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From YouTube: Viewpoints - James R. Tolbert, III
Description
Viewpoints is a City of Oklahoma City/City Channel 20 program which will give viewers a unique, firsthand, in-depth conversation with city leaders past and present. Viewpoints will explore their lives; from life as a child to their roles in making Oklahoma City what it is today.
This profile features James R. Tolbert, III, businessman and Chairman Emeritus of the Oklahoma City Myriad Gardens Foundation.
A
A
My
father
went
to
an
office
downtown
and
what
is
now
but
ultimately
became
the
kerr-mcgee
building,
but
it
was
a
republic
building
and
he
could
only
go.
He
went
at
four
o'clock
in
the
morning
because
he
had
to
come
home
because
there's
no
air
conditioning
and
he
worked
from
four
o'clock
in
the
morning
till
10
o'clock
in
the
morning
and
then
came
home.
It
was
a.
It
was
a
big
small
town.
It
was
a
very
great
place
to
grow
up.
A
We
had
an
enormous
personal
freedom,
I
ride,
the
bus
downtown
ride
the
bus
to
plaza
Court,
where
there
was
a
music
store
and
having
a
barbershop,
and
we
lived
in
decals
Hills.
My
parents
had
bought
a
house
at
in
1939
that
had
been
one
of
the
few
houses
built
at
that.
During
that
time
period
we
had
the
only
house
on
the
block,
so
it
was.
It
was
a
great
place
to
grow
up.
A
A
We
came
back
because
we
had
family
here
and
we
had
we've
been
offered
really
remarkably
fortunate,
good
jobs
in
California,
but
decided
to
come
back
to
Oklahoma
City
to
be
with
family
and
to
be
a
place
where
we
knew
people,
and
we
thought
we'd
liked
that
better
and
it
was
a
better
place
to
for
us
to
start
a
family.
So
that's
why
we
came
back.
A
Oklahoma
City
had
always
seemed
to
me
to
be
a
place,
and
it
always
has
where,
if
you
were
interested
in
participating
and
engaged
in
the
Kin
cared
about
what
was
going
on
in
the
community,
you
could
find
a
place
to
work
to
be
active.
One
of
the
early
places
we
were
involved
was
in
the
arts,
and
that
was
a
particularly
welcoming
place
to
young
people
and
we
volunteered
a
number
of
places.
A
We
were
involved
both
of
us
in
the
very
earliest
days
of
the
Oklahoma
City
Arts
Festival
and,
for
example,
and
the
arts
built
gave
us
a
community
friends
beyond
those
thought
we
had
known
when
we
grew
up
here,
so
it
was
a
very
pleasant
place
in
that
respect.
The
part
aspects
of
it
that
were
negative.
We
only
gradually
begin
to
understand.
We
begin
to
understand
the
significance
of
the
cyclical
economy.
A
By
the
time
I
got
there,
we
were
in
the
mode
of
trying
to
actually
pretty
establish
a
neighborhood
where
we
had
probably
contributed
to
the
decline
of
a
neighborhood
by
the
acquisition
policies
in
the
early
days
of
better,
as
far
as
the
portion
of
it
that
involved
the
Health
Science
Center.
That
was
a
different
story.
A
I
think
that's
been
was
an
enormous
success
in
terms
of
what
has
been
created
and
renewal
was
the
necessary
ingredient
than
that,
but
John
F
Kennedy,
for
example,
which
was
the
next
development
after
that
was
probably
a
clumsy
effort
in
its
early
efforts,
in
the
sense
that
we
didn't
have
experience
on
how
to
do
that.
It
fractured
the
black
community
through
after
the
community
route.
The
city
I
think
it
in
an
odd
way,
contributed
to
their
to
a
dispersal
of
races
in
the
community,
which
was
not
always
helpful.
A
When
I
got
to
renewal,
we
were,
and
we
had
reached
a
point
where
there
was
an
active
effort
for
the
first
time
to
try
to
create
new
housing
in
town
of
Kennedy.
