Voting on Boondoggles in Texas and Washington

I mentioned last week, or was it the week before, that voting is so different in Texas than I was used to in Washington. In Texas it seems you vote on dozens upon dozens of judges. And a couple other things. I didn't bother voting on the judges because I knew nothing about them. It took me less than 15 seconds to vote in Texas. It used to take way longer in Washington.

I did vote yes on the only to non-human things on the ballot, that being allowing booze to be sold in stores and restaurants in Fort Worth. I did not understand the need for these two propositions because you can already buy booze in stores and restaurants in Fort Worth.

By way of showing the extreme contrast in what the citizens get to vote for in Washington and Texas, three Washington counties, King, Pierce and Snohomish voted in favor of expanding the, soon to open, light rail. And to expand the regional bus system. The light rail will now go north to Lynnwood in Snohomish County, south to Federal Way and east, across the I-90 floating bridge, to Bellevue and Redmond. Redmond is where Microsoft is located.

I can't imagine any combo of the counties that make up the D/FW Metroplex voting on a proposition together for their mutual benefit. When the Dallas Cowboys demanded a new stadium there was no suggestion that all of North Texas vote to fund it, or the towns of the D/FW Metroplex, or even one county of the Metroplex. Instead it fell to the little town of Arlington to vote to tax themselves to build the $billion plus stadium. And abuse their neighbors with the most outrageous use of eminent domain in American history.

Contrast what was done to Arlington to get a new stadium for Jerry Jones with what was done in Seattle to get the Seahawks a new stadium. The entire state of Washington voted and passed the proposal to tear down the Kingdome and build a new stadium. The population of Washington is smaller than the population of the D/FW Metroplex.

Fort Worth is moving ahead with a, in my opinion, bizarre, likely boondoggle plan, to alter the Trinity River to build a little lake, some canals, a flood control diversion channel and some wetlands restoration. This is called the Trinity River Vision. The main trouble I see with this supposed vision is that the citizens of Fort Worth have not been allowed to vote on this project which will greatly alter their city.

In my opinion it should be against the law to use eminent domain to take property for projects the public has not approved of via the ballot box.

The fact that the citizens of Fort Worth do not get to vote on Fort Worth projects may be why so many of them turn into boondoggles. The Ruling Junta does not have to make its case to the people, they just plow ahead, like a dictatorship. Stalin used to come up with some rather goofy Trinity River Vision type boondoggles. There I would have been likely shot for calling a Stalin project a boondoggle.

Here in Fort Worth I feel relatively safe from the Ruling Junta. Relatively.