Hello and welcome to Let's Pod this. My name is Andy Moore. Friends, it's good to be with you again this week. Uh, gosh, I hope this episode is happier than my last episode, but I'm recording this on a Monday, and who knows what the week will have. I guess if the week goes south, I'll, I'll do a, a pre-roll bumper about like, oh my God, democracy is fracturing yet again, which I think is a, an all too common, uh, thread. Thank you listeners, for everyone who has reached out, um, to me or to Scott or anyone else who happens to know me about that short episode I did last week. Um, gosh, last week feels like it was a lifetime ago, even though, um, we're still. I think unpacking the implications of it, the, the details, the facts about what happened in Utah and, and what it means for our democracy. Um, but I always feel a little nervous when I do those episodes that are more heartfelt and, um. I think they feel riskier, like emotionally riskier. And so when there is feedback, I appreciate it. To be clear, I appreciate feedback for any episode. Um, today is gonna be a distinctly different vibe, so we'll, uh. Shake off sort of the gloom from last week, though it is never, never far from our hearts. Um, but this week we're gonna talk about something much more local. Uh, we're gonna talk about local events, uh, one event, a particular, the Plaza, um, district festival. And, um, why? Districts like the Plaza District as one, I think standout example in Oklahoma City. Why this is important for our sense of community, both like place and people. So joining me today is my dear friend, uh, and executive director of the Plaza District Association and the Plaza Business Alliance, Rachel Crawford. Hello Rachel. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me, Andy. I'm so excited that you were able to join me early on a Monday morning. Me too. This is the best way to start my week, so thank you so much. Rachel and I have, uh, uh, had a chance to work together on numerous occasions. Um, yeah. Around community work panels, just like generally trying to like, help build up community. Is that fair? Yeah. And, and name what we see, which is what people don't even mean to do, which is apathy. Yeah. And teaching them how to get involved and, and showing them that we're approachable and we can plug 'em in pretty quick if, if they just know what's going on. Yeah. That's so, that's so funny. You said the word apathy. This is the second time that word has come up in conversation for me today already. And it's not even noon. Um, and I think given the events of last week, we have to start thinking about apathy and where it, where it leads to nihilism. Right? There's like a. Gradient here of where you might feel bummed or like kind of disconnected and then it, that is a slippery slope down at this like nihilist, like nothing matters world anyway. Okay, see that gravitational pull is deep. Let's pull back up. Um, Rachel, first let's talk about. And we'll, we'll mention this again at the end, but I wanna let listeners know in case you know, their radio shorts out here, but I want them to know about the Plaza District Festival, and it's also the Plaza Walls Festival. It's all kind of one big thing, right? Yeah. So tell us about that. It's real, it's beginning already. And today they're starting to prime some of the murals. So if you've ever been to the Plaza District between Klassen and Penn on 16th Street and Oklahoma City, there is a thriving arts and commercial district known as the Plaza District, 16th Street Plaza District. We have about 70 local businesses, and within that we do. Two large events annually. Our biggest of the year, the 10th anniversary, Plaza Walls, mural Expos this year. Oh wow. And it is really leading this a week leading up to, and then the day of our 26th Annual Plaza District Festival. So the district festival's has been around longer than the Mural Expo, but it's mostly because the Mural Expo, um, and the organization that was formed to create the nonprofit Plaza walls hasn't been around much longer than 10 years. Yeah. And I think. If memory serves, that was largely thanks to like Google coming in with some money and they started this like digital art archive across the country where they did a lot of like public art, like murals and stuff. And they helped fund some of those. And then were taking photos and like archiving it. So they kind of exist in perpetuity. I know there's a lot more than, than just Google involved, but I remember them, them doing that in Plaza and I think like in the Western Avenue District, like back mm-hmm. They did a big. Plaza or a big, uh, mural thing. Yeah. Probably 10 ish years ago as well. Yeah. They also gave some funding to the Plaza District, I wanna say in 2018 for our small business Saturday. Yeah. So that partnership was, was pretty strong for a moment in time and that certainly helped boost awareness about, Hey, Oklahoma City's on the map for street art now. Yeah. That's cool. Well, good for Google. You know, too much. To whom much is given, much is expected. Yeah. So if you're a huge company, you should at least at the very least, pay for some public art. Um, Rachel, let's go back. You've referenced kind of the length of time though, but tell us a little bit about the history of the Plaza District, how it formed, and um, kind of how it got to where it is today. Okay. I'm going to do my best. What I can speak to most of the time, most, uh, succinctly is my lived experience. Sure. Within the Plaza District, which. Began during, uh, January, 2017. I worked at Lyric Theater. In that time, I had the pleasure of working with the most recently retired managing director, uh, which is Paula Stover. Oh, okay. And through Paula Stover at the time, um, she helped bring Lyric Theater to the Plaza District. And this is an important piece to the story. Lyric is the anchor of the Plaza District and helps tremendously. There are many case studies that talk about this with the success, the socioeconomic success of how the Plaza District's curated. 'cause you've got a venue that has Ticketable events and what do people wanna do before and after a show, right? However, the history of the Plaza District starts way before this, in fact, where the, the Lyric Theater is now. What's called the Plaza Cinema. It was one of the first air conditioned movie cinemas in Oklahoma back. It was built in 1934, and the, the district was thriving in the thirties, forties, fifties, perhaps sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties. Uh, all the stories I've heard from residents of Gatewood who have been around a long time and different community leaders is. It was really in a place where you didn't wanna come down to the district. Mm-hmm. Right. Perhaps as early as, or recently as the early two thousands. Um, I moved to Oklahoma in late 2012, and one of the first businesses that had opened, it was a grand opening of the Mule. Yeah. In the location where Barston is now. But if I understand correctly from the first director of the district, Susan Hogan, when the nonprofit, the Plaza District Association, 5 0 1 C3 was formed. One of the first big initiatives was a street scape. Mm-hmm. And I've seen old pictures of the Plaza District where there aren't these really wide pedestrian friendly sidewalks. In fact, I believe 16th Street may have been at one time a four lane road too on each side. Oh. Just for that little stretch right there. Holy mo. Yeah. I've seen some pictures. Yeah. Where, um, like OEA is now, where the old Aurora was. And it says like, PST casino. And the like. Model