She Pricelessly Cancelled J.D. Granger From Rockin' The Polluted Trinity River

I saw that which you above and below last night on Facebook. Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price and Betsy Price's best friend's eldest son, J.D. Granger getting into a Twitter twitfest over the canceling of Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube floating beer parties in the frequently e.coli infested Trinity River.

Betsy Price tweeted thanking J.D., and his nefarious gang of river pirates, for making the right call and canceling this weekend's concert and river float scheduled to take place at one of the world's best imaginary music venues, located, partly, on the landlocked imaginary archipelago known as Panther Island.

Well, J.D. was not gonna sit still for this bit of subterfuge, so he posted a lengthy retort Tweet to set the record straight as to who it was who DID cancel the river floating.

Oh my. The above has so many absurdities.

J.D.'s crew painted a grid system on 1.3 acres of riverfront "lawn"?

With safe distancing between all the spots?

Every single attendee was to get a temperature check before being allowed to get wet with the river's multi pathogens?

Capacity was capped at 25%? What is the number of floaters considered full capacity, I can not help but wonder?

Health safety monitors were staffed throughout the site? On land and in the sea, I mean, in the polluted river water, to make sure masks were worn, with no groups larger than 10 allowed to congregate, with all distancing requirements met? Violators to be asked to leave?  How many of these health safety monitors were hired, I can not help but wonder? And how do you find someone with that skill willing to get wet doing their job in a polluted river?

Cleaning attendants were disinfecting on the hour? Wiping down touched surfaces throughout the day? Like what? Wiping down the concrete enclosures around the multi-outhouses? And the outhouses themselves?

The final third of J.D's Tweet details all the measures he thinks Betsy Price went to to shut down his operation, even after she twice rode her bike to the location and eye witnessed the massive effort underway to make the Trinity River and its surrounding area safe from COVID-19, with the final blow from Betsy coming Friday afternoon in the form of a threat, threatening that if J.D. proceeded with Rockin' the River the city would have no choice but to shut it down.

This all has generated quite the kerfuffle on Facebook. One of the more amusing comments opined that this must be real rough for J.D. to get Rockin' the River taken from him, that this was all he and his new wife, Shanna Cate Granger, had to do after their demotion about a year ago, when J.D. was removed from his post as Executive Director of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, and given a new job, working directly for the Tarrant Region Water District overseeing the imaginary flood control part of what has become one of America's Dumbest Boondoggles ever.

I think we have pointed out previously that J.D. Granger's new job of being in charge of the flood control part of the Boondoggle is a bit ironic in that the area in question has not flooded for well over half a century, due to levees which have kept the area flood-free ever since they were installed. It is thought that J.D. was given this "job" because it would not be possible for him to muck it up, like what happened with what was originally known as the Trinity River Vision.

Those new to this Boondoggle, the Trinity River Vision is an ineptly implemented, ill-conceived pseudo public works project the public did not approve of via the voting method which is the norm for such things. The Trinity River Vision was touted as being, way back when first touted, near the start of this century, as a vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme.

Vitally needed flood control in an area which does not flood. The economic development scheme part of the cloudy vision has always been even more sketchy than the imaginary flood control.

This project was touted as being vitally needed, and yet has limped along in slow motion for most of this century. The project has never been fully funded. Relying on hoping to secure federal funding.

And so the son of a local congresswoman gave up his job being a deputy prosecutor to become an executive director directing a project for which he had zero qualifications.

The purpose of this brilliant scheme of giving J.D. this job was to motivate his mother to secure those federal funds, to help pay J.D.'s over $200,000 a year salary (plus perks), plus the salary of J.D.'s wife, and to pay for all the fun fact finding junkets J.D. and his wife take their crew of river pirates on.

Oh, and also to help pay for things like building three simple little bridges over dry land. And the cement lined ditch to go under the bridges, along with canals and other infrastructure on the imaginary island which is currently an industrial wasteland.

Those three simple little bridges have been stalled in slow motion construction mode for five years. I read a comment, on the Facebook post where these Betsy/JD Tweets came from, that those pitiful bridges are no longer being referred to as the Panther Island Bridges. They are now being called, I assume by the Boondoggle's propaganda websites and printed publications, the TxDOT Signature Bridges.

Fort Worth has a weird pathology regarding signature and iconic things. And labeling some ordinary thing as such. I think this pathology comes from the fact that there is nothing in Fort Worth of the signature or iconic sort, and this creates some sort of civic inferiority complex. I have had it explained to me as such by longtime locals.

Many Fort Worthers have long had a strange obsession with Dallas, which comes across as jealously to one new to hearing it.

Dallas has multiple iconic and signature items. First off there is the Dallas skyline, known world wide due to a hit TV show in the previous century. There is Reunion Tower. A couple new, actual signature, bridges across the Trinity, have been added to the Dallas skyline this century. It was when those Dallas bridges were announced as being planned as part of the Dallas Trinity River Vision (I don't remember the actual name of the Dallas River Vision) that soon thereafter I remember being appalled at a banner headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

TRINITY UPTOWN TO TURN FORT WORTH INTO VANCOUVER OF THE SOUTH

No, I am not making this up. Really happened. Something was gonna turn landlocked, mountain-free, Fort Worth, into the Vancouver of the South.

Trinity Uptown soon morphed into Trinity River Vision, and soon was touting three "signature" bridges. However, when the cost of the Fort Worth bridges came in, the designer bridges were dropped, with what look like freeway overpasses replacing them, but hanging on to claiming them to be signature bridges. As if applying that word to something magically turns it into a signature iconic thing recognized the world over.

CBS Sees Imaginary Signs Of Panther Island Progress

Yesterday I got one of those ubiquitous Facebook notifications notifying me I had been mentioned in a comment.

In this particular instance it was the newlywed Mrs. Layla Caraway who simply mentioned my name as a mechanism by which to cause me to see that which she wanted me to see.

That being some bizarre Trinity River Vision propaganda.

I knew it would be propaganda because I saw via the screen cap of the associated video that the source was that infamous purveyor of misinformation and ridiculous hyperbole known as the Trinity River Vision Authority, which used to be directed by Kay Granger's eldest son, J.D., til he was fake fired to placate eons of complaints and given an imaginary new job at the same salary, this time being in charge of flood control, where there has been no flooding for well over half a century.

Probably J.D. can not manage to muck up flood control in an area which does not flood, so J.D. likely will not be able to do much damage, unlike the decade plus record of boondoggling J.D. finagled with the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision Boondoggle, with its three simple little bridges being built over dry land, stuck in slow motion construction mode for well over a half a decade, in what has become an epic attempt to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

So, this video which Mrs. Layla pointed us to, is a short clip of a short news blurb from the newsboys at CBS DFW. When I first saw this I opted not to watch, because I knew just from the "NEW SIGNS OF PROGRESS" title that this would contain aggravating nonsense.

And then I changed my mind and watched the short video to quickly glean my initial reaction was right on target. It is a clueless little bit of senseless puffery. Telling us if you drive north of downtown Forth Worth, on Main Street, why you will be seeing the signs of progress of what will one day be a water wonderland, and that Encore Panther Island is well underway. Why, oh my, they have even dug a little bit of canal.

