Awhile back I was put in my proper place by a Trinity River Uptown Vision spokesperson for referring to this 'visionary' project as a likely boondoggle. Now hardly a week seems to go by where there is not yet one more letter to the editor in Fort Worth's most widely read newspaper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, that also refers to the 'vision' as a boondoggle.The boondoggle's defenders paints it as a wide-ranging 'vision' that will transform Fort Worth, giving it a little lake, some canals, flood control (that is already controlled), wetlands restoration, recreational opportunities, like kayaking, (the little lake will be too small for power boats or skiing) but there may be developments like condos and restaurants on the canals.
One of the more observant Fort Worthers, Don Woodward, had a good letter printed about the Trinity Vision in this morning's Star Telegram....
Blind support for Trinity project
All the Republican and Democratic presidential and vice-presidential candidates say they are against earmarks.
John McCain boasts he has never sponsored an earmark, and vows to veto any ear mark that comes across his desk in the Oval Office. Sarah Palin turned against the infamous Ketchikan Bridge to Nowhere after it became a national symbol of wasteful spending. Palin told PBS’ Jim Lehrer, “We killed the bridge because we don’t want to pay for it and the rest of the nation doesn’t want to pay for it.”
Eyeing Rep. Kay Granger’s Trinity Uptown boondoggle, Palin might well have asked her, “Why should you have three designer bridges and I no bridge at all?”
In recently opening the funding floodgates for Trinity Uptown, John Woodley, assistant secretary of the Army’s civil works division, said that “the rest of the country is closely watching” this project. Indeed they are. And when congressmen from other states see their projects axed, who thinks they are not going to vote to kill Fort Worth’s Trinity Uptown boondoggle?
Col. Christopher Martin, commander of the Corps of Engineers Fort Worth division, said “It is a difficult process to get projects going in the United States anywhere. Trinity Uptown has been completed at light speed.” Granger, R-Fort Worth, was hailed as the “driving force who pushed the project through the byzantine approval process in Congress.” Shame on Granger!
Savvy Sarah way up north in the land of the Aurora Borealis saw the lights and cut loose from her bridge. How long will it be before our eminent domain-loving congresswoman receives the enlightening epiphany that her earmarked nepotistic elusive dream will be DOA in a McCain or Obama Oval Office? None is so blind as she who will not see.
— Don Woodard, Fort Worth
Well, I can't speak for whoever it was that you're referring to in the first part of this post, but I can say that I am a strong TRV supporter. It'll open up a lot of land in the central city for dense development, with the opportunity to add thousands of residences and many new offices and retail spaces to the urban core - developments that in many cases wouldn't be possible without the TRV, because of the levees and such. Enabling that much new development in a walkable, bikeable, transit-supported environment is only a good thing in my book - it's exactly the sort of development this city needs to be encouraging, rather than sprawling to the farthest reaches of the region with car-dependent exurbs. And if we can do so while improving the Trinity's flood control, parks systems, and more, then hey, bonus, as far as I'm concerned.
ReplyDeleteNot asking anybody to agree, but that's my perspective. I can't get behind "boondoggle" - there's too many positive effects to come from this. It's a project that'll add so much to the city for so long a time into the future. As development patterns continue to shift and the usual post-WWII development patterns become more and more unworkable I'll be glad to have the TRV to give us that much more room for great sustainable developments.
All IMHO, of course. Your mileage, as they say, may vary.
When the TRV project is referred to as a likely boondoggle it is due to some people thinking that since this is not being funded directly by Fort Worth after a supporting vote of its citizens, and is relying on Federal earmarks and since both McCain and Obama say they will not sign any bills containing earmarks, this seems to set the stage for the Trinity River Vision's eventual doom and descent into boondoggledom. Unless the people of Fort Worth step up and actually support the project directly. To say the project is going to be a likely boondoggle is not to say the project is without merit. The Mercado in the Fort Worth Stockyards zone was a good plan. But it turned into a boondoggle. I hope the TRV does not turn into a boondoogle. But I wouldn't bet any money that it won't.
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