Construction Of The Eiffel Tower Took About Half As Long As Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Is Taking To Build Three Simple Bridges

Continuing on with our popular series of bloggings about impressive feats of engineering which took less time to build than projected for Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle to build three simple small bridges over nothing, today we look at the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, France, that being a World's Fair celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the French Revolution.

The Eiffel Tower took two years, two months and five days to build, starting construction January 28, 1887, completing construction March 15, 1889.

The Eiffel Tower was designed by renowned French engineer and bridge builder Gustave Eiffel.

Gustave Eiffel did not get this job due to being the son of a corrupt Paris congresswoman.

The Eiffel Tower is a signature structure, recognized all over the world as an iconic symbol of Paris and France.

The Fort Worth Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Dunce Confederacy seems to have dropped referring to their three simple bridges as being signature bridges which would become iconic symbols of Fort Worth.

Apparently the chronically tone deaf Dunce Confederacy has heard some of the giggling caused by their hyperbolic propaganda about three bridges being built in four years over dry land, and so have dropped trying to sell these little bridges as being anything special, or signature, or iconic.

So far the Dunce Confederacy has not fessed up to the real reason their three simple bridges will take an astonishing four years to build, or why they are being built over dry land.

But, it is no secret that the slow motion construction schedule is due to The Boondoggle not being funded in the way public works projects are usually funded, which is also why the ditch under the three bridges is not currently being dug.

I wonder what Gustave Eiffel would say about a Dunce Confederacy claiming their bridges were being built over dry land so as to save money, with the water added later?

I suspect whatever the French phrase is for "engineering incompetence" or some version of that sentiment, is what Mr. Eiffel would have to say about Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and its three bridges over dry land connecting to an imaginary island....

Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy's Congratulatory Arena Propaganda

Looking at the screencap you see here, you see that Fort Worth is being congratulated for doing it.

What did Fort Worth do, you who are not privy to what Fort Worth does, may be wondering?

Well, last November a few Fort Worth voters voted on Three Propositions whose passage was alleged to have approved of the building of a new Multi-Purpose Arena which will accommodate around 14,000 event attendees, thus, also allegedly, filling a supposed Fort Worth entertainment gap that caused big name acts to avoid Fort Worth because the only performance venue available in town was the puny Fort Worth Convention Center Multi-Purpose Arena which held only around 12,000 attendees.

Yeah, I know, you reading this where your drinking water and air does not make you somewhat insane, that really does not make a lot of sense. But, apparently those who are in charge of Fort Worth's Dunce Confederacy think those extra couple thousand seats are just what are needed to get some big events to come to Fort Worth.

As for those Three Propositions, those have perplexed me ever since I first learned of them. Basically they are three voter approved taxes, as in fees on renting livestock stalls,  parking and event tickets.

Why these Three Propositions could not simply have been One Proposition is a mystery to me. To create the illusion of having more to vote on?

I have never gotten an answer to the question if one or all of those Three Propositions failed would that mean no arena would be built?

Which leads me to what is bugging me today.

A few days ago I blogged a blogging titled Why Does Fort Worth's New Multi-Purpose Arena Cost So Much And Do So Little Compared To Phoenix Arenas? in which we learned about two Phoenix area arenas built this century, those being University of Phoenix Stadium, where the Super Bowl is played this year, and the next door Gila River Arena. Both hold way more attendees than Fort Worth's newly approved arena. The Super Bowl stadium cost about as much as Fort Worth's arena and holds about six times more people. The Gila River Arena cost about half what Fort Worth's arena will allegedly cost, and holds around 6,000 more people.

Both Phoenix area arenas had a project timeline, a begin construction date, with a proposed opening date.

This morning I Googled looking for project timeline info for Fort Worth's recently approved arena. I could find no such info, but the first website which came up in the search is that which I screencapped above, that being the Fort Worth Arena website.

Go to the Fort Worth Arena website and you will find no project information about the new Fort Worth Arena, Instead you find typical Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy propaganda about the alleged wonders this new arena will bring to Fort Worth.

During the recent election no project funding data was provided by those pushing for the arena, explaining how it was that the money raised by those three fees was going to pay for half the cost of the arena.

How could such a revenue projection be possible? What with it not possible to know if there are any big acts willing to book themselves in this relatively puny arena.

