America's Biggest Boondoggle Proudly Tweets Panther Island Ice Wall Progress

I saw that which you see here yesterday via Twitter.

A Twitter Tweet from the Trinity River Vision.

I have no recollection of choosing to follow the Trinity River Vision on Twitter. Does me seeing this Tweet mean the Trinity River Vision is following me on Twitter?

I don't know.

All I know for certain is I saw this yesterday on Twitter and my reaction to what I saw was, oh my, how pitiful.

Yesterday I blogged, yet again, about Fort Worth's ongoing embarrassment which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, in a blogging titled Crickets Chirp while Fort Worth Politicians Promise Bridges Where There Is No River.

In that blogging, among many speculations, I speculated that maybe one of the reasons the Trinity River Vision has become such a Boondoggle is due to the fact that someone totally unqualified to direct such a project, J.D. Granger, was made this vitally un-needed flood control/economic development scheme's Executive Director.

Over the years of J.D. Granger executively mis-directing this mess, his Frat Boy mentality has left its mark on how this Boondoggle has developed.

With items like Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats on the polluted Trinity River. A beer hall called The Shack. Music events at an imaginary pavilion on an imaginary island. Various beer party events, such as Octoberfest.

And the first of the Boondoggle's "products" to go defunct, the highly touted, by J.D. Granger, Cowtown Wakepark, which Granger touted as providing the much coveted sport of wakeboarding in an urban environment.

How is the Coyote Drive-In, that being the world's first drive-in movie theater of this century, doing?

The above Twitter Tweet Tweeted the news that progress is being made on Panther Island Ice, that the ice rink's walls were being put into place.

Yes, you reading this in sane locations in America, America's Biggest Boondoggle, paid for with your tax dollars, installs a little temporary ice rink at the location of the aforementioned Coyote Drive-In, which has opened for skating for a few weeks for the past couple years.

Note how attractive the ice rink's structure is.

America's Biggest Boondoggle has quite a shoddy, tacky design aesthetic. As witnessed by that which is known as Panther Island Pavilion, which resembles no ones idea of a legitimate pavilion. Or the Boondoggle's beer hall appropriately called The Shack. Or the now defunct Cowtown Wakepark, which was a shoddy, tacky mess from its inception.

Note the signage surrounding the Boondoggle's ice rink.

America's Biggest Boondoggle loves its signage. No one knows how many of your tax dollars the Boondoggle has wasted on its ubiquitous signage.

Because Fort Worth has no real newspaper making inquiries into such things.

How much did all those embarrassing plastic directional signs cost which have been stuck along the Trinity Trails? These signs look like some nimrod's bad idea of futuristic, such as what one may have seen at a world's fair in the previous century.

Has Cowtown Wakepark been whited out on those embarrassing directional signs?

When is there ever going to be any accountability for Fort Worth's embarrassing Boondoggle?

When are the people of the town going to quit being sheep and put a stop to the nepotism, and demand J.D. Granger be fired?

And elect someone with a functioning conscience, to replace his mother as the town's congressperson?

From Arlington's Boomed Viridian To Fort Worth's Doomed Cowtown Wakepark

I was in the D/FW zone on Wednesday. Whilst there I thought I might check in on the desolation zone in Fort Worth where for most of this century a supposedly much needed flood control and economic development scheme has been underway.

In slow motion.

No, what you are looking at here is not a Trinity Trail along the Trinity River in the aforementioned desolation zone of inactivity now known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

What you are looking at above is a spur trail off the Trinity Trail in River Legacy Park, in Arlington, not Fort Worth. This spur trail leads to the massive development known as Viridian.

Way back in 2007 I was biking along the River Legacy Trinity Trail when I saw a guy doing some surveying alongside the trail. I stopped and asked the guy what he was surveying. He told me he was doing some measuring for something called Viridian, which was to be a big development of lakes, homes, schools, stores, restaurants, and other things, such as a lake with a public access beach.

Infrastructure work on Viridian soon began, quickly altering the landscape one saw whilst biking along the River Legacy Trinity Trail.

And then the Great Recession hit.

Work on Viridian ground to a stop. That stop lasted for several years, and then a couple years ago the Viridian development went into boom mode, a boom which continues to boom.

Since I last biked through Viridian new paved trails have been added, one of which took me to an overlook looking over the marina you see below, with a collection of kayaks, canoes and sailboats.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, that flood control economic development, touted as being vitally needed, has been limping along for most of this century, with little, unlike Viridian, to be seen for the effort.

The Viridian development has been developed without abusing eminent domain. While in Fort Worth eminent domain was abused to take dozens of properties. With some properties bulldozed while the property owner was still trying to get justice in the corrupt Fort Worth courts.

Property was taken in Fort Worth, supposedly for the public good, for a pseudo public works project the public has never voted for, with this pseudo public works project not bringing the project to fruition within any reasonable time frame, with those stolen bulldozed properties just sitting there with nothing happening on them.

Some of those properties taken by eminent domain abuse are where America's Biggest Boondoggle has been trying to build three simple little bridges, for years now, built over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Viridian is a private development. No federal funds involved. No local congressperson's offspring hired to help grease any wheels.

There are several lakes in the Viridian development. None of which feature a cable powered wakeboard attraction.

One of the Trinity River Vision's early failures, one of the early boondoggle indicators, was known as Cowtown Wakepark. Touted by Kay Granger's boondoggling boy, J.D., as providing the sport of wakeboarding in an urban environment, this was obviously doomed to fail. It did not take professor of economics to see the problem with the business model. As in, only a few people at a time could be wakeboarding. It'd be like a Six Flags ride which could only handle four people at a time.

And then there was the location, at the edge of the Trinity River. Which floods, Apparently it never occurred to anyone involved that a flood would wreak havoc. Extremely ironic early on mistake, what with this being part of a project touted as being, in part, flood control.

Cowtown Wakepark did not last long. There was no investigation into how this mistake happened. Who was responsible? How much money did the Trinity River Vision spend to dig the pond for the Cowtown Wakepark? How much was spent to re-route the Trinity Trail around the Wakepark? Why is no one ever held accountable for any of the nonsense associated with America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Perplexingly pitiful...

Dam Failure Endangers Dallas With No Army Corps Of Engineers Help

What you are looking at here is a screencap from Facebook, a post from former Tarrant Water District Board candidate, John Austin Basham, raising an alarm about that which you see in the photo.

That being a failing Lake Lewisville Dam.

