Svarzbein V. TxDOT & Svarzbein is Right
City Rep Peter Svarzbein is in a war of words against TxDOT over the fact that TxDOT basically doesn't care about maintaining their roads anymore.
Its an issue I raised with my State Rep a while back too.
But like all news in this town, no one cares when it happens to the brown side of town, it only is newsworthy when there are problems where rich, white, westsiders live.
Anywho, Svarzbein is right on this one and hopefully the delegation will start knocking some heads around to get TxDOT to start maintaining the roads again. And since he represents rich, white westsiders, its in the news.
TxDOT says that they have to fill pot holes and make other repairs on streets and that is why they don't have the dollars available to clean the weeds from the medians.
That answer implies that they actually fix the pinche pot holes in state roads...because I haven't seen that to be the case.
What is dangerous about Svarzbein's little stunt of cleaning the medians himself, is that it sends the wrong message. First, TxDOT and Svarzbein talk about how its dangerous for private citizens to be cleaning the medians themselves...but there he is in a vest and a hard hat.
Aside from it being my favorite get-up to see elected officials in because they all look like low-rent versions of the Village People, its incredibly hypocritical to be saying its a safety hazard while you're using the opportunity to get attention from the media for it. I have questions about what liabilities it may open up for the City. And by City, I mean the tax payers.
The other reason its just silly is that what if a citizen starts doing jobs the City hasn't done yet and invites the media along? See, Svarzbein is gonna look pretty silly when citizens start planting saplings in potholes.
But back to my original point - Svarzbein is right to hold TxDOT accountable. The state has a nasty habit of passing on its responsibilities to local entities - and never funds them.
Do you know what happens when you don't maintain your property and you end up with a problem with weeds? Well first you get a couple of notices and or citations.
Eventually the City will fix the problem and then turn around and bill you for what they had to do.
I say the city reps send out clean up crews and send an invoice to the state to recoup the money and make local tax payers whole again.
I also say that we should start planting trees, bushes, and flowers in potholes as an act of civil disobedience and force the city to take care of them on city streets and the state to take care of them on state maintained roads.
Its an issue I raised with my State Rep a while back too.
But like all news in this town, no one cares when it happens to the brown side of town, it only is newsworthy when there are problems where rich, white, westsiders live.
Anywho, Svarzbein is right on this one and hopefully the delegation will start knocking some heads around to get TxDOT to start maintaining the roads again. And since he represents rich, white westsiders, its in the news.
TxDOT says that they have to fill pot holes and make other repairs on streets and that is why they don't have the dollars available to clean the weeds from the medians.
That answer implies that they actually fix the pinche pot holes in state roads...because I haven't seen that to be the case.
What is dangerous about Svarzbein's little stunt of cleaning the medians himself, is that it sends the wrong message. First, TxDOT and Svarzbein talk about how its dangerous for private citizens to be cleaning the medians themselves...but there he is in a vest and a hard hat.
Aside from it being my favorite get-up to see elected officials in because they all look like low-rent versions of the Village People, its incredibly hypocritical to be saying its a safety hazard while you're using the opportunity to get attention from the media for it. I have questions about what liabilities it may open up for the City. And by City, I mean the tax payers.
The other reason its just silly is that what if a citizen starts doing jobs the City hasn't done yet and invites the media along? See, Svarzbein is gonna look pretty silly when citizens start planting saplings in potholes.
But back to my original point - Svarzbein is right to hold TxDOT accountable. The state has a nasty habit of passing on its responsibilities to local entities - and never funds them.
Do you know what happens when you don't maintain your property and you end up with a problem with weeds? Well first you get a couple of notices and or citations.
Eventually the City will fix the problem and then turn around and bill you for what they had to do.
I say the city reps send out clean up crews and send an invoice to the state to recoup the money and make local tax payers whole again.
I also say that we should start planting trees, bushes, and flowers in potholes as an act of civil disobedience and force the city to take care of them on city streets and the state to take care of them on state maintained roads.
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