MR. FARRIS GOES TO CITY HALL

Industrious as he may be, the little city of Denton is something that our very own Glen Farris refuses to ignore. He keeps up with what's going on and reports back to us - so that we can all stay in the loop. 

Rusty Taco, the soon-to-open taco transplant by way of Dallas, is putting in a giant patio in the space that used to house Ramen Republic. As you already know, we’re definite fans of both tacos and patios. They just got a right of way agreement from the city in addition to a grant that allows them to lease the grass next to the building and put in a patio for us to enjoy our tacos and cervezas. They’re putting up a lot of cash to re-do the space where the late Ramen Republic once sold us noodles, and bringing in a whole new feel. We’re pretty pumped for this, mostly because we think it will greatly improve the block and not just because we really love their picadillo tacos.

Subway is about halfway through their construction and will be opening at the bottom of the Texas Building before you know it. Gear up and get ready to hear that $5 footlong jingle every time you pass the corner. We know that a chain restaurant on the square is not anyone's idea of a great square-worthy restaurant - but we appreciate the words and logic of our fearless leader - city councilman Kevin Roden's post on the matter. 

East Side Social Club is also taking part in the downtown restoration grant program. We’re looking forward to what will be the new sister bar of Oak Street Draft House. We hear that they’ll have the best bourbon selection in town and a ton of patio space, too. The patio wars are about to being, Denton. 

While we’re on the top of booze and bars, we’re getting seriously excited about the vast tequila selection that is about to be at our finger tips over at Mulberry Street Cantina. If you’ve been keeping up with their progress on their facebook page, you can see that they’ve installed energy efficient windows and doors, put in new plumbing and electrical equipment, and already built in a giant and seemingly beautiful bar top. Get here fast guys, we’re ready for chips and salsa and that organic margarita we keep hearing about.

Sup Queenie’s, glad you’re open. Welcome back to the downtown area, Tim Love. We look forward to valeting our hybrid vehicles and scooters and trying out your chicken fried lobster. We’ll make sure to call for reservations sooner rather than later.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, y'all. Redbud Fest, the city's official Arbor Day event, is happening next Saturday, April 20th in our very own Quakertown Park.  Get out there with a few friends, enjoy the nice weather, the "trashion" fashion show, and get your nose in the center of all of the plants a’bloomin’. Oh, and don’t forget to get there early and claim your very own tiny tree!

Jazz Fest is right around the corner, too. Get ready for fried food, cheap beer, and people running around in midriff-baring hippy shirts that smell of nag champa.

And last but not least, city elections are coming up as you already know. The last day to register was last week, so you can’t chase down Volunteer Deputy Farris anymore. Make sure you get informed and get out there and vote. We’re counting on you to make sure our elected city officials are keeping it classy Denton style. If you need to get caught up, we did a little bit of the work for you and have interviews posted from Districts 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

A MOMENT WITH JOSH

​Photo by Marcus Laws 

Josh Berthume runs Swash Labs, a local creative agency based right here in our own little Denton. Maybe you've seen their sign before if you've ever been stuck at the light at University and N. Locust. It's blue and has polka dots. Normally,  when we think of Swash Labs we basically imagine it as some kind of weird mix between Mad Men and Animal House, but maybe that's just because we follow lots of their employees on Twitter. The truth is that Swash Labs not only helps with ad campaigns all over the place (they're especially committed to helping brands in our very own city), but they also have some great experience with political campaigns both here and overseas. We figured Politics Week was a great time to pick Berthume's brain about his opinions on the upcoming city elections. 

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Josh, can you give us a little bit of information on your background? I know that you’ve worked on several political campaigns in the past and you've been rumored to work on them internationally… 

No international campaigns yet, although for five years I did work for a London-based global political risk analysis firm called Exclusive Analysis, modeling open source intelligence on violent risk and terrorism. That was while while I got my masters in political science and behavioral economics from UNT. From 2004-2008, I worked in statewide politics on various campaigns in communications and digital strategy, and also wrote extensively on politics for many publications. Prior to that, it was all digital communications, creative media, and early (very early) social media, from 1998 on.

How long have you lived in Denton now? And how long have you owned/operated Swash Labs? 

I have lived in Denton since 2000, and we started Swash Labs in October of 2010.

(Obligatory taco related question…) Favorite taco in Denton? 

I am taco agnostic. Depending on my mood or what kind of day it is, I might be way into Mi Casita or totally enamored with Sabrocita. My major sin as a Dentonite is that I haven’t been to Taco Lady yet, although now that this news is public I imagine it won’t be long until someone takes me there. PS to your readers: I am available for impromptu taco dates.

The local elections are coming up in just over a month from now… what has your experience with local elections here in Denton been like? 

The more I get to know the city (as a place) and The City (as an institution), the impressed I am with the people in public service here. Denton has an interesting flavor in that the state and federal voting blocs can seem so totally divorced in preferred policy from the local and municipal stuff, but that really means that the people that care about Denton are working on it, which I like.

Probably the most wrong I have ever been in political prediction came out of local politics, when I sat in Kevin Roden’s living room at his first big campaign meeting and told him the rock was likely too big to roll up the hill. He proved me wrong and I’m very glad he did. That unlocked something in me and allowed me to brush off the last bits of cynicism left over from working in Democratic politics in Texas.

What do you think are the top issues facing Denton right now? 

