Banning Politics from the Thanksgiving Table: Thoughts on Political Fundamentalism
Political discourse today is too often derailed by extreme commitments to ideology. This is evident across the political spectrum and on just about every issue. Where ideological fundamentalism grows, the democratic virtues inevitably diminish. Intellectual rigor is replaced with dogma, persuasion is given up for activism, and arguments are reduced to mere apologetics and its accompanying arsenal of mimicked sound bytes. Fundamentalism breeds the democratically dangerous thought that not only am I absolutely right, but that anyone who disagrees with me is probably evil. Fundamentalists distrust any sources of knowledge that don’t already conform to their perspective. As a result, opposing perspectives are never considered and the claims of fellow fundamentalists are never questioned. What’s worse: the more extreme and loud the claim, the more it is applauded and celebrated by others in the fold.
It is a form of reductionism. And when brought into the political arena it can swiftly devolve into a form of tyranny: “it’s our way OR ELSE!”
I’ve long believed that a source of such political fundamentalism is the all-too-abstract national political landscape. And a remedy for it is found in the practice and elevation of local democracy. Practicing local democracy is humanizing and moderating.
Democracy is reared in the most mundane places and at the youngest of ages: learning how to socialize and play nice with others at the playground, learning how to share with siblings in the living room, and learning how to speak civilly with the family at the dinner table. You may still dislike someone, claim your rights, or disagree with the other person, but your passions are tempered by the fact that they are your neighbors, your brothers, and your sisters.
It is simply a shame that at the time of year when families come together for food, drink, and fellowship, the broken state of our national political discourse means that many families avoid precisely what coming together around a table from the time we were babies was meant to promote.
This Thanksgiving, make your country better by practicing local democracy at the dinner table. Practice putting the human first and the issue second. Instead of avoiding political discussion, transform it. Our kids are watching…
Gas Drilling in Denton Update – the Path Ahead
Eagleridge, a gas drilling operator, made the decision to drill disturbingly close to a neighborhood near Fire Station #7 at Bonnie Brae and Vintage, causing understandable anxiety among the residents there. We have heard from fathers of young kids, mothers of unborn kids, and retirees who are no doubt concerned, worried, frustrated, and angry at the entire situation.
Many are thinking: where the hell is the city? Isn’t it their job to protect neighborhoods like this? Why are they allowing this to continue, and worse, why are they now entering into negotiations with the operators?
Throughout the drafting of the latest gas drilling ordinance, it was clear that the new rules would only impact NEW drilling operations. Thanks to the coziness of Texas legislators, law, and legal precedence to the oil and gas lobby, drilling operations occurring under earlier permits are vested under the regulations applied at the time they received that permit. That means that a gas well permitted under 2002 rules, for instance, can be redrilled, changed from a vertical to a horizontal well, and refracked at any point under the rules in place in 2002. New regulations created by new ordinances simply can not reach it.
This, for the most part, is what has taken place in the Vintage neighborhood. Gas drilling permits and wells were originally drilled prior to the presence of a neighborhood. Then the surface owners, developers, builders, and realtors all came together to develop, build, market and sell homes WITH FULL KNOWLEDGE of the proximity of those well sites to the homes. The buyers of those homes may or may not have had such knowledge depending on what sort of research they did into the surrounding properties.
Then this summer, Eagleridge and those who own the mineral rights in that area, made the decision to claim their “rights” and began redrilling the older wells. Despite this being a very un-neighborly way to act, state law protects their right to do so. It wasn’t until Eagleridge attempted to drill a NEW well that the city had the authority, under our current ordinance, to step in and require a permit – one that would have required a 1200 foot setback from protected uses and other new operational requirements. We took them to court and requested a Temporary Restraining Order – the judge denied our request.
I certainly appreciate that these complex legal distinctions between old and new wells are meaningless to those enduring an industrial drilling operation only a few hundred feet from where their children play – whether new or old, its the same effect for them. But everyone needs to realize that this distinction is important from the standpoint of our ordinance: new wells must come under all the regulations of the 2012 ordinance, old wells come under the regulations of whatever rules were in place at the time they were permitted.
Why is this important and why are we entering into a time period of negotiations with Eagleridge? Because there are currently 463 wells in Denton and its ETJ, 437 of which were drilled prior to when the new ordinance was in place. Consider the following chart showing number of wells drilled by year in the city limits of Denton…
We are anticipating that the bulk of drilling activity coming to Denton will be redrills of these existing wells. Eagleridge represents a new type of company that makes money trying to suck the last amount of gas available from wells which are no longer profitable for traditional operators.
