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10/26/07 The Laura
Miller Toll Road Factor |
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Gehrig Saldaña
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Jim Schutze's
Tom Leppert Keeps Delivering One Shocker After Another
(DallasObserver.com,
UnFair
Park, 10/25/07)
brings up a topic related to
the Trinity River Toll Road Referendum on November 6th I have yet to read
about in The Dallas Morning News or for that
matter, on any televised coverage on this issue. Jim Schutze states:
'In
southern Dallas, the Trinity project is one big Laura Miller deal. I was on
KHVN-AM
\recently with Dwaine Caraway, and I tried, whenever possible, to describe Pave
the Trinity as the Laura Miller Laura Miller Laura Miller team. Laura. Miller.
Couldn’t resist. It’s just so funny and so weird that they’ve got Miller locked
up in the attic of her North Dallas castle like Rochester’s first wife in Jane
Eyre. They’re terrified that if black people remember it’s her deal, they’ll
turn out in droves to vote against it. That’s what that whole explosion
at the city council was about. The subtext beneath Roy Williams’ diatribe
against Caraway was: “Dwaine and Laura, sittin’ in a tree…” I confess that I
love that.'
You
know, Jim Schutze brings up an interesting point. I worked in
the City of Dallas Park Department for over 33 years in mostly West
Dallas and Oak Cliff. I have
had many conversations recently with several citizens who live in South
Dallas, South Oak Cliff and in the Woods area located
west of Duncanville close to the Park in the Woods Recreation Center.
When the topic of the Trinity River Toll Road
Referendum comes up, you see pained facial expressions on these citizens when
they tell you they are not going to vote for the toll road because they know
it's a vote for what they describe as "Laura Miller's
Deal". I have heard that or
similar comments on several occasions.
Jim
Schutze just might be on to something here.
If hiding Laura Miller's accomplishments on the
Trinity River Project is part of the Vote No! Pave The Trinity campaign strategy,
I say it is not working. The Genie uncorked that bottle a long time ago and the
damage is mounting.
Equally troublesome are those multiple FBI indictments which netted former black
Dallas city council
members and several Dallas black community
leaders. As to what effect those indictments can be
attributed to anticipated low voter turnout projections of 8% or lower by the
Dallas County Elections Department is yet to be determined.
On
another note, my first introduction to toll roads resulted in
sad memories. I was born and raised in Dallas in
what used to be a vibrant Hispanic community close to downtown Dallas known to
many Hispanics and Dallas' citizens as "El Barrio" or "Little Mexico".
That vibrant community along with my school (St. Ann's ) from
kindergarten up to the 8th grade was demolished to
give way to what is now the Dallas North Tollway,
which begins on the west entrance to downtown Dallas.
Ironically, my neighborhood
where I was raised since childhood was destroyed to make way for a toll road
that was supposed to relieve traffic congestion for Dallas' citizens who lived
just north of Dallas. Now,
over 40 years later, here we are again trying to build a toll road inside
the Trinity River levees that is supposed to relieve traffic congestion for what
seems like the entire North Texas Region. Incidentally,
most of the toll road users will not pay their fair
share in taxes for the Trinity Toll
Road because most of those
users will not live in Dallas.
The
anticipation of yet another Downtown Dallas Toll Road
along with the aforementioned sidebar developments
reminds me of what my granddaughter used to say when she was younger: 'You Get
What You Get And You Don't Throw A Fit' .
Gehrig Saldaña
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