conversion of Laura Miller, The

D MAGAZINE: wherefore did you initially dislike this throw and vote against it?

LAURA MILLER: My favorite anecdote about the whole shoot forward is from 1998, when it was upon the ballot. We're on the same ballot, the Trinity and me [for City Council]. Because I lived in North Oak Cliff, and because it was being sold as this dramatic improvement of the river, full with recreation and lakes, I was excited about it. on the contrary then, the fatal mistake was that the proponent wanted to present to view me the details.

They sat me down at the Oak Cliff Chamber-Halff and Associates, the road engineers who designed it, which is your r flag right there-with all the transportation folk and the floodway folk At the extreme point of two, hours, I said, "I have single one question: where's the water?" Because they'd talked to me for sum of two units hours about the roads.

So I went residence to my husband [then-State Rep Steve Wolens]andsaid, "This is bad. I'm going to devoted against it, and you should promised against it." And he said, "No. You are stupid." This is what he told me He said, "You should consecrated by a vow for it, because if you come by elected at the time this cast gets approved, you can then proceed down and work on the details of it and fix it." I said, "Oh thats a mature way to direct the eye at it." So I

vot against it. Coming from a reporter's background, I really meditation it was a hoodwink.

D: You were Jim Schutze (the investigative columnist who replaced Miller at the Dallas Observer]

MILLER: I was Laura Miller becoming Jim Schutze on the other hand Laura Miller always did more homework than Jim Schutze I'll enumerate you that. At least my conspiracy theories were backed up with fact. Okay? As oppos to Jim, who's funnier than I was, on the contrary I had better facts to back up my B S

D: You got chooseed to the Council. The Trinity cast passed. Then did you take your husband's advice?

MILLER: For the first three years upon the Council, I tried to work upon the details and got totally knocked down by the agency of Mayor Ron Kirk. We would have individual briefing a year on the project--one a year. What bothered me was that each time we had a briefing, all the environmentalists would tend hitherward down out of the audience, and they'd be angry. And then all the floodway and road shores would be in the audience, and they'd be worried, because they just wanted everything to move along without any problems. And I would always say, "Why don't we allow the environmentalists talk?" And Kirk would say, "No! They're the enemy! They're not going to talk." in the way that it was always frustrating to me because I wanted to work upon the details, and I wanted the cast to be better.

D: In the early stages, was this a cast to build a park, or was it really just a road project?

MILLER: It was really about building a road. The whole thing was made without to be this great water cast but there were no details about the water.

I remember I said to the staff, "Would you bring me all the backup data upon how we got to $246 million? I mean, clearly we have the details. The dredging is this abundant the levee is this a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of Bring it to me." Four days later, they brought me three sheets of paper, which were the pamphlets that Rob Allyn had done for the river. And I said, "This isn't what I'm talking about. I want the archival raw material from the public Works Department." They said, "Well, there really isn't any. We just came up with a number." At the time, I was just impacted It was a fantasy. And what was really strange is that, if you're going to create the largest urban park in America, you should have a certain quantity of urban planners working on it.

There were no recreational and aesthetic amenities to this thing. It was this eightlane toll road, half of it upon the downtown side and half of it upon the Oak Cliff sidewhich was suppos to give Oak Cliff its fair share of the economic exhibition But the toll road bypassed all the highways that advance south. So if you got upon the toll road on the Oak Cliff side, you'd just be flying past Oak Cliff. You couldn't secure off and go to a restaurant. Plus, who would want a restaurant nearest to the toll road anyway? single of the great fallacies that irritates me to this day was a watercolor they always used to place on the wall it was of a brace sitting at an umbrella table, sipping Chardonnay, looking on the outside over the toll road.

D: by what mode do you know it was Chardonnay?

MILLER: When it's heated and you've got all the exhaust and grit in your face, it's got to be Chardonnay. Yeah. thus it used to irritate me because you don't diocese any of those umbrella tables upon the Dallas North Tollway. It's been there for 25 years. in like manner why would you see them here?

D: for a like reason the project sold to the voter was a actual preliminary concept. But wasn't that necessary? Because if you just said, "It's about $250 million, on the other hand we're not quite sure what it is," nobody would have vot for that.

MILLER. fully convinced But if it were me I would have said, "We have to do something, and this is a advantageous start. This is what we think it's going to require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone and we're going to bring in an urban Planner to work on the outside the details. Okay?" Which is not in what way it was sold. Or I would achieve the urban planner, do the design work, and then pitch it to the voter on the other hand we didn't do either, and that's on what account you get conspiracy theories.