Some Ideas for the City – A Prelude to the Next Denton Creatives Mixer
The next Denton Creatives Mixer is coming up on Monday, Feb 17 at 5:30pm at Rubber Gloves. This will feature a forum made up entirely of YOU – your ideas, your thoughts, your ambitions for Denton. Everyone is invited to sign-up to pitch a great idea and watch what happens when the best and brightest of our city collide, connect, collaborate, and make it happen.
You can sign up on the form below, but to get the ideas started early, here’s a select list of ideas I have down on my constantly growing to-do list and just waiting for someone to run with them. Let this help get the brainstorming started…
IDEAS FOR THE ECONOMY
- Become the #1 Startup City in Texas – we have all the ingredients to significant grow our economy from within. Let’s get a plan, set some metrics, and do this.
- 1 Gigabyte per second Fiber Connectivity for Every Home and Business – this will take changes to state legislation, but it is hugely important. Fiber is to the 21st century what electricity was to the 20th.
- Update our Economic Development Strategy – include high-tech and other industries to keep our best and brightest here.
- Tackle Income Inequality Locally – our median income is low, our poverty rate is high, and nearly 45% of our children are on free/reduced lunches at school. It is time to address these issues with our economic strategies and make sure our prosperity is one that everyone can take advantage of – cities will be taking the lead on this issue in the 21st century, so let’s start now.
IDEAS FOR EDUCATION
- Continue Mentor Denton Initiative – we set the goal to get 10,000 mentors matched with 10,000 at-risk kids. We quickly scaled to 1000 the first year – let’s keep moving.
- Broaden PreK Initiative – not just a school problem, this is a social, economic, and justice problem. Let’s develop a 5 year plan – using schools, rec centers, libraries, neighborhoods, churches, and businesses – to get our youngest citizens and their parents off to a good start.
- Employ PhDs in Denton ISD – academia is churning out a glut of PhDs and then paying them poverty wages to adjunct. We can transform our schools by taking advantage of this and developing a program that attracts them (particularly in Middle and High School). Imagine being able to say, “Denton ISD has more academic PhDs per student than any school in the nation.”
IDEAS FOR NEIGHBORHOODS
- Create distinct “districts” and brand the heck out of them – having an identity to rally around goes a long way. Focusing first on our core neighborhoods, the first couple rings of neighborhoods around downtown, find a way to bring neighborhoods and connected businesses together into little vibrant centers of place. Think back to my “Thinking Beyond the Square” article.
- Identify opportunities for DIY public art – painting dumpsters, making art out of a utility pole, painting murals on building sides or underpasses – identify for the neighborhoods what CAN be done and let them loose to do it.
- Reform Neighborhood Grant Program – I watched when several neighborhoods got excited when we created this program. They came with ideas, people, and enthusiasm. Most of those ideas never got off the ground – that tells me we are making it too difficult. Let’s fix this.
IDEAS FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION
- Historic Preservation as Economic Engine – our current code was created out of an environment of contention and has always tended to unnecessarily pit economic development interests with preservation goals. The fact is, studies are clear that historic preservation is a big economic driver. We can transform our approach here, put metrics on our efforts, and get more players at the table.
- “One Regulation Preservation” – we are scaring away too many property owners and neighborhoods with our current approach which tends to envision layers upon layers of aesthetic regulations from the start. Why not go the other way and require only one thing: you can’t tear down that building without going through a lengthy process. Build from there.
IDEAS FOR CIVIC INNOVATION
- Open Data in Denton – governments hold huge amounts of data that, if unlocked and available real-time in a machine-readable way, can be developed into innovative solutions for cities and citizens (think how government weather and GPS data has transformed our lives).
- Develop an City Office of Innovation – new civic ideas need a place to incubate, get piloted, and scaled where failure is accepted as part of the culture of creativity. Let’s develop a space for innovative staff teams to form around innovative ideas and create a culture of innovation at the city level in Denton.
IDEAS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
- Greenest City in the Nation – we have standards for green buildings and green products, but there has yet to be a recognized standard for cities. Let’s team up with UNT to develop this standard, using Denton as the living laboratory, and set the right goals to be #1 on the list.
- Fix the Fracking Problem – no matter our successes in many areas of sustainability (and we have many), the fact that we are on a very well-played part of the Barnett Shale and have been and continue to experience the consequences of this will always be an asterisk on any of our accomplishments. We need to be aggressive, see our current policies as works in progress that are always up for modification, find and implement best practices, and work with the industry to find creative solutions.
IDEAS FOR GETTING AROUND DENTON
- Think bigger about our Rail Trail – Think Katy Trail in Dallas. Think how other trails can tie in.
- Fix our streets – it’s time to find a plan that fully funds our street reconstruction and maintenance. Even if it takes 10 years to get there, let’s have a plan.
- Connect the Walk – starting with the square and moving outward, identify and fix all spots that provide obstacles to walkers, wheelchairs, strollers, and tricycles. This, too, requires a funding fix.
IDEAS FOR CITIZENSHIP
- One stop online shop for all volunteer needs and volunteers – with 48,000 college students, a bunch of willing young people, active churches, non-profits, and civic-minded businesses, there shouldn’t be a need in this community that goes unmet. We just need to coordinate our efforts. There’s an easy technological fix for part of this problem.
NOW YOUR TURN – SIGN UP BELOW TO MAKE YOUR PITCH ON MONDAY…
City Council Preview – February 4, 2014
Your friendly neighborhood City Council meets once again on Tuesday at 4:30pm for a Work Session followed by a Regular Session at 6:30pm – both at the main City Hall at 215 E. McKinney Street in downtown Denton. Click here for a full agenda.
