Denton Officials Invited to Visit Sriracha Plant – Help Us Sell Denton
Denton led the way in the national efforts to save Sriracha. Since then, many others, including Texas State Representatives and other city officials in other states, copied our efforts and continued the push for Huy Fong Foods to fine a more welcoming business environment elsewhere.
I am very pleased to announce that Denton has been invited to visit Huy Fong Foods in Irwindale, CA and meet with company officials to discuss possible relocation or expansion opportunities in Denton, TX.
Details are still being worked out, but I will be heading to California in the next couple of weeks, accompanied by a select team of city officials, including Economic Development Director Aimee Bissett. I will provide more details as soon as they are official.
From the start, our efforts to lure Sriracha to Denton have been community based. In order to make a pitch to Sriracha that is becoming of the creative city we are, I need you all to think up some big ideas on how to sell Denton. More importantly, I need you to jump in and help implement these ideas. We need your marketing skills, your film talents, your music abilities, your business savvy, and your collective creativity.
So throw your big ideas below or contact me via Twitter, Facebook, or email. Together we can make this happen! This is how Denton does economic development.
The Tragic Irrelevancy of the Denton Record-Chronicle
Dan’s Silverleaf was packed last night – not for a show, but for a city council debate. With four seats on the ballot, this is arguably one of the most important elections in years. Last night’s debate, hosted by the Denton Downtowners, We Denton Do It, and Drink and Think, was an attempt to capture the momentum and attention of Denton’s growing creative class, a demographic that has made itself a force to be reckoned with in Denton. They are the creators of our city, the changers of culture, and are beautifully directing their democratic impulses back to their community.
By all accounts, last night’s debate had more people than any other forum to date and, according to many candidates and attendees, it stood out as the most important.
Yet our local newspaper, the Denton Record-Chronicle, neither promoted it nor covered it. Instead, the lead story for today’s paper was about the painting of walls at the Sanger library.
The first Denton Creatives Mixer from October 2012 at Oak Street Draft House.
This isn’t new. Despite the fact that there have been growing crowds of civic-minded young professionals, artists, and families coming together to help create Denton in the areas of culture, technology, and livibility, our local paper has acted like none of this is happening. Hundreds showing up each time we have a Denton Creatives Mixer or host innovative citizen engagement events like February’s Ideas for the City Forum, yet not a single story.
Meanwhile the paper continues perpetuating the now tired and outdated narrative that “City Hall is not listening to the citizens.” I have no interest in speculating why this is the case other than to point to something that is becoming increasingly obvious. The conspiratorial fantasies of those who spend a significant amount of time commenting on dentonrc.com stories tend to find their way into the headlines. It’s as if the coverage of local politics in Denton is written with an aim of causing a commotion among these curmudgeon commentators.
And this is tragic. A robust local news outlet is essential for a robust and healthy local democracy. With local newspapers failing all over the nation, it will be up to somebody or some entity to reimagine and transform the future of local news. And I can’t think of a better place where we have all the necessary ingredients to create a new model for the power and possibility of local news than Denton, Texas. And in doing so, help return a vibrant democracy to the city.
There are armies of journalists, photographers, videographers, creative writers, cultural thought leaders, and analysts ready to join with you in this ambitious project.
But you are ignoring them.
The Candidates Debate – April 14 – Dan’s Silverleaf
With four Denton City Council seats up for grabs and early voting for those elections beginning in less than a month, the time is now to start paying attention.
Once again, a bunch of local hackers are organizing all that info over at VoteDenton.org – there you’ll find all the candidates and links to their websites and social media sites. Becayse one seat is a district specific seat (District 2), you’ll be able to use the great interactive map in order to determine your district.
There are several opportunities to catch these candidates engage the issues and ideas, but there is one you should make sure to catch. We Denton Do It, Denton Downtowners, and Drink and Think are teaming up for The Candidates Debate on Monday, April 14 at Dan’s Silverleaf at 7pm.
Local politics, with beer. Probably the way it was intended to be.
Check out all the details on the Facebook event page.
On Storms and Humanity
There is something about the onset of stress that tests one’s character. What is true of an individual is also true of a community. This is why it is often said that natural disasters bring out the best and worst in humanity. Our moral progression as a civilization is revealed when our comforts of typical life are removed.
I went swimming with my family last night at the Denton Natatorium. All of a sudden, a lifeguard ran into the pool area, quickly gave a signal to all the other lifeguards on post, and within less than a minute the entire pool area was cleared and everyone in the building huddled in one of the locker rooms. The staff was calm yet directive. The entire operation seemed to be run by a staff of teenagers, but their age was no issue here – they knew what to do and we all followed their lead.