T Fords go right up to the, up to the door window. Yeah, to the door. That's how it was for a long time. So with the streetscape in perhaps the late nineties, early two thousands. That helped make the district really pedestrian friendly. Then Lyric comes in. In the meantime though, before Lyric, one of our longest, um, running businesses and property owners, female property owners is Estella Evans. Mm-hmm. And she was one of the first to go in and invest as well as. Keith and Bruce who own photo art. Mm-hmm. And then you've got Jeff and Amy Struble and these different, uh, people who were renovating to try to draw on small business. And I mean, it's just kept thriving. And when I came in, this is just a fun fact. There were 52 businesses in the same, uh, district boundaries. We now have 70. Wow. I had no idea that there was even 52 70 is Yeah. Extraordinary. Yeah. And there's a lot more to Plaza District than just like the things you see as you drive past. Like there's stuff that are like in the alleyway now, like back in Plaza Walls, there's stuff south of 16th that's kind of adjacent. Yes. And you start to see it kind of build out over time, particularly on black welder, the south side of black, black welder, southeast side of black welder, and west side. Yeah, that area. That's amazing. I remember some of the, I moved here into Oklahoma City in 1999. Um, and so I remember like, I mean, no one was gonna the Plaza District back then, but I remember seeing news stories about some of those, like early efforts at Street Scaping and um, really like some of the, you know, when placemaking was a real buzz word and like when that was starting to happen. Um, and uh, back when Twitter was cool and getting to see some of those efforts. Um. So it's been really exciting. What do you think Rachel makes the Plaza unique? Among all the other districts in Oklahoma City and there's, I know there's like, in many cases some sort of like tax incentive funding element that kind of helps ground a district that there's some sort of economic development that's been like a top down thing and plaza's always felt more of a bottom up thing to me as a lay person. Absolutely. Our motto is Experience local together. And from the moment that I first stepped into the district, um, I felt like I moved here from Austin. I said, this kind of feels like Austin to me. And at that time, in 2012, I, I could've never known I was gonna work in the district. Mm-hmm. Let alone hang out there often. Um, what I noticed was like people being unapologetically themselves. I remember Saints and Urban Wine Works, and even the Mule, their motto is, uh, don't be a Jack. Mm-hmm. I don't know what I can say on here. So whatever you wanna say. Don't be a jackass. Yeah. Don't be a jackass. I was like, I love that branding. I love that attitude. And now where we're at. I, it's you, you come as you are to the Plaza District. And I, I try to lead that way too. I remember thinking, what does an executive director of a district wear? Mm-hmm. And I used to dress up in blazers and heels when I worked at Lyric. That's what the role called for. And in development and in box office now, I mean, I rolled up in here in camo pants and camo crocs with sunglasses on. This is how I actually dress every day. 'cause you look like the district now. Well, I want to blend in. Because I want, I walk the district morning, noon, and night. I live close in Gatewood and I want to see how people experience the district without realizing who I am. And yeah, I do wanna blend in. Um, the Plaza District is unique in that all of our businesses are small businesses. Mm-hmm. And most of them are the only location you can go to. I mean, take Pie Junkie for example. There's no other Pie junkie. Right. And they're intentionally set up that way. Yeah. I've talked to Darcy and Leslie about it. I was like, you know, you could branch out like we know. Yeah. Like the Plaza is our home. Yeah. My sister drives in from Hara just to buy pie. Really? And like she does baking, like she could just make it at home, but she's like, Ooh, I'm gonna treat myself. I'm gonna drive 30 minutes in just to get a slice of pie. Yeah. We we're really fortunate in that we've got a lot of people who care about nurturing our artists. Um, again, you've got Lyric Theater, you've got OKC, improv, um, canopy, the Thelma Gaylord Academy, DNA Galleries, uh, paint and Cheers, OFA studios. Look how many, um, amazing arts and culture nonprofits and small businesses that are galleries or experiences exist in the Plaza District. That's another piece of it. That's really fascinating. Uh, how do you see the role of the community in like shaping plazas and and identity? We aren't, we aren't anything without our community. We're very collaborate, collaborative by nature and um, I think one of the things that became really evident is when canopy. Went into the old Everything Goes Dance Studio at 1717 Northwest 16th Street, and it's for people who might not be familiar, it's, it looks like an old gas station, essentially. It is, yeah. And um, dusty Gilpen is like one of the people involved with it. I know. Um, but it's become kind of an art hub now, right? Yeah. So. What is special about the Plaza District is you've got leaders like Dusty Gilpen, and I'm gonna even tie this into Kristen Bales, who was an executive director and Dusty and Kristen are married for eight years of the Plaza District. She's over at downtown OKC now. Mm-hmm. People like them really nurtured this spirit of, um. Be kind to everyone around you. And even if you, I think this is important too. We don't talk about this enough. Even if you don't have the budget, figure it out and do something cool with your friends and weird and don't apologize for it. I have carried that into what we do now. And one of the things, canopy Art Center, um, it's Dusty Gil and Carlos Barbosa, Mave Wise, Dylan Broadway and Tony Thunder. Five of them. It needed a space where they weren't so siloed in their work creatively. Mm-hmm. And there's, they're gonna have their one year anniversary, soon there'll be a documentary, but the Plaza District, they could have just kept that space as an art studio and done graphic design and just kept their doors closed. That's not what the plaza's about at all. What they've done is they've created a third space in a place that is in the heart of the district. That's what so many business owners do. They create a third space. There's no expectation of spending, but we do want you to come and be with us mm-hmm. In our space, because we promise you're gonna leave happier than when you came. And it's some. The playoffs. Whenever we had the playoffs, the Plaza District was lit because everybody was just like, come on, come hang. Mm-hmm. And one place you could go and it was just kinda like you had to be walking by. Mm-hmm. But if you walked by and you spent enough time in the district, you knew you were welcome. There, um, was Canopy and they put the projector up. Mm-hmm. And, um, it's the, the, we're we're a place where it truly is like, come hang. I don't know how many other districts like you can just come hang without having to like go into a business and spend money all the time. Like, yes, of course we want you to support small businesses and think of us for your lunch, dinner, breakfast, or your services or your retail. But you can just hang in Plaza Walls. You can just hang at Canopy. You can, you can hang and people watch and uh, there's something really beautiful about that, knowing you should just go and be. Yeah, that's, well, what strikes