'Move It' echoes Houston-is-ugly refrain

File this one in the "World Class" department. Houston is ugly, we have no trees, we need "smart growth" policies, blah blah blah:

In about five years, the Hardy Toll Road will give passengers arriving at Bush Intercontinental Airport a straight shot into downtown. But it may not give them much to look at. Federal Green Ribbon money has helped beautify the part nearest Bush, but from there to the North Loop, where the toll road now stops, the route is mostly undeveloped and industrial.

Which is it, Rad? Mostly undeveloped or mostly industrial? If it's mostly industrial, it's not undeveloped. If it's mostly undeveloped, it's nice and green.

The North and Eastex freeways greet visitors with dense traffic, acres of concrete, miles of neon and the occasional rubber gorilla waving from a strip mall roof.

Oh my gosh! Private industry is tainting the landscape with their jobs, their goods and their services! We'd better cover it up with government-subsidized vegetation, lest a bunch of Euro types think we're not World Class!

One reason why Houston was spurned in its bid to host the 2012 Olympics was the sheer ugliness that spectators and athletic delegations would have to pass through, says attorney Bill Coats of the Quality of Life Coalition, a group of about 80 "green" and civic organizations.

We stuck it to the smart-grown greenies and kept the French away? Sounds like a good day's work.

Coats has a proposal for improving the toll route while there's still time.

Apparently, the toll road is a ticking nuclear bomb, cleverly disguised as infrastructure.