Flying Google Earth From Texas To Visit My Old Washington Home Zone

Last night I flew Google Earth from my current home zone to my old home zone of Washington state. It had been a few years since I had flown home via this method.

I first checked out the town I grew up in, Burlington, going down Fairhaven Avenue, that being the main drag through town. Much had changed, including what looked to be a lot of new landscaping at the area train tracks intersect with, I think, Highway 20, that being the rode which takes you to North Cascades National Park.

When I got to my old home, across from Maiben Park, I saw something which clued me as to why I find a certain aspect of Texas to be a bit appalling.

That being the sad state of sidewalks in the Lone Star state.

The sidewalk in front of the house I grew up in is wide, with a grass median between the sidewalk and the road. A feature I rarely, if ever, have seen in Texas. And now a sidewalk has been added on the park side of the street.

The house I grew up in is the one in the middle. Seeing the sidewalk, with the median between sidewalk and road, I understand why I find the Texas sidewalks so appalling.

After several minutes in Burlington I headed south to Mount Vernon. The first thing I checked out in Mount Vernon was the Riverwalk along the Skagit River.

The Mount Vernon Riverwalk was built as part of a flood control project. Previous to this new flood control method sandbags were used to build a walk to keep downtown Mount Vernon from being flooded. Now a temporary wall can be assembled quickly by just a couple wall builders, not the hundreds of volunteers it took to build a sandbag wall.

The Texas town I used to live in, Fort Worth, has been trying to build a new flood control method in an area which has not flooded since the 1950s, because flood control levees already prevent such from happening. Fort Worth's slow-motion project, limping along for most of this century is known as the Trinity River Vision, purported to be a vitally needed flood control and economic development plan.

So vitally needed that, so for, the only major part of that Vision which can be seen is three simple little freeway overpass type bridges, built over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

The river that flows through Fort Worth is the Trinity River. This is not a Skagit River type river. As you can sort of see in the above photo, the Skagit River looks like it is flowing clean, clear water. The Trinity River looks like flowing mud, and in flood mode that flowing mud is covered with litter.

That photo at the top is the house I lived in before moving to Texas. Built in 1985 for only $65,000. Sold in 2002 for $132,000. And recently I saw the house has been sold again for a little under a hall million bucks. 

Such seems so bizarre to me. That anyone would pay that much for that house. Only three bedrooms, two bathrooms. And no walk-in closets. The decks in front and back were rather nice, there is that. I had a great roof top garden in the front patio, with two big blueberry bushes, among many other vegetative things, including a lot of basil.

I'm appalled to see a garage door has been added to the open carport, not matching the look of the rest of the house. I see the stairs leading to the front door have been totally re-done. And why is there what looks to be a big plastic tarp above where my bedroom was?

I guess it really is true, you can't go home again. And expect all to be the same as you remember it...

George Floyd Protest Today In My Old Burlington Hometown

Watched most of the George Floyd Memorial today. Don't know if I have ever heard an entire Reverend Al Sharpton speech before. Now I have and I gotta say, I was impressed. One of the things Sharpton mentioned was the fact that these current American protests inspired by racial injustice have a feature not seen at any time previous.

As in, in city after city, from New York to Seattle, there are more white faces than faces of color. Truly the times they are a-changing, with white Americans joining in chanting "NO JUSTICE NO PEACE".

And now this afternoon, via Skagit Breaking, on Faceback, I saw video of today's protest in my old hometown of Burlington.

Burlington is a little town, population currently 9,124. The video catches the end of the protest. The narrator apologizes for the language you see in the above screen cap.

Another screen cap is below. And below that I embeded the video.

Spencer Jack & Jason Ask If I Recognize This?

That "Recognize This?" question was asked last night about the above photograph, with the asking coming from Spencer Jack and his dad, my favorite Jason nephew.

A couple things I see in the photo give me possible clues as to what I am looking at. In the distance it appears possibly that is what is known as Big Rock, at the center top. That would make this view looking southeast from a somewhat elevated view point.

To the upper center left I see a clump of trees which look sort of familiar.

Could this be a photo of my old hometown of Burlington, Washington? With the photo taken from a location part way up Burlington Hill?

