No federal funding for Fort Worth streetcars?

UPDATED at 10:40 a.m.

GRAPEVINE -- The proposal to bring back streetcars to central Fort Worth may have been snubbed in its effort to win federal stimulus funds, Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said.

Fort Worth and Dallas submitted a $96 million joint application for federal TIGER grant funds for their respective streetcar programs -- and on Wednesday (the first anniversary of the Recovery Act) Dallas was awarded $23 million.

Fort Worth got zilch, Whitley said. However, Whitley said officials were still checking into whether the money can be used for streetcar planning in both cities. The award actually goes to the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the official planning body for the whole region.

If Fort Worth doesn't get a slice of the pie, Whitley said the culprit would be petty politics. Tarrant County is SLIGHTLY redder than Democrat-blue Dallas County. He said it was time for people in both parties to start working together to solve transportation problems.

"You happen to be in the reddest of counties," Whitley told about 500 people at the Northeast Tarrant County Transportation Summit Wednesday morning in Grapevine. "The only county redder than Tarrant County in the U.S. is Orange County in California. The happenstance that we were eliminated I'm sure is coincidental. We've got to stop the partisanship. We've got to start going what's best for the region, and stop putting up with this ..."

One other explanation may be that the award was meant for both cities, but that Dallas was the only city listed ... perhaps an oversimplification, often held by many nonresidents that the entire North Texas region is "Dallas."

In Fort Worth, the idea would be to reconnect the downtown area with the museum district and medical district with electrified streetcars -- modernized versions of the trolleys that were removed from the area decades ago.

-- Gordon.

Comments

[Carl]

This is a perfect example of why everyone needs to vote anti-incumbent in all the upcoming elections. Reguardless of what office they hold or even if you like the incumbent, They should be voted out. If they are in office now, Vote them out! or this will never stop.

[Alberto Knox]

Streetcars are a poor use of transportation dollars. Tarrant county got 55% of the stimulus dollars spent for transportation in Texas (per the Star Telegram 1/15/10).

Blaming politics and "incumbents" because your pet project didn't get funded is disingenuous at best.

external link: http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3786736#

[AndyN]

Alberto, please be accurate in your spreading of misinformation. Tarrant County got 55% of stimulus dollars spent for traffic signalization (a $6 million fund - $3.3 million for traffic lights). A far cry from 55% of stimulus dollars spent on all transportation in Texas. One would hope that the cities that won traffic light money did so on the basis of need and not politics. Fort Worth has a strong project which has a better chance to reach the stated goals of the TIGER grants than the Dallas project, which was included in the application as an after thought.

[Brian Miller]

As a Dallas resident I think Ft. Worth should have gotten some too. Sorry. I like the idea of a street car because I hate driving in North Texas. I would rather ride a train or street car and just relax for outings. Keep moving forward because not everyone in Dallas is out for only Dallas' interests.

Politics is what runs this country sadly enough. If DFW worked together better maybe a more integrated public transportation system could emerge.

As far as a poor use of dollars that would be constantly keeping up the poorly built roads in Texas.

[FWCitizen]

NEVER ENTER A "PARTNERSHIP" WITH DALLAS!
Politics are involved but not what Glen Whitley thinks. I won't be surprised to discover Dallas sabotaged the Fort Worth plan benind the scenes in order to get all the funding for themselves. On a semi-related note, DART is demanding cost-prohibitive access rates on the Cotton Belt in order to block the Fort Worth T's commuter rail project. This back-stabbing by Dallas has been going on since 1875. NEVER ENTER A "PARTNERSHIP" WITH DALLAS!

[JamieDFW]

Just remember that with federal funding comes federal red tape. This may not be as big a setback as it appears. Remember, we're a city that built a SUBWAY with no government funds.

[earuare]

How can you say we should all be more nonpartisan then blame the outcome on red vs blue areas. Did you think before you spoke???

[David B. Mead]

What we had better start working on is the terrible state of the infrastructure of this country. Streetcars are nothing more than cosmetic, something for the tourists to see. The condition of bridges and the interstate system of the U.S. is terrible and getting worse. Just look at the road conditions after the snow we just had, potholes everywhere. Texas has always been fortunate to have the best highways in the country, our FM roads are better than some state's interstates. This is not a blue/red situation it will affect all of us eventually, the government needs to get off this damn partisan stand-off or in twenty or thirty years we are ALL going to be screwed!