DENTON: MOSQUITOES’ WORST NIGHTMARE
During a council luncheon on Monday, we heard a report detailing the 2013 West Nile response plan by the city of Denton. Thanks to a dedicated and remarkably talented crew of city staffers and a strategic partnership with UNT, Denton’s approach to tracking, mapping, and data collection of the city’s mosquito population during West Nile season is among the very best in the nation. Check out our own Dr. Ken Bank’s publication on the subject in an edition of the very popular Stormwater Journal. If you haven’t already, take a look at this great GIS mapping tool indicating trapping events in the city.
FOOD TRUCKS – REVISIONS TO THE ORDINANCE
You might recall a series of public discussions this past summer in the ramp up to w
hat was supposed to be a 6 month review of the recently enacted food truck ordinance. The revisions to this ordinance have now been recommended to the council and we are set to vote on them. One particular provision – a rule prohibiting the operation of food trucks in parking places on city streets – has raised significant concern among many operators and downtown businesses who have developed positive, symbiotic relationships with these new food entrepreneurs. I am sympathetic to their concerns and look forward to the discussion. This new food truck culture has brought new life and new possibilities to new areas of downtown – it is not clear to me that making things harder for them to operate a business is the course we ought to be taking.
THIN LINE FILM FEST – FEB 12-16
Denton’s Thin Line Film Fest is coming up in a couple of weeks – this time with the addition of a live music line-up. We’ll be considering several requests for noise ordinance exceptions and alcohol sales during our meeting. Make sure you check out this cultural treasure for the city of Denton – go here for more info.
EXTENDING THE GAS DRILLING “STANDSTILL AGREEMENT”
The coexistence of gas drilling and neighborhoods has understandably resulted in several concerned citizens. We have been under a “Standstill Agreement” with EagleRidge Operation since December in the hopes of arriving at some global agreement addressing several city concerns. Those discussions continue to happen (I am part of the negotiating team for the city). In order to keep the talks going, we need to extend the agreement through March 4. For some context, consider the map below:
The green stars represent existing gas wells, many of which were drilled as far back as 2001. The most recent ordinance – particuarly the 1200 foot setback requirement – combined with a dense population and geological considerations has more or less resulted in a de facto ban on new fracking operations in the core of the city, East of I35. We now have to tackle the very significant problem of existing well sites West of I35. A successful resolution/agreement at the end of these Standstill Negotiations will go a long way toward addressing many of the issues concerning our citizens.
SUBSTATIONS!!
We will have two public hearings on two separate substation projects in the city – one north of Riney Road and East of Bonnie Brae Street and another located northeast of the intersection of Geesling Road and Blagg Road.
MLK Day Celebration on Jan 20
Bring your friends and family out and join the Southeast Denton community in honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King…
Denton City Hall West Will Not be Torn Down
A Denton Record-Chronicle Newspaper article this week raised concerns about the future of City Hall West, pictured above and located on Elm Street just North of the Square. According to local historian and former City Council member Mike Cochran, “This wonderful building was built in 1927, and over the years it has housed City Hall, the Police Department, the community theater and now the Planning and other city departments.”
A bit of background – the city has been in discussions for some time now about the needs of our growing municipality and the need for more, and in some cases, consolidated space. It is rather a rare thing, but the city actually has three city halls, all housing city services and departments that are typically contained in one space in other cities: City Hall West (above), City Hall East on East Hickory right across from the DCTA station, and City Hall on E. McKinney Street between the Civic Center and the US Post Office. This question is ongoing and one thing seems clear: City Hall West is not conducive to the needs of a growing Planning department serving a city whose population is set to double in the next decade.
Concurrent with these discussions, a developer approached the city expressing interest in the property as well as the old Main Fire Station adjacent to it. And now it seems there is significant interest from others in this property as well. The city council met in executive session to discuss some of this.
With all this chatter of a possible sale, many citizens, rightfully concerned about the preservation of the city’s historic buildings, are worried this means that City Hall West would be torn down, or at least altered inappropriately.
I want to be clear – no one is interested in seeing Denton City Hall West torn down or altered in a way that takes away its historic significance. Not the city council, the city staff, or anyone expressing interest in the building.
The building already has a local historic landmark designation which provides a significant amount of protection from changes and demolition. Any plans for alterations of the exterior of the building must go through the city’s Historic Landmark Commission and the City Council will have the final say on the matter. Even if the ownership changes, these regulations still apply.
Keep in mind, out of all the city’s registered historic landmarks, the vast majority are owned by private citizens and they are doing just fine – in most cases, flourishing and adding beauty and character to our city.
My main interest is the historic preservation of City Hall West. Whether or not it remains in the hands of the city or the hands of a private entity is a separate question.
Right now that building is the place where someone goes to pull permits and find out information about building code and food establishment regulations. I’m not yet convinced that this is the best use of this remarkable building in such an important spot near the square. If we can explore the possibility of a better use – whether that be a municipal one or a private one – isn’t it worth a discussion?
Ideas for the City: A Denton Creatives Mixer
The next Denton Creatives Mixer will feature you. Because a city is only so great as the ideas of its citizens, we’ll be devoting this mixer to showcasing the next big ideas for Denton. Where should we be heading? What to we need as a city? What is a solution to one of our biggest challenges? What are you already doing that we all need to know about?
Everyone is invited to sign-up to pitch a great idea and watch what happens when the best and brightest of our city collide, connect, collaborate, and make it happen.
We’ll meet on Monday, February 17 at 5:30pm at Rubber Gloves. Go here to RSVP on our Facebook Event Page.
We’re in need of volunteers to help and a business or two to sponsor the “first round” of drinks. Email me if you can help.
Sign-up below to make your two minute pitch…