Placemaking in Tulsa: Secret Tunnels, Art Deco Buildings, and a Downtown Reborn Powered by Transit with Chase Phillips

In part two of our series featuring Tulsa, OK, host Paul Comfort gets a special tour of Downtown Tulsa with Chase Phillips, the Director of Planning for MetroLink Tulsa. Chase talks about the city’s rich history, architectural wonders, and the role of transit in its development. Chase sheds light on Tulsa’s transformation from a 1920s hub of oil wealth, with the largest airport in the world at the time, to a vibrant city maintaining its historic charm with a modern makeover. They tour the city, exploring some iconic Art Deco buildings, hidden tunnels, and experiencing the quiet streets of downtown Tulsa. Chase credits public transit for playing a key role in Tulsa’s resurgence and shares his vision for the future of transit in the city, including expanding Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and microtransit.

If you missed last week’s episode, catch up with Paul’s interview with Scott Marr, CEO of MetroLink Tulsa: https://transitunplugged.com/transit-unplugged-podcast/scott-marr-and-metrolink-tulsa-get-their-kicks-on-route-66-with-brt-and-microtransit/

Coming up next week we have a special panel talking about hydrogen fuel and the hydrogen hubs initiative in the U.S. to lower the cost of hydrogen for transportation and industry. The panel features regular guest SARTA CEO, Kirt Conrad and Tim Sesseen Dir of Market Development and Public Affairs at Ballard Power with insights into the growth of hydrogen as the fuel of the future for transportation.

If you have a question or comment, email us at info@transitunplugged.com.

Transit Unplugged is brought to you by Modaxo and these fine folks:

Paul Comfort, host and producer
Julie Gates, executive producer
Tris Hussey, editor and writer
Tatyana Mechkarova, social media

00:00 Introduction and Overview

01:26 Exploring Tulsa’s History and Architecture

05:25 Downtown Tulsa: A Blend of Old and New

07:07 Transit in Tulsa: Past, Present, and Future

09:23 Unveiling the Hidden Tunnels of Tulsa

13:01 Reflections on Transit and City Planning

18:00 Coming up next week on Transit Unplugged

Transcript

Paul Comfort: 00:00:03

This is Transit Unplugged.

Paul Comfort: 00:00:04

I'm Paul Comfort.

Paul Comfort: 00:00:06

Today is part two of our podcast interviews from Tulsa,

Paul Comfort: 00:00:09

Oklahoma, here in the U.

Paul Comfort: 00:00:10

Paul Comfort: 00:00:11

In part one, last week, we spoke with Scott Marr, the CEO of Tulsa

Paul Comfort: 00:00:15

Transit, now known as Metrolink Tulsa.

Paul Comfort: 00:00:18

And he shared about the transit system.

Paul Comfort: 00:00:20

On today's episode, we speak with Chase Phillips, Director of Planning for

Paul Comfort: 00:00:24

Metrolink Tulsa, and he shares about what's commonly known as placemaking.

Paul Comfort: 00:00:29

How Tulsa became such an important city in America back in the

Paul Comfort: 00:00:33

1920s and 30s, with the largest airport in the world at the time.

Paul Comfort: 00:00:37

Together, he and I ride and walk around downtown Tulsa and take the

Paul Comfort: 00:00:41

hidden tunnels underneath the city to see some of its fabulous history,

Paul Comfort: 00:00:45

its Art Deco architecture, and hidden gems As Chase says, it shows

Paul Comfort: 00:00:51

preservation and communities valuing things that have been previously

Paul Comfort: 00:00:54

built, built by other generations.

Paul Comfort: 00:00:57

We also discuss his career path from MPO to transit agency and his vision

Paul Comfort: 00:01:02

for transit in this amazing city.

Paul Comfort: 00:01:04

We also have a companion video coming out on our Transit Unplugged TV

Paul Comfort: 00:01:07

show, which will show you some of what we discuss in this interview.

Paul Comfort: 00:01:11

Plus, check out the show notes for this podcast for some great pictures

Paul Comfort: 00:01:14

we took inside these buildings that we visit on the episode.

