulsa Market District Business Association’s steering committee envisions a vibrant, cohesive, and inclusive district reflective of local businesses in the district and celebrated both for its historic significance on the Mother Road and for the opportunity the district creates for current and future business leaders and residents.
Combining equity with pride of place and physical infrastructure improvements results in inclusive placemaking. Project for Public Spaces, the organization that coined the term “placemaking,” calls this the “Power of 10+.” According to Project for Public Spaces, “the idea behind this concept is that places thrive when users have a range of reasons (10+) to be there.
These might include a place to sit, playgrounds to enjoy, art to touch, music to hear, food to eat, history to experience, and people to meet. Ideally, some of these activities will be unique to that particular place, reflecting the culture and history of the surrounding community.”
Using the tools to build an inclusive community, the Tulsa Market District will work to create a replicable example of inclusive placemaking by working to improve physical infrastructure, economic activity and pride of place. With equity as our compass, LTFF’s work over the next five years will focus upon outcomes related to these three areas of opportunity in the District.
Our goal is to showcase the value and impact of building an inclusive destination district that prioritizes underestimated Tulsans in time for the 2026 centennial celebration of Route 66. When we are successful, we will work alongside other districts along Route 66, in Tulsa and beyond, using the components of inclusive placemaking in order to build upon the impact of our work in the Tulsa Market District.