Wondering About The Effect Of Fort Worth's Citizen's Minimalist Public Participation In Proposed Public Works

Last night I was lost on the Internet, going from link to link, and at one point I ended up at Wikipedia's article about the Sound Transit Link Light Rail system. Sound Transit is a light rail mass transit system similar to the Dallas DART train system.

Sound Transit moves people in the Western Washington counties of King, Pierce and Snohomish. King County is where Seattle is located, Tacoma is in Pierce County, Everett is in Snohomish County.

Previously, on more than one occasion, when I've compared something in the D/FW zone to the Seattle zone I've heard simplistic comments, like all you need to know about me is Seattle good, Fort Worth bad. I have explained, previously, the Seattle zone and the D/FW zone are the metro areas with which I am most familiar and so when something strikes me as sort of profoundly different, I  tend to notice it and comment on it. If that makes Fort Worth sound bad and Seattle sound good, well, when one holds up a mirror one can't complain about what one sees, if one is being honest.

So, I have long noticed that when an election takes place in Texas there is very little to vote on. No initiatives, referendums, few bond issues, few issues of any sort. I think there may have been some sort of road building bond issue since I was in Texas, but I don't remember being motivated to vote on it, one way or the other.

I have also noticed that HUGE public works projects can happen in Texas with no public vote. Such as the billion dollar Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Now, of the west coast cities Seattle was late to adding light rail to its transit mix, lagging way behind San Francisco, Portland and Vancouver. At the same point in time, in the late 1960s, (or was it early 1970s?), that San Francisco approved building the BART rail system, the Puget Sound zone rejected the light rail part of a bond issue called Forward Thrust, that being the vote that gave Seattle the now gone Kingdome, among many other things, including new water treatment installations to clean up Puget Sound and Lake Washington.

Decades later, in the 1990s, with traffic getting really bad, voters finally approved light rail, currently up and running and expanding.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, little gets voted on. How is it this town can not replace the decrepit Will Rogers Memorial Center, where rodeos are held during the Stock Show? How can the town known as Cowtown, that claims to be Where the West Begins, not figure out how to build a replacement for a seriously outdated facility?

Fort Worth built the Will Rogers Memorial Center way back in 1936. Since 1970 Seattle built the Kingdome, Safeco Field, the Kingdome replacement Seahawk football stadium, expanded Key Arena and is about to start construction on a new basketball arena for the incoming new Seattle Supersonics.

Since 1970, near as I can tell, Fort Worth has built nothing of the sort of things I've seen built in Seattle.

Oh, I forgot, Fort Worth built the now very run-down La Grave Field where Fort Worth has a professional baseball team playing in leagues with teams from towns with populations in the 20,000 range, give or take a few people.

Why such a difference between two towns, with one of them being known as one of the Greatest Cities in the World?

Well, I think I know what causes one key difference between Seattle and Fort Worth, that being public participation in proposed public works.

Read the following three paragraphs from the Wikipedia article about Sound Transit Link Light Rail and see if you can spot differences between how things are done and come to fruition in progressive, liberal, Washington, and think about how public works projects come about, or don't come about, in less progressive, less liberal Fort Worth and environs...

In November 1996, voters in King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties approved increases in sales taxes and vehicle excise taxes to pay for a $3.9 billion transit package that included $1.7 billion for a light rail system, including Central Link and Tacoma Link. Over the next several years, debates raged over various issues surrounding the Central Link line.

Sound Transit's Phase 2 plan, under the name of ST2 (Sound Transit 2), is the plan for the second phase of Link Light Rail expansion. ST2 was put before voters in November 2007 as part of the "Roads and Transit" measure, which included hundreds of miles of highway expansion along with the light rail, but failed to pass. Sound Transit then put another ST2 plan on the ballot in November 2008. The measure passed by large margins. The plan will extend light rail to Lynnwood Transit Center in the north, S. 272nd St. in Federal Way to the south, and Downtown Bellevue and Overlake Transit Center to the east.

