No Billionaire Helps Fort Worth's Homeless

This blogging is the latest in our popular series of bloggings about news we read in west coast online news sources, usually the Seattle Times, which we would not expect to be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about similar type news in the Fort Worth area.

The Seattle area has a lot of billionaires, with Microsoft billionaire, Paul Allen, being a civic minded, philanthropic sort of billionaire.

Paul Allen has done all sorts of good things for Seattle and Washington, while never sticking his name on his various good deeds.

In other words, in Seattle, you won't find the Paul Allen Seahawk Stadium, Paul Allen EMP, Paul Allen Cinerama, well you get the drift.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth you will find the Bass name slapped on all sorts of things, like performance halls and cowgirl museums.

I am not aware of the billionaire Bass family doing what one might characterize as "good works" of the help the homeless sort.

Fort Worth has a homeless people district a short distance to the east of its downtown. The Fort Worth homeless district is primarily on Lancaster Avenue. Driving through this area is disturbing.

Near as I can tell the Fort Worth city government does little to help alleviate the homeless problem, no matter how outrageous the cause of such might be. If anything, from what I have seen, and been told, the Fort Worth city government exacerbates the homeless people problem.

Such as when the city and its mayor, Betsy Price, blithely looked away when a Dallas developer hit hundreds of Fort Worth residents with 30 day eviction notices. Likely an illegal action, which would have been dealt with appropriately in non-corrupted, modern, democratic towns in America.

But, in Fort Worth, such evictions are just business as usual.

Landlords, as in apartment complex owners, know that there is no governing entity looking out for tenant's rights. Owners know they can break the law, ignore Texas property code, violate TCEQ regulations, with impunity, creating, basically, a lawless environment where a property owner can wreak havoc with a tenant's life, with the tenant having no recourse.

As we recently mentioned we blogged about this in Betsy Price's Tarnished Golden Rule of Pseudo Compassionate Service and Fort Worth Shrugs Its Shoulders While Hundreds Of Citizens Are Given 30 Day Eviction Notices and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price Has No Comment About 30 Day Evictions Of 100s In Her Town.

A tenant in a Fort Worth apartment may find they are the victim of criminal violations by a landlord. That tenant may try to fight the wrongdoing, only to find themselves being served with an eviction notice. Thinking a court will recognize the law and the property owner's criminal violation of the law, the tenant soon discovers that the justice system, in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, is in cahoots with the property owners.

How many of Fort Worth's homeless people are victims of the Tarrant County Kangaroo Court, run by an elected justice of the peace? A right wing tea bagger type, supporter of Ted Cruz. With no formal legal training. And an ex-cop.

Does all that not sound like a recipe for multiple miscarriages of justice?

A tenant can appear before this corrupt Kangaroo Court, armed with evidence of the property owner's wrongdoing. The justice of the peace, acting like a make believe judge, won't even look at the presented evidence, then rules in favor of the property owner, then informs the victim, I mean, tenant, that they can appeal this ruling by posting a couple thousand dollar bond with the court, and then ones case can be heard in front of a jury, and one can hope, a real judge.

That Fort Worth and Tarrant County have such a corrupt judicial entity ruling on something as serious as evictions could, it would seem, explain why Fort Worth's homeless problem is as bad as it is.

Methinks some sort of external investigation of Fort Worth needs to take place.

FBI? I have no idea.

What I do know, from the sad tales I have been told, there is a judicial authority in Tarrant County who should not be in the position of making any sort of legal ruling about anything.

Hot Steamy Tandy Rain Forest Jungle Hiking With Sick Homeless Guy

Tandy Rain Forest Jungle

Lately, due to my aversion to feeling like I need a machete to hack my way through a trail, I've avoided the Tandy Rain Forest Jungle that one goes through when one crosses north across the Tandy Escarpment above Tandy Falls.

But, today when I left the air-conditioned comfort of my abode to head into the outer world for some endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation, I decided to brave my way through the lush vegetation of the Tandy Jungle, sans machete.

The machete-free Jungle passage was not as difficult as I had feared.

It was only in the 80s when I did my hill hiking today. But the humidity had the Real Feel feeling HOTTER. By the time I got back to the air-conditioned comfort of my vehicle I was about as wet as if I'd just stepped out of a shower.

Being about as wet as if I'd just stepped out of a shower, combined with air-conditioning blowing cold set off an interesting bout of sneezing.

On my way back to where I am now I stopped at Albertson's to pick up this week's FW Weekly. When I left Albertson's the sad/sick looking homeless guy I've mentioned previously, who lives in a shanty of cardboard near the now defunct Krogers, was walking towards me. Suddenly the sad/sick guy started hacking with a terrible sounding cough.

