This information might cause one to think I may have used that occasion to venture into the Heart of Darkness, also known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, to snap a photo of part of the forest of J.D. Granger's Magic Trees.
Well, one would be erroneous to think such a thing. What you are looking at here is part of a leafless forest I walked in on this first day of the last month of 2018, with this forest located at the north end of Lucy Park, a short distance west of beautiful downtown Wichita Falls.
Regarding those J.D. Granger Magic Trees. Have any of the supposed 60,000 Magic Trees been planted yet? One would think they have been grounded for years, what with the need to be well rooted so as to slow up an incoming flood, playing a vital role in Fort Worth's proposed un-needed new flood control in the downtown Fort Worth zone where the Trinity River has not flooded for over half a century, due to existing flood control levees.
Lately it has seemed as if the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision is falling apart, due to various reasons. Little things like lack of money, and the realization that an unqualified to oversee such a project executive director has made a mess of what has become an embarrassing debacle.
On Friday we blogged it’s about Time For J.D. Granger's Forensic Job Performance Review.
That blogging was motivated by the latest Star-Telegram article about America's Biggest Boondoggle, titled It’s a $1B project, but Panther Island’s head honcho has never had a written job review.
I guess we should sort of acknowledge that after ignoring the sad reality of the multiple problems with the Trinity River Vision the Star-Telegram is now sort of doing somewhat honest reporting on the subject. Still mixed in with ridiculous propaganda.
I have made mention previously of the fact that articles in the Star-Telegram generate few, if any, comments, unlike west coast news sources I read online. This latest article about the Boondoggle is a slight exception to that sad reality, having generated a whopping five comments. I do not know if we can conclude via these five comments that the people of Fort Worth are starting to get totally fed up with America's Biggest Boondoggle, but this would seem to be an indication of such.
Peruse the five comments below...
Fred Bailey: Wonderful thing, nepotism, ay? I despise ALL welfare that is not temporary, including this kind. In fact, this might even be the worst kind.
Beeks Land: What was JD's previous experience in urban planning that landed him this job, who did he interview with and what other candidates were up for the job? 12 years? A private company would have completed this years ago if it was profitable or they would be bankrupt, which is basically what the TRV is without the loans from the TRWD. Also, Jim Oliver should be held responsible. Who hired him and who can fire him? Please keep digging on this, the press is the only thing that will bring it to light and get our roads back open and the project back on track.
Paul King: The only thing Kay Granger has accomplished in Congress is to get her son a job.
Gerrit K Spieker: Time to cut this boondoggle and stop wasting taxpaayers money. JD should have the integrity to step down from a position he got only because of mommy.
Clyde Picht: Jim Lane and I served on thr Fort Worth City Council together and I have to tell you I have great respect for Jim. He's a good man, BUT, as he said, he wasn't concerned about the lack of written evaluations of JD Granger. "Wasn't concerned." Therein lies a real problem with this 90% economic development and 10% flood control project. Jim is not concerned, the TRWD Board is not concerned, Fort Worth City Council is not concerned, the County Commissioners are not concerned, nobody's concerned. When a project that the public is paying 100% of the cost goes from $360M (2003) to $435M (2005) to $735M (2007) to $908M (2009) to $1,150,000,000 in 2018, shouldn't somebody be concerned? The Corps was going to dig the channel for $110M with local funds providing another $110M. Now the federal government has authorized $560M, meaning Fort Worth taxpayers provide a comparable amount? For his $213,000 salary JD Granger must know something we don't. Maybe he'll share. If he won't, maybe he'll just provide his annual evaluations so we can see what he's accomplished. Oh shucks - there aren't any - are there?
JD said he's done a great job for the last twelve years. Since there are no written evaluations to prove it we should just have faith and remember James Toal's famous comment that "the taxpayers won't be left holding the bag." The billion dollar bag that is (so far).
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