In November 2008, voters approved the construction of an East Link light rail line connecting the city of Seattle to Mercer Island and the Eastside communities of Bellevue and Redmond as part of the Proposition 1 measure. This line will split from Central Link just south of the International District/Chinatown Station in downtown Seattle, extend across the I-90 bridge express lanes through downtown Bellevue and serve the Overlake Transit Center, including Microsoft headquarters.

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Voters voting on a public works project. What a concept. Debates raging over various issues. What a concept. Connecting towns by light rail. What a concept.

Up Early The Last Saturday Of September Not Worrying About Falling Satellites & Wondering About Floating Bridges & Billion Dollar Boondoggles

I am up early looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on this last Saturday of September, the 2nd day of Fall.

The outer world in my location is currently chilled to 61 degrees, heading to a supposed high of 91 today.

After enduring a lecture from my therapist, Dr. L.C., I've decided to make another 180 degree lifestyle change, ceasing with being a lazy layabout and returning to my excessive exercise lifestyle mode.

In other words I'm going swimming this morning.

I had a fitful night of worrying about being hit by the incoming Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. Apparently I did not need to be worrying. NASA claims that any one person on the planet had a 1 in 22 trillion chance of having a satellite piece land on them.

UARS has crashed and burned and so far there are no reports that it hit anyone.

Meanwhile, over in the Seattle P-I this morning I found it interesting to read that pontoons as long as a football field and three stories tall are being built in Aberdeen. Aberdeen is a town on Grays Harbor on the Washington Pacific coast. When finished the pontoons will be floated to Seattle to build the new six-lane floating bridge across Lake Washington, connecting Seattle and Bellevue.

This is a $4.6 billion project. Seattle has more than one project underway in the multi-billion dollar range. In addition to the new floating bridge there is the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project that includes a massive vehicular tunnel running under Seattle. Then there's the light rail extensions to the University of Washington and to Bellevue.

Billions of dollars worth of construction projects underway in the Seattle zone.

I believe the population of the entire state of Washington is less than the population of the entire Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

In the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex the only big public works projects underway that I am aware of are the fix to the Grapevine funnel problem and the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

I can think of one really good possible public works project in this troubled part of the planet, besides a massive effort to clean up the polluted Trinity River. That is, extending the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) train to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. And to Arlington's Entertainment District that includes Six Flags Over Texas, the Ballpark in Arlington and the Dallas Cowboy Stadium. And then when that is done, run a line to downtown Fort Worth.

The sun has turned on the lights now, so it is time to go swimming.

Fort Worth Resident Survey Shows Satisfaction Regarding City Services With 93% Agreeing Dallas Is Their Ideal City

The Fort Worth, Texas, Official Web Site Home Page is home to some very interesting information.

If the Internet had existed back when the Soviet Union was in its propaganda spewing heyday, I imagine the Moscow, Russia Official Web Site Home Page would have been very much like Fort Worth's.

In the City News section of the Fort Worth, Texas, Official Web Site Home Page we learn that "Resident survey shows satisfaction with City services."

A few paragraphs about this "Resident survey".....

Fort Worth registered high marks in an annual survey that measures residents’ feelings about municipal services. Residents ranked the City highest for having a clean and attractive city and ensuring a strong economic base, and lowest for improving roads and public transportation.

In April, ORC International, a global market research firm with offices across the U.S., surveyed a random sample of 1,614 Fort Worth residents age 18 and older. At least 200 surveys were completed in each City Council district.

Ninety-five percent of respondents said the overall quality of life in Fort Worth meets or exceeds their expectations, and 93 percent agree that Fort Worth is close to their ideal city.

Fort Worth residents feel that the overall quality of City services meets or exceeds their expectations, and 79 percent feel the city is headed in the right direction.

On a scale of five stars, 73 percent of residents rated the City as four stars or better. Only 11 percent of cities rate five stars, ORC International reported.