me as you're talking about the role of art in particular, that I think that from my perspective, the two districts that do that best, or Plaza and peo, which is like the historic arts district, um, and it's probably the only other place, the other district that I feel like I could just go hang. Mm-hmm. And it's because they also curate experiences. Where that's like what you do, right? But you can come and like meander the sidewalk or hang out with First Friday yard walk or live on the plaza like you do in Plaza District. And I also live in Gatewood, so I drive down 16th all the time. I mean, almost every day. And. Especially if you go in the evenings. Um, I love seeing the menagerie of people who are on the sidewalk in Plaza District and it, it makes, it makes me think of also, I didn't know you lived in Austin. Me too. Growing up in Austin, um, of like the places you could go as a weird teenager to hang out away from your parents, but still be safe, right? Yeah. And you need somewhere to like express your. Individuality, but in like a safe space, right? And their options are like the mall, which has diminishing returns these days, or someplace like Plaza where you're outside and you do interact with a range of people. That, for me, like there's like a psychological development there of like, who am I? How do I fit into the world? How does, how does my presentation today, right? As a. A gothic cowboy or a, you know, whatever you've got going on, how does that relate to other people? How do I, what are responses do I get, you know? Um, and that I think goes a lot into shaping who we are as individuals. But it sounds like there's a reciprocity there that people engaging in that. I'm getting real deep now, but like people engage in this, like get deep psychological identity building is also part of how a place gets their identity built, right? Mm-hmm. Like how, it's what makes Plaza, it gives it its ness where people are like, you know, what else could we do here? Well, here, here are the kinds of people that we see here. How do we, how do we design festivals or events that like embody that? A good example, and I'll turn it back to you, but this last, last Friday mm-hmm. Um, was live on the plaza and the theme was cruise the plaza, which I was, I had something else and I forgot about it. And I was driving home from work on Friday and, and as I came down 16th, some of the dopest low riders I've seen in a couple of decades. And I was like, oh my gosh. Like this is where my heart. Is from my youth, my misspent youth. But seeing some of these like dope rides, like parked along the street, it gave the district like a whole new personality. And yet not like it, it was just like a teenager putting on a different style of clothes. Okay, today I am gonna be all grunge, or I'm gonna be like street culture and like going in and it, and how that felt, um, new and fresh and still comfortably the same. Um, I, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but is that what you were going for? Is that like Yeah, I'm getting, okay. This is what a, this is how much I love what we do. I'm getting teary-eyed listening to you talk about it because you get it. Cruise the plaza, to be completely honest. Um. I wanted to keep a fresh theme that was low maintenance because the state fair mm-hmm. Happens at the same time. So I'm not gonna pour a bunch of budget into an event. We've tried that before. Mm-hmm. And we drew the same size crowd as any other year. So I was talking to my colleague and um, my colleague's name is Casey Longacre and he's our marketing assistant in Plaza. I said, we've got to, when we were building our calendar last year, do something that brings in a lot of subcultures and. Try to figure out how to just keep building community in third space and what if we try this theme like cruise the plaza And we were, we take our work seriously, but not ourselves. We were giggling with all the ways we could do this. Like, 'cause we're both queer so we're like cruise the plaza, like what is everyone gonna think this is? And we were talking about having drag queen, like car racing down plaza walls and all these random ideas. And I was like, hold on, hold on. We're still creating too much programming in the same month as Plaza Fest. Right. And I'm getting into the weeds, nos scenes. That's good. Yeah. But how does this all come to life? I'm like, hold, I keep hearing something about this Omo Lalo event, but the Plaza district's not producing it and I don't know who is, and it's some kind of low rider car show. Adam Magoos attic. What is this? So I, I hit up Jordan, the owner. He goes, yeah, that's Ashley. She's with Avenues and Alleyways and she knows all the low riders and. Like the south side in Oklahoma City. I said, are you serious? I just went to the car hop at the, the fairgrounds and it was so cool. Mm-hmm. I'd never been to an auto expo or car hop, but I wanted to see like leading up to it what that, like, what the culture was all about. I will totally go back. Yeah. Because it was like Friday night. Yeah. So we hit up Ashley, she's a sweetheart and her husband, and they plugged us into the Lowrider community. And then Dusty Gilpen with Canopy is super connected to like Van Animals. Yeah. Um, with, which is like a van club. Yes. Yes, yes. So. Dusty's also connected to, uh, cars and coffee mm-hmm. And ghosts that often. So all we did was we took the people that already know others that want to be involved in the Plaza District and we start making phone calls and hitting up people on Instagram. Mm-hmm. That's all that it is. And, um. It's literally us hanging out with our friends, but giving different friends throughout the year, depending on the theme, an opportunity to really have a spotlight shined on them. And it's always so fun when we do it that way and skip the formalities. Mm-hmm. And just go right to like, Hey, you wanna work together on something? Right? I mean, something as simple as like, do you wanna come park your car on 16th for a few hours while. People walk around and anyone who has a car they wanna show off is like, yeah, I'll park it anywhere. That sounds rad. Will there be other cars there? Dope. I wanna see those too. That's literally what happened and that's how it starts, right? Yeah, it is. It's funny, there's an element of event planning that will always be, you know, if you build it, they will come. Sometimes you're wrong. Sometimes that doesn't happen. But there's like a trust, the process that you have to kind of know, I think what resonates with people. Mm-hmm. Um, which I think gets back to that sense of community and this, um, symbiotic like relationship, especially for a district like Plaza that is, you know. I think Plaza is sandwiched between two sizable neighborhoods, right? Gatewood to the north that we mentioned, and then class in 10 pen kind of to the south. And then Plaza ends up being this like, um, I. You know, uh, liminal space in between those, that is, it is of both, but it is also of neither, like, it's a place that exists on its own and plenty of people come to plaza not knowing anything about the neighborhoods around that. Um, but I, I had a meeting just this morning with someone about Gatewood, about it is one of the largest neighborhoods in Oklahoma City. Um, it's over a thousand houses. It goes from, from Penn to Classen, from 16th to 23rd. And it's a really wide range of economic levels of education, levels of, um, immigration, status of ages. You've got like OCU college kids who rent property in there. You've got, um, there's a, a Catholic church and so