Denton is growing fast and there’s definitely a wrong way to handle that. Many candidates and citizens have strong ideas about sustainable development, about rehabbing some parts of the city as a priority over building new stuff, and about how to encourage outside businesses to locate here, as well as how to grow our own. This isn’t necessarily sexy top shelf argumentative hot button issue stuff, but it is the sausage-making that shapes and defines a city over the long haul. City leaders are mindful of and working on everything from how we treat our artists to how we treat our nigh-on abandoned neighborhoods to how we regulate growth in a way that makes sense. None of the choices they make are perfect, they don’t ever get it all the way right, and none of the outcomes are satisfactory to everyone. But all of these small corrections trend towards the greater good over the long haul, and that’s encouraging to see.

What do you feel is missing from the current campaign climate?

Just like in every campaign, no one is talking about poverty enough. As a fast growing and relatively well-managed city, Denton could be right on the front lines of innovation when it comes to caring for hungry and homeless people. As a city, we aren’t, and we could be.

What could our candidates be doing better? 

Civic candidates tend to do pretty well, actually. The real contenders show up to candidate forums and make themselves available to the public. There’s a rawness in those answers that you don’t get to see when someone turns pro, for lack of a better word, and I always favor authenticity, even if it is borne of inexperience. In fact, I prefer it that way.

That’s a mechanics answer, though. I also always want to see real policy proposals that get rigorously debated, but the field doesn’t always support that kind of wonkery, even if we would benefit from it as a society and a city.

What would you consider to be a successful voter turnout? 

City elections tend to trend around 6 or 7%, so 10% would be a positive move for turnout. 15% would really blow my hair back. 20% turnout probably means somebody messed up the count.

Thoughts on votedenton.org? 

I came up in the DIY, figure-it-out age of the internet, so I like anything that takes an idea and fast-hacks it into being useful. I think it serves a noble purpose and if I could see the traffic logs they would probably depress me, because it is a tool that people should be using and should be proud to have around.

Anything you’d like to add to your comments? (Here’ s your chance at a soapbox…)

Politics is about choices, and as a community, we are the choices we make. This includes choices like who or what to vote for, but also choices like whether or not to participate, or what we talk about. It is easy to be cynical about politics and say that elections don’t matter, but I choose to believe they do, and I think the last few decades have proven — sometimes in a very severe way — that who governs matters a great deal and has one hell of an impact on your day-to-day life. 

It is easy to be cynical; it is more difficult to pay attention, and to know what’s going on, and to get invested or believe in something very real that can so easily and so often disappoint you. It is hard work. But I think anyone really interested in or committed to growing Denton into the kind of city it can be is happy to do that hard work. I think we choose as a community to grow Denton and make it better, and it isn’t ever too late to get going. 

So basically, get off your ass and do some work on something you care about, whether it’s bike lanes or payday loans or gas drilling or parks or poverty. The jug fills drop by drop. Every bit helps and the benefit you derive from being here when Denton gets where it’s going will be one awesome return on your investment.

MR. FARRIS GOES TO CITY HALL

Our very own Glen Farris has been darting in and out of meetings all month long. Apparently he’s taken up keeping tabs on city task forces and various associations as his newest hobby. After many excited conversations and meetings that shocked and surprised him – he sat down with me and we went over a few of the things that are blowing his mind about Denton these days. 

1.     A handful of folks are terrified of the recent progress that's been made in Denton. The phrase “We are just a handful of funerals away from being a really amazing city,” should be our new motto. Our motto for the past 20 years was, “That was grandfathered in."

2.     The fund matching grant program is fascinating. Not only is it a really cool resource for making neat things happens in our city – but also in the process of grant proposals, we are seeing where our city needs to go, including improvements outside of the grant program like pedestrian-scaled lighting around the square. That’s a capital improvement and is already part of the Master Plan, but isn’t getting done yet.

3.     A few new businesses opened – we welcome Authentic Life Yoga, Viet Bites, 7 Mile Coffee and Barefoot Apparel. A few more businesses will be here soon. See you soon Denton County Hamburger (new concept), Subway (yes, that Subway), Herrera’s, Rusty’s Tacos, Queenie’s, Smiling Moose Deli, DIME and Mulberry St. Cantina.  Thankfully 7-11 is not opening any where near the square (that almost happened, y'all). 

4.     Dan’s is expanding! This is especially great news since we feel like some of our favorite shows sell out way too quickly and we can never get a table when we want one. Apparently word on the street is that Little Guy’s Movers is moving off of Industrial Street and over to McKinney. After they move, Dan’s is going to bust down a wall and expand into a good part of that space. Sounds like more room to get our groove on – which is always a good thing.

5.     Some people claim that parking on the square has always been a problem. But no more! Or… hopefully not as much -– the city has done their homework and has proposed some awesome angled-back-in parking a la South Congress St. in Austin, TX up and down East Hickory Street which will make the bicyclists safer when coming down that hill. Plus, the new parking plan will provide for several more parking spaces.  

6.     Jim Engelbrecht, our city councilman for District 3 now has a challenger in the upcoming city council elections. Hello there, Brendan Carroll – how nice of you to run. This will make city elections super exciting – and will make every vote super important. Last year, Jim won by 19 votes. That’s it. Not even 20. So if you’re reading this and you live in District 3 – start researching your stuff and figure out whom you want to vote for – your voice really matters especially if over 19 of you are reading this. 

7.     Sometimes the red tape that is the City of Denton is crazy. Did you know that if you want to hang a sign on your building you have to either take a special class for it, or find a sign maker who has? 

8.     We’re actually really impressed with how the city is all ears for new ideas. We love living in a place that listens to its citizens, and listens well. We look forward to taking advantage of that and taking part in local activism.

​Have you attended one of the Denton 2030 meetings or something else recently? What did you think? Let us know in the comments!