Posted on 10/01/2006 7:49:34 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
About 30 opponents of Gov. Rick Perry’s controversial Trans-Texas Corridor plan for superhighways statewide rallied at the McLennan County Courthouse Saturday morning, waving plastic bags of soil and vowing to resist any efforts involving eminent domain to seize their land for highway construction.
“This is a little piece of my land,” Riesel rancher and farmer Robert Cervenka said. “And this is all they’re going to get from me without a fight.”
Although some of those gathered at the steps of the courthouse were allied with independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, others said they were for any political force capable of jettisoning Perry from office and derailing his Trans-Texas Corridor toll road plan.
The rally was one of about 40 mounted across the state Saturday, largely coordinated through Strayhorn’s campaign.
The candidate chose to make appearances in Gonzales and at the Alamo because of their significance in Texas’ battle for independence.
Perry spokesman Robert Black says Strayhorn needs to tell Texans what she will do to meet the fierce traffic demand on Texas’ current highways, saying her calls for transportation revenue bonds and expanding Interstate 35 are too expensive.
Proposed by Perry in 2002 to accommodate the state’s projected trade and population growth, the massive corridor would cut across Texas from the Mexican border to Oklahoma. The plan has drawn fire for what some believe would be its displacement of farmland, its funding as a toll road and the choice of a Spanish company to develop it.
A group favoring the corridor project, Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation, issued a statement Saturday reminding motorists that nearly half of all Texans live within 50 miles of Interstate 35 and that “current traffic nightmares along Interstate 35 are projected to get worse if additional road capacity is not built.”
Texas’ population is expected to grow 65 percent in the next 25 years, the group said, while road use is projected to increase 214 percent. Unless Texans change their approach to transportation, road capacity will grow by only 6 percent, the statement said.
“Texas is growing, and our transportation system must grow too,” TSRT chairman Joe Krier said. “Good roads positively impact all aspects of our lives. Texans should know that the alternative to not building the Trans-Texas Corridor is more gridlock, outrageously higher gas taxes and solutions that will take years longer to deliver.
“Opponents of the Trans-Texas Corridor offer no meaningful solutions,” Krier said.
Area Republican activist Dot Snyder, who has property in Coryell County, acknowledged at the local protest Saturday morning the dangerous congestion on I-35 but said Perry’s plan, including the upheaval it would cause Texans in the form of land grabs and toll roads, carries too high a price.
“There are just bound to be better solutions,” she said. “If Gov. Perry’s plan is so good, why doesn’t he put it up for a vote of the people?”
Also during the local rally, Hallsburg Mayor Mike Glockzin faulted area politicians who say they oppose the corridor plan but refused to cross party lines Saturday to show solidarity with protesters. He said such politicians “need to grow a backbone.”
The McLennan County Commissioners Court has condemned the Trans-Texas Corridor as a threat to rural Central Texas, but none of the commissioners attended Saturday’s rally.
"just ranch land"
Shame on you.
You can make them pay thorough the nose so you can move that manufacturing plant. Ranch land and its ecosystem, once paved, is lost forever.
No, they are indicative of the vocal few opponents. People who are satisfied or don't care usually aren't driven to go to the trouble of seeking out and spamming forums for spouting off, taking time to write out responses, etc. Even here in Texas you can always go to various forums (including newspaper websites) and find numerous vitriolic posts against President Bush, the war in Afghanistan, in support of Michael Moore, yet actual scientific polls have time and again shown that this vocal group is not in any way representative of anything close to the majority. Same here, but nice try.
There are four main areas of objection:
The plan is a multi-billion dollar project financed with government loans going to a foreign firm. Somebody's pocketing an absolute friggin fortune out of this.
Same ol' bullsh!t lie told time and again, "Halliburton is profiting from the war, as are all their bought and paid for GOP hacks", just cut-n-paste the faux villian de jour. The truth is that the plan is for only 30% fed LOANS (apparently you either need to look up that word in a dictionary or try to learn actual facts before starting into a Michael Moore rant of slander and lies) and 70% privately financed. The loans are from a program specifically designed for encouraging toll roads because that will leverage private funding. Traditional road funding has been as high as 90% fed paid for (most to all NOT loans) so this program is designed to greatly reduce the amount of taxpayer funds spent on roads. Very simple, but almost non of the anti-TTC spammers seem to grasp the difference between taxpayer funding and private funding.
This is killing Perry in the rural parts of the state, which are normally Republican strongholds. The resentment of Perry right now is palpable. Central Texans feel invaded by illegals already, and the concept of taking land to turn over to a foreign company has them furious. The only reason Perry's not running second is because Kinky and One Nutty Grandma are splitting the anti-Perry vote.