Lake Lewisville is a reservoir at the north end of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Lake Lewisville is currently at full pool, meaning the reservoir is full, thus putting maximum stress on the dam which holds back a 65 foot tall wall of water from careening though the heart of Dallas.

In other words the Army Corps of Engineer's has indicated a Lake Lewisville Dam breech could put some 431,000 people in harm's way.

But, the Army Corps of Engineers says it will need millions of dollars to  repair what is known to be one of the nation's most dangerous dams.

Well.

Meanwhile, a few miles to the west of Lake Lewisville we have the Army Corps of Engineers spending millions of taxpayer dollars on an un-needed flood control project where no flood control project is needed, not needed because over a half century ago the Army Corps of Engineers spent millions to build massive levees which have prevented flooding for decades.

The Army Corps of Engineers has signed on to the absurd idea of taking down those levees, replacing them with a "flood diversion channel" which will fast track a flood past downtown Fort Worth where it will then get slowed down by a forest of what are known as J.D. Granger's Magic Trees.

Should not those Magic Trees already be planted, so that they may be well established if that flood diversion channel ever actually gets dug and shoots a volume of water at high speed towards Arlington?

How many millions would it take for the Army Corps of Engineers to fix Lake Lewisville Dam before a disaster strikes?

How many million has the Army Corps of Engineers already wasted on America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Two comments from Mr. Basham's Facebook post I thought worth repeating....

Tony Pompa: If the possibility of a 65' wall of water traveling at 34 MPH right through the heart of Dallas does not get their attention, then I don't know what would! This should be fixed, like yesterday!

Mr. Spiffy: Very frightening. But on the upside we have a new kinetic sculpture in Fort Worth that cost several hundred thousand and millions of taxpayer dollars spent on fun parties and cool marketing campaigns. Meanwhile they have tarp and duct tape holding back a wall of death.

The kinetic sculpture to which Mr. Spiffy refers is that which I blogged about in America's Biggest Boondoggle's Million Dollar Wind Roundabout Ridiculousness.

Near as I can from what I have read, regarding the reaction to Fort Worth's newest sculpture, "disgust" seems to be the thought most frequently expressed in various ways. As in a disgusting waste of money for something that looks like the ruins of a water tower or a garbage can. And which is designed to be a big shiny object casting random bolts of reflected light at driver's trying to navigate around a big roundabout.

Fort Worth's #1 Boondoggle's absurdities are pretty much hopeless at this point. Apparently there are no adults in the room to intervene with the foolishness.

One would have thought that the fact that The Boondoggle's first completed project, Cowtown Wakepark, has been flooded multiple times, shut down, gone out of business, that this first project of something that touts itself as a flood control project, would see its first project destroyed by floods, that whis would cause some sort of backlash where people come to the realization that what used to be known as the Trinity River Vision is now an embarrassing boondoggle.

Why would The Boondoggle dig a wakepark pond where it would get flooded every time the Trinity goes into flood mode? I remember when I first saw Cowtown Wakepark thinking won't there be a lot of damage when the river floods? It seemed sort of obvious.

And I can't be the only one who wonders what calamity will ensue the first time the Trinity floods into that flood diversion channel if it ever gets dug.....

A Supposed Post Flood Fort Worth Wakeboard Revival

A few minutes ago I saw that which you see here, on Facebook. A few minutes after that I got a text message from Elsie Hotpepper telling me "I see Andy sent you FOD on FB."

Which translated means Andy sent me blogging fodder on Facebook.

The blogging fodder is a link to an article in this week's Fort Worth Weekly titled Wakeboard Revival.

The blurb from the article, which you see in the screen cap says, "The city’s biggest wakeboard park is being resuscitated after it was flooded by Tropical Storm Bill in June. A new owner is rebuilding ramps at the donut-shaped watercourse at the West Fork of the Trinity River downtown and adding several..."

Adding several what? Lucky for me I had acquired this week's Weekly at my neighborhood library. I could not find where I'd put this week's Weekly, then remembered I likely left it in my vehicle. Soon upon retrieving this week's Weekly I found the rest of the paragraph following several... to be "new features, including shaded seating and a place to get food and drinks."

I have several problems with this FW Weekly article. For one,  it reads like a Press Release. I mentioned a couple other problems I had with this article in the comment I made to Andy's Facebook post, before I had actually read the entire article....

Durango Jones: City's biggest wakeboard park? Does that mean there is another one and it is smaller? How could one get any smaller? This being re-opened under new management has been the operating propaganda on the Cowtown Wakepark Facebook page for months. If it is being re-opened, will the problem with it getting flood damaged be fixed? After all, America's Biggest Boondoggle is primarily a flood control project. Sort of ironic that the first project completed by The Boondoggle has been flood damaged twice....

Well, the article answers the question about there being multiple wakeboard parks in Fort Worth...

About a half-dozen are in Texas, and two are in Fort Worth: the full-sized Cowtown WakePark, with its endless loop cable hauling people around in circles, and TXMC Wake Park, which has a smaller, straight-line cable system.

I have no idea where in Fort Worth this TXMC Wake Park is located. I'd never heard of it before today.

Another paragraph was very perplexing to me....

Water levels on the West Fork, according to the USGS National Water Information System, rose by nearly 6-and-a -half feet during the last two weeks of May. These waters normally flow at low levels –– the West Fork is part of a flood control reservoir.

Only a nincompoop would look at the Cowtown Wakepark pond and not realize that whenever the Trinity River goes into flood mode the little pond is going to be flooded. The flood in May was not the first time the little pond has suffered flood damage. What did they think was going to happen when the river next door floods? And what is this about this area of the West Fork of the Trinity being part of a flood control reservoir.

Huh?

Doesn't a reservoir require a dam which holds back water? Thus controlling a flood? Where is this downriver dam creating a reservoir?

I tell you, Fort Worth Weekly is getting to be almost as embarrassing as reading Trinity River Vision Boondoggle propaganda. Or a Star-Telegram puff piece.

So, when Cowtown Wakepark reopens it will have a new name, Republic Waterpark DFW. The new owner of the so-called "park" is a Philippine man named Lray Villafuerte who is paying for its reconstruction. Supposedly new parts for the renewed park are being assembled in a Manila warehouse owned by Mr. Villafuerte.

I remember when America's Biggest Boondoggle put up signage along the Trinity Trails pointing out the direction to the various wonders one could find along the trails I opined that etching "Cowtown Wakepark" on the signs seemed a bit of an obvious risk, with it seeming obvious to me that that enterprise would not be in business very long. Will The Boondoggle use whiteout to cover up Cowtown Wakepark and write over the whiteout with Republic Waterpark DFW?

