D Magazine : The Front Burner

		<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> document.write('<a href="http://clk.atdmt.com/CLH/go/dmgzpsew0020000243clh/direct/01/" target="_blank"><img src="http://view.atdmt.com/CLH/view/dmgzpsew0020000243clh/direct/01/"/></a>'); </script><noscript><a href="http://clk.atdmt.com/CLH/go/dmgzpsew0020000243clh/direct/01/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://view.atdmt.com/CLH/view/dmgzpsew0020000243clh/direct/01/" /></a></noscript>

Return to Front Burner

JIM SCHUTZE IS AT IT AGAIN

Let us pass over his encomium on Mitchell Rasansky, arguably one of the two worst members of the current City Council. Let's go instead to his most embarrassing sentences:

Think about it. Imagine you are one of the powers pushing this multibillion-dollar public works project for the last half-century, especially the six- to eight-lane freeway they want to build next to their own property along the river.

In 1992, then-mayor Steve Bartlett asked the late Robert Hoffman to lead a massive reevaluation of the city's assets and liabilities. In drawing up what would become The Dallas Plan, Hoffman and his team held over 100 well-attended public meetings before presenting the final document to the City Council for approval in 1994. The major finding of the Plan was that Dallas would never be able to make use of the its greatest natural asset--the Trinity River--without huge financial help.

How to get that help? For generations the Trinity River had been thought about solely as a recreational project. Hoffman and his committee saw that if it were reconceived as a transportation and flood control project, federal dollars would become available. And that's what happened. By planning a reliever road extension along the Trinity and by bolstering and increasing the height of the levees to prevent a 100-year flood disaster, $900 million was committed by various agencies of the federal government. All that remained to trigger the funding was for the citizens of the Dallas to commit their share, which they did in the 1998 bond election.

Jim Schutze may be entirely ignorant of the years of work and hours of volunteer effort put into this project by citizens like Robert Hoffman who would never benefit from the project but whose sole motivation was to build a better city. Or he may just like indulging in conspiracy theories about rich people. Robert Hoffman was a rich guy. He was just the sort of person Schutze likes to target. And he was just the sort of person who had the vision, the patience, the commitment, and the grit to lead this city to finally accomplish what every generation before has failed to accomplish: turning a trashy little gutter into our city's great civic asset.

Grow up, Schutze. This city has been served by great men, and you can learn from them.

Wick Allison · January 5, 2007 09:22 AM