Tulsa's mayoral race entered its home stretch on high school students' terms Friday as the candidates tackled student-submitted questions in the first campaign forum of the general election season.
The forum, held before hundreds of Booker T. Washington students in the school's auditorium, featured questions about storm debris cleanup, public transit, racial segregation and street construction - all chosen by faculty from a pool of more than 100 questions.
"It's obvious that there were a few (students) out there that were politically aware enough to ask some pretty important questions," said Kelly McCracken, a debate teacher who helped organize the forum. "I thought that was pretty impressive."
Mayor Dewey Bartlett, 65, a Republican, and former Mayor Kathy Taylor, 57, a Democrat, took a break from serious campaigning after they ousted former City Councilor Bill Christiansen in the June 11 primary election.
Several students said Friday's forum - the first linked to the Nov. 12 general election - was their first significant exposure to the race.
They said they paid particular attention to questions about economic development and safety in north Tulsa.
"Going here to Booker T., there's not really a lot you can do around the area," said senior Jaime Nuñez, 17. "Most people have to go back to midtown, where a lot of us live."
Taylor said she would seek "community-based policing" by focusing on improving the quality of life and communication with residents.
As for north Tulsa's economy, she said she would be more aggressive in addressing neglected homes and pursue a tax increment financing district at 36th Street North.
Bartlett pointed to the Shoppes on Peoria shopping center, which opened this year at 1717 N. Peoria Ave., as "a guidepost on how things can happen." He also said the city should focus on improving streets in north Tulsa and the aerospace industry.
"North Tulsa in my view has been one of the places that they've been left behind," Bartlett said.
Nuñez thought Taylor got the better of that exchange.
"I think both candidates did an amazing job, but maybe Ms. Taylor gave a little more concrete answer to that question," he said.
Senior Quinn Llewellyn, 17, said he tends to agree with Bartlett because of his conservative political views but thought Taylor expressed her ideas better on the whole.
"They definitely have different styles of debate," senior Sophia Alvarez said.
McCracken said the forum was a "student-led idea" that began when he received an email from a parent suggesting it. Students on the school's "teen advisory board" made the arrangements, he said.
"I think the coolest part of this whole deal is that ... I think we (faculty) changed two specific words," he said. "Other than that, all of the questions were student-generated: wording, content and subject matter."
Highlights included questions about the candidates' greatest life challenges and one that asked whether Tulsa could hasten storm debris cleanup - a reference to the cleanup effort still underway following a July windstorm.
For the first, Bartlett responded that he's had to overcome "a perception that I was some kid who had a silver spoon in his mouth" and that he's had to show he could "do things on my own" by working in an oil field and in agriculture.
Taylor said she had to "grow up fast" in her youth following the death of her parents.
As for storm debris, Taylor pointed to the city's relatively quick response under her administration to an ice storm in 2007.
Bartlett said the city this time around has had to be conservative because it will not receive federal reimbursement for cleanup, as it did in 2007.
Zack Stoycoff 918-581-8486
zack.stoycoff@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Bartlett, Taylor answer student questions
