New Look At Fort Worth's Multi-Decade Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

It has been a while since I have read an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about America's Dumbest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, or TRV for super short.

A couple days ago I found myself writing a blog post titled New Zealand Family's Seattle Visit Reminds Me Of Fort Worth's Infamous Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, written after seeing the result of a successful public works project completed in a more modern area of America, then finding myself comparing that project to what many simply refer to as The Boondoggle.

And then, ironically, the very day I posted the blog post referencing Fort Worth's embarrassing Trinity River Vision mess, the Star-Telegram publishes an article about the current state of The Boondoggle, in typical Star-Telegram faulty information fashion.

I suspect the reporter writing this article is new to Fort Worth, and the Star-Telegram, and thus does not have a well-developed ear for hearing nonsense.

We are now in the third decade of what has become America's Oldest Boondoggle. Over the years I have written dozens of posts about this subject. Just go to the Durango Texas blog and enter "TNT exploding ceremony" into the search function, or "Kay Granger Boondoggle" and you will come up with many of those posts about this subject.

Now, something I have not made mention of during the many years of writing these blog posts about America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Over the years I have been sent information from persons close to the problem. As in, someone with access inside J.D. Granger's inner Trinity River Vision operation. I referred to this person as Deep Moat. I was told a couple times, by a couple sources, that the TRWD and the TRV were annoyed, a time or two, by things they saw on my blog.

Also, regarding the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, someone working for that newspaper, anonymous to me, has long found my making fun of that newspaper to be amusing. And accurate. It has not happened for a couple years, but yesterday it did. That person, who they are, I do not know, sent me the link to this new article about The Boondoggle, a link I am not blocked from reading. I assume I would always have been able to read the Star-Telegram, if I was a subscriber, but I cancelled the hard copy long ago.

Anyway, I clicked the Fort Worth’s Panther Island riverfront project has seen years of delays. What’s next? and read it. And copied it.

I then messaged Elsie Hotpepper, asking if Elsie had read this latest, because her dear departed friend, Clyde Picht, is quoted. Elsie then asked for the link. I sent it. But, for her, she was blocked. I then sent Elsie the copied article.

Interesting that the Star-Telegram successfully blocks Elsie Hotpepper, but not me.

Anyway, let's now go through some of this article and comment as we read along. Let's begin with the first paragraph...

Government officials and curious citizens left no seats empty in Fort Worth’s city hall chamber on April 5, 2005. That day, then-Mayor Mike Moncrief locked horns with skeptical City Council members over the purpose and price of the “Trinity River Vision,” a grand plan to revamp the river’s flood control system and transform a sliver of the waterway twisting around downtown into a haven of urban leisure and recreation.

2005. Two decades ago. And that is years after The Boondoggle actually began. Flood control system? This project was originally touted as a vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme. So vitally needed, almost three decades later, little has been done. So vitally needed, the public was not asked to support it via a bond issue.

Moving on, the next paragraph...

Fort Worth’s powerful optimists first fleshed out plans for the venture the year before. Moncrief and fellow proponents hailed the undertaking, later rechristened Panther Island, as “the most significant local project since construction of Dallas/Fort Worth airport.” “Everyone feels the synergy of this project,” Moncrief told the audience in city hall, among them Panther Island champion U.S. Rep. Kay Granger. “They realize this will create a new gateway ... a new face for future generations.” Doubters weren’t sold on the mayor’s lofty aspirations. “I think the final cost of the project will be substantially higher” than the original $360 million price tag (around $613 million today), said council member Clyde Picht during the hearing.

The "later rechristened Panther Island" remark is what made me think this reporter is new to The Boondoggle. This pseudo public works project started out being called the Trinity River Vision. Then Uptown was added to the name. Then Central City. Then Panther Island District. I do not believe the project has ever been somehow rechristened as Panther Island. Such is just how some have come to refer to it, even though it is an imaginary island which no sane part of the world would refer to as such.

Moving on to the next paragraph...

The project’s budget ballooned to $1.17 billion around 2017 (a figure still listed in project documents today despite inflationary pressures). The most hopeful Panther Island advocates in the early 2000s expected a pocket of high-rises and tree-lined promenades to take form by the end of the decade. No development has happened since. The Tarrant Regional Water District has yet to acquire 23% of the land within Panther Island’s future boundaries; the body agreed in December to pay a real estate consulting firm $1 million to start thinking up a strategy for selling off land to interested developers.

Just the info contained in the above paragraph, one would think, is enough to make one think maybe it is time to just kill this embarrassing failure. The "no development has happened since" line is so telling. Basically, little real development has happened for almost three decades, not in the way developments happen in parts of the world known to be more, well, developed.

It gets worse. Next paragraph...

Much of the new flood control system has yet to be completed. TRWD and the other bodies tasked with bringing Panther Island’s renditions to life predicted in 2018 that every dam, channel and storage pond would be complete by 2028. The project’s latest completion date, as of June, is 2032.

Much of the flood control system is yet to be completed? Remember? This was originally touted as a vitally needed flood control project, to control floods in a section of the Trinity River which had not flooded for well over a half century due to levees installed in the 1950s. And now the completion date is in the next decade.

The final paragraph...

Past delays foreshadowed current ones. It took the Texas Department of Transportation roughly six years and $126.2 million to complete three bridges designed to funnel traffic to and from the island. Construction for the structures, totaling less than a mile in length, began in November 2015, with tentative completion dates set between 2017 and 2018. “This was a bad deal early on,” Picht said of Panther Island in 2018, a few years before he died. “It’s probably the worst managed public project in the state of Texas, if not the nation.” Where exactly do things stand today?

Why is the Star-Telegram blaming the Texas Department of Transportation for taking so long to build the simple little bridges? Did not the actual fault lie with the incompetent leadership of the TRV? As in, Kay Granger's son, J.D., made Executive Director, to motivate his mother to try and secure federal funds? J.D. Granger insisted the design of the bridges have these totally ordinary V-piers, which J.D. thought would make them Signature Bridges, which was part of the original Trinity River Vision, having Three Signature Bridges, matching the Dallas Trinity River Vision's proposed Three Signature Bridges, which was the actual start of The Boondoggle, Fort Worth once again trying to keep up with Dallas.

And failing.

Dallas did end up building two actual signature bridges, which add a cool looking element to the Dallas skyline.

