Surge in Democratic Votes in CoR?

According to "Indivisible Richardson", there was a "223% Increase in Democratic turnout in May 6 election." I think that refers to Collin County races, not the City of Richardson, but if true and if it carried over to Richardson, that might explain Cory Montfort's surprisingly (to me) good showing in her city council race, losing by only 284 votes out of 5,488 total. She didn't explicitly run as a Democrat in this non-partisan race, but if asked she didn't try to hide her party leanings either.

20th Century Women (2016)

IMDB

20th Century Women (2016): Single mom enlists help in raising teen boy in 1979 LA. Great acting. Great evocation of the period. Feminism. B-

POTD: Repurposing the Old

From 2016 10 09 Alexandria

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Alexandria, Virginia. Just a block or so from where George Washington enjoyed a pint or two at Gadsby's Tavern is the King Street Blues, purveyor of comfort food with a Southern accent. Old buildings don't have to be torn down to be saved.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

IMDB

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017): Star Wars with more wisecracks and explosions. Same "I am your dad." More Cat Stevens, please. C+

Richardson City Council Election Analysis

On Saturday, May 6, Mabel Simpson (Place 4) and Marta Gómez Frey (Place 5) were elected to the Richardson City Council and Paul Voelker was elected as Mayor. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all candidates who volunteered to serve our community.

As opposed to the RISD school board election held the same day, the story here is much simpler to tell. Or so I thought going into election day. Looking back, things were going on under the surface that I was too blind to see.

RISD Election Analysis

On Saturday, May 6, Karen Clardy, Justin Bono, and Kristin Kuhne were elected to the Richardson ISD board of trustees (Bono and Kuhne to three-year terms, Clardy to the two years remaining on the term vacated by Kris Oliver). Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all candidates who volunteered to serve our community.

In the most contested race (Place 7: Kuhne vs Davenport) there were 11,209 votes cast, compared to 10,460 in the other contested race (Place 6: Clardy, Eager, Armstrong, Prado). Contrast both of those totals with the 9,507 votes in 2016 for a bond election. This year's interest was higher than normal, but note that 18,667 voters turned out for the 2011 RISD bond election, so this year's interest was not all that high. Countywide, turnout was only 7.81%. Attribute it to complacency, apathy, hopelessness, or whatever, turnout is low and unhealthy for democracy.

Let's look at the individual races.

The White Helmets (2016)

IMDB

The White Helmets (2016): Documentary short about most admirable men in world - volunteer first responders in Syrian war. Renews hope. A-

OTBR: A Temple in Pearland

Latitude: N 29° 31.362
Longitude: W 095° 17.712

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously (not actually) last month that are "off the blue roads".

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

IMDB

Beauty and the Beast (2017): Visual feast but uninspired remake of Disney 1991 animated movie. Most believable beast and love story yet. C+

A Good Place for a Coffee Shop

For a long time, I've advocated for more urban, higher density, mixed-use development in places like CityLine and Palisades and Brick Row and Eastside and on and on. And generally, I have been disappointed with the result. At best, we ended up with mostly multi-use (not mixed-use) developments (apartments over here, a strip shopping center over there, and an corporate office campus off in the corner). At worst, we ended up with a 1980s style apartment building without even the claim of mixed-use.

Take, for example, GreenVue apartments on Greenville Avenue between Arapaho and Collins. Within walking distance of a DART station, it was a good location for catalyst mixed-use project. Instead we got a 1980s-style apartment building that was built to be "retail ready." No mixed-use. No retail. No offices. Just four stories of apartments that someday, maybe, can be retrofitted to have some retail. If the market demand ever appears. Sigh.

So is it time to change my mind?