Fort Worth Streetcar Meeting Update

Over 300 people and guess what, they all have an opinion.  Sounds like the majority say no way.  Funny, that's what they say about most of the things that are done the Fort Worth Way. 

Lots of great speakers last night!  Kudos to you all!

There was information in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the pre-meeting meeting and the meeting as well as on NBCDFW.com.  Too bad we weren't invited to the behind the scenes meeting, sounds like it was a good one.  We'll give you some highlights below.  Consider it your incentive to be informed!  We noticed neither news source said the consulting company HDR is where a lot of the story information came from.  Does the price tag jump from the original plan, remind anyone else of the Trinity River Vision scheme?  We did notice, the majority of Fort Worth is left out of the loop...

Question to you WHO support and want to spend the Trinity River Vision TIF on the streetcar, WHERE do you think that money comes from? 

Fort Worth takes pride in resolving disagreements behind the scenes and presenting a united front. So nobody is talking publicly about the clashes that played out Monday, when about 15 heavy-hitters met in two sessions, for almost six hours, to try to hash out their differences.


Skeptics, including leaders from Downtown Fort Worth Inc. and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, insisted that they were just asking questions and vetting the numbers. Streetcar supporters, including the Trinity River Vision Authority and Fort Worth South, said that they felt ambushed and that the challenges were a pretense for killing the project.

Tempers flared, and some cautioned that the attacks were getting too personal.

We're talking about three miles of track at $85 (million) to $86 million," said Paul Rudisill, a business owner opposed to the project. "When it was first proposed, it was about $53 million. So 22 percent have access to it, while 78 percent will be paying for operational costs of it. That's ridiculous."

"Expensive? Yes. It's an investment for the future. A lot of the things that we do today hopefully will pay for themselves in the future. But we've got to start."

A good number of people Thursday at the Fort Worth Convention Center were skeptical of the $88 million estimate presented for the total cost of the project and the notion of adding expenses during a slow economic period.

One speaker pointed out that the estimates of the Trinity River Vision, which started out at $320 million in 2003, have soared to near $1 billion today. Many others said the project would benefit too few people.

Cleveland Harris said he believed that to be true but objected to the proposal because his neighborhood is not part of the plans.

"If it leaves us out of the loop, we're against it," said Harris, the director of government affairs for the Morningside Neighborhood Association. "They need to promote the whole city, not just a portion of the city."