Next week the city of Oklahoma City will break ground on another much-anticipated building benefiting residents in northeast Oklahoma City. Civic leaders and community members will gather at the new location for the 22,000-square-foot Willa D. Johnson Recreation Center at Frederick Douglass Park. Named for former Ward 7 Councilwoman Johnson, the recreation center will be located at NE 10 Street and N. Martin Luther King Avenue and will replace the current Douglass Community C

Once again, the Oklahoma City Council has listened and extended help to small businesses in our community. Next week, we launch the Minority Owned Business Recovery Program to provide grants up to $25,000 to help small businesses with payroll, rent, retrofitting the business, purchasing sanitizing equipment or other operational needs arising from COVID-19. The program also provides technical assistance to help the business with accounting, bookkeeping, marketing, web developm

A program designed to help struggling businesses in Oklahoma City has provided more than $32.5 million to business owners in 2020. Under the four separate programs applicants received assistance in the form of reimbursements, grants, forgivable loans and technical assistance. The Small Business Continuity Program was conceived and administered by the Alliance, the city of Oklahoma City and the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber after COVID-19 caused many businesses in our communit

Northeast Oklahoma City had two celebratory groundbreakings last week: the full-service Homeland grocery store at NE 36th Street and N. Lincoln Boulevard and The Market at EastPoint near Martin Luther King Avenue and NE 23rd Street. Both are significant developments that will provide much needed fresh, healthy food choices and both involved complex negotiations to acquire the land and find the right mix of investors, partners and operators. The Homeland on Lincoln will open i