How many days of the years are those livestock stalls going to be providing rental fees?

This is all so bizarre to me. Why is it Fort Worth seems to have such a habit of having pseudo public works projects, such as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, and now this arena, with no project timelines?

How can that extremely vital economic development and flood control project, the TRV Boondoggle, be built on an extremely slow motion time schedule if it is so essential and if it provides such a great benefit to Fort Worth?

And now this Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena. Will it be open for next year's Stock Show? How about the year after that? Will it be open by the time the TRV Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing are able to be driven over, to nothing?

Who knows?

Like I said, bizarre.

Interesting Look Into The Convoluted Funding Of The Dunce Confederacy's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

Out of the blue, on the third day of the New Year of 2015, in my incoming email inbox, there appeared a document which seemed to be a detailed accounting of the bizarre money moving shenanigans the City of Fort Worth is engaging in in cahoots with its Dunce Confederacy Cohorts in the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

It has long been apparent, to the few who pay attention, that the funding mechanism for the Dunce Confederacy Boondoggle is seriously flawed.

Hence the slow motion building of Three Simple Bridges Over Nothing taking an absurd four years, after which, if funding can be found, a ditch may be dug under the three bridges, finally giving them a purpose, after water is added to the ditch.

Does any other town in America finance a public works project in this convoluted manner?

Below is the legalistic gobblygook which seems to be all about transferring funds from various accounts into The Boondoggle's side of the ledger, near as I can tell....

SUBJECT:
Authorize Transfer of Funds Received from Tarrant County in the Amount of $332,065.91 from the Special Trust Fund to Certain Other Funds for the Purpose of Reimbursing City's Previous Trinity River Vision Eligible Project Expenses and Contracts, Consistent with the City's Limitation of $26.6 Million on Expenditures for the Trinity River Vision Project and Adopt Appropriation Ordinances (COUNCIL DISTRICT 9) 

RECOMMENDATION: 
It is recommended that the City Council:

1. Adopt the attached appropriation ordinance increasing estimated receipts and appropriations in the Special Trust Fund in the amount of $332,065.91 from available funds; 
2. Authorize the transfer from the Special Trust Fund in the amount of $332,065.91 to the Street Improvements Fund in the amount of $122,670.22, the Sewer Capital Projects Fund in the amount of 175,550.80 and the Specially Funded Capital Projects Fund in the amount of $33,844.89 for previous Trinity River Vision eligible project expenses and contracts;
3. Adopt the attached appropriation ordinance increasing estimated receipts and appropriations in the Street Improvements Fund in the amount of $122,670.22;  
4. Adopt the attached appropriation ordinance increasing estimated receipts and appropriations in the Sewer Capital Projects Fund in the amount of $175,550.80; 
5. Adopt the attached appropriation ordinance increasing estimated receipts and appropriations in the amount of $33,844.89 in the Specially Funded Capital Projects Fund; and
6. Authorize the transfer in the amount of $33,844.89 from the Specially Funded Capital Projects Fund to the Capital Projects Reserve Fund.

DISCUSSION: 
After a recent audit of City expenses and contracts, the above recommendations are necessary to reimburse several City Funds in order to ensure that the $26.6 million Trinity River Vision (TRV) spending cap is maintained. Tarrant County will soon be providing the City with their Fiscal Year 2015 TRV reimbursement in the amount of $1.5 million, so this Mayor and Council Communication will enable the redistribution of a portion of that funding to cover TRV-related expenses and contracts in the following manner:

On April 15, 2008, (M&C C-22766) City Council authorized the initial contract with TranSystems for Phase IA of stormwater and franchise utility design/coordination. This was a TRV eligible expense that counted towards the City's $26.6 million commitment in the amount of $946,500.00. This contract was paid for with City funds from the Capital Projects Reserve Fund because it was prior to the City receiving TRV Project reimbursements from Tarrant County. On October 6, 2009 (M&C C-23833), City Council authorized the use of Tarrant County TRV Project reimbursement funds to move the Police Auto Pound, which was a non-TRV eligible expense. The final cost in moving the auto pound was $912,655.11. By transferring the difference of $33,844.89 ($946,500.00 vs. $912,655.11) from the Special Trust Fund (i.e., Tarrant County TRV reimbursements) to the Specially Funded Capital Projects Fund, this leaves the Police Auto Pound expenditure of $912,655.11 paid by Capital Projects Reserve Funds and reimburses the difference for the TranSystems Phase IA contract.

