Star-Telegram Discovers Fort Worth Needs Thousands Of Miles Of New Sidewalks

A few days ago an article appeared on the front page of the online iteration of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram asking Is your neighborhood walkable? Fort Worth needs more than 3,300 miles of new sidewalks.

If memory serves accurately I have mentioned a time or two the fact of Fort Worth's sidewalk shortage, and what effect that noticeable shortage might have when Fort Worth tries to woo a corporation to town.

Long ago Fort Worth Weekly made note of the Fort Worth sidewalk shortage. I had no memory of reading this, but the author of the Fort Worth Weekly article about the town's sidewalk shortage emailed me, years ago, after I had made mention of the sidewalk shortage. The author had long returned to the heavily sidewalked north, I think somewhere in Illinois, or maybe it was Indiana, when he read my blogging lament about the Fort Worth sidewalk problem.

Anyway, that Fort Worth Weekly writer who had also noticed all the streets without sidewalks, with pedestrians making do with muddy trails along roads, or just walking in the street, lamented that apparently nothing had yet been done about the obvious problem, in all the years since he had escaped.

And now, a couple decades later, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram finally makes note of this long obvious problem. A few paragraphs illustrating how the Star-Telegram describes the town's sidewalk shortage...

Ella Burton hopes when the new Como Community Center opens this fall, her neighbors will be able to walk there, preferably on sidewalks.

Folks in Como like to walk, but it can be a bit tricky, said Burton, who is the neighborhood president. There’s a hodgepodge network of paved walkways, like in many older Fort Worth districts where property owners may not have the money to maintain sidewalks. Horne Street, Como’s main street, lacks sidewalks on both sides south of Blackmore Avenue, while side streets like Littlepage and Humbert Avenue do not have any for several blocks.

“You can find folks walking around here pert-near any time of the day,” Burton said, adding that without sidewalks local drivers have grown accustomed to spotting walkers in the street. “It’s either step off into the road or walk through someone’s lot.”

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Property owners have to maintain sidewalks? Why aren't sidewalks just part of having a city street? During recent visits to what I refer to as Modern America, such as Arizona, I have long noted how new areas are developed, such as in Chandler, Arizona, the infrastructure goes in before the building goes up, as in roads, sidewalks, pocket parks, street landscaping. That type stuff.

Now, one can see how upgrading streets which were born back in Wild West times, as dirt trails, well, unless a town makes an effort to modernize those dirt trails as progress progresses, you know, by paving and adding sidewalks, well, you end up with a mess like Fort Worth. A town where most of the town's streets have no sidewalks.

The article tells us the Fort Worth City Council's 2020 budget approved a whopping $750.000 for sidewalk work.

$750,000.

A town populated by over 800,000 potential walkers next year will invest a measly three quarters of a million bucks addressing the town's sidewalk shortage.

And that whopping figure is on top of the $12 million allocated for sidewalks in a 2018 bond election.

Did I mention this is a town with a population over 800,000?

A town in which some clueless town leaders wonder why the town can not attract corporations to locate a headquarters in town, or even a branch?

The following paragraph makes clear how ridiculously absurdly bad this Fort Worth sidewalk shortage is...

Fort Worth has around 2,500 miles of existing sidewalks, but 3,395 miles of gaps — areas where no sidewalk exists. Most of those gaps, more than 2,000 miles worth, are in majority-minority neighborhoods, according to a city analysis.

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What in the world is a majority-minority neighborhood? Does the Star-Telegram no longer employ editors? When I lived in far east Fort Worth was that a majority-minority neighborhood? I have no idea. I saw Americans of all types in the neighborhood.

And few sidewalks...

No Federal Class Action Lawsuit Orders Fort Worth To Build Sidewalks?

This morning I read an article in the Seattle Times which caused me to be freshly perplexed by something I was long perplexed about during my period of voluntary incarceration in one of America's underdeveloped cities, Fort Worth Texas.

The thing I was long perplexed by in Fort Worth was the fact that the town has so few sidewalks, with so many streets having no room for pedestrians, with many streets  having dirt paths worn into the weeds where a sidewalk should be.

And then I read this article in the Seattle Times about Seattle agreeing to fix or install 22,500 sidewalk curb ramps, at a cost of around $300 million.

Seattle agreed to settle a federal class action lawsuit brought against the city by three men with disabilities who alleged the city was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act because many of the town's sidewalks lacked curb ramps which make street crossings easily doable for those using a wheelchair or other mobility device.

Countless times in Fort Worth I witnessed some hapless soul struggling to walk along a Fort Worth sidewalk-less street. Moms pushing a baby carriage. An old lady wheeling a walker. A disabled elderly man bumping along a dirt path trying to control his electric scooter.

Is Fort Worth exempt from federal class action lawsuits? I suspect such must be the case, what with there being so many things one would think would warrant federal attention. Such as the repeated, outrageous abuse of eminent domain in Fort Worth.

Surely an imaginative lawyer could do something to get some sort of lawsuit suing the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision for its wanton misuse of public funds.

Is there some sort of federal statute regarding nepotism in any sort of government entity? One would think it would be illegal to hire a congresswoman's inexperienced unqualified son to oversee a public works so as to motivate his mother to try and secure federal funding for a dubious public works project for which the public has never been allowed to vote.

