Lock in Romo
Pay the man: Wow—what a stat you pulled out of your magic hat today, Richie—after his first 11 regular-season starts, Tony has more yards than Troy and Roger...combined ("Romo Arigato," by Richie Whitt, September 13). Absolutely unbelievable! Now I'm really excited about this season! And wouldn't it be cool to be the first team in the NFL to play in the Super Bowl in our hometown in 2011? It's not that unrealistic, especially now. Remember when Jones did not pay Emmitt? Don't screw us out of our chances at another championship, Jerry, by being "cheap." PAY THE MAN AND PAY HIM WELL! Couldn't agree with Richie more...well, maybe I could—I'll have to wait till next week's article. Keep 'em comin'!
Lori Thompson
Great commodity: Excellent! You're right on. Romo is a breath of fresh air in the Cowboys scheme. Jerry has to have noticed the excitement that surrounds the Cowboys this year (in merchandise sales alone), and that Tony is a great commodity. Like you say, he is a great businessman. Surely the trickle-down effect will be flowing Tony's way.
Janet
Super stat: Great article! You have your finger right on the pulse of the metroplex, as usual, Mr. Whitt. Unbelievable stat about Romo's yardage in comparison to Staubach and Aikman. I don't get Jerry Jones' thought process in not getting Romo locked down. Just thinking back to some of the spares that Jones has given big contracts to in the past, it's even more baffling. Oh, well...he's just costing himself money. I have no doubt he will pay whatever it takes to keep Romo, but it sure would be nice if he would "git 'er done" sooner rather than later!
Fraggy
Road to Ruin
Economics 101: There are two significant pieces of data missing from the Trinity River debate ("Baby Mitch," by Jim Schutze, September 13). As a person who started my career teaching economics, I am significantly bothered by this. After all, you cover it in Economics 101.
The first is data on the percentage of vehicles which are through traffic as compared to downtown Dallas destination traffic on Interstate 35W. In other words, do we need a reliever route to downtown or a bypass?
The second is the follow-up on the two studies commissioned by the city, which concluded that all of the economic benefits in the Trinity River project were from the park, particularly the lake, and that the toll road was an economic detriment. Those projected benefits, which are an opportunity cost of locating the toll road between the levees, are an essential part of any comparison of costs. Did the city get the follow-up study and bury the outcome? Or did they just discount these two studies and move on? Either way the constant litany on how much it will cost to move the toll road to an alternate site uses numbers which are meaningless.
The public needs to be aware of these two significant omissions, and it appears it is up to the Dallas Observer if it is going to happen. So far The Dallas Morning News is ignoring my e-mails on this subject.
Betty G. Withers
Dallas
They got to him: Jim, I've listened to the council meetings on the radio. If a city employee does not get at least three bids for installing water fountains in the library or police station, Rasansky will tongue-lash them publicly. Now a few million dollars here or there on the Trinity is no big deal? Something is wrong. Like you, I appreciate the role that he has played as antagonist to the wasteful spenders on the council. I fear he has been compromised.
Nathan
Pod man: To borrow your previous analogy, Rasansky fell asleep and became a pod person. He once was worthy of respect; now, he can only be pitied.
Mike
Give us a break: The alternative is to be sitting for hours on end on I-30 and I-35W 10 years down the road. No matter the cost (and cost overruns, which are typical for projects like this), we need this road to give us a break traffic-wise.
"Alternative"
Compromised: Maybe he now owns property along the Trinity project site like his buddy Ed Oakley. That's why Ed was so in favor of it, wasn't it, Jim?
Gregg
Blue Skies Forever
Dallas deserves better: Matt, thanks for covering this very important subject about cleaner air in Dallas ("Choke on It," by Matt Pulle, September 6). By the way, it has nothing to do with global warming and everything to do with industry finding additional revenue streams at the expense of public health.
Texas is a beautiful state with beautiful skies, and Dallas deserves better. If you drive away from Dallas, the sky is blue. Inside DFW, it's a white glare, full of dust from the cement plant stacks. These plants need to be scrubbing their output better and/or falling under the regulations governing the handling of the toxic wastes they're burning in their furnaces. There's absolutely no reason they should be permitted to continue burning hazardous waste outside of regulations the waste-handling industry is required to obey. They're disposing of toxic waste? They're in the waste-handling industry and subject to the same regulation.
Mark D. Holland