Fort Worth's To Do List

I'm in about my 3rd month of the Dallas Morning News being my newspaper, switching from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. It's been a huge improvement.

The Dallas Morning News seems to be a much more community minded newspaper. A good example of this is each month, on the editorial page, the editors list 10 items they feel need fixing as part of their campaign to bridge the gap between North and South Dallas.

On the list are things like a the run down Dallas Inn, near the zoo. The editorial notes that progress has been made, bulldozers will soon roll. Other items on the list, along with the prognosis for solving the problem are things like burned out houses, a grocery store that has turned into an eyesore, cracked asphalt on a playground. Well, you get the idea.

Meanwhile, in all my years of reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, I do not recollect reading a similar editorial. And how could there be, what with the Star-Telegram's editorial position that everything in Fort Worth is perfect, so much so that Fort Worth is the Envy of Cities and Towns Far and Wide, causing serious outbreaks of Green With Envy Syndrome.

So, with the Fort Worth newspaper of record opting out of its civic duties, I will try and fill the gap with my own Fort Worth To Do List.

Problem #1: The Fort Worth Stockyards are arguably Fort Worth's top attraction. Yet it is rundown. Eyesores like the New Isis Theater (pictured above) blight the National Historic District. How hard would it be to put some cosmetic camouflage on some of the more rundown parts of the Stockyards? And get rid of the Wells Fargo Bank building. It totally does not fit.

Problem #2: The I-35W Freeway exits to the Fort Worth Stockyards. They are both littered, weed-covered eyesores. Most town and cities in the states west of Texas, landscape their freeway exits, particularly freeway exits to a tourist attraction. At least keep the exits mowed and litter-free.

Problem #3: I have never seen a major American city with so many streets lacking sidewalks. There are so many areas where pedestrians have worn a path into the grass. In some locations the lack of a sidewalk is dangerous. A few weeks ago I saw an elderly lady, gingerly trying to push her cart load of groceries down a rough trail where a sidewalk should be. No town that has pretensions of being the envy of any other place should be so lacking in sidewalks. How about losing the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and replace it with the Fort Worth Sidewalks Vision? It'd probably be cheaper and way more useful.

Problem #4: East Lancaster, East Berry, East Rosedale. I take visitors from the northwest down these roads. Their jaws drop. They can't believe they are still in America or that a part of America looks so much like they've entered a Third World Country.

Problem #5: Camp Bowie Boulevard. I was told by a lifelong Fort Worth native that Camp Bowie Boulevard is unique, no other place has a brick paved road. Well, I hate to disabuse people of erroneously held notions, but a brick covered road is not unique. There are brick covered roads in other towns in Texas. What makes Camp Bowie unique is, for the most part, despite some renovation, the road is a bone-jarring mess. Either fix it or pave it. Trust me, it is not unique.

Problem #6: All the long dead businesses you see when you drive around town, turned into eyesores. Fort Worth needs to act like other cities, that are actually envied, and clean up these messes instead of letting them fester.

Problem #7: Heritage Park. What other city in America would arbitrarily close a park, and leave standing, signs that say things like "The visitor to Heritage Park walks on the paths of one man's vision, all those who follow and give life to that vision continue the legacy of courage and purpose." What other city, that is the envy of towns and cities far and wide, would let such an eyesore fester at the heart of their downtown, with a view overlooking what may become their Trinity River Vision? It just seems bizarre to me.

This week the City of Fort Worth says it is looking at the possibility of reopening Heritage Park. The reasons it was closed, supposedly, was ground shifting had affected the structures, the water features were no longer working, no lighting at night, people found it scary and too many homeless people.

The supposed price tag to fix Heritage Park is over $7 million. Here is my solution. Take down the cyclone fencing and the "Park Closed" signs. Clean up the debris. Put in some lighting. Patrol the park regularly. There is a police station/jail right next door. How hard could it be to patrol that park? I saw no sign of any structural damage when I walked all over the park. I think structural damage is a bogus reason to keep it closed. Leave the water features off til Fort Worth can afford to turn them back on.

Fort Worth's Heritage Park is the first thing I found in Fort Worth that actually impressed me as being very well done. When I saw, over a year ago, what had been done to it, I was shocked and appalled and disgusted. Send the same task force Fort Worth sent to Seattle to check out Seattle's new trolley and how Seattle handled the homeless problem, only this time focus on how Seattle solved their Freeway Park problems, that being a park very similar, though bigger, to Fort Worth's Heritage Park.

The cyclone fencing and park closed signs need to come down today. It's ridiculous.