What you are seeing near the Vintage neighborhood could be just the beginning of this mess. This is why some of use were so worried when another neighborhood was being planned in the middle of a gas drilling field off Ryan Road. Consider the location of most of these existing wells. Here’s a map showing my house and a 1000 foot, .5 mile, 1 mile, and 2 mile ring around it (this great interactive map, by the way, is available on the city website here)…
The green dots represent existing gas wells. My house is just shy of downtown Denton. Notice that there are no existing wells within a mile and only 6 within a 2 mile radius. But then look to the West and South of I35 – most of the existing well sites in our city are in that area and all of them can be redrilled and refracked at any point. As our city develops to the South and particularly to the West, there are bound to be hundreds of more Vintage neighborhood situations. Situations where drilling and drilling permits preexisted the building of neighborhoods and where neighborhoods begin to build TO the drilling areas.
There are things we need to explore and consider adding to our current ordinance, as it relates to the issue of existing wells. Some would involve requirements on new surface development within a certain proximity to such wells. We need to look at disclosure options (and we’ll see this piloted with the development off Ryan Road set to come back to Council for reconsideration) and we need to have a fresh discussion on setbacks as they relate to development coming toward existing wells. Currently, our ordinance allows development to come as close to 250 from an existing gas well site. Even with a disclosure provision in place, I’m not convinced that’s the responsible thing to do. I am also interested in exploring ways to apply new nuisance standards to old well sites if and when they are redrilled and within 1200 feet of protected uses – sort of a way to create a unique set of standards for such sites that sidesteps many of the regulatory pitfalls and puts us squarely within our jurisdiction of regulating nuisances.
But even with such provisions, I’m convinced that we will continue to struggle with our ability to regulate the redrilling of old wells in a way that adequately protects our citizens. I’m convinced that these operators are more concerned with their rights and profit margins than the well-being of our city. And I’m convinced that they will continue to take advantage of pro-drilling legislators, judges, and laws to push their will on other neighborhoods.
I don’t advocate entering into negotiations because I think the other side is interested in being a good neighbor – they lost their ability to claim that when they set up rigs within feet of where kids play. I advocate entering into negotiations because I think it might result in creative solutions whereby we prevent another Vintage situation.
Speech to UNT Hunger Banquet – How One Hour a Week can Change our City
I had the honor of speaking for the annual Hunger Banquet at UNT last night. Here’s a transcript of my talk detailing the great needs in our cities, the great solutions already offered by many of our citizens, and what college students (or anyone) can do to help…
It is my honor to be here this evening. The fact that you are here means you care about the world around you and the needs of your neighbors, whether they be next door or around the world.
Denton is a wonderful city and a great place to live. Of cities our size, we are the 7th fastest growing city in the nation. We are rated one of the top Livable Cities in America, were ranked the nation’s #1 small town, are consistently looked at as having one of the best independent music scenes in the nation, were recently listed as the #6 hot spot for Hi-Tech jobs, and we have a growing creative class of young professionals. We have two beautiful and thriving universities, a downtown second to none, and a community that values culture, art and music.
Despite all this, there continue to be large numbers of people in Denton who are struggling. Any talk of growth, of prosperity, of a healthy economy, of
- Median household income is the lowest in the county and below the state average
- 20.3% of people below the poverty level
- Highest poverty rates are in homes with single moms – 51.5% of them
- Food stamp cases and recipients have more than doubled since 2007
- 13-16% of adults have no high school diploma
- 17.2% of adults and 10.6% of kids lack health insurance
- The last official homeless count in Denton pointed to 201 individuals – we know there are more
- Need for shelter is on the rise
- Historic cuts to public education in 2011 – still not where it should be
- 40-50% of kids attending Denton ISD are on free and reduced lunch
- 1 in 3 students are considered at-risk
- Denton ISD is reporting that 426 kids in their schools are considered homeless
How can we celebrate our city’s economic prosperity when 51.5% of our single moms live below the poverty level? When 426 kids leave school every day with no secure place to live? When a good number of our kids leave school each day unsure of where their next meal will come from?
We have a lot to work on from policies to economic development initiatives aimed at bringing more training and jobs to those who need them.
