She supports DART
Re: “Is DART worth it in the Park Cities? Voters consider service, funding ahead of May election,” Sunday Metro.
As a long-time University Park resident, I rarely use DART. My circumstances afford me other options. But I will vote to remain in DART — and I’d ask my neighbors to do the same.
DART was built for the greater good of North Texas. Across this metroplex, working families, the elderly and the disabled depend on it not as a convenience but as a lifeline. Withdrawing our funding does not make their need disappear. It simply signals that their struggle is not our concern.
In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan in response to a simple question, “Who is my neighbor?”
His answer transcends geography, income and city limits. University Park has long prided itself on its values. Abandoning a system that serves our most vulnerable neighbors, at the very moment North Texas needs it most, would not reflect those values well.
Please vote to remain in DART.
S. M. Wilson, University Park
Forget about DART
Highland Park will pay into DART this year approximately $9 million in exchange for a single bus route along Preston Road that averages 33 riders per day. Two such riders shared their stories — one of desire, one of hardship.
Touching as their stories may be to some, the truth is these rides cost Highland Park over $600 per person per ride, and independent analysis shows that roughly 70 cents of every dollar Highland Park sends to DART is used to subsidize transit in other cities.
With Highland Park leadership having publicly committed to provide readily available, reliable and cost-effective alternatives to transit the inconvenienced, it is abundantly clear that the benefit of the bargain with DART has tilted harshly against the Park Cities, especially considering that Highland Park alone has contributed roughly $115 million since joining DART in 1983.
With only one lousy bus route that is less than two miles long to show for our investment, I say Forget About Rapid Transit. The acronym is a bonus.
John Riggs, Highland Park
Misleading Addison ad
One morning I found a slick ad from addisondeservesbetter.org hanging from my doorknob that stated, “Voting NO to DART…Keeps Addison connected to the DART bus/rail system.”
This is not true since if we vote no, the whole town of Addison will be completely cut off from all DART services, but we will still be on the hook for all the recent improvements made to our system. Beware of misinformation.
Praise for South Oak Cliff High
Re: “Maintenance Required. Today’s City Hall crisis is yesterday’s deferred stewardship,” by Miguel Solis, Sunday Opinion.
This opinion piece by Solis was both logical and sobering. It is a wake-up call that each city council person and voter needs to read.
Dallas will not be able to proudly celebrate becoming the anchor for the largest urban area in our nation if anything as basic as deferred maintenance allows our Dallas City Hall monument to free speech to be destroyed.
Solis was wise to use Dallas ISD’s recent history as an example. Students rose up in 2015 to demand that the crumbling South Oak Cliff High School campus be rebuilt. It worked!
Major DISD investments were also made districtwide. Student achievement rose districtwide as buildings were rebuilt and updated.
The ribbon cutting to the restored South Oak Cliff building was in 2020. By 2025, the South Oak Cliff football team had won three Texas State 5A football championships: 2021, 2022, and 2025!
In 2025, South Oak Cliff also celebrated the highest School Effectiveness Indices Score, the highest of all 37 Dallas ISD high schools, including all choice high schools.
This is the future Dallas can enjoy if we invest in maintaining our infrastructure, and in building new buildings as needed for our students and our voters.
Thank you for your encouragement, Miguel!
No good news
Re: “Tax refunds for seniors,” by Sanford LaHue, Friday Letters.
This letter from LaHue tells us about the year-to-year improvement in his tax bill. While I’m happy for him, his experience is merely anecdotal evidence. My own situation resulted in a negative outcome compared to last year.
As to his question about why we don’t hear more about “good news,” such as his, the answer is because, for the majority of Americans who are not upper class, there is no good news.
In fact, the Tax Policy Center tells us that 60% of the savings that the president crows about will benefit the richest 20% of households, those making over $217,000 per year.
Another report shows that the top 5% of earners get a disproportionate benefit of $117 billion this year and $1 trillion over the next 10 years.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the president also eliminated over $40 billion in funding for IRS tax enforcement, money specifically earmarked for investigating tax evasion by the wealthy.
So, please forgive me if I don’t celebrate more giveaways to the rich.
Jimmy Bartkowski, Flower Mound
Running out of money
President Donald Trump recently said that gasoline prices are “not very high.” Obviously, he’s out of touch with what the American public is dealing with.
Also jet fuel prices have doubled. Someone needs to tell the president that he needs to quit flying to Florida to play golf almost every weekend. All this plus costing the taxpayers $1 to $2 billion a day to subsidize a war he started.
Americans are running out of money.