Fort Worth's Mayor Wants To Become Betsy Blue Rollerblading Sidewalks While Eating Less Beef

I saw that which you see here and thought "HUH".

The "HUH" was due to thinking "Blue Zone" was referring to Democrat, as in turn Fort Worth from a Red Republican dominated town to a progressive, liberal, forward thinking Blue Democrat dominated town.

The "HUH" was also due to seeing right-wing Republican Betsy Price hoping to turn Fort Worth Blue.

Turn Cow Town into Long-Living 'Blue Zone' is an article on the NBC News website. It was via a blog comment from Steve A that I learned Betsy Price wants to become Betsy Blue....

Steve A has left a new comment on your post "Pondering Thirteen Months To Build The Empire State Building Over Dry Land & Fort Worth's Bridge Boondoggle": 

Meanwhile, Betsy Price is looking to be around a LONG time so she can see the boondoggle's final completion - http://www.nbcnews.com/health/aging/texas-mayor-hopes-turn-cow-town-long-living-blue-zone-n337416 - or cancellation... 

From the NBC article some interesting Betsy Blue quotes....

Regarding a poll which ranked Fort Worth's well-being as 61st out of 189 cities Betsy said, "I believe we can substantially raise those numbers. I really do believe we can. And I think long term, 20 years out, we'll be way up in the top 50 percent or more."

Uh, at the 61st ranking, out of 189, isn't Fort Worth already in the top 50 percent?

Betsy has a history of saying things without putting a lot of thought into what she is saying. Like at the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's TNT ceremony to explosively mark the supposed start of construction of three little bridges being built over dry land Betsy is heard, on video, uttering something like "Building over dry land is a brilliant engineering plan that will save a lot of money, with the bridges only taking four years to build, instead of the eight years it might take over water."

I may have taken a bit of poetic license with that Betsy Blue quote.

All the TRWD/TRV Boondoggle apologists making it sound like a purposeful good thing to be building those little bridges over dry land highly annoy me. There will be no water in the ditch that is supposed to go under the bridges until the Trinity River is diverted into the ditch. Any normal, properly funded public works project would be digging the ditch at the same time the bridges are being built.

Regarding Fort Worth having too many fat kids, Betsy said "Kids spend far too much time in front of screens. They eat fast food. Their diabetes rate is incredible. Estimates are this is the first generation that will live shorter. And that's really worried me as a mother, a grandmother, and as a community leader."

Live shorter? Not grow as tall?

Betsy had some useful diet advice, saying "If you're used to eating beef six days a week, maybe you eat it four days a week. Or maybe you eat four ounces instead of eight ounces. Maybe mostly you just think about what you're doing."

Yikes! Beef six days a week, cut back to four? I think it's been a couple months since I've had any beef. No wonder I"m so skinny.

The article also says part of Betsy Blue's plan to enhance Fort Worth's well-being is to add sidewalks throughout the city. There is no Betsy quote on the sidewalk subject.

Fort Worth's lack of sidewalks has been an issue with me for years. How does it happen that a big city develops with so few sidewalks? The little town I moved to Texas from, Mount Vernon, Washington, has sidewalks on pretty much every street in town. Plus paved trails that are not beside streets which can take you all over town. In Tacoma, where I spent a miserable month the summer of 2008, everywhere I walked had sidewalks on both sides of the street, usually with a grass median between the street and the sidewalk.

How does a town grow into being a big city, like Fort Worth, without adding sidewalks to all its streets?

While Betsy Blue did not directly address the lack of sidewalks issue she did get quoted making reference to something one can use to roll oneself around on sidewalks in a modern American town, saying "Let's have more life in our years. Let's be able to enjoy our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. Be able to pick them up and to dance with them—or go rollerblading if you want to."

Rollerblading if you want to? On the few narrow sidewalks in my neighborhood it would be very problematic to rollerblade on them.

That's another thing. Why are Fort Worth's few sidewalks so narrow? Shouldn't they be at least as wide as the girth of an average Fort Worther? Two average sized Fort Worthers can not pass each other on a Fort Worth sidewalk without one of those passing having to step off the sidewalk to allow the other to pass.

How many miles of sidewalks could Fort Worth install for the amount of money being slowly squandered on The Boondoggle?