Fortunately, Denton has a significant number of people, businesses, and organizations working on these very issues. Many people are stepping up to the plate in creative and ambitious ways to tackle some of these problems. Just to name a few…
- Our Daily Bread Soup Kitchen – daily free lunches just near the square
- A doctor from the Denton Community Health Clinic provides free services to people eating there
- Every night, people needing shelter can go to the Salvation Army – the county’s only homeless shelter
- When the temperature goes below freezing or above 100 degrees, Immaculate Conception Church and Vision Ministries team up to put on an emergency shelter on the campus of Denton Bible Church where people can sleep and eat.
- The Civic Center Pool lets people in free 30-60 minutes before closing during the summer for those without money to cool off.
- Our libraries and rec centers serve as places for those without homes to shelter during the day.
- The city passed tough ordinances to regulate the predatory lending companies throughout town that make money off of other people’s misery.
- United Way then got most of the city’s banks at the table to provide financial education and bank accounts to those who need it.
- Serve Denton was created to bring together many of the city’s non profits and put them in one spot.
- Hundreds have already responded to the call by Mentor Denton to mentor our city’s most at-risk kids.
- Shiloh Fields, a project of Denton Bible Church, helps provide fresh food and garden education to the city’s hungry – they are now the nation’s largest community garden.
- Before each weekend, school employees fill kids backpacks with food to make sure they have food to eat before returning to school the following Monday.
- And I could go on and on…
So what does this mean for you? How can apply what you are learning from tonight’s event? The fact is that awareness alone is not helpful. We can all be aware of the great needs around us in this world and that awareness changes nothing. There are things you can be doing right here, right now in your own community to make a difference to those around you.
Here are some suggestions…
- UNT Center for Leadership and Service
- Our Daily Bread
- Denton Community Food Center
- Mentor Denton
Start something yourself…
- Every volunteer opportunity in this city was started with someone with an idea. They saw a problem, played around with it, and hacked a new solution.
- The problems facing us in the 21th century can’t be solved simply by applying the same 20th century solutions.
- The innovation culture is transforming just about every other aspect of our life and institutions, what if we applied this same sort of creative energy into our community’s social problems?
Here’s the challenge – give our community one hour a week. Imagine if every college student in Denton did just that.
- 48,000 college students between UNT and TWU
- That’s 48,000 hours of service to the community every week.
- The equivalent of 1200 full-time workers working 40 hours a week.
- Let’s go ahead and count 13 weeks per semester.
- 48,000 x 13 = 624,000 hours per semester
- That’s 1,248,000 hours per school year.
- It is estimated that an hour of service can be monetized as $20.85 per hour.
- 1,248,000 hours would mean an economic impact to our community of $26,020,800 per year.
- And that’s just our college students…
The power of one hour. Imagine that. Everyone just giving one hour a week. There’s wouldn’t be a need left in this city if we all did that.
City Council Preview – November 19, 2013
I dedicate this City Council Preview to my counterparts on the City Council in Toronto, who just had to strip their crazy mayor of most of his powers. The ongoing Toronto saga is one way to get citizens interested in local government again…
We’ll get started with an early 2pm Work Session on Tuesday followed by a 6:30pm Regular Session, both at City Hall at 215 E. McKinney Street. There’s whopping 1200 page backup to this week’s council agenda, so go here to see everything we will be talking about and get to reading.
Here are some things you might find interesting…
CONVENTION CENTER
The City has been pursuing the concept of a city-owned Convention Center for some time now. Our most recent discussion involves a developer, the City and UNT, whereby the old Radisson Site on I35 (across from UNT) is redeveloped into a upscale hotel (with restaurant) and a convention center. Here’s a very rough site plan to give you an idea of the layout of this…
You can click here to see the agenda sheet for this item along with the Power Point presentation we will be seeing at Tuesday’s meeting. There are a bunch of agreements included in the full backup in case you need more info on this.
The land for the project is being leased from UNT. A private developer is building, financing, and running the hotel and attached restaurant. The city is contemplating financing, building, and owning the Convention Center at an estimated cost of $25 million. We are also contemplating using Certificate of Obligations to fund the project, with revenue from the Convention Center going to service the debt. Part of the agreement also contains the provision that the private developer (hotel owner) will make up the difference in what the city lacks in debt payment should that be necessary.
It is hoped that this agreement can be reached and finalized before the end of this year.