Last summer after I discovered Cowtown Wakepark was closed and saw a sign saying it would open soon under new management, it only took a little Googling to find that Cowtown Wakepark had a Facebook page. On that page there were a lot of comments lamenting its closure and the misinformation as to when it would reopen. There were comments about financial malfeasance, funds being stolen. It wasn't pretty.

Did Fort Worth Weekly not consider it might be worthwhile to dig a little deeper into the Cowtown Wakepark debacle?

Early on, when Cowtown Wakepark opened, J.D.  Granger very much touted this as an accomplishment of his Boondoggle, bragging about how The Boondoggle was bringing this wonderful sport to Fort Worth.

I have asked more than once how much The Boondoggle spent to build the wakeboard pond.

I  remember back in October of 2010, biking along the Trinity Trail and suddenly coming upon a ridiculous amount of signage touting the "TRINITY RIVER VISION UNDERWAY'. In the area that became Cowtown Wakepark I was totally bum puzzled wondering why so much earth was being moved, why a big hole was being dug, why the Trinity Trail was being re-routed.

I took pictures and blogged about it, asking if anyone had a clue. Connie D then sent me a link to page on the Trinity River Vision's website, touting this new thing they were bringing to Fort Worth. It was only an artist's rendering, but I could tell the hole I saw being dug was what is now the wakeboard pond.

How much money did The Boondoggle spend on this ill-fated enterprise? Shouldn't that information be readily available?

Changing the subject slightly.

This week's Fort Worth Weekly is their annual Turkey Awards issue. The prime Turkey Award went to the current extremely embarrassing governor of Texas, Greg Abbott.

I think Fort Worth Weekly should also have given itself a Turkey Award.

A Turkey Award is well deserved for firing Fort Worth Weekly Editor Gayle Reaves. Ever since Fort Worth Weekly lost Gayle Reaves the quality of Fort Worth Weekly has plummeted.

This article about the Cowtown Wakepark debacle is just one more example of that plummet.....

I Did Not Know Seattle Pulled The Plug On Slide The City

Before throwing it away, I once again thumbed through the latest quarterly update from America's Biggest Boondoggle. I wanted to make sure there was no mention made of the Cowtown Wakepark.

You know, the world's premiere urban wakeboard park which J.D. Granger said would give the locals the chance to participate in the fun sport of wakeboarding. Predictably, Cowtown Wakepark is now closed, awaiting "new management". Previously Boondoggle Updates made plenty of mentions about the wonders of the Cowtown Wakepark.

So, whilst thumbing through The Boondoggle's Update I once again saw the pages devoted to last summer's Slide the City event where thousands paid good money to slide a couple thousand feet down Main Street. I opined at the time that this should concern people as being an indicator that there are not enough fun things to do in the Fort Worth zone. Thousands sliding down a waterslide? Thousands inner tubing in a polluted river? It's just pitiful.

When I saw The Boondoggle's photos of the Fort Worth Slide the City event I remembered Seattle was supposed to also have a Slide the City event this past summer. I Googled to quickly learn the Seattle Slide the City event had been cancelled,  with Spokane and the Tri-Cities cancelling as well, all for pretty much the same reason.

Reasons of the sort which don't concern Fort Worth public officials, regarding the quality of water the city encourages its people to play in.

The screen cap above was from something called Geekwire.

A blurb from the Seattle Times article about pulling the plug, titled Huge Water Slide Won't Be Coming To Seattle This Year which explains the reasons for not allowing the City to Slide...

Slide the City, an event agency that rolls out 1,000-foot vinyl water slides in cities across the country, will not be coming to Seattle, Spokane and the Tri-Cities this summer because the company didn’t obtain necessary approval from county and state departments of health.

After reviewing the application, the state health department had questions regarding the water’s level of chlorine and ability to prevent illness, the safety of a portion of the slide that allows multiple people and the company’s plans for treating water before it empties into a Columbia River storm drain.

In a July 9 letter, the department asked for clarification on contamination, water-pressure levels and what hours and day the company hoped to plan the event.

King County health authorities, as well as officials from other jurisdictions, worked with the state department to evaluate the water-slide proposals.

___________________________________________

Those stupid Washington government officials can be such kill joys. Worrying about public safety and water quality, in an area which has no water of the dirty, polluted Trinity River sort.....

Why No Residential Towers Are Currently Planned For Fort Worth's Imaginary Island

Continuing our popular series of bloggings about something I see in a west coast online newspaper, usually the Seattle Times, that I don't see in my current local newspaper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, we have what you see here, from the aforementioned Seattle Times.

I have mentioned before that rarely does a week ago by where I don't read about some new construction project in downtown Seattle; new skyscrapers, convention center expansion, Pike Place expansion, or, like you see here, new residential towers.

The text under the artist's rendering of the two tall towers says developers are proposing a slew of new residential towers over 400 feet high seizing on the City Council's rezone of South Lake Union to allow for greater height and density. And that developers are high on building Seattle high-rises.

I have not seen a high rise rise in Fort Worth since I have been in Texas.

A  few weeks ago Mr. Spiffy made an observation regarding the current stagnant state of development in downtown Fort Worth. Mr. Spiffy suggested that no developer is going to be wanting to develop anything while America's Biggest Boondoggle has the status of downtown Fort Worth in a state of confusion.

Will the imaginary island be where new growth will take place? Will that be where the focus of downtown Fort Worth will shift? Those are the questions a developer would be asking. That and when is that project slated to be completed?

And then when the developer learns America's Biggest Boondoggle has no project timeline, will that would be a real deal killer?

The Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision Boondoggle is supposedly an economic development project, combined with an un-needed flood control project.

If this project was projected to be such a boon to the economy of Fort Worth, then why is it not already completed? Why is the project being built in slow motion?

Well, we all know the answer.

America's Biggest Boondoggle became such because the project is funded in a piecemeal fashion.

America's Biggest Boondoggle is not a public works project approved by the voting  public approving a bond measure to finance a project for the public's benefit.

It was thought by the Perpetrators of the Boondoggle that hiring local congresswoman, Kay Granger's son, J.D., a lawyer with no project engineering experience, would motivate Kay to secure federal pork barrel funding via earmarks.

But, that plan fell apart when the era of earmarks came to an end. So, Kay has not been able to secure as much federal money as was hoped.