Particularly,
there
was
a
realization
that
we
had
to
be
proactive
in
that
respect
and
that
that
was
necessary
for
the
also
for
the
health
of
the
Health
Science
Center
that
that
neighborhood
around
it
be
a
healthy,
neighborhood
I
think
we're
making
lots
of
progress.
The
quality
of
the
builders
in
the
quality
of
the
construction
that
has
been
built
over
there.
A
The
new
housing
I
think
is
beginning
to
recreate
a
neighborhood
and
I
think
that's
exciting,
I
think.
What's
going
to
go
on
around
page
Woodson,
it's
going
to
reinforce
that
I
am
pleased
about
the
fact
that
there
is
a
going
to
be
a
renovation
of
that
building
as
the
community
center
and
part
and
it's
Havana's
housing
in
addition
to
that,
I
really
think
we're
making
progress.
Finally,
I'm
J
I
think
we
all
should
feel
a
little
guilty
by
the
fact
that
we
took
so
long
to
get
organized
to
do
that.
A
I've
never
lived
anywhere
other
than
when
I
was
in
graduate
school
in
California
that
a
neighborhood
was
not
part
of
my
life
and
I
think
the
the
sense
of
place
that
an
individual
and
particularly
children,
get
from
a
neighborhood.
It's
just
critically
important
to
how
you
feel
about
yourself
and
how
you
feel
about
your
future.
I
think
out
of
neighborhoods
come
optimism
among
many
things
and
I've
been
very
fortunate
to
have
been
always
in
very,
very,
very
engaged.
Neighborhoods.
A
When
I
moved
to
brick
down,
there
was
nobody
else
there,
literally
in
the
building
of
that,
I
was
in.
We
Don,
Kirshner
and
I,
bought
from
the
old
Fidelity
Bank
one
of
Neil
Hortons
buildings,
the
only
one
he
had
gotten
the
chance
to
really
make
an
investment
in
called
the
glass
and
confectionery
building
and
don
already
had
a
place
for
where
he
was
off,
saying
so,
I
out
first
over
there
by
myself,
and
we
had
almost
no
other
no
additional
tenants
in
that
building.
Don
and
I
are
very
lucky.
A
We
have
men,
we're
not
Prius,
and
we
had
just
been
in
the
right
place.
A
lot
and
the
arrival
after
week
required
property
I
began
to
acquire
more
actually
of
Neilson
old
properties
and
others
of
the
decision
by
first
to
build
us
finish
out.
The
Centennial
expressway,
which
we
now
know
was
as
a
guide
to
35
and
separately
the
arrival
of
the
Spaghetti
Warehouse,
which
created
something
that
everybody
in
the
city
wanted
to
see
and
with
235
they
could
get
there,
but
that
was
the
birth
of
brick.
A
Town
Neil
had
a
great
vision
and
a
remarkable
vision.
Actually
and
it's
tragic
that
he
was
not
able
to
realize
it,
but
there
were
a
group
of
us
that
were
fortunate
enough
to
get
involved
in
the
80s
that
were
able
to
carry
it
forward,
and
we
owe
a
lot
to
Jim.
Breuer
I
think
my
partner,
Don
Carson
Burgett
doesn't
get
nearly
enough
credit.
A
There
are
lots
of
active
property
owners
that
time
that
came
together
to
find
new
ways
to
develop
interest
in
the
center
and
in
the
area.
When
we
produced
events
we
did
a
lot
of
kind
of
silly
things,
sometimes
to
call
attention
to
ourselves
and
but
office
thing
over.
There
initially
was
fascinating
because
we
were
by
ourselves
I
think
there's
several
things
that
had
happened
that
didn't
happen
in
the
West
End
one
was
that
it
has
always
been
a
mixed-use
development.
It
hasn't
always
been
distressed.
Some
clubs
and
entertainment
venues,
there's
always
been
offices.
