Place 5 (At Large)

about this seat

All City of Denton voters will select the Place 5 (At Large) position. To be eligible to run for this seat, the candidates must live in Districts 1 or 2. However, the person who holds this seat represents all residents in the City of Denton.

Candidates

• Deb Armintor (Incumbent)

• Rick Baria

Questions & candidate responses

How often do you bicycle, walk, or use public transportation to travel around the City of Denton? What do you like or dislike when you use these alternative modes of transportation?

Armintor: I walk a lot, but apart from a fun and eye-opening evening ride with a local bike group a couple years ago and a couple laughable attempts at trying to use an electric bike and electric scooter (laughable because my kids were actually laughing at me), I generally don't bike or use public transportation to travel around town, just my 2 feet and my 2nd-hand electric car. Every time I've gotten a bike since I've lived here, I end up giving it away to someone who needs a bike more than I do. I hear regularly from bikers and bus riders, and advocate for them regularly on Council, along with pedestrians with disabilities and with children.

Here's what I like and dislike about these "alternative" modes of transportation in Denton --"alternative" only because cars unfortunately are the de facto norm of getting around town, even within neighborhoods and on weekeends, and Denton has been historically designed and streets are being currently expanded with an unfortunate cars-before-pedestrians bias, and without respecting the rights of people with disabilities or the advantages of universal design (the design strategy that :

*Bike Likes (Say that 10 times fast!) that I'm proud of:*

-Denton bikers are awesome, welcoming, and non-judgemental. They don't care what brand bike you have or how new you are to biking. They are down to earth and kind. Also, they advocate not only for bike safety, but for pedestrian safety, and for disability access as well. They even advocate for better car safety, which is something I don't think enough people appreciate. They want motorists to be safer too. If you drive a car, Denton bikers are advocating for your safety.

-I learned from my last bike ride two years ago that biking down the smooth extended decline down the middle of TWU on Bell at night with a gentle breeze blowing on your neck is a sublime experience. All my stress just melted away, and I felt like a kid again. Also, it got me from my neck of the woods to downtown in no time.

-Bike share!

*Bike Dislikes I've been fighting to change:*

-Insufficient protected bike lanes: White Lines is a song by Grandmaster Flash about cocaine ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bCdrDhUjPo ), not a good way to protect bikers and pedestrians from car traffic. Bikers and pedestrians in bike lanes need physical 3D barriers to be truly protected. That's a fact.

-Broken streets: Biking on broken streets is dangerous.

-Insufficient connectivity

-All of the above are reasons more people don't bike in Denton. More people would bike if it was safer for bikers. I am one of those people.

-People leaving their bike share bikes in the way of people with disabilities in walkers and rollators (This is much less of a problem now that our wonderful bike share contractor has started cracking down on it and letting people know that this obstructs people with disabilities).

**Pedestrian Likes that I'm proud of:**

-It's nice to cut through parks on a walk if you're lucky enough to have parks to cut through, especially if you're a kid walking to or from school. I'm proud to have advocated and voted for the 10-minute Park Plan to commit Denton to parks within a 10-minute walk of every Denton neighborhood

**Pedestrian Dislikes I've been fighting to change:**

-Insufficient ADA access. Notice I say nothing here about "special needs." Access for people with disabilities has nothing to do with "special needs;" "special needs" is patronizing and ableist. ADA access is about civil rights and equal access for people with disabilities. It is also the law.

-Insufficient Sidewalks:

-Insufficient Sidewalk Connectivity: Where the Sidewalk Ends is a great children's book by Shel Silverstein: https://shelsilverstein2017.wordpress.com/2017/03/08/the-edge-of-the-world-where-the-sidewalk-ends/

Unfortunately, it is also a regular occurence in Denton.

-Still no scooter share program: Why not test an electric scooter share program in a small area where the scooters stop working once they get outside the area? Scooters are vehicles, not toys, and I'm willing to test it in a small area to help get more cars off the road.

-Insufficiently protected railroad crossings: Pedestrians and bikers have gotten killed by trains in Denton. Those were preventable tragedies. We need rail arms on all sides to prevent pedestrians and bikers from crossing the tracks when a fast-moving train is on its way, not just to prevent the crossing of cars.

**Bus Likes that I'm Proud of:**

-I'm glad we have a public transportation system in Denton

**Bus Dislikes I've been fighting to change:**

-DCTA's move away from fixed routes to a more on-demand focus is a disservice to the mission of public transportation. Bus riders don't want DCTA to be an Uber of Lyft system for buses. That contradicts the goal of public transportation. Regular bus riders need and want fixed routes --fixed routes to and from places that they actually need, want, and use to take them where they need to go every day: to work, to MHMR, to receive essential veterans services, etc. Fixed routes are also the way to get the most bang for your taxpayer buck out of a public transportation system, moving the most people from place to place with the least effort, versus the on-demand model which moves few people place to place with maximum effort.