Lacking the money to see the Boondoggle's Vision in a timely fashion, the Frat Boy hired to motivate his mother to get money for the project began to initiate events like Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats. Along with goofy things like naming the area where the floating beer parties take place, Panther Island Pavilion, along with calling a chunk of land Panther Island, where there is no island, and where there will only be a pseudo island if the long delayed flood diversion ditch is dug to go under the three bridges being built in slow motion over dry land to connect the mainland to that imaginary island.

The Frat Boy also helped bring the popular sport of wakeboarding to Fort Worth by having the Trinity River Vision build a pond so an enterprise called Cowtown Wakepark could provide the wakeboarding experience to the Fort Worth masses yearning to stand on a board while a cable drags them over dirty water.

As we learned yesterday, Cowtown Wakepark is now closed. The first of what will likely be many failures in the ongoing debacle that is America's Biggest Boondoggle.....

A Visit With Stockyard Longhorns Before Finding Part Of America's Biggest Boondoggle Under New Management

Yesterday I made mention of my pathetic attempt to take one of those selfie photos that seem so popular these days,  particularly on Facebook. At the end of that blogging I said...

Anyway, tomorrow morning I am going to be at the Fort Worth Stockyards, taking photos and maybe video. I will be using my old-fashioned digital camera to take photos, not this new-fangled phone method. And no selfies. Well, maybe one attempt with a longhorn.....

To which Elsie Hotpepper text messaged me with...

I definitely want you to take a selfie with a longhorn.

I almost always do what Elsie Hotpepper tells me to do.

In this instance I did not follow Elsie's instructions precisely, in that this selfie is not with just a single longhorn, but is, instead, with many members of the Fort Worth Herd, resting before their daily trail drive duties.

I was in the Stockyards area for an early morning meeting, so, since I was nearby, I decided to do a quick walk through for photo documentation of a theme that has been bugging me ever since a brouhaha has arisen over a new development proposal for the Stockyards.

Today's Fort Worth Stockyards blogging went on my Eyes on Texas blog, with the blogging titled A Look At The Fort Worth Stockyards Before They Are Possibly Ruined By New Development.

My route away from the Stockyards was over Northside Drive. Northside Drive drives by the Cowtown Wakepark. The Cowtown Wakepark is one of America's Biggest Boondoggle's products  that I have long said was doomed to fail. I believe the Cowtown Wakepark was the first of The Boondoggle's products to become available for public use.

Since I was in the neighborhood I decided to take the turn to the Cowtown Wakepark parking lot to watch all the people enjoying the great sport of wakeboarding, which J.D. Granger so proudly announced as such a wonderful thing for the people of Fort Worth, and beyond, to have available, so that the masses can enjoy the sport of wakeboarding in an urban setting.

Well.

When the Wakeboard pond came in to view I was not too surprised to see no one wakeboarding.

And then I saw the trailer you see above. A food truck, I wondered?

On closer look I found that which you see below, taped to the side of the trailer.

What a shock. Cowtown Wakepark is closed. This is likely the first of what will be one failure after another of America's Biggest Boondoggle's products.

Has the closure/failure of the Cowtown Wakepark been reported in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, with me somehow missing that bit of news?

Is the Coyote Drive-In still showing movies? That product also seemed doomed to failure once the novelty wore off.

Cowtown Wakepark Is Still Closed Due To Flooding So No Wakeboarding For Me Today

I woke up this morning thinking today would be a good day to try something new, something like wakeboarding, I thought, would be a good change from my regular repetitive exercise routines.

So, I Googled Cowtown Wakepark, to find the website for the world's premiere urban wakeboard facility, with that facility provided by the Trinity River Central City Panther Island Vision Boondoggle in an effort to give Fort Worth's residents the opportunity to participate in the exciting sport of wakeboarding, to paraphrase the Boondoggle's propaganda.

Well, the above is what I found. Cowtown Wakepark is currently closed due to flooding.

Why would anyone think it a good idea to build something where it is going to go under water anytime the river next door floods?

How much damage is done to Cowtown Wakepark by a flood? If I remember right there is only one permanent type structure that would go under water, that being a shabby looking building that I think functions as the office or headquarters for this bizarre operation.

I assume this facility uses the Fort Worth norm for restroom facilities, with the outhouses being able to be moved to high ground when a flood threatens.

How does the Cowtown Wakepark stay above water, financially? Wakeboarding is only doable when the temperature is warm and the river is not flooding. I think only three people at a time can wakeboard, with a session lasting something like 20 minutes, maybe a half hour.

What happens when dozens of locals show up, wanting to participate in this exciting new sport? Seems like there'd be a long wait. Does not seem, to me, to be a very good business model. It'd be like a ride at Six Flags only able to accommodate 10 people an hour. Makes no sense.

Then again, this is a product of America's Biggest Boondoggle, so making no sense makes sense....

Dallas & Fort Worth's Dueling Photo Propagandists & Other Nonsense

I saw that which you see here this morning on Facebook. At first glance I thought Fort Worth's most renowned photographer had ventured east to aim his special brand of photo propaganda at Dallas.

Then on second thought I realized this photo looked too realistic, with the colors not exaggerated and saturated enough to be the work of Fort Worth's renowned photo propagandist.

Upon reading the text I learned that this Dallas photo was taken by an ex-Grateful Dead roadie named Warren Harris.

I do not know if Warren Harris has been hired to be the photographer for the Dallas version of the Trinity River Vision.

Fort Worth's renowned photo propagandist and the Fort Worth Trinity River Central City Panther Island Vision Boondoggle are a perfect fit, both so artfully able to exaggerate reality creating false impressions, which bear no relation to what most people's eyes see.

Signatures bridges, Panther Island where there is no island, 90+ user requested amenities, biggest urban water development project in North America, best urban waterfront music venue in Texas, world's premiere urban wakeboard park (currently badly flood damaged) and other exaggerated propaganda I am not remembering right now.

Speaking of the flood damaged Cowtown Wakepark. And who isn't? Who was the genius who thought it a good idea to invest in a pond a few feet from a river which is prone to serious flooding when Mother Nature decides to deliver a lot of water?

A couple months ago I blogged about a wakeboard lake in Phuket, Thailand, in a blogging titled Phuket's Anthem Is No Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Cowtown Wakepark.

Whoever was behind the Phuket River Vision had the vision to have the Anthem Lake not adjacent to a flooding river, or, I assume, accessible by an incoming tsunami.

I suspect no local Thai congresswoman's son was in charge of how Phuket's Anthem wakeboard lake came to be....

Phuket's Anthem Is No Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Cowtown Wakepark

No, that is not an artist's rendering you are looking at here of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Cowtown Wakepark, after landscaping has rendered it not to be the shoddy, cheap looking eyesore it currently is.

