The Four Directions Initiative: A "TNT" 20-20 Vision Project

For several months, our A Third Place Community has been engaging in projects and initiatives small and big throughout our service area of Greater, or historic, Turley area from 46th to 86th St and Highway 75 to Osage County Drive...The Welcome Table Kitchen Garden Park project, see below for this transformative and much needed Miracle Among The Ruins event, has only been the most visible. Our partnerships are deepening with others within this area, and we are beginning or planning projects for community health, community beautification, community education, and community redesign, all of which will lead to a better sustainable environment for our children and businesses and associations to thrive.

For several months, the overall big picture has been emerging which will connect the dots of our past, current, and emerging projects, visions and dreams.

The Four Directions Initiative: a "TNT" (TulsaNorthTurley) 20-20 Project is the result.

Working with the OU Graduate Design Studio and others we will produce graphic designs to help show the project which will allow us to present it to community residents who will help us shape its final forms.

In the meantime, here is a look: Imagine and come help us bring it to reality.

The Four Directions Initiative is a renewal vision that refers to projects ongoing and planned in our service region between now and the Year 2020 that creates "corridors of community" between these end or destination points along our boundaries:

I.
West (Northgate addition, Vining Park, Horace Greeley school) to
East (O'Brien Park, new soccer and sports complex, Highway 75 wildflower plots),
with the following projects and points in a corridor between these two destination areas:

1. current Greeley School Gardening and Beautification project spinning out to include Northgate addition
2. Turley Residential (Correctional) Center, future partner, 61st and N. Cincinnati
3. The Welcome Table Kitchen Garden Park Project, 60th and N. Johnstown,
4. Turley United Methodist Church, 61st and N. Johnstown, including community garden space and native plant trail and improved primitive trail on far south side where children and others walk now.
5. Osage Prairie Trail intersections beautification wildflower projects ongoing and emerging, just west of Peoria
6. Historic Church Renovation into A Third Place Community and Food Justice Center, OU Community Health Clinic, Urban Monastery Prayer and Meditation Space, Let Turley Bloom Center, at 59th and just west of N. Peoria.
7. Cherokee School Outdoor Classroom Garden Learning Spaces ongoing and emerging, possibility for community school designation for Cherokee and increased community space and events at 6001 N. Peoria.
8. A Third Place Audubon Bird Sanctuary GreenSpace, 61st Street east of Cherokee along current path school children walk. Project pending purchase of one acre for sale inexpensively.
9. Veterans Center Building and grounds and sign improvement at 61st and Utica where we worked to remove grafitti.
10. Vann Industrial Park, 61st and Lewis, future partners with emphasis on creating green jobs
11. Scottsdale Addition, near 61st and Lewis, future sign renovation beautification to finish grafitti removal.
12. Park Meadows Mobile Home Park, near 61st and N. Lewis, partners for safety, beautification, and community events
13. O'Brien Park, 61st and N. Lewis, current partners in gardening, beautification, and community and family sustaining events.
14. Extending corridor to the south along E. 56th St. North at Lewis to include beautification project and welcome project at old Allen's BBQ building, ongoing and emerging project
15. Extending to Highway 75 and 56th St. to include current and future partnerships with North Tulsa Farmers Market, new soccer and skateboarding complex under construction, to make community friendly and supporting of local residents and Turley businesses.
16. Highway 75 and 56th Street Exit Wildflower Beautification Plot currently sponsored by A Third Place and the State Dept. of Transportation
17. Extending to north to 66th St. and N. Lewis near O'Brien Park to include our new Welcome to Turley beautification, wildflowers, and signage at intersection project currently underway.
18. Back on the western edge extending south to include beautification and community projects at Gilcrease Middle School, the planned new City/County Health Department facility, both at 56th and N. Cincinnati, Houston Elementary School, Carriage Trails neighborhood, Chamberlain Center, and Louisa May Alcott gardening project.

