‘Mayor of my hometown’: Stephen Tyler Holman visits Norman spots influential to mayoral journey

At noon on Feb. 22, Stephen Tyler Holman parked his car in front of Norman City Hall.

Almost two weeks after being elected Norman mayor, Holman and OU Daily reporters visited the most influential places in his life as he reflected on the city he grew up in and the many changes he has seen over the years.

“It feels more reflective of like grassroots, reflective of the community,” Holman said. “It’s somewhat overwhelming and just kind of unbelievable that I’m actually going to be mayor of my hometown.”

Springfield Apartments, Faculty Heights Park

Growing up in east Norman, Holman used to ride his bike around OU’s campus and walk with his dad to the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium to watch football games. 

“I would stay in the stadium until everybody was gone, literally until they were kicking everybody out,” Holman said. 

As Holman arrived at Springfield Apartments, previously known as Summerfield Apartments, he reminisced about his past living situations.

Holman said he lived in three different apartments, one in elementary school, one in high school and one when he was in college with one of his best friends.

Steven Holman, Holman’s father, raised him as a single parent. Steven told OU Daily that though his job required him to work every other weekend, he had a lot of support from his family, who helped him raise Holman.

“He was a very good kid, always willing to learn. I think it’s because of our bond, being together and doing things together, and my family being there for me and helping him having a stability in his life,” Steven said. “I couldn’t ask for anything better. He was awesome.”

Holman said he would often visit Springfield Apartments while campaigning for Ward 7 council member. During his reelection bids over the years, he would often knock on doors around the complex and let people know he used to live there too.

“I grew up going to that park,” Holman said, pointing to Faculty Heights Park, located across from the apartment complex. “A lot of parents probably wouldn’t want their kids crossing a four-lane main busy road in Norman to get to the park, but I did it all the time.”

Holman said it had been a few years since he visited the park.

“My dad and I would come out here and play catch, play football, have the dog out …,” Holman said. “It’s a neighborhood park that faces a busy street, so there’s no parking and it’s not surrounded by a big parking lot or anything. There weren't always a bunch of people here either so it was like you had the park to yourself all the time.”

While most of the park was recently redone, Holman remembered the sandpit that once sat right behind the metal-wired fence, the large trees that covered the houses in the back and the swing set where a single bench now stands.

“Every council member gets to have a bench when you’re done serving in any park that you want,” Holman said. “I thought about having mine put here.”

Hawkesbury Park

On the other side of Norman in the Brookhaven neighborhood, Holman arrived on Hawkesbury Park as the owners of the house, Holman’s cousin and her husband, prepared for an open house showing.

Susi and Cedric Jones had lived in the house for 20 years. She said Holman spent almost every holiday in that house.

“My best friend in high school would come over here and we’d work out in the gym over there,” Holman said.

Standing on the balcony, Holman looked out at the view of the backyard and the houses that stood west of Northwest 48th Avenue. 

“When I was in high school, none of those houses were there yet, and these trees weren’t quite as big, so you could see downtown (Oklahoma City). You can see the buildings and you can see all the way to Tuttle,” Holman said. “I would just sit out here and watch the cars go by and look out onto the area.”

Holman said Susi, who’s eight years older, was like a big sister to him. Although her children are now in college, he said he used to love spending time with them and attending their high school and middle school games.

Whenever she has a question about the city, Susi said she always calls Holman for help because, regardless of what ward it was about, he still knew the answer.

“I’m so excited for him. There’s nobody that loves this city more than he does,” Susi said. “The whole family is proud of him and I think he’ll do an amazing job … at the end of the day, he wants what’s best for Norman.”

Sooner Mall

As Holman and OU Daily reporters parked at Sooner Mall, Holman asked if the reporters knew about the “secret entrance.”

“There’s a secret back entrance only Norman people are allowed to,” Holman said. “I haven’t done it in a long time.”

Inside, two older women waved and greeted Holman, who engaged in a short conversation with them.

