OK, there is a bond election here in Richardson, Texas, on May 8. You can read about propositions here.
If you live here in Richardson, I encourage you to vote in favor of each and every one of these propositions. Richardson is an aging community, with a pretty low tax rate. Approval of these propositions will increase the property taxes on the average home about $110 a year. This will actually still keep our overall tax rate very competitive with other nearby cities.
It’s important that we make the investments necessary to keep Richardson a desirable place to live. This means keeping up our city infrastructure and amenities, and investing in new technology to allow our city departments to function more efficiently. For example, proposition 3 includes money to put RFID chips on all the public library materials and install a new material handling system. This will allow the library to function more efficiently for years to come.
Part of living in a good community includes investing in that community. It sickens me that there is organized opposition to these propositions. These folks need a dose of reality – we live in an older suburb, with aging infrastructure, and we have entered the phase of our city’s life cycle in which we will have to pay to maintain things.
Vote YES on the propositions — that is a YES for a strong, vibrant Richardson.
Great post! I love Richardson and agree that we need to continue to breathe new life into the community.
I had a colleague vist recently on a house-hunting trip. He looked at Richardson but said it seemed pale compared to places like Plano and Frisco with their city recreation facilities geared towards families.
Well, Richardson was developed mostly in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Plano is about 10 years behind Richardson in the city life cycle, and of course is much bigger in terms of geography and population. However, like most cities these days, Plano is facing serious budget issues as well.
We need to renew our city. The Heights recreation center is really old. I took art classes there when i was a kid in the early 70s. Richardson really has a lot to offer. It is probably the best city to be a cyclist in around here. Great bike paths. People simply have to realize that it is past time to reinvest. We are late.
I hope that a good new generation of adults in Richardson can actively create the kind of community that people want to live in.
Hey, we got a new rec center over on the east side at Huffines. Richardson has actual neighborhoods with a mix of family types and ages, which I appreciate. Our street has old timers and newcomers. The kids in the neighbor actually play outside in the street! There are lots of old growth trees and walkable neighborhoods. I love it because it feels like a real place, not a development in some pasture somewhere. I think Richardson is becoming a place that people who don’t want cookie-cutter will move to–it isn’t McMansionville.–Toni L.