But, where is the Skagit River? Shouldn't the Skagit River be seeable from this vantage point?

That clump of trees which looks familiar looks like the clump of old growth fir trees which made up the southeast corner of the park across the street from the Washington Avenue house in which I grew up, with the park at that point in time being known as Maiben Park.

If this photo is of Burlington I would hazard to guess the photo was taken prior to the 1950s.

At some point in the 1950s the Skagit River flooded Burlington as far as the location of Maiben Park.

And now that you are causing me to think about this, this photo must have been taken way before the 1950s, because I am not seeing Roosevelt Grade School, or Lincoln Grade School, which was across the street known as Fairhaven Avenue. Lincoln Grade School burned down long before my eyes ever saw Burlington. I believe Roosevelt Grade School was built in the 1920s, named after the first president with the Roosevelt last name.

So, Spencer Jack and Jason, did I recognize Burlington correctly? Or is this a view of old Mount Vernon, looking north, and that lump in the distance is not Big Rock, but is, instead, the aforementioned Burlington Hill?

Burlington's Maiben Park Upgrade Has Me Wondering Anew Why Fort Worth Is So Backwards

A couple days ago Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason, emailed me an email with the subject line "Spencer Jack may be on a zip line through Burlington's city park in the future".

All that was in the body of the email was a link to an article in Skagit County Breaking Community News titled Safety Improvements Continue at Maiben Park.

Maiben Park is one of the city parks in the town I grew up in, Burlington, Washington. Maiben Park is across the street from our home location on Washington Avenue.

About a year ago a still unsolved murder took place in Maiben Park. This set in motion a community effort to make the park safer.

Community meetings have been taking place to solicit input from the public. Three paragraphs from the article about this effort...

Burlington, Washington– Burlington Community Leaders having been holding community meetings and asking  residents for input on some big changes that are coming to Maiben Park in the next year.

Some of the upcoming changes include improved L.E.D Lighting, Security Cameras, a separate play area for 2-5 year old children, an expanded  play area for 5-12 year old children that includes a zip line, new park benches, Free Wifi, parking epansions,  new restrooms with shelter and security options, picnic tables, and a new splash pad. Some of the items that will stay the same are the trees and bike jumps, among other things.

In the latest community meeting, which was held on Wednesday May 11th, officials shared  some digital copies of two of the new park diagrams that are now being considered.  The layouts are very similar with the position of the restroom building at different angles as the only major difference between the two options.

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What a difference between the town I grew up in and the town I recently escaped from, Fort Worth, Texas.

Fort Worth has a bizarre pseudo public works project which has been dawdling along for most of this century, known as the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision, or more commonly, as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Every three months America's Biggest Boondoggle mails out a slick propaganda production.

For years, each quarter, those propaganda productions tell the easily duped that The Boondoggle's Vision of the Gateway Park Master Plan includes over 90 user requested amenities.

Signage at Gateway Park's Fort Woof also mentions these 90 user requested amenities. For years I have been asking who these users are and what was the mechanism by which they made these amenity requests.

All I have heard is crickets chirping.

I think growing up in a little town like Burlington, population then somewhere around 3,000, now somewhere around 8,000, and then seeing a big city, like Fort Worth, up close, with a population around 100 times bigger than Burlington, yet so backwards by comparison, is what has long perplexed me about Fort Worth, trying to figure out why the town is so backwards and lacking in so many ways. Like the miles of roads without sidewalks. And parks without modern restrooms.

Decades ago, when I was a kid, playing in Maiben Park, the park had modern restroom facilities and running water for the park's picnickers.

I think, if I remember right, I have verbalized a time or two how appalling I have long found the fact that most of Fort Worth's city parks do not have modern restrooms or running water.

How is it not some sort of universal health code violation to have city parks with picnic tables with no running water to wash ones hands?

As part of the Maiben Park upgrade the park is getting new restrooms. And free wi-fi. Free wi-fi is not a concept alien to Texans. On Wednesday I was in the Texas Star park in Euless, connected to that park's wi-fi.

The towns surrounding Fort Worth have multiple parks with modern amenities. I really don't understand why there is not some sort of Fort Worth sense of civic embarrassment that the town is so backwards with its outdated parks which belong in another century.

Or a Third World country....