No mention is made of the fact that it was several years ago now that J.D. Granger said in the coming year, I think it was gonna be 2018, we would be seeing construction underway on the imaginary island in the form of the Encore Panther Island apartment complex. Eventually, I think it was early in 2019, Encore Panther Island construction did begin.

And then quickly halted.

Because the foundation of the Encore parking garage was sinking into the imaginary Panther Island. And now all this time later the CBS DFW news bit uses that image use see above, of this Encore embarrassment, supposedly representing a sign of progress.

Like Mrs. Caraway says, this is hilarious.

I have no clue why CBS DFW would go along with being shill for what has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle.

Meanwhile on another sort of related note, about Kay Granger.

A couple days ago I got a text message from one of the aforementioned Mrs. Caraway's old boyfriends telling me the following...

Rodeo last night. In a big dollar suite. Popped up on the big monitor with lots of applause....Kay and Donald Trump Jr. I felt double violated and in need of a Silkwood shower...

Now, it is well known neither the Grangers or Trumps are picky about those with whom they form assignation entanglements.

Has Don Jr. ended his relationship with that woman many thought to be a drag queen? Is Kay Granger what is known a a really old cougar? Is Pudgy Putnam upset that Don Jr. is seeing Pudgy's rival?

Inquiring minds really want to know. If Kay would ever hold a town hall maybe someone could ask her some of these probing questions...

With Federal Funding Cut Will Fort Worth Finally End America's Biggest Boondoggle?

In a 24 hour time period the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has published two articles about that which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, without making note of that fact, yet detailing such.

Yesterday's Fort Worth’s $1B Panther Island project quietly cut from 2018 federal budget revealed the not too shocking news that the Army Corps of Engineers has determined Fort Worth's boondoggle was not policy compliant due to the lack of an economic analysis.

Hence federal funding cut.

The Star-Telegram bears some blame for helping enable this ongoing travesty via participating in the year after year after year of absurd propaganda spewed by the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, the corrupt spawn of the Tarrant Regional Water District.

The Star-Telegram has yet to publish a single honest investigative investigation of the most glaring aspect of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, that being the three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Construction of those three little bridges began four years ago, with an incredible four year project timeline to build three simple little bridges. Over dry land.

The Star-Telegram has not informed its readers regarding the details of the engineering mistakes and problems which have caused the bridge building delay.

The Star-Telegram has not editorialized anything along the line of someone, somewhere in the failing project needs to be held accountable.

Such as a demand for the firing of Kay Granger's boy, J.D., installed as Executive Director of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, paid around $200,000 a year, plus perks, to do a job for which he had zero qualifications.

In modern America this is known as nepotism, and is not allowed.

America's Biggest Boondoggle is rife with nepotism. How many of TRWD general manager Jim Oliver's relatives are in the TRWD or TRV's employ?

Regarding America's Biggest Boondoggle one of Jim Oliver's relatives is quoted in today's Panther Island will move ‘full steam ahead’ despite funding slowdown, proponent vows  Star-Telegram article...

Matt Oliver, Trinity River Vision spokesman, said work will still go on. “We’re going to keep moving, locally, full steam ahead,” Oliver said.

"Some of the money allocated in previous years has not been spent while other projects, like the three bridges currently under construction over dry land, are funded through the state", he said.

In May, voters passed a $250 million bond as part of the local commitment. The authority would have sought the bond regardless of federal dollars, Oliver said, and the money will still be used to fund front-end work such as design and the acquisition of land.

“The bond still going to local portions,” he said.

As part of flood control measures, work will continue on retention ponds in Gateway and Riverside parks. Those projects may not be visible to the public as part of downtown’s Panther Island, but Oliver said they’re crucial to the overall concept.

Work is expected to continue on the three bridges until about 2020, he said. At that point the Army Corps can begin digging a channel that will ultimately re-route the Trinity River and create a downtown island and urban lake.

________________

The quarter billion dollar bond, which the ballot, apparently fraudulently, said was for flood control and drainage issues, will be used for front-end work such as design and acquisition of land? And work on those pitiful bridges is expected to continue until "about" 2020? Six years after starting construction.

Has anyone seen any signs of construction of that apartment complex being built on the imaginary island? In 2017 J.D. Granger touted this incoming apartment complex as one of the signs of progress we would be seeing in 2018. Only a few months left in 2018. Is this still an imaginary apartment project not being built on the imaginary island? Or is construction underway, as Granger said it would be?

These two articles in the Star-Telegram contain multiple propaganda elements of the misrepresenting the facts sort. Is this by design? Or editors with memory issues?

In a followup blog post we will look at these two article's propaganda nonsense in detail. But right now I'm fed up with the whole thing and not in the mood to get into it any deeper at this particular moment in time...

Rerouting Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Propaganda To The Truth

With disturbing regularity a ridiculous propaganda puff piece pops up in an obscure publication touting an alternative universe version of what is known as the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island District Vision.

Or America's Biggest Boondoggle.

This time the propaganda puff piece was in something called Urban Land Magazine in an article titled Rerouting the Trinity River.

After reading the article astute Fort Worth observer, Mr. Spiffy, observed this magazine should be called Urban Myth Magazine.

This article has multiple quotes from J.D. Granger, which always guarantees a high nonsense level.

Let's start at the start of this article and opine as we go along.

The first paragraph...

In an industrial area north of downtown Fort Worth, three bridges are under construction that, at least for now, serve little purpose. The bridges are going up over dry land in anticipation that they will someday span a 1.8-mile (3 km) channel off the Trinity River, part of an ambitious 13-year-old plan to transform the heart of the Texas city. The channel, which has not yet been dredged and still awaits federal funding, is the centerpiece of the $900 million development that combines flood control with the city’s dreams of creating a new urban district.

Three bridges are under construction? Construction has been stalled on the only one of the bridges under any sort of construction, with that stall now lasting over half a year, supposedly due to design errors.

Ambitious 13 year old plan? Really? Ambitious? As in ambitious in slow motion?

The un-funded un-dredged channel is the center piece of this development? So, you have an unfunded centerpiece, but go ahead and build some bridges over the unfunded centerpiece, in case the ditch ever does get dredged?

Next up the first of the embarrassing nonsensical J.D. Granger quotes...

“There’s not another city in North America that has this type of phase two opportunity in one swipe,” says J.D. Granger, the executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority (TRVA), which is overseeing the project. “It’s a blank slate.”

I have no idea what the above Granger gibberish means. A "type of phase two opportunity in one swipe"? What does that mean?  The project is a "blank slate"?  After 13 years this project is a blank slate? As for no other city in North America having a project such as this in the works, well, that is true. Fort Worth is the location of America's Biggest Boondoggle. No other town in America tops Fort Worth in the Boondoggle department for this type of project.

Skipping forward a paragraph or two...

The a-ha moment came with the radical proposal to dig the channel to address the city’s flooding problems, introduced by Vancouver-based architect Bing Thom. The channel would allow removal of the tall levees lining the river and create an opportunity for the city to reconnect with the river. Instead of fighting the course of the river, the system will let the water go where it wants to go, Thom says. “What nature wants to do is take the straightest line,” he says.

A previous paragraph informs us that there was a big discussion among Fort Worth's city representatives as to what to do about the river, with nothing off the table, advised to think outside the box, look for big ideas, and new approaches, to think creatively about how the river relates to the city.

