Living In TULSA Oklahoma Podcast: Special Guest Tulsa Mayoral Candidate KAREN KEITH | Tulsa Oklahoma

Intro to Living In Tulsa Oklahoma Podcast: Special Guest Karen Keith I am so excited today uh for the living in Tulsa podcast we have an amazing guest on the I am tickled pink to have you guys get to know most of you probably do know her Karen Keith you really don't need an introduction but I am so thankful and so excited to have you on the podcast today as our guest oh thank you so much I'm excited to be here and talk to Tulsa I know um and Tulsa is an is such an amazing place so to get your view to get you know your story from you know where you came from to you know getting here and your love for Tulsa I'm so excited to unpack it okay let's do it okay so you're in Tulsa now and you are a public servant and you were a mayoral candidate um which is super exciting so how how did that come about like where did your journey kind of start so we were talking earlier I grew up in Mogi uh and there were five I have five siblings we all we used to Karen Keith's early life and career beginnings joke that Dad was the sixth that's what mother would say um and you know we grew up in a family where public service was just part of our lifestyle mother was um she started as a cook in the cafeteria and then she was the teacher and she was a counselor and then she became a principal so kind of the family's always been invested like that my brother was a superintendent uh my sister Kathy taught the visually impaired and Jinx and and Dad growing up with was caped the sheriff's Patrol for years I mean I don't know 20 years or so so uh brother was in service and uh just you know I don't know it's just so is like in your bones in your blood so um after Miss kogi I went to Oklahoma State University and had a great time uh and I mean I put myself through school I will say that I say I had a great time but it was a lot of jobs uh but I think that was all good for me I waited tables and I will tell you waiting TBL is pretty darn good for you my eighth grade um debate teacher called me a Wallflower said you know you're you seem more comfortable leaning up against the wall but I will tell you waiting tables forces you to meet people where they are and then you've got to track what is it they really want how do we stay on top of it all those things so I thought it was just amazing training and I I um lived with my uncle during the Summers of college and waited tables in this great big it was a huge Lebanese restaurant and um the tips were unbelievable The More Southern I talk better my tips were which kind of crazy but um it was it was just an incredible experience for me so uh and helped me get through college and I'd come back I worked in the big eight room and I've kind of joked with some people like I probably met tbon Pickins and I and didn't have any idea who he was right yeah yeah it is so important to you know to work your way up and to you know come from you know modest means in the service industry and you know to put yourself through school like it gives you an experience and a work ethic and you know that some people that some people don't have you know it's just a different life experience that I think is so so valuable um and obviously uh Discussion about Sabrina Shaw’s role and contributions for you has gotten you to where you're at now um funny uh I I grew up in education I waited tables I was a principal assistant superintendent so that's so great yeah so the service um I I completely mirror what you're saying about know going through that and being in service yeah so getting through and you know getting through college did you go straight to Tulsa or what did your journey look like so um I do want to tell one story uh that's related to college and that was um I took this thing called semester at C and so it actually went around the world and it was the only loan that I had that I had to pay off uh because otherwise I kept up with everything and that but so I had Karen Keith academic background and college life to pay that off but it changed my life it gave me a whole different perspective we were in Africa we were in India we were in Asia and um and it just kind of opened up the world to me and let me see things in a different way so I I really love diversity of culture and think that that's one of our strengths here in Tulsa and you know as you sell Tulsa you can talk about our vibrant Hispanic Community our Asian Community that's made up of all sorts of different nations and um and and those are things I think that give us strength and then we have our Black Wall Street which you know it's a painful history but it's an important history for us to reckon with and and share with the rest of the world um so I I mean I think those are just great things that we have here in Tulsa and stories to tell you're right and um I deal with a lot of people relocating to the Tulsa area and that's one of the things you know that's a pro that I can consider is our diversity and one of the things that uh people love too when they visit they're like you know it is you know it's so friendly it's got so much Green Space um