J.D. Granger's Trinity River Vision In 2021 Dollars

That is my Facebook friend, J.D. Granger in the picture, guzzling down some beer. J.D. is the son of Congresswoman Kay Granger. Kay Granger represents the district Fort Worth is in.

Sometime late in the last century a vision came to Fort Worth that became known as the Trinity River Vision. That vision foresaw building a little lake at the confluence of two forks of the Trinity River on the north end of Fort Worth's downtown.

As the vision grew brighter 3 signature, fancy bridges were added. After awhile the vision started to see some canals. As the vision grew clearer the price tag kept rising. A way to pay for the vision had to be found.

And so an unneeded flood control diversion channel was added. With the unneeded flood control diversion channel added, Federal dollars might more easily be secured. To secure help in that regard, Kay Granger's son was put in charge of the vision, even though he had no experience with such things, but it sure gave his mom a reason to be an ardent supporter of the vision.

The Trinity River did flood real bad back in the 1950s. To make sure that did not happen again massive levies were built, likely with help from the Federal government. Those levies have kept dry parts of Fort Worth from getting wet for over 50 years.

On August 24, 2009, the Fort Worth Business Journal had a very interesting, sort of bizarre article about the Trinity River Vision. The price tag has now inched closer to $1 billion, with the latest price tag being $909.6 million.

In the article, and this is one of the bizarre parts, J.D. Granger explains that the cost figures are based on 2021 dollars. Huh? How is that done? In our mixed up economy someone is able to say what the dollar will be worth in 2021?

The $909.6 million price tag being based on 2021 dollars, is, according to J.D., "A move few projects make because of its shock value."

The above and below quotes from Granger are excerpted from the FW Business Journal article.

Granger said, "You'll not find another project done that way. Funding estimates for projects are always done on the front end. They're always done based on the year in which the estimate was made. But we wanted a clear picture of the end amount for this project. I don't know if anyone will ever do it again after we've done it, but the public said it wanted it, so we did it and we'll see how everyone likes it. Everyone is still watching us to see how it turns out."

J.D really likes to use the word "it" a lot. How did he find out the public wanted it? I am part of the public. I didn't want it. With it being the cost figures being based on 2021 dollars. I know other members of the public and I've heard none of them say they wanted it.

I have heard a lot of the public verbalize concern over this boondoggle, particularly with the 2021 price tag going up and up, while the vision fades, with the signature bridges gone, replaced by bridges designed by a local architect. The canals are gone. And the lake has shrunk. The FW Business Journal says it will be a 33 acre lake with two islands. I had not heard of the islands before. A couple weeks ago the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had an article about the growing boondoggle which said the lake had been shrunk from its original size to something like 17 acres.

I don't know if 17 acres qualifies as a lake. Sounds to me like the lake vision has turned into a big pond with a big price tag.