Star-Telegram Wonders How Long Until Panther Island Becomes An Island

 

This morning a new article showed up in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about America's Biggest Boondoggle. By the end of this long article we learn the article was written by a new reporter, recently moved to Fort Worth, Emily Brindley, who the Star-Telegram is characterizing as an "investigative reporter".

This should be interesting. The Star-Telegram has not had one of those before, regarding anything to do with the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, which has become, after limping along for years, America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The article is titled As another bridge opens, how long until Fort Worth’s Panther Island becomes an island?

Just the article's title raises red flags. Such as, even the article's title admits that that which has been called an island, is not an island. 

Let's go through this article and comment as we go along. The first paragraph...

Late this weekend, Fort Worth officials plan to open the new North Main Street bridge that leads to the eventual Panther Island — marking another step forward in a project that has been more than a decade in the making and is still years from completion.

First off, this project has been limping along this entire century. Just the building of the three simple little bridges is taking almost a decade. Is it not even remotely concerning that a project which originally was touted as being a vitally needed flood control/economic development scheme is still years from completion?

Clearly, not vitally needed.

The second paragraph...

But local officials say the many moving pieces of the project are beginning to align. With a new presidential administration, an impending federal infrastructure bill and the return of appropriations earmarks, officials say that federal funding could soon flow into the project and kick off the next big phase of construction.

Have we not heard this moving parts beginning to align propaganda before? There is actual vitally needed infrastructure work in America, including much work needed in Fort Worth, such as addressing actual, real, flooding issues in Fort Worth. Why would, or should the rest of America help pay for Fort Worth's inept Boondoggle after it has been so badly mismanaged for so many years?

Why should, or would, federal money flood into Fort Worth for this project when the voters of Fort Worth have never voted to approve this public works project? Let alone be asked to support a bond issue to pay for it, like towns wearing their Big City pants do.

The next two paragraphs are a doozy, followed by one of the photos from the Star-Telegram article illustrating the imaginary beautiful bridges...

Tarrant County administrator G.K. Maenius pointed to the bridges as evidence that “we’re finally seeing some results” — and he said he’s pleased with the aesthetics of those results, too.

“I don’t know if anyone realized just how beautiful those bridges are going to be,” he said. “I’m not a bridge guy, but even to me, they look pretty darn good.”

Yeah, that is one super beautiful bridge. And look at those signature V-Piers, which J.D. Granger insisted on, rather than the actual cool looking design of the West 7th Street Bridge over the Trinity River. Clearly this guy who admits he is not a bridge guy, has not seen any of the world's actual impressive signature type bridges. Maybe heading west and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge might be too much bother for education purposes, but this Tarrant County administrator could simply drive a short distance east, to Dallas, and see the two actual signature bridges over the Trinity River, which actually do look pretty darn good.

You reading this in non-Fort Worth America, you good with your tax dollars helping Fort Worth build this?  Moving on...

The creation of an island necessitates the digging of a new channel north of downtown Fort Worth, which would connect the Clear and West forks of the Trinity River and then connect the ends of a U-shaped bend in the Trinity River. The new channel would effectively create two islands, together called Panther Island.

This is the first I have read there will be two imaginary islands. Both called Panther Island. If there are two, shouldn't they be known as the Panther Islands? Like in my old home zone in Washington, where the dozen of islands in the San Juan Strait are known as the San Juan Islands. But those islands in Washington are real islands, not cut off from the mainland by a cement lined ditch.

Moving on...

And for access over the eventual channel, the Texas Department of Construction in 2014 began building the three bridges, which currently span dry land. At the time, officials said the bridges would be completed by 2018.

Texas Department of Construction? I have not heard of this Department before. Maybe the Star-Telegram's new investigative reporter can do some actual investigating to find out why it has taken so long to build three simple little bridges over dry land? With construction to be completed three years ago.

Moving on a couple paragraphs...

Officially, the $1.17 billion project is broken into two pieces: the flood control portion, which is known as the Central City project and primarily involves digging the 1.5-mile channel, and the economic development portion, which is known as the Panther Island project and primarily involves the development of the industrial land in the area.