It is clear that Fort Worth residents feel that the No. 1 strategic goal should be to ensure a strong economic base, a reflection of the nation’s current economic state and overall concerns about the economy. Twenty-nine percent of respondents ranked “having a strong economic base” as the most important goal. Also important were “being the nation’s safest city” (21 percent) and “improving roads and public transportation” (18 percent).

95% said the quality of life in Fort Worth met or exceeded their expectations? With 93% agreeing that Fort Worth is close to their ideal city?

As in Fort Worth is close to their ideal city of Dallas? Dallas is considered the ideal city by 93% of the Fort Worth people surveyed? Well, I sort of do understand that. Dallas is a very attractive city, with an iconic skyline and some nice attractions, like Fair Park and the Dallas Farmers Market.

Even though there are some nice locations in Dallas, Fort Worth has my favorite attraction in the D/FW Metroplex, that being the Fort Worth Stockyards.

In the survey, 18% thought Fort Worth needed to improve its roads and public transportation.

The Dallas transportation infrastructure is likely another reason why 93% of the Fort Worth people surveyed opined that Fort Worth was close to their ideal city, because Dallas has all those miles of DART train tracks, that you can now ride all the way to Denton. Fort Worth has a TRE train that you can ride to Dallas to connect to the DART trains.

I wonder how much the City of Fort Worth paid for this rather absurd survey? Enough to buy a library book or two? Fill a pothole or two?

No Red River Rivalry DART Snafus At This Year's State Fair Of Texas

Last year thousands of football fans tried to use DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) to get to the Red River Rivalry football game between Texas and Oklahoma during the State Fair of Texas.

Last year DART was not prepared to handle the numbers who tried to use their system to get to Fair Park and the Cotton Bowl. There was a lot of complaining and vows to never ride DART again.

This year DART let it be known that there would not be a repeat of last year's debacle, due to DART adding buses, plus a special State Fair Express Train running every 10 minutes and adding dozens of workers to help move the crowds on to the trains.

This year there was no DART snafu. But, this lack of snafuing was not due to all that DART had done to fix the problems. Instead, the lack of a traffic snafu was due to thousands of football fans staying true to their vow to not ride DART again.

Last Saturday's game day drew huge crowds to the State Fair of Texas with a record breaking $3.6 million being spent on coupons. You can not use U.S. Currency to buy food or rides at the State Fair of Texas. You have to convert your U.S. Currency in to coupons to buy fried food and midway rides.

You do not have to convert your U.S. Currency in to coupons to ride on a DART train. U.S. Currency is accepted.

It is a shame the Red Rivalry football fans did not give DART another try. DART has a very good website called "Ride DART to the State Fair of Texas" which has all the info you could possibly need to take the Trinity River Express (TRE) and DART to the State Fair of Texas.

Going To Dallas To The State Fair Of Texas For The Red Rivalry Texas/Oklahoma Cotton Bowl Football Game

It is only 27 degrees above freezing this morning in my zone of Texas, on this, the 2nd day of October.

I believe today is a day you don't want to be going to the State Fair of Texas, unless you enjoy huge crowds. Today the Red River Rivalry comes to Dallas.

The Red River is what you cross when you head north out of Texas in to Oklahoma.

Today in the Cotton Bowl the University of Texas plays a football game with the University of Oklahoma. Or maybe it's called Oklahoma University. This game is what is known as the Red River Rivalry.

Last year there were some transportation problems with DART trains not delivering football fans to the Cotton Bowl in a timely fashion. This year those DART problems are supposedly fixed.

Tomorrow the predicted low is 48. We are getting to the time of year when it is a test of mind over cold to go swimming in an increasingly cold pool. I'll see how that mind over cold thing is working for me in a few minutes.

Thinking About Taking The TRE & DART Train To The State Fair Of Texas To Have Deep Fried Beer

That is me, stuck in a gondola on the Texas Star Ferris Wheel at the State Fair of Texas, in Dallas. The Texas Star is 212 feet tall. Some claim it to be the tallest Ferris Wheel in the Western Hemisphere, others claim it is only the tallest in North America.

All I know for sure is this is one big Ferris Wheel.

