Posted on 04/08/2006 5:05:31 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
I know people here support this thing but it has TxDOT boondoggle written all over it.
Boy, what a behind the times opinion that is.
The way I see it, we can either decide that we've built all the roads we'll ever need, or we can just continue to expand without a plan always in a reactive mode.
The third choice is to make a strategic plan for what the world will look like in 40 years and design a transportation system that improves commerce in a way that minimizes the impact and directs it in the direction we'd like it to look like.
A Texas sized "Big Dig".
Perry's road is a strategic plan? It does look like a plan to me. It looks like Perry's retirement plan. I bet one way or another when Perry leaves office he makes some major bank off his little road.
I know people here support this thing but it has TxDOT boondoggle written all over it.
It's obviously a plan. It wasn't random words thrown out there that happened to fall into sentences and create maps.
Your statement doesn't even begin to make sense.
Further, what's your theory about how this makes Perry money?
If it's not any more logical than your first assertion about it not being a plan, don't even bother.
Maybe I should not have said that about Perry and money. I'm sure he has some talent he can bring in to play after he leaves public office. I've only made the same kind of prediction once before when I thought someone in a high office in Texas was up to maing things better for himself after public life. The fellows name was Dan Morales.
Thanks for the ping!
Either the numbers are wrong, or they are scamming some NYC bankers. That's almost 200 houses per acre.
The only way you could do that is with an urban high rise. And Parker County sure isn't urban.
BTTT
You'll have to explain to me how any new roads are built without the use of private property.
I'll put you firmly in the camp of those who believe no new roads should ever be built.
Roads are bad.
Who said anything about unjust compensation?
I did. Do you personally know numerous people that are directly in or adjacent to proposed roads and that because of that they can't sell their homes because nobody will buy them? Where whole subdivisions lose large valuations just because TxDOT has mapped out proposed roads? Roads that may or may not be built depending on where the politics turns? I do. I know some of those people.
The process that is involved with building something like the TTC is not a new one. The same process occurs in cities and towns all over the state all the time. After seeing such a process close up and seeing how the process affects some folks I'd say that it's not the norm that the people that are displaced get what their property is actually worth. They are caught in a trap. And besides the lower values accessed there is a lot more than just money lost many times when these takings occur.
And things happen way "before the fact" of the road being built where people lose significant amounts of money. Imagine you have a house or property that's in or near one of these proposed roads and you have to sell for some reason. You take a huge loss or as some of these people have to do you just default on the mortgage because you are suddenly and very dramatically "upside down".
Some of the property where these roads are built becomes very valuable after the road is built. The people that own that property before it's taken are usually not paid what the property would be worth after it's improved. One could argue that they shold not be because they do not contribute to the improvements. That's subject to discussion in my view.
Excuse me for not beeing to keen on this taking of property for roads subject but I've seen how this works up close. And I don't like all that I have seen.
I would agree that there are problems in determining just compensation. It appears that you would solve that problem by building no more new roads ever.
If that's not your position, then you might agree that a plan to intelligently design future traffic patterns in a concentrated area is a good one, with the caveat that care must be taken to minimize the impact on private property owners and ensure that they are fairly compensated.
You have yet to do that.
I read on down, and saw that the reporter either had an agenda or was really weak in critical thinking skills.
The Corridor’s western reasonable alternative would devour approximately one-third of East Parker County ... "
Say the county is about 30 miles wide. The east half would be about 15 miles, and a third of that would be a strip 5 miles wide.
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