The Fort Worth Way was already on my mind due to a variety of reasons two of which were also comments, but from last month, which I noticed, again, yesterday,
We'll get to those comments, but first the Kat comment...
Kat has left a new comment on your post "Dickies Arena Defines What Fort Worth Is":
"The Fort Worth Way." First heard this term from former Mayor Mike Moncrief in council meetings. The tradition continues. Parking lots for the desired arena were underway before the public voted. Asked before the vote if there was a traffic plan for an already overloaded area...."No" said the ruling class. Neighborhood residents knew The Fort Worth Way had its plan in the works and the vote was irrelevant.
Yes, the little town of Fort Worth is run by a ruling class which controls most of what happens in, or to, the town. Control of the town, in this manner, by a ruling class of those who are known as the Good Ol' Boys and Girls Network, or the 7th Street Gang, is what is meant by the Fort Worth Way.
I Googled for a suitable "Fort Worth Way" image to illustrate this blogging to no suitable avail. Too many of my own images came up. And then there was what you see above, a map showing the Fort Worth Way running parallel to an American River, not the Trinity River. This particular Fort Worth Way then is not in Fort Worth, but is in Sacremento, which is not a town in Texas.
And now those two other comments which brought the Fort Worth Way to mind. The comments are from Matthew Clemons and Melodious Skywalker. I do not remember to which blog post these comments were made, but it was either Stormy Look At Zero Panther Island Bridge Motion Progress or Fort Worth Star-Telegram Opines Boondoggle's Stalled Bridges Can't Be A Good Thing.
Matthew Clemons said...
Sometimes I think this whole fiasco is really hilarious. How a relatively late modern city can have something this ridiculous going on is phenomenal. But, then I remember what a blight these idiots have put on the city. The area they have ruined was nothing special. But, it was an honest area of urban industrial Fort Worth. There were real businesses with real people working and using that area. These morons just came in there with their "visions" and destroyed that piece of our heritage. What a sham.
While...
Melodious Skywalker said...
That area was special enough to me. Owning property there was a decision made to have a productive place to work, in a central city location, with a view toward the future. How could the decision to work hard to buy property adjacent to a growing and thriving downtown area, become a bad idea. This was an investment in the future. This was a solid calculation that free enterprise might one day, need this area to continue what was started downtown and along west 7th street. Nearly a decade of anxiety and 3 1/2 years of constant stress and concern over trying to eventually get a more fair compensation for the property, after it was taken, building demolished, giving the projects representatives no real incentive to offer a better payment, finally came to an end. However, no real victory. There is nothing fair about this process. Property owners were not made whole. Waging an expensive legal battle to seek just compensation, against a cadre of entities running this project, moving at a glacial pace, with trivial and frivolous activities and attractions, all occurring without the voter approval needed for a project this size, has left such a bad taste and repeated scars from the grinding down of our resolve over the years. Unless it happens to you, no one knows how nasty is the threat of eminent domain. The bank didn't understand. The insurance company didn't understand. The contractors and surveyors that swarmed the area did not seem to be working in consort. The county, a partner on the project, did not seem to have a list of taken properties. Tax bills were sent for full value for years after the Water District had the property in its name. Property owners were told that they might get a small refund. It took attorneys to inform the County that a "Whole Taking" situation, by law, means that no taxes should have assessed at all, once the properties had been signed over to the Water District. I want my property and my decade of strife back. I bet my friends an neighbors do too.
So, there you have it, an observer of the Fort Worth Way and a victim of the Fort Worth Way, sharing their observations of the Fort Worth Way.
Melodious Skywalker had his land stolen, years ago, by what would be considered, in a lawful part of America, to be a criminal abuse of eminent domain.
When what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle was first schemed and revealed to the public it was touted as a combo flood control economic development plan. Quickly it became clear the flood control aspect was a scam, with the flood control controlling an area which has not flooded for well over a half a century, due to flood control levees already being in place.
When this scam began it became obvious the economic development part of the scheme was the real motivation, with the economic development benefiting property owners who also happened to be part of Fort Worth's ruling class, the 7th Street Gang, the perpetrators of the Fort Worth Way.
Early on the Granger Gang was revealed to own multiple properties which stood to increase in value from the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision. In an obvious act of collusion and nepotism a member of the Granger Gang was installed as Executive Director of the Trinity River Vision Authority.
The legitimate use of eminent domain is considered to be abused, and thus illegal, when eminent domain is used for private, not public benefit. Eminent domain is valid when used to take property when there is no other alternative, for things like public highways, schools, hospitals, that type thing.
In Fort Worth the Fort Worth Way Perpetrators abused eminent domain to take private property, such as the thriving business of Melodius Skywalker, which the FWWP bulldozed years ago, before Melodious Skywalker had his rightful hearing in court.
Can you imagine how wronged you would feel if the town you built your business in did this to you?
It has been years now since Melodious Skywalker's business was stolen, for what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. You can take a look at the construction ghost town that now blights where Melodious Skywalker used to have his thriving business.
Why is there no federal investigation into what seems to be racketeering? With the local Fort Worth government, the Granger Gang and its 7th Street Gang cohorts being the racketeers? Why doesn't all the nepotism, the shady contracting, the conflicts of interest, the eminent domain abuse, the election tampering, all the obvious corruption trigger a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) investigation?
I can think of only two ways the Fort Worth Way can be brought to full stop. Either federal intervention, or the Fort Worth locals cease being sheep and put an end to living in a town which allows crimes, such as that perpetrated against Melodious Skywalker and all the other victims of the Fort Worth Way and its ridiculous Trinity River Vision Boondoggle...