Paul Comfort: 00:01:18

Now, let's join Chase Phillips as we ride through Central Tulsa.

Chase Phillips: 00:01:26

So, Route 66 really has a storied place in

Chase Phillips: 00:01:28

American pop culture, right?

Chase Phillips: 00:01:30

And so, um, Tulsa plays a central part of that.

Chase Phillips: 00:01:33

Um, Cyrus Avery, um, you know, the, father of the Mother Road.

Chase Phillips: 00:01:38

Um, he was a former Tulsa County Commissioner.

Chase Phillips: 00:01:41

Um, he really, you know, played a very crucial part in bringing

Chase Phillips: 00:01:46

Route 66 to Tulsa, um, as the main access point across Arkansas River.

Chase Phillips: 00:01:50

It's not just about wide roads and open highways and, you know,

Chase Phillips: 00:01:54

and fast cars and classic cars.

Chase Phillips: 00:01:56

It's also about the people.

Chase Phillips: 00:01:57

It's about bringing connection Uh, two places, um, so, and, uh,

Chase Phillips: 00:02:02

reintroducing that to other people, bringing them, being able to give

Chase Phillips: 00:02:06

them access to your community, and so, um, a lot of really cool, beautiful

Chase Phillips: 00:02:09

things, uh, that you see in that.

Paul Comfort: 00:02:14

Chase, so tell me about the Art Deco here in Tulsa.

Chase Phillips: 00:02:16

Yeah, so Art Deco, is another one of those aspects

Chase Phillips: 00:02:19

of this historical period kind of in the 1920s when Tulsa really,

Chase Phillips: 00:02:23

started forming its identity as a city and as a place and its people.

Chase Phillips: 00:02:27

kind of going back to the, you know, the late 1800s, um, so I believe oil

Chase Phillips: 00:02:31

was first discovered in Tulsa in 1901.

Chase Phillips: 00:02:34

So fast forward from oil discovery in 1901.

Chase Phillips: 00:02:39

Within the next 20 years, Tulsa completely exploded in terms of wealth that really

Chase Phillips: 00:02:44

stemmed from that, that oil industry.

Chase Phillips: 00:02:46

We have the busiest airport in the world, and I believe that

Chase Phillips: 00:02:49

extended all the way up into 1960.

Chase Phillips: 00:02:51

You have, individuals like Waite Phillips and Phillips Petroleum, constructing a

Chase Phillips: 00:02:56

lot of this, you know, a lot of these structures downtown that are, you know,

Chase Phillips: 00:03:00

this has this beautiful architecture, Art Deco architecture, but also like an

Chase Phillips: 00:03:04

underground tunnel system that really kind of helps them safely navigate

Chase Phillips: 00:03:07

between their residents and their bank and, and so, you know, so there's a

Chase Phillips: 00:03:11

lot, there really is a lot of history involved in the built environment that

Chase Phillips: 00:03:16

is here in Tulsa, so you do see that we have a very large concentration of

Chase Phillips: 00:03:21

Art Deco buildings, um, lots of old cathedrals and church structures that

Chase Phillips: 00:03:26

are, you know, also Exhibit a lot of that.

Chase Phillips: 00:03:28

So as you drive down Boston Avenue, which is where we're at right

Chase Phillips: 00:03:31

now, which is this This is my favorite street in Oklahoma by far.

Chase Phillips: 00:03:35

Awesome.

Chase Phillips: 00:03:36

It's gorgeous.

Chase Phillips: 00:03:36

So and you do have a little mixed some more modern buildings But you very much

Chase Phillips: 00:03:41

see this art deco aesthetic and it's very Portrayed all throughout Tulsa.

Chase Phillips: 00:03:46

Our marketing and our identity.

Chase Phillips: 00:03:48

It's a part of who we are.

Paul Comfort: 00:03:49

Let me ask you this.

Paul Comfort: 00:03:50

This is what's amazing.

Paul Comfort: 00:03:51

We're on the main drag, Boston Avenue.

Paul Comfort: 00:03:53

There's not one car around us.

Paul Comfort: 00:03:55

We're here, uh, in the afternoon around lunchtime and, uh, it's, it's wide open.