A Tale Of Burlington's Maiben Park Fix & Fort Worth's Heritage Park Fix Failure

Yesterday around this time I was having myself a mighty fine time having a chilly walk with the Indian Ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Whilst I was doing my Ghost Walking I was pondering something I had read via website links emailed to me by Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason.

The website links were to articles about Maiben Park in my old hometown of Burlington. I grew up across the street from Maiben Park.

When I lived by Maiben Park it was a peaceful, safe place, always with a lot of kids playing.

Last year a teenager was murdered in Maiben Park. Homeless people were using Maiben Park as a residence. There were drug use problems. All sorts of problems none of which existed decades ago when I lived across the street.

The articles Jason sent me detailed what Burlington is doing to fix the problems of Maiben Park. This struck me as such a contrast with how things happen in my old home zone and how things happen in Fort Worth. For years now downtown Fort Worth has had a boarded up, cyclone fence surrounded eyesore, a park formerly celebrating Fort Worth's heritage, called, appropriately, Heritage Park.

Fort Worth's Heritage Park had very minor supposed problems which led to its closure, including homeless people using the park's water features for bathing purposes. Supposedly people felt there were security issues. It's been years now that Fort Worth has been unable to figure out how to restore its Lost Heritage.

So, what is little Burlington, population around 9,000, doing to fix the problems in Maiben Park?

Security cameras are being installed which will cover the entire park.

LED lighting is being installed to illuminate the entire park, including the area we always called "The Woods". Apparently The Woods had become popular with homeless people. The Woods is one of the few remaining stands of old growth forest on the floor of the Skagit Valley.

The restroom is being moved to a more open location. And redesigned. Yes, unlike most parks in Fort Worth, Burlington's parks have modern restrooms. Prior to the new one being built several decades ago, the previous modern restroom was built way back early in the previous century. Yes, modern plumbing has existed that long in other parts of America.

Those are just a few of the improvements being made to Maiben Park that I read about in the Burlington Leaders Propose Changes to Maiben Park article Jason directed me to.

Til reading the articles Jason directed me to, I did not realize Maiben Park now has a water feature for kids to play in. And that the Little League field is no longer used, with Little League, and other types of baseball, now being played in Burlington's complex of ball fields which have made the town a mecca for regional baseball games.

Reading the articles I learned that there was a lot of public input into the Maiben Park fixes. How is it little Burlington can bring about fixes to a park's problems, while a big city like Fort Worth dithers and dawdles unable to fix simpler problems in a park celebrating the town's heritage?

Very perplexing....

Up Late On The Last Day Of October Waiting For Halloween & Thinking About Burlington Washington

Looking out my primary viewing portal on the world you might guess that I arose after the sun on this last day of October.

Your guess would have been correct.

We need not discuss why I awoke much later than my norm. Suffice to say I was tired.

Today is Halloween. Tonight I'm going to put on my Kay Granger costume and go trick or treating.

Switching the subject, now, to my favorite subject. The temperature.

In a very rare coincidence, this morning, the temperature at my current location and my old location in Washington are the same.

45 degrees currently.

Speaking of my old hometown location, the town I grew up in, Burlington, Washington, this morning the Skagit Valley Herald had a little article about Burlington.

Growing up in little Burlington, currently with a population of less than 9,000, sort of warped my view of the world. Burlington is sort of a boom town, with sidewalks lining every street. And a very good library.

And then I moved to Fort Worth.

I did not know parts of America were 3rd world-like until I moved to Fort Worth.

Below is a blurb from this morning's article about my old hometown from the Skagit Valley Herald....

Take a drive down Burlington Boulevard, with its bumper-to-bumper weekend traffic and door-to-door strip malls, and it’s hard to imagine the Burlington of 40 years ago.

The major food processors that once dominated the landscape — Darigold, frozen food packers and canneries — are all gone. A shopping mall, big box stores and auto dealers have sprouted from farmland once bursting with crops.

Burlington has had to redefine itself many times over through the years, as technology, transportation and an ever-increasing population have transformed it from an agricultural hub to the shopping mecca of Skagit County.

Many Burlington residents say all that development — and the tax dollars it brings — is just fine with them. In fact, some would say it’s a reflection of two of the city’s biggest assets: its community cohesiveness and the foresight of its leaders.

