Arlington Builds Two Billion Dollar Ballparks While Fort Worth Builds A Boondoggle

In this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram I saw what you see here, an artist's rendering of Arlington's new baseball park which Arlington's voters approved of building a few weeks ago.

The Star-Telegram article is titled Arlington, Rangers unveil timeline for $1 billion stadium project.

The unveiling of a project timeline is what caught my eye in that headline.

First paragraph of the article...

Aiming to open the Texas Rangers’ new stadium in April 2020, team and city officials now have a timeline for planning and building the $1 billion project.

Imagine that, a public works project with a timeline.

Fort Worth has a public works project that has been bumbling along for most of this century, with an ever changing project timeline. In the latest mention of a sort of timeline, J.D. Granger stated the infrastructure for the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision should be completed in 2023.

Three years after Arlington opens its newest ballpark Fort Worth may complete the infrastructure for what is known as American's Biggest Boondoggle.

Infrastructure of The Boondoggle? What does that mean? The bridges completed? The ditch dug? The diversion mechanism in place? The Magic Trees planted?

Arlington began building the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium in 2004, starting with eminent domain abuse to take homes, businesses and apartments. If I remember right the new Cowboy stadium was open for business by 2009.

And now Arlington is going to build another billion dollar ballpark, having it open by 2020.

So, that will be two billion dollar ballparks in Arlington built in less time than it may take Fort Worth to install infrastructure for a vitally (not) needed flood control and economic development scheme.

Another paragraph in the Star-Telegram article details a stark difference between Fort Worth's boondoggle and Arlington's successful stadium projects...

On Nov. 8, Arlington voters overwhelmingly backed the city’s plan to extend a half-cent sales tax, 2 percent hotel occupancy tax and 5 percent car rental tax to pay $500 million toward the project, with bonds projected to be paid off in 30 years. The vote also authorized up to a 10 percent admission tax and $3 parking tax for the Rangers, which the team could use to help pay its own share of the retractable-roof stadium’s cost.

Imagine that. In Arlington, unlike Fort Worth, voters were allowed to vote on whether they wanted to back the city's plan to build a new ballpark.

America's Biggest Boondoggle has been boondoggling along for most of this century due to the project not being fully funded. Money comes in in bits and pieces, mostly federal dollars secured by the mother of the unqualified person hired to be the director of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.

At the present time the construction of The Boondoggle's three simple bridges, being built to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, has been has been stalled for almost a year due to design errors.

Those three simple bridges did have a project timeline.

Four years.

Four years to build three simple little bridges, with that four years now stretched to five, and likely longer.

Since, apparently, the Star-Telegram is aware of the concept of a project timeline I wonder why none of that newspaper's intrepid reporters have investigated why there is no project timeline for America's Biggest  Boondoggle?