FISCAL INFORMATION/CERTIFICATION: 
The Financial Management Services Director certifies that upon approval of the above recommendations and adoption of the attached appropriation ordinances, funds will be available in the current capital budgets, as appropriated, of the Street Improvements Fund, the Sewer Capital Projects Fund, and the Specially Funded Capital Projects Fund.

______________________________________________________

I can not help but wonder if the Dunce Confederacy Trinity River Vision Boondoggle had been funded in the way normal public works projects are funded, you know, after a public vote where the voters vote to tax themselves by some means to fund a project for the public good, whether we would be seeing these type convoluted "funding" manipulations to fund an ongoing Boondoggle?

I Won't Be Heading Across Fort Worth's Pond Granger To A Clearwater Casino Anytime Soon

What you are looking at here is a posting I saw a few minutes ago on Facebook.

Newlywed Chris and wife, Sheila, are floating a ferry across Puget Sound to go to a casino this afternoon.

I saw this photo and thought to myself that there are several things here that I will likely never see, not ever, even if, decades from now, the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle actually becomes something any of those 10 million tourists the Dunce Confederacy currently claims come to downtown Fort Worth every year to visit downtown Fort Worth's teeny Sundance Square Plaza, can see.

The Pond Granger part of the Dunce Confederacy's Boondoggle varies in size depending on what propaganda spewing you are having spewed at you, ranging from around 12 acres to 33 acres.

Even at 33 acres Pond Granger would not be big enough to float a boat of any size, not even a small yacht, let alone cruise ships and ferry boats.

Unless a big earth moving project begins soon there will be no large mounds of dirt replicating mountains that one might see from any location located anywhere in the Dunce Confederacy's area of Boondoggling.

Maybe if that flood diversion channel is ever dug under the three bridges currently being built over nothing, that ditch excavation might provide enough dirt to build one semi-mountain to provide some vertical visual interest to what one sees from the Dunce Confederacy's imaginary island, other than the pitifully puny skyline of downtown Fort Worth.

Crossing a body of water on a big boat to go to a casino is another thing one will not be seeing in the Dunce Confederacy's Boondoggle's visionary lake. Basically you won't be crossing Pond Granger to anything of much interest, near as I can tell.

There is one other thing in addition to mountains, a big body of water, big boats and casinos, that one would not be seeing in the area of the Dunce Confederacy Boondoggle, or Texas, that is part of what I thought when I read that Chris and Sheila were heading to the Clearwater Casino this afternoon.

I'll let you see if you can figure out what that was....

Mr. Galtex Asked Me Another Trick Question That Had Me Pondering The Dunce Confederacy Bridge Boondoggle

Way back on Wednesday, December 10,  2014, I blogged a blogging titled In Italy Mr. & Mrs.Galtex Found A Possible Parking Lot Turned Into Turin's Piazza Castello after Mr. Galtex asked me a tricky question on Facebook.

This morning, on Facebook, Mr. Galtex asked me another tricky question.

You can read that tricky question above the picture of the source of the tricky question.

After pondering Mr. Galtex's tricky question, for a moment or two, I answered the tricky question with...

Well, since there is water under this bridge, with the water appearing to be part of a real river, my guess would be this is not a Fort Worth bridge, which means I am going with the Ticino in Pavia, Italy option.

I wonder if the Italians built this bridge over the Ticino River before adding  water to the riverbed under it, you know, what with that being the cost efficient way to build a bridge?

I wonder if the Italian bridge over the Ticino took four years to build?

Facebook just made its annoying notification noise. It's a reply from Mr. Galtex confirming I was correct in my answer to his tricky question...

I thought I might be able to fool you this time, but you correctly identified this signature bridge. That water was flowing very swiftly, too, quite unnerving for anyone accustomed to Trinity-type flow.

Regarding the Dunce Confederacy and their slow motion construction of Three Bridges Over Nothing.

It continues to annoy me that the Emperor continues to wander about town, wearing no clothes, with the people  pointing out this fact being ignored by the masses going along with the buffoonery that the Emperor is wearing new clothes.