and it's you know it's so diverse and that really is um I think that it's a rarity um you know you don't get that everywhere like the you know the mix of cultures the mix of you know you've got the country feel you've got the city feel you have everything and it's in short distance everything is I mean you could be anywhere and change the whole feel of what you're experiencing right here in Tulsa just pretty incredible yeah so um so if we go back to after after U college then um I started in broadcast and so like internship at Channel 8 then um I ended Karen Keith career in broadcasting up in Joplin Missouri I was a weather girl but I also was a reporter and then uh went to Colorado Springs again there I did the I did the news weather and one time I got thrown in on the sports I'll never forget this as long as I live um the the sports guy didn't show up I don't know that much about sports and it was so I did what's called rip and read and I didn't know these teams and it was so bad and I I was I just made things up as I went to try to get through that and these guys sent me a hat they made me a hat for a sports team a fictitious sports team that I Nam so I was definitely not a good sports person but um I anyway it was it was good experience to have to do all that yeah definitely for sure they came back to Tulsa and well actually it was in Oklahoma City and then was at Channel 2 for 21 years yeah I used to watch you on TW on channel 2 all the time yeah don't say how long ago that was all the time I had so much fun I it was an incredible experience because um at that time I got to go I was in I was in Vietnam with a Vietnam vet who was just a dear amazing individual um I I've been in Israel and I've been in the Gaza and I've been you know in in Russia um all over the place um and you know Germany Mexico just to name a few doing stories and and documentaries so and that was right here at a little Tulsa America you know it was an great experience and then my final years there I had a show called Oklahoma living and it was just it was so amazing for once I wasn't working late at night or early in the morning right an 8 to 5 gig what is that um and you know we went all over the state talking about you know Oklahoma Historical Society sites and and visiting all of those and just looking at all the ecosystems of uh Oklahoma and it was just H I mean I I was so so fortunate that that had to be so fun so doing that show um what were your favorite historical sites well I guess Karen Keith Favorite Historical Sites in Tulsa OK some of them right here in the Tulsa area the the nature conservancy and The Preserve it's just always uh a wonderful place to go and I've always L puska I love that little town where you walk up these unbelievable steps to get to their courthouse and when you get in the courthouse it says don't spit on the floor and it is in it's in the wall it's engraved in the wall it's so funny really mhm I've never heard of that yeah um you know we have a sod house in Oklahoma it's in eileene I think is the name of the uh community and then in terms of the ecosystems um the S Little Sahara is bizarre we have desert in Oklahoma where is that at I don't know anything about West it's it's really remarkable we got the Selman bat caves where you can go watch an emergence uh and by the way did you know mascara is made of bat poop I didn't know that I learned that when I was there so yeah um anyway there's just some Tulsa has Tulsa and Oklahoma has a lot of uh unusual and interesting and great things yeah and do you by chance remember how many ecosystems there are is it four or five I don't know it's something like that oh somebody will have to Google it for us and then they can tell us yeah we'll get it straight that's pretty yeah that's pretty amazing to think about because even like what you can find everything and TS um there's so much entertainment and like I was saying like green space but yeah just going a couple hours um you know I knew that there you know there's mountains and there's day trips and there's all kind of things I first time to hear about the desert y yep yep and if you go out that direction you need to get a mirrors Burger it's about this take about 10 people with you to eat it but um yeah that was one of the fun things too just all of the funky diners and and of course you know Route 66 is this great asset and I think that Tulsa has some of the best root 66 Assets in the country we did actually did a series and uh we went uh we went West on Route 66 we didn't go all the way but it was just it was really interesting to go see the Cadillac Ranch and all those things going in that direction but I really feel like Oklahoma and Tulsa in particular has some of the best assets I mean we have the Cyrus Avery bridge and it it's in pretty bad shape uh but but it I think it's one of the single most important pieces of rote 66 that's left and I'd really like to see us Revitalize it and um make it viable again because it it's important Route 66 wouldn't have come through Tulsa if we had not had that bridge now tell me more about that bridge where is that bridge so it's near uh 11th it kind of