If a federal court ordered Fort Worth to build sidewalks, with ramps, to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act how would Fort Worth pay for it?

Hire another of Kay Granger's children to oversee the Fort  Worth Signature Sidewalk Initiative?

If history is any indicator, that likely would not go well. There would be a big celebration to celebrate the start of construction of the first sidewalk. Followed by a year or two of no one seeing any new sidewalks built, with the public learning, eventually, there was a serious problem with the sidewalk's design, hence the long stall on the sidewalk building....

Why Is No Move Fort Worth Building 50 Blocks Of New Sidewalks?

This blogging falls into the category of news I read in west coast online news sources, usually the Seattle Times, about news I would not expect to be reading in a Texas newspaper about a similar subject in Texas, or in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about something to do with Fort Worth.

Today we have a double dose of such items.

The first is a headline on the front page of the Seattle Times, online. An article about a recipe adding marijuana to a homemade chocolate-nut spread.

A couple days ago I read an article about a trio of Texans who were refusing to be Medical Tourists, forced to travel to California, Oregon, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Canada or other civilized areas of the world and America to legally acquire marijuana to treat their medical woe.

If I remember right this trio of Texans were veterans, you know, veterans of military service, wounded defending our supposed freedoms, one of which, for a large part of America, including Texas, is not the freedom to choose to treat an ailment with the well known effective treatment of cannabis, because, you know, unlike being in a war, marijuana is dangerous and needs the government to protect you from its danger.

Over the years I have multiple times verbalized my disgust at Fort Worth's backwardness regarding sidewalks.

(That and Fort Worth's multiple city parks without modern facilities such as running water and restrooms, with, instead, way too many outhouses)

Time and time again, in Fort Worth, I was appalled to see a young mom pushing a baby carriage on a dirt path worn into the side of a busy road.

Or an elderly person wobbling on a cane.

Such third world backwardness would not be tolerated in most towns in America, and much of the rest of the world.

So, this week Seattle's mayor and other city leaders announced a $22 million plan to build 50 blocks of new sidewalks this year.

Funds for this sidewalk upgrade come from the $930 million Move Seattle levy voters voted for in 2015.

Imagine that. A town's voters allowed to vote on something which improves their city. Quite the contrast with a town like Fort Worth, where voters have not been allowed to vote on a public works project with a price tag about the same as Seattle's Move On project.

Fort Worth's public works  project, which the public has never voted for, is known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District, or, more commonly, America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Apparently Seattle is going to upgrade 50 blocks of sidewalks this year.

Fort Worth's Boondoggle has been boondoggling along for most of this century with little constructive to show for the effort, but currently showing a large area of ghost town-like wasteland where a bridge was once being built, with the entire fiasco symbolized by a bizarre traffic roundabout in the ghost town zone with a giant aluminum homage to a trash can at its center...

Fort Worth Sidewalk Inertia Not Found In Wichita Falls

What you are looking at here is something I never saw during the entire time I found myself stuck in the third world city which calls itself Fort Worth.

A sidewalk under construction.

For years I lamented Fort Worth's bizarre sidewalk shortage. I lost track of the number of times I found myself appalled at seeing some young mom struggling to push a baby carriage on a dirt path on the side of a Fort Worth road.

Or some old lady ambling along leaning on a cane as she navigated Fort Worth's mean sidewalk-less streets.

The Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network which runs Fort Worth would not have to travel far to find towns which have figured out how to build sidewalks. Just about any Fort Worth suburb is a modern American city, with sidewalks and city parks with no outhouses.

At my current location in the Texas town which calls itself Wichita Falls, the town knows how to build sidewalks. I can leave my abode and head any direction able to walk on a paved sidewalk.

On both sides of the street.

The sidewalk under construction, which you see above, will connect the Circle  Trail to the sidewalk at the north side of Southwest Boulevard. There was not a foot worn dirt path at this location indicating the need for a sidewalk, but it is easy to see that adding such is a good idea at this location.

If Fort Worth wanted to add sidewalks to its forlorn sidewalk free streets there would be no need to fund a study group to determine where sidewalks are needed. All one would need to do is map all the town's forlorn footworn dirt paths, clearly indicating where a modern paved sidewalk is needed.

Fort Worth's Mayor Wants To Become Betsy Blue Rollerblading Sidewalks While Eating Less Beef

I saw that which you see here and thought "HUH".

The "HUH" was due to thinking "Blue Zone" was referring to Democrat, as in turn Fort Worth from a Red Republican dominated town to a progressive, liberal, forward thinking Blue Democrat dominated town.

The "HUH" was also due to seeing right-wing Republican Betsy Price hoping to turn Fort Worth Blue.

Turn Cow Town into Long-Living 'Blue Zone' is an article on the NBC News website. It was via a blog comment from Steve A that I learned Betsy Price wants to become Betsy Blue....

Steve A has left a new comment on your post "Pondering Thirteen Months To Build The Empire State Building Over Dry Land & Fort Worth's Bridge Boondoggle": 

Meanwhile, Betsy Price is looking to be around a LONG time so she can see the boondoggle's final completion - http://www.nbcnews.com/health/aging/texas-mayor-hopes-turn-cow-town-long-living-blue-zone-n337416 - or cancellation... 

From the NBC article some interesting Betsy Blue quotes....

