A snapshot of Fort Worth politics after Mattie Parker wins Mayor

Lived in Fort Worth seven years next month — admittedly sometimes I have no idea why. I have some good friends here, but also feel lonely like a motherf’er a lot. I’ve been in two relationships, which is both a blessing and an indictment. I’m not super liberal, but I’m not as arch-conservative as Fort Worth people can be either. If we’re being open and honest and a little bit sad, part of the reason I ended up staying post-divorce was that I had nowhere else to go. I’m from New York City but my earning potential ain’t at that snuff level. I had some good guy friends in DC but they all had young kids and I didn’t feel like being the weird uncle and trying to convince their wives to let them out on weekends, so I didn’t do that. I thought about places like Denver and Charlotte, which seemed cool but I didn’t know anyone, and I thought starting over at 36–37 would have been too hard. So I persisted, and it’s mostly good, although I do struggle sometimes.

Anyway, we just had this Mayoral election + some others (Council, etc.) The turnout was better than in previous years, as Fort Worth runs off-cycle, but still generally pretty shitty, especially for a city that grew in 2020 faster than any place except Seattle per some data. This woman named Mattie Parker won; she’s 37, supposedly making her “the first millennial mayor of a big city,”…