I see this guy several times a month. He looks progressively worse. Why is there not a number that you can call when you see someone in dire need of help? Or is there such a number? I know 911 is useless for such things.

I wonder where one can acquire a machete?

Having Myself A Real Fine Time Riding Fort Worth Buses With All The Poor Homeless People

Fort Worth's Long Gone Light Rail Subway

Yesterday I was motivated to blog about Fort Worth's World City Status after reading an article in Fort Worth Weekly about the current state of public transit in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, and the opinion verbalized that Fort Worth will not be a world class city until it has a mass transit system.

There were another couple of paragraphs in Fort Worth Weekly's A Tale of Two Rail Systems cover article that sort of bugged me.

I don't know if the couple of excerpts that bugged me reflected the point of view of the author, Dan McGraw, or if he was reflecting opinions he'd encountered whilst writing the article.

But, I do know I have encountered the same opinion being verbalized by locals. I won't name names.

The first excerpt that bugged me....

The T, on the other hand, has had no choice but to maintain a bus system whose main purpose is to provide basic transportation to poor folks without cars.

The main purpose of the bus system is to provide basic transportation to poor folks without cars?

The first time I rode a Fort Worth bus I found it a fun, amusement park like ride. I asked a local if she ever road the bus. She told me she thought only poor people rode the bus. I've been on Fort Worth buses at least 5 times. How does one tell it is poor people riding the bus?

I can't help but wonder what does a Fort Worth native think the first time they visit New York City and see all those people using public transit? They must think New York City has an awful lot of poor people.

What does a Fort Worth native think the first time they visit Seattle and find themselves in the transit tunnel under downtown Seattle, seeing so many buses and a light rail, with a lot of people on  board. They must think there are an awful lot of poor people in Seattle.

The valley I lived in in Washington, the Skagit Valley, has a pubic transit bus system, called SKAT. SKAT was free to ride when I lived in Washington. I believe a fare is charged now. A Fort Worth native visiting the Skagit Valley must think the valley has an awful lot of poor people who can't afford cars, when they see a public transit bus system exists.

The other excerpt that bugged me was...

The current bus route through that area has the highest ridership of any route in The T’s system, and Eastside residents have supported the plan in surveys. But part of the large projected ridership would be homeless folks, due to the number of homeless shelters and services on East Lancaster. The homeless qualify for free bus passes, and many use them frequently to go downtown, usually to the main library, where they hang out and use the computers. The big unspoken question here is whether commuters who work downtown will be willing to share their commute with that group.

How is it known that the homeless hop a bus to get to the downtown library? Would that not involve a long walk to get to the library? I don't think there is a bus stop at the library. Would it not make more sense for the homeless person to hop on board the 21 bus and go to the Eastside Regional Library? Which also has a lot of computers.

I have never been in the Eastside Regional Library and thought to myself, wow, look at all those homeless people.

I have never been on a Fort Worth bus and thought to myself, oh my, this is awful, I am on a bus with a bunch of poor, homeless people.

Who or what taught the Fort Worth locals that buses and public transit are for poor people? And the homeless?

In a highly evolved world-class city, like New York City, Dallas or Seattle, you can use mass public transit to get all over the town. When I am in Seattle I sometimes stay in the north end. I'll take a bus to downtown and then use the downtown transit tunnel to zip from one end of downtown to the other.

It would not make much sense for Fort Worth to have an underground transit center to facilitate zipping around downtown. Because downtown Fort Worth is rather tiny. There is not a lot to zip to. Or people needing to be zipped.

I have long been curious as to how many Fort Worth natives have even been to Dallas to check out how well the DART train has worked in that town. I assume not a lot of Fort Worth natives make the trek 30 miles east to Dallas. If they do they must think Dallas has an awful lot of poor people.

Few Fort Worth locals visiting Dallas may be why the Fort Worth Star-Telegram knew it could get away with tall tales told to the locals, making up propaganda about Fort Worth's Santa Fe Rail Market being the first public market in Texas, and that it was modeled after public markets in Europe and Seattle's Pike Place Market. This propaganda was spewed when Dallas has the Dallas Farmers Market, which every one of my visitors from the Northwest has remarked reminded them of Pike Place Market.

Below you can walk with me through Seattle's Westlake Center, an actual town square, unlike Fort Worth's Sundance Square, and then into the Westlake Center vertical shopping mall, where you can go down a few levels and enter the Seattle transit tunnel, where you will see a lot of buses with a lot of poor people who don't own cars....

The Last Thursday Of 2011 Hiking The Wilderness Area Where I Live With Homeless People & Beef Stroganoff

Fort Worth Water Tank

Today I decided to do something radically different.