As for The Boondoggle's employment of Kay Granger's son. Kay never did come up with federal funding. And when a Biden bill, the Infrastructure Bill, passed, sending funding to Fort Worth's un-funded project, Kay voted no. J.D. was then fired, given a $72,000 parting gift, and is now trying to open a restaurant.

Meanwhile, I have another nugget of news, sent to me anonymously, which I have no way of verifying, but which makes sense to me.

I have been told the real reason the Trinity River Vision project has stalled is due to serious engineering complications. When the Army Corps of Engineers was brought in, again, after those three little bridges were built over dry land, with a cement lined ditch to later be dug under them, an obvious issue became apparent.

As in, the cement lined ditch should have been built at the same time as the bridges. To dig under the bridges now presents serious engineering issues, as in without sufficient mitigations, digging under the bridges could cause a bridge collapse.

And so, the project is stalled, with the current funding now in limbo due to the project's ineptness, poor planning and bad design.

And, might I add. I have long predicted that eventually we will get to the point where it is realized the ground in the Panther Island zone is seriously contaminated, due to being a former industrial zone. There have already been some indications of this. I suspect it would take an EPA Superfund cleanup, which will likely never happen.

It is time for Fort Worth to kill this project, clean up the mess it has made, and get around to finally, at least, fixing Heritage Park, the boarded-up eyesore at the north end of downtown, a park celebrating Fort Worth's heritage, which, ironically, overlooks America's Biggest Boondoggle....

Wise Words About Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Mess

A guest editorial type opinion piece appeared a couple days ago in the online version of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The subject was America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

A Vision which has been trying to be seen for almost two decades, with the primary accomplishment, thus far, being three supposedly iconic signature bridges built over dry land, taking seven years to build, due to being highly complex feats of engineering. 

That is a drone image of one of the bridges you see above. Breathtaking, isn't it. People will be wanting to come from all over the world to drive over those bridges and marvel at the engineering feat and the cement lined ditch.

But, you don't see that cement lined ditch in the above image, do you? Like we said, the bridges were built over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island. Currently there is no funding for the digging of the ditch, due to multiple complications and incompetency's. 

You probably will be paywall blocked from reading the After another Panther Island disappointment, city and private sector should step in opinion piece. This guest editorial by Chris Putnam makes multiple excellent points. Chris Putnam tried to replace Congresswoman Kay Granger, but his overly enthusiastic support of Trump doomed that effort.

We shall go through Putnam's piece and share those aforementioned excellent points...

Once more, our community finds itself lamenting another Washington budget cycle in which the Trinity River Panther Island project has not received federal funding. 

Every year, about this time, is Panther Island Groundhog Day. To quote the Star-Telegram Editorial Board: “As Washington spews $1.2 trillion for infrastructure, none for Panther Island. Why?” 

Yeah, why? Good question. And Putnam answers it...

But another question arises, too: How do we get out of this mess?

To answer these questions, it is important to understand how we got here. Panther Island was sold to taxpayers and voters as a “flood control project.” But the reality is that it was always principally a commercial real estate project conceived by Rep. Kay Granger. “Flood control” was the justification for the massive federal expenditure required to construct the proposed Trinity bypass channel. 

A proper flood control feasibility study has never been produced. In fact, the Tarrant Regional Water District, which oversees the project, refused money that the Trump administration offered just last year to perform one. The water district knows full well that, as currently structured, the project will never survive the review.

The lack of a feasibility study has long been the major roadblock to what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. Putnam further elaborates...

Digging a bypass channel for the Trinity is the principal element of the project’s economic development element — creating a San Antonio-like river walk. This has been the primary issue with the project all along. U.S Army Corps of Engineers projects and budgets cannot be used for economic development projects. 

The water district may have successfully confused local bond voters with this shell game, but it’s well understood in Washington, which is why the project remains unfunded. Compounding this problem is the political reality that no one in Washington wants to attach themselves to the bad optics of nepotism and potential conflicts of interest in approving such a large budget with the requesting congresswoman’s son in charge of the project. 

The mention of "confused local bond voters" in the above paragraph perplexed me. There has never been a bond measure voted by the voters which specifically dealt with voter approval of the Trinity River Vision. The Vision was foisted on the public without the public's voting approval.

Continuing on...

As a community we must be honest about the project’s origins, its challenges and the roadblocks to funding. The flood control element must be clearly and truly separated from the economic development project. This is a clear requirement for Corps flood projects. 

It has been perplexing for years now why those who are foisting this project on the public think they can somehow skip this key error in the actualizing of the project.

J.D. Granger should be completely removed from the project and all perceived conflicts of interest eliminated. Private partners should be brought in, along with fresh leadership that expands the city of Fort Worth’s role in governance. 

A legitimate, transparent public/private partnership approach should be implemented. Developers not controlled, approved or managed by J.D. Granger would contribute matching dollars directly to the bypass channel construction, thus becoming a true partner with the taxpayer and federal government. This is how other infrastructure costs are structured with developers. 

J.D. Granger being given a high paying job, for which it is now totally clear he was not qualified, has long been controversial. Hired to motivate his mother to secure federal funds. Which has not happened. And which likely sours many in Congress who know the details of Fort Worth's Boondoggle.

Continuing on...

Asking J.D. Granger to step away from the project, increasing the city’s governance role and asking the private sector entities who will ultimately profit to share in the channel-construction expense will help restore public trust and demonstrate good faith to Washington.

Political realities in D.C., Kay Granger’s nepotistic conflict of interest and the mismanagement of the project for the last 20 years dictate that she simply cannot steer this project to completion. Fort Worth civic leaders, local government entities, and the community at large must change strategies. 

Mr. Putnam has opined the most sensible take that I have read of the mess Fort Worth has gotten itself into. And Mr. Putnam suggests a sensible way forward out of this mess. A sensible way which makes sense. Making sense is something which has been sadly lacking from day one of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle...

Weekend At Kay's

That which you see above arrived on my phone this morning, from Elsie Hotpepper. What looks to be a movie poster from the same creative team which brought you the award winning Up A Creek documentary.

Weekend at Kay's, starring Kay Granger, JD Granger and Jim Oliver, the grifter gang which couldn't build a bridge right. 

The movie poster shows Kay being held up by Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi. We do not know if the President and Speaker of the House are also in the movie.

Is this movie going straight to video? Streaming on Netflix and Amazon? Is it R rated? 

WEEKEND AT KAY'S

SHE MAY BE OUR CONGRESSPERSON 

BUT YOU WOULD NEVER KNOW IT.