there's a lot of community around the church there. Um, you've got like a, a decent sized like la Latino population. You've got, um, especially on the eastern side, a lot more like rental properties, which brings in just like a more diverse. Kind of populous. Um, and so to do anything that like connects with the community in that area because it's so, it's not like you're doing a, a gated community where it's a bunch of like waspy families, not nothing against that. I'm just, it's a very different dynamic. Um, it means that you have to, you have to try to build lots of things and hope that some of them resonate. And it, from what you said, you. Listen to the feedback. You see how people respond. They let you know if this one worked or if you need to tweak things or just ideas for future events. Yeah. Um, speaking of future events, you kind of referenced Plaza District Festival. Let's talk about that a little bit as we're going along. It's coming up on Saturday, September 27th. Mm-hmm. Um. I know the date and time, but I'm gonna, that's, and it's from like 12 to 10, 12 noon to like 10:00 PM or something. Roughly. Right. Or whenever you want to go home. It used to be to 10:00 PM And we said, I said, I said, why are we paying for this main stage? And it's so cool when we pay for the banners and the backdrop, why are we ending at 10? We, the district's gonna keep going after that. I don't know who's watching this that might say you can't do that. I guess cut the power when it happens, but we're extending it to 11:00 PM and the after party this year is gonna be on the main stage. But the music continues after JB Williams, who's our headliner, yeah. Performs, uh. Cora Waves is gonna do a DJ set. And if you've never seen Cora Waves or her core waves, she is amazing. Um, one of the cool things that's happened over the last year is we have had the opportunity to see a series called Tiny Bar. Okay. And I'm getting off Plaza Fest for a second, just for a moment. That's this tiny bar. Like Tiny Bar is good for a fuse version of like tiny, tiny desk. Okay. And a lot of the artists that have been on Tiny Bar. The last year are also being showcased at Plaza Fest. Oh, that's cool. So if you've never heard a tiny bar go to their YouTube channel. Uh, good for a Fuse. They're amazing. They were voted by USA today as one of the best new cocktail bars in the country. Yeah. Um, they do really cool entertainment curation and we are. Also giving some of those artists a chance to be highlighted, so Oh, that's cool. Fest. This year though, uh, we've got several stages. We got the ACM at UCO is actually gonna be on the press patio this year. Okay. So it's a little more of a south by Southwest field. It's great for, um, that area of the district. Yeah. Because we're gonna have some activation of entertainment. People can grab some food and drink off the patio. It'll be awesome. Main stage is in the lyric lot again. Okay. And entertainment. Starting with every, everything goes Dance is the first, uh, act on the main stage all the way up to coral waves finishing out. And the end of the evening, but where there's usually the ACM at UCO stage. We have an awesome family zone this year. Ooh, so like in the middle of 16th? Yep. Nice. We have three like inflatable, like bounce houses with obstacle course. Also, we are gonna have arts like bracelet and necklace making activities. We'll have Ghostbusters out there. We will have DJ Light Brighton Friends. So the official Oklahoma City Thunder DJs, dj, light Bright, DJ Tangerine, and UCI Boy will maybe be on the rooftop of Velvet Monkey. Mm-hmm. And we'll, we'll see. We're figuring out logistically, um, Groment community will be out doing street dance. We'll have other. Uh, community partners out there, but 40 artists, vendors, the mural expos going on with DJs and B-boys all throughout plaza walls. So many things happening in the businesses, it's, it's gonna be an amazing day. That's super rad. So, just by moving the stage, 'cause normally the, the a CM at UCO stage is down on like the east end of the district, in the middle of 16th. Um, but by moving it to the south, a little bit down off of the press, you really kind of expand the footprint. Yeah. Of what? Of like, of the formal festival itself, right? Yeah. I'm gonna be completely honest with you. Like, uh, I don't know when and where we, we plug this in, but to make this go round, it takes sponsors and because of the changes in our current administration and tariffs, um, it, I, I've learned from. Two sponsors that, uh, help us significantly. Those are some things that are affecting them, which then affects our ability to produce these events. So my production budget, we sliced significantly. I'm like, I literally can't afford another huge stage at this end. So we have to get creative. Right. And if there's one thing that I can do really well, most people don't even realize are live on the Plaza monthly block parties. I produce on about a $500 budget, most of them, probably 10 of them throughout the year. Mm-hmm. Two, we go really large, skate the plaza and pride on the plaza, but to do what we do Yeah. Is on a budget. I know you know what that's like. But yeah, that's how that came to be. That's, um, I've always wondered if that's, it's like both surprising and like affirming to me of like, okay, I'm not the only one shoestring stuff together. And hopefully it, it feels like a $5,000 event on a $500 budget. But, um, but having solid sponsors does make it a lot easier to do some of that work. Um. So the Plaza Festival is obviously something that brings together live music, lots of art, lots of vendors. Um, we almost always have a booth there to do voter edu education and like registration. Like this year, you know, we'll be just a couple of weeks out from Oklahoma City's, um, municipal bond election mm-hmm. On October 14th. So we're gonna have a lot of conversations about that 'cause most people don't know it's coming up and it's like a big deal. Um, hopefully in the next couple of weeks we'll have a member of city council on to talk about. The bond election itself. So listeners, if you're interested in that, stay tuned. Um, or come volunteer with us in the Plaza District so you can help hand out information and be on the knowledge end of that. Uh, that would be a big deal. Um, how many people attend Plaza Fest? So, interestingly enough, there were 32,000 last year. Um, fun fact, we used to use a grid system. And now there is technology that, uh, has AI and can track cell phone pings. Oh. So there are different entities in Oklahoma City that you can set a certain radius and timeframe, um, where we can see how many people have come. Right. So. That's fascinating. Back in my day, we, the, the, uh, porta-potty companies would like weigh the waste and they would estimate based on how much waste there was, isn't it? That's not even, that could never be accurate for the plaza we had, we have all the brick and mortar locations like. We'd be like, oh, 10 people showed up. Yeah. When, uh, back, you know, 10, 15 years ago when, when like h and eighth was happening Yeah. Downtown. Some of those, like more outdoorsy events. That's how people would estimate. And I was like, that's like, uh, gross. And also like, makes sense, right? Like we're all just. Little animals walking around this earth and like, that's probably how we would measure the size of an aunt. How? I've never heard of that. Yeah, that's what I, I've never heard of that. I don't, and maybe it's wrong. People will let me know if I'm wrong, but No, that, that literally makes so