Paul Comfort: 00:04:01

I've never driven in a, these are, you know, 20, 30 story buildings around

Paul Comfort: 00:04:04

me and there's nobody around me.

Paul Comfort: 00:04:05

Yeah, yeah.

Paul Comfort: 00:04:06

It's, it's amazing.

Chase Phillips: 00:04:07

Yeah, especially, and you do have a lot of people, right?

Chase Phillips: 00:04:10

So that's one of the trends that's definitely extended into Tulsa.

Chase Phillips: 00:04:13

We're a lot, starting to reclaim a lot of that, empty travel space, um,

Chase Phillips: 00:04:18

and make that, street cafes, for local businesses, because there's, there's,

Chase Phillips: 00:04:22

all of these businesses really are.

Paul Comfort: 00:04:24

They're all alive and thriving, yeah.

Paul Comfort: 00:04:26

But it's not like masses of people around me in cars.

Paul Comfort: 00:04:29

I love it.

Chase Phillips: 00:04:30

Yeah, yeah, it's very, really cool.

Chase Phillips: 00:04:31

So, yeah, it's awesome.

Paul Comfort: 00:04:32

And, and some of the iron wrought work and all that,

Paul Comfort: 00:04:35

it just, you can see that people put a lot of money into this town.

Chase Phillips: 00:04:39

Yeah, for sure, yeah.

Chase Phillips: 00:04:40

And bringing it back, right, that's a big theme is that like a lot of these

Chase Phillips: 00:04:43

buildings sat decayed for a long time.

Paul Comfort: 00:04:48

You mentioned tunnel systems.

Paul Comfort: 00:04:49

What's that about?

Chase Phillips: 00:04:50

Yeah, so right below, right where we're standing right here,

Chase Phillips: 00:04:53

so connecting a lot of these, um, older structures, a lot of these older

Chase Phillips: 00:04:56

buildings, there's a network of tunnels.

Chase Phillips: 00:04:59

and so at least for part of those, I know that they were originally

Chase Phillips: 00:05:02

built, um, for a lot of your executives in the petroleum industry.

Chase Phillips: 00:05:08

So that they can safely navigate between, like, their places of residence, and then

Chase Phillips: 00:05:12

also, you know, the banks and different buildings and wherever they worked at.

Chase Phillips: 00:05:15

in the 1920s.

Chase Phillips: 00:05:16

There was, um, a lot of abducting of really wealthy people and so that was

Chase Phillips: 00:05:21

a means that they could, provide safe passage for them and their families

Chase Phillips: 00:05:27

. Paul Comfort: We've been driving through Tulsa.

Chase Phillips: 00:05:29

Now we get out of the car and take a walking tour of the city.

Chase Phillips: 00:05:33

Join Chase and I in downtown Tulsa.

Chase Phillips: 00:05:38

how big is the downtown area would you say?

Chase Phillips: 00:05:40

I mean, give us a scope of where

Chase Phillips: 00:05:41

we're standing here.

Chase Phillips: 00:05:42

Yeah, it's about, downtown Tulsa is about a square mile.

Chase Phillips: 00:05:46

Okay.

Chase Phillips: 00:05:46

So that's, that's, and it's really defined by the interstate highway

Chase Phillips: 00:05:49

system, the interdispersal loop.

Chase Phillips: 00:05:51

Um, that's, so it's got a very definite geographic boundary.

Chase Phillips: 00:05:54

downtown Tulsa has really, um, come a long way in the last two decades.

Chase Phillips: 00:05:58

We've made a lot of, um, quality of life improvements, a lot of economic

Chase Phillips: 00:06:02

activity and investments, and just trying to bring people into downtown.

Chase Phillips: 00:06:05

Um, if you go, you know, three blocks east of here, you've got

Chase Phillips: 00:06:08

developments that just simply didn't exist in the 90s, and now it's a

Chase Phillips: 00:06:12

great place that people want to live.

Chase Phillips: 00:06:13

You see families moving into downtown, um, it's all about placemaking,

Chase Phillips: 00:06:18

transit, transportation, all of that.

Chase Phillips: 00:06:21

is all a part of the equation that's bringing Macon Tulsa.