When he was in high school, Holman said he met many people that had grown up in west Norman that had never been to the east side of town, saying they were often scared of the east side.

“I was like ‘No, that’s not been my (experience) like I’m riding my bike till the lights come on in that whole area. I never had any problem,’” Holman said. “To me, it was weird because I came to the west side all the time to go to the mall. It was weird to me that they hadn’t been to that part of Norman.”

Every Wednesday night, Holman said he and his dad went to El Chico to eat dinner and check some of the stores.

From bookstores to a fountain in the middle of the mall, Holman reflected on the many changes Sooner Mall has gone through over the years. His favorite bookstore was where Victoria’s Secret is now while Hot Topic has been in the same spot since he was in high school.

“There used to be two bookstores and a toy store in the mall, and my dad would let me buy a Goosebumps book when a new one came out,” Holman said.

Norman High School

In high school, Holman ran track and played football. When he was a freshman, Holman played with Zac Taylor, head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, who was the varsity quarterback for the team.

Holman was also involved in “Tiger Den,” Norman High’s school media channel, and drafting and design courses all four years of high school.

“When I completed my junior year, I had exhausted all the drafting and design classes Norman High offered. So when I was a senior, I went to Moore Norman Tech Center,” Holman said.

Standing in front of Norman High, Holman said he often visits the school for football games. 

“I did a tour of the high school last summer for our 20-year high school reunion and it has changed completely since I was here,” Holman said.

According to Holman, the front entrance had steps and the science building wasn’t connected to the main building.

Holman’s favorite part of Norman High was having lunch off campus. He said Taco Casa used to be a Carl’s Jr, the Starbucks right across from the school used to be a Taco Mayo and the Dental Depot in the northwest corner of Flood Avenue and Main Street used to be a Grandys.

JaNelle Rutledge was Holman’s English teacher when he was a sophomore. Rutledge said she noticed Holman’s curiosity and eagerness to learn as he often did a little more work than he was assigned.

Rutledge said Holman had a “quiet leadership” and was well-liked and respected by other students. 

“He does have the ability to be vocal, where in high school as a sophomore, those young students don’t want to stand out very much. They’re waiting to see who they become and I think that was his role,” Rutledge said. “He knew he had a gift of some kind but he wanted to wait to see what it was and what was the way I saw him.”

Many years later, Rutledge attended a city council meeting to speak up on how the proposed Norman turnpike would go through her property.

“I had asked the city council a question because I noticed one of them wasn’t paying any attention to our case …,” Rutledge said. “When I asked the question, he said ‘and Miss Rutledge is in the audience paying attention to what’s going on,’ and I thought, ‘oh my goodness, that’s Stephen.’”

Rutledge said she and Holman reconnected. Rutledge helped write notes on postcards during Holman’s campaign, and attended his election watch party with her husband. 

“I’m just so proud of him,” Rutledge said. “There are so many students that just stand out in your mind and I think he’s going to be one leader that Norman will be proud of.”

The first time Holman attended a city council meeting was during his senior year when one of his teachers required it.

“I took Leadership, and one of the requirements was to go to a city council meeting and a school board meeting and write about it,” Holman said. 

Holman later served on council with his teacher’s husband, former Ward 8 Councilmember Dan Quinn, who also served as principal of both Norman High and Norman North High School.

His favorite memory at Norman High was when the girl’s soccer team won the 2004 state championship in a shootout when he was a senior.

“Our very last shooter, she was a freshman. She was really good and she made the goal and won the state championship,” Holman said. “The principal let us out early and we went up there to tailgate. We were all going crazy.”

Holman reflected on the long history of Norman High and the impact it has in the community.

“One of the girls from my class, her husband came (to the reunion) with her, and he went to Norman North. As we’re walking around … he goes ‘man, I feel like I missed out,’” Holman said. “Norman North is newer so it didn’t have any of the old history that this place has.”

After graduation, Holman briefly attended Tulsa Community College but later decided to return home.