I don't know if the current Texas Star is the original, or a second or third or fourth generation Texas Star, but, I do know that in 1955 one of the Texas Star's gondolas, full of students from the Memphis Texas High School marching band, broke from the top of the Ferris Wheel, careening to the ground, killing only one of the students.

The State Fair of Texas starts this Friday, September 24 and runs through October 17.

It has been a couple years since I've gone to the fair. I'm thinking I may go this year. I have me a hankering to try me some Deep Fried Beer and a Deep Fried Margarita. I must remember to bring I.D., due to the need to be 21 to buy the Deep Fried Booze.

The last time I went to the fair I paid 10 bucks to park in a remote parking lot, east of the fairgrounds, with transport to the fairgrounds provided by a TRE (Trinity Railway Express) train.

I am thinking this year, rather than drive to Dallas, it'd be funner to take the TRE, since there is now a DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) line that goes to the fairgrounds. I have a TRE station, it being the Richland Hills station, almost walking distance from my abode.

So, who wants to go ride the Texas Star with me and get inebriated eating Deep Fried Beer?

More Than 70 Texans Take Their Pants Off In Dallas And Ride A DART Train

Last week I learned of an event that was to take place yesterday, on Sunday. I blogged about it on my Washington Blog.

The event was Seattle's No Pants! Light Rail Ride. A group called Improv organized No Pants! events in towns across America.

Seattle's No Pants! planners had a Facebook page where you could register to take your pants off. Over 500 participated in riding without their pants, from downtown Seattle's Westlake Center Light Rail Train Station all the way to Sea-Tac International Airport Station.

Now, here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area there was no organized No Pants! event. But, on Sunday, around 3pm, the DART train took off from Union Station in downtown Dallas and headed towards Garland.

By the time the DART train got to the West End Station 3 riders had their pants off. Eventually around 70 people were riding 2 different DART trains without their pants, going in two different directions.

Prior to boarding the eventually pantless were given their instructions, get on the train, act totally nonchalant, then take your pants off.

Now, in the more organized Seattle and New York City No Pants! events, the pantless were on trains only with fellow pantsless people. In Dallas the pantless were dropping their drawers in front of pants wearing gawkers.

911 calls were made to the police.

A DART police officer warned the pantless that taking of their pants off was against the law, it being disorderly conduct that could put you in jail or get you fined.

Scoffing the law the Dallas rebels continued to take off their pants and split in to two groups on 2 different trains. One group taking the Red Line to Plano, the other the aformentioned Blue Line to Garland.

In the end, no one was arrested, no one was fined. Many of the onlookers found it amusing.

Chuckles erupted each time the automaed DART Rail voice announced that, "Riders should beware of suspicious activity and unattended packages."

As for me, had I known this was going on in Dallas I would have headed there. Any opportunity to take off my pants in odd situations sounds fun to me.

Actually, I don't get the point. It seems like a pretty goofy event to me. I suspect by next year's No Pants! event day, Dallas will be well organized, with New York City numbers of pantsless Texans.

Can Dallas participating in next year's Worldwide Naked Bike Ride Day be far behind? I tell you this formerly repressed area of the world that I'm currently living in is getting so liberated.

Layla Not Too Happy Taking DART Green Line To The State Fair Of Texas

Yesterday Layla listened to my apparently bad advice and took the DART Green Line to the State Fair of Texas. She seems to have misunderstood what I suggested she do, because she drove herself and her entourage to Dallas, to the American Airline Center.

Driving a long distance to get on mass transportation seems sort of counter intuitive, sort of like when I drive a long distance to go on a bike ride or a hike.

Layla had trouble finding a place to park by the American Airlines Center. Eventually a place was found to park the car. There are free parking lots near a lot of the DART stations, like Mockingbird. But, apparently Layla didn't know that.

Since she lives in the Fort Worth zone, what I'd actually suggested was that Layla put her group on the TRE, as in Trinity Rail Express, from Fort Worth to Dallas, then get on the DART train to take the Green Line to the fair.

