Centering Marginalized Communities in Metropolitan Area Projects

Oklahoma City, OK

Population: 500,000 - 1,000,000 | Government type: City | Topic: Community Infrastructure

Bricktown, an old warehouse district, has been transformed into a major entertainment hot spot, thanks to the city’s MAPS public works program (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

The Program

The Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPs) program is a 25-year-old infrastructure program in Oklahoma City (OKC). The program creates a one-cent sales tax in OKC that funds quality of life projects. Economic and finance staff estimate how much the city would expect to collect from the one-cent tax over a certain period of time, and then the council puts together a package that would roughly fall within that budget. The tax only funds building infrastructure, not operations, so the council must work during project development to identify potential private operators and/or to begin allocating operational funding out of its own budget.

The council sets forth a resolution outlining what the city intends to spend the tax collections on, and then voters vote on whether to renew the one-cent tax. The MAPs tax has been renewed four times over the past 16 years. Historically, the MAPs program has funded sports, cultural, and entertainment infrastructure projects that heavily favor the urban core with the explicit intent of revitalizing the city and stimulating economic development around the downtown area. As a result, for most of the program’s history aside from one resolution that invested in public school infrastructure,  the program largely left out the residents and their neighborhoods. 

As city staff planned the most recent iteration of MAPs for a city-wide approval vote in 2019, residents demanded that this round of projects needed to touch a wider variety of neighborhoods and meet the everyday needs of OKC beyond the downtown. To that end, the council put forward a package that included: investment in upgrades to neighborhood parks and sidewalk maintenance; more bicycle infrastructure; additional streetlights; new bus shelters across the city along with additional upgrades to the bus system; youth centers; mental health crisis centers; a jail diversion center; a civil rights museum to honor Clara Luper and the civil rights history of OKC; and upgrades to city public housing. The proposal also included building approximately 1,000 new affordable units for residents transitioning out of homelessness. For this iteration, the tax is set out to be collected for eight years after which time it will either expire, or Council will propose a new package to renew it.

Co-governance

In 2015, a group of advocates launched a series of events called "MAPs 4 Neighborhoods." They met with residents from different areas of the city to learn what communities would like to see in future iterations of MAPs projects. There was an overwhelming response for neighborhood-level investments and priorities. In 2018, the Mayor put out a call for residents to submit their ideas for the upcoming MAPs projects. The top priority was for greater investment in mental health access and resources. 

In response to resident input and recent elections of more progressive City Councilors -- including Nikki Nice and JoBeth Hamon -- city leadership shifted their primary focus from economic development to a more holistic package. In this iteration, a majority of funding allocations would reflect residents’ requests to meet their everyday needs, such as fostering connections for seniors and youth, as well as recovery opportunities for people struggling with mental illness, homelessness, and addiction.

Emphasis on equity

As Oklahoma City residents fled for the suburbs and outer reaches of the City in past decades, investment lagged in meeting the basic needs of the inner-city residents. Investment was renewed with the launch of the MAPs program in the 1990s, but with a focus on cultural attractions that would invite economic development in the downtown core, overlooking investments that would affect many residents in the inner city. 

Historically, the majority of the city’s decision makers have been male, and most have come from wealthier white neighborhoods. The oversight committee appointed to guide these projects has largely represented those same affluent constituencies, leaving while many of the Black, Latinx, and Vietnamese residents of the inner-city underrepresented. However, the new MAPs package will now refocus investment in the areas and on the resident needs that have been consistently marginalized by local government. Moreover the newly appointed oversight committee includes a number of younger members who represent Black, Latinx, and queer communities. This formal body helps institutionalize the input and engagement of future generations from traditionally underserved and underrepresented communities. The committee stays the same for the length of each MAPs project package, which last approximately ten to fifteen years, unless someone resigns or moves.

The recent MAPs package includes multiple components that center equity. The package invests in long-neglected infrastructure projects in the inner city such as bike systems, new sidewalks, improved bus transportation and more. Some dollars were also allocated to build a new facility as a diversion alternative to the OKC jail to reduce the incarceration of residents of color.

Analysis

• Preemption: State taxation policy varies widely. In this instance, voters approve a renewal of the MAP tax based on the project proposals set forth in council resolutions. 

• Local government dynamics: The Oklahoma City Council is a moderate body with a few more progressive members. However, this program has been around for 25 years and enjoys overall support as a way to fund local infrastructure needs.

• Policy Impact: Taxes that generate local revenue for projects range in their ability to address inequities, and residents and government officials should apply an equity lens to project development to ensure vulnerable communities benefit from the revenue investments.

Last updated: January 19, 2021

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