MR. FARRIS MIGHT REALLY GO TO CITY HALL

By Glen Farris

Photo by Dave Koen. 

This Saturday, May 10th, the residents of Denton will have an opportunity to exercise one of the greatest rights as Americans we have: the right to choose it’s leaders by vote. The sanctity of the voting booth is a cornerstone of our democracy, it is a right that has been defended and solemnly protected in our country’s 238 year history and yet it’s estimated our voter turnout will be around 5%. If you’ve ever wondered why things are the way they are in Denton, there’s your answer. There are 5% of us deciding our city’s direction and future. In the face of that much disengagement and apathy, We Denton Do It decided to take this challenge head on by providing information and avenues for involvement to our readers.

On February 22nd of last year, we posted the first Mr. Farris Goes To City Hall article. This was a first of a series of posts about the inner workings of our city and was a product of many things. The first and foremost was the belief that citizens should engage their local government if they wanted to see positive change in their city. My ambition was based on serving the community, just as it always has been. 

I want the best for our city. I see its potential. My love for my community has compelled me to serve whenever and wherever I was asked and to pitch in wherever needed; to be a part of my community. I saw it as my duty to relay what I had learned through We Denton Do It and thus the possibly prophetic Mr. Farris Goes To City Hall was born.

Running for a public office has been quite an experience. It has been overwhelmingly encouraging to take part in the beautiful mess that is democracy. Whether it’s knocking on doors and driving miles through District 2 to neighborhood meetings or attending the many forums hosted these past few months; it has been an amazing journey and I am humbled by the generosity and support that our campaign has received along the way. In the midst of the hours of work, what kept me pushing to the end was the reminder of why I was running to begin with: because I love my city.

Beyond loving my city and wishing to extend my service, I’ve got some big ideas as well: 

- We need healthy neighborhoods and a vibrant downtown. It’s time to look at economic development from all sides and recognize that we need to provide parks, libraries, public art along with higher wage-jobs. 

- We need a caring and inclusive community. The doors are open and the table is set for us to prosper and I believe that the only way we can move into the future is together. Let’s move passed the burned bridges and rifts of the past.

- We need increased community engagement. I will continue to encourage this through all means available.

- We need to compete on the national level for jobs, people and investment.

- We need to streamline our developmental code. What we have now is inefficient and if we’re going to encourage economic development we need to be encouraging a culture of customer service with developers. 

- We need thoughtful growth. Denton is, without a doubt, going to rapidly grow in the near future, set to double in population by 2030. Let’s be mindful and retain our identity as we grow.

- We need to be a regional and national leader in the areas of tech growth and sustainability. We’ve got the talent and the resources in both these areas, let's take advantage of them.

It is through my service and love of my city that I have proven myself to be a responsible representative with the best interests of the residents of Denton. That’s why I am confidently asking for your support and your vote this Saturday, May 10th. No where else will your voice be louder or more powerful. 

A vote for Glen Farris is a vote for Denton.

Polls are open Saturday May 10th from 7AM to 7PM. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO.

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ELECTION LAUNCH PARTY

We love democracy. Kind of a lot. You might already know this. You also might already know that we think voting and local politics are important - not just because Kevin Roden forced us to, but because ​they impact our most basic needs in our city - way more than national elections. These are the men and women who make the big decisions about bike lanes, food trucks, smoking in bars and restaurants, public works of art and grants for new/or burgeoning businesses! 

We like local politics soo much that we decided to throw a big party to celebrate democracy at the local level. With the help of some fine friends, we partied through the night and congratulated our newly elected officials on their success in returning to or obtaining new city council seats to proudly serve their districts (each of which we had already endorsed with our video a few weeks ago). 

A huge ​thanks to Meat Guns, Armadillo Ales, DJ Five Easy Pieces, Doug Burr, photographer Amelia McBride, videographer Addison Day and of course Little Guys Movers. Without you we would not have gotten to see Jim Engelbrecht in patriotic suspenders and a flat top straw hat and heard Kevin Roden say, "Denton is a woman." 

​If you were there - you can find your photo booth photos here. If you weren't check out that video up top and make sure you join us next time! 

