Lake Worth - What You Can Do To Preserve Its Green Space

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Lake Worth - What You Can Do to Preserve Its Green Space.

Summary: Most of the beautiful "park" greenspace around Lake Worth is not "park" at all - but "city owned" land. This beautiful green space is in danger of being sold and developed. Shoreline residents are urged to vote in the upcoming election so that the neighborhood associations will have the ability to protect this property. Video Transcript:

Do you enjoy the beauty that surrounds your home? How would you like all of those gorgeous green fields and beautiful woods around the lake turned into apartment complexes in the next few years? Let me show you something. This is a map of the lake from the current “Lake Worth Vision” plan. Here is the 820 bridge. Here the Jacksboro Highway bridge. Here’s the Fort Worth Nature Center. I’m going to cover it up. Around the main part of the lake, you will notice two colors, orange and green. The green are dedicated parks. In all probability, those green spots will stay parks. On the other hand, you will notice that two-thirds of the woods and fields around the lake are orange. That means that the city could sell this property off and development like apartment complexes could be built. Notice that the orange zones are everywhere. That means that the vast majority of the residents on the lake could be living in the middle of an apartment complex in the not-too-distant future. Here’s what you need to understand. There are four neighborhood associations around Lake Worth - the north shore, south shore, east shore, and scenic shores. I lead the Scenic Shores Association. All four neighborhood association are led by very concerned people who have been fighting tooth-and-nail to keep this from happening. It has been a fierce battle and we have yet not won the war. As a matter of fact, we have reached a point where we desperately need your help. We need every single person on the shoreline to help. Let me show you something else. This is a computer disk that lists every voter in Tarrant County. Your name is on this disk. It tells what elections you voted in and what elections you didn’t vote in. The mayor and councilman has this disk. Every candidate for mayor and council have this disk. And they all use this disk like a bible. Now let me show you something else. Here is a list of all the property owners on Lake Worth. You will notice that I have highlighted some names. The people that I highlighted are the ones who voted in the 2009 city election. You will notice that hardly anyone on the shoreline voted. I will admit that I did not vote in that election. The next election will be the first week of May (this year 2011). Once that election is over, whoever is elected will have an updated version of this list. They will know if you voted and they will know if I voted. If the new list looks like this list, then the leaders of the four neighborhood associations will have very ability to keep the apartments out. On the other hand, if after this election, this list is completely green - in other words, everyone on the shoreline votes - then the four neighborhood associations will have tremendous ability to protect this property. It really is that simple. If you vote, we can get the property preserved and protected. If you don’t vote, then as our kids say, we got no game. We’ve got no power and no ability to protect the lake. I cannot overemphasize that if you want to preserve the environment around your home, if you want to preserve the environment of the lake, you must vote in this election. And I mean you specifically. I’m talking about your one vote. Your one vote could easily mean the difference between your living around parks (like you do now) or your living around apartments and other high density development. So what’s the plan? First, if you are not registered to vote, you need to get registered. Just call me and I will send you a form. It’s super easy. Second, you need to save two dates. The first is the shoreline rally on April 9th. On Saturday, April 9th all city council candidates and all mayoral candidates will meet with shoreline residents at a free shoreline barbecue rally at Grace Baptist Church on Las Vegas Trail. Whether you ask them a question or not, the candidates need to see you there. Next, you need to plan on voting in the early voting between April 2nd and April 10th. I will send you an email letting you know where you need to go to vote. You just need to resolve right now that you will be voting in the early election. Before the election, I will also send you a voter sheet so that you can see where all the candidates stand on our issues. All you will need to do is to pick a couple of candidates and vote. It’s going to be easy. If you vote, no matter who it is you vote for, we will have the ability to protect the green space around our homes and we will will have the ability to protect the lake. This all comes down to your one vote. I cannot overemphasize how important this election is to your home and to this lake. We’re all in this together. I’m Michael Dallas.