Officially? When did this breaking the project into pieces thing officially happen? When America's Biggest Boondoggle began around the start of this century it was called Trinity Uptown. A few years later this became the Trinity River Vision. I saw Central City on signage in Gateway Park, years ago, far east from the area which does not need new flood control, because it has not flooded since well over a half century ago, due to flood prevention measures already in place. When did the economic development part of this scheme become known as the Panther Island Project? The Boondoggle has been sold as a flood control/economic development scheme from the start. Slapping the Panther Island label on this that and the other thing came around about the time J.D. Granger and the Trinity River Vision began hosting Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the polluted Trinity River, labeling this as happening at Panther Island Pavilion. Where there is no island or pavilion, by any sane person's definition of either island or pavilion.

Skipping ahead a few exhausting paragraphs to the following doozy...

Officials have long said that it was cheaper and easier to build the bridges over dry land, and that the federal government would pay for the channel construction because it’s a flood control project.

Uh, if it was easier to build these three simple little bridges over dry land, why is the project years behind being completed? And, as has been pointed out many many times, there was no option other than to build the bridges over dry land. How could there be any other option? I mean, this entire project is rife with wanton stupidity, but it is hard to believe the stupidity could be so dumb as to dig a ditch, line it with cement, fill it with water. And then build bridges over it.

There has never been any other option than to build these bridges over dry land. How many times must this be repeated before the Star-Telegram ceases repeating this "cheaper and easier" nonsense?

The next paragraphs repeat the propaganda about securing federal funds, Kay Granger's failed role in doing so, the Trump administration refusing to help because the project has never done a comprehensive cost-benefit study and thus is not policy compliant, which then leads to hoping "the Biden administration will look more favorably on the Fort Worth project."

This article makes no mention of the fact Kay Granger's unqualified son, J.D., was hired as the Trinity River Vision's Executive Director, at a salary which has now gone over $200K, so as to motivate J.D.'s mother to secure those federal funds to secure J.D. a good paying job.

Why would the Biden administration look favorably at the Fort Worth project with all its baggage? There still has been no cost benefit study. The project is mired in mismanagement and project delays. The project wastes money on flood control where there has been no flooding for over half a century. Why would the Biden administration waste federal money on this Fort Worth boondoggle while the town ignores actual real flooding issues in other parts of the town?

Moving on deeper into this article...

Mark Mazzanti, a consultant on the flood control portion of the project and a 35-year veteran of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the federal government’s finite funding allocation means difficult decisions about which projects to fund. But he also said that the Panther Island/Central City project has “a number of strengths,” including support from locals, from Congress and from the Corps itself.

A number of strengths? If the locals support this boondoggle why have they never been allowed to vote on it? Like voting yes on a bond issue to pay for it. The amount of money we are talking about here is not that big for most big cities and their public works projects. What makes Fort Worth different? If this is such a good idea, such a brilliant scheme, such a well thought out and important project, why would those who want to make this happen not go to the voters and ask for their help by passing a bond issue to pay for the thing?

And then this...

Federal funding would mean that workers could begin on the new channel — first with final planning and then actual digging and construction.

Yes, federal funds would mean the planning for the ditch could be finalized with actual digging beginning. The same could have happened if years ago voters voted to support a bond issue to finance this vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme, which apparently really is not even remotely vitally needed, due to the backwards way Fort Worth has gone about actualizing the ill begotten project.

And then the following two paragraphs...

Even after federal funding comes through, it would likely be another eight to 10 years until the channel was actually completed, according to Buhman, the soon-to-be general manager of the water district.

That means that the channel would be finished — and Panther Island would actually become a full island — by 2030 at the earliest.

So, eight to 10 years after these three bridges are finally completely built over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, the channel, actually ditch, will actually be completed. Yeah, this sounds like a really well thought out project that the federal government should jump right on and help to the max. Oh my, Panther Island might actually be a full imaginary island by 2030, after calling it Panther Island for two decades.

We are almost at the end of this article, two more paragraphs...

In the meantime, Buhman said, officials are focused on getting the land as ready as it can be for the channel. The water district is working on environmental cleanup of the Panther Island properties, he said, while the city moves and sets up utilities.

“We are shovel-ready for that channel and we’re still doing that prep work but I would say it is well on its way,” Buhman said. “And we are at the place that we are ready for that federal investment and for that construction.”