“I really wanted to get into coaching college football, so I ended up getting a job with (OU’s) football team as a student videographer,” Holman said.

During the 2005 football season, Holman worked for free and was told he couldn’t get paid unless he became a full time student at OU, which he said he wasn’t ready to do. Over a year after graduating high school, Holman enrolled at OU in the spring 2006.

“As a lifelong fan, I grew up going to games,” Holman said. “Getting to work for the team and getting to travel with the team to away games, getting free shoes and OU gear, and getting to work in the stadium, I was more than willing to do it for free.”

Holman spent a year at OU, where he worked at Hideaway Pizza and another season as a videographer for the Sooners, when he decided to drop out.

“It was too expensive,” Holman said. “The loans I was having to take out were really bad and I wasn’t doing as good as I needed to do to justify that.”

 783 Deans Row

Late at night while his father was asleep, Holman would stay up and watch Channel 20, the public access channel for city council meetings, and Channel 18, the channel for school board meetings.

“You would see presentations on the city council meeting, replays of development projects and blueprints,” Holman said. “I just always thought that was fascinating to know what was going on.”

As he got older, Holman became more interested in policies and politics. He said he started to attend city council meetings because of a house.

783 Deans Row was the original Alpha Gamma Delta sorority house, with 14 bedrooms and a total 30 rooms spanning three floors and a very large basement. Standing outside of a more modern version of the house, Holman said the street used to be where all the original sororities and fraternities were.

“That’s why Campus Corner exists …,” Holman said. “Students weren’t driving to campus, so all the students lived right here. Campus Corner was developed as an entertainment district because this is where everybody lived.”

However, in 2007, Holman said the house had been empty for a few years and a group of people could rent it from the lady that owned it.

“They called it Universe City, or UC for short,” Holman said. 

Holman said a lot of people lived in the house and others rented a room to use as a studio. He said they would host shows and touring bands from all over the country. Holman moved to the house after he dropped out of OU and was later part of the promotion and planning of shows.

The bands would contact the house residents through the house’s Myspace, Holman said, and ask if they could host them for a day. Holman said they would give the band members a free place to stay for the night, a bathroom with a shower and a kitchen where they could make food. 

“We would have shows sometimes six or seven nights a week in summer, it was really big …,” Holman said. “We didn’t charge anybody to the shows and the front door was always unlocked so anybody could come into the house.”

He ended up being on the lease, doing all the bills and becoming the “mayor of Universe City.”

Anybody that lived in the house lived upstairs. Downstairs, there was a library and a computer with internet access, an art room with donated supplies, a living room where people would gather around and a dining room where the house residents would host shows. Holman said some shows and open mics would also occur in the basement.

Most of the food was donated, Holman said, as some of the people who lived in the house worked at restaurants around Campus Corner.

After two years of living there, Holman said a fire marshal shut down the house in 2009. The house sat vacant for six years until someone bought it and converted it into apartments.

From art shows to seeing his favorite bands performing in the living room, Holman said he had a really good time in the house for the time he and his friends lived there.

“My dream at the time was that I wanted to buy this house and completely restore it into its original look. But that didn’t happen, unfortunately,” Holman said. “I am thankful that it didn’t get torn down.”

The Deli

On the way to The Deli, Holman said one of the reasons he stayed in Norman was the sense of familiarity.

“I’ve travelled a lot around the country. I’ve driven all over the United States … and there’s something about Norman that’s comfortable and familiar,” Holman said. “I also know a lot of people that I’ve gotten to know over the years that are not from Norman. They did not grow up here. They came here for OU, they graduated from OU, they moved away and then moved back to Norman.”

Holman said though the city keeps growing, it still has the “small town feel” compared to other bigger cities in Oklahoma.

“It’s just the perfect size. Not too small, or too big,” Holman said. “There’s enough people where you can actually get something done, but not so much that there’s an overburden.”

Driving through Campus Corner, Holman said it didn’t always look how it currently looks and said the city redid all the sidewalks and lights about 12 to 15 years ago.