Regarding a poll which ranked Fort Worth's well-being as 61st out of 189 cities Betsy said, "I believe we can substantially raise those numbers. I really do believe we can. And I think long term, 20 years out, we'll be way up in the top 50 percent or more."

Uh, at the 61st ranking, out of 189, isn't Fort Worth already in the top 50 percent?

Betsy has a history of saying things without putting a lot of thought into what she is saying. Like at the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's TNT ceremony to explosively mark the supposed start of construction of three little bridges being built over dry land Betsy is heard, on video, uttering something like "Building over dry land is a brilliant engineering plan that will save a lot of money, with the bridges only taking four years to build, instead of the eight years it might take over water."

I may have taken a bit of poetic license with that Betsy Blue quote.

All the TRWD/TRV Boondoggle apologists making it sound like a purposeful good thing to be building those little bridges over dry land highly annoy me. There will be no water in the ditch that is supposed to go under the bridges until the Trinity River is diverted into the ditch. Any normal, properly funded public works project would be digging the ditch at the same time the bridges are being built.

Regarding Fort Worth having too many fat kids, Betsy said "Kids spend far too much time in front of screens. They eat fast food. Their diabetes rate is incredible. Estimates are this is the first generation that will live shorter. And that's really worried me as a mother, a grandmother, and as a community leader."

Live shorter? Not grow as tall?

Betsy had some useful diet advice, saying "If you're used to eating beef six days a week, maybe you eat it four days a week. Or maybe you eat four ounces instead of eight ounces. Maybe mostly you just think about what you're doing."

Yikes! Beef six days a week, cut back to four? I think it's been a couple months since I've had any beef. No wonder I"m so skinny.

The article also says part of Betsy Blue's plan to enhance Fort Worth's well-being is to add sidewalks throughout the city. There is no Betsy quote on the sidewalk subject.

Fort Worth's lack of sidewalks has been an issue with me for years. How does it happen that a big city develops with so few sidewalks? The little town I moved to Texas from, Mount Vernon, Washington, has sidewalks on pretty much every street in town. Plus paved trails that are not beside streets which can take you all over town. In Tacoma, where I spent a miserable month the summer of 2008, everywhere I walked had sidewalks on both sides of the street, usually with a grass median between the street and the sidewalk.

How does a town grow into being a big city, like Fort Worth, without adding sidewalks to all its streets?

While Betsy Blue did not directly address the lack of sidewalks issue she did get quoted making reference to something one can use to roll oneself around on sidewalks in a modern American town, saying "Let's have more life in our years. Let's be able to enjoy our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. Be able to pick them up and to dance with them—or go rollerblading if you want to."

Rollerblading if you want to? On the few narrow sidewalks in my neighborhood it would be very problematic to rollerblade on them.

That's another thing. Why are Fort Worth's few sidewalks so narrow? Shouldn't they be at least as wide as the girth of an average Fort Worther? Two average sized Fort Worthers can not pass each other on a Fort Worth sidewalk without one of those passing having to step off the sidewalk to allow the other to pass.

How many miles of sidewalks could Fort Worth install for the amount of money being slowly squandered on The Boondoggle?

Dodging Mesquite Thorns Whilst Walking The Mean Fort Worth Streets Of The Most Livable City In America

With the temperature continuing to be unseasonably chilly, as in in the 70s, I decided to continue with my drastic alteration of my regular predictable pattern and once again go on a walk in my neighborhood, rather than drive to one of my regular hiking or biking destinations.

It has been awhile since I walked west on Boca Raton Boulevard, so I did so today, taking a right on to Canyon Drive, then west up a steep side street to walk south under my neighborhood power line greenbelt to Bridge Street, then back to my abode via Bridgewood Drive.

I was not long on Boca Raton Boulevard before I was appalled by that which you see above. A thorny mesquite bush, at least that is what I think it is, blocking the sidewalk. There are very few sidewalks in my neighborhood. This particular sidewalk leads to Albertsons, multiple fast food joints, like Wendy's, KFC, Church's Chicken, Dan's Seafood, Subway, Grandy's and others I am likely forgetting, in addition to regular restaurants, like Italy Pizza & Pasta, Luby's, and regular businesses, like Home Depot, Firestone, Discount Tires, Family Dollar, Dollar General, the aforementioned Albertsons and others I, again, am likely forgetting.

And yet one of the few sidewalks that lead to these places is blocked by vegetation. And it was not just this one instance of blockage, as you can see below, a couple hundred feet from the first obstruction.

I know for you reading this in other parts of America, it is hard to believe that this type poor sidewalk maintenance exists in what locals, who have not seen much of the rest of the world, believe to be the most livable city in America. Or that which they believe to be the most livable city in America has so many roads with no sidewalks, with the sidewalks that do exist being so narrow that a couple plus-sized Texans could not pass without one needing to step out onto the street.

Heading north on Bridgewood Drive, just past the aforementioned Firestone and Family Dollar, I came upon the example of the dangers of no sidewalk, combined with another out of control bush, which you see below.

Note the dirt path worn into the ground where a sidewalk should be. Many a time I have seen people struggling to walk on this wobbly path. Or a mom struggling to push her babies in a stroller. You can not tell it from the photo, but this road slopes downhill at this location. With the dirt path so close to the road it is a bit startling when a bus and car pass by at the same time. I was startled by just that, soon after I made my way past the above obstruction.

