That stalled bridge building had been ignored by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, except for one article last March, informing readers there was a design problem which would take about a month to fix and resume the bridge building.
Then, eight months after the bridge building was halted, the Star-Telegram finally acknowledged such in an editorial in which the boondoggle word was also mentioned.
Tuesday's blogging about The Boondoggle's bridges, and other aspects of The Boondoggle, such as outrageous abuse of eminent domain, generated a couple interesting comments, including one from one of The Boondoggle's victims....
Matthew Clemons has left a new comment on your post "Fort Worth Star-Telegram Opines Boondoggle's Stalled Bridges Can't Be A Good Thing":
Sometimes I think this whole fiasco is really hilarious. How a relatively late modern city can have something this ridiculous going on is phenomenal. But, then I remember what a blight these idiots have put on the city. The area they have ruined was nothing special. But, it was an honest area of urban industrial Fort Worth. There were real businesses with real people working and using that area. These morons just came in there with their "visions" and destroyed that piece of our heritage. What a sham.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Fort Worth Star-Telegram Opines Boondoggle's Stalled Bridges Can't Be A Good Thing":
That area was special enough to me. Owning property there was a decision made to have a productive place to work, in a central city location, with a view toward the future.
How could the decision to work hard to buy property adjacent to a growing and thriving downtown area, become a bad idea. This was an investment in the future. This was a solid calculation that free enterprise might one day, need this area to continue what was started downtown and along west 7th street.
Nearly a decade of anxiety and 3 1/2 years of constant stress and concern over trying to eventually get a more fair compensation for the property, after it was taken, building demolished, giving the project's representatives no real incentive to offer a better payment, finally came to an end.
However, no real victory.
There is nothing fair about this process. Property owners were not made whole.
Waging an expensive legal battle to seek just compensation, against a cadre of entities running this project, moving at a glacial pace, with trivial and frivolous activities and attractions, all occurring without the voter approval needed for a project this size, has left such a bad taste and repeated scars from the grinding down of our resolve over the years.
Unless it happens to you, no one knows how nasty is the threat of eminent domain. The bank didn't understand. The insurance company didn't understand. The contractors and surveyors that swarmed the area did not seem to be working in consort.
The county, a partner on the project, did not seem to have a list of taken properties. Tax bills were sent for full value for years after the Water District had the property in its name. Property owners were told that they might get a small refund. It took attorneys to inform the County that a "Whole Taking" situation, by law, means that no taxes should have assessed at all, once the properties had been signed over to the Water District.
I want my property and my decade of strife back. I bet my friends and neighbors do too.
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