Mary Lou Montes Zijderveld
Rossi Walter
                             

07/15/04  When is a lack of money a good thing?

That's not a trick question if you have been paying attention. 

		If there's no (or not enough) federal money coming our way, there's no Calatrava Bridge, much less 2 or 3 of those String Things.
		If there are no suspension bridges, the Trinity Project can't happen because the Texas Department of Transportation (TX DOT) will go forward with regular bridges.
		If TX DOT commits to regular bridges, the hydraulics of Our Mayor's Trinity Project would wipe out the support  pillars of a regular bridge.

A few weeks ago, Jim Schutze of The Dallas Observer said "they don't have the money" when others were claiming they have the money to do not just one String Thing Bridge, but three of them.

Dallas bridges dangerously behind schedule Editorial Page 12:04 AM CDT on Wednesday, July 14, 2004

A month ago, we chastised Congress for piddling away Dallas' opportunity to become the only American city with more than one bridge by the world's hottest bridge designer, Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.    Well, there's been movement since then. Sadly, that movement is backward. ... Prospects, as they say, are looking dim, especially since the White House has shown no disposition to budge on its insistence that conferees trim the six-year bill ? $319 billion in the Senate's version and $283 billion in the House's ? to no more than $256 billion.    Meanwhile, the clock is ticking down on the life span of the Trinity River bridges on Interstates 30 and 35. State transportation planners need to start designing replacement bridges soon, like yesterday. But what kind of bridges: plain vanilla or Calatrava? The answer lies in Washington. ... we're left to watch this remarkable opportunity go down the drain of congressional inaction.

Oh, No!  Is it possible that common sense might prevail over ODB fantasies? 

Much of our problem started back in the late 60's and early 70's (when some of us were still in college and not part of the decision making process).  I'm going to really simplify things by saying when City Hall and a string of developer mayors let all those apartment complexes get built, Dallas started its descent into decay.

Those same badly designed apartment complexes are now over 30 (some over 40) years old and house families in units intended for single occupancy.  The congestion of people was bad enough when the tenants were limited, but now we are overwhelmed by the impact of over-populated and under-regulated apartment complexes.  Take away the crimes occurring in or near apartment complexes, and we would likely not even be in the running as the Nation's #1 Crime Capital. 

Local News Briefs 08:30 PM CDT on Sunday, July 11, 2004 From Staff Reports

NORTHWEST DALLAS: 2 men shot, killed at intersection    Two men were fatally shot early Sunday morning as they were sitting in a car at a traffic light in northwest Dallas. The men ? Asael Sandoval, 18, and Jose Alberto Salinas, believed to be about 25 ? were killed shortly before 1:30 a.m. in the 3300 block of Park Lane, near Webb Chapel Road. Police did not have a motive or a suspect late Sunday, said Dallas Police Sgt. Joe DeCorte. Ian McCann

Park Lane crosses Webb Chapel Rd.  This was not near Webb Chapel, it was on Webb Chapel.  Webb Chapel also crosses the street where I live, 4 streets north of Park Lane (as in 4 blocks plus 1 from my home).  Every week when I get our Crime Watch stats, there may be an incident inside our neighborhood, but there are usually multiple criminal activities just south of us (that would be Park Lane) in or near the large apartment complexes that run all the way from that point down to Northwest Highway. 

It is absolutely a war zone.  It's where two police officers got shot gun wounds trying to bust up a drug ring in an apartment building.  It's where you do not want to be after dark.  It's why most of us in this area drive blocks out of our way to use either Marsh Lane or Harry Hines to go South.  That's right.  Harry Hines is much safer to use than Webb Chapel south of Park Lane.

I only compare the apartment complexes and the related crime to the String Thing Bridges and Our Mayor's Trinity Trough Project because the same greedy mindset that allowed apartment buildings to be illegally built on land zoned for single family residences is promoting the Trinity Project.  It's the mindset that wants to "keep the dirt flying", so a few can make some quick dollars while the rest of us live with the consequences of bad planning and abuse of power of public office and influence.

There was a time in the late 70's and early 80's when you could hardly look in any direction and not see a construction crane.  We lost more than we gained.

I'm not going to blame Ray Nasher alone for the demise of Downtown, but he did it no favor when he built NorthPark.  I doubt Downtown retail could have survived losing all the street activity caused by the tunnels and sky bridges, but the shopping malls might have done in Downtown merchants anyway.  Combine the two challenges at the same time, and there was no chance for stores to stay open in the Central Business Corridor.