-DCTA workers don't get enough benefits and love from their employer, and city officials and residents should stand by them instead of ignoring them. They went on strike for a reason.

-DCTA's board is out of touch with the needs of DCTA riders and drivers. That's what I hear from riders and drivers anyway, and I've seen nothing to suggest otherwise.

-There's a movement to end public transportation in Denton, and I am opposed to that movement. Public transportation primarily serves poor people and workers, so when rich people want to do away with it I'm not sympathetic. If workers can't go to and from work reliably every day, how do you expect to get your groceries and other essentials? Denton needs public transportation because workers need it to get to work and stay employed.

Baria: These first questions certainly winnow those who are not active users of alternative transportation or participants in movements to promote it, perhaps with the idea that those outside these categories are less likely to be interested or to help. Let me say that success will only come if many people outside those groups come to believe in and share your goals. Now; to answer your questions:

I do not bicycle now. I could; I am healthy enough, and I have two mountain bikes in my garage. However, my wife cannot. She has intermittent balance problems. Also, it is nearly 3,000 feet to the nearest bike path to the south, and 4,100 feet to the nice wide path on south Mayhill. The first 2000 ft. or so is on dirt, or mud as the case may be. When the city built the extension for Edwards road they did not follow their own rules in putting up a sidewalk. Because of the steep and rough ground on both sides of this narrow passage, the only place to walk is just off the pavement. It is dangerous at night, especially when pedestrians and the occasional bicyclists wear no reflective clothing or lights. (I will come back to this situation to make another point later.)

When I walk it is for recreation, because there is no place to go easily for a useful task, and it is risky to try. There is no bus stop close either.

I lived in Latin America for nearly two years and rode buses so often that the change I carried wore a hole in my pockets. I adopted the local custom of a belt attached change pouch and fixed that. Today debit cards are used, of course. Since ridership was high, a bus came along every 5 minutes in the daytime. How can we do this when our large buses carry so few? Except for students going to school the volume is not there.

Obviously, we need to rethink this approach. With everyone carrying a GPS enabled smartphone today and inexpensive computerized accounting it should be possible to create a type of taxi service far less expensive than Uber for short trips to go the store and back. All that is really needed for the city to do is provide pull out spaces to get out of the flow of traffic. Security can easily be built in for all parties, and the liability to the City greatly minimized. Just let your imagination reach to the necessary dimensions of the app.

What do you view as the biggest challenges for people who use alternative transportation, instead of driving, to travel around Denton?

Armintor: Certain city council members who have not internalized the Vision Zero plan, and don't understand how their votes and input on road expansions and capital projects often contradict the goals of Vision Zero.

Baria: All of these solutions require SPACE and proper, safe geometry for movement. I understand this well. I think the biggest hurdle is to find consensus that alternative transportation is a common good. It would be much easier to begin with pedestrian and bike paths. I don’t think buses are workable once the dwelling density drops. The battle is first one of education and persuasion, second, taking a long term view regarding the payback, and third, a re‐imagining of our neighborhoods and the “comfortable” distance a workplace should be from the home. Zoning started as a way to protect us from “smokestack industries”; how many of those are in Denton? Traffic noise is a much greater problem today.

Have you been involved in any efforts to promote active travel or improve safety for people traveling outside of an automobile? Please explain.

Armintor: Yes. Every vote I make on capital projects on Council has been a vote for bike and pedestrian safety and ADA access. That is too much to list here, but I will name four things I brought to the table on Council that I am especially proud of:

-I called for the Committee on Persons with Disabilities and brought that to the table early on in my first term on Council

-After the death of a resident hit by a train next to the police station and DCTA on Hickory, I fought for automated crossing arms at that deadly intersection, protecting pedestrians and bikers on both sides of the street.

-After my first town hall, which was a kids town hall, I was contacted by a young girl concerned about pedestrian safety at her school, Sam Houston on Teasley. I invited our bike and pedestrian coordinator and Traffic Engineers to meet with her, her mother, and me in front of the school to help troubleshoot the problem, and progress was made.

-I put extended and ultimately effective pressure on TXDot and Traffic Engineering to fix the sorry excuse for a sidewalk that Guyer kids had while TXDot was undergoing its seemingly never-ending expansion of Teasley. I am grateful that nobody was killed walking to school there in the interim.

Baria: I have been involved in no movement. However, I cite just one instance in my work as a planner to give you an idea of the past attitude in the engineering department. The section at the west end of Edwards will likely NEVER have sidewalk on two sides. Sidewalks are almost always built as a condition of development.

The Bakery will probably never develop the woods north of their site and south of the road. The city would have to acquire the land along the road; it would take a court fight, then re‐grade and build a retaining wall ($250/ft.) just to put in sidewalk. So putting a walk on the south side further east is forever a sidewalk going nowhere. Representing, the property owners in a predevelopment meeting I went over these facts with staff.

