DeSoto leader advocates for city at national summit

Some North Texas leaders are in Tampa, Florida, this week for a summit hosted by the National League of Cities.

About 4,000 elected leaders from around the country have gathered for the 2024 City Summit, which covers topics such as infrastructure, racial equity, public safety, immigration, and mental health.

DeSoto City Council member Nicole Raphiel said she wanted to make sure her city had a seat at the table. Raphiel, who has served on the city council since 2018, said one of her goals was to learn about more grant opportunities for her city, a growing suburb in southwest Dallas County that now has a population of 56,000.

Although she said large grants haven't been DeSoto's strong suit, things are shifting. DeSoto recently won one of its first large grants – this one through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund the city's Comprehensive Safety Action Plan.

Because the city of Tampa won a multimillion-dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation called Safe Streets for All, Raphiel took a tour to see how Tampa put their grant dollars into practice. Speaking from the summit Wednesday, she said she learned how they made some of their boulevards and streets safer by using low-cost methods such as painting crosswalks and other things such as putting in roundabouts and reducing the number of lanes to use the space for other things like bike lanes or pedestrian islands.

"We're in the process of doing the planning stages right now for the city of DeSoto, and I just wanted to take a look to see what it looks like in a city like Tampa,." she said.

Raphiel said this conference helped her see things in a new light. She said the NLC gave them rubrics as well as the opportunity to connect with other city leaders and learn from each other.

"In the city of DeSoto, we have a lot of moving parts, and we're always trying to improve our systems," she said.

In speaking with elected leaders from around the country, Raphiel said that many are still processing the election. She said some leaders want to "get to know the administration and still continue to advocate."

"And when I heard that, you know, it put everything in perspective for me - but at the end of the day, it's not about party, it's about people. How do we serve people best."

Raphiel is part of the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Leaders, which are meeting at the summit. She said that representation of NBC-LEO there is important.

"It is making certain that we get the language right that we share the culture and what does that look like inside of policy," she said.