Right about now, poor ol' Merten's settling in for a couple hours' worth of Trinity River Corridor Project Committee talk -- mostly for this morning's Trinity Parkway Update, which, in light of last week's revelations concerning the state of the levees, should be, oh, interesting? But Sam will also be treated to this fascinating discussion concerning a Trinity task force's latest dilemma: what to do with the two dozen or so metal recyclers up and down the Trinity, many of whom are in the direct path of the Trinity River Project.
A task force has been meeting weekly since November to reconcile the city's conundrum: On the one hand, well, the recycling sites are "not visually appealing" and cause a "high volume of truck traffic," for starters. On the other hand, well, "these recycling businesses play a significant role in Dallas' ability to be a green city," according to this morning's briefing -- not to mention they they generated more than $300,000 in "real property taxes," $850,000 in "business personal property taxes" and employed almost 600 folks last year alone. Most don't want to move, even to so-called "industrial sanctuaries," for fear that relocation expenses will be the final nail in their heavy metal coffins, but the city says "the presence of noxious uses is counter to th[e] goal" of redevelopment along the Trinity Corridor. Because this story couldn't get more interesting.