it winds across the river uh over there and um there's a new highway right next to it yes new Crossing uh and you can see some of the old kind of Deco uh features of that bridge but I would like to see it envisioned as um kind of you've got all of OSU Medical on this side uh and the forensic uh team is on that side and then you've got OSU osteopathic you've got the new VA hospital New 160 bed Mental Health Hospital coming online but there's no restaurant or retail in between those two so you could actually create that on the Cyrus Avery Bridge and and it's needed because you can't create land but this is a way to add land and space for those features and think about that on you know we're doing fireworks party we could have out there looking at all fireworks yeah I'm going to have to do more research on that um I've I spoke about that yes I would love that it's near crybaby Hill okay yeah yeah I would love that so okay and how long did you do that for the living in Oklahoma um well I was there for 21 years and um you know what maybe six years I don't know but it was so much fun yeah but you know everything about everything you know from I know to be dangerous yeah I know enough to be dangerous yeah so then that's a a big jump to go from the news you know and being on camera all the time to public service and we know that it's you know in your blood because of your family but what caused that pool well I was really you know after traveling all over the state I was very very concerned about Discussion about specific events or developments in Tulsa OK our downtown and there was a group of us we called ourselves Tulsa now we got a bus we went to Oklahoma City and we met with the mayor that started the maps program and talked to him about tulson how can we do replicate this or do something he says don't do exactly what we're doing you're Tulsa Tulsa does Tulsa Oklahom city does Oklahom City and uh so we came back and um I heard about an opening then with um bill Fortune was mayor at the time and so I went I heard about that opening and I went there and I pretty much begged for the job and um I got it and because I wanted to work on this initiative which later became Vision 2025 and I had the opportunity to go all over um the community we'd talk to anybody that wanted to know about the package and why it mattered and a lot of people won't remember but 20 years ago our downtown was dead I remember down un Broken Arrow was dead MH aaso Jinx just nothing really MH exciting and great going on and when the public invested in themselves we got the B Center we got this downtown housing fund which helped uh some of our developers go in and take these empty Office Buildings and turn them into Apartments because there's no way a private business can do that and make a profit so why are they going to do that they can't yeah so this was an a revolving fund that's been set up so it continues to work to this day to help us flip some of these older beautiful buildings I mean we have I it's just it's this beautiful fabric that we have down town and preserving those buildings is really important so that we just don't become you know just you know yeah warehouses whatever it's just it's just incredible what's happened through all of the districts downtown so it's a lot of fun to work on and then we were successful and then we have uh the Beautiful b Center Caesar P was our architect m and I think he did a magnificent job reimagining and creating something unique to Tulsa yeah it's so unique I was I was just getting out of I just finished high school when uh they were passing like Vision 2025 and doing all that and so I remember I just started listening to talk radio so I remember hearing about all that and when I would go to downtown I'd only been like once or twice and it was desolate and um you know it was no place you'd want to go it was a little bit scary and I remember when I first realized like the gym that Tulsa was when I first started real estate I guess about six years ago I had a client from California and she was like you people from Oklahoma don't know what you have you're like your downtown is a gym and um she called it a mini LA but like just better um because of it and so then I started Unique aspects that make Tulsa OK special really realizing like everything that we have and so yeah it started on Vision 2025 and that's so neat that you were a part of that um and that growth and to get to see you know how much has evolved because it's amazing now it it really is it's phenomenal if you look back and how far we've come and then of course there's more great things to come and my you know I will say this my hat is off to philanthropy and to the developers downtown uh who have held on to these buildings helped recreate these buildings and invested their money to make sure that you know we have the downtown that we have today and you know right now we're working on the center of the universe project and you know that's such a quirky deal and if you saw Tulsa King you saw the lady pushing the homeless person pushing c not the best look for Tulsa but still getting Tulsa's name out there is really good but it's