According To Dolores The Super Bowl Will Be Played In Cowboys Stadium In Arlington

The weather info and countdown to the Super Bowl is a screencap from this morning's Dallas Morning News.

Note that the countdown is titled Super Bowl XLV - Arlington, TX.

Meanwhile, over in Fort Worth, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, there was an amusing letter to the editor this morning, written by a resident of Arlington who feels Arlington's honor is somehow being besmirched by the media and Jerry Jones.

Below is that letter, complete with the Star-Telegram's title for the letter...

Arlington's honor

Why is it so difficult for the media as well as Jerry Jones to acknowledge the fact that Cowboys Stadium is indeed in Arlington, where, I might add, the Super Bowl will be played? We, as residents of Arlington, voted to raise our sales tax to help pay for the stadium. Give us the courtesy of recognizing the city as the host of the Super Bowl. Our mayor, Dr. Robert Cluck, worked very hard to secure the honor of the stadium being built in Arlington. Please, give credit where credit is due.

-- Dolores Bielby, Arlington

Walking Through Village Creek Natural Historic Area Looking For Indians & Wondering If The Christmas Lights Have Dimmed In Interlochen

I am still in the midst of my personal recession. I am fairly certain my condition has stabilized and I will not slip into a full blown depression. However, I am currently not seeing a recovery in the near term.

Maybe tomorrow.

My therapist, Dr. L.C., told me to get vertical and mobile.

So, I followed Doctor's order and went to Village Creek Natural Historic Area to commune with nature and talk to all the Indian spirits who hover about the location of one of America's biggest Indian Villages, back before Texans started using a brute force version of eminent domain abuse to kick the locals out of their town.

A proud tradition which continues in modern Texas times, what with the new Dallas Cowboy's Stadium, built with the help of what many believe to be the worst case of eminent domain abuse in American history, a couple miles to the east.

As I walked through the remains of the Indian Village, I eventually exited to the Bob Findlay Linear Park. This linear park is on the west side of the Interlochen neighborhood,. Interlochen is usually an extremely popular Christmas display viewing venue.

Today it appeared that many of the Interlochen houses are free of Christmas decorations. It seems like I may have read of there being some problem with Interlochen this year, something to do with the Arlington police not wanting to police the traffic mess.

Or maybe the Interlochen canal dwellers have had to cut back on frivolous spending, like Christmas lights. I know I have cut back.

Actually, now that you are making me think about it, I have never burned any electricity on Christmas lights.

A Pine Tree Ghost Stands On Dallas Cowboy Stadium 50 Yard Line

I got a Feedback Comment this morning via my Eyes on Texas webpage about the eminent domain abuse that was done in Arlington to get Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys a new football stadium.

The commenter was looking for a lost story, wondered if I was aware of it and was hoping for information from me about the subject.

I vaguely recollect this part of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal story, but I remember no details.

Below is the Comment.....

I took the attached photo in May 2005 after reading a story in one of the Dallas-Ft. Worth newspapers. The story was about the little frame house in the neighborhood where the new Cowboys Stadium was to be built and it had to do with a couple who planted a little seedling pine tree early in their marriage. That tree grew to be 50-60 feet tall and it was sitting on what would become (now IS) the 50 yard line of the new stadium.

Are you aware of the story? I didn't keep it and can't seem to find it via online searches.

If you know who ran the story or how I could get a copy of it, I would appreciate the information.

Thank you.
Michael Brown
Arlington

Dozens Of Cars Stolen From Dallas Cowboy Stadium Wal-Mart In The Middle Of The Night

You are looking at a blocked off entrance to the Wal-Mart Supercenter across from the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium on Randol Mill Road in Arlington, Texas during a Dallas Cowboy game on November 22, 2009.

All entries to the Wal-Mart were blocked, thus closing Wal-Mart.

There were cars parked in the Wal-Mart parking lot. The parking lot was maybe a third full.

Unlike most of the other possible parking lots in the area around the Dallas Cowboy Stadium, Wal-Mart puts up no "Event Parking $60" sign. One would think they would, if they are going to close the store, with their lot being so conveniently located.

So, what I am curious about is how did it come to be that Wal-Mart is shut down during Dallas Cowboy games? How is Wal-Mart compensated for this? In an area where Jerry Jones is charging up to $60 for parking one would think Wal-Mart's compensation must be hefty.

I was also at the Dallas Cowboy Stadium the day before, to take pictures of the Dallas Cowboy Outhouses. On that day, November 21, high school football playoff games were taking place in the stadium. On that day the Wal-Mart Supercenter was open.

So, I parked on the Stadium Wal-Mart's parking lot. I saw a few signs that said something like "No Event Parking. Violators May Be Towed." I now know these were not warning signs that meet the criteria for such signs as defined by Texas law.

When I was parked at that parking lot it was maybe 1/2 to 2/3's full. The store was extremely busy. I saw people walking from the parking lot across the street to the stadium.

There were no security type people that I detected watching the Wal-Mart lot.