II.
South to North: along Peoria Ave. and immediate area from 46th St. to 76th St.

This would become the hub for a Far North Main Street Project, along North Peoria from the historic Turley area, 46th St. to either 66th or 76th St. for the Main Street Oklahoma grant project. The aim would be increased infrastructure of streetlights, sidewalks, bus stop improvements, beautification projects, plantings, cleanup, Redbud Avenue tree plantings, shopping centers revitalization, McLain High School initiative, and more.

Partners and projects along the Far North Main Street Project, current and future, include:
1. on the southern edge Generation of Destiny youth center at 46th St.,
2. McLain High School initiative and Greenhouse Project,
3. the PlanIt Tulsa envisioned corridor for part of this area by the old McLain Shopping Center, and shopping center just north of McLain.
4. new neighborhood association by the McLain shopping center,
5. New Beginnings Church sign beautification project near 54th and Peoria,
6. Northside YWCA, current and emerging partner, near 54th and Peoria, in the old Wiley Post School building,
7. the redeveloped and expanded to four lane 56th and Peoria intersection with signage directing people to parks, health department, and business districts,
8. the Welcome to Turley sign at 56th St. redeveloped and expanded by A Third Place with Keep Oklahoma Beautiful grant
9. wildflower beautification reclamation projects all along North Peoria with planters around abandoned signposts, some currently underway, and at businesses.
10. Cherokee School projects, with sidewalks and lights and other neighborhood safety issues and neighborhood watches
11. Old Turley Fire Department flower bed beautification project of rundown historic building.
12. Bus Stops with Shelters and beautification plots
13. Turley Post Office signage and visibility for promotion
14. transformation or destruction of long abandoned and rundown commercial buildings along this stretch of North Peoria.
15. 66th and N. Peoria intersection beautification where old Smith's grocery store was, and across the street in vacant land owned by the Freedom Bank, a future partner, and triangle median.
16. Extending beautification projects to 76th St. to include past and current ones at the northern limit where there is current renovation we are doing of the Welcome to Turley sign and at the nearby Donut store area beautification plot we put in.
17. Extending just west of Peoria along here for Osage Prairie Trail projects. The trail connects downtown Tulsa with northern Tulsa County Skiatook and beyond.
18. Extending behind McLain High School to include Penn Elementary gardening and beautification future, old Monroe Jr. High building where Tulsa Adult Learning and Margaret Hudson program are located, and Berry Park, 48th St. and Utica, as well as partnering with Sarah's Senior Living Center in the area.

Plus projects beyond these 36 to be included but unknown now at this stage; perhaps one you have.
We are currently already involved in several of these 36 projects, not waiting but acting, or we are about to start them. But putting them into the "big picture" and naming them helps to give focus to our energy, to recruit partners and helpers for these projects, and to shape our grants and fundraising for completion beyond our current capacities.

The "Four Directions" in the name also alludes to the importance of community spirit, ownership, and above all sense of place, to the original settlers of our area since we were and are a part of the Cherokee Nation.

The "Far North" designation for the Main Street Project is borrowed from the designation of our area by the Tulsa Community Services Council demographics research.

The "TNT" designation for TulsaNorthTurley alludes first to how we have "exploded" with community renewal energy these past three years and to the "vision explosion" to come through the initiative above; and secondly by linking TulsaNorthTurley we name our interconnection and destiny with one another despite any differences of ethnicity and history. For example, even as we may continue to work for incorporation of much of the currently unincorporated area of Turley in particular to get additional resources to help in this initiative, as well as for other reasons, we also know that because of Tulsa North and Turley's proximity and weaving together of where people go to school, shop, live, go to church, etc., that the two differently named areas are similar in many ways and share common issues and destiny.

Stay tuned for further developments as we work on visually presenting this project, in soliciting input about adding to it, and which parts of it should receive top priority, and how you can be a part of the adventure right now.

We hope you are inspired by our small acts, even moreso now that you can see how the dots connect into a bigger picture.