going it's being uh redone we have to do the under gings first because it's in really bad shape so that we can you know add a little weight to the top of it um but I think everybody is going to absolutely love it there's going to be Green Space oh and we absolutely promise that the sound anomaly will be intact at the end of the day you I'm sure we got sound Engineers here who can come attest to that uh after it's done okay so for people you know a lot of people didn't know what the center of the universe is um but could you expand a little bit more of that for people that might not know and like when do you think um when do you do you guys have a completion date I'm thinking everything will be done but it might be up to three years okay okay yeah two to three years um so Updates on the "Center of the Universe" project Tulsa OK if you know where the Jazz Hall of Fame is um so this is the link the center of the universe is the link uh between downtown Tulsa and the arts district and you would be surprised at how that is such an important piece of when people come from out of town they have to go to the center of the universe they all go there right now it's kind of an niore but it's it's quirky um so that jazz Hall of Fame is also being rebuilt and it's going to be an art deco gym you I'm just for the public um when they open their doors you are just going to be blown away it is going to be spectacular and it has taken a long time but now given the work that we're doing uh on the top of the bridge it's you know people aren't going to be able to get in there anyway so gives it gives them the time to kind of reimagine what that facility can be and and keep the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame alive and well which is so again so important to I think to Tulsa and our history yeah for sure so with everything that you're you know that you've been involved in and developing and watching um and I know you just said some of your favorite things but are there other you know what are some other projects that you're super excited about well if I talk about Route 66 this was uh pretty current um you know Mary Beth Babcock uh has created these they're Muffler Men is what they are but she's uh she's got Buck Adam and buck just got his girlfriend yes and then Mac is coming just down the street at metag Gold MH and so here's this woman who um has you know invested her own money her talent and is created this incredible tourist node for us I mean now you're looking at somebody who is a golden driller fanatic if you come in my office I have this wall of fame for the golden driller lots of stories along that line too but um but I Mary Beth Badcock has just really created U this Synergy uh you know it's incredible and when people come they have to go there now they go get their pictures taken with the golden driller and then they have got to go see Buck Adams and uh everything that's coming to Blossom there you know um there's a the decopolis right next door it's in that's an amazingly creative shop and Mr Franklin the guy that um he that has that facility you know he he's done a lot of work for Disney and you see in the creativity that he has William Franklin has created right there next uh to Buck Adams so just really cool things going on and then Mary Beth just opened it's like a it's like a flea market for R 66 and that's in the metag gold right there by the corner and that's where the Big Mac Muffler Man is going to be he's and he's cool he's an an old one that's being refurbished Co that's going to be really cool but if you go in there it's the coolest like flea market type deal and all the land it is it is so much fun so people have got to go see that too you know and that's homegrown right it's just it's homegrown and you know people come from all over to see our driller to say yes okay you've got to expand on that a little bit what makes you love the Tulsa Driller well I just he's just iconic to Tulsa he really is and what's Karen Keith personal connection to the Tulsa OK Driller funny is is there's a a amusement park in France called freay party Park and they were reading they were kind of fascinated with the oil era and Tulsa and all that stuff well they found out about the golden driller so they decided to build a golden driller ride so there is this golden driller and I've got lots of pictures of him of that on the wall too and they called and they so we're doing this I think it was kind of a Mia but would if we pay to have you come over will you come over and uh help us christen this deal so I brought him at the time uh we were celebrating a big birthday for the golden driller and these beautiful posters that Guru Stu had done and so we took that over there framed it when we got there gave them that and you know there's this ride so here's the big old golden driller and then this ride goes straight up and then it drops you straight down yes I did it a few times I did I did I did I did it um and uh but anyway it it can you imagine here's the golden driller in in this little village in France I never knew that that's such a great story and then you got to go and I got to go wow yeah