Hence today's $55 million Panther Island community taking shape in Fort Worth article.
I saw the headline and thought is this going to be yet one more much ado about nothing regarding a developer allegedly getting ready to develop a small apartment complex in the industrial wasteland known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District, more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle?
Yes, that is what it turned out to be. We have been reading about this groundbreaking development since way back years ago when the Star-Telegram celebrated with a TNT explosion the start of construction of three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.
That TNT explosion was way back in 2014, with, at the time, it being claimed these three simple bridges would take an astonishing four years to build. And now, almost four years later, still no bridges. And the Star-Telegram has had zero investigative articles looking into what the problem is with the bridges.
However, without mention being made of the astonishing long timeline of this ineptly implemented project, this latest Star-Telegram article about America's Biggest Boondoggle does make reference to these bridges, such as the photo and caption below.
What big news! Years after the TNT explosion celebrating the start of construction, last August concrete was poured for the first V-shaped bridge beam.
And now today's breathless article about all that is going to be happening with America's Biggest Boondoggle in 2018, including the $55 million apartment community referenced in the headline.
I saw that $55 million figure and thought of that Austin Powers movie where he comes back to criminal life after decades of hibernating and issues a ransom demand of "One Million Dollars", said as if this was a HUGE figure, to the bemused reaction of those to whom Austin made the demand.
Let's look at some choice bits of propaganda nonsense from this $55 million Panther Island community taking shape in Fort Worth Star-Telegram shamelessness...
The first three paragraphs---
For years, it seemed as if the Panther Island project was going nowhere.
While land was being purchased and buildings demolished to make way for the $910 million flood control and economic development project, sometimes it was hard to imagine if it would ever be built — much less what it might look like. That won’t be a problem in 2018.
Work on all three of the project’s landmark bridges — White Settlement Road and Henderson Street and North Main Street — will pick up speed. On the White Settlement bridge, workers will complete pouring concrete in its eight signature v-piers and begin erecting the rest of the superstructure.
So, it is not going to be a problem next year, in 2018, to imagine what America's Biggest Boondoggle is going to look like, and wondering if anything would ever actually get built will cease to be anything anyone wonders about, because work on the project's three bridges, construction of which began in 2014, with that four year project timeline, will pick up speed, not be completed, mind you, but will pick up speed. And one of those pitiful bridges, the White Settlement one, why it will complete the pouring of concrete of its eight signature v-piers, with the start of adding the bridge deck, pompously called superstructure.
Signature? Why is the Star-Telegram persisting in still using this long discredited verbiage to describe these little bridges? When first announced Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision copied the Dallas Trinity River Vision by also seeing three signature bridges. However, Dallas has actually already built two of those bridges, built over actual water, and which actually are real signature bridges designed by a world renowned bridge designer.
Landmark bridges? Please, can't anyone make this stop? The Golden Gate Bridge, that is a landmark, signature bridge. These little Fort Worth bridges being built to eventually cross a ditch are not ever going to be landmark signature bridges. Unless they become some sort of historical marker deal noting the location of America's Biggest Boondoggle, long abandoned.
And then this paragraph...
During the first quarter of 2018, construction on the $55 million, 300-unit Encore Panther Island community is expected to begin. Besides being the first private development, it also will straddle the first section of one of the interior canals. Construction on the canal is expected to begin next year, too.
Note the conditional "expected" verbiage. This first private development, puny as it relatively is, has been "expected" for years now. Construction of the canal is also "expected" next year.
Let's skip ahead to the end of the article, under the heading "Number to know" to learn more about that "expected" canal...
220 feet
The length of the first canal to be dug, roughly one city block. The canal will be about 20 feet wide and includes sidewalks on both sides that are 8 to 10 feet wide.
There was only one number to know under the "Number to know" heading. The Star-Telegram is making note of an expected possible 20 foot wide ditch that is only 220 feet long. Which may appear in 2018. The most noteworthy part of this breathtaking news is there will be sidewalks on both sides of the ditch canal. Sidewalks in Fort Worth are a rare commodity.
Now, let's leave the end of this bizarre propaganda and look at something else. Under a "Why it's important" heading we are told...
Once called Trinity Uptown, Panther Island is part of a massive public works project that spans 1,800 acres on the city’s north and east sides. When it is completed, it will create an 800-acre island on the north side that includes an urban lake. It would compare with the size of Fort Worth’s central business district.