Kay Granger Says Fort Worth's Boondoggle Will Get Buckets Of Federal Funding In 2022

Yesterday Fort Worth had a celebratory ceremony to celebrate the opening to traffic of the bridge you see in the photo above. Local propagandists have long propagandized that this bridge and its two siblings were going to be iconic signature bridges.

No. I am not making that up.

Construction of these three simple little bridges began way back in 2014. Two of the three are now, in 2021, completed.  Sort of.

This Sunday morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram had an article about that which has become America's Biggest & Most Embarrassing Boondoggle. This Fort Worth’s Panther Island will get federal funding in 2022, US Rep. Kay Granger says article contains some of the usual propaganda gems.

Along with failing to make mention of one big piece of reality. With that reality being that federal funding has not been forthcoming for Fort Worth's poorly planned, ineptly implemented public works project because of the requirement that a feasibility study is required before federal funding can be considered.

We blogged about the feasibility study problem just a couple months ago in Fort Worth Opens One Of Its Bridges To Nowhere Over Dry Land.

Before that we blogged about the feasibility study problem in August of 2020 in Panther Island Board Wants No Feasibility Study Of Fort Worth's Embarrassing Boondoggle.

And even way further back in March of 2010 in CONFLUENCE: A River & A Creek Runs Through Tarrant County Losing Dollars & Lives reference is made to the feasibility study issue way back in February of 2001, in the following paragraph from that blog post...

A feasibility study for the watershed had been initiated by the US Army Corps of Engineers in February 2001. In a letter to Congresswoman Kay Granger in November 2009, Col. Richard Muraski of the Corps stated that, "Due to a variety of issues, including a lack of consistent funding, higher priority work and technical shortcomings, completion of the study has taken longer than normal." He went on to state that the Corp recognized the "history of destructive flooding" in the area and that approximately $100,000 would be provided to "continue the studies of the Big Fossil Creek watershed."

The flood prone watershed referred to in the above paragraph is not the area focused on by the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, where there has been no flooding for well over half a century. Kay Granger has shown ZERO real concern for the area of her congressional district which has actually had, and continues to have, deadly destructive flooding.

The first three paragraphs of this latest Star-Telegram article about the Boondoggle...

The Panther Island project will see enough federal money in the 2022 funding cycle to begin digging the channel under the already-built bridges, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger said Saturday.

Granger, R-Fort Worth, said it’s not clear how much funding will come through for the project, but she’s confident it will be enough to begin cutting the 1.5-mile channel.

“It comes in different buckets, so there may be some in this one and then some in the next one,” Granger said. “I think it will be funded for everything they can spend in the next cycle.”

______________

Enough funding to begin digging in 2022? And the funding will come in different buckets? Like has already been said, there is to be no federal funding without a feasibility study. Or has that requirement been dropped?

Granger made these funding comments at yesterday's ribbon cutting grand opening of the North Main Street bridge.

And then we have the following two paragraphs...

But for now, all three bridges span dry land. Officials, including Granger, have long said that it was cheaper and easier to build the bridges first and then cut the channel that will connect the ends of a U-shaped bend in the Trinity River. The area known as Panther Island is not actually an island until water begins flowing through the channel.

“We didn’t have to do the water this way, but it was the smart way, it could be done faster and cheaper,” Granger said.

__________________

The smart way? We didn't have to do the water this way? Officials, including Granger, have long said it was cheaper and easier to build the bridges first and then cut the channel?

How many times has it been repeated that there was no logical option other than to build the bridges over dry land. It would have been idiotic to dig a ditch first, fill it with water, and then build the bridges. Without the bridges that ditch would be a serious obstacle to traffic.

Why do these supposed "officials" repeat this nonsense over  and over again?

Easier to build the bridges first? It has taken over 7 years to easily build these bridges.

Way longer than it took to build the Golden Gate bridge.

To illustrate how idiotic this cheaper and easier to build the bridges over dry land nonsense is, it would be like way back in the 1930s there was no water in San Francisco Bay. And the city decided to build a suspension bridge over dry land to connect to Marin County, and then fill the land under the bridge with water to create a bay. With the local officials repeating over and over and over again that it was cheaper and easier to build the bridge over dry land, as if there was any other logical option.

As has also been said over and over again, if the reality of this Fort Worth project was is as touted, that is, as a vitally needed flood control economic development scheme, why has this project limped along for most of this century?

Waiting for the rest of America to pay for it.

When Fort Worth voters have not voted to support this project by approving any sort of funding bond issue. Does Kay Granger actually believe that when she tries to finagle federal funding for her son's Boondoggle that other Representatives won't raise objections to funding the Fort Worth Boondoggle?

All you have to do is look at that photo of the newly opened bridge to see a visual metaphor for the quality of the Trinity River Vision. If any of the rest of the vision becomes anything someone can see do you think the quality will be of the same level as these three imaginary iconic signature bridges? 

Or worse...

Star-Telegram Wonders How Long Until Panther Island Becomes An Island

 

This morning a new article showed up in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about America's Biggest Boondoggle. By the end of this long article we learn the article was written by a new reporter, recently moved to Fort Worth, Emily Brindley, who the Star-Telegram is characterizing as an "investigative reporter".

This should be interesting. The Star-Telegram has not had one of those before, regarding anything to do with the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, which has become, after limping along for years, America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The article is titled As another bridge opens, how long until Fort Worth’s Panther Island becomes an island?

Just the article's title raises red flags. Such as, even the article's title admits that that which has been called an island, is not an island. 

Let's go through this article and comment as we go along. The first paragraph...

Late this weekend, Fort Worth officials plan to open the new North Main Street bridge that leads to the eventual Panther Island — marking another step forward in a project that has been more than a decade in the making and is still years from completion.

First off, this project has been limping along this entire century. Just the building of the three simple little bridges is taking almost a decade. Is it not even remotely concerning that a project which originally was touted as being a vitally needed flood control/economic development scheme is still years from completion?

Clearly, not vitally needed.

The second paragraph...

But local officials say the many moving pieces of the project are beginning to align. With a new presidential administration, an impending federal infrastructure bill and the return of appropriations earmarks, officials say that federal funding could soon flow into the project and kick off the next big phase of construction.

Have we not heard this moving parts beginning to align propaganda before? There is actual vitally needed infrastructure work in America, including much work needed in Fort Worth, such as addressing actual, real, flooding issues in Fort Worth. Why would, or should the rest of America help pay for Fort Worth's inept Boondoggle after it has been so badly mismanaged for so many years?

