"Public Safety and Flood Control Always Come First," Except When They Don't

• Hey, I know I'm a little late here, but bear with me a minute. I live near White Rock Lake and have dealt with that construction on Northwest Highway for some time now. I finally got curious enough to look up what it was all about and ran across the article I put in the URL field above. In that article I ran across a rather curious comment about why they're doing so much work. The reason is that "... current regulations dictate that newly constructed bridges be brought above the level of the floodplain - which the existing road surface lies within." TXDOT regulations state that new bridge construction must be above the floodplain. I assume that regulation also refers to roads in general, not just the bridge portion. So that makes me curious: How the hell is the Trinity Floodplain Highway even going ahead <i>at all?</i> Why is TXDOT vaguely supporting the project instead of shutting it down?

• The real one probably does, too, but that doesn't make it any less true.....

• I approve this message.

• Mr. Know It All -- you're right, South Dallas is NOT a hotbed of conservatism. It's a hotbed of croneyism and graft, thanks to John Wiley Price and Royce West, along with a couple of key Dallas City Councilmembers -- witness Don Hill and his ilk, and what JWP and West have done with the Inland Port. The croneyism and graft are what gets it done for Leppert. For Sam Merten and Jim Schutze, I just have one question. Has anyone gone back to look at the original Trinity plan? Ever? Heck, Schutze and I are probably the only ones who remember it, but here's the deal -- Larry Duncan [now running for Dallas County Judge] headed a 400-member committee on the Plan made up of environmentalists, developers, real estate magnates (the surname 'Crow' played a strong game here), homeowners, and others that actually reached -- wait for it -- consensus! The Plan they presented was passed unanimously by the City Council, and won the bond election overwhelmingly. Enter Ron Kirk. On being elected Mayor, Ron pushed Duncan aside, put one of his own hey boys in charge of the committee, and proceeded to dismantle the results. Followed by more dammage done by Mayor Miller with her fondness for signature bridges, and now Mayor Leppert's toll road. Why not scrap all this subsequent crap and go back to what the original committee came up with? Duncan grew up on the Missisippi in Iowa before moving to Dallas in the '70s, and guided our plan to factor in both the very real risk of flood, as well as the benefits of having a river through our city. And, just for the record, the Trinity Plan as passed by Dallas voters is just one MORE example of Larry Duncan's leadership, and why we need him as County Judge. I doubt his opponent knows crap about the Trinity Plan, and little more about the Trinity River except for where it flows through Ellis County, where he's lived for the bulk of the last 35 years. "Who The Hell Is Clay Jenkins," indeed. Early voting started this morning, people. Take your family, your friends, your neighbors, take people from the line at the supermarket. Go vote against croneyism, graft, and corruption. Vote for honesty, intergrity, and experience -- go vote for Larry Duncan in the Democratic runoff.

• Pointer Outer - If you think that's how Dallas mayoral politics work, then you've got a lot to learn. South Dallas is not exactly a hotbed of conservatism, and that is a constituency that Leppert counts on to win.

• JimS - When, repeat, when are you gooing to detail which notable people own land along the Trinity?

• What Flood? Rhode Island just had theirs. It was the biggest one in 200 years. We have not had our 200 year Trinity River flood yet.

• Big Guy: I think you got it. Only thing you left out was: 9) Later on, oops, sorry about that flood.

• 1) Buy some real estate 2) Spend some money to get your buddies elected mayor and on the city council. 3) Spread "walking around" money into the minority community to keep every body on board. 4) Hatch a plan to use a shitload of tax dollars to build something that will enhance the value of your real estate purchase (at the expense of other needed projects). 5) Pull strings with the local media to insure the deal is never actually looked at critically. 6) Demean critics of the deal as "anti-job/progress/Dallas" via the media outlets controlled by your Country Club buddies. 7) Sell or lease your real estate at a huge profit 8) Go to #1

• Dallas officials have a significant "smell-test" problem and is is very stinky right now. Obfuscation. Look it up Leppert. Look it up Mr. DISD Super Hinojosa...who recently said "Nah, really I meant our schools would reach its goals by 2011..even though I said 2010...what I meant was that you count 'working' days in a year not the actual calendar year." Leppert also comments to the DMN this morning about the latest revelation that the Trinity Toll Road can be separated from Project Pegasus even though he has been saying for years that it can't...pulling an Emily Litella..."Never mind." See this: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040310dnmetpegasus.3fb31b7.html "You don't just do one thing at a time. In terms of the importance of the bridges, I was in Washington [recently] to make a push," says Leppert. No Mr. Leppert, I thought you were in DC to strong-arm politicos to "fast-track" the whole Trinity plan and get the Army Corps to stop bringing up the pesky levee problem that is slowing you down. Anyway, now he's claiming all along...of course that toll road can come out and progress is happening just like he said it would? Am I missing something here?

• Sam's got the smoking gun here. They say they put flood safety first. But the first place they went for money for the levee study was a key flood safety project. They gutted it to protect the toll road. That pretty much gtells the tale. Today's story in the Dallas Morning News: What TxDot really is saying, please, is that Project Pegasus does not "go away" if the toll road is not built, as TxDOT officials told voters before the 2007 election. That's important to remember. These are public payroll people who lied to voters. If this same story were in the old Times Herald, the headline would have been: "Pegasus not tied to Toll Road: highway officials backtrack on 2007 campaign claims." Instead, TxDOT and Leppert are allowed to spin this as a concern for safety and the need to replace rickety bridges. Here is a lock-cynch guarantee: the next bump comes when TxDOT admits it's not going to replace the bridges. One or both of them will be refurbished, not repaired. That's actually what is called for under the national bridge inventory: these bridges need repair, not replacement. But TxDOT has been putting off the repair for political reasons -- to help Dallas in its push for decorative bridges and a toll road. The story about how there is no way to fix the mixmaster without adding a reliever route is also several kinds of bullshit. TxDOT has studies in its own files showing it can produce as much or more inner city congestion mitigation with a re-design of the mixmaster as it could by building a permanent detour in the inner city. If, in fact, it still needs a work-around for the suburban bypass traffic, then the logical thing would be to build the by-pass out in by-pass land -- the 'burbs, where land is cheaper and by-pass traffic is more plentiful anyway. I wish somebody in Austin or Washington could get Hale and Nesbitt under oath and under some bright lights. It's really bad news when state-salaried technocrats game-play the truth.

• The sad thing is mayor Tom will find one simple issue to fire up the right and win reelection. Mark my words.

• Sam this is a good analysis of the true facts. I hope in the future that you will take a step back and see what is really happening as it relates to the DA's Office. I have faith that you really want to do it right.

• Ok. This is where we really need to mention the book by former SNL writer/comedian turned Senator from Minnesota Al Franken: "Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right." Or more appropriately....A Fair and Balanced Look at The Dallas Elite.

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