[Alberto Knox]

Oops, My bad. I misread that article. Nevertheless it does show that Tarrant county got at least it's share of stimulus dollars.

Overall Tarrant county has done better than average getting $700+M of the $16+B going to Texas. It's just not realistic to suggest that the county is being short-changed for political reasons.

link: http://projects.propublica.org/recovery/locale/texas

[Danny]

There is only just so much of this money and the money is supposed to be spent wisely. Dallas is a much more urban city than Fort Worth and already has a proven track record in regards to mass transit. Fort Worth is urbanizing, but not nearly at the rate of Dallas, which is even building several new and has had previous success with TOD's (transit oriented developments). Dallas is simply a mass transit proven city, Fort Worth is not and is way behind most large cities in this respect. The streetcar plans are simply much more likely to work in Dallas. Streetcars are still a risky proposition in Fort Worth. Red and blue counties had nothing to do with this, how stupid.

[SarcasticallyStooopid]

Can we get funding for a stairway to the moon too? Oh and how about horse and buggy parking while we are at it? It is confusing to someone why this funding request wasn't granted? Nice idea if your high on weed, but not reality.

[MSMcGuire]

Tarrant County didn't cast enough votes for Obama. Bottom line.

[SWFtWorth]

Hardly political... Dallas has made a 30 year investment in Mass Transit that is really going to start paying off in the next few years. Fort Worth is just getting started and without any commitment from Arlington, it's going to be hard to pull the dollars county-wise. Personally, I'd like that SW to Grapevine commuter rail up and running as quick as possible!

[Mad]

This is a huge disappointment...

[Ellen Lopez]

Is anyone familiar with the fact that the federal stimulus or anything else is borrowing on a credit card? That China just dumped massive amounts of US debt? That the piper will be paid with our freedom? Does anyone care about any of that or shall we just keep fighting over who gets to spend money we do not have. Whitley needs to go; Vicki Truitt needs to go; Todd Smith needs to go; ALL THE SO-CALLED CONSERVATIVES WHO SPEND MONEY LIKE DRUNKEN SAILORS NEED TO GO. STOP THE SPENDING - although, sadly it may be too late. There will be a high price to pay.

[randomcommenter]

I agree with....
"That China just dumped massive amounts of US debt? That the piper will be paid with our freedom?" - China will come collect, even if it's our land. Who will defend us? Our military is fighting elsewhere.

"Regardless of what office they hold or even if you like the incumbent" - Elect non-incumbents then we can get serious about term limits. Which should lead to no more professional politicians.

[Binh]

As SWFtWorth mentions, Dallas has invested wisely in a growing rail transit system. Fort Worth has actually moved backwards in the past few years. The Tandy Center Subway we had was the perfect starter rail system BUILT ENTIRELY WITHOUT TAX DOLLARS. Our local city, business, and transit leaders allowed this to be destroyed in 2002. Can you blame the Feds for passing us over?

[David]

Excerpted from http://fortworthology.com/2010/02/17/dallas-wins-fort-worth-loses-on-tiger-funds/

"I also think that perhaps the congressional reps could have a lot of influence on the process amidst all the Washington horse trading. If Kay Granger or Joe Barton or whomever was a huge supporter of the streetcar, it would be more likely to get traction in Washington. The representatives from the Portland, Oregon, area, Peter DeFazio and Earl Blumenauer are two of the most outspoken transit advocates in Washington, and Portland just so happens to be included in almost every funding cycle."

If your congressional leader doesn’t care enough to support their constituents, why would the federal government?

Does anyone remember when Rep. Barton tried to humiliate Nobel Prize winner and Energy Secretary Steven Chu?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=symYfq51aho

Just saying.

[Rob Lee]

Why are you whining about China? What are they gonna do, send someone to bust some knee caps to collect their money? Our military forces are just fine. The defense budget is huge and their unreported discretionary funding is equally huge. The eagle is in no danger from abroad oh fearful one.

[whmis course]

wow these cars are really awesome, I like the yellow one, i am a fan of grandpree these races are really awesome and breathe taking.