I Heard From Anonymous & Anthony Today About Fort Worth Being The Envy Of The Planet

In the photo you are looking at the exit from Interstate 35W to Northside Drive, that being the south freeway exit to the Fort Worth Stockyards, arguably, Fort Worth's only semi-well known tourist attraction.

Other than a sporting goods store that is the #1 tourist attraction in Texas.

On March 27 I mentioned this littered, eyesore of an un-landscaped freeway exit in a blogging titled While I Was Out Of Town Fort Worth Again Became The Envy Of Other, Older, Larger Cities.

That particular blogging generated a couple rather good comments today, one from Anonymous and one from Anthony....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "While I Was Out Of Town Fort Worth Again Became The Envy Of Other, Older, Larger Cities": 

Wonderful insight. You are right in many ways. But also, you have to give FW credit, they are trying very hard to give themselves a facelift. The current attitude is only natural if not sophomoric (society as a whole is a bit too familiar to high school). And while certain parts of the city improve (w. 7th), other aspects (the exits) might fall off for a while. SOMEone has to stand on the soapbox and TELL the others how much BETTER they are in order for them to BELIEVE it and make the CHANGE. It will be interesting to see if FW makes the break, or if the recent boom will turn in on itself. 

Anthony has left a new comment on your post "While I Was Out Of Town Fort Worth Again Became The Envy Of Other, Older, Larger Cities": 

Well, sure, Dallas is the older, larger city. I can see why Fort Worth (and Arlington and Denton) are lumped into the Dallas region. But I don't think that invisibility to non-Texans inherently neuters Fort Worth's cultural value. The moral of the story is that there's a gross disconnect between Fort Worth's institutions and its grassroots artistic efforts. I'd like to get people thinking -- and talking -- about why. Just food for thought. 

Methinks Fort Worth and way too many Fort Worthians are way too isolated from the rest of America and the world.

Many Fort Worthians act like it is a major excursion into a foreign land to cross 360 to the Dallas side of the D/FW Metroplex.

Me also thinks if more Fort Worthians visited other cities in America, that they'd return to Fort Worth wondering why so much in Fort Worth is so craptacular compared to where they'd just been.

They'd return wondering why Fort Worth has so few sidewalks and why so many of the sidewalks that do exist are so narrow.

Return wondering why Fort Worth looks so messy, with so much litter on the ground.

Return wondering why Fort Worth's streets and freeway exits have so little landscaping and look so tacky compared to what they've seen in other towns.

Return wondering why Fort Worth does not have a real newspaper like other towns in America.

Return wondering why Fort Worth calls part of its town the Cultural District, when other towns don't feel the need to do this.

Return wondering why Fort Worth has public works projects that the public has not voted on.

Methinks if all the citizens of Fort Worth got a glimpse of how other towns operate, they'd return to Fort Worth with a whole new Fort Worth Vision for the future that would blindside the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and the good ol' boy Fort Worth Way that caused that particular TRVB blight on the democratic way America is supposed to operate.

Of course, I am a realist, I know nothing is going to change for the better in Fort Worth. I know that the Fort Worth Way is that way for a reason.

I just have not been able to figure out the reason and am ready to give up after over a decade of being perplexed about so much being so craptacular and so few seeming to realize the level of craptacularness with which they are living.

It is sort of entertaining, though, I must admit, to be an irritated observer of so much that is so perplexing.