Former Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys said his experience with the MAPS and MAPS for Kids programs have proved to him what city governments and citizens can do for a community when they work together.
Humphreys said one of the ways this union of a city’s leaders and citizenry might be accomplished is by the mayor being available to his or her constituents and learning what is important to them, along with what they are willing to support.
“People will support what they help create,” Humphreys said. “It’s called ownership.”
The people should be the priority of any community, he said, sharing how a library now stands where once there were only parking spaces in downtown Oklahoma City.
“You should build your communities for people, not for cars,” Humphreys said.
During the period between 1970 and 1990, Oklahoma City was “asleep and nothing happened to move it forward,” he said.
MAPS changed that lack of movement and growth and a $363-million project well surpassed the billion-dollar mark as companies, such as Devon Energy Corporation, bought into the quality of life they saw MAPS bringing to Oklahoma City and the Bricktown area.
This experience in taking a sleeping and dull city to a vibrant tourist location with a national basketball team is possible, even if on a smaller scale, with nearly any community, Humphreys said. That is, if cities can answer one question about their community, which he said is “What is your Devon?”
“It might be your schools, a local business, water,” he said. “I don’t know what it is for you, in your town, but your people know and it’s worth finding out. What is your Devon?”
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Former Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys said his experience with the MAPS and MAPS for Kids programs have proved to him what city governments and citizens can do for a community when they work together.
Humphreys said one of the ways this union of a city’s leaders and citizenry might be accomplished is by the mayor being available to his or her constituents and learning what is important to them, along with what they are willing to support.
“People will support what they help create,” Humphreys said. “It’s called ownership.”
The people should be the priority of any community, he said, sharing how a library now stands where once there were only parking spaces in downtown Oklahoma City.
“You should build your communities for people, not for cars,” Humphreys said.
During the period between 1970 and 1990, Oklahoma City was “asleep and nothing happened to move it forward,” he said.
MAPS changed that lack of movement and growth and a $363-million project well surpassed the billion-dollar mark as companies, such as Devon Energy Corporation, bought into the quality of life they saw MAPS bringing to Oklahoma City and the Bricktown area.
This experience in taking a sleeping and dull city to a vibrant tourist location with a national basketball team is possible, even if on a smaller scale, with nearly any community, Humphreys said. That is, if cities can answer one question about their community, which he said is “What is your Devon?”
“It might be your schools, a local business, water,” he said. “I don’t know what it is for you, in your town, but your people know and it’s worth finding out. What is your Devon?”
