Back Talk Lakewood/East Dallas

The Trinity tollway: Why we were so afraid of doing it

The video below from TonyToneB at YouTube says it all. This is Davenport, Iowa, where they're scared to death of the Mississippi River flooding, and where an extensive levee system has been in place for decades. And if this kind of flooding happens there, what's going to happen here -- with our cut-rate, politically-motivated levee so we can squeeze in the toll road?

Reuters reported on Wednesday that 19 levees along the Mississippi have failed, and 7 more are on watch. And for those in charge who tell us that these kinds of events are 100-year floods? The same thing happened in 1993, when the Mississippi crested in St. Louis at a record 49.4 feet. And reports are that this year's flood is worse than the 1993 disaster.

Technorati Tags: Trinity River tollway,Mississippi River flooding

Industrial Boulevard: What do the voters matter?

I read this -- City not quick to rename Industrial Boulevard in honor of César Chávez -- and then I laughed and laughed and laughed. And laughed some more. The story is sublime:

• Councilman Dave Neumann: "This was not a contest. This was a public survey. The process was not scientific." Neumann, of course, signed off on the poll before it started.

• City staff: The new name should "capture this remarkable time for Dallas" and "connect the spirit and goals of the Trinity River Corridor Project to Dallas." Remarkable, indeed. As remarkable as the looming budget shortfall? How about $50 Million Deficit Highway?

I didn't vote in this thing, because I figured it was window dressing. But I will offer some free advice: Riverfront Boulevard, which is apparently among the front-runners, is not a remarkable name. Search Google, and you'll get 1.2 million listings for "Riverfront Boulevard United States," including one in Concord, N.H. (that's the picture) and in Grand Prairie.

Technorati Tags: Industrial Boulevard,Trinity River,Dallas city council

Neighborhood architect's Audubon Center building in southern Dallas set to open this fall

Neighborhood architect Craig Reynolds and his firm — Brown Reynolds Watford Architects Inc. — are responsible for design of the new Trinity River Audubon Center, a 120-acre site that once was home to a garbage dump. The center is the subject of a DMN story that details the eco-friendly design and construction (for example, shredded blue jeans used for insulation, exterior concrete tinted slightly green to better blend with the environment) of the center, which is scheduled to open in the fall. This project has been on the books since the original Trinity referendum, and it's good to see progress evident on at least one Trinity project now. The center is located in southern Dallas off Loop 12, and perhaps the best news is that the DMN story says 51 DISD schools are located within five miles of the center, so more than 38,000 students will have the opportunity to explore nature in a unique way as part of the center's programming.

Why Industrial Boulevard needs to be renamed The Dallas Morning News Highway

And the toll road itself, of course, should be called Belo Parkway (thanks, Norm Alston) after the company and the family that runs the paper.

Wamre sets out the city's plan below; you can find the finalists here. But each suggested name, no matter how spiffy, misses the point.

Just 10 nominees left in the City's "Name Industrial Boulevard" challenge

Clearly, one of the big issues on Dallasites' minds these days has to be the renaming of Industrial Boulevard. According to the DMN, the city's Trinity River committee has been busily working to solicit names from Dallas residents, sorting through more than 500 suggestions to whittle the list down to 10 names. The committee intends to select three "finalists" on Tuesday and then solicit online, mail or phone votes from citizens to select the winner.

The city needs us to vote on a new name for Industrial Boulevard, but not on subsidizing the convention center hotel

In the hard-to-believe category of city issues, did you know that we're likely to receive a chance to vote online to select a new name for Industrial Boulevard, but it looks like there's no way we'll be voting on whether the council should spend $300-500 million or so on a taxpayer-subsidized convention center hotel downtown?

It seems that the city council's Trinity River committee suddenly has become very interested in "stakeholders'" opinions on renaming the boulevard, but the city attorney's office doesn't believe citizens need to weigh in on how much money should be spent on the 1,000-room, full-service hotel next to the convention center.

Makes sense, huh?

Dallas convention hotel taxpayer subsidy remains unclear, but that's not slowing progress

The problem with this issue is that, for most of us, "who cares?" is the common reaction. But it bothers me that Mayor Tom Leppert and our cith council seem prepared to spend $300-400 million of our tax money on a new convention center hotel downtown without telling us enough about the deal so we can figure it out ourselves.

The Observer and writer Sam Merten offer an interesting story this week on the hotel, the $40 million land purchase the city has already committed to and how the city reached this point after more than 10 years of discussion. The conclusion: It's certainly possible we need a convention center hotel, but no ones agrees on how much we should be paying to subsidize one. (Disclosure: Merten's wife, a graphic designer, freelances for our magazines from time to time.)

PR wonder Carol Reed discusses building support for DISD and Dallas Achieves

You loved her work supporting the Trinity toll road; hear Carol Reed lay out a plan to build community support for DISD's "Dallas Achieves" initiative at Monday's meeting of Public School People. Reed has played her hand masterfully in many of the city's big political campaigns during the past few years, so her involvement in DISD issues is both interesting and encouraging. The meeting is free, open to anyone on a come-as-you-are basis, and is scheduled from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (bring your own lunch) at the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce, 10707 Preston Road @ Royal (southwest corner behind the bank buildings).

Some more Trinity excitement, and why we so enjoy Dallas' Only Daily Newspaper

On Saturday on page 2, The News had a four-paragraph story that said that the Trinity River project (yes, the one we had all the fuss about) made a list of the country's most nefarious pork barrel wastes of government money. Or at least it did if you could decipher it. Which, thankfully, Jim Schutze at the Observer managed to do.)

So what do we see in Monday's paper? A story about how wonderful the Trinity project is -- more specifically, the Great Trinity Forest program. It's on the front page of the paper, and the web version included video. In other words, both were more than four paragraphs buried on page 2.

Coincidence? Yes, and I'm going to be invited to Mayor Park Cities next invitation-only soiree. I take a lot of flack here for keeping an eye on The News, but when it does stuff like this, someone has to say something.

Cue the Twilight Zone theme song

About the only thing this Trinity toll road story doesn't have is Rod Serling: "You're traveling through another dimension -- a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's a signpost up ahead: your next stop: the Twilight Zone!"

Boy, does it make my head hurt.