Link to article here.
Oh, my sides are splitting with laughter! TxDOT and the highway lobby cozy up at Bill Miller’s across from the MPO (and a whole lot of other places) as a matter of practice, and what gets their goat? The ONE occasion they witness a public official hearing from a citizen on their turf! Methinks they doth protest too much! Isn’t this a bit like the pot calling the kettle black? What hypocrites! The toll hogs at the trough and our politicians and bureaucrats who lap up the perks and wining and dining by lobbyists 24/7 get themselves all tied up in knots over an engaged and active public who might spoil the good ol’ boy party they’re accustomed to.
This engaged and active public isn’t about to let the toll hogs steamroll their DOUBLE TAX, overreaching toll roads to benefit foreign companies and to grow government at the expense of the taxpayer. FYI, I don’t write “talking points” for ANYONE (in fact, I do my best to avoid it at all costs even when people ask for them, precisely so that no one can accuse us of spoonfeeding people…our folks aren’t sheep, they educate themselves and speak the truth of their own volition).
Commissioner Adkisson is his own man, an advocate for the PEOPLE, who speaks from the heart, seeks to understand all sides of an issue before making policy decisions, and fights for what’s RIGHT no matter if its popular with special interest lobbyists or not. Someone needs to tell TxDOT and its highway lobby cronies that that’s how government and a good public representative are supposed to function!
High dollar subdivisions like Dominion get their road fix while folks along 281 languish under toll road fight
Note later in the column, Stinson reveals a pricey project to benefit Dominion residents over on I-10 where TxDOT money presumably dropped out the sky to pay for this non-toll project to improve a few peoples’ “mobility” while the rest of us underlings wait for our crumbs…guess those over in the 281 corridor need more high dollar campaign donors, eh?
Ranger: ‘What is going on here? Something doesn’t smell right’
By Roddy Stinson
San Antonio Express-News
10/30/2006
Roddy’s Rangers never sleep …RANGER: “Roddy, at last week’s Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting, County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson was 20 minutes late because he was at the Bill Miller’s restaurant across the street in conference with San Antonio Toll Party regional director Terri Hall.
“At the last several meetings, he has been speaking from talking points prepared by her.
“Not a lot of toll roads are being proposed for the precinct he represents in East Bexar County.
“What is going on here? Something doesn’t smell right.”
RODDY: Your insinuation that Adkisson is a puppet for the anti-toll road crowd didn’t sit well with the Precinct 4 commissioner.
His verbal jabs in response:
“If I believed I needed to hide my meeting with Terri Hall, I would have never visited with her where there was no lack of highway lobbyists lunching.”
“Your (informant) is no ordinary citizen. He or she is likely a card-carrying member of the local highway lobby.”
“As we speak, plans are being made to toll I-35 and 1604 East in my precinct … to say nothing of the Trans-Texas Corridor, which is planned to run right through my precinct.”
“What ‘smells’ is the fresh air of citizen — not-lobby-driven — public policy!”
KA-POW!!
RANGER: “Much publicity attended the decision to put a cable barrier on I-10 West to reduce fatalities, and it seems to have helped. However, there is a gap in the barrier that extends over a mile in front of the entrance to the Dominion.
“I keep thinking this will be corrected, but a year has passed, and nothing has been done.”
RODDY: TxDOT officials felt that a barrier in that area would interfere with a recently initiated project to build an I-10 bridge in front of the Dominion entrance.
“The $20.3 million project was requested by the City of San Antonio as an extension of Dominion Drive under I-10 to allow emergency vehicles faster access to both areas on either side of I-10 West,” a TxDOT spokeswoman said. “Once the project is completed in spring 2009, a cable barrier will be placed.”
Not that anyone cares (and merely for the sake of doing a mathematical exercise) …
The $20.3 million that will be spent to provide faster access to the Dominion and nearby high-dollar subdivisions would pay for curbs and sidewalks on 25 miles of the South Side’s dilapidated, dangerous and too often deadly third-world streets.