"You Have Awakened a Sleeping Giant!"

You might wonder..what could provoke such fury from the otherwise quiet and tranquil suburban neighborhoods that are nestled among the trees and share a stretch of rural road that brambles alongside prairie grasses, expansive agricultural land, and the bucolic scenes of George Ranch, Brazos Bend State Park, and nature preserve? 

It is the threat that this very tranquil scene and the quality of life it represents could soon come to an abrupt and unwelcome end. 

Over 200 local residents crowded into a standing room only public meeting held by the Texas Department of Transportation at George Ranch's Guy Lodge Hall in August. (http://stoptollroad.com/news.htm#Making).

They came hoping that the latest Grand Parkway proposal they had been hearing about was just a bad dream. What they were told at the meeting was more like a nightmare!

Many of the residents negotiated and approved a design in 2001 for a four lane divided highway; but since then, the design, the route, and the financing mechanism for the Grand Parkway dramatically changed. It is now designed as a 26 mile limited access toll road between SH59 and SH288 with six lanes, numerous overpasses, and expansive right of way that encroaches on residential property and rips through local small business establishments. (http://grandpky.com.) 

Now in a state of heightened alert and with their eyes wide open, residents could clearly see that the reasons given for the project and its new design were baseless. Population studies show there are not enough people currently living along the proposed corridor to cause traffic congestion to be a legitimate rationale. The design for limited access ramps makes it obvious that the roadway is not intended for local residents taking trips to and from local offices, schools, stores and restaurants. The six lanes and overpasses are further evidence that the roadway is designed for through-traffic while the frontage roads are expected to be used for local access. The argument that it is needed as an evacuation route for Brazoria is also senseless since SH36, SH59 and the Fort Bend Parkway are all undergoing improvements that will make these existing roadways preferable evacuation routes over SH99 whose only outlet is I-10 which would be a certain bottleneck. 

While the residents one by one repeated the refrian, "No Toll, No Road," TxDot 's Pat Henry and The Grand Parkway Association's David Gornet attempted to weave their magic; but the more than 200 sets of eyes in the room were keenly focused on each magician's sleight of hand, which quickly revealed the thinly veiled secret that the Grand Parkway is not a Transportation Project at all. It is a Development Project! 

Recognizing that the nightmare was real and that the magicians were mere travelling salesmen, residents filed out of the Hall as resident Jesse Cuellar revealed being "outraged and disgusted at our officials for this continued lie." 

Only ten days were allowed for public comments to be submitted to TxDOT. So while a letter writing campaign was underway, residents filed into the Fort Bend County Commissioners Court to express their opposition to the Grand Parkway proposal and to offer an alternative. They were restricted by Judge Hebert to three minute speeches. 

They set out to awaken their neighbors and to lead them through the fog until they could see for themselves the road that lies ahead of them. It seemed as if overnight, representatives of all eight neighborhoods affected were setting off their own alarms and rallied an estimated 300 people to Williams Elementary School in early October.
http://stoptollroad.com/news.htm#Hundreds 

As the representatives successfully shined the light on the plans for the Grand Parkway and pulled back the curtain to reveal the secrets of what goes on behind the scenes, neighbors began to wake up and smell...well a rotten deal! This led Quart Graves, owner of the local Chick-Fil-A, to declare to the officials, "You have awakened a sleeping giant!" Petitions were filling up with signatures faster than Judge Hebert could use up the scant three minutes he was restricted to by the representatives. He used that time to try to convince the audience he had no authority over the Grand Parkway and didn't see a need for it. Commissioner Stavinoha attended to "listen" to concerns, leaving it up to Judge Hebert to find ways to defend the Commissioners Court. TxDot's Pat Henry deferred to Grand Parkway Association's spinmeister David Gornet to turn every question into an answer about the positive benefits of the Grand Parkway. 

And the next Commissioners Court was ambushed by even more outraged citizens who were told by Judge Hebert that the Grand Parkway was NOT County business so only one person would be permitted to speak for 5 minutes. These residents were under the mistaken impression that we had a representative government here in Fort Bend County!

Realizing that a sleeping giant is a lot easier to deal with than one who has awakened to a nightmare, the core group of representatives created a website to support the growing number of neighbors at different stages of wakeful consciousness. And realizing that this was turning into a battle with many front lines depending upon the agency the buck was being passed to on any given day, the representatives organized a full-fledged grassroots campaign called Stop Tolls On the Parkway or S.T.O.P.
http://stoptollroad.com/ 

More and more, residents have begun to tap their neighbor on the shoulder to get them to pay attention, turn on the overhead light so they can see the truth, or pull back the curtains to reveal the process behind the scenes ...anything to wake people up! 

So it was not surprising that the next meeting drew another 300+ residents. It was organized and facilitated by the Greatwood Homeowner's Association independent of S.T.O.P. and featured another presentation by the Grand Parkway Association Director David Gornet. As he took center stage again, homeowners couldn't seem to shake the stench of the rotten deal they'd been dealt and got a little testy whenever it sounded like he was handing out more of the same. They even accused their own Association President of peddling the rotten stuff. 

So they turned to State Representative Dora Olivo whose presence had been noticed at each of their meetings. They pressed her to take the mike and tell them what she can and will do to help them advance their cause. She promised "I"ll stand with you, but I can't promise anything." However, she did make arrangements for a select few to make their appeal to TxDOT to extend the public comment period for 60 days to allow the petitions to be included. But neither she nor the representatives were able to influence the unyielding TxDOT District Engineer, Gary Trietsch. 

AAH, but the Giant is fully awake now and growing bigger each day. No longer is the Giant sleep walking through the goulish nightmare nor smarting from the thunderbolt shock of the truth. Instead the Giant is getting wiser and stronger as support pours in from those compelled to act out of a deep sense of consciousness and justice. 

Once fully awake and consciously aware, there is no safe return to blissful ignorance. Perhaps as the waking giant extends its reach into the dark corners of local policy-making and brings the truth out of the shadows, a new day will dawn in Fort Bend County. 

Is this a mere dream? Perhaps, but it is a compelling enough vision to keep me feeding and nurturing the Waking Giant.