Why should, or would, federal money flood into Fort Worth for this project when the voters of Fort Worth have never voted to approve this public works project? Let alone be asked to support a bond issue to pay for it, like towns wearing their Big City pants do.

The next two paragraphs are a doozy, followed by one of the photos from the Star-Telegram article illustrating the imaginary beautiful bridges...

Tarrant County administrator G.K. Maenius pointed to the bridges as evidence that “we’re finally seeing some results” — and he said he’s pleased with the aesthetics of those results, too.

“I don’t know if anyone realized just how beautiful those bridges are going to be,” he said. “I’m not a bridge guy, but even to me, they look pretty darn good.”

Yeah, that is one super beautiful bridge. And look at those signature V-Piers, which J.D. Granger insisted on, rather than the actual cool looking design of the West 7th Street Bridge over the Trinity River. Clearly this guy who admits he is not a bridge guy, has not seen any of the world's actual impressive signature type bridges. Maybe heading west and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge might be too much bother for education purposes, but this Tarrant County administrator could simply drive a short distance east, to Dallas, and see the two actual signature bridges over the Trinity River, which actually do look pretty darn good.

You reading this in non-Fort Worth America, you good with your tax dollars helping Fort Worth build this?  Moving on...

The creation of an island necessitates the digging of a new channel north of downtown Fort Worth, which would connect the Clear and West forks of the Trinity River and then connect the ends of a U-shaped bend in the Trinity River. The new channel would effectively create two islands, together called Panther Island.

This is the first I have read there will be two imaginary islands. Both called Panther Island. If there are two, shouldn't they be known as the Panther Islands? Like in my old home zone in Washington, where the dozen of islands in the San Juan Strait are known as the San Juan Islands. But those islands in Washington are real islands, not cut off from the mainland by a cement lined ditch.

Moving on...

And for access over the eventual channel, the Texas Department of Construction in 2014 began building the three bridges, which currently span dry land. At the time, officials said the bridges would be completed by 2018.

Texas Department of Construction? I have not heard of this Department before. Maybe the Star-Telegram's new investigative reporter can do some actual investigating to find out why it has taken so long to build three simple little bridges over dry land? With construction to be completed three years ago.

Moving on a couple paragraphs...

Officially, the $1.17 billion project is broken into two pieces: the flood control portion, which is known as the Central City project and primarily involves digging the 1.5-mile channel, and the economic development portion, which is known as the Panther Island project and primarily involves the development of the industrial land in the area.

Officially? When did this breaking the project into pieces thing officially happen? When America's Biggest Boondoggle began around the start of this century it was called Trinity Uptown. A few years later this became the Trinity River Vision. I saw Central City on signage in Gateway Park, years ago, far east from the area which does not need new flood control, because it has not flooded since well over a half century ago, due to flood prevention measures already in place. When did the economic development part of this scheme become known as the Panther Island Project? The Boondoggle has been sold as a flood control/economic development scheme from the start. Slapping the Panther Island label on this that and the other thing came around about the time J.D. Granger and the Trinity River Vision began hosting Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the polluted Trinity River, labeling this as happening at Panther Island Pavilion. Where there is no island or pavilion, by any sane person's definition of either island or pavilion.

Skipping ahead a few exhausting paragraphs to the following doozy...

Officials have long said that it was cheaper and easier to build the bridges over dry land, and that the federal government would pay for the channel construction because it’s a flood control project.

Uh, if it was easier to build these three simple little bridges over dry land, why is the project years behind being completed? And, as has been pointed out many many times, there was no option other than to build the bridges over dry land. How could there be any other option? I mean, this entire project is rife with wanton stupidity, but it is hard to believe the stupidity could be so dumb as to dig a ditch, line it with cement, fill it with water. And then build bridges over it.

There has never been any other option than to build these bridges over dry land. How many times must this be repeated before the Star-Telegram ceases repeating this "cheaper and easier" nonsense?

The next paragraphs repeat the propaganda about securing federal funds, Kay Granger's failed role in doing so, the Trump administration refusing to help because the project has never done a comprehensive cost-benefit study and thus is not policy compliant, which then leads to hoping "the Biden administration will look more favorably on the Fort Worth project."

This article makes no mention of the fact Kay Granger's unqualified son, J.D., was hired as the Trinity River Vision's Executive Director, at a salary which has now gone over $200K, so as to motivate J.D.'s mother to secure those federal funds to secure J.D. a good paying job.

Why would the Biden administration look favorably at the Fort Worth project with all its baggage? There still has been no cost benefit study. The project is mired in mismanagement and project delays. The project wastes money on flood control where there has been no flooding for over half a century. Why would the Biden administration waste federal money on this Fort Worth boondoggle while the town ignores actual real flooding issues in other parts of the town?

Moving on deeper into this article...

Mark Mazzanti, a consultant on the flood control portion of the project and a 35-year veteran of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the federal government’s finite funding allocation means difficult decisions about which projects to fund. But he also said that the Panther Island/Central City project has “a number of strengths,” including support from locals, from Congress and from the Corps itself.

A number of strengths? If the locals support this boondoggle why have they never been allowed to vote on it? Like voting yes on a bond issue to pay for it. The amount of money we are talking about here is not that big for most big cities and their public works projects. What makes Fort Worth different? If this is such a good idea, such a brilliant scheme, such a well thought out and important project, why would those who want to make this happen not go to the voters and ask for their help by passing a bond issue to pay for the thing?

And then this...

Federal funding would mean that workers could begin on the new channel — first with final planning and then actual digging and construction.

Yes, federal funds would mean the planning for the ditch could be finalized with actual digging beginning. The same could have happened if years ago voters voted to support a bond issue to finance this vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme, which apparently really is not even remotely vitally needed, due to the backwards way Fort Worth has gone about actualizing the ill begotten project.

And then the following two paragraphs...

Even after federal funding comes through, it would likely be another eight to 10 years until the channel was actually completed, according to Buhman, the soon-to-be general manager of the water district.

That means that the channel would be finished — and Panther Island would actually become a full island — by 2030 at the earliest.

So, eight to 10 years after these three bridges are finally completely built over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, the channel, actually ditch, will actually be completed. Yeah, this sounds like a really well thought out project that the federal government should jump right on and help to the max. Oh my, Panther Island might actually be a full imaginary island by 2030, after calling it Panther Island for two decades.

We are almost at the end of this article, two more paragraphs...

