Dr. Bill's Team
Where's their money?
                             

07/25/03  It may be July, but the ODB thinks it's Halloween!

Sometimes, things are so ironic, you catch yourself waiting for the punch line.  Unfortunately, there is nothing funny about what's cooking with the Trinity River Project.  Rather than a punch line, we are getting a gut punch.

Jim Schutze has been doing a series in The Dallas Observer  on the misinformation about the Trinity River Road Project.  Misinformation coming from all over the place.  

For 4 years, DallasArena.com has asked a simple question:  

Why can't we just let the river be a river?

The ODB and their minions have warned warned for the past umpteen years that we must do something about the Trinity and the I-30/I-35 Mixmaster or we risk dire consequences in the Southern sector.  24-hour traffic jams, flooding and worse - no development.  All will be well with a road in the river corridor.

Now, we learn the very premise of future gridlock was invalid -- if not an outright hoax and fraud.

Mixmaster traffic not so bad, data say 07/21/2003  By VICTORIA LOE HICKS / The Dallas Morning News

"On average days, there is bumper-to-bumper traffic for more than six hours ... with average speeds of approximately 20 mph." That was the Texas Department of Transportation's 1998 description of congestion near the downtown mixmaster ? and the rationale for building a $600 million toll road beside the Trinity River.      But two sets of data compiled since 1998 found that, except for backups caused by accidents, conditions on Interstate 30 and Interstate 35E near the mixmaster aren't that dire. . . .  The department's 1998 Major Transportation Investment Study of the Trinity corridor, which concluded that only building a new highway could adequately unsnarl the mixmaster, did not present the underlying congestion data. It was based on a Council of Governments' model that predicts traffic based on population and employment patterns. . . .  The council's photos found no densities as high as 80 (corresponding to 20 mph) in either the canyon or mixmaster. In several spots, photos showed peak-period densities of just 45 cars per lane-mile, corresponding to 50 mph. . . .  Under their grading curve ? which uses 70 mph as the standard for freeways, regardless of the legal speed ? a road gets an F whenever traffic can't move faster than 49 mph. At that point, the freeway is officially congested.    That means the canyon is congested whenever traffic must slow to 6 mph below the legal limit of 55 mph. Put another way, the canyon gets an F when traffic is able to move at 89 percent of the posted limit. . . .  City Council member Lois Finkelman . . .   said, "our discussions may be a whole lot less valid than they ought to be." . . .    she's surprised that 70 mph is the standard for all freeways ? especially given that no freeway in Dallas has a posted speed of 70 mph. . . .  Mr. Morris said that even if the Transportation Department could add enough lanes to I-30 and I-35E to handle additional vehicles ? and it can't, he said ? having a second highway is a better solution. . . .  "The Trinity is the second hose," he said.

TRICK OR TREAT?  We insure future flooding by building those levees with or without the roads, and now we know the ODB lied to us from the get go.  What a shock!

Our Downtown Betters have always had access to numbers not available to the serfs.  Silly me, I thought our elected officials at City Hall also had access to the numbers.  Looks like some of those people who campaigned for the Trinity River Bondoogle were as in the dark as the 51% who voted for (or may have voted for) the bond package.

	You do remember the primary carnival barker for that deceptive campaign?  Yes, it was none other than our beloved Con Jerk.  Please don't tell me he did not have access to the real numbers.  Granted, access to information is not the same thing as actually reading the numbers or giving a care about their significance.
Con Jerk would have spent little or no time reviewing, much less perusing, any numbers that said anything other than we need a new road, and do whatever it takes to get one.

Laura Miller is no Ron Kirk.  She reads everything and asks questions.  It's hard to believe this got past her.  

Over 50 years ago, the ODB screwed around the Trinity River to make useable land for some of the then leading families.  My aunt who died a few years ago at 95 told me many times about the Trinity flooding Downtown before it was diverted.  Her generation thought we were supposed to control nature.  It was the same mentality that caused all the misery along the Mississippi and the Missouri.  It's the same mentality that wants to stick a lake or lakes in the middle of the Trinity.  It's the same mentality that will not let the river be a river.

I'm all for developing an amphitheater along either bank of the Trinity.  I'm all for creating more soccer fields on flood plain areas where PEOPLE ARE ALREADY PLAYING SOCCER EVERY WEEKEND and most week nights.  I'm all for creating more planted areas to clean the water as it runs through.  

I cannot support forcing the river into troughs that will only make it run faster with more destructive force when there is actually water in it -- which occurs once or twice a year.

Rivers are bodies of running water.  That's what makes them rivers.  The Trinity River is not where God put it, but we don't need to compound the error of our forefathers by making things worse.