Paul Comfort: 00:06:24

So, like, right where we're standing here, in front of

Paul Comfort: 00:06:27

this big tower, over to our right is a place that says Daily Grill.

Paul Comfort: 00:06:31

Now that looks like, the graphics on it looks like it could be from the 1920s.

Paul Comfort: 00:06:35

And then right next to it is a fancy new place.

Paul Comfort: 00:06:37

It's like they're blending it all together, updating.

Paul Comfort: 00:06:40

It's really cool looking here.

Paul Comfort: 00:06:42

Yeah, for sure.

Paul Comfort: 00:06:42

Americana, kitschy, uh, nostalgic.

Paul Comfort: 00:06:46

Art Deco, Punk Deco, a guy told me they're calling some of the

Paul Comfort: 00:06:49

stuff that's out here on Route 66 a

Chase Phillips: 00:06:52

very unique place, man.

Chase Phillips: 00:06:53

I wasn't joking when I said, like, Route 66, that whole period is very

Chase Phillips: 00:06:58

much a part of our culture and identity.

Chase Phillips: 00:07:00

Um, we promote it everywhere we can, so Americana, we really capture

Chase Phillips: 00:07:04

that spirit, uh, in modern day life.

Paul Comfort: 00:07:10

So, Chase, Route 66 goes right through the heart of

Paul Comfort: 00:07:12

Tulsa, and you've got an amazing transit system here that includes

Paul Comfort: 00:07:16

a bus rapid transit or BRT line.

Paul Comfort: 00:07:19

It's called the Aero, which I think is cool.

Paul Comfort: 00:07:21

A E R O.

Paul Comfort: 00:07:22

Kind of a throwback to how you had the biggest airport in

Paul Comfort: 00:07:25

the country back in the 30s.

Paul Comfort: 00:07:27

But tell us about the new BRT line you have planned for Route

Paul Comfort: 00:07:30

66, hopefully in time for its centennial celebration in two years.

Chase Phillips: 00:07:34

Absolutely, yeah, so, um, we're very excited about, um, the role

Chase Phillips: 00:07:37

in that integration of bus rapid transit.

Chase Phillips: 00:07:40

Um, and Route 66.

Chase Phillips: 00:07:42

So, um, so a little bit of backstory.

Chase Phillips: 00:07:44

So our BRT, um, our vision for the BRT, um, is really to introduce a lot

Chase Phillips: 00:07:50

of Tulsans to public transportation.

Chase Phillips: 00:07:52

But then as just a functional piece of transportation, um, we really

Chase Phillips: 00:07:55

see the BRT as this connection point for all of our other services.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:00

So we have microtransit, that's kind of a new type of service

Chase Phillips: 00:08:04

that we've introduced to Tulsa.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:06

Then we also have our existing local bus service.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:08

Um, we really see the BRT as being, um, uh, an anchor point, if you will,

Chase Phillips: 00:08:14

for a lot of those other services.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:16

to feed into

Chase Phillips: 00:08:19

. Paul Comfort: So your town is really, in my mind, going through a resurgence

Chase Phillips: 00:08:23

and transit is at the center of it.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:25

Oh, absolutely.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:26

I mean, I, I would really say, um, a lot of the economic activity that we have.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:31

Really is centered around, well, I do want to say the transit is

Chase Phillips: 00:08:36

certainly playing a part of that.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:37

So, here's a, and here's a good way to look at it.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:39

So, with our first BRT, we had a lot more pushback.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:43

People really weren't that excited about it.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:45

Um, we had neighborhoods that said we don't want BRT

Chase Phillips: 00:08:48

stations anywhere close to us.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:50

With the second BRT, our Route 66 BRT, that's now planned and designed.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:54

Completely different story.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:55

People are asking for stations.

Chase Phillips: 00:08:58

We have city councillors kind of jockeying to have it extended

Chase Phillips: 00:09:01

into their district farther.

Chase Phillips: 00:09:03

A totally different approach and experience for us than

Chase Phillips: 00:09:07

what the first BRT was.

Chase Phillips: 00:09:08

And transit is obviously a huge part of that.

