Dallas Blog

I'm trying to imagine Ron Kirk negotiating with the Chinese about removing the unfair barriers to US companies trying to sell goods in the Chinese market, or asking the Saudis to increase oil production. It would be comical, if we didn't need a really strong trade representative.

I thought Obama said 'no lobbists' in his administration.

Ron Kirk brings nothing to the table .I don't
think Obama knows the Kirk Dallas and Texas knows. My first disappointment with the President-Elect is appointing a Dallas Lobbyist's with no experience in the field of work. All Mr. Obama's other people are heavy in their fields. I like Ron he's a nice guy and I support him in many things but
Trade no way.

I predict he won't serve more than three years - just enough time to acquire a more lucrative list of corporate contacts and go back to whor, er, lobbying.

Rick says:
EVE: Maybe that's what Obama officially said, but what everybody heard was that he wouldn't hire lobbyists.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

America is FULL of stupid people who don't "hear" what is really being said to them. Rick, having said that what IS your point? That Obama said it (when he didn't) just because people feel that he did?

Scott, I think you're making a mistake in assuming it will ever be built at all.

We just dodged a disaster by Ron Kirk not being appointed as the Transportation Secretary, therefore, his Trinity river development baggage won't go to Washington and possibly set back funding. Remember Eddie Bernice Johnson (EBJ), she is still there and was the Congressional Transportation Committee leader so the funding possibilities is still there. Hopefully the Trinity Toll Road and development in the Dallas Floodway will not proceed as planned, even though Obama wants to make road building into public work projects like the WPA days.

However, as we (anti-toll road and environmentalist advocates) write and pat ourselves on the back the Trinity River Corridor Project Office (TRCPO), sounds like a "Star Wars robot", of the City of Dallas, persists by spending our tax dollars, by slowly winnowing away at the Great Trinity Forest (GTF) and the natural environment along the Trinity river flood plain. As part of another $160,000 project in October the "robots" cleared a half mile pathway which was previously known as the River Overlook Trail which started at the Texas Buckeye Trail head at the end of Bexar street in Rochester park. This trail now designated by the "robots" as the ADA trail for the disabled (wheelchair users) will go from the trailhead on a long slanted incline up and over a 26 foot high flood levee that will have crushed granite as a surface. The ADA "road" way has been cleared completely of vegetation (trees: Cottonwood, Possumhaw, Box Elder, Oaks, Mulberry, Hackberry, Pecan; native plants: dense patches of False Garlic, Missouri Violets, Pigeon-berry, and so on) from 20 feet wide to over 100 feet wide for construction truck traffic (impact ca. 3 acres) and goes to the river bank where an area the size of a football field has been cleared of most of the vegetation. All this to look over the river bank from a circular pathway that has to set back from the river bank where the river can not be seen (from a wheelchair) because it actively erodes where the circular pathway is placed. During the 2007 high rainfall and high yearly river flow, the river bank at this location eroded back over 25 feet sweeping a Girl Scout volunteer built wooden bench downstream. Then, if the river can be seen the viewer gets a beautiful view of a large rusted 2 foot diameter pipe that has been there for at least 25 years. The pipe is broken into seven large segments that rest in a zigzag pattern across the river that snags all kinds of debris and has been a terrible canoe hazard for those that have canoed the river where many have turned over at this location. The"robots" have no plans to remove the eyesore pipe and obstacles created by the pipe fragments. Meanwhile, the "real" Texas Buckeye foot trail that has been in existence for 27 years has been shortened due to north end construction and is also being pressured by another set of "robot" trails being cleared to the east where a large barrow ditch pond exists. It seems mean spirited that such a sensitive "Green" award winning City would build an ADA trail with a crushed granite surface over a 26 foot high levee for disabled while destroying the environment. I would like to see Mary Ayala the recreation "robot" from the TRCPO go up and over this trail in a wheelchair when it is completed. This ADA trail could have been planned at the new Trinity River Audubon Center, or Moore Park, or several other locations with easier access for the disabled.

Meanwhile, the City "robots" have spent nearly $500,000 imposing a self serving 15,000 page "Forestry Management Plan (FMP)" to be used by the City to "manage" the Great Trinity Forest for the next 50 years. This "Plan" was not mandated by the taxpayers, or Federal agencies. The forest has gotten along fine without them for the last 50 years why do they think the forest needs management now? The GTF is a beautiful unique example of an urban riverine bottomland hardwood forest that can naturely succeed and clean our polluted City atmosphere when left alone, and at best needs to be managed as a natural area such as some of the natural areas in the Davis Mountains in west Texas. The FMP includes the use of three herbicides: Pathfinder II, Arsenal, and high-strength Glyphosasdes (such as Roundup) to kill small trees, as well as the cutting of trees throughout different parts of the forests repeatedly for the next 50 years as part of a program to remove what they consider undesirable trees such as Green Ash. However, they make no attempt to clear the invasive non-native Chinese privet that is choking parts of the forest, or clean up the dumping, manage the area so that dumping does not reoccur, signage and restrictions on vehicular access to the GTF, and many other things they could do to enhance the natural beauty of this urban asset.

Perhaps Kirk got the Trade Relations position to be even more effective by obtaining more funds from foreign sources such as those in the Middle East so that the funds can eventually trickle down through EBJ or someone else to the Trinity river project. Don't ever think this guy will give up. You should have seen him buzzing around the "Trinity Vote" public meetings when Angela Hunt challenged the toll road in the Floodway. Even then he was also buzzing about Obama, this guy isn't going away. Comments by Tim Dalbey