Layla also had trouble getting a ticket on DART. Two of the four ticket machines were in malfunction mode. The ones that worked did not like Layla's $20 bill. The machines don't take credit cards.

When they finally made it on a train they waited and waited and waited for it take off. When the train eventually took off there were not very many people on board. So much for DART saying Green Line trains would be taking off every 15 minutes.

Layla claims it took an hour to get from the American Airlines Center to the Fair Park Station at the State Fair of Texas, with many stops on the way. Next time she says she will skip taking the train and park at the fair, saving, she thinks, time and money.

Even though Layla had a bad experience, somewhat self-inflicted in my opinion, I am going to take the TRE and DART when I go to the State Fair of Texas.

Big Tex Takes DART Green Line To The State Fair Of Texas

That is Big Tex waiting to get on a DART train at Mockingbird Station. Big Tex is heading to the State Fair of Texas where he stands tall all day long and talks to people.

To get to the Fair, Big Tex will need to switch to the DART Green Line at Pearl Station. The Green Line will take Big Tex directly to the State Fair.

Before getting on the DART train Big Tex went to Kroger where he bought a combo ticket to the Fair. For $16 Big Tex gets a ticket to the Fair and a Round Trip transport on DART.

For those not familiar with Dallas, DART is Dallas Area Rapid Transit. Dallas has about 50 miles of light rail. Each year seems to bring more miles of DART. There are currently 3 DART lines, the Red Line, the Blue Line and the Green Line. The Green Line will currently take you to the State Fair of Texas. By 2010 the Green Line will take you beyond the State Fair.

The Orange Line is under construction. It will take riders to Irving and Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

The Dallas Morning News has a video of Big Tex going to Kroger and riding DART to the State Fair of Texas. You'll really want to be sure and watch it.

Taking The Trinity Rail Express Train To Dallas

This coming Friday I am going to do something eco-friendly. And new.

I'm taking the Trinity Railway Express, aka TRE, to Dallas. I need to go to a meeting in downtown Dallas. Taking the train seems like a sensible thing to do. It only cost 5 bucks. That's roundtrip. And once I'm in Dallas I can ride anything on the Dallas transit system with my TRE ticket.

The TRE runs from Fort Worth to Dallas. I'm in east Fort Worth, so my closest train station is in Richland Hills, about 2 miles north of here. Unlike anywhere in Seattle, it's free to park in the TRE parking lot.

Dallas has many many miles of light rail called Dallas Area Rapid Transit. DART for short. I've ridden DART before. It is a good thing.

I'm not quite certain how one gets from the Dallas terminus of the TRE train to downtown and if getting on DART is involved. I'm sure all will be revealed on Friday.

I have actually ridden a TRE train before. Last year the State Fair of Texas used a TRE train as one of its ways to shuttle fairgoers from remote parking lots to entry gates. It worked slick.

If I muck something up and get stuck in Dallas I've got a backup plan already worked out. It doesn't involve hitchhiking.

The Soviet State of Texas

It might seem to be the most absurd thing imaginable to suggest that the Great Republic of Texas has anything in common with the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. However, when one sees Texas up close and personal one sees many similarities between the USSR & Texas.

For example, in the old Soviet Union two of their major cities were named for two of the USSR's founding fathers, one named Leningrad, the other Stalingrad. In Texas two of the major cities are also named after founding fathers, one being the capital of Austin. The other being Houston.

In the Soviet Union huge statues were erected to honor Joesph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin. In Texas, one of the largest free standing statues in the world was erected to honor Sam Houston.

In the Soviet Union the death penalty was used frequently. Texas, by far, leads the United States in number of executions.

In the Soviet Union you could get thrown into the Gulag for the most minor of crimes. In Texas so-called justice is meted out in equally harsh terms. A personal example. Last month a friend of mine, down in Corpus Christi, was stopped for a minor moving violation. The cop ran her name and came up with a warrant for her arrest. She was handcuffed and thrown in the back of the cop car and brought to a jail where she was stip searched and booked. Her crime? Six years prior, at a Krogers Grocery, she had written a check for $20 on a now long closed account. Unknown to her, the check bounced. Apparently Krogers took the case to court and got a judgement, unbeknownst to the victim. The $20 check, via fines and interest, had ballooned to almost $500. Luckily for my friend she had family who could help her, including a sister who is a lawyer and a judge in Houston. She was out of the Texas Gulag in 3 days.