Among the many reasons I am appalled by the Trinity River Vision, beside the fact that it is a myopic Boondoggle, is the fact that that Boondoggly vision is so narrow in focus. When Fort Worth has so many areas which could use a bit of vision, wasting limited resources building un-needed bridges over an imaginary bypass channel is just bizarre, when Fort Worth needs much more than a Trinity River Vision, because it really needs a Fort Worth Vision, with that vision seeing a city with sidewalks, with parks in areas currently underserved  by parks, such as East Fort Worth.

Many a time I have mentioned that those who have visited me from the Pacific Northwest have liked the Fort Worth Stockyards the best of the area's tourist attractions. What I don't think I have ever mentioned is I take people on a tour of the darkside of Fort Worth. Driving east from downtown Fort Worth on Lancaster, Rosedale and other streets is a sure jawdropper to those who have never visited a third world country. Same with much of the area on the Northside, as in surrounding the Stockyards zone.

Where is the vision to vitalize the rundown, slum-like parts of Fort Worth? Why is this not even much of an issue? I know other towns in America also have rundown, slum-like areas. I also know some towns in America do not have such areas. Why is that?

I walk the streets of Fort Worth on a day like today and these are the type things I wonder about....

Thorns On The Sidewalks Of Fort Worth

Continuing on with my popular Fort Worth's Sad Sidewalk Situation Series.

This morning I went hiking, again, in the new, to me, Canyon Creek zone. To get to the Canyon Creek zone I walk on something somewhat rare in my neighborhood.

A sidewalk.

This particular sidewalk is on the north side of Boca Raton Boulevard. The south side of Boca Raton Boulevard has no sidewalk at this location.

I only walked a short distance on Boca Raton Boulevard, before getting to the Canyon Creek zone. And yet in that short distance I came upon two instances of what you see in the pictures.

Vegetation with rather prickly looking thorns sticking out over the sidewalk.

This seems a bit hazardous to me. Particular at night with no street light in sight.

Or to someone wheeling along in a wheelchair.

I have seen people wheeling along in a wheelchair on Boca Raton a time or two.

Seeing something like a thorn obstructing a sidewalk is something one might expect to see in a town few have ever heard of, like Dallas or Seattle or Denver.

But seeing something like a thorn obstructing a sidewalk in Fort Worth?

A town known all over the planet as one of the Greatest Cities in the World?

That really is just unacceptable.

And very perplexing...

Atmos Energy Warning Buried Gas Line Signs Have Sprouted In My Neighborhood

In the picture you are looking at an ATMOS Energy WARNING BURIED GAS LINE sign, stuck in the ground. Dozens of these yellow warning signs are stuck in the ground at this location.

The warning signs do not look very permanent. I'm hoping the buried gas line lasts longer than the yellow warning signs.

I saw these yellow warnings signs when I walked around my block this morning. My block is one of the few blocks in my neighborhood that has a sidewalk all the way around it.

These ATMOS yellow warning signs are stuck in the ground along the sidewalk that is due south of my newest Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling & Fracking Site, on Boca Raton Boulevard.

Some of the markings that you see on the sidewalk also have references to gas lines. One was a line that pointed across the street to the Albertson's parking lot, making me wonder how a buried gas line was going in that direction and why?

I know sidewalks are a really low priority in Fort Worth, but still, why does someone get to paint them in this manner?

I remember watching a video a few months ago where Santa Claus was arrested down in Austin for instigating kid's making chalk drawings on sidewalks.

I am almost 100% certain no one was arrested for making what look to be more permanent than chalk markings on this particular Fort Worth sidewalk.

Walking A Dirt Path Sidewalk To Get To The Airport In One Of The World's Greatest Cities

Continuing on with my popular Fort Worth's Sad Sidewalk Situation Series.

Today I took another walking tour of my neighborhood.

In the picture you are looking north, standing on the east side of Bridgewood Drive.

If I wanted to take public mass transit to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, without using any personal vehicular transport, it would be on this well worn dirt path I would need to walk to get to the Richland Hills Trinity Railway Express (TRE) Station to get on a train to get to the Centrepoint Station where I would need to get off the TRE train to get on a bus to get to the airport to get on a plane.

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is a very modern, well-designed operation.

Transportation systems to get to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport are not very modern or well-designed.

If I were flying from D/FW International Airport to Sea-Tac International Airport, needing to get to a location in North Seattle, 25 miles north of the airport, I would get on a Sound Transit Link Light Rail train right at the airport, ride the rail to the downtown Seattle transit tunnel where I'd switch to a bus that would take me to within a block of my destination.

Returning to D/FW from my North Seattle location, it's a one-block walk on a sidewalk to a bus stop, then a bus ride to the downtown Seattle transit tunnel, then back on the Sound Transit Link Light Rail train to Sea-Tac.

Then, back in Texas, it is off the plane, a wait for a bus to take me to the Centrepoint Station to wait for a TRE train to take me to the Richland Hills Station where a very tired me walks the well worn dirt path back to my abode.

It is a real amazing miracle to me that Fort Worth is known, far and wide, as one of the Greatest Cities in the World...

