Unfair Park's Jim Schutze, who is generally on target and on time on almost anything to do with big Dallas projects like the Great Trinity Forest or the Trinity Parkway or the Trinity levees, goes horribly off-track today in a story about DART's long-term planning.
Schutze tells us that, in an effort to secure suburban support for recent legislation in Austin, DART was toying with the idea of changing its long-stated plan to extend the Irving Orange line to DFW airport and instead have the line take a right turn to Southlake. It's a crazy idea, even as an insincere talking point to get a few extra votes in Austin. If Schutze had just pointed out that it's a crazy idea and left it at that, he'd get no argument from me. But Schutze used it as a wedge to split the city of Dallas and the suburbs. Any thought of working together, of finding win-win solutions for the region as a whole, and Jim Schutze says, "what is my answer, assuming I have at least a low-functioning I.Q.? Skeeereeeew regionalism!"
It's the kind of comment I expect to read in the comments section. It's more than disappointing to read it coming from Jim Schutze himself. It just about kills my hopes that DFW might be serious about an alternative to building more highways. It's so easy for DART planning to collapse into regionalism, in the negative sense of the word. I had hoped that Jim Schutze would guide us past that trap, but instead, he falls into it himself.
2 comments:
I have to believe Schutze just had not done his homework on this because so much of the article simply made no sense. I think he saw an opportunity to do some suburb bashing and he jumped on it. Too bad.
Buckeye
Buckeye, thanks for the feedback. I think Jim Schutze just had a bad day. Or phoned it in. Or both.
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