Really? What is the manifestation of those officials getting the land ready for the channel? Are they clearing the land of weeds and debris? What? How is the water district working on the environmental cleanup? Many have long thought that if this ever gets to the point where a lot of dirt is moving it will uncover a contamination level requiring an EPA Superfund cleanup. Shovel-ready and doing prep work? Again, what prep work does one do preparing to dig a ditch? It's well underway? As in how? Ready for that federal investment which likely will never come?

So, one can not help but wonder, if this new Star-Telegram 'investigative journalist" is the real thing.

Will she be doing some investigating to let us know, after all these years, why it has taken so long to build three simple little bridges? Will she look into what it is that J.D. Granger actually does to warrant being paid so much money? How about looking into the real reason J.D. Granger was hired? 

Kay Granger's Imaginary Powerful White House Panther Island Delay

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.

________________

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....

Seattle's Stalled Bertha Tunnel Fiasco & Fort Worth's Stalled Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

I saw that which you see here on Seattle's KOMO TV website this morning. I read the article about Seattle's stalled tunnel project expecting to see it referred to as The Big Bertha Boondoggle.

Turns out it was only a couple Republican lawmakers wanting to stop Bertha, while Washington's governor, and others, still consider it to be a viable,  necessary project.

And not a boondoggle. Yet.

Washington state lawmakers and the governor weigh in on this project because the state is involved in the funding, due to the project involving a state highway.

Fort Worth, in Texas, also has a big public works project sort of underway, known by some as the Trinity River Vision, but referred to, by many, simply as The Boondoggle. The state is not much involved in funding Fort Worth's Boondoggle. The federal government is sort of involved in funding The Boondoggle, but Fort Worth's Congresswoman, Kay Granger, has not been very successful in securing federal earmark pork barrel money to help pay for the job which was given her son, J.D., to motivate his mama to get those federal dollars, in part to pay her son's yearly salary of well over $100,000, plus perks.

Awhile back someone asked me to explain what a boondoggle was. I was a bit boggled that knowing what a boondoggle is was not run of the mill common knowledge.

Wikipedia has a good Boondoggle article which explains both the concept and the origin of the term "boondoggle". In part what Wikipedia has to say about a boondoggle is....

A boondoggle is a project that is considered a useless waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy or political motivations.

The term "boondoggle" may also be used to refer to protracted government or corporate projects involving large numbers of people and usually heavy expenditure, where at some point, the key operators, having realized that the project will never work, are still reluctant to bring this to the attention of their superiors. Generally there is an aspect of "going through the motions" – for example, continuing research and development – as long as funds are available to keep paying the researchers' and executives' salaries.

The situation can be allowed to continue for what seems like unreasonably long periods, as senior management are often reluctant to admit that they allowed a failed project to go on for so long. In many cases, the actual device itself may eventually work, but not well enough to ever recoup its development costs.

Seattle's Bertha Tunnel Project is funded in the normal way public works projects are funded. The Bertha Tunnel Project, in its entirety, is projected to cost $3.1 billion. For those billions Seattle gets a re-built waterfront, gets rid of an earthquake damaged elevated highway, and gets a tunnel through the downtown zone, if Bertha ever gets moving again.

Before Bertha stalled, if I remember right, the Bertha Tunnel project was projected to be completed in 2017.

Currently in Fort Worth, due to not being funded in the normal way public works projects are funded, The Boondoggle is boondoggling along in slow motion, currently with Three Bridges Over Nothing being built, with a four year project timeline, longer than the Seattle Viaduct Replacement-Waterfront Re-Build-Bertha Tunnel Project was projected to take before Bertha stalled.

It is a mystery to me why the Fort Worth locals don't get annoyed at the antics of Fort Worth's Dunce Confederacy, that being the Good ol' Boy and Girl Network which runs Fort Worth in what is known as The Fort Worth Way.

Meaning the town is an oligarchy, not a democracy.

The raw, galling hubris of the Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy is amazing at times.

One example quickly comes to mind, that being having a big ground breaking ceremony a couple months ago for the Three Bridges Over Nothing.

