After Killing Toll Road, Dallas City Council Approves Public-private Partnership for Trinity Park

The Dallas City Council on Wednesday issued a new direction on the Trinity River: The parkway is dead, long live the park.A federally approved plan for a toll road along the Trinity River, a decades-long fixation of powerful Dallas politicians and business interests, was officially killed in a 13-2 romp. Only Pleasant Grove council member Rickey Callahan publicly bemoaned its demise.The road to the park vote, however, was far more meandering.Mayor Mike Rawlings, who had previously supported the toll road, had called late last month for the creation of a local government corporation, known as an LGC. The LGC is a separate entity that, under direction of city officials, is tasked with building a park in the floodway and forbidden from building a toll road.The council approved the LGC, as well as Rawlings' first three nominees, with a 9-6 vote. The six votes against -- Kevin Felder, Omar Narvaez, Philip Kingston, Scott Griggs, Adam Medrano and Mark Clayton -- included the council's biggest advocates for killing the toll road.  Continue reading...