Since we know we really don't need a new road, why not just shelve this mess and get back to nuts and bolts?   Trick or treat?

Why do we need a fancy bridge (which is substantially different from the first "design") over the Trinity?  There's nothing wrong with our wonderful old viaducts.  If we don't stick the river in a trough, we won't need any suspension bridges.  The viaducts can handle the normal pressure of the river flow, even in a flood situation.  

Let's focus on the here and now.

Many existing streets in this city are nearly impassable -- streets we actually use and need.  Let's get those streets up to par before we build new roads.  Even we get them up to par one week, some other city department or the telephone people will tear them up the next.
	Dylan Cave: Has anyone noticed what Dallas Water Utilities work crews are doing to our streets? There are countless examples all over the place where these crews have made streets un-drivable. They come in to make repairs (understandable) then follow with non-existent skill at filling back in the holes.
Here are two examples: 1) Hall Street between I-75 and Ross. DWU dug a trench down the street. It is now filled in, however has a range of 2-3 inches above street level to 3-4 inches below street level, creating a little roller coaster to drive on. The trench is perfect for DART Bus tires to fit in and further compact and deepen the trench. 2) Elm street, Deep Ellum... just months after Elm street was completely repaired and re-surfaced, DWU destroyed the street. The far left lane is now unusable. The state of our streets is bad enough without a city service unit making it far worse. Who runs that division, and why isn't anyone making sure those idiots do their job properly?

Dylan Cave is exactly on point.  We don't maintain what we have,  Why add to our inventory of roads if we cannot afford to upkeep our current stock?  

It's Dallas thinking, and it gets applied to all sorts of disparate decisions.  

Our libraries are understaffed and have leaking roofs.  What do we do?  Build more libraries we cannot afford to maintain or staff.

We once had green parks (and green street medians) with park patrols who policed them.  Now, many of our parks look abandoned, and our police officers are spread too thin to spend much time patrolling parks, which means the parks aren't safe after dark for taxpayers to use.  

With many of our parks and rec centers in need of work, it seems sensible to spend our limited resources getting our existing stock in shape.  That's not Dallas thinking.  Instead, the ODB want a new monster park Downtown which will most assuredly become a camp ground for homeless bums and an area to be avoided at all costs.

Fair Park is a huge source of revenue every year for this city.   It desperately needs millions in repair and attention and a public relations campaign to get people to go check out what's there.  That's not Dallas thinking.  Instead, we are going to build some Afro-Centrist Entertainment Center nearby to drain our resources further.  Another one of Leo Chaney's successful shakedowns!  What has this guy got on everyone?

Tricks everywhere, but when do we see some treats?  

When do we get any of the promised goodies from diverting so much money from our infrastructure needs to build more and more entertainment centers?

The Hicks/Perot Arena was supposed to generate new development in a blighted part of the city.  Except, it was built in a very hot, very expensive part of the city where there has been non-stop construction for 20 years.  We "Bad Dealers" said it was all a pipe dream -- actually a pack of lies.

Grandpa Jerry Jones is coming at us in the near future with another bag of campaign tricks, more promises of development and economic boom if we just divert $600 million from needed County projects to his stadium.  

Sports arenas and stadiums never deliver the goods.  Always a trick with no treat.

Poor management has Pirates sinking in red ink By RON COOK  July 22, 2003

You think the Pittsburgh Pirates are losing money? Would you believe $30 million in the three seasons they have been in PNC Park? . . .  You think only a bumbling ownership group could take the promise of the best new ballpark in America and turn it into such a financial nightmare so quickly? . . .  What's sad is it wasn't supposed to be like this in PNC Park. The new palace was supposed to solve many of the Pirates' small-market blues. McClatchy promised as much when he went looking for public money to get the place built.     Talk about a broken promise. . . .   McClatchy and his business people also made devastating mistakes. Everything from not allowing fans to bring bottled water into PNC Park that first season to not allowing the high school teams to play on the park's precious grass to raising ticket prices after a 100-loss season and 9/11. . . .   PNC Park attendance dropped from 2.4 million in 2001 to 1.8 million last season. . . .

Thought for a minute they were talking about The Ball Park and the Rangers?  

Getting this "new" information on the lack of desperation for a new road inside, on top of or anywhere near the Trinity probably will not mean a thing to the ODB or the powers that be at City Hall.  They want that road and would pave over the whole Trinity River bed if they could get away with it.  

We might as well accept their greater power and intellect and stop complaining, happily pay our taxes and keep our mouths shut.  Right!

When Halloween officially moves to July and 
Hell freezes over!