A shovel turning dirt was not good enough for this momentous occasion. A big explosion set off by a big TNT plunger plunged by key members of the Dunce Confederacy, such as Kay Granger, her son, J.D., and Fort Worth mayor, Betsy Price, was needed to mark the start of the slow motion construction of three simple bridges, scheduled to take longer to build than the Golden Gate Bridge.

The explosive groundbreaking ceremony included speechifying full of propaganda, such as Kay Granger claiming Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle was the largest urban water project underway in North America.

Apparently Fort Worth's Congresswoman is not aware that Los Angeles, California is in North America, with its own river vision and downtown revitalization, with the LA vision not being a boondoggle boondoggling in slow motion.

How come it seems to be an issue to no one but me that J.D. Granger is being paid so well, for so long, for a job for which he has zero qualifications, and which is being so incompetently implemented, as evidenced by items like the slow motion construction of Three Bridges Over Nothing, connecting to an imaginary island, which may one day be a make believe island if a ditch is ever dug under the Three Bridges Over Nothing?

If Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle had been funded, like a normal vitally needed project is funded, this project would have long ago been completed, with Fort Worth enjoying its alleged benefits, with J.D. Granger enlisting his mom's help in finding another job for which has was not qualified that he could help turn into another boondoggle....

The 2034 Fort Worth World's Fair Trinity River Vision Product Nightmare

Last night I had a nightmare, a cinematic nightmare, a possibly prophetic cinematic nightmare.

The nightmare began back in the late 1950s in Seattle, where a pair of Seattle businessmen were discussing the idea of bringing a World's Fair to Seattle. One of the pair drew a tower on a napkin, suggesting this be the centerpiece of Seattle's World's Fair. A couple years later, on April 21, 1962, Seattle's Century 21 World Fair opened.

A few years later people in Spokane got the idea they wanted to have a World's Fair. Soon thereafter Expo '74 opened. Less than a decade later Vancouver decided to have a World's Fair. A few years later Expo 86 opened.

All three of these Pacific Northwest World's Fairs were much bigger projects than Fort Worth's relatively puny Trinity River Vision Boondoggle project, with the Pacific Northwest's projects coming to fruition in just a few years, while Fort Worth's Boondoggle has been boondoggling for well over a decade, currently with three simple bridges under construction, slated to take four years to build, as in longer to build than it took Seattle to build the Space Needle and the World's Fair the needle hovered over.

My nightmare became a bit muddled when the plot got to Fort Worth and its ineptly executed public works project known as The Boondoggle Product.

When my nightmare got to the present moment is when the nightmare really started getting scary.

Fast forward four years from 2014.

In my prophetic nightmare vision of the future, those Three Bridge Over Nothing do get completed, in four years. And then sit there, with no ditch being dug under them, with the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle stalled, due to lack of funding.

By the time the Three Bridges Over Nothing are finished, in 2018, we are in year two of the Hillary Clinton presidency.

Kay Granger is unable to get her baby boy any pork barrel earmarks for the TRVB ditch or any other aspect of The Boondoggle, no un-needed flood diversion channel, no imaginary island, no promenade, no parks, no more beer parties.

Nothing.

The mess just sits there as an embarrassing monument to corrupt hubris.

The years pass, those Three Bridges Over Nothing become an iconic international symbol of a Boondoggle  run amok.

And then the nightmare turns into a horror movie.

In the presidential election of 2024, Kay Granger is elected president, shocking much of America even more than when George W. Bush somehow became president after getting a couple million fewer votes than Al Gore.

In my nightmare, Kay Granger, already the oldest, and worst,  president in American history, then wins re-election in 2028.

As the nightmare continues it is as if America has sunk to being like the era of the bad Roman emperors, with Empress Kay basically fiddling while America burns in frustration over what a low voter turnout has wrought.

After year after year of promising to finally secure federal money, President Granger is somehow able to  get the  Republican majority in both houses to pour dollars in to Fort Worth to her then semi-retired son, J.D.'s, long stalled Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Product, from which he continued to draw a hefty salary, during all the decades the project sat stalled.

Stalled, except for the continuing Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the increasingly polluted Trinity River.

With it having been years since J.D.'s dream of building an imaginary island died, J.D., in 2029, has a brainstorm of the sort that brought about rockin' the polluted river, drive-in movie theaters, the world's premiere wakeboard facility, breweries, ice rinks and more, all of which had long ceased operating, except for those aforementioned Rockin' the River Inner Tube events.