That is not a lake in Fort Worth Texas you see in the picture, that is Anthem Lake in Phuket, Thailand.

Anthem Lake is the location of Anthem Wake Park, one of two big wakeboard park operations in Phuket, Thailand, with the other, called Phuket Wake Park, being billed as the "Biggest and Best in Asia".

I have no idea if Phuket Wake Park is actually the biggest and best in Asia, or if they hired some Trinity River Vision Boondoggle propagandists to help promote their product.

Below is a screen cap of the well done Phuket Wake Park website. Anthem Wake Park also has a well done website.

Both Phuket Wake Parks seem to be a bit more evolved than the rather primitive Fort Worth version. And bigger. With a lot more towing cables. Plus restaurants and overnight stay accommodations.

For accommodations, I don't think the Fort Worth version even has restrooms, since most Fort Worth parks don't, except for outhouses. Although I do not recollect seeing any of Fort Worth's signature outhouses among the meager Cowtown Wakepark facilities.

The Phuket Wake Parks are located  on an actual island, while Fort Worth's Cowtown Wakepark is located on an imaginary island. Or is it out of the imaginary island zone? It is hard to tell where an island is when there is no island, let alone what is on or off the imaginary island.

I do not have any idea how the Phuket Wake Parks came to be. I suspect their creation had nothing to do with any slow motion river vision being directed by the unqualified son of a Thai congresswoman.

I do know that Phuket Thailand has a huge tourist industry, attracting millions of visitors annually from around the world. Real tourists, not imaginary millions of tourists like those visitors claimed by the Fort Worth propaganda machine to be visiting Fort Worth annually to enjoy, among many attractions, the world's premiere urban wakeboard experience according to Trinity River Vision Boondoggle propaganda.....

Anonymous Has Me Boosting The Color Of Fort Worth's Infamous Hillbilly Mudpit

A week or so ago I blogged about the fact that nowhere in the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's 28 page 2014 Fall Update did I see mention made of what J.D. Granger has previously referred to as one of the crown jewel stars of The Boondoggle, that being the pond known as the Cowtown Wakepark, designed by The Boondoggle to be the world's premiere urban wakeboarding lake, leading Fort Worth to once again be at the forefront of the world in offering its citizens one of those precious amenities everyone in the world is clamoring for.

Someone with a name about as common as Jones, that being Anonymous, made an amusing comment about the Cowtown Park being missing from The Boondoggle's Update....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "28 Pages Of Boondoggle Propaganda With No Mention Of The Trinity River Vision's Shining Cowtown Wakepark Star": 

Local hero Brian Luenser needs to photograph Granger's hillbilly mud pit and show us its true beauty. I don't know of anyone who can boost the color intensity of photos like ol' Bri'.

I borrowed the term local hero from the December issue of Fort Worth Magazine and I got hillbilly mud pit from Durango Texas at Blogspot.

I have no memory of referring to the wakeboard pond as a hillbilly mud pit, but I am sure I did, I just don't remember when or where. Though I suspect, via entering the term 'mud pit' into the blog's search window, I could quickly find it.

The reference to Brian Luenser, to those outside the Fort Worth information distortion bubble, is to a guy who takes photos of the downtown Fort Worth area, including the Trinity River. Some think these photos to be works of beautiful art. Others think these photos are works of distorted propaganda, hence the remark made by Anonymous about the Luenser tendency to boost color intensity.

When I was first exposed to the Brian Luenser School of Chamber of Commerce Photography I was reminded of those photos one often sees of Seattle from the perspective of looking south from north of the Space Needle, photos in which Mount Rainier is made to look much larger than it does in reality. I have wondered, more than once, if this has ever annoyed any Seattle tourists, of which there are many, when the clouds lift and they see The Mountain way in the distance.

I have wondered if the Brian Luenser photos have ever annoyed any of Fort Worth's tourists, of which there are few, when they see the Trinity River, expecting to see what they saw in the Luenser photo's, and instead see a littered ditch without free flowing water.

I decided to see if I could do what Anonymous suggests, and see if I can apply the Brian Luenser type of photo color boosting to put lipstick on that messy pig known as the Cowtown Wakepark.

The un-boosted photo below is from a blogging from way back in 2012 titled Trying To Wakeboard Today At Cowtown Wakepark. That photo is pretty much a documentary look at what this poorly kept eyesore actually looks like. Litter and junk laying about. Green astro-turf atop a beached floating dock.

Applying a saturated boost to the above photo turns the astro-turf into an otherworldly shade of green. The pile of debris in the foreground now looks like some sort of carcass, ready for a BBQ pit. The water is almost an inviting shade of greenish blue. The grass looks so green one might think one was looking at Ireland.

Even if the Cowtown Wakeboard pond looked as good as the boosted version above, I still would not want to get in that water.....

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?

Panther Island Ice Will Soon Be Freezing In The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

Yesterday I mentioned J.D. Granger in a blog post.

That mention of J.D. Granger had someone named Anonymous making a blog comment...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "I Am Shocked Regarding New TRWD Ethics Violation Allegations": 

Fort Worth's favorite mama's boy, J.D. Granger: Photo #22 is the one with him in it.

I am almost 100% certain that the lady on J.D.'s right is not the mama to which Anonymous refers.

In other J.D. Granger news this morning we learned that J.D.'s vision for the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is now expanding to add an ice skating rink to the plethora of outdoor activities the TRVB has initiated in Fort Worth.

The public, I mean, the Trinity River Vision Authority voted, unanimously, to spend $99,000 to get the ice rink up and freezing.

J.D. says the TRVB will get back its investment via skate rentals and sponsorships.

Panther Island Ice will be open daily from November 22 through January 5.

The ice rink will be located in the Coyote Drive-In complex, near the canteen, with one of the movie screens viewable from the ice rink, thus allowing a dream of many to come true, that being to be able to ice skate whilst watching a movie.

Who could have guessed, over a decade ago when the Trinity River Vision was first announced, that all these years later what we'd be seeing of the vision is the world's premiere wakeboard lake, the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century, happy hour inner tube floats in the Trinity River, one of the world's best waterfront music venues at something called Panther Island Pavilion and now an ice rink?

I really don't understand how come J.D. Granger was not picked as Best Servant of the People in last week's Fort Worth Weekly Best of 2013 issue....