People Get Run Over & Die Because Of The Lack Of Sidewalks In Fort Worth

Continuing on with my popular series of bloggings devoted to Fort Worth's sad sidewalk situation.

Yesterday my most recent blogging about Fort Worth's sad sidewalk situation got an interesting comment from Dannyboy...

Dannyboy has left a new comment on your post "A Sidewalk Free Fort Worth Walk With Poor People":

The FW Weekly raised the sidewalk issue in 2007, pointing out that people get run over and die because of the lack of sidewalks in FW.

Dannyboy's comment included a link to the article Here, the Sidewalks End, in FW Weekly about the sidewalk issue.

The Here, the Sidewalks End article was written by Dan McGraw.

Dannyboy?

I have seen dangerous walking situations on Fort Worth streets, but til I read this article in FW Weekly I did not realize that people have been killed in Fort Worth due to the sidewalk shortage.

Reading the article I was a bit appalled to learn that Fort Worth city officials, including then mayor Mike Moncrief, have long known Fort Worth has a sidewalk shortage.

Six years ago this was a known problem.

And yet, schools are still being built in Fort Worth with no sidewalks for kids to walk to school on, like the new John T. White Elementary on John T. White Road in my neighborhood.

But, kids can walk well worn dirt paths to get to John T. White Elementary.

How quaint.

A Sidewalk Free Fort Worth Walk With Poor People

Continuing with my very popular Sidewalks of Fort Worth series.

In the picture you are looking north at the well worn dirt path worn at the side of Bridgewood Drive in East Fort Worth.

There is no buffer between the well worn dirt path and Bridgewood Drive, so it is ever so slightly scary when a vehicle speeds by.

I have seen a mom with two kids in a stroller struggling to walk in this sidewalk-less location.

A couple weeks ago I blogged about my perplexation regarding the lack of a comprehensive public mass transit system in Tarrant County and the other counties that make up the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in a blogging titled The Befuddling Mystery Of Tarrant County & Texas Public Transit.

Someone named Dannyboy commented on the befuddling mystery of Tarrant County & Texas public transit,  with part of that comment informing me that, "It is a fact of life in North Texas. Mass transit is considered something that poor people use, and consequently, the funding and improvement of such transportation plans are not seen as important in any way."

Today, when I walked on the dirt path alongside Bridgewood Drive it occurred to me that Fort Worth's sidewalk shortage may stem from the same attitude that causes mass transit in parts of Texas to be a bit behind the modern world as lived in other parts of America and the world.

So, is that the reason for the Fort Worth sidewalk shortage? That being that in Fort Worth sidewalks are considered something that only poor people use?

That only poor people have the need to walk?

Another Look At Fort Worth's Sad Sidewalk Situation

Continuing on with my popular Fort Worth Sad Sidewalk Situation Series, today I took another walk around my neighborhood.

In the photo we are looking at some Fort Worth pedestrians walking along the west frontage road on I-820.

The couple on the right are both pushing strollers, with one kid in each stroller. The male of the pair is pushing the lead stroller, which in addition to kids is also packed with what looked like bags of groceries.

The guy on the left is opting to use the well worn dirt "sidewalk" rather than the street "sidewalk", likely because he is not pushing anything.

I don't know why it took me so long to realize I could go walking in my neighborhood, as on option, rather than driving to a park.  Maybe I subconsciously thought that walking the mean sidewalk challenged streets of Fort Worth seemed a bit dangerous.

The last time I mentioned the Fort Worth sidewalk shortage I also mentioned the seemingly odd location of utility poles at the side of John T. White Road.

Today, walking south on Bridgewood Drive, on a very narrow sidewalk, I thought it odd that utility poles shared space with the sidewalk.

This particular stretch of Fort Worth sidewalk only extends a short distance on Bridgewood Drive, terminating when it gets to Boca Raton Boulevard.

When I lived in Washington, in the relatively small town of Mount Vernon, the roads in my neighborhood all had sidewalks on both sides of the streets.

Whilst living in Mount Vernon, just like I do in Fort Worth, I would often drive to go hiking. The only close by hiking was about 2 miles east, to Big Rock, this Gibraltar like monolith that was quite a steep hike, with a very scenic payoff at the top.

All my other Washington hikes were a much further distance than I drive in Fort Worth to go hiking, whether it was just 25 miles to Anacortes to hike around Washington Park, or 30 miles to Deception Pass State Park to hike up Goose Rock. Or a much longer drive east, to hike up one of the Cascade mountains.

Unlike my current location, my old home zone was very hilly, as in very steep hills. I could get a good workout just walking down to my mailbox and back up to my abode. Eaglemont Golf Course was at the end of a steep road. It was on the Eaglemont Golf Course paved golf cart trail that I got myself in shape for my first mountain biking trip to Moab.

I think it is the buried memories of walking sidewalks in Mount Vernon, that causes me to feel irked when I make note of Fort Worth's really sad sidewalk situation.

Damp Driving Texas Roads With No Sidewalks & Dangerous Telephone Poles

It is a bit damp at my location on the planet on this 2013 State of the Union Speech Day.

With me in no mood to put on my galoshes and walk under a bumbershoot, I opted to get in my daily salubrious endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation, today, by walking in Walmart.

My usual route to my neighborhood Walmart is via John T. White Road. Which might have you guessing correctly that that is John T. White Road in the photo, looking a bit damp.

