Working on the Railroad
Cities supporting a grass-roots effort to save the rail lines at Oklahoma City’s Union Station apparently are being bullied into changing their minds, according to advocates with Oklahomans for New Transportation Alternatives Coalition (OnTrac).
During a press conference Monday morning, officials with the group accused Department of Transportation Director Gary Ridley of issuing veiled threats to communities that want to see the Crosstown Expressway re-routed to save the tracks at Union Station. Eventually, if passenger rail service begins the station could serve as a hub.
Rep. Wallace Collins, D-Norman and former Norman City Council member Richard Stawicki said ODOT officials did not react kindly to a move by the Norman city council to support efforts to save the station. Norman is one of four cities that currently has adopted a resolution to save Union Station.
Stawicki called ODOT officials, “arrogant bureaucrats that threaten elected officials.” Collins recounted a 7 a.m. Saturday meeting held after the city council approved the measure in which Ridley discussed road projects in the Norman area and suggested that the Lindsey Street exit could be closed and other road projects put in jeopardy.
“We took that as not a very veiled threat,” Collins said.
A videographer from ODOT was rolling tape during OnTrac’s press conference, and that may have been reviewed by ODOT officials staffers before their 4 p.m. press conference.
At the afternoon press conference, Ridley said he was “disappointed folks made that comment.”
“I can honestly say that the Department or myself never engaged in pressure tactics or anything of the sort,” Ridley said. “That’s totally false. ”
Ridley pointed out that ODOT had increased funding for projects in Norman and highlighted efforts to improve the look of overpasses and signs.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to help with projects on I-35, Highway 77 and Highway 9-East,” Ridley said.
Julie Bisbee
Capitol Bureau
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Comments
The fact that this article appeared at all in the “Oklahoman”, is a surprise. I don’t know what page, but I suspect page 8 or so.
It is really very simple what OnTrac is asking of the Governor and ODOT: The Governor should appoint a blue-ribbon, unbiased, and expert panel from out of state (not subject to local bullying and threats). They should study and hold open and public hearings (inviting public comment) on the ODOT plan and issue an immediate, un-filtered, un-edited report of their opinions regarding the advisability and wisdom of ODOT’s planned Crosstown Routing.
One would think that ODOT would welcome such a peer-review if they truly have confidence in their plan. But… they have been fighting such a request since Keating was in office! Why? Hmmmm.
It is amazing that the citizens of OKC will sit back and continually allow themselves to be raped by the so-called OKC “leadership”.
Near the end of the official “public comment period” for the “New Crosstown” project, I asked Gary Ridley why it was that ODOT had never seriously responded to any of the many, well-documented concerns brought for years by concerned citizens against the agency’s plan to build its road through the OKC Union Station rail yard.
“Well, Tom, there was a time when we didn’t even have to ask you what you thought…” was Ridley’s response.
The truth about Gary Ridley is contained in that response.
Who is “we?” Who does Ridley work for — and why are these phantom bosses so determined to destroy the last , grand urban rail center in the West boasting all its original terminal facility space?
Do they really need to “sell us another car” that badly? Perhaps our local TV news broadcasts could tell us — if they could wedge another sentence or two in between all their automobile advertising.
Didn’t the alleged experts at ODOT see the possibility of the arrival of the times we’re all now living in?
Ernest Istook certainly saw it — and made certain his real constituency was “taken care of.” Salt Lake and Ogden workers may now commute to Utah’s Hill AFB — Tinker’s competitor — in style, using any of 60 fast daily commuter trains, linked to Salt Lake’s burgeoning new light rail and integrated bus system — even as Istook talks down transit funding elsewhere.
Dallas officials saw it. Salt Lake, Denver, Sacramento, Portland, Little Rock, Albuquerque, Nashville, St. Louis, Austin, Houston and many others did.
Shouldn’t wise citizens judge “experts” like those at ODOT — as well as politicians and bureaucrats — by what they do instead of by what they say, not to mention and their own, inflated self-estimates?
They’re racked up $40 billion in unfunded highway maintenance debt — which they’re courageously passing down to our unborn offspring. And now, they want to destroy the train-handling capability of Union Station, gift of our great-grandparents generation ot our own grandchildren, along with the connectivity of our rather fabulous existing state railway network.
In short, they’re determined to cripple an asset that could return us to rational, balanced and affordable transportation — apparently to keep all of us, our children and grandchildren in outrageous debt for the foreseeable future — under the boots of their self-serving highway lobby puppetmasters.
If you think this situation is simply nuts — now would be the time to call the governor and tell him so.
TOM ELMORE
http://www.advancedtransport.org