All this creative out of the box thinking then led to that a-ha moment, with a radical proposal to dig a ditch to address the city's flooding problems.

Why did that out of the box thinking  not lead to a radical proposal to clean up the dangerously polluted river?

Dig a ditch to address the city's flooding problems? The city has had no flooding problem for well over half a century, ever since the Army Corps of Engineers built levees which have contained the Trinity River when it is in flood mode. However, there are other towns in the Fort Worth area, such as Haltom City, which have had bad flooding problems, this century, deadly flooding problems.

Deadly, un-addressed, un-fixed flooding problems.

The next paragraph with a similar nonsensical point....

The ability to redevelop the area was simply a bonus. A neglected industrial area suddenly became a potential urban center. “Using flood control as a catalyst for economic development became the driving idea,” Costa says.

Again with the claim that this Boondoggle has to do with flood control.  Like I already said, the area being damaged by this ill-conceived project has not been flooded for well over half a century, because it is already protected from floods.

The next paragraph contains a super gem of propaganda nonsense...

Thom was hired to create the master plan, which was approved in 2003 by the Fort Worth City Council and various local authorities and agencies, including Tarrant County and Streams and Valleys, a nonprofit group focused on preserving the river. The flood control plan made an ally of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which was in charge of the levee system. But making the plan a reality required the backing of a dizzying array of local, state, and federal agencies, including local environmentalists. More than 200 public meetings were held, focusing on everything from hiking trails to transportation systems.

Flood control plan? Where there has been no flood for over a half a century? More than 200 public meetings were held, focusing on everything? Really? I know no one who attended one of these likely imaginary more than 200 public meetings. I have been to a public meeting or two, post the beginning of The Boondoggle, public meetings trying to fix what was obvious to many was slated to become a Boondoggle disaster.

And then this eye roller from the woman who gave the world J.D.....

“Bringing people together took an extraordinary amount of time, energy, and communication,” says U.S. Representative Kay Granger, a former mayor of Fort Worth (and J.D. Granger’s mother.) “We always felt that to do the things we wanted to do, everyone had to buy in.”

Oh the hubris, the irony, the willful mindlessness. “We always felt that to do the things we wanted to do, everyone had to buy in.”

Everyone had to buy in? Who is everyone? Investors who stood to benefit from this development scheme? Buy in? The public was certainly not part of the buying in, because the Fort Worth  public has never been allowed to vote on this public works project which greatly impacts their town.

How does that sound to you reading this in democratic parts of America? In Fort Worth eminent domain has been abused to take property for a public works project the public has never voted on.

More nonsense in the following paragraph,...

The planning group took several trips to Vancouver, Thom’s base, to get a sense of the Canadian city’s approach to urban growth. Among other examples, he wanted to show them how to handle the connection to the waterfront—the idea “that the water’s edge should always be public,” he says. “There is a very subtle dimension between the public realm and private realm.”

I remember years ago, on a Sunday morning, opening the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to see a screaming headline in BIG letters proclaiming 'TRINITY UPTOWN TO TURN FORT WORTH INTO VANCOUVER OF THE SOUTH'. I remember reading that and thinking what absurdist ridiculousness is this? I was already attuned to the Star-Telegram's tendency to hyperbolize. Like when the Star-Telegram told its readers a lame little food court like thing was the first public market in Texas, modeled after public markets in Europe and Seattle's Pike Place. When I saw how lame the Santa Fe Rail Market was this was the point I realized one can not trust what one reads in the Star-Telegram.

The Boondoggle  planning group took several trips to Vancouver to check out how that town dealt with urban growth and handled its connection to the waterfront? I remember when I read that Star-Telegram headline about Fort Worth turning into the Vancouver of the South thinking to myself have any of these idiots actually been to Vancouver? Vancouver and  Fort Worth have absolutely ZERO in common. Vancouver's waterfront is marine waterfront, as in saltwater inlets and bays connected to the Pacific Ocean. Water on which big boats, like freighters, cruise ships and ferry boats float. Vancouver has a big river flowing through the south part of town, the Fraser. Unlike the Trinity, an unpolluted river.

An all powerful God working miracles could not turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

Two more paragraphs, the second of which contains another J.D. Granger gem....

While the different elements progress, a large part of the TRVA’s effort has focused on activating the river—getting it on the radar of a community that saw it as an industrial wasteland. That included resurrecting the image of the river. Parks and new projects have gone in around sections of the river in recent years, but many people remain wary of the brownish, clay-bottom waterway.

“It’s a problem for us,” J.D. Granger says. “We need to educate people about the desirability of living on the river.”

Yeah, imagine that, many people remain wary of a waterway which appears to be anything but clean. But, J.D. Granger has a solution. The people need to be educated about how desirable it is to live on the river.

I am not quite sure if J.D. literally means "live on the river" or what. However, the most recent iteration of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision has added two new islands, the West Island and the East Island.

And a Houseboat District,

Maybe that is where J.D. means people need to be educated as to being a desirable place to live. In a houseboat, on a dangerously polluted river.

And then we learn some of what J.D. has done to get people getting used to being close to the e.coli infested river...

To make that happen, TRVA has staged a variety of events, including Rockin’ the River, free waterside concerts that encourage people to watch the performances while floating on inner tubes. A paddle sports rental shop has also opened. The goal is increasing direct experience with the water. “You can’t just tell people the water is fine,” J.D. Granger says.

For once true words from J.D., as in you can not just tell people the water is fine. Because the water is not fine you have now been forced to regularly test the water due to multiple instances of elevated to a dangerous level of e.coli, and other contaminants. How many of this past summer's Rockin' the River inner tube floats had to be cancelled due to too much e.coli?

I think I have already said, way too much hubris, way too much stupidity. But it bears repeating.

And then we learn of other wonders brought by The Boondoggle to get the public on board with it....

To help bring people to the area, TRVA has opened a drive-in theater, an ice skating rink, and a waterfront music pavilion where more than 40 events a year are held. In 2014, a brewery opened on what will be Panther Island. And the project is already having a larger impact on the river. Upgrades are moving forward on Gateway Park, a 1,000-acre (405 ha) greenbelt on the water’s edge, which is also a component of the TRVA’s project scope, and in 2009 the Tarrant County Community College opened a campus overlooking the river.

To bring people to the area? Why was it a thing to bring people to that area? To do so the TRVA opened the first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century? And thought this was a good idea? An ice skating rink? There is no pavilion in the area called Panther Island Pavilion. Not by any normal definition of the pavilion word. This waterfront music venue is where The Boondoggle encourages locals to float on inner tubes in the polluted river.

The project is having an impact on the river? Really? How? Is the river cleaner? An impact because Tarrant County Community College opened a campus overlooking The Boondoggle?

Uh, that campus was a boondoggle all on its own. Never completed as planned, Huge budget over runs. And then, to finally open a new campus, rather than complete the original campus, the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters, which is another infamous Fort Worth boondoggle, was bought and retro-fitted as a college.

And now, before we get to the final J.D. Granger embarrassment, what may be the most misleading propaganda in this article...

Rival Dallas has been struggling for years to implement far-ranging improvements to its stretch of the Trinity, with little success, supporters of the Fort Worth project note. Fort Worth’s approach was unorthodox, but it will eventually produce results, they say.