A
There
has
always
been
other
kinds
of
business
activity
in
the
area.
I
think
the
advent
of
the
canal
and
the
ball
park
enhanced
that
I
think
more
recently,
bringing
in
as
many
hotels
as
have
been
established.
There
has
given
it
a
daily
activity
level
that
is
critical
to
the
survival
of
the
kind
of
business.
A
This
is
a
very
I
think
also
we've
been
fairly
fortunate
and
have
attracting
restaurant
and
other
entertainment
menu
operators
who
understand
the
surgeon
flow
of
the
kind
of
customer
base
they
have
to
deal
with,
and
that
took
a
long
that
took
a
while,
and
there
were
some
casualties
because
that's
hard
to
deal
with
when
you
one
day
are
full
in
the
next.
In
the
next
day.
Three
days
you
have
temperature
dr.,
Z,
I,
think
the
diversity
of,
what's
going
on
over,
there
has
reinforced
itself
as
we
going
along
I.
A
Think
the
arrival,
for
example,
of
you
SEOs
multiple
locations,
has
created
a
very
healthy
strength
to
the
area.
Finally,
we're
beginning
to
get
the
upper
floors
of
the
high
right
of
the
buildings,
redeveloped
Don
and
I
just
did
21
East,
Main
and
added
officers
to
the
bill
over
the
melting
plot,
which
knows
that
that
knows
that
space
has
not
been
occupied,
since
we
bought
the
property
from
the
Liberty
Bank
years
ago.
A
In
the
50s
downtown
Oklahoma
City
was
getting
shabby
Noah.
There
was
not
any
new
investment
that
had
been
hadn't
been
in.
For
a
long
time.
The
city
fathers
decided
that
they
wanted
to
do
something
done
about
this.
Through
the
urban
action
foundation
they
employed.
I
am
paid
to
do
this
master
plan
for
the
redevelopment
of
downtown
Oklahoma,
City
and
pace
plan
was
the
inclusion
of
a
sixth
core
block
park.
Out
of
that
also
came.
A
They
didn't
get
the
job,
but
they
were
included
in
the
last
five.
They
envisioned
two
botanical
tubes
parallel
across
the
lake
that
was
ultimately
decided
to
be
on
economic
and
impractical,
but
the
gardens
proceeded
in
the
70s
with
initial
construction,
but
the
city
never
took
ownership
of
it.
They
created
an
authority
which
McGee
was
chair
of
under
that
authority
collected
grants,
mostly
federal
grants
to
do
stages
of
development
of
the
gardens.
A
A
But
finally,
during
all
of
that
time
there
was
very
little
political
support
for
this
project
and
it
was
always
almost
a
semi-private
project
and
then
and
finally,
in
the
late
eighties,
1988
and
specifically,
we
were
ready
to
go
to
operate
the
crystal
bridge
and
open
it
and
turn
around
this
hopeless
political
attitude
that
we
had
there'd
been
elections
where
people
have
run
against
the
crystal
bridge.
Ron
Morton
ran
against
the
crystal
bridge,
the
first
time
he
ran,
not
the
crystal
bridge,
I'm,
sorry
against
the
garb
and
against
the
gardens
and
the
whole
concept.
A
He
thought
it
was
a
money
pit.
He
didn't
want.
City
to
have
anything
to
do
with
Jim
Loftus,
who
later
was
very
helpful
in
completing
the
crystal
bridge,
ran
for
the
City,
Council
and
lost,
and
that
was
the
only
issue
was
his
support
of
the
merit
gardens.
So
it
was
a
politically
negative
environment.
A
We
got
and
he
finally
got
the
building
built
and
planted
and
ready
to
open,
but
we
needed
the
city
to
operated.
We
need
the
city
support
to
operate
it.
There
was
a
million
something
in
the
budget
that
year
to
open
the
crystal
rich
and
given
to
the
parks
department
to
open
the
crystal
bridge,
and
there
was
a
great
competition
among
others,
for
that
million
dollars,
particularly
the
zoo
wanted
that
million
dollars.