As you can see, John T. White Road is a four lane boulevard, with a grass covered median.

And no sidewalks.

I think I've mentioned my opinion regarding Fort Worth's sidewalk shortage previously.

What I had not noticed, previously, til I looked at the photos I took today whilst driving, in all the years I've driven on John T. White Road, is how absurdly close utility poles are to this road, stuck in the ground where one might expect a sidewalk to be. Is this normal operating procedure to stick poles this close to a road? Seems sort of dangerous to me.

On the right side of the road, in the second photo, you can see a pedestrian walking on the well worn dirt path where most towns would have a paved sidewalk.

I remember during my month, that seemed like a year, in Tacoma, summer of 2008, I walked a lot of miles. I don't recollect walking any street in Tacoma that did not have a sidewalk, on both sides of the street, with most of the sidewalks being of the sort I've not seen in Fort Worth, as in about twice as wide as a Fort Worth sidewalk, with a landscaped strip between the sidewalk and the road.

I've not gone sidewalk inspecting in other Texas towns to see if this is a chronic Texas shortage, or just isolated to Fort Worth. I suspect this particular type shortage may be widespread in Texas.

Other than Fort Worth, the Texas towns I am most frequently in are North Richland Hills, Hurst, Pantego, Arlington and Bedford. I'll check those town's sidewalk situation the next time I am in those locations.

Walking To Fort Worth's East Regional Library With Ross Perot Wondering What Is Wrong With Us

I noticed this morning that I had a some library books due. When one has library books due one must return them by the due date or the day after the due date one is assessed an enormous fine. Something like a dime. Maybe a quarter.

I really don't know what the fine is because I've never been late returning a book.

I decided to be really adventurous and walk to the East Regional Library to return the books. This particular Fort Worth library is closed on Fridays.

Closing libraries and cutting hours is one of those things Fort Worth does that makes me wonder how it is that Fort Worth is such a World Class City that is the envy of much of the civilized world.

Walking to the library I came upon yet one more thing that makes me wonder how it is that Fort Worth is such a World Class City that is the envy of much of the civilized world.

That one more thing is the obstructions blocking the narrow sidewalk that one walks to get the East Regional Library. I put my books down on the sidewalk, then backed up to take a picture. After I made it past the obstruction I found another sidewalk obstruction, so I laid my books down, again, and took another picture.

As you can see, above, the second sidewalk obstruction is a combo, with one obstruction being Mother Nature made and the other obstruction man made, that being a "ROAD WORK AHEAD" sign plopped on the sidewalk. To get around that sign one has to either step out on to busy Bridge Street, or slide oneself between the sign and the guard rail.

I'm skinny so I was able to take the slide by option. I would guess at least 50% of Texans would not have this option available to them, with the dangerous stepping out on the busy street option being their only way around the sign.

I think I have commented regarding Fort Worth's pathetic sidewalks in previous bloggings. It is truly amazing to me how many Fort Worth streets have no sidewalks. The shortest walking route to the library would have had me walking a sidewalk-less hill up Bridge Street. To avoid the sidewalk-less section of Bridge Street I detoured through the Albertson's parking lot.

I really think Fort Worth should address its sad sidewalk situation before it wastes money on unneeded projects, like building an unneeded flood diversion channel and little lake, replacing perfectly functioning levees that have kept the downtown Fort Worth zone flood free for over a half a century.

Years ago, back in the 1980s, Ross Perot sparked some controversy criticizing what he thought was a failing of the United States and its cities, claiming that America "had grown arrogant and complacent after World War II." And due to this arrogance and complacency America was no longer the world's greatest nation, further asserting that America was "daydreaming of its past while the rest of the world was building its future."

Perot said, "Go to Rome, go to Paris, go to London. Those cities are centuries old. They're thriving. They're clean. They work. Our oldest cities are brand new compared to them and yet… go to New York, drive through downtown Washington, go to Detroit, go to Philadelphia. What's wrong with us?"

I doubt Ross Perot has ever been to Fort Worth. He lives in Dallas. But, if he visited Fort Worth, I'm sure he would add Fort Worth to his list of American cities that make him wonder what is wrong with this town?

The 3rd Tuesday Of April Thinking Fort Worth Must Focus On Basics Like Sidewalks

I won't be going swimming on this morning of the 17th day of April.

The reason I am not going swimming this morning has nothing to do with the fact that it is a chilly 50 degrees in the outer world at my location.

The reason I am not going swimming is because the pool is not usable because late Monday afternoon the water got its first shock treatment of 2012.

Due to using the pool not being cool and the fact that I've been overdoing the exercise thing I'm taking a day off of straining my aging self.

Changing the subject from my decrepitude to Fort Worth's decrepitude.

This morning on the front page of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram I read a paragraph of the sort I have not often read in this newspaper, what with its tendency towards propaganda and self-aggrandizing blowhardedness.

The paragraph I am talking about was in an editorial about Fort Worth's budget deficit titled "Budget shortfall means Fort Worth must focus on basics"....

We still have areas in Fort Worth where even the essentials are lacking. A good quality of life in these neighborhoods would mean curbs, sidewalks and access to a grocery store that doesn't take two bus transfers and three hours to reach.