Chase Phillips: 00:09:10

Transit success is a huge part of that.

Chase Phillips: 00:09:13

Yeah,

Paul Comfort: 00:09:14

And we got a bus coming by us now.

Paul Comfort: 00:09:16

Tulsa Transit.

Paul Comfort: 00:09:17

You're gonna re, re, uh, re logo all them, right?

Paul Comfort: 00:09:20

With the new name?

Chase Phillips: 00:09:22

Yep.

Chase Phillips: 00:09:22

Yeah, we are.

Paul Comfort: 00:09:26

Now Chase and I are ready to dive down into the

Paul Comfort: 00:09:28

tunnels underneath the city.

Paul Comfort: 00:09:30

They're open, you can walk through them, but a lot of people don't know about them.

Paul Comfort: 00:09:33

Chase knows the ins and outs of all the tunnels, and we walked

Paul Comfort: 00:09:36

through, through several buildings in downtown Tulsa and popped up

Paul Comfort: 00:09:40

into amazing, fabulous architecture.

Paul Comfort: 00:09:42

You can check out the photos in the show notes of this podcast.

Paul Comfort: 00:09:46

Here we go.

Chase Phillips: 00:09:49

Yeah, so the tunnel system, um, that was, got lots of history.

Chase Phillips: 00:09:54

Um, kind of built, much of it was constructed, I believe in the 1920s.

Chase Phillips: 00:09:59

So, we're going to enter that now.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:01

We're going down a staircase with brass handles on the side.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:05

It's dark.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:06

We're going into a really dark tunnel with lit up on the sides.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:10

Cameras everywhere and pictures of what these buildings

Chase Phillips: 00:10:12

used to look like.

Chase Phillips: 00:10:12

and we're in a tunnel right now.

Chase Phillips: 00:10:14

Yeah, so you actually saw in that picture back there, so that WIMP, so the top of

Chase Phillips: 00:10:18

that tower is actually, I believe it was designed as a moor for For the blimp?

Chase Phillips: 00:10:23

Yeah, for the airships.

Chase Phillips: 00:10:27

And there are definitely a couple pictures that are kind of historical that are older

Chase Phillips: 00:10:31

that show kind of the blimp flying around.

Chase Phillips: 00:10:33

I don't know if one ever actually moored on that spot, but we'd

Chase Phillips: 00:10:37

like to think that it was.

Chase Phillips: 00:10:38

So we're

Paul Comfort: 00:10:39

in these tunnels underneath downtown Tulsa, and

Paul Comfort: 00:10:42

we're going to pop up inside.

Paul Comfort: 00:10:43

What?

Chase Phillips: 00:10:44

Uh, one of the other towers, right?

Chase Phillips: 00:10:46

So, um, I believe the Philcaide Tower, um, is the one this tunnel will jump

Chase Phillips: 00:10:51

right up to, but again, these are this 1920s architecture, um, deriving from

Chase Phillips: 00:10:56

the oil boom that really, the Route 66 era, where Tulsa became Tulsa.

Chase Phillips: 00:11:03

So, we're gonna, you know.

Chase Phillips: 00:11:04

Mid continent tower.

Chase Phillips: 00:11:06

Mid, yeah.

Chase Phillips: 00:11:06

Mid continent tower.

Chase Phillips: 00:11:07

So, the funny thing about mid continent towers, this one, you'll see a lot

Chase Phillips: 00:11:11

of the pictures, and you'll see part of this building, and it's not

Chase Phillips: 00:11:15

really as tall as what it is today.

Chase Phillips: 00:11:17

Uh, it actually was, uh, had like another 20 floors added on

Chase Phillips: 00:11:22

top of it, cantilevered over.

Chase Phillips: 00:11:24

So, um, it's a very old building, but it was extended.

Chase Phillips: 00:11:27

so we're seeing a lot of this architecture architecture That's

Chase Phillips: 00:11:29

just very much a part of Tulsa's

Paul Comfort: 00:11:32

identity.

Paul Comfort: 00:11:32

So we're inside like a bank and it's got phenomenal chandeliers

Paul Comfort: 00:11:36

that look like they're in an old.

