SOS Arlington Streets Update #70: Hike and Bike Master Plan is passed. So what’s next?

Buddy is a friend and a fellow patriot. They have been fighting the bike lanes for over a year. The Bike lanes will be in every city throughout Texas in a few years unless we fight on the local level and reelect good people to office. Buddy attended some of our meetings and found that the bike and trail paths and lanes are connected with the UNEP program for sustainable development. The city of Arlington first wanted the original plan…this plan would have eliminated two lanes in downtown Arlington making it dangerous and more congested than ever., and at a cost that is hard to imagine. Thanks to Buddy, Lone Star Tea Party, 912, the plans chosen are not as bad as the original set. Cluck is a real piece of work. If you remember Rick Perry gave the Cowboy Stadium and the Trinity River Vision , T.R.W.D. authority to use eminent domain when They deemed it necessary. Perry, when we voted on amendments to stop eminent domain abuse, Perry exempted both. ~ Georgia Stapleton

From: SOS Arlington [mailto:contact@sosarlington.com]

Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2011 4:01 PM
To: Georgia Stapleton
Subject: SOS Arlington Streets Update #70: Hike and Bike Master Plan is passed. So what's next?

Howdy All,


On Tuesday evening, Aug. 2nd, our City Council passed the Hike and Bike Master Plan by a vote of 5 to 3. Councilman Gene Patrick, who would have been a firm “no” vote, was absent due to his continuing illness. Those present who voted “no” were Mayor Robert Cluck, Mel LeBlanc, and Robert Rivera. Mayor Cluck voted “no” only because he still wants the original all-encompassing plan. Councilpersons Jimmy Bennett, Sheri Capehart, Robert Shepard, Katherine Wilemon, and Lana Wolff all voted for the plan.

We were correct in not urging citizens to attend the meeting or to bother with emailing their views to the Council. With no prior discussion whatsoever, Mayor Cluck simply called for a vote and the deal was done in a matter of seconds.

Astonishingly, during this year long process, and right up to the final vote, never once did any proponent of the bike plan bother to explain in their own words why they see a need for this costly plan.

After the vote, the fifteen or so yellow-shirted bike proponents left immediately, mounting their bicycles outside and riding three blocks west on Abram Street to the Pizza and Subs parking lot where they loaded their bikes in their cars and drove home.

So where do we go from here?

This we know: The majority of the City Council still favors many more bike lanes than are scheduled in the plan that just passed. More bike lanes will be authorized at the first opportunity until the original massive bike plan is wholly reinstated.

However, SOS believes there is little reason to be concerned, provided citizens are vigilant.

Here’s why.

1) Citizen opposition to the imposition of bike lanes on residential streets will be both organized and fierce. Any council member who forces bike lanes upon property owners, thereby lowering property values, will face hard times in the next election.

2) Federal funding for bike lane projects is drying up along with a lot of government money that just isn’t there anymore. It is a lust for federal funding that drives the bike plan. As that funding evaporates, so too will the Council’s fascination with bike lanes.

While we wait for the federal well to run dry, we can expect the bike lane push to continue. In our next email, we’ll outline what we can expect from city planners who are tasked with somehow striping our streets with bike lanes in order to qualify Arlington for federal dollars. More importantly, we’ll provide a street-by-street strategy for protecting our streets from bike lanes and the consequent loss of property values and on-street parking.

Sincerely,
Buddy Saunders
SOS Arlington Streets Committee
buddy@sosarlington.com
817-860-7827
http://www.sosarlingtonstreets.com/

Info on “Sustainable Development,” the creature behind the bike plan curtain: http://www.savearlington.com/