much sense. I guess if it's like a big festival, like if you're like doing Woodstock or something, uh, you sell tickets, but there's some other way to, I don't know. I don't know. I don't, I'm not the one that weighs the waste. Um, well, we've, so we'll come back around to the festival at the end, I'm sure, but it sounds like running the district. Like, can't be easy, right? You've got 70 something businesses. You've got events every month that you're trying to like, think around. You're dealing with just day-to-day district stuff. Um, sometimes weird things happen. People, you know, sleep in an alley overnight or behind a building or, you know, water mains burst or the city decides to rip up a sidewalk and didn't really tell everybody, or you know, who I'm just making up stuff. Um, but. In a, to like give some reality to it. What are some of the biggest challenges you face as district manager over there? I think people see the success of the district and think we have a large staff. We have one full-time person. It's me and, hi, it's me. I'm the staffer, a significantly, uh, talented and driven marketing assistant Casey, who's part-time, 30 hours a week. Mm-hmm. Um, what we're able to accomplish is in large part, due to two volunteer boards. A lot of really caring small business owners and community members, volunteers, sponsors, foundations who allow us grants, but, um, I struggle often with the guilt of my inbox. My superpower is my A DHD can handle all kinds of emergencies, you know? Um, but the, for me personally, the hardest part is the day-to-day boring stuff. Mm-hmm. Really mundane. What I wouldn't give for an assistant. Mm-hmm. Um, it's hard to have to do so much and, um, just kind of keep up and not carry that guilt of never being caught up. Yeah. So the part for me, um, that is perhaps the biggest challenge is reminding myself to, uh, take time to soak it all in. And I did not. Really do that until my four year work anniversary is like July 28th or 29th of this year. And I had been archiving some videos and photos by some, I mean, tens of thousands of videos and photos. Like I'm gonna have to submit all this to some historical society maybe, uh, someday. But I've been taking for a long time. And in looking at those videos, I looked at what a live on the Plaza block party was like in November of 2021. When I first was starting, we were coming back from COVID versus now. Mm-hmm. And I pan across 16th Street at about six or 7:00 PM Dead. Mm-hmm. It's just dead. Could you even imagine that now after seeing Friday night? Mm-hmm. We probably had about 8,000 people out. Mm-hmm. Over the course of six or seven hours. Mm-hmm. I mean, wow. Yeah, so taking those moments to take it in. Don't let your head get too big. Always stay focused on the work. Like forget about the, the words are nice, the recognition is nice, but just keep staying fresh. I take a lot of time to keep a close pulse on what else is going on in the city. Otherwise I won't even know who to reach out to, to be inspired. So being like supporting what other people are doing, what other districts are doing, mm-hmm. Is really key. And I mean, this year is the first year I've been single in 20 years. I would say that part of my success too is having the freedom to go and do and be present in the district in other parts of the city and just kind of feeling like a sponge of. Um, being, I, I need to be inspired constantly so I can then feel like my cup isn't, you know, so empty. Mm-hmm. And so going and supporting other people, I don't know, is a really big part of how I lead in the Plaza District too. Yeah, that's really interesting. And I would, I was gonna ask when you joined Plaza, and I knew it was right after COVID. Mm-hmm. Um, knowing that that was a. Economically in com, like devastating time for a lot of the businesses there and destabilizing in terms of just like personal community and connection between people. Um, and yeah, I, I mean it was really dead over there. And I think there were periods that a lot of us, just regular citizens and certainly business owners were nervous about. Would a district built around small businesses be able to survive something like that where they rely on in-person foot traffic and, um, people that are feeling committed to coming. Right. Like, uh, I'm glad they did and have grown since then. I mean, I think the development since then is, is, uh, a testament to the grit of a lot of those business owners and of the community around it. What have you learned? Over the last four years about resilience in terms of you personally? In, in terms of the, the district and the community at large. I have learned that we need community. We really, really need community. And it's not a luxury, it is something that is transformative. And what I mean by that is I got laid off. From Lyric in the pandemic. Mm. There was a point in time where I couldn't even ride through or walk through the Plaza District because I felt like all of these beautiful moments that I'd shared and, uh, all the, the things that were once fun, they were gone. Mm-hmm. And so where was I gonna find that and build that again and then. When the position came open for executive director, some people have heard this story, others haven't. I was serving on the board and Lindsay Harkness, who is the owner of DNA Galleries, she encouraged me to apply and we're good friends. I said, oh yeah, sure. And she occurred me, encouraged me a week later. I said, yeah, sure. And finally she was like. This is a true story. She goes, bitch, if you don't apply, she goes, I'm gonna, I don't know what she said. Okay. Okay. I'll apply. She bullied you into it though. It was, I love Lindsay. We're both Aries. Um, I didn't think I was qualified and I, um, found out through baptism by fire that I was, I was going to figure it out and what I always said from the start, and I had. People that were in leadership that want that completely disagreed with this school of thought and it feels so good to be right. Um, we, if we build it, they will come. And what I was talking about was, were the block parties. Hmm. We, we did have an omicron surge in January of 2022, and it's the only time that I have canceled a block party for like COVID stuff. Mm-hmm. Um, when I came in to the district. We were the first district to do a large event in 2021, fall of 2021 for Plaza Fest. 'cause we didn't do it in 2020. Mm-hmm. And we'd seen evidence that it was safe to go ahead and do that through Pride on the Plaza 2021. I was like, oh, we gotta do it right. I'm an events person. I was producing Pride Fest at Scissor Till Park Pride on 39th. I was helping with Festival of the Arts co-chairing opening night. That's my events are what I probably do best. Mm-hmm. Bringing people together and. Once we started doing the events, we, we went back and forth on should we do it second Fridays or should we move it to Sundays, or should we just do a couple large events? That's kind of how Calder on Dance Festival came to life. Hmm. And that's a whole other festival we did because we were thinking quality over quantity. Mm-hmm. But then I went back to the drawing board and I was like, Nope. Consistency. Every month we know that you can, like, you know, you can count on this one thing you could look forward to. Mm-hmm. And then we started involving. As many people as we could. Oh, that's really cool that you do that thing. Do you wanna come out and don't take the, take all of the rules and throw them out the door? The rules being, if someone participates, it's a $50 vendor fee. If a nonprofit does, it doesn't matter if they don't have the money or not. No. If. You want a scholarship mm-hmm. For the vendor fee, Hey, I'll help you. Mm-hmm. If, if anyone wants to be a part of what we're doing, if they can actually get to me, which is probably them literally walking into my office because emailing me or DMing me is not gonna work, um, we'll have them be a part of it. Yeah. And that's what it's, that's really what it's about. Do the events to bring people together, get people inspired, then guess which district they're thinking about every time they're thinking about making other decisions. They're thinking about the place where they had the good time with no expectations. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, I mean, I think that strikes me as exactly right, just from my own experience as a nonprofit leader and trying to weasel my way into public events or find opportunities. And so I have always appreciated the Plaza District proactively reaching out, being like, Hey, we value civic engagement. Can you join us? I was like, yes. This is, this is a good news on two fronts. I'm happy to be there and also glad that you care about it. Um, and you know what other district would, I feel comfortable dressing up as a, uh, I'm just a bill on Capitol Hill and walking a runway. I realize I've never told you, and I realize in this moment you really look like, have I told you this? You remind me of Jeff Goldblum. You haven't, but I've heard that from others. Okay, so then whenever you said Goth cowboy, I was like, if Jeff Goldblum was like a goth cowboy. There we go. That's so Plaza May, maybe that's what I'll do for, uh, ghouls on the plaza this year or whatever. Ghouls night. Don't you usually have something along those Yeah. GULs night. Alright, good. Um, you have mentioned, uh, a couple of times the boards, right, that you served on the board and you've talked about their role in helping you do it. And I think, um, when I reached out to you about having you on the show this week, this was my main reason for asking is that I don't think. Most people, they might be aware that there's a board, but I think for a lot of just general public being on boards feels, you assume it's either like a politically appointed thing somehow, right? There's a bunch of boards and commissions that like the mayor, city council or governor might appoint you to, and that doesn't fit for everybody. Or we associate community boards as something you have to be on only if you're like wealthy or well connected. Um, and that. Necessarily then like limits who raises their hand to even participate. Like, or we expect someone will invite me if they need me or if they want me. And so we just don't try and I don't think the Plaza District Board is like that, right? Not at all. Tell me about it and like how people could get involved if they wanted to. So one board. We have a wait list for the other board. I feel like I have to beg people to be on, which is, which I wanna tell you why. And it's nothing, it's nothing bad. It's just a, it's just the nature of what it is. So the board that I feel like I have to beg people to be on is our 5 0 1 C six, which is the Plaza Business Alliance. Sure. It's amazing. It's comprised of mostly small business owners and some property owners. Do you know why I feel like I have to beg people to be on it? No. Because a small business owner's capacity Oh sure. Is like non-existent, especially if they have kids. Mm-hmm. So it's like you have this amazing, talented entrepreneur, you really want to be on it, but they don't, they don't have the time. Mm-hmm. Because at the end of the day, if it's a, a choice of board service or them making sure their business is successful in any way that they need to, that's the number one thing that I want them to focus on. Well, it probably just feels like another. Work task they have to do. Yes. And at the end of the day, they're like, listen, I just worked like eight to five. I'd like to go home now, not hang out for a board meeting. Yeah. For something that is like also my work. Yep. Yeah. Okay. I get that. Yeah. Um, so go ahead. What were you gonna say? I was gonna say for the other side. Okay. The other side is the Plaza District Association, which has been around longer. Right. Those are community leaders that want to lend their skills and talents to a district that they love and that. The Plaza District Association, the 5 0 1 C3 has been around significantly longer than the Plaza Business Alliance 5 0 1 C six. And the difference between the two while we have two is because initially when we participated in a program called Main Street mm-hmm. Which have four pillars, please don't make me name them, we can search them somewhere and learn. Um, it, the framework was set up yourself up as a 5 0 1 C3. Mm-hmm. We found out that, um, IRS rules and regulations basically state you can't promote when social media became a thing, especially Instagram, you cannot take voluntary dues from business owners as a 5 0 1 C3 and promote individual businesses, even if they're part of the Plaza District and its destination advocacy. So in order to like remain ethical and follow those rules, the 5 0 1 c six was formed. That makes sense now. It is very, um, interesting. Being an executive director of two separate nonprofits that serve the same district, but they have different purposes. Mm-hmm. Not overextending yourself, but also not asking too much of board members because one is a working board and the other isn't, the chamber is not a working board. Mm-hmm. They're essentially like consultants, right. And invested stakeholders. Um, the, the Plaza District Association, how do you get on that board? Okay. If you're not a business owner or property owner, how do you, how do you get on that board? You literally. Offer to help in the Plaza District. Um, hey, I'd love to be involved sometime. You're hanging around. Uh, I have three new board members, Jesse Whitley and Lee Lee is our, uh, Plaza Fest co-chair. Whitley is our live on the Plaza committee chair, and Jesse is our entertainment committee chair for Plaza Fest. They got onto the board because they just started as volunteers. Mm-hmm. Doesn't require any prior experience. Most people that serve on the Plaza District Association board, it is their first board they served on. But the people who have led that board include Susan Mooring of Cortado Ventures, uh, Chris Turner, Jr. Who is an attorney. Um, for this, I'm gonna say this wrong, it doesn't matter. I mean, it does matter. Chris, sorry if you're listening, it absolutely matters. Maybe he doesn't want me to say his employer, but he's amazing. Um, right now we have John Millner. Who is wonderful. He was our volunteer of the year, and just prior to John, we have had Natalie Evans, who's the executive director of OKC. Beautiful. Yeah. So really amazing movers and shakers and, and many people before them. And the, the whole board themselves, they're people who just love the Plaza District and want to be involved. Um, so there's no really formal process. It's if someone wants to serve on the board, reach out to me. Mm-hmm. Or someone who's already on the board, let's have coffee and talk and see what that looks like. Yeah. Well, and I think kind of to your point, like there are other opportunities plaza related that aren't even on one of these boards, like Plaza Fest. Mm-hmm. Has a whole planning committee that's not the board like it. It takes more than the board to plan big events. Right? Yeah. And so having a event specific committee, there's also like Friends of the