J.D. Granger decides it would be a great idea to use that money his mama, the president, is sending him, to bring about something much bigger than the long dead Trinity River Vision, J.D. decides that if other towns could bring about a World's Fair in just a few short years, well, so could Fort Worth, despite no historical record of anything but boondoggles being the result when it comes to Fort Worth trying to do anything BIG, in any sort of timely fashion.

And so, in my nightmare, the proposed 2034 Fort Worth World's Fair became yet one more Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Product.

Likely destined to fail.

However, we must admit to being impressed with the propaganda slogan J.D., or someone came up with in my nightmare, a 21st century adjustment to Fort Worth's "Where The West Begins" claim, changed to "Where The Best Begins".

After over 30 years one would think J.D. Granger would have figured out that making bogus claims based on nonsense was not a good idea, but apparently not, hence "Where The Best Begins", with zero awareness of the irony.....

28 Pages Of Boondoggle Propaganda With No Mention Of The Trinity River Vision's Shining Cowtown Wakepark Star

Yesterday when I read and blogged about The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Explosive 28 Page Fall Propaganda Update it did not occur to me til later that I saw no mention made on any of those 28 pages of The Boondoggle's Cowtown Wakepark.

The propaganda made bragging mention of all the other Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's products and programming.

I first learned of the Cowtown Wakepark over four years ago. Riding my bike I came upon the pond you see here. This pond had me wondering why the Trinity Trail had been moved to accommodate the pond and what the purpose of the pond was. I remember seeing a lot of newly installed Boondoggle signage with messages like "The Trinity River Vision is Underway".

After I blogged about being perplexed by this pond the Fort Worth Connie D pointed me to a website touting the soon to open  Cowtown Wakepark. I blogged about this on September 30, 2010 in Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision's Cowtown Wakepark To Be The Premiere Wakeboarding Facility In The World.

In that blogging there is a very embarrassing J.D. Granger quote about Cowtown Wakepark....

The Executive Director, JD Granger, states: “Cowtown Wakepark will be one of the shining stars of the dynamic improvements happening on the Trinity River right now. We are very excited to have teamed up with the best people in the field of wakeboarding and we are working diligently to help make Cowtown Wakepark the premiere wakeboarding facility in the world. We want everybody in Fort Worth to be able to experience the fun of Wakeboarding, and Cowtown makes it affordable for everyone in Fort Worth to take up the sport.”

So, Mr. Granger thought Cowtown Wakepark would be a shining star among the dynamic improvements happening four years ago on the Trinity River?

Can anyone tell me what those improvements were?

A shining star? Have you seen Cowtown Wakepark. Shoddy, tacky, cheap looking, unlandscaped are descriptive words that come to mind upon seeing this shining star.

The Boondoggle will work diligently to make Cowtown Wakepark the premiere wakeboarding facility in the world?

Now why was there no mention made of this shining star of the world's premiere wakeboarding facility on any of  the 28 pages of  The Boondoggle's propaganda?

Has the Cowtown Wakepark gone out of business? It did not seem to me to be a very viable business. I think at most only six wakeboarders could be zipping around the pond at the same time. The zipping around the pond could only take place during the warm time of the year, further limiting the revenue stream.

And really, how could there be enough people willing to shell out $25, or thereabouts, to get pulled around a little pond for a half hour, or thereabouts, with the pulling being done by a mechanical device strung up overhead?

When I first saw this first instance of actually seeing some result of the Trinity River Vision's Boondoggle I remember wondering how it came about. As in, how much did The Boondoggle spend to alter the Trinity Trails and move the dirt to make this pond? What did the operators of the Cowtown Wakepark pay to The Boondoggle?

In other words, what were, or are, the financial arrangements between The Boondoggle and Cowtown Wakepark? Is this part of the secret shenanigans that can not be made  public? Part of what should be a public record, with a copy of that record denied to anyone requesting to see it?

Anyone know if this shining star of The Boondoggle is still in business?