In the meantime, Buhman said, officials are focused on getting the land as ready as it can be for the channel. The water district is working on environmental cleanup of the Panther Island properties, he said, while the city moves and sets up utilities.

“We are shovel-ready for that channel and we’re still doing that prep work but I would say it is well on its way,” Buhman said. “And we are at the place that we are ready for that federal investment and for that construction.”

Really? What is the manifestation of those officials getting the land ready for the channel? Are they clearing the land of weeds and debris? What? How is the water district working on the environmental cleanup? Many have long thought that if this ever gets to the point where a lot of dirt is moving it will uncover a contamination level requiring an EPA Superfund cleanup. Shovel-ready and doing prep work? Again, what prep work does one do preparing to dig a ditch? It's well underway? As in how? Ready for that federal investment which likely will never come?

So, one can not help but wonder, if this new Star-Telegram 'investigative journalist" is the real thing.

Will she be doing some investigating to let us know, after all these years, why it has taken so long to build three simple little bridges? Will she look into what it is that J.D. Granger actually does to warrant being paid so much money? How about looking into the real reason J.D. Granger was hired? 

Did Thousands Celebrate Fort Worth's New Bridge With A Walk Across?

Saw that which you see above, on Facebook, yesterday. An aerial view, looking north, across San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, in 1937, on a day in May when people walked across the new bridge whilst planes flew overhead.

The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most iconic signature structures in the world. You see a photo of that bridge and you know what and where it is. Like seeing the Statue of Liberty, or the Eiffel Tower.

It took less than four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge, back in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. The bridge was built over deep, fast moving saltwater, with widely varying tidal levels. 

Meanwhile in Fort Worth, Texas.

Way back in October of 2014 Fort Worth had a TNT exploding ceremony to mark the start of construction of three simple little bridges, over dry land, intended to one day connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, when water is added under the bridges via a cement lined ditch.

Those three simple little bridges were touted as destined to become iconic signature bridges, recognized world-wide as being in Fort Worth.

The first of the three bridges to be somewhat completed opened to some traffic in March of 2021.

Almost 7 years after that TNT explosion marked the start of construction.

I do not know if San Francisco had a TNT exploding ceremony, or a ceremony of any sort, to mark the start of construction of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I also do not know if Fort Worth had a celebratory day with its new bridge, where people could walk across the short new bridge, whilst airplanes flew overhead. 

I suspect not.

Fort Worth Congresswoman Kay Granger's son, J.D., was given the job of being the Executive Director of what eventually became known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

The builders of these bridges.

J.D. was given this job to help motivate his mother to secure federal funds for the project, because Fort Worth was too poor, and did not know how to finance public works projects in the way towns do who wear their Big City Pants.

J.D.'s salary eventually went over $200 K a year, plus lots of perks, such as junkets to other towns. 

Eventually, a few years after it became obvious that Fort Worth had become home to America's Biggest Boondoggle, J.D. was removed as Executive Director of the TRV, with an experienced project manager hired to replace him.

J.D. was given a new title, and no pay cut.

A sane town would long ago have demanded J.D. be fired. Particularly after it became widely known he was engaging in an extra-marital affair with a Trinity River Vision subordinate, creating what is known as a hostile work environment.

A sane town would also long ago have replaced J.D.'s mother with a Representative in Congress who actually represented the people they were supposed to represent.

But, that ain't Fort Worth.

An amusing irony of those three pitiful little bridges being touted as one day being iconic signature structures representing Fort Worth to the world, is that that likely is going to be a reality.

Those three bridges will symbolize a town which has trouble getting much done. From installing sidewalks along streets, to installing modern facilities in the town's parks, allowing the removal of the ubiquitous embarrassing outhouses.

Symbolizing a poorly thought out public works project the public never voted for, claiming to be a vitally needed flood control scheme, where there has been no flooding for well over half a century due to flood control measures already in place which the rest of America already paid for.

The un-needed flood control scheme masked a poorly thought out economic development scheme, which was designed to enrich those who owned property in the area which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, property owners such as the Granger Grifter Gang. And others.

Am I erroneous? Was there a celebration with the opening of the first of Fort Worth's pitiful little freeway overpass-like bridges? With the public walking across the new bridges.

If so I saw no photos of such, and would appreciate seeing one if such exists...

Photo Documentation Of J.D. Granger's First TRWD Job Interview

I am almost 100% certain this is not an actual photo and quote from the TRWD/TRVA (Tarrant Regional Water District/Trinity River Vision Authority) job interview with the notoriously disgraced and fired son of District 12 Congresswoman, Kay Granger, J.D.

Even though the above may not be an actual photo and quote I am 100% certain the sentiment expressed is accurate.

After a decade, give or take a year or two, J.D. Granger was fired from the job he got because of who his mother is, and the hope that this act of blatant nepotism would motivate his mother to secure federal pork barrel money from more prosperous parts of America in order to fund an imaginary flood control scheme linked to a corrupt economic development scheme designed to help line the pockets of Kay Granger, and her cronies, operating in what is known as the Fort Worth Way, but which is known in non-corrupt parts of America as corrupt machine politics.

Eventually, after years of mis-management and little to show for the millions of dollars wasted, and with public perception almost unanimously seeing this phony public works project as an embarrassing boondoggle, J.D. Granger was fired from his position as Executive Director.

And then given a new imaginary job, working for the TRWD on flood control, in an area which has not flooded for well over half a century, due to flood control constructions already in place.

And paid the same salary of well over $200,000 a year, plus perks and benefits, that J.D. has been paid during the years in which he helped create America's Biggest Dumbest Boondoggle.

After J.D. Granger was fired a replacement was hired, with a salary even higher than J.D.'s.

With that replacement being a retired Army Corps of Engineers executive named Mark Mazzanti.

We recently learned J.D.'s replacement seems to be just as inept as J.D.

We learned about Mark Mazzanti's stuttering ineffectiveness via his garbled articulation during an NBC 5 DFW TV interview.

This was blogged about in Fort Worth's Slow Motion Imaginary Island Project May Get Even Slower, with that blogging including a link to the NBC 5 DFW TV interview in which you can see for yourself how inept J.D.'s replacement is when questioned about the current status of America's Biggest Dumbest Boondoggle.

No one can possibly know if electing Lisa Welch to replace Kay Granger will end the mess which has become America's Biggest Dumbest Boondoggle, but one would think finally firing Kay, after so many years, would also lead to the firing of her son from the job from which he has so greatly profited and at which he has so greatly failed, due to, like J.D. said in that first job interview, "I don't know what I am doing"...