Rival Dallas has had little success with its Trinity River Vision? Read the Wikipedia Trinity River Project about the Dallas vision. First off, the Fort Worth Trinity River Vision did not come about after some sort of a-ha moment which lead to America's Biggest Boondoggle. The Fort Worth Vision came about because of Fort Worth's civic inferiority complex developed over decades of living in the Dallas shadow.

In 1998, five years before Fort Worth started up its Boondoggle, Dallas voters, I repeat, Dallas voters, approved a bond proposal to fund a cleanup of the river, new park facilities, wildlife habitats, build a couple lakes, and in addition to other elements build three signature bridges over the Trinity River.

In common with Fort Worth's Boondoggle, progress on the Dallas Trinity Project has gone slow,  and has had funding problems.

When the Fort Worth Trinity River Vision was announced three signature bridges were also part of the plan, yet one more instance of copying the Dallas plan.

However, one of the Dallas signature bridges, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge has been built, over water, with a second signature bridge almost completed. Fort Worth had to scale back its bridges from being signature bridges designed by a renowned bridge designer, like well regarded Santiago Calatrava, who designed the Dallas bridges. The design for the three Fort Worth bridges ended up being extremely ordinary, totally non-signature, though The Boondoggle still describes their bridges as being signature bridges.

And unlike the Dallas bridges, not only have none of the Fort Worth bridges, over dry land, been completed, the only one under construction has been stalled for over a half a year.

Tell me again how the Dallas Trinity Project has had little success compared to Fort Worth's Boondoggle?

The Dallas Trinity Project has also opened the Trinity River Audubon Center, along with trails and parks.

Another element the Fort Worth copycat vision copied from the Dallas vision was including residential developments, office buildings, retail stores and restaurants.

Is Trinity Grove, and all its restaurants, part of the Dallas Trinity River Vision? I don't know. But I do know that Trinity Grove is right by the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.

And now the final paragraph with some final words from J.D. Granger...

“Frankly, looking back, I don’t think it could have been done any other way,” J.D. Granger says. “We could have done it faster and cheaper, but the project would not be as good as it is today.” The majority of the infrastructure work should be completed by 2023, if all goes according to plan. “We couldn’t speed up the process, even if we wanted,” he says.

Really? J.D. thinks they could have done this project faster and cheaper. But, had they done so it would not be as good as it is today? Most of the infrastructure work will be completed by 2023? The process could not have been sped up, even if they wanted to?

Previously The Boondoggle propaganda had this vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme completed by 2023. Now it's the infrastructure being mostly completed by that date?

Looking back this project could not have been  done any other way? How about approved for by the voting public, fully funded, with a real project engineer overseeing the project who knows how to get a project completed in a timely fashion?

Most infrastructure work will be done by 2023, if all goes according to plan? Does J.D. mean, unless little glitches happen, like bridge design errors causing a construction halt?

How did design errors occur with the design of Fort Worth's simple little bridges? While the first of the Dallas bridges, an actual complex engineering feat, has been completed and carrying traffic for several years. That, and adding an impressive element to the Dallas skyline.

How much has been added to the cost of the Fort Worth Boondoggle having the project limp along in slow motion for years longer than such a project would take in modern American towns? How many millions of extra dollars have been paid to the TRVA employees, such as J.D., than would have been paid if the project were completed with those who completed the project having moved on to new projects?

How much money was wasted on all those junkets to Vancouver, and other towns, to check out their waterfront projects?

How much money has The Boondoggle spent on all its propaganda publications and signage?

Shouldn't The Boondoggle budget be transparent and readily available information?

If The Boondoggle propaganda is now claiming if all goes well most of the infrastructure will be completed by 2023, when will the entire actual vitally needed flood control and economic development project going to be actually completed?

And if this actually were a vitally needed flood control project, why is it being built at a record breaking slow pace?

If I have said it once I have said it more than once, so much hubris, so much stupidity. The people of Fort Worth deserve better. America deserves better. Federal funds should never have been sent to this mis-managed project....

The Fort Worth Way Runs Deep With Corrupt Cronyism

A few days ago on the Mary Kelleher blog I read a blogging titled You Make the Call...Cronyism or Not! where Mary Kelleher described an instance of wanton cronyism to which she objected at the most recent TRWD Board Meeting.

Mary Kelleher's questions about the cronyism were pooh poohed by the TRWD Dictator, I mean, Manager, who Mary Kelleher refers to as Mis-Manager, Jim Oliver.

Apparently Oliver does not understand what cronyism is, because he tried to claim that Mary Kelleher's relationship with campaign contributor, Monty Bennett, was cronyism.

Clearly Jim Oliver does not understand what cronyism is.

As you can see, via the definition above, cronyism is the appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications.

You know, like how without consulting the TRWD Board, Dictator Oliver hired an unqualified Assistant Tarrant County District Attorney named J.D. Granger to be the Executive Director of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.

That is a case of classic, corrupt cronyism.

And why cronyism is frowned upon due to the bad results which frequently follow.

Results like a boondoggle.

The thing with corruption of the TRWD sort is those involved in the corruption don't think they are doing anything corrupt, because they do not get called on it by anyone with the clout to make it stop. Yet one more example of how Fort Worth suffers due to not having a real newspaper doing real investigative journalism.

In other words, the TRWD, as it operates in Texas, could not get away with its corrupt shenanigans in my old home state with its multiple real newspapers. And a well educated progressive population of voters.

If an election took place in, let's say, Seattle, where a ridiculously out of proportion number of absentee ballots showed up, with the result of the election giving two controversial characters a landslide win to a level never seen in previous elections for that position, well, there would be a clarion call for an investigation.

In Fort Worth, nary a peep. Not from the Star-Telegram, not from the Fort Worth Business Press, not from Fort Worth Weekly.

Maybe the FBI is on the case. We can only hope.

Did the Star-Telegram ever share with its readers the notoriously corrupt act of cronyism in which a TRWD Board Director finagled a sweetheart deal to use TRWD public funds to rescue a bankrupt friend by paying double market value for said friend's contaminated land on which the first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century was built?

Corruption and Cronyism runs deep in Fort Worth.

Real deep.

It is part and parcel of that which is known as The Fort Worth Way.

This will not change until Fort Worth gets a real newspaper and the people of Fort Worth cease being sheep.

The South has a long history of the type corruption that is considered perfectly normal by way too many in Fort Worth and its environs.

Back in the last century, next door neighbor to Texas, Louisiana, had a politician named Huey Long who operated in the Fort Worth Way.

A book and movie sort of based on the Huey Long story, named All the King's Men, is instructive regarding corrupt cronyism. The King in All the King's Men is Jim Lane, I mean, Willie Stark, played by Broderick Crawford.

Willie Stark was quite popular with the voters, for awhile, bringing all sorts of vision to his bleak state, running roughshod over those who did not share his vision. Eventually meeting an untimely end, an end more dire than the criminal investigations I suspect may be in the future for Fort Worth's Willie Starks....

Is Fort Worth Really An Anonymous Boom Town?

Yesterday, after I blogged about yesterday's Tarrant Regional Water District Board meeting, specifically mentioning what I thought to be rather dubious remarks by the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Executive Director, J.D. Granger, I got a blog comment from someone calling him or herself Anonymous, which really gave me pause to wonder.

Do I have that "pause to wonder" cliche correct?

