I haven't posted in awhile because the campaign for re-election has been taking up most of my time. I apologize and hope to get back to a better schedule after Saturday. I wanted to give you some good information about a few projects in our city. The Dallas Business Journal gives awards each year for the best business deals in the Metroplex. This year Arlington received to very prestigious awards.
First was General Motors, won the Best Community Impact Deal. Their $1.4 billion investment to their Arlington plant will have a remarkable influence on the economy of Arlington and will allow them to hire another 500 workers. This ripple effect will contribute to the betterment of our community and will stimulate the local economy. It will also insure that your kids and their kids will have jobs at General Motors for the next 40 yrs.
The other award was given to the Arlington Commons for the Best Suburban Multi-Family project in the Metroplex. This is a $250 million project that has torn down over 700 slum/crime infested units and will be replacing them with a high end living opportunity for the people of North Arlington. This investment in our community combined with the $7.5 million dollars to upgrade Roquemore Elementary, the $5 million to upgrade Parkway Central Park and the $1 million in renovations for the strip mall on the south side of Lamar is crucial to the improvement of the Lamar/Collins Overlay. This will increase the property value of the surrounding homes while decreasing the crime rate in the area. I find it interesting that my opponent in my race for re-election is against this project. Her opposition is based on the increase in occupancy, stress on sewer and other community services and the narrowing of Lamar.
An increase in occupancy, cannot be counted simply as the number of door knobs. Some of the families that lived in the old apartments had 10 people living in a two and three bedroom units. The new apartments will only be 1 and 2 bedroom units and the cost will be very high, reducing the number of section 8 occupants. Larger and newer sewer conduits are currently being installed, but what is more important is the calls to service by our police and fire departments will be reduced because of the reduction in crime in the area.
Lastly, lets talk about the narrowing of Lamar westbound to 1 lane. This is clearly depicted in an attachment included in the original 380 agreement dated 2013. This didn't happen as an after thought nor the location of the leasing office, as my opponent states. Just because she cannot look at an enclosure and understand what it is telling you, does not mean that it is not included in the document. This was the original intent, because the developer is trying to create a sense of community within the development. The most important concern of the citizens is dealt with in the agreement. If the city decides that the traffic is too congested, then the developer must return the street to two lanes westbound at his own expense. I attended both the Town Hall meeting and the Council meeting, dealing with this issue. After understanding what the developer was trying to accomplish, an overwhelming majority of citizens were in agreement to try the reduction. I voted in accordance with the majority of citizens in attendance, and the Council vote was unanimous. My opponent did not and still does not listen to the citizens.
First let me say as a resident of Parkway Central I welcome the changes. I would however like to see better erosion control onto Van Buren and Lamar. After a wet spell crews are seen pumping muddy water into the streets that ends up in the storm sewer system. The partial of land farthest to the north is also sprouting weeds a few feet tall. In my home building career these violations were not tolerated by City inspectors.
ReplyDeleteI will have the weeds looked into. As for the water, where would you have it go?
ReplyDeleteYesterday I went by Commons just to look at the site. On my way there I saw workers on Van Buren pushing mud down the street from Roquemore Elementary, I saw drillers pushing mud down the street at the drill site at Rolling Hills and I also saw mud on the sidewalk between Cooper and the drill site that nobody is cleaning up. The rains make a mess, that is for sure. But at least someone is making an effort to clean it up at the construction sites. Nobody is cleaning it up on the sidewalk. I applaud the cleanup effort.
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