Just yesterday someone asked me if I had any photos of the current state of Fort Worth's three bridges which have been stuck in slow motion construction since 2014, currently not expected to be completed until possibly some point in this decade. Or the following decade.
I replied that I did not have any recent photos of those bridges, and then this morning the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in its Sunday online edition, on the front page, had the photo you see above, of one of those "signature" bridges in the making, along with the stunning, iconic skyline, of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.
The headline under the photo...
Rep. Granger: ‘Powerful’ White House appointee is delaying Fort Worth’s Panther Island
Local leaders expected federal money to come by now. The White House wants them to do more homework.
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Seems likely Kay Granger is making up some imaginary powerful White House appointee as an excuse for her inability to secure federal pork barrel funds, what with, to help motivate Kay, her son being given a cushy high paying job planning Rockin' the River happy hours in the polluted Trinity River, along with other nonsense.
Kay Granger is up for election, again, and her part in the Panther Island Boondoggle mess is finally an issue, which many voters see as a scandal, after so many years.
For those who have no idea what Panther Island is, well, it is the imaginary island that those three bridges being built over dry land will connect to, connecting the Fort Worth mainland to that imaginary island.
What is now most frequently referred simply as The Boondoggle, began as the Trinity River Vision, way back near the start of the current century.
Over the years the name for the Boondoggle morphed from Trinity River Vision to Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.
In recent years the Boondogglers usually refer to their slowly failing project as Panther Island, where there is no island, and where there has never been a panther, except in the long ago imagination of a Dallas news reporter.
Way back when the Boondoggle began it was billed as a vitally need flood control and economic development project.
Where there had been no flooding for well over half a century.
The original price tag for the Boondoggle was something in the $300 million range. That price tag is now well over $1 billion.
Just paying the exorbitant salaries of the Boondogglers for so many years, as the Boondoggle boondoggled along, has added greatly to the price tag.
That Kay Granger lady, referred to in the headline above, well, her son, J.D. is currently being paid over $200,000 a year, plus perks, even after he was fired from his Trinity River Vision Authority Executive Director position, and moved to being responsible for the imaginary flood control in the area which has not flooded for well over half a century.
Why should the more prosperous parts of America be expected to fork over funds to pay for this Boondoggle which has been so ineptly managed?
Way back when this started, when the project was announced, I wondered why, and how, such a public works project could be legit without the public voting on the funding mechanism for the project.
Eminent Domain was abused to take property for this economic development scheme, with some property taken over a decade ago in the area where those bridges have become embarrassing eyesores.
Tarrant County is the Eminent Domain Abuse Capital of America, but, even so, one would think there would be some limit to what is tolerated. But, bulldozers began to destroy buildings even before property owners had their cases heard in court.
One would think an imaginative lawyer could come up with a viable lawsuit on behalf of the Eminent Domain Abuse victims.
Because, clearly this project does not fall into the category of taking property for the public good, because if that were the case, if this actually was some sort of vitally needed public works project, it would have been properly funded and long ago completed.
But, instead we have the Boondoggle....
1 comment:
OTOH, does her opponent, Chris Putnam, former Colleyville City Councilman, even really live in the district?
Perhaps it takes a carpetbagger to finally get rid of JD. Anybody checked on what sort of golden parachute JD has concocted? I, for one, would hate to see his firing make him a billionaire on public money.
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