Or should it be "pause to think?"

I really am not all that big a fan of pausing to think. Pausing to wonder? Yes, I do like to do that.

Anyway, the comment from Anonymous caused me to  wonder if, unbeknownst to me, Fort Worth is actually a Boom Town....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "At Today's TRWD Board Meeting We Learn Fort Worth Is The Envy Of Other Cities": 

Look at Fort Worth's growth over the last 12 years. Now look at where NCTCOG projects DFW's greatest growth to occur over the next 10 years.....Fort Worth (west and northwest to be more exact). The City of Fort Worth continues to grow and it has indeed been the envy of other City's regarding the rate of growth and the quality of developments that are being built and that are being planned. There are over 10,000 acres of land being planned for development in Fort Worth. A breath of new life continues to be breathed into our Downtown and inner city areas (Sundance plaza, Near South, Linwood, West 7th, Six Points, etc) Further, we continue to diversify our economy and draw good paying jobs to the area. Alliance area is booming, the Chisholm Parkway has opened vast areas for growth (and good growth at that!)

Why are you so down on Fort Worth? Per capita, our permitting numbers are unparalleled. Only Houston beats our single family starts, but that is a pure numbers to numbers comparison. 

Despite the opinion of Anonymous, I am not down on Fort Worth. I am down on hyping that which is not hypeworthy. I do not think it well serves the locals to pretend that Fort Worth is a paragon of any sort, when it is not.

You want to talk to me about all this "good growth"? With some of that "good growth" being a lot of single family housing starts?

Well, you are not going to talk to me about that without talking to me about the Homeless People City on Lancaster. How many years has it been now since Fort Worth sent a task force to progressive cities out west to learn how they successfully managed their Homeless People Problem?

How about the fact that Fort Worth is so ill-served by something as simple as sidewalks? I cringe every time I see a mom struggling to push a stroller on a dirt path beside an un-sidewalked Fort Worth street.

You want to talk to me about Fort Worth Growth? How about growing up to being a city which has modern facilities, such as restrooms and running water, in your public parks? Amenities which long ago became the norm in more developed, modern parts of America.

Regarding this comment from Anonymous, if I am understanding correctly, Fort Worth is the envy of the civilized world due to its unparalleled permitting numbers? With only Houston having more single family housing starts? And due to the quality of its developments? And due to over 10,000 acres of land being developed? And due to having vast areas for growth?

Where to start?

Does the phrase "URBAN SPRAWL" mean anything to anyone associated with thinking opening vast areas for growth is a really really good thing? Without proper planning? Infrastructure development? And, God forbid we think about public transit.

Quality of development? Really? Quality? Sundance Square Plaza is remarkable only due to the fact that after decades of calling its downtown zone Sundance Square, downtown Fort Worth finally has a square, where parking lots existed, previous to the square.

Most big cities in America do not have parking lots at the core of their downtown because that real estate is too valuable to use to park cars.

Downtown Fort Worth may be the most lifeless big city downtown in America. It certainly is the only downtown of a large American city with not one department store. Not one grocery store. And which is a ghost town on the busiest shopping day of the year, that being the day after Thanksgiving.

Are there any other American towns of Fort Worth's size without a direct public transit connection to its airport?

West 7th? You want to bring that up as an example of being an envy generator? West 7th is remarkable only when one compares it to how bad it was before the Montgomery Plaza renovation sparked a boom in that zone. But, was that boom well designed, well planned?

NO!

The drive through the West 7th zone is through a congested canyon. No setbacks, no wide sidewalks, limited parking. And it ain't pretty when a flood comes to town.

The idea is boggling, to me, that anyone local takes pride in the fact that the urban blight which surrounds downtown Fort Worth is now, after how long, finally being dealt with, albeit, to my eyes, incompetently, as in put on your Big City Pants, Fort Worth, and vote to tax yourselves to fund the public works projects which this town so direly needs, but which are being dealt with like a poor beggar looking for handouts.

Ma Granger, please give us some pork, we needs us some pork. We can't feed ourselves, Ma Granger. If we give your boy, J.D., a job, will you get us some pork, Ma Granger?

The envy of other cities in America? No. The above sentence is more accurate as to how other towns in America view the Fort Worth Way of growing....

At His September Oktoberfest J.D. Granger Is All About The Beer All About The Beer No Water

A couple times last month I found myself wondering why it is that in Texas various locales hold an Oktoberfest festival in September.

Do they not understand that Oktober is the German spelling of October?

Would it not be more pleasant, temperature-wise, to hold a fall festival in the fall when the temperature has fallen?

Near as I can remember I have only been to an Oktoberfest once. In Leavenworth. Leavenworth is a Bavarian themed town on the east side of the Cascade Mountains in Washington. If I remember right the Leavenworth Oktoberfest is the biggest to take place outside of Germany.

Anyway.

Above you are looking at  the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's J.D. Granger, once again caught holding a container full of beer.

As I was typing "full of beer" a current hit song I hear over and over again came to mind. I don't know the name of the singer but the song goes "I'm all about the bass, all about the bass, no treble...." I'm thinking J.D. Granger could use this as his theme song with a slight re-write, "I'm all about the beer, all about the beer, no water..."

I am sure you are wondering how I came to find this picture of Mr. Granger and an adult beverage.

Well, someone named Anonymous left a blog comment....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Ganter River Vision Bridge Over Untroubled Water": 

JD Granger and others sighted at the Panther Island Pavilion Oktoberfest via DFW.com:

http://www.dfw.com/2014/09/26/930092/fort-worth-oktoberfest-at-panther.html

Pic #228 - JD and his shadow Matt Oliver
Pic #232 - JD's latest media fanboy the Star-Telegram's Mac Engel
Pic #236 - Kay Granger. She's in other pics too
Pics #242 & #243 - Engel and Granger et al

Perhaps Engel is hoping for a gig with The Vision when the S-T closes shop. 

Dfw.com posted an awful lot of pictures of this September Oktoberfest event. 257 to be exact. I figured out a method to quickly get through to the Pic #'s Anonymous mentioned.

Pic #228 is the one I used above. I know that is J.D. Granger on the right, but I'm not sure if his shadow is the person in the middle or on the left.

J.D.'s mama, Kay, appeared to be having herself a mighty fine time. Apparently she also is all about the beer, all about the beer, no water.

I know zero about the Mac Engel person Anonymous refers to as J.D.'s latest fanboy. Apparently the fanboy is a Fort Worth Star-Telegram employee.

Searching Fort Worth's Gateway Park For J.D. Granger's 80,000 Magic Trees

Yesterday prior to my regularly scheduled Saturday pre-Town Talk Gateway Park mountain bike ride I asked Has Anyone Seen The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Bridges Under Construction Since 2011?

Thinking about the Boondoggle's Bridges Over Nothing got me wondering about the Boondoggle's Gateway Park Master Plan as I rolled my wheels along with a lot of other wheel rollers.

It has now been a lot of years since the Boondoggle's Gateway Park Master Plan signage was installed touting the Boondoggle's imaginary Master Plan. As far as I can tell the only thing the Boondoggle has done in Gateway Park is to install the signs showing all that the Master Plan would entail if anyone was ever able to master the plan.

I recollect hearing J.D. Granger himself touting one aspect of the Gateway Park Master  Plan. That being 80,000 trees J.D. claimed were already being planted.