Yes, the ignorant knee-jerkers and the liars have been somewhat effective in scaring and fooling many rural folks who haven't had the time or inclination to research the actual facts. Bill Clinton was often able to pull off the same, but that is nothing to be proud of.
The proposed cost of using the corridor will be $15 to take a one way trip from Waco to Austin (100 miles) and nearly $100 for a big truck.
Again, ignorance is not your friend. That is based on a proposed maximum rate allowed, but of course the rate will vary with market demand. Early on the toll rate may be lower until demand justifies it, but notice that most of the cost will be paid for by trucks. Right now taxpayers pay for most of the road maintenance, while taxes and fees on trucks only cover about 15-35% (depending on which studies one believes most accurate) of the damage they do to highways. This plan will better match costs to users (trucks) and there are plenty of options (especially incentives) that the state can employ to encourage truck use of the tollways. But most importantly, you will only pay for this road if you CHOSE to use it. Why are you so insistent that every taxpayer pay to build roads that they may never use?
A lot of people in Texas are becoming convinced that the Perry wing of the Texas GOP doesn't give a d*mn about Texas, but simply wants to advance the unified North American Continent, eliminating countries.
Same ol' Michael Moore-style bullsh!t. Actually examining the facts would demonstrate that claim to be total nonsense, but kooks never let facts get in the way of their grand conspiracies.
Please ping me with any news on this (trans Texas).
Thanks
Hazcat
Please ping me to what you find. I don't have the time to dig through 1600 pages, but am interested in what you find that you think may be problems.
Glad that they finally released all portions of it. Have you seen if your land would be affected by the likely preferred options? Pretty detailed maps here:
http://www.keeptexasmoving.com/projects/ttc35/master_development_plan.aspx
(For those unfamiliar, click on the dots on the map to see detailed schematics of possible routes for a particular segment)
While TXDOT is correct that those are not yet the determined route (legally they can't choose one until the NEPA process (including the hearings) are complete, the detailed maps are likely where it will go, though it certainly can be changed based on a variety of reasons.
Diddle, all those public hearings this summer in which TxDOT was supposedly listening to us peons were packed. Literally thousands of ordinary folks came to be heard, and they were not.
They were not a "vocal few opponents." They were many. They were not spammers or ignorant knee-jerkers. I know. I was there. I was quiet, but I was there, and I saw, and I heard.
As for those rural folk who're being taken in by your phantom scaremongers, you need to show a little respect.
I am rural folk. My family has been on the land in Cooke County for seven generations. We have degrees and advanced degrees. We also know how to DO things, not just spout and spew and plan. We are not the ignorant clod-hoppers you portray us to be. And we feel like we're being "had" by Rick Perry and his dratted plan to take our way of life.
This country was built by our ancestors, the old-timers who fought in the Revolution, moved West, then moved West again, in covered wagons and by stagecoach, clearing timber and building the homes and farms that we now try to preserve. We, the descendants of those pioneers, have an easier life than our forefathers, but their dedication to hard work and all-American values have been passed down through the generations.
You may be more polished, but you're not one durn bit smarter or more important than the humble folk you scorn.
I don't have time to dig through 1600 pages, either, but what else can I do to preserve my family's farm? Looks to me like some yahoo in Austin with a magic marker had a good time drawing lines.
Unfortunately, I know what lies under those lines, and what they've got in mind for Cooke County is an abomination. The public hearing there last summer was so packed that they had to schedule a second meeting, and the response was overwhelmingly that this road is not welcome there.
If they want to get all that China junk from western Mexico to Kansas City, how about a big air cargo facility on the Pacific coast of Mexico and a receiving facility in KC? Does anyone seriously want all that stuff trucking through Texas?
I don't want the smog, I don't want the national security implications (road, rail, and utilities all in one convenient corridor, how totally stupid can we be??), and I don't want tons of concrete covering up my land and that of my friends and neighbors.
I don't have a problem with those who actually try to get the facts and then reach conclusions, regardless of their conclusions. I do have a problem with those who simply go to a dubious website or two and swallow the most ridiculous propaganda without question, ya know, like "Jorge Bush wants to merge the US with Mexico so as to smuggle illegal aliens and Chinese weapons into the heartland, because the Bildeburgers have told him to do so." Yes, intelligence has nothing to do with location, that isn't the issue.
I've gotten the impression that you are honest and willing to search out more info, and from both sides of the argument, hence the stark difference in tone in my posts to you versus some who simply spam the latest false talking points and conspiracy theories to these threads. Yes, I unfortunately lost my cool, but it burns me up to see issues decided on bold-faced lies and the duping of honest people. And the term 'ignorance' has a specific meaning that in and of itself is not a pejorative.