I asked to not pave on the south side but for the city to take our money for the dead end 10’ft of walk and put it to a temporary gravel path above the dangerous section of Edwards to reduce risk of injury and death. No response at all… for several seconds. Then a comment that it was off our site and the code was to build the sidewalk and hope that it would one day connect. We didn’t want the dead concrete, but were willing to put the money to an urgent beneficial use. I don’t think I could win that even at ZBA (which I once served on).

What do you believe are the benefits to our community if more Denton residents have the option to safely use alternative transportation to meet their daily needs instead of having to drive for every trip?

Armintor: Cleaner air, ADA compliance, and healthier, happier, and less isolated individuals, families, and communities.

Baria: I think there would be less contention via better mental and physical health and interaction with neighbors. Can you put a price on this? Traffic noise would be reduced. It is proven that noise makes people irritable; constant noise causes hearing loss, and is detrimental to good health and longevity.

What are your thoughts on pilot projects, such as pop-up protected bike lanes and protected intersections, to test designs, gather data, and see what works before we consider building something more permanent? Do you consider pilot projects a good use of funds, or do you think there’s a better approach? Please explain.

Armintor: I like pilot projects when we're piloting something new that the public needs and wants, and that genuinely needs to be tested. Sometimes, however, the "pilot project" moniker feels disingenuous to me, especially when it's not clear what we're testing for and what the metrics are for success or failure.

Baria: Most of these seem expensive to me. It is difficult to change drive behavior. Separation is much more effective and this is the very difficult essence of finding space where none was imagined at conception. We need to look far out of the box for the answer.

Occasionally, making room for a bike lane requires a reduction in road space for car storage or car travel. If you had to decide whether to create a safe space for bicycle traffic or retain on-street automobile parking, what information would you seek to help you decide how to vote?

Armintor: First, I ensure that ADA parking needs are met by talking to people with disabilities and local disability advocates. Then I talk to bikers, pedestrians with disabilities, and children about what their needs are, and what they think needs changing. I run their ideas by our bike and pedestrian coordinator and Traffic Engineering, as well as local residents, business owners, and workers and customers with and without cars, to see what the tension points are. Then I communicate from group to group until we collectively find the most efficient solution that does the most good and the least harm. It is all about communication, open-mindedness, humility, a stubborn commitment to public safety and Vision Zero, and to pushing beyond the status quo and unproven assumptions to imagine a safer and more accessible Denton for everyone.

Baria: We don’t need to re‐invent the wheel. I would look to the examples where these challenges have been faced. I think part of the problem is too much conventional thinking, even if bikes on onside and pedestrians on another were tried, it might be workable with crossover paths that are wide enough for both.

Denton City Council recently decided to pursue a Vision Zero policy and strategy to reduce annual traffic deaths to zero. What do you think Denton should focus on to prevent deaths of people who are traveling outside of an automobile?

Armintor: I love Vision Zero, and was a huge advocate for it. Still am. I was thrilled that everyone on Council signed on to it when it finally came forward to Council, but was subsequently dismayed to find that not everyone on Council seems to have integrated that vision for zero traffic deaths into their decision-making in capital projects. Vision Zero sees multi-lane high speed roads as invitations to traffic deaths. When we allow such road expansions, especially with no protected bike lanes, insufficient traffic calming, and too few crosswalks with insufficient crossing timing, we are contradicting our commitment to zero traffic deaths. I am proud to have voted consistently against senseless road expansions, and to have advocated for safer pedestrian crossings, slower speeds, more protected bike lanes with connectivity, D

Baria: Speed differential is the killer. Separation is preferable and the only solution that could get us to that ideal.

Denton residents often identify vehicular speeds and speeding as a primary reason they feel unsafe bicycling, traveling by foot or mobility device, or enjoying their neighborhood. Due to its temporary nature, police enforcement has proven ineffective in creating long-lasting reductions in speed throughout the city. What do you think Denton should focus on to create effective, long-lasting speed reduction throughout the city?

Armintor: Ignore and abolish the 85th percentile rule that establishes speed limits based on what 85% of car drivers consider a reasonable speed for the area. My opponent loves the 85% rule, but that rule is dangerously counterproductive. It's like asking developers what percentage of trees on a site they should be allowed to destroy, which happens to be another dangerously counterproductive idea supported by my opponent who was a voice for developers' bottom line on the tree ordinance committee. Public safety should be our guide, and public safety science says we should aim for 30 mph speed limits and less, depending on the area.

Baria: The design of better neighborhoods with separate bike and pedestrian spaces is an absolute necessity. Our city won’t measure up to attract beneficial growth without them. I have a paper that compares two cities in Spain that took different approaches to improvement. The clear winner put their efforts into quality of life, the loser spent big dollars on flash and a blockbuster economic engine.

