One answer to that question came in an email to me from Plano resident Charles Gillett, who’s been engaged in the transportation scene there. He attended a city meeting last week and sent in his observations on anger in Plano about mass transit, along with his opinions on where the city should go from here.
That anger reached a boiling point with some Plano people when DART began special contract bus service to Mesquite a few weeks ago. Plano pays a lot into the transit agency, and influential people, including the mayor, are seething that a non-DART city is reaping this benefit.
Here now is the Plano report from Charles Gillett:
Rodger,
Your editorial endorsing the DART service to Mesquite stirred debate at the Plano City Council’s District 1 Roundtable this past Thursday, 3/22/2012. Plano conducts four roundtables a year in each of the city’s four districts. District 1 is always the most attended roundtable and is the district in which I live.
The debate about the editorial was unusual. It was muted. A speaker in the audience raised the question in unusually careful words. Mayor Dyer responded in even more carefully chosen and carefully cadenced words. There was carefully controlled anger in the room. It is possible that a reporter might have missed the unspoken undertones.
I have been attending City Council meetings, roundtables and transportation meetings for most of a decade. I served on the city’s Transportation Advisory Committee several years ago. I attended DART board meetings during much of this decade. I am still a DART supporter, even through its never ending gaffes.
I sense that a turning point occurred when DART approved bus service to Mesquite for what is perceived as a very small amount of money. Your editorial was not the turning point. The editorial was simply a salt shaker.