If you don't learn from history

You're an idiot.

Well, that and you're doomed to repeat it.

An article from last year in the Fort Worth Business Press points out a very costly, catastrophic mistake.  Sounds eerily similar to the very costly, catastrophic mistake the Trinity River Vision will create when it tries to redirect the river....

Just for fun, what will be in the path of the Trinity River?  Oh yes, a billion of your dollars worth of development and a couple million people. Genius.

The problem – and perhaps the solution – goes back to 1928. Fed up with flooding from North Sulphur River, Fannin County farmers decided to tame the river that was ruining their crops. Redirecting the meandering river into a 16-foot wide, 10-foot channel may have kept the river away from the cotton crops.

But it created a much worse problem, said Tom Taylor, executive director of the UTRWD.

The straightened river was twice as steep and ran twice as fast, Taylor said. Over 80 years, the river barreled downstream during heavy rains, wiping out everything in its path including trees and countless bridges, he said.

“It’s now 300 feet wide and 60 feet deep,” Taylor said. “It’s probably the only river in North America that never leaves its banks. It looks like it’s intended to be that way but it’s a catastrophic example of man-made erosion.”