While rent is cheaper for small businesses on Main Street, Holman said the walkability on Campus Corner makes it better for businesses, which is something he wants to further develop in the city. He believes cities should be more neighborhood and human-scaled rather than designed to accommodate cars.

At the parking lot in front of The Deli, at the corner of Asp Avenue and White Street, Holman said Campus Corner used to have more locally owned businesses than it does right now.

“Now it’s kind of more corporate and more chain type stuff, newer clubs. I don’t refer to Nompton Social or Yo Pablo as bars. They’re clubs to me, they’re nightclubs,” Holman said. “The Deli is a bar.”

The Deli has been the oldest bar and live music venue on Campus Corner since 1973. Holman said The Deli is one of the few places that hasn’t changed in decades and remains in its original place. 

Holman, who also works as a real estate agent, has worked the door at The Deli for 15 years. He said there are times where he doesn’t work for six months or almost a year, and others where he works four nights in one week.

“It’s a great side gig,” Holman said. “Even the money aside, just being able to be involved with The Deli and keeping this whole business going. It’s fun. I plan to keep doing it as long as I can physically do it.”

Holman’s favorite memories at The Deli have been seeing many of his favorite bands perform and meeting a lot of people, including Ed Harris and Toby Keith.

Holman said he loves working at The Deli because it gives him an opportunity to stay in touch with what’s going on around Campus Corner and interact with other residents.

“When I first got elected for city council, I came here the next night because I was working the door and got a big round of applause,” Holman said.

Holman said a bar like The Deli can’t be replicated and preserving those historic places is extremely important.

“It’s one of the things that makes Norman different than Moore,” Holman said. “Because everybody can have a Qdoba and a Chick-Fil-A and 10 McDonald’s, but Moore doesn’t have this. Moore doesn’t have The Deli.”

1030 College Ave.

Holman arrived at 1030 College Ave., where a metal-wired fence surrounded an empty lot.

The empty lot used to be an apartment complex with three brick buildings and a little courtyard, where Holman said he lived for two years from 2010 to 2012. In February 2012, Holman moved to the house next to the complex — a two-story house with wood floors, a big front porch and a large elm that gave shade to the backyard — where he lived until January 2023.

“It had been converted into two apartments, one downstairs, one upstairs,” Holman said. “I lived in the apartment upstairs.”

According to Holman, the owner didn’t want to sell the land but was offered double the value in cash by a local development company that planned to build apartments in the lot.

The company demolished the house and the apartment complex, which at that point were abandoned. After being given until the end of 2022 to vacate the property, Holman said it was very sad to see the house get torn down.

“The backyard was like something out of a fairytale book,” Holman said. “It was like this big green canopy and the light would shine in the back of the house. It was really neat and just the perfect spot.”

Holman said he arranged for Habitat for Humanity to salvage some of the windows and other items from the house before it was torn down.

When he lost the house, Holman had to stay in Ward 7 but, because the ward boundaries changed after the 2020 census, he said he had less area to choose from, but ultimately found the place where he currently lives.

Similar to the 783 Deans Row house, Holman hoped to buy the house at some point and restore it back to an original single house.

“I really did not want to leave this house,” Holman said. “At least, if the apartments were built here, it’d be used for housing, but just to be this crappy, vacant lot full of trash … the elm tree that was right here easily they could have built the parking lot around it.”

The Diner

Driving to The Diner, Holman said the thing he’s most excited about becoming mayor is to have the opportunity to bring people together and set an example for Norman residents.

Holman said he looks forward to working with people in a nonpartisan way and hopes to get people to focus more on local issues and not feel discouraged or helpless about national issues.

“I’m hoping to be a mayor that makes people feel comfortable about being in Norman,” Holman said. “We can worry about national stuff, and everyone needs to pay attention to those things and know what’s happening, but we can only do what we can do about what’s going on in Norman.”

