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​Now let me first explain the problem in a way that everyone can relate to and understand.  Just like the human body is made of many, many moving parts to survive, the city of DeSoto consists of many moving parts to operate and function correctly.  The most important thing for a human to survive is first oxygen.  For a city that is their charter and legal ability to operate.  Since we are able to operate legally as a city no one thinks about our charter just like no one thinks about oxygen until they start to lose it or they start to breath toxic fumes.  The second most important thing for a human to survive is keeping their blood inside their body and circulating properly and continuously.  No one thinks about their blood circulating until they either get a cut, their blood becomes toxic or infected, they get a blockage, or their heart isn’t pumping correctly to move the blood properly.  In a human body, nothing is more important than first, getting oxygen and second having your blood continuously circulate throughout your body.  Everything, and I mean everything, is subservient to these two things.  Once the body has a high content of pure oxygen and the blood is clean, pure and circulating properly then the body can operate correctly and diseases and ailments miraculously heal and the body gets healthier and stronger and that human is able to live a better more productive fulfilled life.  Everyone understands this.

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As a certified Community Emergency Response Team (C.E.R.T.) Instructor, one of the first things that we learn is if someone is choking and bleeding and has a broken bone all at the same time; you first remove the air obstruction, second you stop the bleed and bandage the wound and third you stabilize the broken bone.  In that order. 

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With this example in mind, let me explain my platform based on how we got to this point and why I think that it is important. ​

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First, DeSoto was formed back in the 1949 with less than 300 residents.  It was a different time and era back then.  Back then the city founders and settlers were farmers and homeowners who did not want a large city.  They specifically wanted DeSoto to stay as a “bedroom community” in which they wanted to keep it small, homogeneous and “un-citified”.  North Oak Cliff and South Oak Cliff were in the big city but also was homogeneous.  Even though the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision called for the desegregation of schools across the U.S. the entire Dallas metropolis resisted this and did not segregate until the 1970’s.  As the new groups of people started to move in, the existing groups moved out.  They moved from North Oak Cliff to the Park Cities.  They moved from South Oak Cliff to North Dallas.  And by the 1980’s South Oak Cliff’s demographics changed.  And it wasn’t until the 1980’s before DeSoto had any initial migration of a new demographic.  For the next 40 years the demographics in DeSoto slowly changed to what it is today. 

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The point of knowing the past is to understand why DeSoto’s zoning policies since its inception have been heavy on approving residential zoning.  This policy served its purpose up until about the year 2000.  After about the year 2000 that policy started to cannibalize DeSoto’s future economic growth potential and no longer served our future needs.  The fundamental problem is that DeSoto is small.  We don’t have the luxury of land space like most other cities in the metroplex.  With that being the case, there should have been more land zoned for commercial use in anticipation for future economic development. 

 

If we fast forward to 2025, now we are just about out of available usable land.  When you are running out of land then you are forced to go up.  Now I know some of the older residents like it the way it is but we have to be able to attract the young working adults as well to keep this city viable for the long term.  At the same time we need to provide more ways for the citizens to be able to spend their money in DeSoto.  So here is the plan. 

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The first order of business is we must focus on helping all of our business owners here in DeSoto, especially the owners that live in DeSoto with anything and everything they need to become and/or maintain success.  They are at the forefront of our city’s economic future. 

 

In tandem we also need to focus on helping the workers improve their skills.  We need to provide the workers with everything they need to have the skills for the jobs.  This should apply to both the blue collar and the white collar workers.

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And third, in tandem, our city council needs to ensure that all land from here on out be zoned or rezoned specifically with the purpose of future economic development in mind.  DeSoto has enough houses.  Our problem is our residents are spending the city’s precious life blood, which is their extra dollars, outside of DeSoto for jobs, entertainment, restaurants, shopping, etc. because we have limited choices here in DeSoto.  If you give the people choices they will spend their money in DeSoto.  In order to have choices you have to have land and the land must be zoned correctly for various types of businesses.  There will be temporary pain to do this just like when you have to stop a bleed and bandage it up.  But the future DeSoto will be thanking us if we correct this now. 

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If DeSoto economics were a pyramid the business owners and the workers would be the base.  Everything economic long term for the city is dependent on them.  When the business owners do well they hire more employees.  When the workers have better skills they get hired.  When the business owners do really well, they open up a second location and hire more employees.  Then the unemployment rate declines.  When the unemployment rate declines the crime rate naturally declines.  Then the business owner starts to have extra cash to buy assets.  Then they buy the buildings instead of renting them.  Then the workers get raises and have extra spending money.  Then we need more buildings for the workers so we build up.  Then more restaurants are needed to accommodate the lunch crowd.  Then we build shopping buildings.  Then entertainment facilities. Then the schools get better.  Then the city becomes attractive to the high income white collar workers.  Then the city is getting more revenue.  Then the city can invest in better infrastructure and streets.  Then there is more money for the schools, Police department, Fire department, Parks, Senior Center, etc.  Then the workers are making more money and they can purchase homes.  Then the churches, mosque and synagogues get more donations and tithes from their members to do charitable things.  Then the circulating money stays in DeSoto and everybody is “eating”.  This is what I mean by DeSoto Economics First if done organically from the bottom up.  The locals have the best chance of winning this way.

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The incorrect way is to try to do economic development from the top down.  That is like an upside down pyramid where the bottom (i.e. the locals) gets crushed.  That’s where you bring in big outside corporation developers whose headquarters are out of State who don’t care about the city’s residents only their bottom line.  Their top priority is to their shareholders not the citizens.  They come into the city and gentrify it inorganically.  This eventually will lead to the removal of most of the locals forcing them further south over the next twenty years eventually into south Waxahachie with our former citizens at that time waking up one day wondering what happened. ​