Paul Comfort: 00:11:37

I don't know how you would even describe that the ceiling

Paul Comfort: 00:11:39

artwork You don't get this

Chase Phillips: 00:11:41

anymore.

Chase Phillips: 00:11:42

No in

Paul Comfort: 00:11:42

buildings.

Paul Comfort: 00:11:43

You know, the ceiling artwork looks like we're in some kind of fantastic

Paul Comfort: 00:11:46

Castle or something, a western castle.

Chase Phillips: 00:11:49

Yeah, yeah, lots of preservation and communities valuing

Chase Phillips: 00:11:55

things that have been previously built, built by other generations.

Chase Phillips: 00:11:58

A lot of that preservation is really prominent

Paul Comfort: 00:12:01

here.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:02

Yeah, that's a great way to say it.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:04

Preserving things that were built by other generations.

Chase Phillips: 00:12:09

yeah, so we're in Midcontinent Tower.

Chase Phillips: 00:12:12

Um, you see some There's an old barber shop right there.

Chase Phillips: 00:12:14

Yeah, uh huh.

Chase Phillips: 00:12:15

So look at the stained glass.

Chase Phillips: 00:12:16

Beautiful stained glass.

Chase Phillips: 00:12:17

It's really pretty.

Chase Phillips: 00:12:18

It's portraying the city skyline.

Chase Phillips: 00:12:20

Yep.

Chase Phillips: 00:12:20

Amazing.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:21

Marble, uh, ceilings, walls, floor.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:26

Wow.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:26

This was money.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:28

Big money.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:29

Yeah.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:29

And the titans of industry.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:31

A big, uh, statue in front of us of men twisting an

Chase Phillips: 00:12:34

oil rig.

Chase Phillips: 00:12:34

Yeah.

Chase Phillips: 00:12:35

Yeah, for sure.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:41

So we're sitting here at the uh, Grille

Chase Phillips: 00:12:44

415 Tulsa.

Chase Phillips: 00:12:45

This

Paul Comfort: 00:12:46

is just, I can't even describe how it looks, but it's like the

Paul Comfort: 00:12:50

oldest, coolest hotel you've been in.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:52

And a little grill here.

Paul Comfort: 00:12:53

You said you used to

Chase Phillips: 00:12:54

eat here?

Chase Phillips: 00:12:55

Yeah, I used to come down here a lot and grab a burger.

Paul Comfort: 00:13:01

So, how did you get into all this kind of work, transportation?

Paul Comfort: 00:13:04

You worked here at the NPO, right?

Chase Phillips: 00:13:05

Uh, I did, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chase Phillips: 00:13:07

So, um, I don't know, that's kind of an interesting question.

Chase Phillips: 00:13:09

I got into transportation probably when I, I lived in Washington State, actually,

Chase Phillips: 00:13:13

and a friend got me a job with the DOT.

Chase Phillips: 00:13:15

And so I worked in the state engineering office.

Chase Phillips: 00:13:18

Uh, randomly, I was in Portland, picked up a book about city planning, I didn't

Chase Phillips: 00:13:23

know what city planning was at that time, fell in love with it, um, we decided to

Chase Phillips: 00:13:27

move back to Oklahoma, um, I went back to grad school for city planning, right

Chase Phillips: 00:13:32

after that got a job with NPO in Tulsa.

Chase Phillips: 00:13:35

Um, yeah, I don't know.

Chase Phillips: 00:13:36

I fell in love with people, and places, and things that connect

Chase Phillips: 00:13:39

them, and that was really kind of how I am here in transit now.

Chase Phillips: 00:13:43

That's interesting.

Paul Comfort: 00:13:44

So Jessica Mefford Miller, the CEO in Phoenix at Valley

Paul Comfort: 00:13:47

Metro, we were just with her, and she has her degrees, like, in geography.

Paul Comfort: 00:13:51

Uh huh.

Paul Comfort: 00:13:52

And she said it was the same thing.

Paul Comfort: 00:13:53

It was the marriage of the place, the people, and now the mobility between it

Paul Comfort: 00:13:57

that really made her fall in love with it.

Paul Comfort: 00:13:59

Yeah, for sure.

