Mayor G.T. Bynum To Give Annual State Of The City Address

Happening Thursday Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum is expected to give the Annual State of the City Address. This will be Bynum’s sixth annual address and after another unprecedented year for Tulsa, it is expected that there will be a large focus on moving forward together as a city. City leaders say he will talk about the “progress and a bright future for Tulsa.”

Last year, Mayor Bynum’s speech focused on how Tulsa handled the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, several days of “Black Lives Matter” protests, and the moment Sgt. Craig Johnson was shot and killed and officer Aurash Zarkeshan was shot and badly injured. Even with those events still present in many people’s daily lives, Mayor Bynum said he was looking forward to continue moving into 2021 with high expectations.

In that speech Mayor Bynum said he was looking forward to the new year with high expectations for racial reconciliation, marking 100 years since the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, as well as economic growth and bouncing back from the pandemic.

Mayor Bynum is expected to talk about a variety of topics again on Thursday afternoon, but city leaders said they could not share any specifics ahead of the speech.

The Mayor has been in the news this week after saying the City of Tulsa would not withdraw a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, which supports Oklahoma's push to overturn the court's ruling on tribal jurisdiction. The mayor says the Supreme Court has a right to know what's going on in the largest city impacted by the ruling. City leaders did not say if Mayor Bynum will discuss the McGirt ruling in Thursday's address.

The state of the city address is set for 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the Cox Business Center.

News On 6 will carry the speech live on News On 6, the free News On 6 app, and on Newson6.com.