"Residents along the path see it as government betrayal."
Coming Sunday: Small towns vs. Trans-Texas Corridor
November 03, 2006
By Roy Bragg
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2006
Plans to build a superhighway running parallel to Interstate 35 have driven thousands of farmers and small town residents to the point of rhetorical rebellion.
The first leg of the planned Trans-Texas Corridor, a tollroad that will cut through the heart of Central Texas, has become more than a war of words over progress. Residents along the path see it as government betrayal and a symbol of declining regard for Texas' agrarian tradition and the people who are trying to keep it alive.
Business and government leaders, while acknowledging the sacrific of rural landowners in the path, tout TTC as a plan to keep the state out of perpetual gridlock and keep the state's economy moving.
"The world is changing and Texas is right in the middle of it,'' said Temple Mayor Bill Jones III.
"A lot of goods will be moving through Texas and a lot of it is going to stop here, too. We've got to be ready for it."
But for opponents such as Jesse Mills, who campaigns daily for anti-TTC candidates on the courthouse square in Corsicana, the plan to pave thousands of acres of farmland has turned a traditionally quiet and conservative niche of the Texans into a well-oiled activist machine.
In public, they meet, they rally, they network and they campaign. In the ether of the Internet, they exchange reports, maps, and rumors.
And when they're alone, they cry and fret over their future.
Read the full report in Sunday's San Antonio Express-News.
© 2006 San Antonio Express-News: www.mysanantonio.com
November 03, 2006
By Roy Bragg
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2006
Plans to build a superhighway running parallel to Interstate 35 have driven thousands of farmers and small town residents to the point of rhetorical rebellion.
The first leg of the planned Trans-Texas Corridor, a tollroad that will cut through the heart of Central Texas, has become more than a war of words over progress. Residents along the path see it as government betrayal and a symbol of declining regard for Texas' agrarian tradition and the people who are trying to keep it alive.
Business and government leaders, while acknowledging the sacrific of rural landowners in the path, tout TTC as a plan to keep the state out of perpetual gridlock and keep the state's economy moving.
"The world is changing and Texas is right in the middle of it,'' said Temple Mayor Bill Jones III.
"A lot of goods will be moving through Texas and a lot of it is going to stop here, too. We've got to be ready for it."
But for opponents such as Jesse Mills, who campaigns daily for anti-TTC candidates on the courthouse square in Corsicana, the plan to pave thousands of acres of farmland has turned a traditionally quiet and conservative niche of the Texans into a well-oiled activist machine.
In public, they meet, they rally, they network and they campaign. In the ether of the Internet, they exchange reports, maps, and rumors.
And when they're alone, they cry and fret over their future.
Read the full report in Sunday's San Antonio Express-News.
© 2006 San Antonio Express-News:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Friday, November 03, 2006
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