If you haven’t been reading about the Trinity River Project scandal over that last year, you absolutely need to get up to speed. Basically, in 1998, Dallas voters approved the funding to transform the Trinity River bottom just west of downtown into an urban park. The project was beautifully rendered with picturesque images of sailboats, fountains, parks, and trails.
Unfortunately, it seems that all that was just used to entice the public to fund the building of a six-lane toll road hidden within the fine print of the original Proposition No. 11. Here’s what it said.
Proposition No. 11:
“The issuance of $246,000,000 general obligation Trinity River Corridor Project bonds, the project to include floodways, levees, waterways, open space, recreational facilities, the Trinity Parkway and related street improvements, and other related, necessary, and incidental improvements to the Trinity River Corridor.”
And now, after 10 years, nothing has been done at all to make the Trinity makeover a reality. Instead, all the effort has been allocated to this giant highway right through the park. Even if a park does eventually get built there, who wants to go on a run underneath a giant slab of concrete while breathing smog. Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, along with other city officials and they’re supporters, claimed that we could not have the park without the road, which has turned out to be a complete lie. They’ve used scare tactics to deter people from fighting against the developers and politicians, telling them that we could lose all of our funding to another city if we don’t shut up and just go along with something we didn’t vote for, or even want.
But until June 28, Dallas citizens who are REGISTERED VOTERS, have the opportunity to sign a petition to relcaim the Trinity River Project. Get more information from the TrinityVote site, and download the petition for yourself and friends.
Here are some other links for some more info:
Dallas Progress
KERA From May 21st, 2007
Dallas Observer
The Trinity River Corridor Project