Kay Granger's Imaginary Powerful White House Panther Island Delay

Just yesterday someone asked me if I had any photos of the current state of Fort Worth's three bridges which have been stuck in slow motion construction since 2014, currently not expected to be completed until possibly some point in this decade. Or the following decade.

I replied that I did not have any recent photos of those bridges, and then this morning the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in its Sunday online edition, on the front page, had the photo you see above, of one of those "signature" bridges in the making, along with the stunning, iconic skyline, of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

The headline under the photo...

 Rep. Granger: ‘Powerful’ White House appointee is delaying Fort Worth’s Panther Island
Local leaders expected federal money to come by now. The White House wants them to do more homework.

________________

Seems likely Kay Granger is making up some imaginary powerful White House appointee as an excuse for her inability to secure federal pork barrel funds, what with, to help motivate Kay, her son being given a cushy high paying job planning Rockin' the River happy hours in the polluted Trinity River, along with other nonsense.

Kay Granger is up for election, again, and her part in the Panther Island Boondoggle mess is finally an issue, which many voters see as a scandal, after so many years.

For those who have no idea what Panther Island is, well, it is the imaginary island that those three bridges being built over dry land will connect to, connecting the Fort Worth mainland to that imaginary island.

What is now most frequently referred simply as The Boondoggle, began as the Trinity River Vision, way back near the start of the current century.

Over the years the name for the Boondoggle morphed from Trinity River Vision to Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

In recent years the Boondogglers usually refer to their slowly failing project as Panther Island, where there is no island, and where there has never been a panther, except in the long ago imagination of a Dallas news reporter.

Way back when the Boondoggle began it was billed as a vitally need flood control and economic development project.

Where there had been no flooding for well over half a century.

The original price tag for the Boondoggle was something in the $300 million range. That price tag is now well over $1 billion.

Just paying the exorbitant salaries of the Boondogglers for so many years, as the Boondoggle boondoggled along, has added greatly to the price tag.

That Kay Granger lady, referred to in the headline above, well, her son, J.D. is currently being paid over $200,000 a year, plus perks, even after he was fired from his Trinity River Vision Authority Executive Director position, and moved to being responsible for the imaginary flood control in the area which has not flooded for well over half a century.

Why should the more prosperous parts of America be expected to fork over funds to pay for this Boondoggle which has been so ineptly managed?

Way back when this started, when the project was announced, I wondered why, and how, such a public works project could be legit without the public voting on the funding mechanism for the project.

Eminent Domain was abused to take property for this economic development scheme, with some property taken over a decade ago in the area where those bridges have become embarrassing eyesores.

Tarrant County is the Eminent Domain Abuse Capital of America, but, even so, one would think there would be some limit to what is tolerated. But, bulldozers began to destroy buildings even before property owners had their cases heard in court.

One would think an imaginative lawyer could come up with a viable lawsuit on behalf of the Eminent Domain Abuse victims.

Because, clearly this project does not fall into the category of taking property for the public good, because if that were the case, if this actually was some sort of vitally needed public works project, it would have been properly funded and long ago completed.

But, instead we have the Boondoggle....

Kremlin Kay Valentine's Day Wet Kisses From Russia With Love Exposing Pudgy Putnam

What you see via the image is a screen cap of what one finds when one Googles "Pudgy Putnam". Including "Images for Pudgy Putnam".

A couple days ago we blogged about recent scandal type revelations regarding Pudgy Putnam, he being the ultra right wing nut job who  fellow Tarrant County right wing nut jobs, along with Democrats hoping a right wing nut job beats Kay Granger in the Republican Primary, thus making it easier for the Democrat, Lisa Welch, to beat the Republican in the upcoming Blue Wave Tsunami of 2020, taking District 12 for the Democrats.

I really need to work on not writing so many run-on sentences.

Anyway, like I said a couple days ago I blogged about The Great District 12 Pudgy Putnam Pretender Unhinged & Exposed, in which we learned that Pudgy Putnam shares more character traits with his Trump hero than was initially realized.

That blog post generated an amusing comment...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Great District 12 Pudgy Putnam Pretender Unhinged & Exposed":

Kremlin Kay (Granger) sends you wet kisses from Russia with Love for posting this exposé of Pudgy Putnam.

________________

Wet kisses from Kremlin Kay, with love, from Russia.

What a perfect thing to get on Valentine's Day...

The Great District 12 Pudgy Putnam Pretender Unhinged & Exposed

Yesterday on Facebook I saw that which you see here, well, part of what I saw on Facebook. screen capped, omitting the part identifying who posted this.

The 13 graphics documented that which one reads when clicking on the "See More" link.

I knew there was something not quite right about the guy who the Tarrant District 12  right wingers think has a chance to replace the current occupant of the District 12 seat, Kay Granger.

Primarily it is Granger's challenger's imbecilic Trump fawning which was an indicative warning.

Some Democrats think the best way to get rid of Granger is by having a flawed right wing Trump loving nut job beat her in the primary, making for an easy win for the Democrat in the expected Blue Tsunami Wave of 2020.

After all, Beto beat Cruz in Tarrant County in the 2018 Senate race.

I know of some deluded naive sorts who think getting rid of Granger is the goal, and that it does not matter if a right wing nutjob replacement is seriously flawed, and likely a future embarrassment to Tarrant County, and Texas, should a fluke occur, with Pudgy Putnam elected.

Those who repeat that flawed it takes a right wing and a left wing for a bird to fly metaphor ignore the reality that if the right wing is malfunctioning, deformed, broken, or stupid, the bird has a lot of trouble flying, no matter how well developed the left wing is.

If I remember right I have explained previously why I think it is just fine to engage in the uncivil name calling behavior, making fun of the overweight Putnam by calling him Pudgy, since this is the low standard which has been set by Pudgy's hero, Trump.

Before, reading this Facebook post about Pudgy Putnam I had no idea he had so much in common with his Trump hero, ethics-wise, truth-wise, name calling-wise, financial finagling-wise, and other-wise, including apparently there have been multiple children born to multiple wives, though, I don't know if the number totals equal or exceed Trump's.

And now, on to the text of this enlightening Facebook post which you see when you click to "See More" ...

CHRISTOPHER PUTNAM: MY OPINION OF THE GREAT PRETENDER IN DISTRICT 12

While Granger’s opponent is out touting several things about who he is and what he wants to accomplish; I’d like to point out another side that her opponent doesn’t like to talk about.