Translated to Fort Worth, The Emperor is that which used to be known as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, but which is now known as the Dunce Confederacy.  With the Dunce Confederacy foisting on its loyal subjects the ridiculous scam that the reason the Dunce Confederacy is taking four years to build Three Bridges Over Nothing is because it will save a lot of money to build those bridges over dry land. And then add  the flood diversion channel at some undetermined time in the future.

The truth of the matter is the more efficient way to build such a project would be to integrate the building of the bridges with the building of the channel. At the same time.

And a further obvious reality which shows the bogus-ness of the Dunce Confederacy dry bridge building scheme, is the fact that there will be no water in that flood diversion channel until water is diverted into it. In other words, the Three Bridges Over Nothing could be built over a totally dry flood diversion channel, under construction.

The reason the Dunce Confederacy is building the bridges over dry land, in slow motion, has nothing to do with cost efficiency. It is because they lack the funds to fund the construction of the un-needed flood diversion channel. Or build the bridges in a normal bridge construction timeline of far less than four years.

It does not take a lot of imagination to imagine if those Three Bridges Over Nothing actually do get built, and if that flood diversion channel then gets into construction mode, that there will arise a problem due to those bridges already being in place, something like the digging of the channel causing a problem with bridge support piers, or some other problem.

Bottom line truth is the fact that if the Dunce Confederacy's public works project was funded like any normal city funds its public works projects, both the channel and the bridges would currently be under construction.

And neither would take a ridiculous four years to build....

The Confederacy Of Dunces First Public Vote On The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

Yesterday after I blogged about the Confederacy of Dunces "My City. My Trinity. Fort Worth finding its way back home" photo exhibit, an amusing blog comment arrived from Ignatius J. Reilly...

Ignatius J. Reilly has left a new comment on your post "J.D. Granger & His Confederacy Of Dunces Is Now Programming Propaganda Photo Exhibit Products": 

Mr. Jones, you did not make note of a part of the TRV's press release that reeked with irony, that being the following sentence.

"A second gallery will feature community submitted photographs, the public is encouraged to vote on their favorite image."

For the first time in its history, that which you call The Boondoggle is allowing the public to vote on some aspect of The Boondoggle, albeit a very minor aspect. 

Ignatius is correct, I did not make note (in my blog post) of this first time ever public vote on any aspect of The Boondoggle.

However, I did make note of this historic fact, when I read it, and intended to mention this shocking development. But, then forgot to.

So, thank you, Mr. Reilly, for noticing this history making event and commenting about it.

As for the Confederacy of Dunces, or Dunce Confederacy, I opined yesterday that maybe we need to make this the new name for The Boondoggle.

That which is known as The Boondoggle has gone through several name changes. From Trinity Uptown, to Trinity River Vision, to Panther Island.

So, I guess it only makes sense that that which we used to refer to as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, eventually to become known simply as The Boondoggle, may now become known as the Dunce Confederacy.

The term "Confederacy of Dunces" comes from a Jonathan Swift essay, in which Swift said, "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

Sadly, there is no loud genius, appearing to be heard, who is speaking truth to the Fort Worth Confederacy of Dunces. Fort Worth has no real newspaper, of the daily sort, printing the results of investigative journalism.

Thus, the Dunce Confederacy basically operates in a vacuum with no checks or balance.

Fort Worth Weekly does what it can, but can not afford to annoy the local businesses who buy advertising.

Come to think of it, I don't think I saw a single ad in Fort Worth Weekly this summer from the Dunce Confederacy, formerly known as The Boondoggle, advertising their weekly Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Float Beer Parties.

You reading this outside the Fort Worth propaganda bubble, back in November we had a good example of the Dunce Confederacy in action. The occasion was the ground explosion, I mean, ground breaking, for the Dunce Confederacy's Three Bridges Over Nothing. Three very simple bridges which are scheduled to take longer to build than the Golden Gate Bridge and many other feats of modern engineering.

Only a Confederacy of Dunces would have a celebration to make note of something as lame as the start of this slow motion bridge construction project.

Go to the blogging I wrote that day, titled A Big Boom Begins Boondoggle Bridge Construction Three Months Late and you will see the Dunce Confederacy in action, including video (if the Dunces have not removed it) where you can hear J.D. Granger, his Mama Kay, and Fort Worth Mayor, Betsy Price, give a good verbal example of what Dunces sound like when they say stupid stuff which has no grounding in reality....