UPDATE: One of my co-blogging corroborators, upon reading the above pointed me to two blog posts about Cowtown Wakepark. One of those blog posts is on my blog,  the other on the Star-Telegraph blog. Note, that is Star-Telegraph, not Star-Telegram. The Star-Telegraph has news you won't find in the Star-Telegram, such as the blog post titled Wanna Wakeboard? with photos of what happens to Cowtown Wakepark when the Trinity River goes in to flood mode. Apparently Cowtown Wakepark is not part of what the Trinity River Vision's flood protection plan is protecting.

And then on my blog, I'd forgotten I taken photos of the Cowtown Wakepark's shoddy tackiness  and blogged about it in Trying To Wakeboard Today At Cowtown Wakepark. Is the quality level represented by Cowtown Wakepark what we can expect if the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle ever becomes something we can see?

TRIP The Trinity River Improvement Partnership's Fort Worth Rebels

It has been brought to my attention that a group of rebels has formed with the goal of trying to Save the Trinity River from its current course of being severely altered by the myopic Trinity River Vision Billion Dollar Boondoggle.

It is risky business rebelling against The Fort Worth Way in these parts.

In the picture of the pair of Trinity River Inner Tube Happy Hour imbibers there is a "Vote NO! Save The Trinity" sign.

That is a bit misleading. In Fort Worth the voters are not allowed to vote on massive public works projects in their city.

The Rebel Group calls itself  the Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP).

On Saturday, March 5, 2011 TRIP is hosting its premiere event at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. Unlike voting on public works projects, the Fort Worth public is invited to this event.

At the event you will find hors d’oeuvres. Hors d’oeuvres is fancy French-speak meaning food. In addition to food you'll also listen to speakers and view a film. I don't know for sure what the film is. It may be the infamous J.D. Granger UTA video. I've not seen this video, but I've been told it is highly informative.

TRIP has a website where you can learn more about plans to "Save a River...Save a Billion!"

Go to the Star-Telegragh to learn more about Saturday's meeting and to RSVP to make sure you reserve yourself a seat.

The Lack Of Initiative In Texas

In Washington I was used to citizens taking Initiative. In Texas I don't think this is allowed.

The lack of Initiative in Texas came to mind this morning when I read the following....

OLYMPIA (AP) — It’s a busy week for initiative campaigns, which face a Friday deadline for turning in petitions.

Five campaigns have appointments to drop off their voter petitions with Secretary of State Sam Reed.

Initiative 1082, which would allow private workers’ comp insurance, turns in its petitions Wednesday. The campaign says it’s bringing about 340,000 signatures.

Campaigns need a minimum of about 241,000 valid voter signatures to get on the ballot.

Initiative 1098, an income tax on the rich, is scheduled to drop off signatures Thursday.

Three initiatives have Friday appointments: I-1053, which calls for a two-thirds vote to raise taxes; I-1105, privatizing retail liquor sales; and I-1107, which would roll back several recent tax increases.

I think the lack of any Initiative in Texas is part of what makes the elections here a bit on the boring side. As in if there was an Initiative to Legalize Casino Gambling in Texas, that might motivate some voter turnout. Or an Initiative to Control Eminent Domain Abuse. Or an Initiative to Legalize Marijuana.

Politically scientifically speaking, an Initiative is a means in which a petition is signed by a proscribed minimum number of registered voters, forcing a public vote on a proposed constitutional amendment, statute, ordinance or any number of other things. The concept of Citizen's Initiative is a form of direct democracy.

24 American states and Washington, D.C. have the Initiative form of direct democracy.

South Dakota led the way with the modern American system of Initiative and Referendum, adopting this form of direct democracy in 1898. Followed by Oregon in 1902. What was known as the "Oregon System" then spread to other states from the 1890s to the 1920s during what is known as the Progressive Era.

Apparently the Progressive Era did not progress to Texas. Although I do think on the city and local level there is some form of the Initiative method of direct democracy. I vaguely recollect some sort of petition attempt to stop the construction of Fort Worth's Convention Center Hotel.

I recollect no attempt by citizen's in Fort Worth to exercise direct democracy in the form of an Initiative Petition to force the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle to a vote.

I wonder if you can do an Initiative Petition to recall a conflicts of interest corrupted mayor in Fort Worth?

What excuse does Texas have for not having the Initiative/Referendum method of direct democracy, in this, the Greatest State in the Union?