that was one of those things like hm let me think about that for two seconds yeah like heck yeah yeah um yeah so Michelle Place who was with Tulsa Historical Society the two of us went and it was quite the trip it was fun I can imagine I but it was a very fun trip okay so moving on so you've you know so in your public service you've got to see all this with Tulsa grow and now you're up for you know a new role like what made you want to what made you want to pursue um being Tulsa's mayor well I love this city and there are some things What inspired Karen Keith to run for Mayor even when uh I worked for Mayor Bill of Fortune um everybody has tried to fix we our permitting uh and development department and we have some good people that work there but it's just some systems that it we just need to do a reset and I'm really committed to making that a number one priority because you know right now we need more affordable housing right you probably know that better than anybody and in order to get affordable housing out of the ground some of it takes so long to get through this process that by the time it's done it's no longer affordable and we have developers who are very frustrated with the city and I I I feel like I've got the right people lined up up to move the needle on this once and for all so I'm very committed to that I feel like it's a kind of a set of dominoes um I think you know our current mayor has done a great job with so many things and through very difficult time kept the wheels on and uh you know done a lot of things to advance and move the city forward during his tenure so I want to pick up on that move some things forward uh and and fix a few things yeah well um I had to guest on Jamie Payne she is the VP um she's vice president of recruiting at St Francis and she do you know she she loves you oh yeah and she we were talking about um the Mayoral race a little bit and so she threw your name in oh nice thank you yeah um but now that vote is coming up very soon yes it's August 27th and a lot of people don't know they think it's it's November but this is really important August 27th um to go out and vote that day a lot of people say oh I think you've got this but really you don't have it if people don't go vote right it just it doesn't work do you know um do you know the percentage of people that actually come out for um well it's pretty low it's it's really really low so we need more people to go vote it's super important and you know voice your opinion yeah um so going back I don't want to end I don't want to end with that going back to you um a little bit more um love getting to talk to you about downtown um as far as you know Tulsa um like in housing and like your favorite neighborhood like if you could wave a magic wand and live anywhere you wanted in Tulsa where would you live Brookside yeah that's where I live that's where you live it we well we are within walking distance we can park our cars on the weekend and you know we can walk to Trader Joe's you can everything is right there there's you know uh some fantastic restaurants there's Orin there's Ben 35 there's M and K's it's a that's a new one we got Jimmy's Chop House now we've got Trey tequila um I think we're carry out from there tonight um you know there's just uh and of course docks that's you know that's that's kind of the neighborhood watering hole and and you know it's just it's I know I'm leaving some things out but there's just some great places to go to there are yeah Brickside is bricks side's fantastic Bill Grant's Restaurant right there too on the corner so yes MH yeah there are there and that's the thing about Tulsa what yeah there's just there there's just so many different choices you can't yeah do you have a favorite restaurant I mean the brook then you've got yeah all of our breakfast joints BBD and yeah yes do I have yeah there's several I know know I mean afraid we eat out more and more uh because we're we're both so busy uh and it's just easy to come home and go let's go up the street okay yeah it's easy do you guys have um you guys have a favorite date night or date spot or well we love to go downtown to low down and Karen Keith favorite place in Tulsa OK we'll go have uh dinner at Ben not at Ben um right up on top low down what's the restaurant anyway it's a great restaurant on top go have uh dinner there and then go down below and listen to the music which is fabulous I mean they bring in wonderful and it's a very intimate setting you know about maybe the size of this and um it's kind of it's it's like our little Village Vanguard or something it's fantastic yeah okay well that's good to know so in so throughout I'm going to start that question over um so with everything that you've done with um all your history what are you most proud of well I I I think even though I was just one little Cog in the wheel I think Karen Keith proudest achievements and moments um working uh to make our downtown come back to life being just I was just part of that team I think we all lost weight it was CRA I these pictures I just look like I'm all neck but I mean I'm proud of that I'm also proud of um I worked with our