DENTON HOLIDAY LIGHTING FESTIVAL
Mark your calendar for Friday, December 6 – the night every citizen should be bringing their family downtown for the annual Holiday Lighting Festival. The council will be voting on an in-kind sponsorship of up to $13,000 to help with this event. On a somewhat related note: spend time that night reflecting on the fact that there will be no parking or driving on the square for that evening. Yet somehow, an estimated 10,000 people will go, find somewhere to park far away, walk as far as need be, and it will be awesome. It is times like these where it is worth challenging the hypothesis that more parking is the key to a more commercially viable and vibrant downtown.
PARKING CRAZINESS ON PONDER STREET TO BE FIXED
Have you noticed this? The recent removal of no parking signs on Ponder between Oak and Scripture have created a chaotic scene for every form of transportation. It’s sort of the UNT student parking equivalent to the “Give a Moose a Muffin” story. We will hopefully be voting to create an ordinance to allow us to post and enforce NO PARKING on both sides of that street.
RECONSIDERATION OF A ZONING CHANGE DECISION
During our last council meeting, the council voted 3 to 3 for a motion to approve the rezoning of a property near Ryan Elementary School. As a result of this split vote, the application was denied. At issue for some of the council members was the presence of a gas well in close proximity to the development plans – in some cases, homes were planned as close to 250 of the gas well site. To be clear, our ordinance allows surface owners to “come to” a well with only a 250 foot separation. But as we are seeing in other parts of the city, that sort of development near well sites which can seemingly be drilled and redrilled into perpetuity (thanks to state law) is proving very problematic. I was concerned about that setback, especially without any assurance of notification of future potential buyers of homes in that area.
Since that meeting, the developer has indicated a willingness to work with the city on notification provisions aimed at alleviating this concern. This is certainly a promising move and I look forward to what comes of it – exploring this issue might help us as we look into the possibility of writing something more permanent and universal into our code. A motion to reconsider a vote must come from one of the three of us who voted against this rezoning.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please contact me at Kevin.Roden@cityofdenton.com or 940-206-5239.
City Council Preview – November 5, 2013
Before highlighting tonight’s council meeting, realize today is election day. There are a series of constitutional amendments on the ballot and one very important bond package for Denton ISD. However you vote on these issues, get out and vote today if you haven’t already. I am a strong supporter of the Denton ISD Bond initiative and would encourage you to vote YES on this item with very real local impact. Go here for more information on that along with info about polling places today.
The City Council will meet on Tuesday, November 5, 2013 at 3pm for a Work Session, followed by a 6:30pm Regular Session at City Hall at 215 E. McKinney Street. Click here for the entire agenda and backup information. The following are some items you might be interested in…
CITY BOND ELECTION – NOV 2014
The council has given direction to move forward with pursuit of a city-wide bond package to place before the voters in November 2014. The city staff has already provided a list of needed and desired projects to the tune of about $300 million over the next 10 years. To help the council prioritize these and other projects, determine a reasonable total amount of the bond package, and engage the community on this important project, the council will be putting together a 50 person bond committee to serve this coming Spring and Summer.
- Go here for more information about the bond program and process. - Want to serve on the Bond Committee? Go here to apply and then let me know.
- Have an idea for a project you’d like to see considered? Go here to submit it.
TRANSPORTATION USER FEES – FIXING OUR STREETS
A 2009 study on the condition of our streets indicated that our streets were bad and quickly getting worse. It is estimated that we need to be spending $12.2 million annually to stop this decline. In other words, $12.2 million is needed to maintain the status quo. We need to be spending significantly more than that to begin to see our overall street condition improve. We’ve made some changes over the last few years that has increased our annual investment in road maintenance and road reconstruction, but we are still heavily relying on debt financing to fix this problem (last November, for instance, voters passed a $20 million bond package dedicated to street reconstruction projects).
Transportation User Fees, or Street Maintenance Fees, are a way to increase revenue for street projects by charging monthly fees to utility customers. This tends to change the way we view our use of city-owned streets – they become a sort of “utility” that requires constant maintenance. Just as we pay monthly for other sorts of utilities involving costly infrastructure, a monthly user fee would be our way of paying for the cost of streets.
If council chooses to go this route, there would likely be a set fee for single family customers, multi-family customers, and various designations of commercial customers (depending on their determined “trip generation”). To give some context, a single family customer in Denton could pay anywhere from $5-10 a month for this fee ($60-120 per year). We’ll be looking into this some more during today’s meeting.
As always. please let me know if you have thoughts or questions.