OKC Mayor Holt highlights city growth, youth initiatives and sports milestones

A lot is happening in Oklahoma City, from new developments to national competitions and the construction of much-needed infrastructure, but it can be hard to keep track of every new addition to the city.

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt stopped by the News 9 studio on Thursday to speak on the progress the city has seen recently.

Q: Oklahoma City Will Rogers International Airport just announced non-stop flights to Cancún. This is a first in several years..Talk about what's next for those plans.

A: International! You can say it with gusto now. I hope people really soak that in, it's a fun time to live in this city, so this is another example of that. This flight to Cancún symbolizes a lot, even if Cancún isn't your cup of tea. If we're successful with this from a market perspective, American Airlines and other carriers are going to say 'Hey, let's do more,' so we want to build upon this."

Q: The City Council approved locations for 4 new Youth Centers. How will these make a difference with the city's youth? What needs will they address?

A: So this is a MAPS 4 Project; it was approved by the voters in 2019. If you look at our existing community centers, youth centers, senior centers that all predate MAPS, they're not that good. So what we're doing here is something really special.

With around budgets of 15 to 20 million dollars to build something really nice. We were also very intentional. We're putting these centers in challenged parts of the city. We pulled our crime heat maps, youth crime heat maps, and we're really targeting the areas where we think young people need this extra-curricular support the most. I think they're going to change lives.

Q: The NCAA Men's tournament is set to happen here in Oklahoma City next year! How is the city getting ready for it?

A: We announced this. I think I looked it up, it was like in 2020. Nobody was paying attention, and so it occurred to me just this week as March Madness was happening, I should probably mention we're hosting this next year. It will have been a decade the last time we had the first and second round. You know, there was a time when that was the only thing that ever happened around here, right? Before the Thunder you know? So there's a lot of great memories that people in our community have about the NCAA Men's Tournament here in OKC. So yeah, I actually don't know off the top of my head how you get your tickets. But, you know, you should definitely look into that.

Q: OKC Thunder! What are your thoughts on their success this season? Is the team possibly an NBA championship runner?

A: We're in the playoffs! We are already secured to be the number one seed in the Western Conference, meaning we have home court throughout the playoffs. The playoffs tip-off on April 19th or 20th, so I'm telling everybody, yeah, don't book too many long trips to Cancúnbetween now and June. We need you in town. And yeah, it's going to be an exciting run. Tonight we will play for the chance to set the record for most wins in a Thunder season. We're sitting at a record of 60 right now. We have 10 more games, so we're going to obliterate that record. This is a very, very magical season.