Posted on 02/07/2008 1:17:44 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Not one of the 11 East Texans who approached the podium at Wednesday's hearing on Interstate 69 voiced support for the planned highway.
"This is highway robbery, and we should not pursue this project," said David Simpson, a Longview resident and fifth-generation Texan. "This process has bypassed the Constitution. It has bypassed the U.S. Congress, and I'm opposed to it because of the unconstitutional way that it has been pushed through."
The public hearing, held at Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center, was a chance for residents to comment and ask questions about Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor. The corridor would extend about 650 miles from Laredo to Victoria to Houston's north and west suburbs. It would then travel through East Texas to Texarkana parallel to the U.S. 59 route, according to environmental impact studies released in December.
The corridor is a collection of passenger and freight highway lanes, utility and rail lines and pipelines. Its width could reach 1,200 feet — more than three football fields from end zone to end zone.
The Texas Department of Transportation is holding 47 public hearings in three weeks along the corridor route. TxDOT Tyler District held Wednesday's hearing in Longview because U.S. 59 touches the southeastern tip of Rusk County, according to TxDOT spokesman Larry Krantz.
About 105 residents attended Wednesday's meeting, Krantz said. Would-be participants had three options for communication: speak at the microphone, speak in private with a court reporter or write their comments. Comments are being accepted until March 19. After that, substantive comments will be addressed in the Final Environmental Impact Statement. The Federal Highway Administration then will announce whether it has selected the recommended corridor route, selected an alternative route or taken no action — an alternative that would mean that no location for the corridor has been identified.
Nearly everyone who spoke publicly Wednesday were in favor of the no-action alternative.
Some East Texans dressed the part. Nancy Falster, a Winnsboro farm owner, wore a prison outfit to depict that she and other Texans were becoming prisoners because of the corridor.
"Trans-Texas Corridor 69 will not only break us financially but shackle the future generations if this plan goes through," she said. "We already pay for the roads by taxes. What else will we be paying in the future?"
At least one person who attended the Longview hearing was not opposed to Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor. Longview District 2 Councilman Daryl Williams, who did not speak in public comment, said the planned corridor would bring benefits to his city.
"It really won't impact us much," he said. "I just want it west of Marshall."
TxDOT officials were not allowed to respond to any comments entered into record.
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Trans-Texas Corridor Meeting Allows Public to Voice Opinions
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More of the anti-American NAU nonsense. Good that people are speaking up. Thanks for posting
Wonder who is weaker on NAU/Soverignty loss...McCain, Hillary, or Obama?
BTTT
“Wonder who is weaker on NAU/Soverignty loss...McCain, Hillary”
Both are members of CFR. Both were the original front runners. Both subscribe to the NAU by proxy. Obama is the wildcard.
We don’t have a say or a choice.
Nothing will be allowed to interfere with the building of the Community. The Council has decided.
All that remains is to select the most evil person in America as president to complete the dismantling of this nation.
William J. Clinton is actually the CFR member in the family.
Cthulu 2008! Why choose a lesser evil?
If we’re going to have a race to the bottom, we should strive for rock bottom.
A possibilty : mag-lev trains on elevated rails; quiet and fast. Same thing for pipelines, optical fiber lines, etc. Have you ever walked beside a freeway/major highway? Mountains of trash, yes? So, only the columns impact the ground, not all that much different than the towers of a major electrical transmission line. Plus this could be the start of a world wide mag-lev rail network.
As to energy, rails are far more efficient than airplanes in moving vast tonnages of freight, only slow moving ships do better. Yes, it costs more, and yet there is a historical precedent : in the 1820s/1830s it was thought that canals(as in europe)were the best way to move heavy freight. So there was a competition between Harper’s Ferry and the Ohio river. The canal got an early start in funding but 10 years later was still digging. The RRs got a late start but WHIZZED right by the canal within a year. And it was about the same story with the Erie canal, now a swampy backwater. Railroads beat canals hands down.
And it was about the same story in blimps vs fixed wing aircraft. There was a point there where investors in new transportation technology didn’t know what concept to put their money on. Finally came the Hindenberg crash in 1937, and that was the end for blimps.
So, texas folks, study history. A major roadway is needed there for increased commerce, to the benefit of all, but look carefully at elevated mag-lev trains, it just might be the solution everyone can agree on.
If a dem wins the Whitehouse, he/she will open SPP up to Civil Society(unions and enviros). Bush has allowed in only the NACC(business/transnationals).
You tell us “Texas folks” to study history.
Fine and good.
Us Texas folks are adept at studying, inventing, leading, dreaming, and producing. However, your high-tech solutions don’t address the problem.
The trouble is that nobody in Rick Perry’s Austin will listen to us.
Actually I WAS a TX architect in the mid-80s, west of NASA(Webster TX). I fell in love w/TX(1970) on my way back from living winter quarter in mexico as part of an architectural class. Texas is a class unto itself, you either love it or you hate it, often at the same moment. Texans are...well... TEXIONS...different. Oil is AWL, barbed wire is BOB WAR...have an adopted brother buried in TX, vietnam and free hard drugs supplied by the vietcong eventually did him in.
Now, is this the eastern piney woods we’re talking about here? I remember they are a different breed than Steven Austin types(from TN), part cajun and thus obstinate. I liked the piney woods, that area reminded me of my native western MT.
As to the issue, it’s the old, old story of property-taking by the gov’t w/o due process and compensation. That was an issue when the constitution was written. So the Perry administration sees you as mere obstructionists and you see them as destroyers of your precious land. This is called politics my friend, it’s a lot easier to pull on a string than push on it. To wit, diplomacy and compromise really do work in confrontational situations, apes with guns(aliens refer to us as such)and breast-beating doesn’t really cut it.
So maybe everyone should sit down and think it thru, emotions don’t help, reasonable solutions do. You say you’re inventive. Good. Invent a good compromise solution that everyone can live with. Again, it’s a whole lot easier to pull on the string rather than push on it...
Been pulling for a couple of years, brother, and have no intention of quitting.
Good. Keep pulling that string. It’s maybe like 2 brothers in court, doing battle over a mother’s care(my situation right now). Finally we realized that the STATE is going to horn in and rip everything off(for a pretense they devour widow’s homes). So we have to quit butting heads and work together.
Your I-69 issue is similar. Ask male rams in rutting season : butting heads gives a guy one hellava headache. Somewhere in the whole situation is a good compromise solution. You’ve made your point : we won’t be trampled on, as they’ve made their point : expanded commerce. To wit, two advocates, who’s the solomon here(cut the baby in half?). Anyway, look beyond emotions to creative solutions, you’re TEXIONS, remember?
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