A Fun Sunday Fort Worth Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Bike Tour

Yesterday I blogged about a bizarre bit of propaganda that touted something being called Panther Island Pavilion as a revolutionary game changer that is changing the face of music in Fort Worth and the world beyond, with this Panther Island Pavilion music venue being a huge attraction that will put Fort Worth on the music map.

I read this propaganda and wondered to myself if it were possible that the totally nondescript Rockin' the River location, which I'd checked out previously, could possibly have morphed into something special, since I last looked at it.

So, I decided to take myself, and my bike, on a Fort Worth Boondoggle Tour on this next to last Sunday of May. I drove to Trinity Park, via the 7th Street bridge, whose new arches, I must say, look cool. This will be a good-looking bridge, when completed, methinks.

Let the Fort Worth Boondoggle Tour begin.

The photo at the top is part of the downtown Fort Worth campus of Tarrant County College. This part of the college was supposed to be larger, with part of it on the opposite side of the Trinity River. After millions of dollars in cost over runs it was decided to spend millions more to turn the defunct Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters into the main campus of the downtown Fort Worth campus of Tarrant County College.

You are looking at the former Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters, that became a college, below.

Fort Worth's Boondoggles sort of feed on each other, at times. Radio Shack's Corporate Headquarters, that Radio Shack could not afford, and soon had to sell, came about with a land grab via eminent domain. From the Radio Shack Boondoggle Fort Worth lost acres of free parking, which, for decades, had made access to downtown an easy pleasant experience, because along with the free parking there was the world's shortest subway line to take you from the free parking to the heart of downtown Fort Worth. And the subway ride was also free. The Radio Shack Boondoggle clearly did lasting damage to downtown Fort Worth. I think of that anytime I need to park in downtown Fort Worth.

Well, let's leave those Fort Worth Boondoggles behind and visit some Trinity River Vision Boondoggles.

Below we are looking at the confluence of the West and Clear Forks of the Trinity River. This is also the location of the Trinity River Vision's Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats. This is the area described in the dfw.com propaganda article I blogged about yesterday, with the below paragraph...

Over the past two years, Panther Island Pavilion, a 40-acre space tucked away underneath Henderson Street just outside downtown, has risen from a barren patch of real estate you might not even notice on your jog along the Trinity Trails to become a focal point not only for civic planners with an eye on tomorrow, but for the city and state’s music industry.

Impressive isn't it? Actually, in person, this is a mess. J.D. Granger references new and improved music stages. But, what I saw today, was the stage I'd seen previously, is now missing, replaced by the two blue outhouses you see  at the center of the picture. The stage on the right has been altered since I last saw it.

A couple lifeguard perches have been added. The sign on the lifeguard perch says it is "A PRODUCT OF THE  TRINITY RIVER VISION."

Hubris.

The sign also advises "SWIM AT OWN RISK."  If a floater runs into trouble does the lifeguard shout that you are swimming at your own risk?

That is a Panther Island Pavilion cement encased outhouse you are looking at above. The stage we saw in the previous two pictures is in the background.

I think the MMG should be changed to OMG.

J.D. Granger is planning on having thousands of people attend music events that will turn Fort Worth into the live music capital  of the world. All those people? And only a few outhouses? Outhouses? Is there any other big city in America with so many outhouses near its downtown core?

Continuing on with the Trinity River Vision part of our Fort Worth Boondoggle Tour. Next stop, Coyote Drive-In.

I was hoping to be impressed by the Coyote Drive-In. I was hoping to see a well designed, landscaped, attractive modern looking take on a drive-in, something that reminded me of the long gone Skagit Drive-In of my long ago youth.

The word that quickly came to mind when I saw the Coyote Drive-In was TACKY. The cyclone fence topped by 3 strands of barbed wire is one example. The parking lot had  not been resurfaced from the days when its facing bankruptcy owner sold it to the Tarrant Regional Water District. I saw no landscaping. A fence made of worn looking boards surrounds the area where the movie watchers park. The entry to the drive-in, where you pass on to the property to get in line to buy your ticket is, well, missing a Welcome to Coyote Drive-In sign, or any other type signage. Maybe it was there and I missed seeing it.

The Coyote Drive-In has the look of something built on the cheap, the extremely cheap. Totally aesthetically unappealing. Which makes it a perfect pairing with the Panther Island Pavilion.

Leaving the Coyote Drive-In our next stop on the Fort Worth Boondoggle Tour is the world's premiere urban wakeboarding venue, Cowtown Wakepark.

I must say, of the three Trinity River Vision Boondoggle up and running operations, Cowtown Wakepark is looking the best. The last time I saw Cowtown Wakepark it was a littered, overgrown mess. Today there were 4 guys wakeboarding at the same time. Several people were watching. The thing that totally surprised me is how clean the water looked. It is a totally different color than the Trinity River which you can see at the same time you are looking at the Wakepark lake.

What is making the Wakepark lake look so clean? There is no apparent filtration system. There are no aerating fountains. The water looked so good I thought to myself the TRV Boondoggle should lose this Cowtown Wakepark thing and turn this into a swimming lake.

On thing I forgot to mention and forgot to take pictures of, because I was focused on pedaling into a very strong wind, was at the Panther Island Pavilion location a couple of the old subway stations had signage attached of the "STAGE 3", "STAGE 4" sort. Can these possibly be some of the "new" stages J.D. Granger references in the bizarre propaganda article in dfw.com? If that is the case I guess it is sort of admirable that J.D. is re-purposing something lost due to the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters Boondoggle.

Yeah, it is really clear to me, that J.D. Granger's vision for the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is leading Fort Worth to a very special future, a music, drive-in and wakeboard mecca for all the world to come and enjoy...

The TRWD Incumbent Cockroaches Throw Some Mud While Hiding From The Light

Last  night I was pre-warned I would find a bizarre  mailer in my mailbox this morning from the apparently increasingly desperate TRWD Incumbents.

Even though I was pre-warned, seeing the oversized, would not fit in my scanner, mailer, and its outrageous Orwellian propaganda, left me with the feeling of not knowing where to start with verbalizing my disgust for these miscreants who clearly need to be removed from any position involving public trust.

"A controversial Dallas millionaire is using a child actor to spread lies and throw mud at our hardworking local water board."

"DON'T LET OUTSIDERS STEAL OUR WATER!"

Steal our water?

Can these idiots get any more irresponsible with the unsubstantiated nonsense they are spewing? The TRWD Board  must have a really low opinion of the intelligence of those who vote, thinking that throwing the "Big Bad  Dallas" card was a great bit of propaganda.

