Casie Pierce
                             

11/10/03  Let the River be a River, not a Piped Dream.

Do you ever notice how many people are in positions of power in this town, who are not from Dallas?  Look at the council.

There's another interesting parallel -- it's those else-born officials who are pushing to turn the Trinity River into a concrete trough with fake lakes that will cost a fortune to build and even more to maintain.  Add to the mix a newcomer from Arizona heading up the Editorial Board at the Dallas Managed News.  What you get are a bunch of people who left where they were and want to change our city to make it like what they left behind.
 

Dallas was once a great place to live.  In many of her campaign speeches, the Mayor described the city when she first moved here as an Emerald City where everything was green and clean.  It really was like that once upon  a time.  Maybe not everywhere, but most of the city was quite lovely and very livable.

The most dramatic change is Downtown.  You would not believe the people who were on the sidewalks all day long and at night.  When a traffic light changed, the intersection walkway would be full of pedestrians.  Some of Our Downtown Betters (the ODB) thought Dallasites were weanies who could no longer brave the elements and started building those God awful sky bridges and the tunnel system.  Downtown Dallas died within a few years of the completion of those sky bridges and tunnels.  Retail dried up.  Restaurants closed.  Office buildings lost tenants who wanted their employees to be where they could shop and dine and walk to their cars with somewhat safety.

We are spending millions to undo the damage of a misguided ODB brainstorm.

There's another reason for our dead Downtown.  The street bums make it unbearable to be out on the streets for any reason.   Once upon a time, the mentally ill were hospitalized where they got fed, clothed and medicated.  It was not perfect, but they were not out there terrorizing the rest of us.  Some bad stuff certainly happened in the "insane asylums", but could it have been worse than what happens to them on the streets?  Turning all those sick people out on the streets was not out of concern for the mentally ill, it was the beginning of a cottage industry for social workers.

We are spending millions to undo the damage of some misguided do-gooders and outright rascals.

In 1995, I was one of a dozen or so people (including now City Councilman Ed Oakley) representing 4 community groups who got together and formed the Lee Park & Arlington Hall Conservancy to restore the building and park on Turtle Creek Blvd. after years of city hall neglect.  We got the city to put $250,000 for the park into two different bond programs ($500,000 total), and we raised over $7 Million in PRIVATE DONATIONS to do the building and some ground work.  I rotated off the Board after 6 years before the work was completed.  So, recently attending a brunch in the completed Arlington Hall was my first chance to see the interior.  It was gorgeous.  The first year of operations Arlington Hall had profits exceeding $250,000 that all get plowed back into the building and park land.

Restoring Lee Park and Arlington Hall were not ODB ideas, and that may be why it is so well done and successful.

At the brunch, I visited with old friends from the Turtle Creek area and met some new people.  Invariably, the topic always got around to City Hall and the Hicks/Perot Arena.  One man said he didn't think much of the Trinity River efforts but knew we had to do something to get our convention business back.  Another man said the only thing that will get the business back is recalling that arena sales tax.  These were two Seniors who in their younger days were very ODB, very high profile.  It was music to my ears.

The man who made the arena sales tax comment didn't know me, and the other man told him I was "the anti-arena girl".  That took the lid off the discussion.  Several people joined the conversation while we waited in line for omelets.  Some said they voted for the arena, but felt foolish for doing so and believed they were mislead by Ron Kirk and Tom Hicks -- no one mentioned Ross Perot, Jr.  That led to a man saying he had voted for the Trinity and would not do it again.  Almost everyone in the conversation nodded in agreement. 

When I sat down to eat, I mentioned the food line conversation.  It was exactly the same reaction at my table. 

These conversations are significant because the brunch attendees are old line ODB, who coined the phrase "keep the dirt flying".  Many are wealthy former North Dallas residents who have or are moving to high rise Turtle Creek area condominiums.

In both conversations, I asked whether a second go round to voters for $110 Million to the Trinity would pass.  Nope!

There is something in the water at City Hall.  Only a few seem able to resist its influence.  I believe Sen. Everett Dirksen  said in Washington, D.C., "a billion here, a billion there, and soon you are talking about real money."

Last week, when the council was advised the original Trinity Bonddoogle was not enough to do all the silly stuff the council wants for the Trinity River, the Mayor was quoted as saying "only $110 Million...". 