federal delegation with the all the Chambers of Commerce uh to get that 137 million for our Levy system which is a mess and then this spring we needed an additional 50 million our state legislature came up with that for us so that was huge uh because we can't break the ground on that and after the flood in 2019 none of us believe it will hold up again it was a huge effort and we were lucky that it didn't break yeah so tell me about that so you you have helped secure funding and that tell me about that project well it they used to make fun of me at the chamber because they're like oh that project is not sexy you know like I know it's not the B Center but this Levy um protects oh thousands of jobs people and um to H to to lose it would be devastating to our economy and all the businesses that are along there so it was imperative that we get it fixed and and I'd been talking about it for probably 10 years and then when 2019 happened everybody goes we get it and uh Senator inof had been helping me and then uh he really uh Langford also Senator who's now Senator uh he was at that time a congressman uh and Hearn was there with me during the flooding so you know um it was all hands on deck and then I think everybody understood the fragility of it and we got it done and I'm I'm pretty proud of that as well but of course the project has yet to be done we're working with the core of engineers and nothing is simple or easy on a project of that size so it'll it'll be a minute yeah do you guys have any expected date for that to finish up I would like to think that in maybe four years five years at the most that uh it's done MH yeah that's exciting and like you said not sexy not sexy but so important and you've got to go you know you have to go after that kind of stuff or definitely like the infrastructure and all that like yeah I mean not everything can be fun I mean we it's important that we have great roads you know it's important that we have good water lines that aren't breaking I mean you know you know you hear some people say oh we don't like to pay taxes and I'm thinking well I think you like to have a toilet that you can flush and a faucet you can turn on and you like it if the police can come when you need them and fire can come when you need them and streets to drive over I mean um it's it's important you can't sell a house if the infrastructure is shoddy so yeah completely yeah so pivoting a little bit you've met a lot of of people and I'm going to put you on the spot and you might not even be able to answer this question but if you had to pick a tulson that you admire do you have somebody and I know for you I mean I can already tell just the way that you've mentioned people that there's a lot of people that you admire oh gosh well since we are in the church Studio I'm just going to say pronox because here's a woman who she brought herself by her bootstrap she brought herself up um she used to wait tables too by the way that makes sense uh but her Love of All Things Leon led to this but you know she took har Welden which is an historic Mansion really important to Tulsa and has kept that alive as a venue now and uh you know built a great Community School uh where people can you know learn jobs and in the health field and then hair and all sorts of things so you know she's done a whole lot for this community and talk about flying under the radar she flies under the radar yeah so she's done uh amazing work and just she's just Teresa she just you know I you know a lot of people talk about her I didn't you know I didn't know her because like you said F's under the radar and I was like oh my goodness this lady is amazing she is um so I love that you have that personal connection and friendship um to appreciate that and yeah talk about where we're at the church Studio like all the greats that have been in here and like you said we're just these you know normal little people that get to be in we get to be in here where I mean think of the music that's coming out of here now and so on and you know if if we want to talk about what's next for Tulsa yeah so Meg Gould is running there it's called the fmac it's film music uh under the chambers umbrella and you know we've got an individual here that's very interested in building a sound stage so we're doing all these films but not all of it's filmed here in Tulsa right mhm so I mean res dogs I have to if you haven't watched res dogs I mean the language is a little runchy but the character development is fabulous you will love it they just got nominated for an Emy uh yeah killers of the flower Moon historic uh incredibly well done film and of course it it's won some awards as well uh fancy dance uh you know there's just mhm there's there's a lot going on in that front I don't know that a lot of people know about it but boy if we could get a Sound Stage built I think um that will help us uh go up another level with these movies and I think some of the you know the big folks from Scorsese I mean they r at Chandler Park filming that was it was just incredible um they built all the scaffolding to help scorsi get down into into the guts of where they were trying to work