Plaza, right? Mm-hmm. Which is I think kind of a. Will you describe it because I'll mess it up. Yeah. Friends of the Plaza is essentially like our super fans of the Plaza District. Yeah. It is also a pipeline to board and committee service Uhhuh. So if you really like the Plaza once a month we have a VIP area at our block parties and also at Plaza Fest and Small Business Saturday and invites to special events like preview nights at Lyric. Yeah. So you can see shows actually for free sometimes. Yeah. Um. Thanks to Mia Sherlock, who works with Lyric, but 49 99 for one person. A year. Yeah, a year. And it's pro, it's, it's essentially starts on the date and goes to that date next year. Oh, nice. So it's like based on the, just on the year that you pay for. So if you started today, it would go through next September. Yeah, September 15th next year. And um, the cool part about it is it's free Anthem beer, free non-alcoholic beverages. It's a place to meet other people who love the Plaza District. Like I have some of the guys who. Uh, built the Skydance Bridge that are friends of the Plaza. Mm-hmm. And it's just a time where you can be yourself in a fun environment, meet other people. We've got about 120 members of friends of the Plaza. It's also a revenue stream for our 5 0 1 C3. Yeah. So all proceeds go back to the Plaza District Association. It's like a, it reminds me of like all the young professional groups, like, um, with the Phil Harmonic, it was called Overture, and there's the moderns at the Museum of Art. There's all these groups that like. Or a way to get involved without having maybe like the weight of like on the board involvement, but often it's like a good kind of entry ramp. Yeah. Into additional activities. Yeah. Plus it is fun. You get to hang out. Um, one of the things that I appreciate is that, uh, every month for Live on the Plaza, friends of the Plaza have their own little tent and they often, like you, you select like a featured friend. Featured friend, right? Yeah. And then like you put your tent next to their tent and it feels. Having been, uh, an organization who got to be that featured friend one month last year, it felt, this is real silly, but it felt like when you're at a new school and you don't know where to sit in the lunch room and someone's like, you can sit with us. And it, I was like, listen, I don't know everybody here, but we're gonna be next to the friends on the of the Plaza thing. And so they're gonna be hanging out with us whether they want to or not. And it was a, and I'm someone who will talk to anybody, but it was a good chance to have conversations with people who already knew about, let's fix this. Mm-hmm. As well as a bunch of folks who didn't, who could say to their friend, oh, hey, I know this guy. Here's what they do. And just like a lot of conversations that, you know, it, I think it was a relational example of if you build it, they will come of like, mm-hmm, well I don't know these people, but let's hang out and like, we can grab a beverage and chat about. Civic engagement or whatever. Um, if nothing else, it like warms up the relationships Yes. So that, you know, a year or two or five down the road, you know, I might reconnect with those same people or maybe in a few months or a few weeks and find some opportunities. For us to work together in some way that we would not have otherwise thought possible. Yes. Timing is divine. Timing is so divine and some, I used to be somebody who was like, why can't I find any information on this? Or Why don't I know about this? Now, being on the other side of it, I intentionally do not make the board process easy to understand. And that sounds like, why would you do that, Rachel? I could take the time to put all this on the website. Mm-hmm. And make it super easy. You know what's gonna happen? I am gonna get a bunch of questions in my inbox, and I'm gonna go back and forth an email that's taking time away from me, just being out and present in the district and what I want people to do. Don't email me, come to the district and experience it. It is not hard to find me there. And if you are serious about it, we're gonna talk about board service. Mm-hmm. There are always ways to find me, and I hope, I hope people are listening to this and going, man, I have been trying to reach her, so I just gotta go down to the district. Yes. I'm not ignoring you. I want to meet you, but I also wanna see that you wanna meet me where I'm at. And you really care about the district and you're willing to be here in person. 'cause a lot of people think they want to do things and it's easy to say, I wanna do this, I wanna be involved and say, well, just let me know. You hear that all the time. Yeah. Just let me know. I don't have the capacity to let you know. Right. I need you to come like, oh my gosh, you wanna help me clean my office right now? Just because you have time. Yeah. My real, the the real ones that know, they know I'm what you see is what you get and I will hold my door open. You're welcome. My friend Bobby came over and did that. Like that is. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's, that's one of the most amazing gifts is someone just showing up to show that they care in person. Yeah. That's how I operate and that's how I want the people around me operate for, operate for people to show up. Yeah. And nobody talks about that. That's true. Well, and I think, you know, when you and I were talking before we started recording, I think there is an element of like, we have to be willing to raise our own hands and we can't just wait for someone to say. Hey, you like, will you do this? That's great when someone does. Yeah. But often, um, we need people to like raise hands, right? Like, I feel the same way with let's fix this and our volunteers is that, um, like I had someone text me just a little while ago who said, Hey, I'm gonna, I wanna volunteer with you guys at Plaza Fest. Is there a shift where you need more help than others? I was like, oh yeah, I'll go look and see. Mm-hmm. And so I can tell 'em, yeah, come. I'm sure it's in the evening. That's when we always need more help. But I like that question was really helpful. Otherwise, I have to kind of like cajole people to be like, Hey, can you guys come later or try to do that afterwards? It's much better if someone raises their hand and says, I want to help. I suspect you need help. It's sometimes other than others, let me know what's best and then I can plug them in in the right spot. That kind of thing is really helpful. Or if someone says, um, more often, like, Hey. We want to, we wanna do voter registration at this event. Can you send somebody and like you, I'm like, well, it's like me and my intern, maybe some volunteers. But it's hard to organize that kind of stuff. It's much better when someone says, Hey, I wanna do voter registration at this event. Um, like, I'll give you a kit, I'll give you all the forms, I'll give you instructions. I can make that happen if you can find the people. Mm-hmm. It's just like a different, a different way to arrive at the same solution. Yes, and I was talking, I was talking with a friend last night and she said to me, I was like, I was trying to understand an interaction I have with someone and she goes, you're really direct whenever you communicate. And I think it. Intimidates people. Mm. Because you just say exactly what's on your mind. And she goes, but what I've learned about you is that people can do the exact same thing with you and you, you don't even think twice about it. And the where that has come from, Andy, is, I wish I