Members in the News
Tom Lazo: Vote no to relieve traffic, improve tourism and unite two disparate sides of Dallas
06:22 AM CDT on Thursday, October 25, 2007
I was born and raised in West Dallas, in a Hispanic barrio named Ledbetter, located near Singleton Boulevard along the west edge of the Trinity River. Today, most of the barrio neighborhoods along the Trinity still are Hispanic barrios, with a small pocket of neighborhoods of African-American citizens living mostly in public housing.
These barrios are the gateway to Oak Cliff from the north. I still consider this area as one of the most neglected parts of Dallas. That's a shame, because this area has good, hard-working people with strong moral values.
Let me share three major reasons why I support the Vote No! campaign and am voting against Proposition 1 on Nov. 6.
For many years, the Trinity has been the dividing line of our city – minorities to south and west of the river, non-minorities to the north and east. I have been fortunate – or maybe, to some, unfortunate – to have co-chaired the 1990 and 2000 redistricting commissions for City Council seats. The census counts in 1990 and 2000 indicated almost the same population percentages on either side of the river. To date, we only have one council district that crosses the Trinity, the District 6 seat currently represented by Steve Salazar.
During a public hearing of the 2000 commission I was amazed that people who lived in the northern part of that proposed district resisted being included and said, "We have nothing in common with people to the south." Thus my feeling today: The faster we develop Trinity Park, the faster people will come together from the north and south to relax, play and enjoy the park together. I hope we won't ever say that we have nothing in common with people on either side of the river. The park will be a place for our citizens to be united – not divided.
As former chair of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau, I know the value of a great park and what it means to attract people to our city. A great park is where people can jog, walk, relax and enjoy our city's best assets, our citizens.
A lot of people do not realize the major economic impact conventions have on our city's economy. In the 1990s, we ranked second in attracting conventions; now we have fallen far below that. Cities that couldn't compete with us back then have developed larger centers, convention hotels, great city attractions and appealing amenities. If we want to compete in this industry, we must build the park sooner, rather than later.
The heart of this vote is the proposed Trinity Parkway and whether it should be a toll road or a low-speed road inside the park. Honestly, we all know we've got to do something to relieve the traffic and pollution in an area that currently carries 268,640 vehicles per day, a number projected to jump to 343,180 per day by 2025.
As a business owner, I'm always challenged with overhead and cost of goods sold. That is the key issue here, and the main reason I support the Vote No campaign to pursue a toll road inside the levees, as opposed to starting over someplace else, probably where Industrial/Irving Boulevard currently exists.
Why? Start with an estimated $500 million in added costs to the road project and up to five years in additional delays to build it on Industrial/Irving Boulevard, because the city would have to buy about 800 parcels of land and force the relocation of about 400 businesses. Let's not forget court challenges from property owners who do not wish to move or sell.
Where are we the citizens – not Tom Leppert or Angela Hunt – going to find the additional money?
Now let's look at what we give up by building a toll road inside the levees. The Trinity Park ranges from 5 1/2 to nine football fields wide – yet the toll road will be about 40 yards wide. We see longer field goals than that every Sunday.
People say a toll road is dangerous and does not fit beside a grand park. I ask, "Have you been to Washington, D.C.," where a high-speed road and a park co-exist very nicely?
I encourage the citizens of Dallas to vote no Nov. 6. A no vote means yes to bringing citizens together, creating enormous economic impact and delivering a much-needed traffic reliever road at a lower cost.
Tom Lazo is a West Dallas business owner and former chairman of the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. His e-mail address is tlazo@lazotech.com.
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