I can't figure out what DART management is up to. They consistently make decisions that leave me scratching my head, trying to find any shred of logic whatsoever in them. If you'd like proof, you're more than welcome to check out the photos - that were taken by the Dallas Morning News. Many of you will recognize this as the entrance that you normally use to get in and out of the Fair. Well, guess what? Not this year, you won't. Why? Thanks to some very short sighted decisions by DART.

This time, I have to wonder why they decided that it would be a marvelous idea to block one of the entrances to Fair Park during the State Fair. Never mind the fact that, during the State Fair, the entire area, for blocks around, is horribly congested in the best of circumstances. Our State Fair draws in visitors from all over the world every year and is a huge boost to the Dallas economy.

Even though they've agreed to halt the construction, the construction site is still there. The gates are still blocked. Lanes of traffic are still blocked. It's still a problem for anyone trying to get into our out of the State Fair. So that you understand the scope of the problem, our State Fair topped 3,500,000 people last year. That's 145,000 people PER DAY trying to get in and out of Fair Park, which, let's be honest, has less than idea traffic conditions to begin with.

Now, to be fair, the overall traffic congestion in the area isn't DART's fault. That lies solely with the City Manager who *ought* to be doing some City Planning. Still, doing the math, that works out to better than 12,000 people per hour navigating past all this construction. Let me put this another way, its the entire population of the city of Irving passing through the State Fair every day that it is in operation.

How can you completely fail to plan for this? Why would you start your construction project in August, knowing full well that the State Fair starts in September? Why not wait until the State Fair is over? If you just have to start construction now, why not move out past the Fair Park area to begin it? Why not start your construction at the ends of the line and work inward? Why not arrange your construction project so that it could be halted and covered over during the State Fair? Any of these solutions would have resulted in much less disruption to the State Fair. None of these thoughts seem to have percolated through the dense granite that forms the skulls of DART's management team.

This is just another example of the poor organizational skills and decision-making that goes on at DART HQ. It's also another example of the lack of accountability that DART's management has even though they collect millions of our tax dollars, in addition to the millions that they collect in fares.

Worse yet, the City of Dallas is working hard to keep Texas-OU weekend here. In addition, they're trying to keep the Cottonbowl booked and have it remain viable as a venue. I'm sure that having the site of our world-famous State Fair in a shambles due to DART's poor planning is going to be a big decision making factor when people start considering what venue to book. I know that the thought would occur to me that if Dallas can't even manage its own world famous State Fair, that they certainly won't take any more time or trouble with my less important event.