Q&A With Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols On Cold Weather Efforts And City Challenges

The City of Tulsa has been busy making sure people in need have a warm place to stay during these frigid temperatures. Mayor Monroe Nichols joined us in the studio to talk about the city's efforts to help the homeless.

Q: What have been some of the biggest challenges, and what have you enjoyed the most about your first month?

A: The biggest challenge has also been a thing I probably enjoyed the most. I mean, you come in and you have to immediately start building a team of the mayor's office, get to know the folks who are already at the city. It's a challenge to do both those things, but it's also been a great opportunity and a great experience.

Phenomenal team of folks at the city, those who we've, you know, kind of recruited to work in the mayor's office. But really, the 3,500 folks who do it every day, no matter who's the mayor, no matter if it's cold, hot, raining, or a sunny day, those 3,500 employees are really special folks.

Q: This week has been rough with the cold weather. Homelessness is a top priority for you. How has the city been working to protect people during these frigid temperatures?

A: We’ve really scrambled in the cold weather bench, starting on Sunday. You know, we have a number of partners: Housing Solutions, the Day Center, the Dream Center, John 3:16 — so many folks have really banded together to make sure that folks on the street have a place to go. I think the count from last night, the night before, is around 600 people have been in shelters during this cold snap.

You know, you guys have talked about the weather — today looks like we might get a little bit of snow. So while our crews are preparing to make sure everybody can be safe on the roads, we’re also thinking about how we might up that capacity if we need to because the goal is to get everybody a place to stay. We don’t want folks outside.

But it’s really been this community banding together to get it done. We got a lot of work to do in years in the future to make sure we’re a little more, you know, prepared for it. This happens every year, but I could not be more proud of the service providers. The city, the county — it’s been a really great partnership. Everybody’s starting to come together to meet a need.

Q: Can we learn anything from these experiences to further your mission of addressing homelessness long-term?

A: One opportunity that we’ve really discovered is how oftentimes you have 600 people in need of housing in one or two or three places. Throughout the year, these cold weather events are a great opportunity for us to do some outreach to get folks off the streets for good.

We’re starting to think about how we actually leverage this opportunity to really get to understand these folks who are in shelters. What do they really need? And how might we make sure they never have to go back on the streets again?

Q: How is the Streets Department preparing for possible snow this week?

A: Right now, we’ve got crews ready to go in case we get some snow. There’ll be a morning shift, midnight to noon, and a p.m. shift, noon to midnight, ready to make sure the streets are clear.

I would tell folks, though, if you don’t have to be out, don’t be out. This will be if it snows this week, my first snow as mayor. And it’s kind of funny, right? So, you’ve got my kid who doesn’t want to go to school, wanting it to snow. You’ve got me thinking about, “Oh no, he wants snow; I don’t want the stuff." So, we’re kind of fighting about that these days.

Q: As mayor, how do you balance delegating responsibilities while ensuring you stay involved?

A: I think the big thing is making sure we’re doing everything we can to make sure that the crews have what they need to do their job well. And then, what are we learning about things that don’t go as well as we would like? How do we better prepare for the next time around?

I actually was thinking the other day about a burst waterline. We’ve got people going out and doing that. You can’t go do that. I went out and saw some of the crews working on one of those. I was like, “Oh man, I’m glad that’s not in my job description.”

But the big thing is making sure that those crews have the resources that they need to be able to do it right. And I think that’s what you’ve got to do as a leader. You know, understand: Are we prepared? Even with this kind of stuff, these weather events are unpredictable at times. So, how do we better prepare for the next? I think that’s really our job.