So
we
had
a
counterbalancing
public
interest
wanting
the
dead
million
dollars.
A
Kerry
and
Jackie
Kerry
had
grown
or
pushed
families
from
Poland
and
about
that
time,
as
you
remember,
was
the
opening
of
the
Eastern
European
countries
to
visits
from
people
in
the
United
States
Jackie
wanted
to
go,
see
her
family
in
Poland,
but
before
she
left
she
said
you
know
we're
going
to
come
up
with
a
preliminary
vote
on
the
budget
while
I'm
gone
and
if
you
think
they're
gonna
take
this
out
of
the
budget.
You
need
to
call
me
so
sure
enough.
A
The
I
became
very
clear
to
me
that
there
was
not
that
the
council
was
going
through
an
absence
of
Jackie,
take
the
money
for
the
Manor
Gardens
out
of
the
budget,
and
so
I
called
Jackie
on
Friday.
She
flew
home
from
Poland
hid
out,
as
it
were
at
her
daughter's
house,
because
she
didn't
want
anybody
to
know.
She
was
here
showed
up
that
morning
of
Tet
Tuesday
morning
when
they
were
gonna
vote,
all
of
their
jaws
dropped
and
suddenly
there
was
a
bat.
A
There
was
almost
a
complete
majority
for
voting
the
merit
gardens
and
it
was
all
because
of
Jackie's
I'm,
really
fascinating
decision
and
commitment
to
do
that,
I
for
one
forever
and
her
debt
and
grateful
to
her.
For
that
doing
that,
because
of
that,
then
it
was
funded
and
it
was
opened
in
the
fall
or
in
the
spring
of
1988
and
as
joint
Pierce
says
that
has
been.
A
Who
was
then
director
of
parks
and
Joanne
said:
room
tells
the
story
about
going
to
the
glass
doors
of
the
Crystal
bridge
and
looking
out
to
the
west
and
the
place,
and
there
were
a
huge
crowd
and
up
until
that
moment
we
didn't
think
there.
Anybody
really
cared
about
what
we
were
doing.
We
served.
We
certainly
had
no
political
experience
that
showed
there
was
a
commitment
to
it,
but
that
thousands
people
I
mean
I'm
I'm
sure
there
were
2,000.
People
came
through
the
crystal
bridge
that
very
first
day.
All
of
them
excited
to
see
this.
A
It
was
in
a
remarkably
visionary
concept
and
he
called
me
and
I
told
me
a
little
bit
about
this,
and
it
took
me
a
few
minutes
to
digest
what
he
was
really
saying.
All
through
your
life.
You
may
have
thought
if
I
could
just
win
the
lottery.
I
could
do
this
or
this
or
this
and
I'd
always
had
this
vision.
A
I
cannot
say
enough
good
things
about
that,
and
then
after
it
was
started,
he
was
very
open
to
a
process
that
we
had
tremendous
amount
of
input
and
he
was
respectful
of
everything
that
had
been
done
before
and
encouraged
me
to
ensure
that
much
of
that
was
preserved
and
he
was
very
respectful
of
inputs
from
the
community.
Often
executives
of
companies,
and
that
was
the
other
part
of
my
life-
can
be
somewhat
arrogant
about
other
people's
attitudes,
particularly
outside
of
their
business
and
Larry,
didn't
show
any
of
that.
He
knew
that.
A
A
It
is
really
a
case
of
build
it
and
they
will
come
if
you
can
create
something.
That's
well
done
and
engages
of
the
community
and
it's
not
competitive
with
the
mirrored
gardens,
but
something
altogether
different
and
I
think
the
elements
that
are
coming
together
there
offer
that
possibility.
I
think
you
will
see
over
25
years
and
not
over
5
the
redevelopment
of
the
area
around
it
into
much
of
what
was
envisioned
in
court.