Paul Comfort: 00:14:00

Same story for me.

Paul Comfort: 00:14:01

Yeah.

Paul Comfort: 00:14:01

And so then, how long did you work for the MPO?

Paul Comfort: 00:14:04

I worked there about five years.

Paul Comfort: 00:14:05

And you work right here in downtown in all these cool buildings, that's

Paul Comfort: 00:14:08

how you know about all the tunnels.

Chase Phillips: 00:14:09

Absolutely, oh yeah, I think about, I mean, I know a

Chase Phillips: 00:14:12

lot more about Tulsa's history than a lot of Tulsans, to be honest.

Chase Phillips: 00:14:15

So it's because I'm working in downtown, I'm interacting with these pieces of

Chase Phillips: 00:14:19

history, right, and yeah, for sure.

Chase Phillips: 00:14:22

I just became a student in my environment.

Chase Phillips: 00:14:23

And so

Paul Comfort: 00:14:24

then, what happened, uh, you got attracted to the transit system

Paul Comfort: 00:14:27

and wanted to go and work for them?

Chase Phillips: 00:14:28

Yeah, I actually, so while I was working for the NPO, I actually, And

Chase Phillips: 00:14:31

I was the one that tasked with a lot of the transit projects while I was there.

Chase Phillips: 00:14:34

And so that was really, I've been working with Tulsa Transit for the

Chase Phillips: 00:14:38

better part of the last decade.

Chase Phillips: 00:14:40

Um, but only formally for the last three years.

Paul Comfort: 00:14:42

what's your vision as the planning director?

Paul Comfort: 00:14:44

What do you, what do you, what do you see as fulfilling

Paul Comfort: 00:14:47

the board and Scott's vision?

Paul Comfort: 00:14:48

How do you see your role kind of implementing that?

Chase Phillips: 00:14:51

Yeah, sure.

Chase Phillips: 00:14:52

Um, I'll, I'll tell you one of the biggest things that I really want to

Chase Phillips: 00:14:55

do, um, whether this is formally as a Um, an employee with Tulsa Transit

Chase Phillips: 00:14:59

or not, I, I want to convince Tulsans that transit service is essential,

Chase Phillips: 00:15:05

and we need to be invested in it.

Chase Phillips: 00:15:06

We're doing lots of things to address really important issues in our

Chase Phillips: 00:15:09

community, housing, um, people who are experiencing homelessness, all of that.

Chase Phillips: 00:15:14

Transportation is a crucial component to all that, that just can't be ignored.

Chase Phillips: 00:15:18

Um, the more we invest in transit, the more we're investing in our community

Chase Phillips: 00:15:21

and our people, you know, providing ladders of opportunity for them.

Chase Phillips: 00:15:24

And so, I'm just wanting to convince Tolson's of that more.

Chase Phillips: 00:15:28

That's great.

Paul Comfort: 00:15:29

Yeah.

Paul Comfort: 00:15:30

And what do you think the best way is to do that?

Paul Comfort: 00:15:32

For somebody listening who's in a planning department, you

Paul Comfort: 00:15:34

know, in uh, Tucson, or wherever.

Paul Comfort: 00:15:37

You've been doing this a while.

Paul Comfort: 00:15:38

What's the way to convince people that transit is, uh, you know, a solution?

Paul Comfort: 00:15:42

What I call the gospel of transit.

Chase Phillips: 00:15:44

Yeah, well they have to get on the bus, right?

Chase Phillips: 00:15:46

So people don't believe something until they get on there and see it.

Chase Phillips: 00:15:48

And so, the more people that actually get on the bus Or the BRT.

Chase Phillips: 00:15:52

The BRT, that's, that's, that's part of the education.

Chase Phillips: 00:15:54

Or the microtransit, right?

Chase Phillips: 00:15:55

Or microtransit, yeah, for sure.

Chase Phillips: 00:15:57

So they have, we have to get them to use it, but telling a story, right?

Chase Phillips: 00:16:01

We have to make sure that we're capturing their heart.

Chase Phillips: 00:16:04

You know, tying, making that connection between that neighbor that they,

Chase Phillips: 00:16:08

they care so much about, who's going through a difficult time in life.