I remembered blogging about J.D.'s trees, so I entered "Magic Trees" into the blogs search tool to find that way back on April 1, 2011 I blogged about J.D. Granger's Army Of 80,000 Flood Protecting Trees Planted In Gateway Park To Save Arlington.

Four paragraphs from that blogging....

But, the strangest, funniest thing J.D. came up with was in response to a guy from Arlington verbalizing his concern that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle was going to make flooding worse in Arlington. That, and he asked J.D. if the people of Fort Worth get to vote on this project.

J.D. acted like he's been worn out by all the referendums and votes there have been on this project. Somehow I don't remember these taking place.

As for the flooding in Arlington, J.D. explains that the TRV is going to extreme lengths to make sure not one ounce of extra water goes one second faster towards Arlington during a flood.

With the prime facilitator of that flood control being the 80,000 trees now being planted in Gateway Park.

I've seen no trees being planted in Gateway Park.

Over three years later I've still seen none of J.D. Granger's Magic Trees planted in the Gateway Park zone.

Shouldn't those Magic Trees be in the ground, growing roots, so if the Boondoggle's Bridges Over Nothing actually get built, followed by the un-needed flood diversion channel, followed by a big flood, that those Magic Trees can slow down that rush of flooding water shooting through the flood diversion channel, aiming high speed at Arlington?

The Tarrant Regional Water District's 2013 Annual Propaganda Report

I think it was a week ago I opened my mailbox to discover the eagerly anticipated Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's 2014 Spring Update.

And now, this Easter morning, I opened my mailbox to find the equally eagerly anticipated Tarrant Regional Water District Annual Report 2013.

Four months into 2014 and we're getting the eagerly anticipated TRWD 2013 Annual Report?

I eagerly anticipated that this particular report would be a bonanza of propaganda. The first paragraph let me know I would not be disappointed...

"Thank you for taking the time to read the 2013 TRWD Board Report. Our board and district staff have been working diligently over the last year to ensure the Water District's service area has ample water to sustain its rapid growth, strong levees and dams to protect us from devastating floods and excellent recreational facilities that promote a healthy, active lifestyle."

Reading through the entire propaganda piece I read nothing about what the TRWD Board has done to protect the people of Haltom City from that town's creeks when they go into devastating killer flash flood mode.

There is no mention in the TRWD Annual Report regarding the Board thwarting the efforts of fellow TRWD Board Member Mary Kelleher's attempts to examine TRWD records and documents.

I have long opined that I wish someone would examine the TRWD records and documents that cover the TRWD Board's decision to hire Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger's son, J.D., to be the Executive Director of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. J.D. went from being an assistant prosecutor to running a construction project, with his only qualification seeming to be that his mother is Kay Granger.

Yes, I now understand that nepotism is an accepted part of doing public business the Fort Worth Way, but it still sort of galls me.

Speaking of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, (and who isn't?) part of that boondoggle is taking down the levees that have kept a large part of the Central Fort Worth zone safe from floods for well over half a century. The levees were built to contain the Trinity River after a massive flood wreaked havoc in the early 1950s.

Currently three bridges are scheduled to be built over an unbuilt bypass channel through which future floods may flow, thus allowing the removal of the levees which have done the job assigned to them for decades.

In the page in the TRWD 2013 Annual Report about Flood Control, like I already said, there is no mention made of anything being done to mitigate the Haltom City flood threat, but almost half the Report's Flood Control page was taken up by that which you see below.

The text explaining the above photo says, "LaGrave Field in Fort Worth, after massive flooding tested the floodway levees in the 1950s."

Huh? And the point here is? What?

I am assuming this is a photo of the flood which resulted in the building of the massive levees one sees now by LaGrave Field.

So, really, what information is being imparted by including this photo and its accompanying text in this TRWD 2013 Annual Report?

Another page in the TRWD 2013 Annual Report is titled Reverse Litter.

You have likely already seen the billboards touting the TRWD's new anti-litter plan, those being those billboards asking people to make the pledge to pick up ten pieces of litter each Tuesday.

Yes, that sounds like a very effective anti-litter plan, likely to appeal to those who actually don't litter. A more effective anti-litter plan might be to induce the litterers to cease with their littering ways. I understand in some states one can get fined for driving down a road with a pickup full of litter with a trail of litter flying from ones truck bed.

How much did this slick, full color 12 page report cost the taxpayers to publish and mail, I can't help but wonder? Only about half the publication is actual propaganda verbiage, the other half  is photos and graphics.

How come no mention was made in the TRWD 2013 Annual Report regarding the lawsuit the TRWD lost whilst trying to get water from Oklahoma? That particular TRWD bit of business was a supreme bit of embarrassment in 2013. And yet no mention in the Annual Report.....

Panther Island Ice Will Soon Be Freezing In The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

Yesterday I mentioned J.D. Granger in a blog post.

That mention of J.D. Granger had someone named Anonymous making a blog comment...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "I Am Shocked Regarding New TRWD Ethics Violation Allegations": 

Fort Worth's favorite mama's boy, J.D. Granger: Photo #22 is the one with him in it.

I am almost 100% certain that the lady on J.D.'s right is not the mama to which Anonymous refers.

In other J.D. Granger news this morning we learned that J.D.'s vision for the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is now expanding to add an ice skating rink to the plethora of outdoor activities the TRVB has initiated in Fort Worth.

The public, I mean, the Trinity River Vision Authority voted, unanimously, to spend $99,000 to get the ice rink up and freezing.

J.D. says the TRVB will get back its investment via skate rentals and sponsorships.

Panther Island Ice will be open daily from November 22 through January 5.

The ice rink will be located in the Coyote Drive-In complex, near the canteen, with one of the movie screens viewable from the ice rink, thus allowing a dream of many to come true, that being to be able to ice skate whilst watching a movie.

Who could have guessed, over a decade ago when the Trinity River Vision was first announced, that all these years later what we'd be seeing of the vision is the world's premiere wakeboard lake, the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century, happy hour inner tube floats in the Trinity River, one of the world's best waterfront music venues at something called Panther Island Pavilion and now an ice rink?

I really don't understand how come J.D. Granger was not picked as Best Servant of the People in last week's Fort Worth Weekly Best of 2013 issue....

Why Does The Los Angeles River Vision Have No Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats Or Drive-In Movie Theaters?

I learned today that Los Angeles has followed Fort Worth's lead in returning a formerly scorned river to public recreational use.

It was via a CNN online article titled At last, Los Angeles River opens to public recreation after 80 years that I learned of what amounts to a Los Angeles River Vision, which, near as I can tell, is not yet a boondoggle, so Los Angeles really is not totally following the Fort Worth lead provided by the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Just like with Fort Worth's section of the Trinity River, the Los Angeles River, in the area of the Los Angeles River Vision, is technically an Army Corps of Engineers flood control channel.

I have seen the cement lined Los Angeles River flood control channel many times, both in person and in movies and on TV. I have wondered if the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's un-needed flood control channel will look like the Los Angeles River flood control channel if it ever becomes anything anyone can see.

The actual name of the Los Angeles River Vision is the Los Angeles River Pilot Recreation Zone. This zone is a section of the Los Angeles River with tree covered oasis islands, views of the San Gabriel Mountains and birds, lots of birds.