Sure
I
think
there'll
be
a
high
density,
housing
I
think.
Ultimately,
there
will
be
other
entertainment
venues.
A
The
fact
that
the
Convention
Center
is
going
to
be
in
one
corner
and
the
Convention
Center
Hotel
will
give
it
a
visibility
that
it
would
not
have
had.
Otherwise,
the
downside
of
that
is.
It
will
not
have
an
intense
constituency
on
that
side
and
that's
always
been
a
problem
for
the
garden.
The
Cox
Center
is
a
great
concrete
wall
and
we
don't
have
a
constituency
on
that
side
and
that's
going
to
be
something
of
a
problem
in
the
downtown
park,
but
I
think
it
offers
the
opportunity
to
be
the
catalyst
for
a
long
term.
A
So
that
was
special
and
I.
Think
going
back
to
it
will
be
special
ironically
I
moved
it
in
1985.
They
Magee
decided
our
head
decided
as
long
ago
that
he
wanted
the
festival
they
moved
to
Mary
Gardens.
The
festival
had
really
outgrown
Civic,
Center
Park,
and
it's
then
capacity
City
had
not
made
a
lot
of
investment
in
Civic
Center
Park,
except
building
the
bunker,
the
Bicentennial
bunker,
as
we
called
it
in
front
of
it
they,
but
they
had
not
done
much
else,
and
so,
whenever
we
had
a
festival
that
always
rained.
A
Of
course
we
have
a
festival
and
it
was
always
a
mud
hole
and
it
was
not
big
enough
and
the
access
to
it
was
difficult
and
the
parking
was
difficult
and
so
moving
to
the
gardens
was
a
really
I
think
a
savior
of
the
festival.
It
had
grown
stale
where
it
was.
Although
we
did
a
national
study
and
everybody
told
us,
it
wouldn't
work
that
would
fail
if
we
moved
it
because
that's
what
happened.
The
festival's
has
moved,
but
Magee
was
very
firm
and
he
could
be
very
firm.
A
A
The
last
year
we
were
Civic,
Center,
probably
was
200
thousand
people
there,
the
first
year
in
the
gardens
which
I
chaired,
which
and
I
chaired
one
previous
one
in
the
Civic
Center
was
probably
six
hundred
thousand
people,
so
it
was
a
wonderful
success.
In
that
sense,
it
was
also
a
great
success
for
the
gardens,
because
most
of
those
people
had
never
been
on
that
site
and
we
let
them
walk
through
the
crystal
bridge,
even
though
it
wasn't
finished
and
that
began
to
build
the
excitement
and
I
told
you
about
that.
A
I
think
art
is
important
for
every
four
people,
I
think
the
experiencing
of
understanding
the
creative
impulse
and
understanding
and
being
touched
at
a
lot
of
levels
personally
by
what
has
been
created
and
better.
Yet
to
do
it.
It's
just
part
of
the
evolution
of
a
person
into
a
civilized
being,
and
fortunately,
we've
been
able
to
develop
a
significant
arts
community
in
Oklahoma
City
and
we've
had
a
lot
of
support
from
odd
places,
and
it's
always
a
struggle,
because
if
people
think
it's
it's
it's
a
luxury,
it's
not
a
luxury.
It's
a
necessity.
A
You
can't
teach
creative
thinking
in
in
schools
without
adding
art
to
it.
Unfortunately,
we've
tried
really
hard,
but
I
think
you
need
that
enrichment
of
lives
that
comes
from
art
and
more
public
art
and
the
more
approachable
art
is
the
better
well
great
thing
about
festival.
There's
no
fences,
no
intimidation,
factory,
the
people
who
were
there
would
never
go
in
a
building
to
look
at
those
paintings,
but
they
get
fascinated
with
what
they
see
at
festival
on
the
street
so
and
I
think
that's
that's.
That's
very
important.
A
There's
two
aspects
of
economic
development
that
come
from
the
arts
one.
