A rendering of the Dallas Stars arena project at the Shops at Willow Bend mall in Plano. A reader wants more details.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
A breakdown of all costs first
Re: “Taxpayer support for Stars arena goes to vote — Council calls tax election in November to help fund proposed space,” Wednesday news story.
Imagine your contractor tells you a kitchen remodel will cost $700,000, but that doesn’t include plumbing, electrical, permits or cleanup. You’d ask a lot more questions before signing, right?
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That’s basically where we are with the Dallas Stars’ proposed move to Plano. The $700 million number sounds big, but it’s leaving out things like extra police for game nights, traffic fixes for nearby neighborhoods, utility upgrades, waste management costs, development overruns and decades of upkeep — all real costs, none of them added up yet.
I love that Plano gets big opportunities like this. I just want us to see the whole price tag before we commit — not after. The Plano City Council should slow down this process until we have a complete breakdown of all the costs, including who foots the bill. Taxpayers deserve it.
Tired of being fleeced
Maybe the Dallas City Council needs tutoring on the rules and regulations in place by the city before they charge ahead?
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And the citizens deserve a lot more transparency at City Hall. Dallas citizens are tired of being fleeced!
Big Bend and more
Re: “Big Bend National Park under threat — Border project is unnecessary, will be deeply damaging,” by Bill Holston, Tuesday Opinion and “Dems launch probe into efforts to deport U.S. military members,” Tuesday news story.
I opened my issue of The Dallas Morning News Tuesday to read my friend Bill Holston’s excellent opinion column advocating against President Donald Trump’s ill-conceived effort to build a wall in Big Bend National Park.
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In the same edition, there is an Associated Press report about Trump’s despicable efforts to deport U.S. military members and their families. That story appeared right under the latest news of Trump’s disastrous war of choice in Iran, including his apparent recent decision to now cut and run without achieving any of the alleged objectives that he proclaimed to try to justify his ill-advised plan to attack Iran. What a waste of lives and money. Nothing about these actions is or was fiscally conservative.
First, we don’t need a wall in Big Bend — damage to the beautiful environment aside — and Mexico is not going to pay for it (a false promise now almost forgotten). Second, what happened to deporting the “worst of the worst”? Yet another lie that has given way to quotas and shootings by masked ICE gunmen in the streets of America.
And now deporting servicemen and their families? Good grief! Only more killings could be worse.
Third, the Strait of Hormuz was fully open before Trump started the war, and his claim that our brave soldiers have died to keep Iran from having nukes is being proven a falsity by the decision to abandon the effort.
All the while, Trump and his family enrich themselves through unprecedented corruption at the expense of American taxpayers, and the feckless Republican Congress sits by and takes a knee. Wow. November can’t come soon enough.
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D. Bradley Kizzia, Dallas
A good or not so good man?
Texans who are still up in the air about whether to choose Ken Paxton or James Talarico for the United States Senate can easily boil down all the verbiage to a single question: For the next six years, would you rather have our state represented by a good man or not a good man?
David Penque, Corsicana
Dedicated resistance
President Donald Trump made the same mistake as had President Vladimir Putin in their decisions to attack another country. I believe that the trusted advisers of both presidents had convinced their leaders that the population of those countries would welcome the attacks and would rise to overthrow the current government.
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Neither president anticipated the dedicated resistance of the attacked country or the ability to fight back. Both presidents are now searching for a way to save face and to make it look like a victory.
The taxpayers and the armed forces of both the U.S. and Russia are paying the price and are facing the possibility that their country would not be able to defend an actual attack.
In the meantime, both Ukraine and Iran have developed drone technology that has changed the nature of war forever.
George M. Cole, Far North Dallas
Always a loyal fan
Since fall is just around the corner, so is a yearly tradition for many North Texas families of supporting the Dallas Cowboys. Something that comes with this tradition, which has become somewhat of a joke for non-Cowboys fans, is the claim that this is their year and that the Super Bowl is destined to be in their grasp.
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While I myself give into this and believe the Cowboys are going to have a good season, no matter what, I also recognize the pride and hope that can only be found in America’s Team. Only America’s Team can get hit with devastating punches, be predicted to have a horrible season and still have its fanbase hopeful. Even with a star-studded roster, the fanbase knows all along and has its doubts.
However the Cowboys do this year, I will have hope just like every other fan of America’s Team, because that’s the American way.
Henry Marshall, North Fort Worth