Candy Evans for Dallas! I’m Running for Dallas City Council in District 11, North Dallas

I’m Candy Evans, founder and publisher of CandysDirt.com, and I’m running for Dallas City Council as a very different kind of candidate. A mover, a shaker, an advocate for change! If there is one thing we have learned from our year-long pandemic, it’s that you change & you adapt, or you wither.

Dallas is at that point right this moment — a beautiful city that grew up and spread out over the last four decades as fast as a bucking bronco. People moved here, rented apartments, bought homes, grew families, and set down roots until the process repeated itself. Our population is growing for myriad reasons. There is tremendous job access and a smorgasbord of affordable homes. There is also high quality of life — California (and other) families come to escape the cost of living on the West Coast, plus smog and excess regulation.

People move to Dallas for the best of reasons, but growth always brings difficulties.

For years, Dallas leaders relished the growth but kicked a lot of cans down the road while embracing boondoggles.

They invested in white water rafting on the $4 million Standing Wave that cost the city $2 million to remove. Millions were spent on plans and studies to build a highway in the floodplain of the Trinity River. Council did not properly oversee or fix the police and fire pension debacle. There are substandard streets, intersections that flood in the rain, non-functioning traffic lights, and one that really grills me as founder and publisher of CandysDirt.com: building permits that take months and months to obtain. And we are about to invest $800 million in a subway with DART ridership at an all-time low.

There is redundancy and lack of coordination in street repairs so that as soon as one is made, it gets torn up to fix another. Ethics reform is so badly needed: six council members have been indicted since 1997, the latest being Dwaine Caraway for pocketing $450,000 in bribes from his role in the Dallas County Schools debacle.

Solution-Driven Approach

There is an open seat in District 11 — the one I ran for in 2017. I am on the ballot for the May 1 election. And I am amazed at the terrific level of support I am receiving. I invite you to join me in making Dallas a better place to call home!

“Please run,” urged another Councilmember. “Not only do you have a strong voice, you are smart, mature, and you have so many connections outside of Dallas to improve this city and bring in new business.”

(Smart, to me, always means someone who is not afraid to ask the REALLY smart people for advice!)

My biggest close-to-heart project will be the development of Midtown, the urban mixed-use project replacing Valley View Mall, a 40-year-old zombie shopping center.

When I drive past Midtown, I sometimes see the lost revenue dollar signs floating in the air. Do you know that Legacy West in Plano was started in 2011, the same year Midtown was conceived? Legacy was completed in 2017 and is thriving, a $3 billion center churning money into the Frisco economy. Once developed, Midtown will pump the tax base equivalent of downtown Dallas three years ago into the Dallas economy: $20 billion. For the last 8 years, the current Councilman and his Plan Committee appointee (my opponent) did nothing to launch Midtown. Midtown has to happen. New blood will make it happen.

Up To The Challenge

District 11 has been through a micro-burst, an EF 3 tornado, a pandemic, a three-plus-month quarantine, and a polar vortex freeze. We lost our fire station and STILL do not have one.

District 11 has seen a drastic increase in crime.

District 11 looks pretty barren north of LBJ (I-635) where the current district leadership and planning regime has, in the most robust real estate market in the history of the world, brought in merely two gas stations adjacent to residential. Meantime, Scheels, one of the most successful privately held sporting goods stores in the world, opened at The Colony, among other new concept stores opening up in the suburbs.

I have to step up to see Midtown become a reality, put more police in our neighborhoods, retain them, get a fire station built in Preston Hollow, push for a firm, comprehensive solution to homelessness, and get workforce housing built in this city. Whew! Didn’t even mention preparing for the next disaster!

District 11, my home, needs way more attention and loving care than it has received in eight years.

To expand housing for people experiencing homelessness, many cities and states bought hotels or established long-term leases: Dallas just bought two. In San Antonio, the housing program moved the previously paper-only process online and provided cash assistance directly to residents in need. I want to look at what works in other cities, whether it is the as-yet-untested apps or programs, give them the test of time, then adapt ONLY if it improves the quality of life for District 11.

And I’m going to push, no matter what, for firm ethics reform in our city.

Pivot, Adapt, Change

It’s time to bring in fresh voices and talent, pivot, adapt, and embrace change in this city lest we wither. Time to break the cabal of endorsement successors. Time to focus on basics over egos: public safety, smooth streets, ethics, housing.

It’s very simple: Cities exist to serve people, to provide services, repair and maintain infrastructure, uphold the law and keep us safe. This is what we need to focus on.

I’m told that 49 companies looked to Dallas to relocate in January of 2020. By September, that number had doubled. We are hot stuff thanks to our business-friendly environment and affordable living. But we need to make sure we deliver the quality of life we promise.

As one District 11 resident told me recently: “Our elected officials just don’t get it. They offer tiny solutions for big problems. They don’t even acknowledge what the real problems are, because then they’d have to admit they helped create them and they’re now so big they can’t solve them.”

And another: “Honestly, we need people who get the reality of the situation and can do more than propose “feel good” solutions.”

And another: “I am concerned about the subsidized housing in our area. Why? Because we already have an abundance of apartments that if not subsidized, are rather low income and affordable housing. They are plentiful. So much so that our neighborhood was up in arms when the owner of the property at Arapaho and Hillcrest (Arapaho Hillcrest Village) proposed rezoning and turning it into a giant apartment complex. I also support a strong police department. Do they make mistakes? Absolutely—but I like knowing if I call 911, they will be there.”

We can make sure they are there. This is what change is all about. Check out my campaign website at CandyforDallas.com.

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Paid for by the Candy For Dallas campaign.