Thursday, September 24, 2020

Fort Worth's Roundabout Way Of Installing Imaginary Pieces Of Art

Til this morning I had the longest break from hearing from Elsie Hotpepper in years.

Consulting my phone I see it was way back on September 5 that I last heard from the Hotpepper. And all that message was was text saying "Excellent slapping sir!"

I figured Elsie Hotpepper has been laying low due to the ongoing COVID Trump Virus nightmare, with Hotpepper's delicate constitution rendering her fearful of possible contact with a virulent virus. That, and ever since Elsie traded in her Harley Hog for a yacht she has been spending a lot of time sailing.

So, this morning when I woke up my phone I saw a notification telling me Elsie Hotpepper had sent me a Facebook Messenger message, with the subject of the message being "Merry Christmas!"

Oh no, I thought, the old girl is losing it, the ongoing surplus of societal nightmares has caused her to lose track of time, skipping Halloween and Thanksgiving and going straight to Christmas.

Well.

When I went to Facebook and saw the message from Elsie Hotpepper I quickly realized she had not lost her mind. The Merry Christmas verbiage was pointing me to a link to a Facebook page, with a post which Elsie Hotpepper thought would be gifting me with good mocking material.

As per usual, Elsie Hotpepper was right.

The Facebook page to which the Hotpepper pointed me is a propaganda piece of work from the bad folks who have foisted America's Biggest Boondoggle on Fort Worth, with the Facebook page titled...

Panther Island - Central City Flood Project

A project which has been boondoggling along for most of this century, sold to the apparently gullible Fort Worth public as a vitally needed flood control project, where there has been no flooding for well over half a century, due to flood control measures already in place. The imaginary un-needed flood control project was also sold as a vitally needed economically development scheme.

Both parts of the scheme, so un-vitally needed that the project has never been fully funded, and relies on hoping to secure what amounts to federal welfare to pay for something most big cities wearing their big city pants vote to pay for themselves. Or at least pay the majority of the cost. 

And how can a project be "vitally needed" when it ambles along in slow motion? Soon to enter its third decade of little progress.

The specific Panther Island - Central City Flood Project page post about which Elsie Hotpepper wished me a Merry Christmas was about that which you see at the top. A million dollar supposed work of art, installed five years ago at the center of a still un-completed roundabout, which is related to a couple of the bridges the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision seems unable to complete.

With the bridges being built over dry land, supposedly to save time and money, or so the Boondogglers claim. When there was never any option but to build the three bridges over dry land, because there would be no water available to flow under them until a cement lined ditch is dug with Trinity River water diverted into the ditch.

The Trinity River Vision Boondogglers have been scheming to secure federal funds. At the same time they waste a million bucks to install what many think looks like a giant aluminum trash can. 

On the Facebook post about the aluminum trash can the text tells us...

Did you know that the art piece located at the center of the Henderson Street and White Settlement roundabout was installed in 2015 as part of the Fort Worth Public Art? 

Many have long asked how this "art piece" came to be. How was the creator of this "art piece" paid? Was it upon completion? Or was it when the "artist" got the commission to build the "art piece"? Was the "artist" a good friend of anyone associated with the Trinity River Vision, or its parent enabler, the Tarrant Regional Water District? 

A million bucks wasted on this, whilst trying to secure federal funding. You reading this in non-Fort Worth America, do you feel like helping pay for this Boondoggle when you learn of such?

Predictably this Facebook post about this "art piece" has generated some comments. Below is an edited version of some of those comments...

Mark Criswell: Is it finished?

Pat McDonald: Yes, in 2015.

Cody Bertram: I thought it was a carnival ride.

John Razo: Did you know they should have finished the road before wasting tax payer's money on an art piece? This has been under construction for going on 7 years........

Paul Wilson: It's like the toll road construction, Forever...........

Adam Perez: It looks like a garbage can from ikea!

Sophia Caballero: Adam Perez, for the longest time I thought it was left unfinished, until Trey told me that was the final thing 😒 they should have some incorporated TCU or anything fort worth related.

Adam Perez: Sophia I’ve hated it since they put it up! It’s clunky, unimaginative, and so out of place!

Craig Bickley: Well, this post can only backfire...

James Milburn: How do you expect this post to go? They are bragging about a piece of art that was made 5 years ago in the middle of a roundabout that still isn't complete? How many people have lost their business because of this mess? How many millions (billions?) of taxpayer's dollars have been wasted? It took 4 years to build the Golden Gate Bridge in 1933. How is it that nearly a century later it is taking long to build a bridge over dry land?
__________________

And that Golden Gate Bridge was not built over dry land. It was built over deep, fast moving tidal water. 

The Trinity River Vision has now been a project underway longer than the ten years it took to build the Panama Canal. Another cement lined ditch which had its water added only upon completion, thus built over dry land...

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