VIDEO: HOW TO VOTE IN DENTON

Early voting for the local general election started on Monday and is going on right now. The numbers aren't quite as strong as we'd like to see them be and we've chalked that up to y'all being scared. Maybe the general populous doesn't know what, exactly, they need to vote. We figured we'd counter that problem by making a video that documented not only the documents you need to vote, but also gratuitous butt shots of a denim-clad Glen Farris. Check below to find that video and a list of voting locations and times. 

​​Video by Addison Day; Music by Telegraph Canyon

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EARLY VOTING:

Early voting goes until ​Tuesday, May 7th at the following locations: 

• Denton Civic Center - 321 E. McKinney St.
  • April 30 - May 3, 8am to 5pm
  • May 6 and 7, 7am to 7pm

• Denton County Elections Administration - 701 Kimberly Dr.
  • April 29 - May 4, 8am to 5pm
  • May 6 and 7, 7am to 7pm

ELECTION DAY

The actual election will be held on Saturday, May 11, from 7am to 7pm. Depending on your district (don't know which district you're in? Find out here. ) you will vote in the locations found below. Not sure who to vote for? We layed out our endorsements in the video, but you can decide for yourself by reading our interviews from the candidates of districts 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

• DISTRICT 1 - Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center, 1300 Wilson St.
• DISTRICT 2 - North Branch Library, 3020 N. Locust St.
• DISTRICT 3 - North Lakes Recreation Center, 2001 W. Windsor Dr.
• DISTRICT 4 - Denia Recreation Center, 1001 Parvin St.

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VOTING GUIDE

Okay, Denton. Many complaints are made about how few of us actually vote in local elections. When averaged out, voter age is above the age most movie theatres set for a discount. We’re collectively younger than that, Denton. It’s time to get up, put your craft beer down and vote. We’ve put aside all that silly music, food and art stuff this week to talk to the various people running for city council because it matters.

First off, make sure you’re registered to vote. You don’t want to look like a dork going to vote only to find out that you were never registered in the first place. The last day to register is April 11th and the good thing is that it’s super easy to check to see if you’re registered and get registered this year. You can check to see if you’re registered already here. If you aren’t, fret not! You can register to vote via mail, or look for We Denton Do It’s very own Glen Farris on the street somewhere (he’ll be the one wearing the Canadian tuxedo). He’s a volunteer registrar deputy and will get you ready to vote with a wink and a smile.

Vote early! Skip the (unlikely) lines and hop on over during your lunch break in order to get your “I Voted” sticker before anyone else does. Heck, make it a combo and pick up some banh mi from The Pickled Carrot on your way in. The people who work early voting won’t mind and the voting machines work better when they smell of sriracha. Early voting days are April 29 - May 7. We've listed the early voting sites at the bottom - so you don't get confused and head into the wrong city building. Mark your calendars. 

Check out VoteDenton.org or The League of Women Voter’s of Denton website. Some really talented people compiled all of the info you really need to know and made it easy for you to figure out which district you live in, who is running, and whether or not you’re already registered.

Get informed! All of the candidates are pretty different and want different things for our city. Make sure that the candidates you’re voting for line up with your vision for the city. If you live in district 1, you’re covered. Kevin Roden is running uncontested for his 2nd term (Eli Gemini moved to Hollywood, sadly). Don’t worry. He knows a ton about tacos and has already done plenty of awesome stuff in town. As for the others, you can check out their websites, facebook pages, the interviews we conducted (district 1, district 2, district 3, district 4), or stop by one of the debates to hear for yourself. Most of them will even answer emails if you have specific questions.

So c’mon y’all. Vote Denton has an interesting stat on their site that says only 4,000 out of 115,000 Dentonites vote in city elections, and the sad part about that is that these are the elections that count the most. Our city council just gave a swift kick to the collective ass of payday lenders trying to screw over Dentonites a few weeks ago and they’ve done a lot more in the past couple of years (read: food trucks, fracking issues, DCTA stuff, etc...), too. Point is, they make change that affects you on a daily basis in your real life. So don’t just be careful in choosing the person making those changes for you, but make sure that you actually get a voice in the decision. Oh, and bring a friend. We’ll buy ice cream for the district that gets out and votes the most.

Early voting can be done at the following locations: 

Denton County Elections Administration
701 Kimberly Dr. 
April 29-May 4: 8am-5pm 
May 5-6: 7am-7pm

Denton Civic Center
321 E McKinney St. 
April 30–May 3: 8am-5pm 
May 5-6: 7am-7pm

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.