Is
they
obviously
it's
an
industry
like
any
other
industry
and
when
you
find
think
about
the
employment
in
the
arts
in
Central
Oklahoma,
it's
a
major
employer
and
we
need
the
jobs,
but,
more
importantly,
from
an
economic
development
standpoint.
It
represents
quality
of
life.
A
The
excitement
of
being
around
art
and
artists
performing
or
visual
is
important
to
educated
young,
creative,
talented
people,
and,
if
we're
going
to
move
the
city
forward
continually,
we
all
have
to
have
more
and
more
educated
young,
talented
people,
and
this
is
part
of
what
they're
looking
for
in
their
lives.
The
reason
as
the
consequence,
major
employers
are
looking
forward
to
I
venture
to
say
that
Boeing
assessed
our
quality
of
life
and
the
quality
of
our
arts
community
before
they
committed
to
bring
a
thousand
engineers
to
Oklahoma
City
I.
A
A
Several
years
ago,
I
ran
for
mayor
and
I
had
been
doing
these
things
for
a
long
time
and
felt
like
that.
I
had
a
similar
profile
that
people
would
respond
to
and
I
thought
I
really
wanted
to
be
part
of
the
fight.
The
decisions
that
were
being
made
at
that
level
and
the
this
was
something
I
could
be,
could
really
make
a
contribution
and
I
had
the
time
as
it
happens,
the
first,
the
only
other
person
running
that
had
much
visibility
was
a
sportscaster
name.
A
A
Affiliation
with
sports
was
important
and
the
fact
that
I
thought
I
had
had
something
of
a
profile
in
oakum
city
turned
out
to
be
not
so
important,
but
that
was
really
for
the
best
first
of
all,
I'm
not
sure
how
good
I
would
have
been
at
it,
but
in
particular
the
city
benefited
from
Nick's
particular
background
at
that
moment,
in
a
way
that
I
would
not
have
anticipated
and
I've
been
elected.
Mayor
I
would
not
have
had
the
good
sense
to
go.
A
Cultivate
the
National,
Hockey
League
I
would
not
have
thought
about
the
power
of
sports
to
transform
the
community.
I
was
much
aware,
because
we
had
been
involved
in
Sturbridge
subarrays
for
the
Arts
that
the
people
of
Oklahoma
City
didn't
think
it
was
a
very
good
place
to
live
and
that
we
would
still
need
to
improve
the
quality
of
life
and
people's
visions
of
the
quality
of
life.
But
I
didn't
understand
the
relation
of
that
to
professional
sports,
or
at
least
I
didn't
understand
it
at
any
depth
and
I.
A
I
love
sports,
so
I
had
been
interested
in
sports
and
I
played
sports,
but
I
was
not
at
that
level.
Sophisticated
sports
version
Mick
did
an
amazing
job
during
that
time
period
of
mobilizing
the
community,
mobilizing
the
wealth
of
the
community
and
the
wealth
in
the
hands
of
young
men
at
that
point
to
ultimately
acquire
the
basketball
team
and
cooperating
with
them.
A
But
it
wasn't
long
until
I
understood
that
this
had
transformed
our
community's
vision
of
itself
and
a
way
that
we'd
all
sought
to
do
for
decades
and
couldn't
find
a
handle
on.
And
this
that's
really
an
amazing
accomplishment
and
I
hand
it
to
him
as
well
as
a
is
a
really
a
seminal
moment
in
our
community's
history.
A
Having
an
active,
vital
play
center
of
the
city
from
23rd
Street
to
Southwest,
29th
Street,
it's
my
vision
of
the
city.
What
we
have
happening
on
the
river
is
absolutely
serendipitous.
Their
initial
Maps
decision
to
build
the
dams
on
the
river
was
a
long-standing
dream,
but
the
fact
that
that
turned
out
to
be
make
it
into
a
rash,
a
major
rolling
venue,
because
we
had
a
straight
stretch.