The last of the football games finished a bit past midnight. I have asked my source to confirm the numbers, but have yet to get that confirmation. But, I believe around 50 people exited the stadium and walked to the Wal-Mart parking lot to find their vehicles missing.

A line of taxi cabs was waiting for the people with the missing cars, offering to take them the short distance to where their vehicles had been impounded. I believe the fee was in the $10 zone.

When the people arrived at the impoundment place they were told it would take 20 minutes to process each vehicle. And cost something like $240 to get back in their vehicle.

My source, a Grandma who was with her 5 year old grandson and the grandson's pregnant mother, was able to persuade the impounder to process her quickly. She made it home sometime after 2 in the morning.

According to Texas State Law a vehicle can not be impounded unless specific verbiage, on easily seen signs, is installed on the parking lot. An impounder taking a vehicle from a lot without the proper signage is considered to have committed auto theft. The victim can recover any losses and have any damage to their vehicle paid for by the improper impounder.

What we are trying to find out is who really owns the auto impounder, Straw K, Inc. doing business as A-AARLINGTON ABANDONED VEHICLE. The property manager, that is Wal-Mart, had to have entered into an agreement with the towing company. Was this done on the local level? Or from Arkansas?

What is the arrangement with the taxi cab company? Who calls them and tells them there will be some distressed people looking for their vehicles?

If there were 50 towed vehicles that Saturday night, at $240 each, that's $12,000. Who gets that money? The towing company? Wal-Mart? The local Wal-Mart manager? Jerry Jones? Who?

Walking With The Devil In Arlington Looking At Caelum Moor Environmental Art

Last Sunday I had to abort an attempt to check out what is being called Caelum Moor Environmental Art, due to a Dallas Cowboy football game left me no place to park. Today I figured there would be no football game and since I was in Arlington, I'd check out the satanic sculptures that have some local bible thumpers in full thump mode, predicting all sorts of dire devilish harm to come to Arlington, which is clearly ridiculous.

Arlington long ago, well, about 5 years ago, sold its soul to the devil when Arlington allowed Jerry Jones to commit the worst case of eminent domain abuse in American history. I really don't think these devilish Caelum Moor pieces of rock are going to cause the evictions of thousand and destruction of 100s of buildings.

When I arrived in the stadium/ballpark area I was concerned I was heading towards another aborted visitation. There were a lot of cars parked by the Ballpark in Arlington. I was fairly certain the regular baseball season was over, that the World Series was in play and that the devil has made it certain that the Texas Rangers will never play in the World Series, at least not this year. And likely not next year.

Speaking of the Ballpark in Arlington, where no World Series game has ever been played, that's it in the background on the right. Further in the background, on the left, you can see the Titan Hypercoaster at Six Flags Over Texas. And in the foreground, you get a second look at the first Caelum Moor Environmental Art you saw in the second picture above. This piece sits out in the lake and drips water. I do not know the name of the lake that is on the north end of the Ballpark in Arlington. The Richard Greene Linear Park paved trail runs along the lake and then continues along Johnson Creek.

Now we are looking west, standing on the Richard Greene Linear Park trail in front of the north side of the Ballpark in Arlington. We are looking at the leaking Caelum Moor piece of art that is in the water with the Dallas Cowboy Stadium looming menacingly overhead. I have to admit, as much as I dislike what was done in Arlington to build that stadium, I do think it is one impressive structure. If only the area surrounding the stadium was all as aesthetically pleasing as the area between it and the Ballpark in Arlington.

I don't know where the idea came from to compare the Caelum Moor stones to Stonehenge. The only resemblance I could see was a couple of them were pillars with a stone laid on top, like Stonehenge. Caelum Moor certainly is not arranged in anyway like Stonehenge. Caelum Moor is just sort of randomly placed. Stonehenge is a circle.

The Caelum Moors in this picture look as if they are some sort of symbolic obscene gesture. The bible thumpers hopefully will not make note of that. That is another Caelum Moor to the right, looking as if it is under the tree. Instead it is standing free of the tree, right up against Randol Mill Road.

I don't know if all of Caelum Moor lights up at night, but I did see lighting by the one by Randol Mill Road.

I would not recommend going too far out of your way to see the Caelum Moor Environmental Art. But if you are in Arlington, you might find taking a look at it to be interesting. Especially if you've not seen the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium up close.

Arlington Mayor Cluck Wants To Prevent Future Dallas Cowboy Party Pass Riots

Yesterday, on Monday, I mentioned that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram did not report the Party Pass Riot that occurred at the first regular season football game in the new Dallas Cowboy stadium.

By Tuesday, apparently, the Star-Telegram decided that an out of control mob scene, with beer bottles being thrown, was newsworthy.

The Star-Telegram even somehow found a photo of the Party Pass Riot. The photo does not quite show how rambunctious the riot actually was. For that you had to see the video evidence on CBS Channel 11.