The radical difference consisted of going on a walk without going on a drive to get to a place to walk.

This turned out to be much more adventurous than I anticipated it would be.

I left my abode, headed east and then south through the Albertsons parking lot. Then walked west on Bridge Street past some fast food joints.

Crossed the street to Krogers where I got sour cream for the Beef Stroganoff I'm making for lunch.

Left Krogers, heading south, up a hill, back to Bridge Street, then headed west towards Fort Worth's East Regional Library.

My plan was to walk the trail that I've noticed, for years, that is under a power line/utility right of way that a road leads to just to the west of the big Fort Worth water tank you see in the picture.

All was going well, walking under the power lines, til I came to an area where water was leaking in amounts copious enough to make for a muddy passage.

A lot of heavy equipment work had rutted up the area under the power lines. I saw drilling equipment. I could not figure out what the nature of the heavy equipment's project was.

The trail grew continually more difficult. Soon I was going cross country. No trail. At one point I had to jump a ditch that was running water. That wrenched my shoulder, somehow. The pain was bad, but quickly abated.

Eventually I came to a spot where heavy equipment had run over the land, making a sort of a trail, which, ironically. took me back to Krogers.

In the open field due north of Krogers I saw a big pile of garbage which caused me to mutter to myself about some Texans and their garbage disposal methods.

I was in mid-mutter when a guy popped out of the garbage and headed towards me. It was a young guy, looked to be in his 20s, maybe older. The garbage was his shelter. It'd been awhile since I'd seen a homeless person. I had no idea there were homeless people living so close to the place I call home.

If I was a nicer guy than I am I'd probably bring the homeless guy some Beef Stroganoff.

It was really good.

Beef Stroganoff is my favorite thing I learned to make during my stay in Moscow.

Pedaling Across Arlington's Village Creek Then Seeing More Fort Worth Homeless People Suffering Without Sidewalks

The City of Arlington park crews are very efficient. Last night I learned that, except for the mountain bike trail, you'd hardly know River Legacy Park had been flooded a week ago.

Today I decided to head to Village Creek Natural Historic Area in Arlington to see if the efficient City of Arlington park crews had been equally efficient with that park.

They had.

I was amazed to be able to see how high the flood reached and how much of the park had been under water.

A couple days ago I showed you the view in the picture with some water still flowing over the dam/bridge and with a thick layer of mud covering the paved trail. Today, as you can see, the mud is gone, the dam/bridge is back being a dam/bridge.

A few days before I showed you the mud left by the receding flood, I showed you the actual flood. Had I been standing then, where I was standing today, to take a picture, I would have been in the process of drowning.

For the second time in 2 weeks I have been pedaling along the Pioneer Trail of the Bob Finlay Linear Park, in Interlochen, and someone stops me to ask for directions. This time it was a guy trying to find his way back to Division Street. There are basically 2 ways in and out of Interlochen. I can see how someone might get lost in the maze of streets and canals.

Last night I had an armadillo encounter at River Legacy. Today I had one by Village Creek. Both times I was not fast enough drawing the camera to aim and shoot a picture, before the critter escaped from my view.

What is speeding up the armadillos? My previous experiences with those cute little beasts have had them being very cooperative photo subjects.

On my way back from Village Creek Natural Historic Area I was heading north on Bridgewood Drive, by the Family Dollar store, when I saw a pair of what appeared to be homeless people trudging up the hill, a middle age woman pushing a cart with her possessions. Her equally middle-aged male companion carrying what looked like a knapsack. Or hobo bag.

This presented a duo photo documentary opportunity. A photo showing both Fort Worth homeless people and the lack of a Fort Worth sidewalk.

Now, this is no isolated in the middle of nowhere location. Family Dollar was across the street. Dollar General was ahead of them. And Krogers.

Yes, you in the civilized parts of America reading this, in Fort Worth, Texas there are grocery stores, in heavily populated neighborhoods, with no sidewalks for residents to use to walk to the grocery store.

Over the years walkers have worn a dirt path leading to Krogers. And another one on the other side of the sidewalk-less street. The pair of homeless people were not using the dirt path, I assume because it was easier to roll the cart on the street.

Now, I don't know what happened to me, but as soon as I had an impulse to pull into the Family Dollar parking lot to snap a picture of the homeless/sidewalkless pair, I had some sort of pang of conscience, thinking that would not be right to do, even though the photo would be from behind them, no faces shown.

I don't know what caused this sudden failing of my usual instincts. Maybe my brain is being over oxygenated by too much bike riding.

Does anyone know how many homeless people there are out on the mean streets of Fort Worth?