For all of the town’s changes, the values of Burlington residents — what they want out of life and how hard they will work to get it — haven’t wavered, said Margaret Fleek, the city’s planning director.

“There’s no apathy in Burlington and there never has been,” said Fleek, who lives in Lyman. “People really care about their little town on the flats. ... It totally has its values intact regardless of what’s happening on the I-5 corridor.”

Magnolia Trees Blooming in my Washington & Texas Backyards

That is a big while flower blooming on a big green Magnolia Tree, one of three which perfumes up the air surrounding my swimming pool. This morning the pleasant perfume was particularly pleasant, with a steady wind having blown yesterday's extra bad smoggy pollution north across the Red River, to Oklahoma.

I looked up Magnolia Tree this morning to see where they grow. I was wondering because in my feeble memory it seems when we first moved to our house in the little town of Burlington, in the little state of Washington, there was a Magnolia Tree in the backyard.

And that my mom called it a Tulip Tree, due to the fact that the blooms look like big tulips. In my feeble memory, the tree was removed when the city needed to dig up the area under it to replace a pipe of some sort.

The Wikipedia article about Magnolia Trees said the natural range of Magnolia species is a disjunct distribution (I have no idea what disjunct means) with a main center in east and southeast Asia and a secondary center in eastern North America, Central America, the West Indies, with some species in South America.

Well, no mention is made of either Texas or the Pacific Northwest growing Magnolia Trees. But, I am in Texas and looking out a window at a Magnolia Tree right now. I suspect my memory of the Magnolia Tree in the backyard in Burlington is not a false memory.

I'll ask my mom about the backyard Magnolia Tree, the next time I get gas.

Fort Worth's Public Library Is Closed Today While Little Burlington Washington's Is Open

I live close to a Fort Worth Library Branch. On my way to check out Fosdic Lake to work on the Fosdic Lake Dam Vision I wanted to drop off a couple books and get a couple new ones.

But.

The Fort Worth Library was closed. And I could not drop off the books I wanted to return because the book return was blocked by the sign you see in the picture.

As I drove up to the library I saw, maybe, 10 cars in the lot and several people standing by the door, I assumed, waiting for the library to open at noon.

I sat there watching for maybe 5 minutes. Several cars drove on to the lot and left when they spotted the closed sign. Others got out of their car and walked to the door and eventually saw the closed sign. I imagine this will continue all day long

What a waste of time and gas.

So, I got to Fosdic Lake and started to walk. And then I remembered I had the number for the Burlington Library on my phone. I know the librarian.

Burlington is the small town in Washington I grew up in. It's current population is somewhere around 5,000, I think. But the town's population soars during the day due to it being a shopping hub with a big mall, outlet center, Costco, Fred Meyer, I forget what else.

My call to the Burlington Library was answered on the second ring. Try calling the Fort Worth Library and see what happens. I called at 12:15, which made it 10:15 on the West Coast. I asked, "Are you open today?"

"Yes. From 11am til 8pm" the librarian answered.

I told the librarian I was calling from Fort Worth, Texas where I was annoyed to find the library closed today.

It has annoyed me many a time to drive by the Fort Worth Library to see a line of people waiting to get in. It seems such a waste to build libraries and crimp on the hours they are open.

Oh, yes, I know there is a serious budget shortfall, so serious that Fort Worth is abandoning its Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. No, wait, I don't think that's reality, that was a dream I had recently.

Yesterday, when I had my long meeting with Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief and he not only agreed to support the Fosdic Lake Dam Vision, he agreed to use his ill-gotten Conflict of Interest gains to finance the project.

Now, I'm thinking I would be agreeable to scaling back the Fosdic Lake Dam Vision, with Mayor Moncrief donating some of his ill-gotten gains to the city for the specific use of expanding Fort Worth Library hours.

Earlier today I blogged about Seattle being America's most literate city, with Fort Worth being America's 52nd most literate city. I see a connection between little Burlington's library being open today and the Northwest having a high literacy rate and Fort Worth's library being closed today with Fort Worth having a significantly lower literacy rate, with a lot of Fort Worth citizens really wanting their library to be open today.

Shameful and perplexing.