Sink the Petition. Save The Trinity: You may be frustrated with the whole Trinity River Corridor Project. Dallas voters passed $246 million in bonds in 1998, so where is it? Well, it's coming, and this no time to delay or even stop the project, just as everything really starts to take shape.

Take a minute to envision the Trinity Project and Dallas' future. The Trinity is the largest public works project in Dallas history. Indeed, it is one of the largest projects in the nation today. When completed, the Trinity will encompass more than 10,000 acres of parkland. To give you a comparison, the Big Apple's Central Park is 843 acres.

But that's just part of the story. The project also provides flood protection to much of Dallas, including South Dallas neighborhoods long plagued by flooding, the Stemmons Corridor, mulitple medical institutions and the Central Business District.

The project has always included the Trinity Parkway, designed as a reliever road to disentangle the traffic congestion in Dallas' infamous Mixmaster and to help people get where they want to go without sitting in traffic congestion and with cleaner air.

The Trinity River Corridor Project also means economic opportunity, giving an advantage to the Southern Sector where Dallas has ample land, people, resources and potential to develop and thrive. The Trinity is a new front door for Dallas.

In 1998, after more meetings than anyone can count, a compromise was reached to put this proposition to Dallas voters. All the issues were addressed. Voters approved it, whether they wanted economic development and jobs, flood protection, better tranportation or recreation.

Since 1998, the Trinity Project has been moving forward, albeit slower than everyone would like. Dallas' money has been used to leverage funds at the federal, state and county level to fund the total project. The City of Dallas and many committed Dallas citizens work with numerous government agencies and private interests to push the project forward.

Has this huge endeavor been seamless? No way. Yet, it's better to keep moving than to stop and study what has already been studied for decades.

Working with our elected representatives in Washington, Austin and Dallas and private sources, funding has been secured for the project, including two signature bridges designed by Santiago Calatrava. Private money is also being raised to provide ammenities included but not funded in the Balanced Vision Plan, adopted by the Dallas City Council in 2003, which finalized plans for the project.

Now, as everything is coming together, when our elected officials have stood together to ensure funding, this is no time to muddy the waters. Don't sign a petition. It is a strike against Dallas' future.

If you'd like more detail on the Trinity River Corridor project, here's the city's update: www.trinityrivercorridor.org