Fort Worth's First Public Market

My dear 2 readers. Today is a whine about the Fort Worth Star-Telegram blogging day. I do this for my own enjoyment, not yours. So, read on if you must, but it won't hurt my feelings if you don't.

So, this morning's paper brought me a lotta fresh fodder. Right now I'll only mention one. In the Work & Money section in an article under the headline "List of endangered sites set to get longer."

Among the supposedly historic sites in Fort Worth that are in danger is the one you see in the photo. That being the Fort Worth Public Market Building.

The article describes the Fort Worth Public Market Building as having been built in 1930 to provide space for local farmers and vendors, closing in 1941.

So, what's the big deal? Well. Just a few short years ago the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had absolutely no awareness that Fort Worth had had a Public Market Building where farmers vended their wares.

In downtown Fort Worth a pathetic, obviously doomed to fail, badly designed, poorly executed, dishonestly promoted, small mall food court like thing opened to much Star-Telegram brouhaha. This sad, now shuttered, mistake, was called the Sante Fe Rail Market.

The Star-Telegram over and over and over and over again, even after being told, more than once, they were wrong, repeatedly claimed that the Santa Fe Rail Market was not only the first Public Market in Fort Worth, Fort Worth's disinformation purveyor claimed the Santa Fe Rail Market was the first Public Market in Texas!

The Star-Telegram also served up the ridiculous assertion, over and over and over again, that the Santa Fe Rail Market was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and Public Markets in Europe. Just 30 miles to the west, in Weatherford, there is a Public Market. And 30 miles to the east, in Dallas, there is a Public Market. Both of which, particularly the Dallas Market, actually do resemble Seattle's Pike Place Market, a market no Star-Telegram employee must have ever seen, as in how in clear conscience could they then have repeatedly repeated this absurd assertion?

Regarding the endangered Fort Worth Public Market, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram repeated the misinformation about the Santa Fe debacle being the first in Texas many many many times, even after it was pointed out to them that the first Public Market in Fort Worth was within walking distance of both the new soon to fail pseudo public market and the Star-Telegram's offices. I suggested they send one of their bloviated reporters out for a look. I also suggested they send a reporter to Seattle and have the reporter write an article making note of all the similarities between Pike Place and the Santa Fe Rail Market. If he could find any.

It is sort of sad that a transplant from the west coast, exiled in Fort Worth, has to point out the facts of their own town to the local newspaper. Something ain't right about that.

So, today it was interesting to read that these few years later the Star-Telegram is now not only acknowledging the existence of Fort Worth's first Public Market, they even put a large photo of it in the paper to illustrate the endangered structures.

Now if only they'd examine their part in the Santa Fe Rail Market's failure, due to the Star-Telegram helping create an erroneous expectation for visitors, particularly those who had been to Pike Place or some other successful public market, who were then disgusted to visit that sad Santa Fe operation and see what a lame thing it was and realize they'd been lied to once more by the local paper of record. The Star-Telegram should be ashamed for its part in that enterprise's demise.

With today's discovery of the actual first public market in Fort Worth how does the Star-Telegram reconcile their ridiculous inconsistencies? One can't help but wonder.

Tomorrow, unless something else comes, along I'll blog about the latest outrage from Fort Worth's ruling junta.