Seattle's New Waterfront Takes Me To Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision

The photo you are seeing here I saw on Facebook today. The best look I have seen, so far, of the new Seattle Waterfront.

According to the Facebook post, which accompanied the photo, the curving mass of concrete is a new walkway leading to and from Pike Place Market. I think that is the Seattle Aquarium on the right, which would make this new Pike Place walkway towards the north end of the Pike Place Market.

Ten years ago the above scene would have seen a double decker viaduct, which was like a wall, separating downtown from the waterfront. 

The rebuilding of the Seattle Waterfront began in the second decade of the new century. Mostly completed by the end of that decade. The project was complicated, and costly, involved the removal of that aforementioned viaduct, digging a new transit tunnel under downtown Seattle, and multiple new constructions along the waterfront.

Changing the subject, slightly, to something seeing this caused me to wonder. As in, what is the current state of Fort Worth's bizarre Trinity River Vision? A pseudo public works project the public never voted on, propaganda-ized as a vitally needed economic development scheme and flood control project, where there had been no flooding for well over half a century.

The Trinity River Vision's main fixation was on creating an imaginary island, called Panther Island, so named for reasons that are head shakingly embarrassing.  This imaginary island was to be created by diverting the Trinity River into a cement lined ditch.

Three freeway overpass type bridges were built, years ago now, over dry land, anticipating that one day that cement lined ditch would be dug under them, with water added, creating that imaginary island.

It is now over two and a half decades since this pathetic project began. One hears or reads little about the Trinity River Vision anymore.

The troubling Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats on the polluted Trinity River no longer happen. The partying aspects of the Trinity River Vision seemed to abate once Congresswoman Kay Granger's son, J.D., was removed from the executive directing job he was totally unqualified for.

Was there ever any sort of investigation into the obviously doomed to fail, Wakeboard Park, which J.D. Granger helped promote, which was one of many costly mistakes made by what eventually became America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Anyway, seeing that photo of the new Seattle waterfront had me freshly wondering how it is one town can be so dynamic, whilst another town can be so mired in being a woeful dud.....