The Trinity River Vision can match all that. Except for the mountain views.

A blurb from the CNN article sounds almost TRV Boondogglish...

Oasis parks are colorfully named Rattlesnake, Steelhead and Egret. And, yes, there are even fish in the river -- carp, catfish and bass -- and anglers can drop a line as long as they have a state permit. In this recreation zone, the public can launch a kayak, canoe or other nonmotorized boat without a permit or cost.

Apparently it is safe to eat the fish one catches in the Los Angeles River.

Another blurb in the CNN article indicated an uncanny similarity between modern day Los Angeles and modern day Fort Worth and their rivers...

Now there's been a shift in the Los Angeles culture and the way Angelenos view themselves. They can truly identify a river in the city.

There was no mention made in the CNN article regarding whether the Los Angeles River Vision is having Inner Tube Happy Hour Floats. Or turning any of those Los Angeles River oasis islands into a music venue named Rattlesnake Island Pavilion.

The Los Angeles River Vision might want to think about enticing the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's J.D. Granger to come help them make the LA vision as visionary as the Fort Worth vision.

It has been a long time since a drive-in movie theater has opened in Los Angeles. Let alone a wakeboard park....

The Propaganda Panther Rocks Tonight With J.D. Granger's Big Dose Of Hubris

I think I may have mentioned previously that after I  moved to Texas I became a fan of propaganda. I'd never really had the opportunity to witness hyperbolic propaganda up close and in person before, til Texas.

I tell you, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and its step-child, dfw.com, could have taught the old Soviet Union and Pravda, a thing or two about making their citizens think they are living in Paradise on Earth.

The Soviet Union was able to fool the Soviet people for a long long time, in part, by controlling what the people knew of the world outside the Soviet Union. Controlling what their people knew of the rest of the world became increasingly difficult for the Soviets, and eventually impossible.

When I first experienced Star-Telegram propaganda I was totally perplexed, with me thinking is propagandizing this stuff based on knowing the majority of its readers have not been out of the Soviet Union, I mean, Fort Worth?

For example, soon after my arrival in Texas, the Star-Telegram acted as a cheerleader for a public works project called the Santa Fe Rail Market, touting it as modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and public markets in Europe. And that it would be the first public market in Texas.

This, to me, set a very high bar, but, at that point in time, I was open minded, did not realize the extent to which the Star-Telegram will actually out and out lie to its readers. When I visited the Santa Fe Rail Market soon after it opened, I was appalled to find it bore no resemblance to Pike Place. It was more like a really sad food court, with shops, one might find in a bad mall in a small town.

And it was not even the first public market in Fort Worth, let alone Texas!

And then there was the propaganda the Star-Telegram foisted in its readers regarding the Cabela's sporting goods store. Over and over again, in article after article, the Star-Telegram told its readers that this sporting goods store would be the #1 tourist attraction in Texas.

Within 6 months of opening, not only was the Fort Worth Cabela's not only not the #1 tourist attraction in Texas, it was not the only Cabela's in Texas, and eventually the Fort Worth Cabela's was not even the only Cabela's in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Have you read a mea culpa in the Star-Telegram regarding their part in the Cabela's scam?

And then there is the Trinity River Vision. When the Star-Telegram first brought this vision to its reader's attention a huge headline announced that this project would turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

Vancouver of the South? I remember thinking has no one working on the Star-Telegram been to either of the northern Vancouvers? Nothing could possibly be done to Fort Worth to make it even remotely resemble one of the Vancouvers of the north. Both Vancouvers have big rivers rolling through town that dwarf the Trinity River ditch, with the Washington Vancouver rolling the Columbia and the British Columbia Vancouver rolling the Fraser. The B.C. Vancouver is in one of the most scenic city settings in the world. Surrounded by water, with mountains.

The original vision of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle conjured images of canals, of riverwalks, of a big lake. The original vision made no mention of wakeboard parks, inner tubing happy hour parties, drive-in movie theaters or restaurants.

But, now in 2013, over a decade since this bizarre project was foisted on the public, who had no voting say in the matter, all we can see of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is the Cowtown Wakepark, Coyote Drive-In, Woodshed Smokehouse and Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats at Panther Island.

Panther Island brings us back to dfw.com. At the top you are looking at the cover of this week's ink edition of dfw.com.

The propaganda starts on the cover with the headline "The Panther rocks tonight" with a sub-headline of "A barren patch of earth along the Trinity River has become Fort Worth's unlikely music mecca. We chart the rise of Panther Island Pavilion."

The above propaganda leads to the feature article in this week's dfw.com, titled "The rise of Panther Island Pavilion."

First off,  pavilion seems a rather grandiose term to use to describe the nondescript bandshells being touted.

Panther Island? But, there is no island. That's fine. With propaganda you just make up stuff. It is sort of like how there really is no vision in the Trinity River Vision.

Where "Panther Island" sits, un-surrounded by water,  is at the confluence of the West and Clear forks of the Trinity River. That being the location of what the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle claimed would be a lake of over 30 acres, later shrunk to a pond a third that size. Is what is being called "Panther Island" to be an actual island if the envisioned pond is something someone may actually one day see?

Now, let's start at the beginning of The rise of Panther Island Pavilion and look at some of the choice pieces of propaganda....

The asphalt teems with tents serving craft-brewed beers in 2-ounce plastic cups, and two stages featuring a panoply of indie-rock acts hum with energy well into the night. A few yards beyond the chain-link fence surrounding the city’s inaugural Untapped Festival, the Trinity River flows past, its calm waters absorbing and reflecting the rays of the setting sun.

Stop and take it all in. This is what Fort Worth’s future looks like.

That is, if J.D. Granger and the Trinity River Vision Authority have anything to say about it.

Fort Worth's future looks like a beer soaked music festival if J.D. Granger has anything to say about it?

Over the past two years, Panther Island Pavilion, a 40-acre space tucked away underneath Henderson Street just outside downtown, has risen from a barren patch of real estate you might not even notice on your jog along the Trinity Trails to become a focal point not only for civic planners with an eye on tomorrow, but for the city and state’s music industry.

“The backdrop is crazy,” says Granger, the TRVA’s executive director. “You’re right in the middle of an urban environment, but you’ve got waterfront [access] — it’s a very unique thing.”

Panther Island Pavilion has become a focal point for civic planners and the Fort Worth and Texas music industry? Why not just say it will become the #1 tourist attraction in Texas? Like Cabela's? J.D. thinks this backdrop is crazy? Well, something sure seems crazy. You're right in an urban setting where you have waterfront access, which is very unique? Unlike New York City, Chicago, Miami, Washington, D.C., Portland, Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, San Antonio and many many other cities across America, and with their waterfront access not being a slow moving, polluted, un-natural, small, little known river.

The TRVA’s stated mission is “to connect every neighborhood in the city to the Trinity River corridor,” and through a mix of initiatives and ambitious goals, Granger and his collaborators just might help make Fort Worth a live-music capital in the process.

I am a little confused. Has making Fort Worth a live-music capital, whatever that is, now been added to the TRVA's stated mission?

There’s no question that Fort Worth stands poised, creatively, on the verge of a musical renaissance, with multiple bands achieving success at home and beyond the Tarrant County line.

