Letters to the Editor – Dems, blue pool, Dallas buildings

Re: “Democrats seek Texas opening,” Thursday news story. 

The parade of speakers for this week’s Texas Democratic convention tells you all you need to know about the party’s direction and its desire to turn Texas into a progressive socialist state. 

When your featured speakers include Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the poster boy for socialism, you know where the focus of the Texas Democratic Party lies. 

James Talarico, Gina Hinojosa and the slate of Texas Democratic candidates are in lockstep with the trio of speakers mentioned above and the waste, fraud, corruption and lawlessness that have crippled states like Illinois, New Jersey, New York and California. 

I sincerely hope that our moderate Democrat and independent friends and neighbors will vote in November to keep Texas conservative, strong, financially secure and the envy of every other state in the nation. 

Mike Taylor, Allen 

Re: “Reflecting Poorly,” Thursday editorial. 

I have added three additional reflections in which the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool situation tells you everything you need to know about President Donald Trump’s leadership: 

Misplaced priorities — Trump focuses on things that are important to him, not what are best for others. The American people are worried about the war, the economy and healthcare, not the color of a pool. 

Aesthetics over function — Trump cares more about how something looks than its effectiveness. No one cares whether the toilet is gold, just if it flushes. 

Deflection through blame — Trump never accepts responsibility, blaming everyone but himself when things go wrong. Not being accountable is the clearest sign of a weak leader. 

No matter which side of the aisle we are on, let’s look for leaders who share our most important priorities, focus 100% of their time on effectively executing those priorities and demonstrate unwavering accountability to serve in our best interests. 

Chris Kroeger, Keller 

Re: “Council sinks bid for redesign,” Thursday news story, and “I won’t vote to leave City Hall for promises,” by Chad West, Wednesday Opinion. 

Many of us in the workforce have often heard the tongue twister “proper planning prevents pitifully poor performance.” If only City Hall staff and the Dallas City Council subscribed to that statement.  

The original design of the new convention center called for the building to be elevated to prevent disruption of traffic from Oak Cliff. No one considered the unintended consequences of voting to save approximately $500 million by eliminating that elevated construction. No plan, no due diligence, just a harmless vote to save money for a cash-strapped city. 

Only when Oak Cliff residents challenged the harm this would do for commuters on the west side of the Trinity River did the council review the matter. The new cost to undo the damage done now has a price tag exceeding $600 million. With pressures of cost and revenue lost due to rework and further delays, the council voted Wednesday 9-6 to stay with the current convention center plan. 

This has become the norm for staff and the City Council. Failure to do due diligence and have a plan in place before taking action is now par for the course. Who pays for the failure to have a plan in place before making knee-jerk decisions? You and I, the taxpayers of Dallas. We deserve better than this.  

They failed to maintain the 500+ properties the city owns, resulting in a rush to leave City Hall and possibly other key buildings. They just authorized spending $1 million to investigate possible relocation of 311 and 911, and another $2 million to look at possible future sites for City Hall. That is money allocated in an emergency fund, money taxpayers provided. No specifications for either site have been published.  

Taxpaying citizens must demand the insanity currently prevalent among those elected and hired to serve us (staff and council) stop wasting our money unless and until they have foolproof, detailed plans in place before voting on any action. They keep saying repairing City Hall is cost prohibitive, but they cannot tell us what replicating total functionality would cost. Nor can they show us where open space for public interactions can occur adjacent to sites being investigated.  

Cookie Peadon, Dallas 

Re: “Preston/Royal Plan Deserves a Chance,” Wednesday editorial. 

Your editorial about the proposed Preston/Royal development reads more like the list of talking points from the developers’ Power Point presentation. Did your editorial staff research the reasoning behind the strong opposition to this proposal (4,000-plus petition signatures)?  

This proposal is at odds with Forward Dallas 2.0, adopted by our own City Council less than two years ago, and it is also inconsistent with public statements about neighborhood integrity made by both the developer and our own District 13 City Council representative. 

This neighborhood is not against developing this valuable property; we just want it to be reasonable. You suggest that we’ll “come to enjoy the amenities” of this development, but what I’m not looking forward to enjoying is the light pollution and lack of privacy from upper-floor residents looking down into my backyard, the increased traffic at an intersection already identified as one of Dallas’s most dangerous and several other disadvantages that space does not permit me to list.  

If I’d wanted to live around tall buildings 21 years ago, I would have moved to Manhattan. 

Bruce Bleakley, North Dallas