1. Granger’s opponent stated he was offered an “in” with TAD to reduce his property values while in office. While he claimed he did not pursue it, his home value decreased $207,000 while he was in office. An Open Records Request shows no record of him reporting this “in.” His home value increased $795,386 when he sold his home. How does his home decrease in value 5.11% while he is an elected official when every other home on his block increased an average of 22.83% over the same time? This represents a 27.94% difference.

2. He claims he provided for the first known tax cut in city history while on the Colleyville City Council. The fact is, each year he was on the council, ad valorem tax collections increased (12.3% from 2014 – 2017). For comparisons sake, property tax collection only increased 6.8% from 2009 – 2014. He also ignored the city’s own CAFR that would have shown him the city of Colleyville actually collected less in property taxes in 2011, 2012, and 2013 than they did in 2010.

3. President Trump has openly supported and endorsed Kay Granger in this race, not her opponent. Even the President understands how toxic Granger’s opponent would be in Washington. To be clear, Trump endorsed Granger on 12/17/19. He also had some nice things to say about Kay at his Dallas rally on 10/17/19. Nor do I understand why Putnam is attempting to tell everyone that Kay Granger is currently pro-choice when she is endorsed by the pro-life groups Susan B. Anthony Candidate Fund and the National Right to Life Organization; then again, her opponent has not been able to tell the truth about many subjects in the almost 3 years I’ve known who he is.

4. Granger’s opponent is telling his supporters that Trump endorsed all of the incumbent Republicans right before the impeachment vote. He obviously forgot to verify this information. Ballotpedia only shows 4 endorsements from the House, with Granger being the ONLY one from Texas. As Putnam frequently has done, when the facts do not support his narrative, he just keeps repeating the same lie and hopes people will believe it.

5. Kay’s opponent likes to spout his successful business career. The fact is, her opponent’s business was kicked off of Nasdaq over a fraud allegation of inflating their revenue. The court proceedings that followed indicate that Kay’s opponent was aware this was going on. https://www.docketbird.com/…/AMEN…/njd-3:2017-cv-02978-00081

6. Kay’s opponent was incredibly proud to state that he raised over $500,000 in a week. What he failed to mention is that he gave himself a $250,000 loan, not to mention his college aged children also managed to donate $5,600 to his campaign as well. In total, only about 5% of his total campaign funds have actually come from inside District 12 as can be verified from his campaign finance reports.

7. Kay’s opponent lives in Colleyville. To be clear, Colleyville is not in District 12. Her opponent is not even able to vote for himself in this election. While his supporters claim he owns a home in District 12, the only home I’ve been able to locate using Tarrant, Parker, and Wise counties appraisal districts is his $1.5 million dollar home in Colleyville. His college aged son indicated a home address in Forth Worth when he donated to his father’s campaign but according to the appraisal district, this is a rent house. Furthermore, the address that Putnam used when he gave his campaign a $250,000 loan comes back as a Parcel Plus storefront; in Virginia. Why is Kay’s opponent going to such lengths to hide where he really lives? Even the CEO of one of the groups endorsing him questions why someone would run in a district that they do not live in. Putnam’s own Congressman is stepping down and not seeking reelection. Why didn’t he run in the district he actually lives in?

8. Kay’s opponent thinks sexual assault is something to joke about. During the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, Mr. Putnam thought it would be appropriate to claim that Diane Feinstein raped him when he was 13. Is this the mentality that you want representing your values in Washington?

9. Mr. Putnam fully supported, and still supports, an elected official in Colleyville that Chief Justice Brian Quinn wrote about, “…Interacting with prostitutes because “it was to be funny,” sexual promiscuity, and fondling a drunk stepsister who later protested adds plausibility or factual bases to Fletcher’s characterization of Lindamood as a sexual predator...” Rape jokes, supporting a married elected official that took advantage of his intoxicated stepsister; Kay’s opponent seems to have a problem with understanding what good character truly means. http://www.search.txcourts.gov/SearchMedia.aspx…

10. Kay’s opponent claims he will be accessible, responsive, and accountable to all constituents – even Democrats and the liberal media. What Mr. Putnam will not tell you is that he will want to see your W2 before engaging with you. Specifically, he thinks you are only worthy to talk to if your bank account meets his approval.

11. When Kay’s opponent perceives you as a threat to his success, or you are successful in calling out his lies, his go to response is to threaten to sue you. What’s particularly interesting is his comment about asking someone how getting sued works and pointing out that she has been tied up in a suit for three years (now six) at tremendous expense. Kay’s opponent will do whatever he can to silence those that show who he really is.

12. Kay’s opponent incorporated Direct Action Texas in 2017. After his wife lost a school board race in Grapevine – Colleyville ISD, he used DAT to submit open records requests, in multiple districts looking for, “…all personnel records and correspondence relating to disciplinary action, job performance, and/or separation from the district for Greg Hart.” When Kay’s opponent is unable to argue facts, he tries his best to discredit the messenger. Why does an organization that claims to focus on government transparency, government ethics, public debt, and civil liberties find it necessary to seek information regarding disciplinary action about a teacher that opposed his wife in a school board election?

13. With Granger’s opponent being nothing more than a school yard bully, he found it convenient to delete all of his social media accounts prior to running for office. What he did not count on are the screenshots that show exactly what kind of person he really is.

14. Mr. Putnam feels the only way to win an argument is to personally attack those that disagree with him. These comments truly speak for themselves as they relate to Mr. Putnam’s character. What kind of person tries to belittle an educator for taking a second job to help make ends meet? Not all of us are fortunate enough to live in a million dollar home.

15. In my experience with Mr. Putnam, when the facts do not support his narrative, he makes up his own. As his wife ran for school board, Mr. Putnam continually lied about our school district, Grapevine – Colleyville ISD. His anger towards me comes from my constantly calling out and correcting his misinformation and lies about our district.

https://www.facebook.com/greg.hart.792/posts/10160455240415542

https://www.facebook.com/greg.hart.792/posts/10160468951600542

https://www.facebook.com/greg.hart.792/posts/10161060177085542

https://www.facebook.com/greg.hart.792/posts/10161381957815542

https://www.facebook.com/greg.hart.792/posts/10161796315290542?__tn__=K-R

16. Kay’s opponent has a difficult time accepting reality. When his wife lost in her school board race, he tried to blame it on mail in ballots. To be clear, there were 339 absentee votes out of 6,216 votes cast. In reality, our community understood that while his wife is a nice lady, his influence on our district would have caused significant damage to the success of our district. Grapevine and Colleyville both voted overwhelmingly for the incumbent in a 63.87% to 36.13% landslide. Granger’s opponent, once again, has a problem with truth.