As someone who was raised by a single dad, Holman said he wants to make sure Norman remains a place with good school systems, good services and affordable living.

“It’s really important to me that a single parent be able to afford to raise a kid (in Norman),” Holman said.

Holman said he sees a division between Republicans and Democrats, who often ignore and don’t listen to one another. As mayor, Holman said he will listen to anybody and take everyone’s issues seriously, regardless if they voted for him or not.

“I’m your council (member) now, and now I’ll be your mayor. If there’s an issue that I can help, I’ll be happy to listen and take it seriously,” Holman said. “I hope that doing that helps set an example for other council members and other elected officials … partisan politics don’t have to dominate our entire personalities (and) our entire lives.”

As Holman walked through Bison Witches Bar to get to Main Street, a man greeted him with a fist bump.

“That’s our mayor,” the man said.

On Main Street, The Diner has been a staple of the Norman community since 1989. When he was a kid, Holman and his dad would eat breakfast at The Diner every Sunday.

“I took him there when he was a young child,” Steven said. “I had to work every other weekend, but on the weekends I was off, we would always go there for breakfast. That’s his favorite place.”

Now, Holman said they still go to The Diner once a month.

“When you’re inside there and you’re sitting in the booth looking out, all you can see is these buildings across the street, so it looks like you’re in a big city like New York City,” Holman said. “It’s so narrow, you could sit at the counter and could touch the back of the guy cooking all the food. When I was a kid at like three years old, sitting at the counter with my dad, I thought that was the coolest thing to watch.”

Holman reflected on the history of Main Street and the beauty of its 100-year-old buildings. He said the current look of Main Street, and seeing several events and festivals occur on its streets every year, is what he wanted it to be like since he was a kid.

City Hall

Holman began to attend city council meetings because he didn’t want other Norman residents to have the wrong impression of the 783 Deans Row house.

“I wanted to be really open about what we were doing there,” Holman said. “There were so many people coming in and out all the time, and because there were some shaky looking people that came in sometimes, … we didn’t want the police to think this was some big party house.”

Holman later got involved with the Red Earth Group, a local environmental organization that promotes the preservation of natural resources. He said one of the members, Norman local Mary Francis, messaged him on Facebook and said that he should run for city council because he knew a lot about Norman and its history.

Because he was shy and didn’t participate a lot in class when he was younger, Holman said he never imagined he would ever run for the seat.

“I was not in student congress. I never ran for anything,” Holman said. “I never would have wanted to speak in front of a group of people or be the one responsible for having to do something like, ‘Oh, this is all riding on me to get this done.’” 

However, in September 2010, the Norman City Council saw a controversial meeting over the proclamation to acknowledge the month of October 2010 as the “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Month.”

Holman, who had always thought of Norman as a more progressive city, was shocked to hear many hateful comments from residents during the meeting.

“When that meeting happened, there were some comments that came out that I had never even heard before, that were really hateful and did not want the council to pass this history month proclamation, which didn’t require anybody to do anything, didn’t spend any money, didn’t do anything,” Holman said. 

Although council passed the proclamation in a 7-1 vote, Holman said the meeting was eye-opening to him because it showed him the negative feelings some Norman residents had. 

During that meeting, then-Ward 7 Councilmember Doug Cubberley, who had been on the seat for 10 years, also announced he would not run for reelection the following year.

When Holman told Steven he wanted to run for council, Steven said he tried to push Holman out of his comfort zone and to not be afraid of something he had never done before.

“It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s whether you try. Losing is when you don’t try,” Steven said.

Holman ran for the 2011 elections against Linda Lockett but lost by 21 votes in a runoff election.

“I had no money, I had no idea what I was doing,” Holman said. “I was 26 years old and almost won.”

Holman wanted to stay engaged and involved with the city so he could get the help he needed to run a successful campaign.

Two years later, in 2013, Holman ran for the second time and won, becoming the youngest council member at 28. As of March, he has represented Ward 7 for 11 years.

