By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A county resident told city council members Tuesday a fourth proposed route between a planned second international bridge and area highways will uproot more than a dozen of her family members and friends.
Elizabeth Koog spoke to the council during the citizen comments portion of its regular meeting. Her comments focused on the impacts of a fourth proposed route between a second international bridge and U.S. Highway 90 unveiled during a public meeting on Oct. 16.
Koog told the council, “Good evening. My name is Elizabeth Koog, and my family is being directly by this fourth route. On more than one occasion, you have referred to our homes as ‘just trailers.’ Well, those trailers are our homes. Each and every one of us is entitled to one vote, the same as someone who lives in a $5 million mansion. The type of home you live in should not change the value of your vote.
“It was said that the fourth route would not bulldoze any homes, just a single property owner with ‘some trailers.’ The (city’s bridge) consultant seemed to have overlooked the site-built home with an attached apartment that sits front and center right off of Highway 90. There are also five manufactured homes right on the property occupied by generations of my family, who decided to live so close to each other to support one another.
“Nothing a short drive for anyone who has not been to that area to realize it was more than just trailers. If someone told you your home would be bulldozed, what would you do? Well, my wife and I would probably move in with my sister, her husband and their four kids. But we can’t do that because their home will be bulldozed as well.
“Now the eight of us would need a place to live. I guess we can hunker down with our parents, but guess what? Their home would be bulldozed as well. Now there’s 10 of us with nowhere to go.
“I guess we could split up and live with our friend and her two children, and my sister and her family could live at her father-in-law’s. Oh, wait. Those homes would be gone as well.
“Now there are 14 of us being separated and left with starting all over again. You are completely wiping out my family’s ability to help each other in a crisis. Except, instead of a natural disaster or something uncontrollable happening that splits us apart, it’s a deliberate decision to go after one landowner because it’s the cheapest and not affecting as many people.
“However, you did not realize or care that you are still displacing multiple families. Whether it is directly me and my family or my neighbor and their family, we matter. Our lives and livelihoods matter. This land was our future, to build a house like those off of Las Brisas that are so expensive you don’t want to demolish.
“Our parents might not have as much in your eyes, but to us, this was always more than enough. Not only will you be uprooting my 14 members of family and friends, but you will also be affecting my grandmother and aunt’s business, Lorina’s Cantina, and my aunt’s home,” Koog finished.
The council did not comment after Koog finished her presentation.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