"Don't be misled by the DISHONEST DALLAS HOGWASH from his (the rich Dallas millionaire's) handpicked SLATE of Water Board candidates: John Austin Basham, Timothy Nold and Mary Kelleher --- one has recently been bankrupt and doesn't live in the district and another is being sued for being a tax deadbeat."

No Dallas millionaire hand-picked Basham, Nold & Kelleher to clean up the clearly corrupt TRWD Board.

In the blog post titled The TRWD Election Propaganda Spewings Of Self-Entitled Dowager Heiress Marty Leonard I already explained the reality behind John Basham's bankruptcy and the moral bankruptcy apparent in the fact that Marty Leonard and her co-conspirators in character assassination would sink this low. What I did not mention in that blog post, because at that point in time I did not know the details, was that Timothy Nold was late paying his taxes because the inept TRWD was sending his tax bill to a vacant lot.

Which had the morally bankrupt Marty Leonard characterizing Nold as a tax deadbeat being sued by the TRWD.

Why did this latest mailer fail to also mention the shocking claim that one of the candidates, Mary Kelleher, has a meager voting record? That claim had the TRWD member, dowager heiress, Marty Leonard, in full clutch her pearls mode.

"These dirty candidates should move to Dallas and leave our local WATER ALONE!"

I am actually more than a little embarrassed for the TRWD Board. How humiliatingly insipid to spew this type stuff, which clearly indicates they can not make any sort of case for re-election based on their sorry record.

We are in Malice in Wonderland territory here, folks. We are Through the Looking Glass, where yes is no, truth is lie, clean is dirty, hard working is do nothing, stupid is smart, good is bad. Well, you get the picture.

"Throwing mud at our hard working Tarrant Regional Water Board?"

Throwing mud? What mud? Claiming the TRWD Board bought a luxury helicopter with leather seats? And that the Board uses this aircraft to fly to some sort of private hunting preserve?  I notice that the TRWD propagandizers are not denying the existence of the private hunting preserve, or using the helicopter to fly there. Now, if I were to fly in a helicopter to a private hunting preserve, I would consider this a luxury. Yeah, that is really dirty mud to point out the TRWD flies their luxury helicopter to their private hunting preserve.

Claiming to be hard working is like claiming to be deep thinking. We need some proof.

Are there examples of this corrupt TRWD Board working hard to mitigate the flash flood dangers in Haltom City that have been a deadly menace for decades?

The answer to the above question is NO.

How come the TRWD Board Incumbents make no mention of the hard work they've done on the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

Is there no mention made because after well over a decade all we can see of the Vision is a pathetic, soon likely to go out of business Cowtown Wakepark and the first drive-in movie theater to open in America in decades?

How come the TRWD Incumbents make no mention of their hard work that brought the Woodshed Smokehouse to the banks of the Trinity River.

The Woodshed Smokehouse, for you who don't know, is a restaurant, brought about by behind closed doors, secret shenanigans of the TRWD Board, in cahoots with their lapdog, J.D. Granger.

Apparently, in the TRWD Board's hard working world, building a restaurant on the banks of a river is part of their flood control, water quality mandate.

While little girls drown in flash floods in the area of the TRWD's responsibility.

A few days ago a source I consider reliable emailed me some documents with the text of the email saying, among many other things....

"A little bird tells me that someone very high up at the TRWD is talking to the reporter and is looking to "get ahead" of what the "new board" will find once they start digging. Turns out the internal finger pointing about illegalities is now beginning. I can't wait to read what all he has found."

I never saw a cockroach til I moved to Texas. Let alone see a herd of cockroaches run for cover when the lights come on.

Methinks soon after May 11 we are going to be seeing some metaphoric TRWD cockroaches running from the light....

J.D. Granger Thinks TCC's Watersports Have Changed A Mysterious Game Somewhere On The Trinity River

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and its executive director, J.D. Granger, really are goofy gifts that just keep on giving.

On the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's website, in an article titled TCC adds watersports to its list of offerings we learn, from J.D. Granger that a TCC watersports course  offering is a "game changer in how local educators approach physical education."

Congresswoman Kay Granger's son also said, in regard to this new use of the Trinity River that “We have a wonderful recreation opportunity right in our own backyard, and it’s time that we start using the Trinity River to its full capacity.”

Tarrant County College's Watersports class is an 8 week course where students will learn how to operate a paddleboard, wakeboard and kayak.

The wakeboard lessons will take place at one of the few completed Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's projects, that being the Cowtown Wakepark, site of the world's premiere urban wakeboard venue.

Cowtown Wakeparpark is just one of the many reasons Fort Worth is known world-wide as one of the Greatest Cities in the World.

I can not help but be curious as to why J.D. Granger thinks adding a watersports class to the TCC curriculum is some sort of game changer. What game is being changed? And who is playing this game?

Following My Handlebars To Check Out Cowtown Wakeboarding & A Bridge To Nowhere

That Is Not Me Wakeboarding At Cowtown Wakepark

Today I decided to emulate one of my favorite blogs, that blog being Hometown by Handlebar and go check some locations in my current hometown via my own handlebars.

We'll be following the handlebars from Cowtown Wakepark to the Phyllis Tilley Bridge to Nowhere.

The parking lot for the Cowtown Wakepark is also a Trinity Trail parking lot. Which is one of the reasons  it was the starting point.

I would think a nice warm day, with that day being the first Saturday of summer, that Fort Worth's premiere urban wakeboarding lake would be really really busy.

Well, I thought wrong. There were two people in the water being pulled around the pond. The mechanism that does the pulling is ultra-quiet. I could not figure out how it worked. Not that I spent all that much time pondering. I'd not noticed the little pond on the right, in the picture, til today. It appeared to be some sort of training pond. There was one person in that pond who looked as if he or she was trying to stay on a waterboard, without much success.

In the main pond it looked like there are only two tow bars. Which would seem to mean only two people can be wakeboarding at a time. The wakeboarders zipped rather quickly around the pond, so I would think more than two at a time could get dicey. No idea how this works. You wakeboard for 10 minutes then give it up for the next person in line? Not that there appeared to be a line.

I think I've mentioned before that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has a real penchant for signage. The penchant has grown since my last exposure.

Now you have TRVB signage, plus signage from the TRVB's partner in delusion, the TRWD, as in Tarrant Regional Water District. Currently, you can stop what you are doing on the Trinity Trail and aim your smart phone at one of the ubiquitous "CHECK OUT our NEW Trinity iPhone App!" signs and get yourself some sort of Trinity Trail App.

