Philip Kingston Is Pissed About the Mayor's Trinity Toll Road Breakfast

By Stephen Young Wed., Nov. 19 2014 at 3:30 PM

Here you go, Mr. Mayor.

One thing is clear after Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings' 15-minute speech Wednesday at a Trinity Groves breakfast: It can't possibly be about what he said it was about. There is no way that after all the time, all the "balloon juice," that's been expelled over the issue, that he can possibly be befuddled over what the road will look like or how he feels about it.
"I don't understand how a guy can be the mayor of Dallas and say that he's confused about this project. I don't think that's acceptable," says Philip Kingston, Dallas City Council member and curator of the Trinity Toll Road Naughty and Nice List.

Rawlings said at the breakfast that no one could judge the toll road because it hasn't been built yet. Those fearful of a potential six-lane freeway between the levies being built rather than the compromise, four-lane, meandering parkway are getting ahead of themselves.

"[That] truly boggles my mind because no one has seen it," he said.

Beyond the obvious -- that human beings can envision something that's been described to them based on previous experiences -- Kingston says we have, in fact, seen it.

"There are schematics that have been submitted to the federal government for approval. There are rendering from the [North Texas Tollway Authority]'s own designer that were presented to the Trinity River and transportation committee in April. They're still up on the city's website. To say that we don't know what this road looks like is simply false," he says.

Alternative 3C is the plan for the road diagrammed on page 35 and 36 of this linked presentation. Kingston says that it's the only version of the toll road that can possibly be built, something that's been known for years.

"The mayor kept saying we don't know what the road looks like. That is infuriating. It's an absolute fraud," he said.

Rawlings' naming a crew to re-examine the toll road is not, as D Magazine's Tim Rogers suggested, about giving the mayor and 2015 City Council candidates an escape hatch from the Trinity Toll Road boondoggle. If the mayor's dream team of designers comes up with a road that can't be built -- too slow, too expensive, no tolls -- then no one can blame a candidate for not supporting the road, Rogers said. Kingston said Rudy Bush at The Dallas Morning News nailed the real, more cynical meaning. Council candidates who are counting on support from the ever-shrinking but influential band of toll-road supporters can tell road opponents -- i.e. most people -- that they don't support the road per se.

"They won't have to say, 'I'm for the road.' They can say,'I'm for the mayor's process,'" Kingston says.

And that process is aimed directly at building a six-lane toll road. We're pretty sure that's the plan, Mr. Mayor. City Hall -- the place where your office is -- told us so.

We Recommend

noblefurrtexas topcommenter

The mayor is many things, but visionary doesn't seem to be one of them. If citizens and key government officials couldn't make a decision about a project until it was built, this country would be both bankrupt and full of white elephant boondoggles.

This isn't some stupid bridge that will still be a bridge, no matter and ugly - and largely paid for by someone else. This is a thoroughfare on which many people will drive, and which also is subject to all kinds of destructive physical forces from flooding. (Most sane people would never build a highway in-or-near a river bed that floods.

This roadway is not just a stupid idea, but an expensive stupid idea with opportunity costs that would mean we couldn't build other projects or roads.

So far, the mayor's bicycle paths are an utter failure, and the bicycle lanes downtown are suicide adventures.

I'm not sure I'd turn this guy loose with what amounts to a highway when he can't get bicycle paths right.

Catbird

"Rawlings said at the breakfast that no one could judge the toll road because it hasn't been built yet." This sounds a lot like the sales job Nancy Pelosi did for OBAMA CARE. This is a genuine fraud.

bryanr01

Mind. Officially. Boggled.

greenvillite

Here's what really makes me mad: the Mayor is likely clogging up an ER tonight with 3rd degree buttcheek burns. And I'll bet its not Presby.

raymondmcrawford

Since the Dallas Citizens Council is helping to fund the study along with anonymous donors and since Mike is the DCC's water boy, you can bet that at the end of the study, it's not going to shrink in size. Why would the DCC give in to critics and shrink their plan?

ColonelAngus

"Those fearful of a potential six-lane freeway between the levies being built rather than the compromise, four-lane, meandering parkway are getting ahead of themselves."

Didn't you mean "levees," Stephen?

Wait, on second thought, levies works too. Better.

kboyer1011

My bullshit meter went off the charts the first time I met Mike Rawlings. He has repeatedly proved me correct.

ozonelarryb

Shouldn't the whole thing be shown underwater, as nobody has successfully been able to consistently defy Mother Nature.

Also, shouldn't Mikey have handed out toothpaste for snyone who swallowed his line of crapola?

theslowpath

The pre-frontal cortex (just tap your forehead) is that part of the brain that, among other things, acts as an experience simulator. This is how you can imagine the pain of having a finger cut off, even if that's never happened to you.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695391/

This is the part of the brain that lets us imagine trying to play frisbee golf in an urban park while being drowned on the fumes and noise from 10 lanes of traffic (six lanes of toll road, plus 4 lanes of access road)

downtownworker

So we're not allowed to oppose the toll road until AFTER it's built? Good one Mayor. LOLZ

OxbowIncident

Who is paying for the consulting fees of the "Dream Team"?

Catbird

I'm looking at the photo above and I see the tollway but I can't find the park. Is this right?

Catbird

I'd like to amend the above post by saying that I followed the link to D Magazine Front Burner and watched the video of Larry Beasley's talk on the connected city. It was good. Very good.

noblefurrtexas topcommenter

@ColonelAngus Waitin on the levee, waitin for the Robert E. Lee. Why can't I get that song out of my head after I read this story!?!

I love the parallel between Nancy Botox Pelosi's famous line, "You've got to pass the bill to know what's in it", and the mayor's how can you criticize something that isn't even guilt yet.

Democrats!

Gangy

@kboyer1011 I agree. Plus, my bully meter rang loud alarms.

James080

@downtownworker

A Pelosioan-like platitude - We have to build it to see what's in it.

RTGolden1 topcommenter

@downtownworker It worked for the ACA.

Bremarks

@OxbowIncident The usual suspects -- Dallas Citizens Council, Dallas Chamber, Real Estate Council and "anonymous donors."

theslowpath

@OxbowIncident Private contributors, supposedly.

Bremarks

@Catbird Yep.

Catbird

....but he only described competition ideas for development outside the floodway north of the levee on the downtown side which illustrated "tiered" or "layered" urban neighborhood connections to the Trinity which mostly stop at the top of the levee.

From looking back and forth between the presentations you can see the thing starting to gel around placing the tollway on the Oak Cliff side of the floodway, the walls of the road possibly replacing the levee itself for flood control, with the river in the middle and then the jazzy urban connector neighborhoods on the downtown side.

No real access to the river from Oak Cliff except over the toll road. Maybe they can connect Oak Cliff to the river with Clyde Warren style deck parks across the road.

If there is going to be a toll road then this is probably the best way to do it but the whole idea of the Trinity River being elevated from a storm sewer to the heartbeat of the largest urban park in the world has to be released.

Catbird

@Gangy @kboyer1011 he does look like he could bust your thumbs pretty well

ColonelAngus

@James080 @downtownworker We have to build it, wait for the first flood, then see what happens.

Annonnymous

Who is paying for Suhm? Why does she still have full access to City Hall and staff? She is a lobbyist so she needs to follow the rules tgat are applicable to other lobbyists. The former librarian is wayyyy out of her league when it comes to dealing with the Mayor's panel of experts. Get rid of the toll road and Suhm.