Really? There is no question? Oodles of Fort Worth bands stand poised for success beyond the Tarrant County line! Maybe all the way to Dallas County? Are we sure there is no question as to how near we are to this verge of a musical renaissance? Will this have a cool name, like in the 90s when the Seattle sound became known as Grunge?

The venue’s rise began innocently enough, two years ago. It was conceived as part of the decade long Trinity River Vision, a plan meant to tie Fort Worth to the Trinity River, revitalizing the waterway with an urban infrastructure and amenities appealing to the “creative class” (a socioeconomic designation popularized by author Richard Florida).

So this Panther Island venue's rise was conceived as part of the TRV Boondoggle? At what TRVA or TRWD Board meeting was this plan approved? Can the public read the minutes of the meeting when this decision was made to add making Fort Worth a music mecca to the Trinity River Vision's mission? Richard Florida? Methinks Richard Florida would gag to have his name associated with Fort Worth's macabre vision of urban re-generation gone awry, with wakeboard parks, drive-ins and inner tube floats. With music.

Panther Island Pavilion, so nicknamed by local writer Kevin Buchanan in a 2007 post on his urban growth-focused website FortWorthology.com (a recent server mishap has temporarily waylaid the site), became, along with Tim Love’s Woodshed restaurant, a way for Granger to show the TRVA board and the city at large how urban planning could jump-start growth along the Trinity.

Well now, we finally find out the reason behind the Woodshed Smokehouse being added to the Trinity River Vision. J.D. Granger has been using Panther Island Pavilion and Tim Love's restaurant to show us how urban planning could jump-start growth along the river. And people thought J.D. Granger was totally unqualified for this job, while he has actually been being a Machiavellian clever boy showing us how the grandiosely named Panther Island Pavilion and a restaurant can do some jump starting of some growth along the Trinity.

“It’s always been planned that [Trinity Uptown] would be an exciting urban lifestyle,” Granger says. “People expect more in an urban environment. We have a blank slate down there, so let’s make sure and create the character ahead of time, be unapologetic about it. If you don’t like the character, this is not the place for you to live.”

When the city’s noise ordinance was revised in early 2012, a special exception was made for the area containing Panther Island Pavilion (it’s right there on page 10 of the Jan. 23 presentation to the City Council: “Large venue in Trinity Uptown”). Granger calls it “the most liberal noise ordinance” in Fort Worth, and it was made with the intention of attracting more and larger events to the space.

So, what I'm understanding J.D. to be saying is if you don't like loud noise this is not the place for you to live. J.D. thinks that he has created something special about which he should be unapologetic? I would like to suggest maybe being embarrassed about that which has been "created" might be more appropriate.

Indeed, an argument can be made that none of the recent flurry of activity along or near the Trinity River — the just-opened Coyote Drive-In (see sidebar), for example, or the Clearfork Food Park — would be possible without projects like Panther Island Pavilion paving the way.

Panther Island Pavilion somehow led to the Coyote Drive-In and a food truck park? Is Vegas taking odds on how long it is til the first drive-in in America in the 21st century goes out of business?

Okay, you get the idea. Totally absurd propaganda. Read the The rise of Panther Island Pavilion for even more absurdity, such as....

“Do I plan to be in the music business forever? No,” Granger says. “We go to a cool business model, turn it over to a concessionaire and let them go. That will be the biggest struggle over the next couple years: Do we go ahead and go to a national model, or can we maintain the character of Fort Worth and keep some real grit? That’ll be a tough one.”

A national model? Model of what? Real grit is the character of Fort Worth?

If I remember right I believe I have mentioned before that the word "hubris" often comes to mind when I am appalled by the propaganda spewed in the Fort Worth zone by entities like the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Trinity River Vision Authority & Tarrant Regional Water District Board....

Hubris: Extreme pride or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities, especially when the person exhibiting it is in a position of power.

J.D. Granger Confuses Smear With Fear In Well Financed TRWD B-N-K Campaign

This morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram has an article about the TRWD Board election that managed to slightly annoy me.

The article that managed to slightly annoy me is titled, Big money is pouring into the race for Tarrant Regional Water District board.

One of the board incumbents, running for re-election, Vic Henderson, claims the water quality of the Trinity River is much improved from when he began serving on the board in the 1980s, saying, “I know what that river was like. It’s very different than it used to be.”

The Trinity River is different than it used to be? Well, now that totally settles the quality of the water issue.

Apparently the TRWD Board and J.D. Granger are stunned regarding the large amount of money that has been raised by their opponents, particularly John Basham.

J.D. Granger claims "we did not expect a race at all." In that same paragraph I learned that not only is J.D. the executive director of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, he is also the development director for the Tarrant Regional Water District.

Also from J.D....

“And all of a sudden, four or five mailers hit the street. I’ve never seen anything close to this much money spent on a water district election."

As a result, the incumbents are suddenly playing catch-up, and the district “is staring at a well-funded smear campaign.”

As opposed to the incumbents underfunded smear campaign?

The Star-Telegram neglects to mention the fact that the TRWD Board is being sued for over 300 violations of the Texas Open Meetings law.

Speaking of which,  does anyone have the public record of the Open Meeting the TRWD Board held when they discussed why it was a good idea to give the unqualified, un-experienced, J.D. Granger the job of TRV Boondoggle executive director?

The TRWD Board people have been in brouhaha mode over having the fact that they bought a helicopter brought to the attention of the voting public.

The following 2 paragraphs in the Star-Telegram article particularly vexed me...

TRWD Helicopter

Jim Lane, who serves on the water board and is a candidate in the District 2 Fort Worth City Council race, told the Star-Telegram Thursday that Basham’s mailings are spreading lies suggesting that the district bought a multimillion-dollar helicopter. The mailer showed a large helicopter with leather interior.

The $440,000 helicopter owned by the water district does not boast any leather seats. It is used to fly over and inspect pipelines and facilities that are not easy to reach on roads.

I have received all the B-N-K mailings. I have seen no photo of a large helicopter in any of the B-N-K mailings. I have seen a photo of part of the interior of a helicopter in one of the B-N-K mailings. No where have I seen a claim made that the TRWD bought a multi-million dollar helicopter. I have read mention made of leather seats. And that the TRWD Board uses their helicopter to fly to a private deer hunting location.

I thought it odd that Jim Lane was all adamant about the leather seats, but made no mention of the deer hunting.

Look at the picture above, which I took from the controversial campaign mailer that the TRWD Board spent your tax dollars on, and see if you think that those seats look like they may be leather covered.

I  find Jim Lane's explaining that the almost half a million dollar helicopter is needed to inspect pipelines and facilities without road access to be troubling.

Has the TRWD always had a helicopter, all the way back to its inception? One must assume so, what with those hard to get to pipelines needing to be inspected.

So, the TRWD Board spent almost a half a million dollars to buy the helicopter. How much is spent on fuel each year? How much is a pilot paid?

Here's what I'm thinking. Would it not be a wiser use of taxpayer money to invest that half million dollars in some interest generating instrument, and then use the interest on that investment to hire a couple people to walk the sections of pipeline that one can not drive to? I am sure there are a lot of currently unemployed people who would love the job of hiking to inspect pipelines.

After all, we learned in the notorious Betsy Price TRWD Water Protection Team mailer that the Tarrant Regional Water District provides wise and conservative stewardship of our tax dollars....

The hubris gives me a headache.