The difficult part, requiring concessions from all parties, is finding a workable solution for areas already built out. This might take space concessions outside of the area we are competing for now.

The Denton 2030 Plan and the Sustainable Denton Plan have goals for a more walkable, bikeable city as a way to improve fiscal and environmental sustainability, reduce traffic and congestion, improve air quality, and improve community health and safety. However, movement toward expanding sidewalks and safe bicycle infrastructure has been slow, leaving us with an incomplete network with dangerous gaps in infrastructure. What will you do to speed up the implementation of infrastructure that gives Denton residents the option to travel safely around town without an automobile?

Armintor: Strengthen our mobility plan and 2030 plan with maximum community input, and give those plans teeth so they are more than just a suggestion. Developers should not be able to circumvent these plans so easily.

Baria: The strategy must begin with a pedestrian oriented approach because that is FAR, FAR more likely to find common ground. Adding more room for bikes is not that much of an increment then. When the travel gets farther and faster for cyclists then we must separate those modes as much as we can. A toddling child can be seriously injured by a fast moving bike. Pedestrians will support combined paths if they consider them safe.

I think many people don’t view this as a common good. Many have told me so. There is no doubt that we have dangerous gaps, as you accurately put it. If you will look at it objectively, the city builds very little compared to developers. We should step up and tax ourselves to bridge these gaps in the cases where it won’t happen otherwise. We should also ask ourselves why no one will build and close these gaps. Simple answer, but hard to understand if you don’t compare a builder’s motivation (profit) with risk (personal bankruptcy).

Small local builders are the key here. They do not have corporate immunity from default on a loan. Only the extraordinary market has enabled them to recently build out some of the central parcels. About ten years ago I told the Mayor and City Council that the undeveloped center parcels would be ignored if we didn’t create a better opportunity for development. We have made some modest efforts but not enough. If we want something done and do not have the funds we should look at the economic proposition we offer.

What do you think we could change in our zoning and land use policies to make it easier for more Denton residents to meet their daily needs without having to use a personal automobile?

Armintor: In addition to strengthening our mobility and 2030 plans and giving them teeth in our zoning process and weight in Planning & Zoning Committee and Council decisions, we need to:

-strengthen public transportation by putting DCTA riders in charge of policy and routes

-legislate to make protected bike lanes and ADA compliant & accessible sidewalks a requirement rather than just a desirable option

-legislate for slower speed limits

-acquire land for connectivity of trails and parks while preserving our increasingly endangered urban forests

Baria: When I design a subdivision I try to put the pedestrian paths in first so that they can shortcut across blocks. We have too much gridding, too many corners, all sources of conflict and placing a burden of 20 to 25% more concrete to maintain on the citizenry. The reason it’s done that way are the rules. It is the easiest and quickest way to get approval. Change the rules, even in small ways, and the “game” will respond with adaptive change.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about yourself? Please include how voters may contact or follow your campaign, including website and social media accounts.

Armintor: I'm the clear choice on the ballot for At Large Place 5 when it comes to bike, pedestrian, and ADA safety, access, and infrastructure. Bike, pedestrian, and ADA safety and mobility have been top priorities for me on Council, and that's proven by public record. My opponent, who represents developers for a living, supports 85th percentile speed limits and a deliberately weak developer-vetted tree ordinance, has a track record of undermining progress in these crucial areas and putting private developers' profits before public safety and quality of life. Please vote for me, and other candidates who walk the walk, so to speak, because talk is cheap.

Please text me anytime on my personal cell phone at 940-300-9857,

Email me at DEBORAH.ARMINTOR@GMAIL.COM,

and follow me on DEB FOR DENTON on Facebook & Twitter, and check out my Public Utilities blog, DENTON PUBLOGGER on Facebook.

Vote early and well.

Love,

Deb

Baria: One winter when I was a landscaper work was slow; a friend asked me to help restore a gym floor at TWU. I broke off work on the “Selby” house since I needed the income, and drove over with my tools. After that I rode my bike; I found a storage place for the tools, it was the same travel time, and I carried the lightweight bike into the building. (Old Peugeot PX‐10; I also later had a 531 tubing Raleigh, both with sew‐up tires)

Once on that PX‐10, in another town, I was knocked down by a car when legally crossing an intersection. I opened my eyes looking at a tire about a foot from my face. I wasn’t injured but both rims were ruined. The driver just sped off. My wife was recently hit by an automobile as a pedestrian. She suffered a head wound, a brain injury and lost considerable blood. The driver left her bleeding out.

I understand your concerns quite well,

Rick Baria

The web page has plenty of bio

https://rickbaria.com/

https://www.facebook.com/RickBariaForCityCouncil/

https://www.facebook.com/rick.baria.56

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