While the project has been criticized by its opponents and some lawmakers as a boondoggle, the project received a major boost in 2016 when Congress authorized up to $526 million in funding for Panther Island when approving $5 billion in water projects proposed by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
Community leaders see Panther Island as a way to create a walkable, livable community that, with its 12 miles of urban waterfront and more than 10,000 residences, would rival other parts of town in cultural relevance. Panther Island was included in the city’s pitch for the $5 billion Amazon headquarters.
Panther Island, where there is no island, where there never will be an island by any sane definition of what makes an island, is "part of a massive public works project" which the public has never been allowed to vote on.
"Once called Trinity Uptown"? I remember that iteration of the Boondoggle's name. Way back early in this century, I opened the Sunday Star-Telegram to see a HUGE front page headline, something like "Trinity Uptown to Make Fort Worth Vancouver of the South" and thought to myself what absurd ridiculousness is this? Who could have foreseen, then, how totally ridiculous this was to become?
While the Boondoggle has been criticized for being a boondoggle, the Boondoggle is somehow mitigated due to Kay Granger finagling some federal pork attached to an Army Corps of Engineers water bill? No mention made of the fact Kay's help in this matter was secured by giving her unqualified son, J.D., the job of executive director of the project which he helped turn into America's Biggest Boondoggle.
Community leaders see this boondoggle as a way to create a walkable, livable community? As opposed to those HUGE areas of Fort Worth which are not walkable due to no sidewalks? Panther Island, where there is no island, will rival other parts of town in cultural significance?
Cultural significance?
Who is it on the Star-Telegram staff who spews this type propaganda nonsense? And why are they not told to knock it off? One can not help but wonder where these other Fort Worth areas of cultural significance are located.
Panther Island was included in the city's pitch for the new Amazon headquarters? Isn't that sort of admitting this pitch by Fort Worth was a strikeout? Yeah, I'm sure locating a corporate headquarters at the site of America's Biggest Boondoggle is quite attractive. What with those bridges which may go a long ways to getting built in 2018. And that canal that is expected to get dug by that apartment complex that is expected to maybe start getting built.
And maybe Molly the Trolley might begin providing public transit service to this burgeoning area of cultural significance.
Under the heading "Key factors" more absurd nonsense....
Finding the money to pay for Panther Island has been an issue since it was first imagined in the early 2000s.
A major hurdle was cleared in 2016 when Congress authorized the $526 million. By 2017, the project had already received at least $53 million from the Army Corps of Engineers and $50 million in federal highway dollars. The rest of the money spent on Panther Island has been from local and state stakeholders.
Crucial to Panther Island staying on track is making sure the money spigot isn’t cut off. A key player will be U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, who has led the fight for Panther Island on Capitol Hill.
Keep an eye out to see if developers push the city to allow Panther Island buildings go above and beyond the five-story limit included in current plans. And, finally, don’t be surprised if there is movement on efforts to save LaGrave Field, which is located along the Trinity River and considered a showpiece within the project.
I wonder if there is any connection between the problem of finding money to pay for this make believe public works project and the public never voting to help fund it, you know, by approving a bond issue such as what happens in grown up towns wearing their big city pants? If this is such a vitally needed economic and flood control project why is it depending on federal handouts to pay for it? Doled out in drips year after year.
Crucial to staying on track is to keep that federal money spigot pouring out funds. Which the Star-Telegram is suggesting requires keeping Kay Granger in Congress to fight for Panther Island on Capitol Hill. You paying taxes in more grown up, progressive, modern parts of America. How do you feel about your money being sent to Fort Worth for what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle?
Oh my, the Star-Telegram will not be surprised if there is movement on efforts to save LaGrave Field, you know, that rundown showpiece of an embarrassing baseball park where Fort Worth played in a league with other big towns, like, well, places you've never heard of, with populations a tiny fraction of Fort Worth's 800,000 plus. This ballpark eyesore is considered by the Star-Telegram to be a showpiece? Yikes.
Long ago, back during an earlier time of being appalled at Star-Telegram propaganda about LaGrave Field I webpaged my look at this showpiece. Take a look at my look at LaGrave Field so you too can shake your head in wonderment.
Well, we have a few more days left in 2017. Is today's edition the last of the Star-Telegram's embarrassing propaganda for the year? Or will Fort Worth's pitiful newspaper of record top itself tomorrow with some fresh delusional nonsense?
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