Chase Phillips: 00:16:11

Right.

Chase Phillips: 00:16:11

And tying that story to the value of public transportation.

Paul Comfort: 00:16:16

And what is the most fulfilling part of your job to you?

Paul Comfort: 00:16:18

I know we've talked about you want to message this out.

Paul Comfort: 00:16:21

What makes you feel like my values and my work are fully integrated?

Paul Comfort: 00:16:26

I'm self actualized.

Paul Comfort: 00:16:28

I'm Maslow's hierarchy.

Paul Comfort: 00:16:28

What fulfills you the most being a player?

Chase Phillips: 00:16:30

Being a public servant.

Chase Phillips: 00:16:31

That's gotta be it.

Chase Phillips: 00:16:33

I love working for city government, local city government, but I very much

Chase Phillips: 00:16:37

think of myself as a public servant.

Chase Phillips: 00:16:40

Um, I think of my job as it's tax funded, I'm providing a service to my

Chase Phillips: 00:16:44

community, um, there's accountability that goes on with that, and expectations.

Chase Phillips: 00:16:48

So I really, I feel a lot of value, personal value,

Chase Phillips: 00:16:52

because I'm a public servant.

Paul Comfort: 00:16:56

you've been really involved this week at the Southwest

Paul Comfort: 00:16:58

Transit Association Conference here in Tulsa hosting it with about 550 folks

Paul Comfort: 00:17:02

from the eight Southwestern states.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:04

Rich, the CEO has done a great job of pulling this together.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:06

What did you take out of the conference?

Paul Comfort: 00:17:08

What did you hope other people saw here from Tulsa as they go home that

Paul Comfort: 00:17:12

they can, you know, learn from and then take back to their own cities?

Chase Phillips: 00:17:16

Oh, yeah, I mean, well, transit agencies in general, the Southwest

Chase Phillips: 00:17:19

Transit Association just seems to be a really tight knit group of people, right?

Chase Phillips: 00:17:22

And so, um, one, connections are one of the biggest things that

Chase Phillips: 00:17:25

you're gonna get out of this, right?

Chase Phillips: 00:17:26

Relationships, um, sharing ideas, and so that's always the forefront

Chase Phillips: 00:17:30

of one of my takeaways, but I'm also just glad, um, and happy to share

Chase Phillips: 00:17:34

my city with other communities.

Chase Phillips: 00:17:35

Um, I'm proud of Tulsa, and we want more people to love Tulsa as well and share.

Chase Phillips: 00:17:41

Um, sharing quite the gem that it is to the world.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:44

Yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's been a revelation to me.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:47

What an amazing city you've got here.

Paul Comfort: 00:17:49

I'm excited for the work you're doing to not just put transit in

Paul Comfort: 00:17:53

place, but to integrate it into this theme that your city has of bringing

Paul Comfort: 00:17:58

people together in a better way.

Chase Phillips: 00:18:00

Thanks, Paul.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:03

Hi, this is Tris Hussey editor of the transit unplugged podcast.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:08

Thank you for listening to this week show with our special guest.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:11

Chase Phillips.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:12

Now coming up next week on the show, we have a special panel, all about

Tris Hussey: 00:18:15

hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cells.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:18

We have Kirt Conrad of SARTA.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:20

And Tim Sasseen of Ballard Power systems telling us all about how

Tris Hussey: 00:18:24

hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cells.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:26

Could be the fuel of the future.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:29

For public transit.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:30

Hey, have you connected with us on social media?

Tris Hussey: 00:18:33

We're on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and acts.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:36

Give us a shout we'd love to hear from our transit community.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:40

If you have a question comment, or I'd like to be a guest on

Tris Hussey: 00:18:42

the show, feel free to email us anytime@infoattransitunplugged.com.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:48

Transit unplugged is brought to you by Modaxo at Modaxo.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:52

We're passionate about moving the world's people.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:55

A transit unplugged.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:56

We're passionate about telling those stories.

Tris Hussey: 00:18:58

So until next week, Right.

Tris Hussey: 00:19:00

Safe and ride.

Tris Hussey: 00:19:02

Happy.