It started off with making note of the fact that over and over again in an article in the Star-Telegram the claim would be made that some dumb thing would be making other towns, far and wide, green with envy.
There were multiple iterations of what I came to call the Star-Telegram's Green with Envy Syndrome.
And then, years ago now, I guess someone figured out how dumb making such claims came across and that particular Star-Telegram propaganda ceased. Or at least I have not eye witnessed such in a long time.
Other instances of Star-Telegram propaganda, not of the Green with Envy Syndrome sort, would also seem bizarre to me.
Such as claiming what turned out to be a small, lame, soon to fail food court type thing was modeled after public markets in Europe, Seattle's Pike Place Market, and was to be the first public market in Texas.
None of which was even remotely true.
And then there was that Sunday morning, early this century, when a banner headline on the Star-Telegram front page touted "TRINITY UPTOWN TO TURN FORT WORTH INTO VANCOUVER OF THE SOUTH".
I remember reading that headline and thinking what fresh moronic nonsense is this going to turn out to be. Never imagining that the Vancouver of the South project would turn into the Trinity River Vision, eventually becoming the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.
Eventually what became America's Biggest and Dumbest Boondoggle hired Fort Worth Congresswoman Kay Granger's son, J.D., to be the Executive Director of the public works project which the public did not vote for. Son J.D. had zero qualifications to direct such a project, a fact which many believe is one of the reasons this ill-fated vision has become such a boondoggle, currently with three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.
And with those three pitiful bridges now in year six of slow motion construction, with the start of construction marked by a TNT exploding ceremony back in 2014, with a then astonishing four year project timeline. To build little bridges over dry land, a project of seemingly simple engineering compared to an actual feat of bridge engineering, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, built in less than four years over actual deep swift moving water.
Fort Worth mayor, Betsy Price, was at that TNT exploding ceremony celebrating the start of construction of those pitiful bridges.
And now, in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram, on the front page, we see Betsy Price suggesting Tesla move to Fort Worth, tweeting to Elon Musk that "Cali is so yesterday".
Well.
If "Cali is so yesterday" I would suggest "Fort Worth is so last century". With zero chance of luring Tesla to relocate.
Back a year or two ago when Fort Worth leaders embarrassed themselves by acting like they thought Fort Worth had a chance to lure Amazon to Fort Worth for its HQ2 I recollect iterating all the reasons I could think of why Fort Worth is unable to lure a corporation to move from the parts of our country I refer to as Modern America.
You know, those towns in America where the streets have sidewalks, the parks have modern restrooms, and zero outhouses, where there is well designed public mass transit, where voting is easy via mail-in ballots, where urban planning is sophisticated, thoughtful and intelligently implemented.
What does a corporate re-location investigating team think when they check out a town with antiquated type public transit? Or when they drive something like Fort Worth's Tarrant Parkway and find roads which were not upgraded when a mall and multiple other retail developments where allowed, with Tarrant Parkway's western terminus being a tacky little roundabout intersecting with a beat up, un-upgraded entry to the Highway 287 freeway, which appalls and disgusts me every time I see it.
What does a corporate re-location investigating team think when they visit Fort Worth's downtown and find the park celebrating Fort Worth's heritage is a boarded up eyesore? What do they think when they learn Heritage Park at the downtown's north end has been in this sad state for over a decade?
What does a corporate re-location investigating team think when they come upon the mess on the landscape which has become America's Biggest & Dumbest Boondoggle? How do you explain those three bridges stuck partly built. How do you explain that ridiculous homage to an aluminum trash can at the center of the un-finished roundabout which is part of the Boondoggle's bridge mess?
What does a corporate re-location investigating team think when they see Molly the Trolley?
What does a corporate re-location investigating team think when they learn the town allows Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the polluted Trinity River, which is one of the few projects actually actualized by the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision Boondoggle.
If Fort Worth really wants to be serious about attracting a major corporation to move to Fort Worth the town should send a task force to towns which do attract corporations. Visit a couple towns in Arizona, like Tempe and Chandler, both way smaller than Fort Worth, both with multiple corporate headquarters or corporate presences, such as the sprawling INTEL complex in Chandler.
You won't find any outhouses in Chandler or Tempe's parks. Or streets without sidewalks. You will find multiple public swimming pools, huge pool complexes, the likes of which one can not find in Fort Worth.
Or visit Seattle and find out why it is Amazon, Starbucks, Microsoft, Costco, Boeing and others are located in the area.
Or just stay in Texas and visit Austin, which is a modern American town. I do not know what the voting situations is in Austin though, if they have joined modern America with the mail-in ballot method, or not...
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