In those days, there was no one to question decisions made by the ODB.  No one wanted to be an aginner, except Max Goldblat.  The ODB painted him as a nut case, and effectively shut him down.

We had two newspapers, but seldom was heard a discouraging word - even when our banks started failing because they were over extended from loaning out so much money to a handful of high roller developers who were competing with each other and erecting phallic symbols all over town to prove whose was "bigger".

They were all shooting blanks.

That's why so many are skeptical about Our Mayor's Trinity Trough Project.  We have heard these Big Ticket promises just one time too many.  Not one ODB promise has delivered the benefits we were assured would result. 

Our Mayor's String Thing Bridges are going to be like the "second" tower of many projects we've seen promoted.  Even if she gets one of the silly things funded, there's no way the money will be there for the second or third.  You are as likely to see a second String Thing Bridge as you can ride the elevator in the second One Main Place Tower, or the second Fountain Place Tower, or the second CityPlace Tower (on the West side of Central). 

You are as likely to see the first String Thing Bridge as you are able to walk over Central Expressway in a sky bridge between the East CityPlace Tower and the illusionary West CityPlace Tower.

The Trinity Bondoogle is as unrealistic as was the original CityPlace Project, with too many obstacles to overcome in too short a period.  It has too many components that must all happen successfully and simultaneously for it to get done.  It is not based on reality.

The biggest obstacle to the thing getting off the ground is the lack of money. 

Jim Schutze has a great article this week where he points out the lunacy of expecting private donors to make up the money that is not coming from Washington for the Trinity Bondoogle.

SCHUTZE Deadbeats Posh Trinity backers skate on 80 grand they owe to the city BY JIM SCHUTZE dallasobserver.com, originally published: 7/15/04

... I decide to help my city by collecting some money for it. Since I'm just starting, I think I'll do an easy one. I take on the $80,000 owed to the city by the people pushing the Trinity River project, with the bridges by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and so on. They still owe 80 grand for a big Fourth of July party they threw on a city parking lot two years ago.    I figure this should be easy, because these are all the poshies who want in on the billion-dollar-plus Trinity project. ... The poshies, who want the highways badly, said not to worry. They would privately raise the additional $55 million needed for the lakes. Ed Oakley, chairman of the city council's Trinity River committee, said in a letter to The Dallas Morning News: "Private organizations such as the Dallas Institute, the American Institute of Architects and the Trinity Commons have stepped forward to raise the dollars that we do not have."    Private groups are going to come up with $55 million to pay us back for the tax money that's going into highways instead of the lakes we voted for? That's a lot for people to swallow. So I figured I wouldn't need to do the baseball bat thing to collect a mere 80 G's. These people should pay me that much just to avoid having embarrassing questions raised. ...

You need to read the entire article, because it is as funny as it is frustrating and frightening. 

One of the worst plays I ever had to endure was "6 Degrees of Separation", but the theory certainly seems to be proved in Dallas.  The way Chris Luna, Craig Holcomb, Ron Kirk/Con Jerk and his Large White Shadow Carol Reed are always involved at some level in these Big Ticket Deals is downright spooky.  In Deadbeats, Schutze says Holcomb identifies himself as an employee of Trinity Commons, its Executive Director.  When did Holcomb stop being the Director of Friends of Fair Park?  Holcomb and Luna served together at different times on the city council.  Carol Reed is a former President of Friends of Fair Park.

As President of FFP, Reed almost gave away the park to a pair of con artists who claimed they wanted to turn it into a film studio.  Of course, they had no real money either. 

ODB movers and shakers are very imaginative with other people's money.  Still, the Lord moves in mysterious ways. 

Grandpa Jones needed to get moving on Jonestown Stadium in order to be in the running to host a Super Bowl game in the near future, but he wanted tax money to do it.  He wanted the issue on the November ballot, so voters would be more focused on the presidential and other partisan races than on another bad deal.  That's not going to happen.

Our Mayor, The Dallas Managed News and the ODB wanted Congress to divert a big hunk of the dollars in the Transportation Bill to the Calatrava String Things, but other greedy politicians in other locales want that money, too.  There's no way "private donors" are going to fund the first String Thing bridge, much less two more.  Congress will not divert the amount of money needed.   So, the String Thing Bridges are not going to happen.

Because TX DOT is on a tight schedule, they will be closing the door on Our Mayor's Project.  So, the Trinity Bondoogle is not likely to happen.

This is how a lack of money can be a very good thing.

		See, sometimes a lack of money can be a very good thing.

sb