“We had a watch party at a restaurant called ‘Fancy That’ on Main Street, which is now ‘Victoria’s’, and we just had the computer out … and refreshed the website,” Holman said. “It was a close race, 28 votes, it came right down to the very last second.”

To connect with the Ward 7 constituents, Holman created the Ward 7 Facebook page, where he would share information about meetings, agendas and future constructions. 

Former Norman Mayor Lynne Miller was also sworn in that year as Ward 5 council member. Miller told OU Daily that she, Holman and Greg Heiple, who was sworn in as Ward 1 council member, became really good friends and always tried to help each other.

When Miller first met Holman, she said she was very surprised at how young he was. 

“Being on the council has always been extremely important to him, and he was very serious about being a council member,” Miller said. “He always studied; he always read the materials to prepare for council meetings, and he cared deeply about what the people in his ward cared about and wanted.”

Miller, who worked with Holman as both a council member and a mayor, advises Holman to become available and listen to his constituents, which she believes he already does well.

“Stephen is a good example of someone that put in the time. He puts in the hours, he puts in the energy and he puts in the heart that it takes to represent the people in your community,” Miller said. “Norman is not an easy place to be an elected official. The people of Norman have really high expectations for what you can do and what you can get done. And I think that he's a good example of somebody that was willing to keep working at it until he pretty much knew more than anyone else. 

“I think he earned being mayor.”

Holman said, even with all his years on council, he never thought he would ever run for mayor. His dad said he knew Holman could do it but believes that after Holman turned 40 last October, he felt more confident to run.

“I didn’t know if he was ever going to (be) mayor. He had talked about it, and I said, ‘You’ll know when the time’s right. … I can’t speak for him, but I think 40 sounded like a good number,” Steven said. “I knew he was ready, but I just knew it was going to be on his time.”

Holman, who had his watch party along with other city council members at the Standard, said he felt confident about the possibility of winning but didn’t expect to get the number of votes he received.

“It’s hard to just believe that it was real …,” Holman said. “Even after being a council member for 12 years, I was like ‘Can I run a campaign? Will people actually vote for me?’”

Holman said some of his priorities include committee appointments, turning the mayor’s parking spot at city hall into an additional accessible parking spot and building a relationship with the residents that didn’t vote for him.

“Especially making sure they know that even if they didn’t vote for me, they do have a mayor that is going to represent them, that’s going to listen, it’s going to be willing to meet with anybody, and getting that firmly established right away,” Holman said. 

Holman said there are also bigger issues the city will deal with, including the Rock Creek Entertainment District, though he said that with the court ruling against the referendum petition that would’ve sent the district to a public vote, there’s not much he can do on his own.

However, Holman noted the city could still work to stop or minimize the impact the East-West Connector, one of ACCESS Oklahoma’s proposed turnpikes, could have in Norman.

“Since I've been a council member so long, it’s not really a lot of new stuff that I'll be taking on. It’s a lot of stuff I already do that I'll be able to do even more,” Holman said.

As he reflected on his journey, from a child riding his bike through the OU campus to sitting at the dais at city hall, Holman said he would’ve never imagined becoming a mayor could be a possibility, not even as a child.

“Child Stephen Tyler Holman would be playing SimCity on the Super Nintendo computer …,” Holman said. “I think my younger self would want me to not forget about the things that got me here. The things that shaped who I am when I was growing up here, and the reasons why I got interested in it to begin with.”

Inside Holman’s last stop, a place he has been on frequently for the last 12 years, he reflected on what city hall means to him.

“I’ve been through some pretty traumatic events here, as far as some really controversial meetings that have lasted a really long time, and heard from a lot of very passionate residents over the years (for and against) various issues,” Holman said. “This is the people’s house. That podium right there is one of the only ways that the public has to address the government.

“There’s no public podium like that at the State Capitol or in Washington D.C.”

This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure, Ismael Lele and Peggy Dodd. Sophie Hemker and Avery Avery copy edited this story.