If you look into the issue (and digging through 1600 pages certainly is going beyond the call of duty!) and still are against the TTC, I understand.
Diddle, you're my FRiend. Apologies if I chewed on you too harshly. I feel strongly about this, and, yes, I've researched it and will be getting deeper into the fight as time goes on.
I know there's some wacko stuff out there, but this TTC plan does indeed sacrifice a big hunk of Texas heritage to international trade. And the national security implications are distressing.
From all the maps I've seen, it is just one additional highway through Cooke County, and last I read, that portion wasn't scheduled until after 2025. We eventually will need more road capacity, and it has to go somewhere. If we let a small number of landowners block every road, we wouldn't have any interstates, and would be much worse off because of it. At least TXDOT is trying to impact the fewest number of people (which not coincidentally results in the lowest cost route.)
Again, this whole Kansas City thing is a red herring. The road is being built to handle increase traffic, only a portion of which is destined to KC (no different than how things are now.) There are similar warehouse/repacking/mixing/transfer facilities planned in San Antonio, Houston, south Dallas, just like those already existing on a smaller scale there and on a larger scale in Memphis, Virginia, Seattle, northern California, southern Cal, Chicago, and New Jersey. Lots of jobs in sorting and repacking imports and domestic goods for shipment to final destinations, that's what this about, not some grand conspiracy. It is simply expanding the chain from producer to consumer that already exists.
BTW, most of the long-haul import traffic will go by rail, it is the repackaged and domestic traffic that will go by truck, other than local deliveries from regional rail unloading points. Once again, if this is all about Mexican/Chinese imports rather than responding to increased Texas traffic, why is the first portion to be built going to be San Antonio-DFW, while the Oklahoma and Laredo extensions not planned until after 2025? The area along I-35 in Texas is adding the equivalent population of another Austin area every 4-5 years.
As to smog, slow, stop-n-go, and idling autos pollute far more than the same number travelling at speed. So if we don't build the road, the smog from congestion will be worse. Luckily the wind usually blows in north Texas, so smog isn't going to be an issue in Cooke County (except from that blown in from the growing DFW area, growth which is going to happen regardless of whether or not this road is built.)
You weren't too harsh, for me blunt is good, makes it easier for me to understand how others feel and view something.
I just don't see any nat'l security issues. The porous border is a completely different problem, unaffected by this road (which doesn't create any new border crossings and doesn't cross the border, but rather ends short of existing crossing facilities.) The road is likely to have cameras all along its length, both at toll plazas and for safety and traffic monitoring. Why would anyone with nefarious intentions use that road when they could use unmonitored and lightly patrolled backroads?
The road will be 800' wide, so only the biggest bomb would close it for more than a few days (with traffic rerouted or staged while waiting on repairs.) Why would terrorists waste a huge bomb on a road/rail/utilities facility that might kill a few dozen when such could be deployed in a city to kill tens of thousands? They can knock out utilities on that trunk line for a few days, but that just reduces capacity temprorarily during repairs, since those lines will be in addition to what currently exists. Bridges are more vulnerable, but there aren't many places requiring large ones, and it would take a huge bomb to knock out all the parallel bridges and lines. Again, that would just reduce capacity until repairs are done. The Sunshine Skyway south of St. Petersburg, FL was a far bigger chokepoint, but when it was knocked down by a boat in fog the area adjusted until it was repaired.
I just don't see big security problems worthy of abandoning the project.
Me: The proposed cost of using the corridor will be $15 to take a one way trip from Waco to Austin (100 miles) and nearly $100 for a big truck.
You: Again, ignorance is not your friend. That is based on a proposed maximum rate allowed, but of course the rate will vary with market demand.
Like most of the rest of your post, you insult me and call me ignorant, but you fail to contradict my points. You acknowledge that what I said was accurate, but call me ignorant. I prefer not to insult people on this forum, so please don't reply to me again.
ROFL!!!
Did you line up against the original Interstate Highway system too?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1710372/posts
"Tolls could be 15 cents a mile for cars, 59 cents for trucks. At that rate, a 145-mile, one-way trip from south of Mansfield to north of Austin would be $22 - or for truckers, $85."
Pretty clear. Again, not a huge issue, but an easy illustration of how so much of this project is being misreported and misrepresented, and toll rates have been one of many false accusations against the TTC.
I certainly won't ping you, but if you make an accusation against the subject matter of a thread, especially a false or miselading one, you can't expect for people not to refute it, demands notwithstanding.
You haven't seen my property taxes. Talk about oppressive. Just 10 years ago it equalled 2 weeks take-home pay. Today, it's nearly 2 months take-home pay. Same house. Same job.
no, not old enough. But this as you well know is eirly different. This is a land grabbing boondoggle through and through.
eirly = entirely
Watching the game.
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