Friday, May 9, 2014

Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Authority Votes To Re-Brand Boondoggle As Panther Island Boondoggle

On this morning of May 9, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, there is a classic example of the Chamber of Commerce type propaganda puffery which has so diminished the Star-Telegram's status as a real newspaper in the eyes of its ever diminishing number of readers.

The propaganda to which I refer you see, in part, on the left, titled Panther Island: Fort Worth project honors city's past.

Let us go through this propaganda piece by piece...

On Wednesday, the Trinity River Vision Authority board voted to change the name of the $910 million Trinity Uptown project to Panther Island.

Many in the community wanted to see the 800-acre project on the near north side renamed to honor the city’s past, said Matt Oliver, a spokesman for the authority.

In a Star-Telegram poll, 63 percent of the readers said they favored the name change. There is already a popular attraction in the area called the Panther Island Pavilion where outdoor concerts and other events are held to allow residents to get more comfortable with coming back to the river.

Many in the community wanted to see the project renamed to honor the city's past?  Really?

And the Star-Telegram knows this how?

Oh, they took a Star-Telegram poll. Was that Gallup the Star-Telegram commissioned to conduct this poll? Or was it an in-house job? 63 percent of the readers said they favored the name change? Really? How many "readers" were polled? How was the supposed poll question framed? Something like "Do you favor changing the name of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle to the Panther Island Boondoggle??

And then there is this....

TRVA Executive Director J.D. Granger agreed that the public likes the Panther Island name.

“I have asked for input from the community, and the name Panther Island really resonates with them,” he said.

J.D. Granger agreed that the public likes the Panther Island name? And he  knows this how? Oh, he asked for input from the community on this serious subject and learned the name Panther Island really resonates. Did J.D. ask you for your input on this serious issue? Who in the community is it that was giving J.D. this input?

And then there is this gem....

Perhaps a more obvious question about the new Trinity Uptown name is, where’s the island?

There actually will be an island after the Trinity River is redirected to form a northern border for the property and an urban lake is created to form a southern border near the Tarrant County Courthouse edge of downtown.

Now, I have asked this same question ever since the ridiculous Panther Island nomenclature got foisted on the public, before the public knew the name really resonated with them.

At the present time the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is supposedly about to begin construction on three very ordinary bridges, which the TRVB touts as being signature bridges, with those bridges being built over dry land, with that dry land someday becoming a flood bypass channel, which is currently an imaginary flood bypass channel, an unfunded, un-engineered, imaginary flood bypass channel.

Only if the imaginary unfunded flood bypass channel is built will the area which used to be known as Trinity Uptown actually be an island, well, sort of an island?

Why is any energy being put into all this Panther Island nonsense? How much public money has been spent on the changed signage so far?

Speaking of money. In the screencap above, of this Star-Telegram propaganda, on the upper right you see Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Mike Moncrief in front of an artist's rendering of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, I mean Panther Island Boondoggle. Below that photo is a link to an article titled "Trinity Uptown supporters have faith  that funding will come."

Really? So, this public works project the public has never been allowed to vote on is now a faith based initiative...........

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