Thursday, September 3, 2015

Proposed Dallas Skyscrapers Cause Cyberspace Stir But Not In Fort Worth

Today we are going to have an extreme variant of our popular series of bloggings about something I have read in an online west coast news source which I would not likely be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram regarding something similar taking place in Fort Worth.

Today's variant is that it was not via a west coast news source online where I read something I have never read in the Star-Telegram about something happening in Fort Worth. Today it is in the Dallas Morning News online where I read something I have never read in the Star-Telegram reporting a similar thing happening in Fort Worth.

That being a stir of interest caused by proposed skyscrapers such as what is taking place in Fort Worth's neighbor to the east, Dallas.

A couple snippets from the Dallas Morning News Pictures of proposed skyscrapers north of downtown Dallas cause a stir in cyberspace article....

Some eye popping pictures of planned Dallas skyscrapers have been getting tons of clicks on architecture and real estate Internet fan pages.

The drawings of fanciful high-rise buildings look like a chunk of Hong Kong or Vancouver has landed just up the road from the El Fenix restaurant.

Vancouver? Unless Vancouver has changed since I was a neighbor, that town has height restrictions on its downtown buildings, hence no high-rise skyscrapers. Even without skyscrapers Vancouver has an impressive skyline. I think Vancouver limits the height of high-rises so as not to block the views of the nearby mountains.

Nearby mountains, or blocking views, is not a problem in Dallas or Fort Worth.

Ironically, when the project, then known as Trinity Uptown, was breathlessly announced via a HUGE headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the headline read "Trinity Uptown To Turn Fort Worth Into The Vancouver Of The South."

I remember reading that and being completely bum puzzled. And then when the details of what is now known as the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision, or America's Biggest Boondoggle, became clear, the idea that this project would somehow turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South, became even more bum puzzling.

Before the Great Recession hit I remember being in Dallas and being surprised by the number of construction cranes all over the downtown zone. Last Saturday's visit to downtown Dallas again saw a lot of construction cranes.

One sees no construction cranes in the downtown Fort Worth zone, unless one counts as downtown the area where America's Biggest Boondoggle is building three simple bridges over dry land in a four year construction timeline.

In a recent blogging titled Why No Residential Towers Are Currently Planned For Fort Worth's Imaginary Island I opined as to what I thought was the reason downtown Fort Worth was a construction ghost town, repeating what Mr. Spiffy had previously opined, with Mr. Spiffy suggesting no developer is going to want to develop anything in downtown Fort Worth while America's Biggest Boondoggle has the status of downtown Fort Worth in a state of confusion.

The Dallas version of the Trinity River Vision is a bit further along than the Fort Worth version, with one signature bridge completed, built over water, and another well underway, also over water. The Dallas version of the Trinity River Vision has implementation problems, just like Fort Worth's version has implementation problems.

But the two town's vision implementation problems are different. And the Dallas implementation problems have not been exacerbated by having installed a local Dallas congresswoman's unqualified son in charge of running the Dallas vision.

Hence, the Dallas vision currently has a new bridge to drive over. But no beer drinking inner tube music parties, with e.coli, in the Trinity River, no drive-in movie theaters, no ice skating rinks, no music festivals at imaginary pavilions on imaginary islands, no beer breweries, no beer halls, no failed wakeboard parks....

2 comments:

MLK said...

Lol. I love Ft. Worth as much as you hate it. SO good to be home to soft, warm breezes, beautiful downtown, things to do.

Unknown said...

Add these to the list of skyscrapers never built! SMH!