RadioShack's $10.7 Million Fort Worth Extortion Scheme

I have been in one of my cycles of feeling like why bother whining about the latest bizarro iteration of the Fort Worth Way's way of running a town.

After awhile you can't help but realize it is pointless to point out anything, when you can point out something so obvious as the fact that Fort Worth's Mayor Mike Moncrief has multiple criminal conflicts of interests where he monetarily gains to the tune of over $600,000 a year from the Barnett Shale gas drillers poking holes all over the town of which he is mayor.

Fort Worth's goofily corrupt mayor's latest goofy corruptness has been urging the Fort Worth City Council to approve a proposal to give RadioShack $10.7 million in tax breaks. Moncrief told the City Council that the deal, also known as an extorting shakedown, with RadioShack, is a "unique and productive partnership" that is "a good deal for all of us."

Just 8 short years ago special tax districts were created with tax breaks lasting 30 years, while eminent domain was abused to boot low-income citizens from the Ripley Arnold housing project, so RadioShack could build a new corporate headquarters. All the RadioShack incentives totaled up to $96 million.

The new RadioShack Corporate Headquarters was built. Soon, RadioShack found they could not afford it. Then another Fort Worth Boondoggle, the downtown campus of Tarrant County College bailed on its new building, and bought into the RadioShack building for their new campus.

Now, inside the rarified chambers of Fort Worth's city government, one of their operating premises is that it is a great benefit to Fort Worth to have a prestigious Fortune 500 company, like RadioShack, headquartered in Fort Worth.

And so, in those rarified chambers it makes sense to give RadioShack a lot more money if RadioShack would kindly stay in town for another 5 years.

I really don't see how having RadioShack in your town is all that great a deal. I really have never understood how they stay in business with their junky stores.

Now, what I'm thinking is Fort Worth would be well rid of RadioShack. Look at the damage RadioShack has done to Fort Worth. Where the new headquarters were built there had been huge, free parking lots. A free subway took you from those parking lots to the heart of downtown Fort Worth. This made it so easy to go to downtown Fort Worth. I used to do that frequently. I have seldom gone to downtown Fort Worth in the years since RadioShack destroyed downtown Fort Worth's best asset.

I don't know what the problem is with Fort Worth and new corporate headquarters. Pier One Imports built a new corporate headquarters, about the same time as RadioShack. The Pier One Imports Headquarters has now been taken over by Chesapeake Energy, used as the base of operations from which Chesapeake runs its shadow Fort Worth government.

The RadioShack CEO, Julian Day, was paid $8 million in 2009.

Fort Worth is closing swimming pools, cutting library hours, not filling potholes, not doing a lot of things, due to revenue shortfalls.

How is it anything but insane for Mike Moncrief and the Fort Worth City Council to consider giving a company like RadioShack, which has already done so much damage to Fort Worth, $10.7 million more? Instead, why is there not a demand that RadioShack return money to Fort Worth, due to the fact that their new Corporate Headquarters did not live up to the bill of goods RadioShack sold the city. It did not spur development on the Trinity River, it did not end up being a commitment to the city that lasted generations.

The commitment lasted a couple years, if that. Fort Worth should now sue for divorce from RadioShack, in my humble opinion.