Behind the Trinity River Toll Road Scenes with Angela Hunt

I called Angela Hunt to see if she had a response, but she either didn’t want to disclose key details for strategic reasons or had absolutely no idea. But just like Reed, Hunt knows how to frame the issue as simply and memorably as possible.

“On the face of it, they just think it’s a dumb idea to put a tollway in our park," she says of how quickly the average person grasps the issue. "It’s a dumb idea to put a tollway in our floodway.”

Of course, Hunt will have to reach a lot of average people, because the “Vote No” side is, as expected, disciplined, insistent and smooth -- kind of like our mayor. Reed’s team has lined up 70 people, including public officials and business leaders, to volunteer to speak in favor of the toll road before various non-profit and neighborhood organizations. I can’t begin to imagine a more boring speech.

Still, the “Vote No!” team is not just sending their emissaries in blind. Last week, they attended a 90-minute-long training session at the Greater Dallas Area Chamber of Commerce, to help them understand and explain the toll road issues, at least as their side sees it. That may be a minor point, but if the “Vote No!” folks are fine-tuning their lineup of public speakers, they’re not likely to let other details go without attention.

Reed says that her team will also use direct mail and TV ads down the homestretch. They’re also going to try to tidy up a sprawling policy argument -- the toll road is one of many necessary parts of a big, intricate project -- by appealing to our senses and going visual. Exhibit A was the short film the North Texas Tollway Authority unveiled this week at the “Vote No!” official campaign launch at the Hilton Anatole. With the lush orchestral music of an inspirational biopic, the NTTA’s self-described “visual aid” depicts a tiny, beautiful toll road amidst an expansive floodplain and park. The toll road is highlighted by a median of finely trimmed shrubs and a parade of pretty trees forming a natural barrier between the highway and the park.

“It’s gorgeous,” Hunt quips. “You expect to see little geese walking across the toll road.”

In fact, the NTTA’s ad was, if not a flop, a bit of a letdown. The next day, The Dallas Morning News's story about the "Vote No!" launch party focused on the honesty of the images, specifically on whether the authority will even be allowed to plant trees along the levee, since that might weaken them. That wasn’t a good start for the “Vote No!” campaign, as they likely expected a less discerning news story from a paper that has otherwise championed their cause.

The pro-toll road people are trying to say the debate over trees is an arcane one, but it hits at a larger point: if you can’t believe the trees, then can you believe anything else in that visual aid? After all, the original Trinity River project was passed in large part because of all those picturesque drawings of sailboats and clear blue lakes, with nary a toll road in sight.

“They will package this any way they have to get people to vote for a toll road in the park, because common sense is not on their side,” Hunt says.

Reed says that, with the exception of a few trees here or there, the NTTA’s film is accurate, depicting a slim, tasteful road amid a beautiful, lush park.

“Take nine football fields at its widest,” she says of the project. “And the road is 40 yards. Those are the types of visuals you get out there.”

You can bet those visuals will be stylish, colorful and effective, transforming an almost impossible argument -- Vote to put a billion dollars of concrete in a floodplain -- into an appealing travel brochure.

And so it will be Hunt’s job to illustrate if and how those images are misleading. Hunt will also need to show whether the toll road really is a necessary part of the Trinity River project -- a point her opponents inadvertently undermine, by the way, when they talk about how the various amenities are already popping up. Finally, Hunt will have to convince voters that Laura Miller and Ron Kirk and every political leader in between is wrong in the face of tough and well-funded political opposition effort. Then again, no one thought that Hunt would even get this far.

“Everyone underestimated us," Hunt says, "until we flopped 90,000 signatures on the table and said, ‘Here you go, verify these.'"