Soon, folks started coming in from the streets. There’s a sizeable mobile home community just Northwest of this area and the city sirens and other news announcements drew many residents out of there and into the closest open building.
City personnel, city buildings, and other city resources come to the aid of the city’s most vulnerable in ways we often don’t realize. Consider the homeless who find refuge and relief on hot or cold days in one of our libraries or rec centers. Consider the poor who are often invited in to the Civic Center pool at the end of hot summer days when the staff decide to stop taking payments early. The city is made up of people who are empowered to care.
Inside the locker rooms, people took care of one another. Towels were shared, anxiety-filled kids were tended to, updates were shared as some were able to access news and social media from their smartphones.
And throughout the city, similar stories happened throughout the evening. Street crews, DME workers, high-water teams, police, and fire teams got after it. The Denton social media team was active and responsive, providing information and responding quickly to reported issues. Here’s a shot of the DME crew restoring power to homes in our neighborhood which was accompanied by Twitter hashtag #lovethistown.
But the most impressive display of character I had the privilege of observing came from a 3rd grader from Ginnings Elementary School named Jake. His family came to seek shelter from a nearby neighborhood. As we struck up a conversation with his family, Jake jumped in to help translate for his parents’ broken English. Realizing that my kids and others around us were starting to go stir crazy after being in a cramped locker room for 30 minutes, Jake called the children to himself…
“Would you kids like to hear a story? Everyone come over here and I’ll tell you a story, OK?”
When the teenagers of your town are effectively managing emergency situations and the third graders of your city are bringing hope and encouragement to the kids, you’re doing it right Denton.
Denton a Leader in PreK Innovation and Collaboration
The call for universal PreK is quickly becoming a policy priority well beyond school districts. At all levels of government, the race is on to figure out how to invest in our youngest citizens in order to fix the achievement gap before it begins. And for good reasons. We now know that a person’s academic success is greatly influenced by their first few years of life. The greatest predictor of graduation rates is 3rd grade reading scores. The greatest predictor of 3rd grade reading scores is the quality and quantity of vocabulary a child has in their head when they come their first day of Kindergarten.
I grew up in a family with two educated parents where reading, learning, and discovery were commonplace. The expectation was there from an early age that I would do well in school, go to college, and likely seek an advanced degree. Even with all that, my parents still sent me to Betty Bixler Preschool at the church down the street. But I fully recognize my relatively privileged upbringing.
A growing number of kids are entering Kindergarten without having books in the home. Many kids are raised by parents who have never understood education as a priority – in large part because it was not part of their upbringing. The stress of poverty compounds this situation and we have an epidemic of kids entering school at 5 and already having years of catch-up to do. If education is a key to socio-economic mobility in our country, then justice demands we fix this and give everyone an equal shot at success.
Many know that my wife created an innovative tool to help tackle some of this. Inspired by her days as an elementary school teacher, her work in the educational publishing industry, and role as a mother of three little ones, she created a way to put high quality preK into the hands of parents and caregivers - ReadyRosie. Through daily videos modeling everyday activities in English and Spanish designed to promote greater vocabulary, essential skills, and a love for learning, the kids’ most influential teacher (the parent) is getting the tools they need. And it is designed to be delivered daily free of charge to the families who need it the most.
While so much of the policy emphasis is on building preK centers, we cannot give up on the parents. Regardless of their background, we have to believe that parents ultimately want what is best for their kids. We can unlock the potential in kids by unlocking the potential in their parents.
Developed in Denton with Denton families and first adopted by Denton ISD and available to every family of 0-5 year olds in the district, ReadyRosie is now being utilized by communities throughout Texas and around the nation.
In order to implement this tool and establish a vision for tackling the preK issues in Denton, the Denton PreK Coalition was formed. A collaborative initiative comprised of Denton ISD, United Way of Denton County, UNT, the City of Denton, and many churches, non-profits, and businesses, the Coalition is frequently being referenced and replicated in other communities. It’s another way Denton is pulling together its resources and leveraging its assets and partnerships to lead the nation in creative solutions to tough problems.
In that spirit, I’m excited to partner with 100 UNT students this Saturday to canvass the neighborhoods surrounding the Denton ISD elementary schools with the greatest number of at-risk students. We’ll be putting resources and tools into the hands of parents of young ones. This is all part of UNT’s Big Event where over 2500 volunteers will spend the day serving the needs of our community.
GO HERE to see Superintendent Jamie Wilson’s column on the PreK Coalition.
GO HERE to sign up for your free subscription to ReadyRosie if you live in the Denton ISD district.
GO HERE to see a KERA story on ReadyRosie and their work in another community.