What the Trinity petition drive really means

Conspiracy theory update: Jim Schutze at the Observer reports that he is hearing rumblings that something untoward will happen when the 80,000 signatures go to pass muster. Perhaps. But that would be a tad obvious, even for the anti-referendum people. I'm still betting on a vicious, nasty campaign to discredit the pro-referendum side.

From Saturday: That sound you heard last night was the collective panic of the people who think they run this city. Because we reminded them that they work for us.

It almost doesn't matter -- almost being the key word, of course -- whether the Trinity toll road referendum passes in November. What matters is that we scared the hell out of the elite and the bosses and the bureaucrats who do things not because it's good public policy but because it fits some agenda that they have.  The toll road, regardless of anything else, is bad public policy, and we reminded them of that.

In a sensible world, Mayor Park Cities and his buddies on the Citizens Council would cut their losses, announce the toll road is gone, and make the referendum irrelevant. But they aren't that politically sophisticated. This is the same group, after all, that brought us the poll blockers and that thinks people actually pay attention to Wick Allison and Plastic Surgery's Favorite Local Magazine. We poked a stick in their eyes, so they're going to run around like small children until they get even with us.

That means they'll use the considerable resources that they control to smear Angela Hunt, the councilwoman who masterminded this thing. They'll smear the Observer's Jim Schutze, whose reporting on the toll road made me proud that I was once a newspaperman. Dallas' Only Daily Newspaper, which was far from impartial during the petition drive, will forgo any semblance of impartiality during the referendum campaign.

And none of that will matter. This is how many signatures 80,000 is -- twice as many as those who voted in the 2001 city elections and 10,000 more than voted in the first round this year. We have them exactly where we want them, and it feels kind of good, doesn't it?

Comments

[Rick Wamre]

If you look at the main Morning News story this morning concerning the TrinityVote signatures (Jeff's link is to the sidebar, which takes a look at whether the proposed toll road in the levee would have flooded during the latest deluges), you'll see that our new mayor is already definitively taking a stance against the referendum, saying that by approving the referendum and demanding either revisions to the road plans or relocation of the road out of the levee, the voters will be significantly increasing the time necessary to complete the project. Leppert seemed like a thoughtful guy during the election; hopefully, he'll take a step back now just to make sure that his initial impressions about the Trinity project are correct. Angela Hunt has repeatedly cited state transportation authorities saying unequivocally that what the mayor and past council are saying about the delay is wrong. Either the mayor or Hunt is mistaken, and to me, that is what this whole referendum process will be about. Up until now, it hasn't even been possible for a citizen to really figure out what's going on with the Trinity; not that the Trinity supporters wouldn't answer questions or make information available, but that the information just didn't make sense. Also, the time period that has lapsed since initial approval in 1998 has never been fully explained away as to why things are taking so long and why the plans have unilaterally been changed over the years. This referendum, win or lose, is going to allow some light to be shed on the whole project, giving taxpayers/voters a chance to decide if the current course is still one that we like. I don't see any harm in any of this. If once every 10 years the politicians have to check in with the voters and justify what happened to our original $240 million investment and what is going to happen with the remaining $1 billion, what can be so wrong with that?

[Farinata X]

Whatever the ultimate outcome of this issue, I predict that you will see the real Tom Leppert during this campaign: another downtown business elite tool. Mayor Park Cities indeed.

[Norman Alston]

I'm not ready to declare any kind of victory just because a step has been taken for accountability at City Hall. The primary issue was, and remains, the fact that a major roadway through the Trinity Park would permanently screw up the greatest single physical asset this city has. It is a short-sighted notion that improved traffic flow is key to City-wide prosperity. Until the Mother of Bad Ideas is dead and buried, there is no victory, only progress.