Saturday saw many mailboxes stuffed with the City of Denton s annual citizen update, Denton Moving Forward. In this neat little ~6 x 12 fold-out, lots of interesting information about city-related milestones that occurred in 2011 (as well as a few things that are set to happen in the years to come) was compiled together. As far as we know, this pamphlet went out to every City of Denton Utilities member. For those of you who either didn t receive a copy or accidentally threw it out along with your Bed Bath and Beyond mailer, we ve compiled a list of the eight things that stood out to us as interesting. Read below and if we missed something that you found interesting, let us know in the comments.
1. Remember when Rayzor Ranch was going to be a Southlake Town Center-style shopping center and be comprised of all sorts of interesting shops and maybe a movie theatre or something? Well guess what. We re moving even further away from the initial vision and installing another big box store next to the Wal-Mart and Sam s Club that have been sitting there for a while. That s right, folks, soon, you ll be able to buy boring clothing and housewares from...Kohl s on University.
2. The City of Denton has a Youtube channel featuring videos with DPL s Library Larry and newsbreaks from Denton TV. It s bested only by the ex-pat Eli Gemini s Youtube channel.
3. Denton is going to be making quite a few bike-friendly changes in the immediate future. The cover of Denton Moving Forward is even covered in sharrows. You can read the newly adopted Bike Plan here. There you can see how Denton plans on reducing traffic accidents, creating more cycling-related facilities such as Querencia and gradually turning Denton into a bike sports destination over the next ten years.
4. The Denia Recreation Center in South Denton has a 35 black-light mural in their gymnasium that you need 3D glasses to see. Yes, this is for real. We ve never really thought of Pink Floyd s The Wall as good workout music, but when you ve got a black light 3D mural near you, what other choice do you have?
5. The grand re-opening for the Golden Triangle Mall is actually expected to happen in 2012. Apparently construction has already begun, but we re unsure as to what exactly has been changed at this point.
6. Thanks to a grant from Think Green Waste Management, Keep Denton Beautiful will be installing solar-powered trash and recycling receptacles around Fry Street. They should be perfect receptacles for that post-Lou s-binger vomit.
7. In addition to the awesome selection of ebooks that the Denton Public Library has already added to their selection, the DPL is also making a move towards RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology for checking books back in and out in an extremely-timely fashion.
8. North Lakes Park is making a move to be more friendly to the blind and other visually impaired by adding in things such as tactile bricks.
Notable Absences from the pamphlet:
DCTA changes made in the past year. (A-Train anybody?)
Construction on Fry St. (when the heck is that supposed to be finished and what type of retail will we see there?)
Business moving in a north-eastern direction from the square (NV Cupcakes, Oak Street Drafthouse)