Arlington Mayor Cluck told the Star-Telegram, "They put up barricades and the people ignored them. There were beer bottles flying around and a lot of pushing and shoving. I don't want to see a repeat of that."

The first game in the new Dallas Cowboy stadium broke an NFL attendance record of around 108,000 attendees. However, of that large number, only some 78,000 actually had a seat. The 30,000 Party Pass people are what pushed the total to the record breaking number. 30,000 Party Pass people, less the number who gave up, in frustration and anger, and went home.

Many of the Party Pass people arrived early, hoping to get a good place to stand. Some had been standing for hours without being allowed into the stadium. The bottleneck grew as kickoff approached. Police and Fire Officials attempted to restrict entry to just a few football fans at a time, trying to make sure there was enough standing room for those they were letting in.

And then, as the game grew closer and those left outside grew more anxious, the roof and end zone glass walls were opened, with a rush of cold air and loud cheering hitting the angry Party Pass people.

At that point the Party Pass people began to push up against the barricades. As beer bottles flew and the mayhem reached riot level the Police decided to lift the barricades and let the Party Pass people flood in.

Video screens were set up outside the stadium at both end zone plazas, for the Party Pass people. I don't think it was ever considered that all 30,000 of the Party Pass People were going to be inside the stadium. The Cowboys must have figured some of those thousands would be perfectly happy standing outside for several hours looking at video screens.

When it was first announced, months ago, that tickets would be sold so people could stand on the plazas outside the stadium, to be "part of the excitement" of the game, I thought that sounded nuts and wondered who in their right mind would pay to stand outside a stadium during a game.

Dallas Cowboy Stadium Opens With A Few Glitches

Last night's George Strait/Reba McEntire concert in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium apparently pleased most of the 60,188 people in attendance.

Yet there was country singer Blake Shelton saying, "Traffic coming into this thing sucks. I didn't know if we were going to make it here on time."

When you did make it to one of the 14 parking lot entrances you learned it cost $40 to park. There was off-site parking available for an even steeper price. Like the CiCi's Pizza on Collins Street, directly across the street from the west entry to the stadium, charged $60 for parking. With that $60 you also got access to the CiCi's Pizza Buffet.

In some areas of the stadium the air-conditioning was not working. It being a 90 degree day, that might have been a bit uncomfortable. Construction was not completed in some areas of the stadium, with insulation awaiting a sheetrock cover, painter's tape was stretched along a wall.

There was an hour wait to get a frozen Margarita, trash bins were overflowing, some of the concession stands ran out of straws, others ran out of hamburger buns, Pepsi dispensing machines malfunctioned.

On the plus side, apparently the humongous video screen was very impressive and people liked the restrooms.

At some point during George Strait's time on stage he said something about opening the roof, saying only one man, Jerry Jones, has the power to open the roof. So, the crowd started chanting, "Jerry, Open The Roof." Soon the roof began to open.

Arlington's Cluck mayor declared that the stadium "will be a wonder of the world."

I suspect Mayor Cluck may be right. Where else in the world can you get all the pizza you can eat and park for $60?

The Mystique Of The Dallas Cowboys & Their New Stadium

This morning I read a Jerry Jones interview about the recently completed new Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Arlington.

The interviewer repeated the local myth that gets repeated a lot and annoys some people in other parts of America, that being the myth that the Dallas Cowboys are America's Team. Most Americans beg to differ.

The Dallas Cowboys being America's Team really is ridiculous. When it came time to build the Cowboys a new stadium they weren't even Dallas's team, they became Arlington's team.

In the interview one of things Jerry Jones says is the following...

"Where we have invested the money in this stadium for the long term will create more people that can come to the Cowboys than could have ever come normally because of the size of the stadium.  . . . More people will have the experience of what the Cowboys are, our mystique, what we’re about. The Cowboys have been about Dallas in the sense that it represents the idea of Texas, and it represents the idea of larger than life and this image that we want for the stadium, which is one of the future."

This is not a very well-spoken, articulate man. The Dallas Cowboys have some sort of mystique about them? What is this mystique? The Dallas Cowboys represent the idea of Texas? What is the idea of Texas? The new stadium is larger than life?

Well, it is rather large. I'm going to make a prediction about what much of the rest of America will think about "their" team's new stadium. There will be a lot of talk about how out of place the building looks, like it does not belong there. Much will be made of the commercial, industrial and residential blight that is to the south and west of the stadium.

I've never seen a major sports stadium in such a rundown setting. Seattle's new football stadium has the Seattle skyline on the north end and the Mariner's ballpark on the south end, with no blight no matter where you look. Denver's new football stadium, same thing, no blight. Houston's, no blight.

Now, I've really not seen all that many professional football stadiums. Maybe there are others that have been built in a residential neighborhood, using eminent domain to move people off their property, surrounded by pawn shops, boarded up businesses and other blight. I suspect not, though.

It will be interesting to see what America thinks when they see where their team is playing. It ain't gonna be pretty, is my guess.

That's the new Dallas Cowboy stadium in the picture at the top, hovering over a FINA gas station.