At trail junctions there are now signs, courtesy of the TRWD, pointing you in the right direction to get to various Trinity Trail destinations. On the south side  of the sign in the picture we are directed to Stockyards, Marine Creek, Buck Sansom Park, Cowtown Wakepark, Gateway Park and Sycamore Creek. The north side of this sign points the way to Downtown, Panther Island Pavilion, Trinity Park, Cowtown Wakepark, Gateway Park and Sycamore Creek.

The redundancy in mentioning Cowtown Wakepark and Gateway Park and others on both sides of the sign is because they are all accessed by crossing that dam bridge across the Trinity River you see in the picture.

I find the fact that Panther Island Pavilion and Cowtown Wakepark are on these signs to be interesting. I remember when the Santa Fe Rail Market was on directional signage in Downtown Fort Worth with me remarking that that will soon need to be altered. I thought the same thing when I saw Cowtown Wakepark on the signs, particularly after seeing how meager its patronage was today.

Rockin' The River Panther Island Pavilion

As for Panther Island Pavilion. That is a Rockin' the River Inner Tube Happy Hour thing that is part of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. I was surprised to see that a sort of permanent pavilion has now been installed at the Rockin' the River Inner Tube Happy Hour location.

The permanent stage was not the only thing that surprised me in the Rockin' the River zone.

Surprises like there are now two sets of Fort Worth style modern restrooms for the comfort of Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floaters.

One of the restrooms was real upscale. With showers.

I don't know if you are required to take a shower before getting in the river, so as to not add to the pollution, or you have the option of taking a shower when you get out of the river so as to wash off the pollution.

The goofiest thing I saw in the Rockin' the River zone was 3 big, Thanksgiving Day Macy's Parade Float type things floating in the river.

The giant inner tube says it was MADE IN FORT WORTH. Is the creature floating in the inner tube some sort of caricature of Fort Worth's former mayor Moncrief?

Continuing on, let's jump ahead to the most surprising thing I saw today, that being the current condition of the Phyllis Tilley Memorial Bridge to Nowhere.

For some reason I thought the Phyllis Tilley Memorial Bridge to Nowhere was finished, opened, ready to transport bikers and pedestrians from one side of the Trinity River to the other. I was wrong. Instead I saw one of the messiest construction sites I have ever seen. What an eyesore. It did not look as if much work is going on. Wind was blowing construction flotsam up against the cyclone fence. I saw one big chunk fly over the fence.

I think I will end this blogging with the bridge debacle. I may do a part two of today's look at my current hometown by handlebars.

I almost forgot one more thing. One of my goals today was to check out the current state of the supposedly soon to open first new drive-in movie theater in America in a large American city in decades. I could find nothing that looked like a drive-in under construction.

Did Fort Worth get hoodwinked and hornswoggled again?

Cowtown Wakepark Is Not Fort Worth's Only Wakeboard Lake

No, that is not a spruced up, upgraded, landscaped Cowtown Wakepark you are looking at in the picture.

But, wakeboarding does take place on this lake.

Several weeks ago Elsie Hotpepper asked me if I knew there was a wakeboard lake in my neighborhood.

I told Elsie I knew of the watercraft testing lake on the south end of the Riverbend industrial park, but that I'd seen no wakeboarding taking place there.

Well, yesterday, on my way back from Hurst, driving south on Loop 820, I glanced to my right, as I passed Riverbend Lake, to see a wakeboarder zipping across the lake being pulled by a cable of the sort that zips wakeboarders around the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's tiny Cowtown Wakepark lake.

The Cowtown Wakepark lake is a little pond on the south side of the Trinity River. The Riverbend Wakepark lake is a much bigger pond on the north side of the Trinity River. Very little space separates either pond from the river. Both flood when the Trinity River floods.

I have seen water skiing taking place, over the years, in Riverbend Lake. The Cowtown Wakepark pond is not big enough for water skiing.

When I took the picture you see above, looking east across Riverbend Lake towards Loop 820, I saw a young lady also looking at the lake. I asked the young lady if this lake was open to the public. She told me it is a private testing lake. I already knew that, but was looking for confirmation, and hoping to be told that it was about to open to the public.

I think the City of Fort Worth should use its eminent domain power to take Riverbend Lake away from whoever owns it and make it a public use lake. The water in this lake appeared to be much cleaner than the water in the Cowtown Wakepark pond.

Fort Worth lacks a public swimming lake, something I doubt any other town in America, the size of Fort Worth, lacks.

J.D. Granger touted Cowtown Wakepark as the world's premiere urban wakeboard lake. Apparently J.D. has never been to East Fort Worth. Perhaps J.D. should arrange to have one of his notorious junkets visit East Fort Worth on a fact finding mission.

Hot On The Tandy Hills Thinking About The Possible New Fort Worth Cowtown Wakepark Lake Public Swimming Hole

In the picture you are on the Tandy Hills, looking north, across the I-30 freeway, at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth and its 4, or 5, short skyscrapers.

Currently the outer world at my location is heated to 92 degrees, with the Heat Index, meaning humidity, making it feel like 97.

To my delicate heat sensibilities it felt way HOTTER than 97, today on the hills.

I may have gotten myself a much needed dose of aerobically induced endorphin stimulation, but I also had myself an unneeded steambath.

Soon, I hope, the humidity will dramatically lessen and the steambath will turn into a much more pleasant sauna.

My swimming pool is currently disabled, so there was no swimming this morning. The water had to be drained in order to replace a burned out light bulb. Without a functioning light bulb the pool does not glow with the appropriate level of blue brightness in the nighttime darkness. The pool is currently slowly refilling. I do not know if it will have enough water in it for an appropriate swim tomorrow morning.

Speaking of swimming.

This coming weekend is Memorial Day Weekend. Usually thought of as the start of summer, even though the summer solstice is not til June 20.

FW Weekly has its annual Summer section in this week's edition. The Summer section is full of fun ideas of things to do during the HOT time of the year.

I could not help but notice that I saw no ads for the notorious Cowtown Wakepark.

Has the Cowtown Wakepark already met its easily predicted fate of going out of business?

If so, methinks, since the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle already wasted money building the Wakepark Lake, that that lake should be turned into Fort Worth's first public swimming hole. I'm sure it would not cost a significant amount of the Boondoggle's nearly billion dollar budget to figure how to install some aerating fountains and other methods to clean up that little lake's water to make it palatable for humans.

Why, the Cowtown Wakepark Lake, cleaned up, might even make a sane place to hold J.D. Granger's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats, free of any alligator, gar fish, water moccasin, nutria, turtle or floating feces dangers.