I thought I was the only person in this town, which frequently makes other towns Green with Envy, due to the wonders that one beholds here, who has noticed the many streets without sidewalks and the narrowness of many of the sidewalks that do exist.

I can't help but wonder why Fort Worth does not send out some sort of task force to some other towns in this world which have managed to figure out how to have sidewalks along side their streets to learn how this wonder of the modern world might be imported to Fort Worth.

Methinks that it'd take just a fraction of the almost billion dollars currently slated to be wasted on the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, to install sidewalks beside Fort Worth's many sidewalk-less streets.

Read All About It In The Fort Worth Star-Telegram How Parents At Fort Worth Stock Show Use Many Ways To Transport Children

Last night I blogged about how appalled I am regarding the embarrassingly bad state of Fort Worth sidewalks, with this sad sidewalk situation not being worthy of a World Class City that makes the rest of the World Green With Envy.

Fort Worth does not have what most city's in America have, that being a major newspaper of record that acts as the community's watchdog.

What Fort Worth has is this pseudo newspaper that calls itself the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, but should more accurately be called the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce Pravda-Like Star-Telegram.

This morning Elsie Hotpepper sent me a link to an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about parents pushing their kids, in strollers, around the Fort Worth Stock Show.

For those of you not in Fort Worth, who don't know what the Fort Worth Stock Show is, it is basically a county fair held in the middle of winter.

My blogging about Fort Worth's sidewalks, yesterday, was prompted due to having seen a mom struggling to push a stroller up a Fort Worth hill, alongside a road with no sidewalks.

You will read not a word in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the sad state of Fort Worth's sidewalks, but you can read the following article from this morning's Star-Telegram, which is clearly illustrative of how ridiculous this sad excuse for a newspaper is....

Parents at Fort Worth Stock Show use many ways to transport children

Look around the Stock Show, and you are likely to see a stroller. Or a hundred.

For most parents, the stroller reigns supreme as the best way to move kiddos.

Val McCorkle wondered Saturday whether she could squeeze her family's double stroller between a stall and a man shearing a sheep. Her children, 3 and 18 months, seemed oblivious. "We take this pretty much everywhere," McCorkle said while holding the hand of her third child, 4. "The walking would be too much for the kids."

Other parents appear to have ditched strollers for wagons, leashes, slings and carriers. Amber Topley carried her 7-month-old daughter in a moss green Moby wrap.

"With a stroller, you have to be so careful maneuvering," Topley said. "With the sling, she's attached to me. It's much easier."

Topley's other two children, 3 and 5, rested on a bench, tired from using the most old-fashioned means of movement: their legs.

-- Sarah Bahari

Seeing A Struggling Mom Has Made Me Cranky About Fort Worth's Sidewalks To Nowhere & Its Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

About an hour ago I took a walk to take a picture of a sidewalk. Well, more accurately, I took a walk to take a picture of the lack of a sidewalk.

Last night, when I as returning from my aborted attempt to play bingo at Paradise Center Camp Bowie Bingo, at about 7:30, well after dark, I was driving north on Bridgewood Drive, almost back to my abode, when I saw young mom pushing a stroller, with two kids in the stroller, up the hill you see in the picture.

In the past couple months a lot of roadwork has been done to Bridgewood Drive, for no reason apparent to my eyes. That roadwork did not include installing sidewalks along the un-sidewalked sections of Bridgewood Drive.

But, that roadwork did totally rough up the well worn pedestrian dirt paths on both sides of the road, making the paths bumpy.

That mom I saw last night was struggling hard, I assume trying to push her kids to the Krogers at the top of the hill, to get groceries.

In addition to the rough path, the street was poorly lit, very dark. I assume a street light, or two, may be out. Would not be the first time.

Why is there not some sort of mandate, a law of some sort, making it required, for safety's sake, to have sidewalks alongside roads in heavily populated areas?

Every other city, with which I am familiar, besides Fort Worth, installs sidewalks along their roads, I assume due to common sense being in sufficient supply in those towns. Maybe the Fort Worth Oligarchy could send out a task force to others towns, towns that have figured out how to install sidewalks alongside their streets, and discover how this is done.

I know I have gotten on the Sidewalk Bandwagon before. This is because this really bugs me.

Another aspect of Fort Worth's sidewalks, that being the sidwalks that do exist, that bugs me, is they are, for the most part, so narrow.

On most sidewalks in Fort Worth, two super-sized Texans, coming towards each other, could not pass with out one or the other, or both, stepping off the narrow sidewalk.

How can a city be so blind that it can have a vision wasting millions of dollars to build a river diversion channel that is not needed, a little lake that will cause giggles, non-signature bridges to nowhere and whatever else it is that is currently being seen by the myopic Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, when its city sidewalks, or lack of, are something one might expect to see in a town in a Third World country?

How many Fort Worth natives have taken a look at the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's first completed project? That being the world's premiere wakeboard lake called Cowtown Wakepark? If that operation is the quality level that the Trinity River Vision sees as acceptable, well, the portent is not good.

Cowtown Wakepark looks tacky. Everything about it looks tacky and cheap. And what happens to Cowtown Wakepark the next time the Trinity River goes into flood mode? Wipeout?

Back to the lack of sidewalks. How can any self-respecting town, particularly one prone to ridiculous delusions of grandeur of the sort Fort Worth is prone to, maintain those ridiculous delusions when the town is so lacking in something as basic as sidewalks, that a mother of two has to push her kid's stroller on a bumpy dirt path to get to a grocery store?