I call it the my Cathedral it's so such an interesting area but it's where they do rock climbing we've got and and again that speaks to what you're talking about with all these different settings so they can come here and have access to all sorts of different landscape yeah right here in this one small area it's it's pretty amazing what we have but I'm anxious to see how that moves forward and develops and uh you know the state is helping with um incentives um and again as you look to the future of course we've got uh Bob Dylan downtown we we got okay pop coming online and Guthrie the you know I think that's going to be like the it's like I don't know what what you call it when there's four things and then with Greenwood Rising those four pieces right there together I mean it's it's going to be this huge magnet for tourism for our area with you know so much concentrated in a in a small area and then you know Guthrie Green and oh the other thing if I could just encourage people first Friday if you I haven't done first Friday downtown Tulsa in the arts district it is so much fun and if you there's certain restaurants if you want to eat there you better make your reservations early yeah so um but yeah it's it's uh it's just another great thing for Tulsa I know you can you can keep going on and on when you keep thinking you're like oh there's this there's this and there's more yeah yeah now as far as and you had you had mentioned this earlier you said um you know Broken Arrow didn't have what it had now as Tulsa doing something to um partner with the suburbs for the Tulsa Metro so when we did Vision 2025 it was a countywide package so the suburbs you know to build a b Arena we really needed Overview of Tulsa OK's suburban areas a countywide support to get that out of the ground and make it happen so um all of our suburbs said well if we're going to do a countywide package here's what I want here's what I want and so a lot of them focus on their downtown and you can see the Renaissance that's taking place in all of them which is phenomenal I I mean you if you go to to Broken Arrow right now it's just amazing uh to see the rose District do their Farmers Market um you know they've got a wonderful Performing Arts Center too I mean just there's a lot going on uh and same aasa's just you know it's almost its infrastructure's got to catch up because aasa's growing so much and and then Jinx oh my gosh Jinx is on fire and the new outlet mall is about to open and I mean that's going to be good for everybody yeah everything that's going on is so amazing it is well I appreciate I appreciate you coming on I appreciate your leadership everything that you um all your service that you have you know given through you know throughout your throughout your lifetime and is there anything that you you know want to leave us with that you want to add duet was the name of the restaurant above Lowdown I just like but no I just have so I mean this is stuff that I enjoy doing and I I like to celebrate all of our accomplishments and and knowing that not everything is Rosy I know I mean I know there are things you know that we have to fix but Tulsa on a great trajectory and um I love hearing stories like somebody moving here from Dallas um Cathy yeah um and and loving Tulsa and now she's telling all her friends down there how great it is and to come here that I mean that's what you want to hear and I mean Tulsa really is wonderful it is I agree and and then what about our Gathering Place I didn't even talk about Big Damn party coming up on Labor Day yes oh my gosh I just love that you know you're able to say big damn party and it's like it's just it's a damn you know but that's going to be a whole lot of fun so Labor Day weekend mark your calendars be sure to be part of the festivities and the hope is um Jeff Edwards who's director of river parks was saying we want during that weekend for everybody to see everything possible everything possible you can do on the river I'm so excited for that it's going to be great it really is and they're going to do another raft race so last time I was in a cereal box in the raft race don't want to do that again are you going to be in the raft race no not this year I think not I think no no no not this year no we hit the bridge of no oh goodness yes and this great big Cereal by was darling uh goog St it was so cute uh but yeah no that'll be fine yes lots of other people can do that one I'll be on Shore this time well you'll enjoy watching it yes you'll be you'll love watching it and cheering so that is so exciting too like you said we didn't even touch on it but like so many things because there's just so many things coming well the bridge that's now open the pedestrian bridge that's coming online with the beautiful lights and everything have you seen it lit up I haven't got to see it lit up just pictures it's it's absolutely gorgeous and and they can make it different colors so I don't know we just have a lot going on Tulsa's in a good spot it is in a good spot well thank you Wrap up to Living In Tulsa Oklahoma Podcast: Special Guest Karen Keith appr thank you for selling Tulsa yes right thanks