Texas has this rather antiquated, very corrupt, system that is responsible for many of the Texas crimes against humanity, that being the Justice of the Peace system. These 'judges' are not trained in the law. They are elected. They are often incompetent. Example. Dallas has a mass transit train called DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit). DART employs pseudo-police officers to maintain order on the trains and the train stations. The locals calls these pseudo cops the DART Gestapo. A Fort Worth reporter was in Dallas covering a DART story several years ago. He stood at a street crossing waiting for the 'walk' sign to turn on. Beside him were two DART cops. He waited and waited for the apparently broken light to change. It never did. Finally the cops walked away. When they were several hundred feet down the road the reporter made a run for it and crossed the street. The cops then chased after him, stopped him, accused him of breaking the law as soon as their backs were turned. They gave him a ticket with a large fine. The reporter tried to get his day in court via the Justice of the Peace that handled that jurisdiction. After try after try of appearing in person to get the matter settled, he gave up. Years later he is still battling this.

In another incident a man and his 10 year old son were accosted by the DART Gestapo (aka DART KGB) over some minor infraction. When the victim objected the Gestapo tasered the man. In front of his 10 year old son. The man was hauled away by the cops, leaving the 10 year old to fend for himself. The victim spent 10 days in the Dallas Gulag, unable to post bail.

A 15 year old boy was shot dead by the DART Gestapo when he jumped out from some bushes and said boo. The boy was unarmed.

You can read all about the DART Gestapo here.

Another shocking example of corrupt Texas justice occurs in a county on the fringe of the D/FW Metroplex, that being Johnson County. Ten percent of Johnson County's population has spent time in one of the county's jails. If you want to be horrified at how badly justice can be perverted in Texas read this shocking article about a couple good citizen's nightmarish ordeal when faced with the law in Johnson County. This story is not for the squeamish. And you will likely be quite ashamed that this occurred in the United States. With very little local outrage. But then again, how much protesting did the citizens of the Soviet Union do? Very little, lest they get thrown into the Gulag. Texans don't do a lot of protesting either. I don't know if this is due to fear of the Texas Gulag or just plain old-fashioned ignorance of the sad situations that occur here.

Another example of how similar the State of Texas is to the Soviet Union is the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal. In the USSR when the government needed land for one of their fool projects the proliteriat had no rights. The Soviets would just take their land. In the State of Texas the eminent domain laws have been perverted in ways the rest of the United States does not allow. In Texas you can get the corrupt local government to use eminent domain to condemn houses when a Shopping Mall wants to expand its parking lot. This happened just 5 miles north of me at the Northeast Mall. 5 miles east of my location the Dallas Cowboys and the city of Arlington conspired to pervert the concept of eminent domain in order to steal dozens of houses, dozens of businesses and dozens of apartment complexes, uprooting well over 1000 people in a violation of basic human rights that would have done the old Soviet Union proud.

In the United States one of the basic tenents of our basic rights is the right to be left alone. I think that is what annoys me more than anything about the perversion of the law that occured in Arlington so that a private business could build a stadium. One day you are happy in the house you built on the land you worked hard to buy. The next day you are told you must leave. And will be paid full market value for your property. And you have no say in whether you want to sell or not.

None of this stuff should occur in America, land of the free, where human rights are to be protected, revered and cherished. Not ignored, violated and scorned. Texas really needs to follow the lead of the USSR and overthrow the current dictatorship and establish a democratic republic where basic human rights are protected by the state, rather than violated by the state.

If I suddenly cease posting you can assume I have had a knock on my door and the Texas Gestapo/KGB has me in custody for speaking out against the state. Let's just hope they don't take me to Johnson County. Or Dallas.