Where this mom was pushing that stroller is not an area with few people. It is a densely populated area of Fort Worth.

Where is the vision for the rest of Fort Worth? The part not seen by the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

Ten Days Til Christmas With Me Concerned About Robotrons & Fort Worth's Bad Sad Sidewalks

I escaped to the other side of the bars of my patio prison cell, this morning, to take a picture of the very very dark pre-dawn morning of the Ides of December, already the 15th day of the last month of 2011.

Only 10 days until Christmas.

That is not many shopping days left for the sheep-like robotrons who feel compelled to play along with the annual Christmas present buying economic boost.

I've always thought Scrooge had it right and Charles Dickens thoroughly maligned him. And Tiny Tim was a bit of a whiner.

Speaking of whiners. Some guy in a wheelchair has the gall to think that Fort Worth is being grossly unfair in how it treats the disabled via its patchwork of messed up sidewalks.

Apparently Fort Worth's next door neighbor, Arlington, is in the midst of a 6 year long lawsuit that claims Arlington is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, due to Arlington's inadequate sidewalk access.

I have walked in both Arlington and Fort Worth. If Arlington is getting sued for bad sidewalks, well, methinks Fort Worth's are much much worse.

If I had to rely on a wheelchair for mobility I could not make it to my neighborhood Krogers via sidewalks. That has long seemed extremely wrong to me, what with my location being in a rather densely populated area.

With a lot of people walking.

So many people walking that dirt paths have been worn in the ground that leads to Krogers.

How is it that the city that is the Envy of the Nation and causes towns, big and small, to be Green With Envy, can have such a sad patchwork of bad sidewalks?

The last time I was in the relatively small town of Tacoma, population less than a third of Fort Worth's, I walked many a mile. I do not recollect walking anywhere in Tacoma that did not have a wide sidewalk on both sides of the street, with a wide median separating the sidewalk from the street in the residential zones.

I don't think anyone in Tacoma has ever suggested that Tacoma is the Envy of the Nation or makes any other town Green With Envy.

Of the Fort Worth sidewalks that do exist, most are ridiculously narrow. There is no way two wheelchairs could meet each other without one having to move off the sidewalk. Most Fort Worth sidewalks are not wide enough for two wide Fort Worth natives to walk side by side.

Enough of the sad subject of Fort Worth's badly lacking sidewalk situation and on to my favorite subject.

The weather.

I am not running my furnace this morning. The temperature in the outer world got well into the 70s yesterday. It is currently 55 degrees in the outer world at my location about a half hour before the sun arrives to begin its daily heating duties.

Even though I said, yesterday, that my new swimming protocol was 5 days in a row of averaging 60 degrees or above, over a 24 hour time period, I am going to give the pool another try this morning. Even if it does not work out that I can stay in the pool, I find the bracing attempt to be invigorating.

I like being invigorated.

My Chesapeake Energy Neighborhood Tower Has Vanished For No Fracking Reason That I Know of

Chesapeake Flatbeds Clogging Boca Raton Boulevard

When I left my abode this morning I was surprised to see a lot of trucks pulling flatbed trailers, lined up along Boca Raton Boulevard, waiting to do something at my neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Site.

When I returned, a couple hours later, I was surprised, when I drove up Bridgewood Street, to see that the Chesapeake drilling tower no longer towered over my neighborhood.

What is going on, I thought to myself?

Unlike my previous experience with a Chesapeake Energy drilling operation, this one has been quiet and has not generated a lot of dust. I've heard no squealing noises from drills doing their drilling.

I'd assumed the actual drilling had not yet started, even though I saw mechanical movement on the tower.

I wish I'd walked to the Loop 820 Frontage Road, open view, to take pictures of the HUMONGOUS operation when all the equipment and the tower were in place. Because it is all gone now. As you will see in the following two photos I took a few minutes ago.

In the picture above I am standing with Loop 820 behind me, on a rare Fort Worth sidewalk, looking west at the now almost empty Chesapeake Energy drilling site. Yesterday you would have seen an enormous structure where you now see empty space.

If the earth did get poked by Chesapeake Energy in this location, above, I believe we are looking at the point of earth entry. I've no idea what the blackish, oily looking fluid might be. I suspect petroleum related.

If Chesapeake Energy has finished poking its hole in this location, and I've no clue whether or not that has happened, I do know for certain that no fracking has taken place. No water trucks or water pipelines have been seen.

All the flatbed trailers created traffic problems, blocking lanes and forcing drivers, like me, to drive on the incoming lane to get past the flatbeds. A couple hard hats with "Slow" and "Stop" signs helped with the traffic flow. And a big street sweeper swept up some of the dirt. I probably would have not noticed that, if it weren't for the sign informing me to beware of the street being swept.

Another interesting thing. A few weeks ago I was appalled to see that the chain link fence that Chesapeake Energy had installed along its border with Boca Raton, had fallen over onto the sidewalk. This remained unfixed ever since. Until today. The chainlink fence is back up and sidewalk access to one of Fort Worth's few sidewalks has been restored.

I don't know why, but I've got a feeling there is something going on in my neighborhood that is not quite meeting my eye. I think I just mangled a cliche.