had more time to do all the formalities. I really do what I just like So cherish is, yeah. You wanna be involved? Just come see me. Can we talk through it? This is how we always do it. Yeah. You, you know, you can hit me up last minute and if I have that time in my calendar, I'm there. Yeah. And I don't, I don't know if this makes sense, but I don't want people to listen to this and go. Well, now I don't wanna approach her. I want, please. I would love that. It's, it's all a capacity thing and not having as much support staff as what I wish that we had, which every nonprofit goes through this. Yeah. And if you've never worked in a nonprofit or owned a small business, it is hard to empathize and, and understand that experience until you're in it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and you were talking about board members a minute ago and it, I remembered a time a few months ago where I had stopped at. Maybe Pie Junkie or DNA galleries and bought something and was walking down the sidewalk and ran into you with a prospective board member. And so I stopped to chat with you. I was like, Hey, what's up? And you're like, I could see you kind of click into like between friend and work mode and be like, oh, hey, this is a prospective board member. And so I had a chance to like vouch for the district and I be they're, they're there with you. I assume they're pretty interested. You did too. But tried to like offer my perspective on like. Why it's a cool district. 'cause I was also like, well if this person cares about the Plaza District, we might be aligned on some other things too. And so it was like, you never know what's gonna come with that conversation. Mm-hmm. And I'm sure I'm like you or you're like me, that if someone comes up to me on the street and says, Andy, hey are you Andy Moore? Listen, I like what you're doing. Let's fix this. I want to help. I like my, immediately, my immediate feeling is grateful. Like, oh great, thanks. But then I'm like. Now I have a task. I have to find a place. And so if they're like, here's what I wanna do, and they give me a a thing, I'm like, oh yes. And if you've already got an idea you wanna carry out and it like, is not absolutely crazy, then like, let's do it if you're willing to take it on. That's an ideal scenario for me. Yeah. That is the most conflicting feeling when, and this happens on a daily basis. Hey, have you ever thought about, and you listen to the pitch whether you want to or not. Mm-hmm. Right. I'm just gonna be honest. Yeah. Listen to the pitch. Um. I've gotten better about immediately knowing how to respond and go. I love that idea. Um, who's gonna sponsor it? Mm-hmm. Or, um, how much time do you think you need? I, I go directly to the deadlines and the timeframe that it takes. Yeah. And I can decipher pretty quickly if someone has a lot of experience doing what they're doing or if it's the, they're excited 'cause they're in the district and they have the enthusiasm. Yeah. And the last thing I ever wanna do is squander enthusiasm, but sometimes I also know it's my responsibility to not get someone's hopes up that something's gonna happen, that I know. Very well. It's, it's never gonna come to life. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's the way it works. We're, we're, uh, we're full of ideas, um, and we have limited capacity for implementation. Yeah. Um, well, Rachel, I think we're kind of at time for today, but before we go, um, gimme the Dets on Plaza Fest. One more time. Yeah. Not just me. Give our listeners the deets on Plaza Fest. One more time. Yeah. so@plazadistrict.org. You can find a lot of details right there. On the homepage of our website, we've also got a tab at the top for Plaza District Festival, and it's Saturday, September 27th. 2025 from noon to 11:00 PM which coincides with the 10th anniversary Plaza Walls, mural Expo. And we will have about 30 to 35,000 people out. The event happens, rain or shine. And I wanna give a huge shout out to our two presenting sponsors, Brahms Ice Cream and Dairy, and in as much foundation, absolutely couldn't do this without them. Um, so it's free. All ages open to the public. We'll have family zone, tons of live entertainment artist vendors. Over 60 businesses in the district will be open doing business specials in their own entertainment. Uh, over 40 muralists that are going to be doing live murals. Even the week leading up to the festival and Mural Expo on that day. Mm-hmm. The, the best week of the year be in the district because they're, they've got the scaffolding up and they're doing the murals morning, noon, and night. Yeah. Yeah. 'cause they're, like you said, they're priming them right now. They'll start painting them. Throughout the week and really they're like mostly done by the time we get to that Saturday. Yeah. So you can kinda see 'em in development, which is I think really fun. Yeah. And uh, as we were just talking about, if people want to volunteer. At Plaza Fest, there's a link to do that online as well. Yeah, online and also on our social media. So if you follow us on Instagram, it's at Plaza District. We've got our link tree there and you can sign up. Um, last I checked, we still needed some tear down volunteers set up and, um, entertainment. So doing like stage running and stage management. Got a great group that helps with that committee. Nice. Um, listeners, I would be remiss if I didn't also offer you the opportunity to volunteer with us. You could do both. We can make this work, but let's fix this. Um, we'll have a booth doing, as we said, voter uh, education, voter registration, um, running three shifts like. 12 to three, three to six, six to nine. We usually start kinda wrapping up by nine. We don't stick around till 11 because after 9:00 PM nobody cares about voter registration anymore. Um, we would love to have you, um, help out. Um, we need most of our help in the evenings. Um, and that evening shift, 'cause that's when most people are there. It's when it's really busy, we send people out in the crowd with clipboards. You can be at our tent. Um. We've got lots of fun ways to participate. You can get details for that on our website. Let's fix this. Dot org slash events, um, is the easiest way. There's a mobilized link. You can sign up for the shift and you can bring a friend and it'll get you like automated reminders, which is, I think, helpful to me at least so I don't forget. One brief thing, I got my start in the Plaza District volunteering at a drink tent at Plaza Fest in 2016. I didn't get a good degree in place making. I don't, I, I got my start in the Plaza District volunteering at a drink tent in 2016. There we go. That's what happened. There we go. I think last year you had a hat on maybe the year before last year at a drink tent as district manager, but you were like. Working a drink tint at some point. And I was like, I like that hat. And then I bought the same hat because you had it on it. Really. So look, you're influencing people in ways you don't even know. Oh, uh, Rachel Crawford with the Plaza District. Thanks for being here today. Thanks for having me friends. Thanks for being here with us, uh, as well. Of course. Uh, next week we'll be back with, um, member of city Council. I think I just got that scheduled while we were talking today. Um, so we'll talk about the Oklahoma City Municipal Bond. Um, as we say, every week decisions are made by those who show up This week a specific challenge. Show up at Plaza District Festival in Oklahoma City. Um, with us, with Plaza, with both. And break some friends. Have a good week.