Even if it were "only $110 Million", that would be way too much to spend on PIPED DREAM RIVER.

Because this new plan is less destructive to the Trinity Forest and initially in the same $$ ballpark as what was sold the voters in 1998, I was prepared to support it.  Like everything that comes out of City Hall and from the Our Downtown Betters, the new plan dog and pony show making the circuit of civic groups was deceptive.

Mind you, it was much less deceptive than the original Con Jerk campaign package, but no one talked about a $110 Million shortfall.  The reason we are not doing Con Jerk's Piped Dream River is money, and it's the reason we are not going to do our current Mayor's Piped Dream River.

"Only $110 Million"?  What happens to perfectly normal people when they start playing around with OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY.  It stops being real money to them.  Sandy Greyson made some valid points, and surely Mitch Rasansky talked money (DMN didn't quote him and council briefings aren't broadcasted).  Council members who were quoted just talked about the big picture and what future Dallasites will say about us. 

Who cares?   

We had a very inexpensive and much used trolley and railroad system in this city and region where you could get just about anywhere from your nearby train depot.  Our Downtown Betters from yesterday thought we should pave them all over and buy buses.  They probably had the same council discussions about what future Dallasites would say about them.  Well, we are uncovering those trolley lines and building new rail lines -- undoing their vision.
 

Chicago's river actually moves.  The Trinity River mostly oozes except for heavy rains.  When it does flood, it covers polluted areas like Cadillac Heights.  Unfortunately, it does not clean the area it covers, it just takes some of the poison with it downstream.

If reviving our convention business is part of the drive behind the Trinity Bondoogle, spending $110 Million at Fair Park and creating a scenic route from Downtown and the Convention Center to it would see much more for our dollars than anything we do along the Trinity.  No risk to future Dallasites -- just revenue.

That's the lesson from Arlington Hall at Lee Park.  Fix up our EXISTING public buildings and park lands and make it safe to use them and people will spend their money and time here.  When the DART rail line to Fair Park is a reality, we need a year-round facility for conventioneers to go and recreate.  Not everyone who attends a convention wants to shop!  They want to do something they can't do at home. 

About all we can offer conventioneers are hundreds of topless bars.

No other city in the country can boast what we have in Fair Park.  The Olympic Park in San Francisco is beautiful, but our Fair Park is compact and pedestrian friendly.  If people will drive to Arlington, Texas to attend Six Flags, they will certainly hop a trolley from the Convention Center to attend an amusement park and visit museums at Fair Park or catch the Cinemax. 

With all the improvements already done, think of what $110 Million would do at Fair Park.

Less than 1 year after opening for business, Arlington Hall at Lee Park is already profitable and accruing funds to start rebuilding the grounds.  Some of the plans will reopen the creek that runs through part of it and restore the WPA rock works from the days of President Roosevelt like the pavilion.  Sensible stuff such as using the old swimming pool area for an outdoor tented event.

Why does common sense get diluted at City Hall?  It must be the water.  Don't drink that stuff.

Is that why they are so focused on the Trinity Bonddoogle at City Hall?  Has someone has been tainting City Hall water with something out of the Trinity River?

The Trinity River Project is is not a community driven issue.  The original Trinity River Bonddoogle barely passed with less than a 1% margin.  Kathy Neely harvested enough dead votes to do that deal, as well as the arena.  Vote harvesting rules have changed.  Some of the unethical stuff Neely and Joe Thug May and their gangs have done in the past is now not only illegal, but felonious.

We were lied to twice in 1998 about the arena benefits and the Trinity River Bonddoogle.  There's too much ammunition for the Aginners to use this time around -- recent ammunition. 

Stop drinking the water at City Hall or stop inhaling whatever it is they are toking down there, and give up those Piped Dreams for the River.

Let the Trinity River alone to be a slow, stinky strip of water that mostly leaves us alone.  The Trinity River and its Viaducts are part of our heritage, lets pass it along intact to future Dallasites.

Rather than thank us for turning the Trinity River into a churning concrete trough of polluted water that tears up stuff along its rough, future Dallasites will curse us as they spend millions undoing our mistake -- just like we are doing with light rail and trolleys.

Let the River be a River.