17. Granger’s opponent claims he worked in the private sector for 30 years (although his resume with his former company does not support this), building a startup company into a multi-billion-dollar company. The fact is, his company misrepresented their financials and the value of the company, and the stock, tanked. Putnam was aware that that the financials were not accurate yet he still walked away with about a $1,000,000 buyout when he left the company.

18. Once again, I’m reminded of Chris’s “promise” to listen to everyone. The problem with his promise is that it is a lie. Not only has Putnam deleted my comments from his page, he has blocked me from further commenting. I guess being a teacher means my W2 does not meet his approval for open dialogue. So much for his “promise.”

Like Putnam, I am not able to vote in this election. My prayer is that as you vote in the upcoming primary I pray you stop and reflect on the character of who you are voting for. I’m tired of people like Kay’s opponent making things up and attacking people because they disagree with them. Elected officials should work together for the betterment of our country. In my dealings with Granger’s opponent, he has proven himself to be unethical, a liar, and nothing more than a school yard bully. There is no doubt that our country deserves better than Kay’s opponent.

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...

The Scandals Of Fort Worth: The Granger Grifter Gang

After years of being disgusted I sort of thought it was about time to give up on the Scandals of Fort Worth.

No, that is not a History Channel soap opera I am talking about no longer watching. I'm talking real life scandals. Not fiction.

In the photo are two of the leading players in the Scandals of Fort Worth.

Playing the part of J.D. Granger, is J.D. Granger, whilst next to him, playing the part of Kay Granger is his mother, Kay Granger.

J.D.'s full name is John Dean. No, he was not named after the famous Watergate figure. J.D. was already born when John Dean became famous.

J.D. Granger is named after his father, the first husband of Kay Granger. John Dean the first left the Granger Grifter Gang decades ago, leaving Kay to raise her Golden Child, J.D. alone.

Along with his twin siblings, about whom nothing much is known.

Though phrases like 'black sheep' and 'prison' come up.

Kay was left to raise three kids on her own, trying out various schemes to make money, as the years rolled on. Eventually Kay discovered that being in politics was the route to her and her children's financial security.

This money making career path led from being the Mayor of Fort Worth to being a Representative in Congress, where for years now Kay Granger has seen her wealth grow via various real estate holdings, and other schemes.

Kay wanted her Golden Child to be a lawyer, so as to better follow her in the money making business of being a politician.

J.D. lacked the adequately high LSAT, and other scores, to get into a top tier law school. Eventually Kay was able to get J.D. into a 4th tier law school from whence eventually J.D. earned a law degree, and then a job as a low level prosecutor for Tarrant County.

Being a low level prosecutor does not pay well, and with J.D.'s limited legal skills, that career path was bleak.

While J.D. was waiting to get assigned his first case his mother got involved in a bizarre scheme disguised as flood control, but which was actually an economic development scheme which would greatly enhance the value of multiple properties owned by the Granger Gang in the area of the proposed development.

When the scheme became public there was a muted public outcry regarding Granger's conflicts of interest. And so the Granger Gang holdings were placed in some sort of trust, the nature of which has never been clear. But, that part of the Scandals of Fort Worth faded as the years went by with more scandals coming to the forefront.

At some point it was realized the Trinity River Vision was floundering. A means to secure federal funding was needed. And so the Tarrant Region Water District, it being the entity which is to blame for the vision which has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle, looked to the bowels of the Tarrant County Courthouse and snagged the totally unqualified, totally inexperienced J.D. Granger to be the Executive Director of the Trinity River Vision Authority, on the payroll for a sum which eventually exceeded $200K a year, plus perks and benefits.

J.D.'s hiring was designed to motivate his mother to secure federal funding for the economic development scheme which would economically benefit the Grangers.

Kay Granger has largely failed at getting the more prosperous parts of America to funnel funds to Fort Worth for her pet project.

And after boondoggling along for most of this century demands that something be done about that which has become Fort Worth's worst embarrassment led to wasting another half million bucks to find out basically nothing, and which did lead to J.D. Granger being fired from his job of botching being a project director, to instead being in charge of imaginary flood control, while still being paid the absurd sum of over $200,000 a year.

Hence the latest chapter in the ongoing soap opera of the Scandals of Fort Worth.

In the past couple months incoming messages have brought some interesting tidbits of information regarding the current inner status of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision and its dysfunctional parent, the Tarrant Region Water District.

In the coming days and weeks, as we move into the next decade, and Fort Worth's third decade of boondoggling along with its vitally needed flood control project, with its three simple little bridges stuck partially built over dry land, we may get around to elaborating on some of which we have been told about some aspects of the Scandals of Fort Worth which have not yet been made available for public consumption...

J.D. Granger Booted Off Fort Worth's Panther Island

I first learned of the alleged "J.D. Granger Out" news via what you see here, a screen cap from Facebook, seen last night.

Soon thereafter a couple incoming text messages and emails told me the same thing.

The news in the Facebook screen cap came via NBC DFW. I clicked the link to the J.D. Granger Out as Top Manager of Fort Worth’s Panther Island Project article to find both video of the TV news segment, and a print article summarizing, sort of, the TV news segment.

We will get to the news from NBC DFW later in this blogcast, but before that mention must be made of the fact that soon after first learning this news I found myself reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram version of this "news" in an article titled Panther Island to hire manager, as J.D. Granger’s role with Fort Worth project changes.

Okay, we seem to have a bit of a contradiction just in the titles of these two articles. NBC DFW has J.D. Granger "Out", whilst the Star-Telegram simply has J.D. Granger's "Role Changed".

Let's look at both "news" articles to see if we can figure out what the truth might be.

First in the NBC DFW article, let's look at the first paragraph...

Major management changes at the embattled Trinity River Vision Authority included the removal of its executive director, J.D. Granger, who had headed up the “Panther Island” project since its beginning more than a dozen years ago.

Okay, that seems fairly clear. J.D. Granger has been removed from the executive director job for which he was ridiculously unqualified.

But, then this...

Granger, the son of a powerful congresswoman who started the project, will instead work directly for Jim Oliver, head of the Tarrant Regional Water District.

First off, I don't believe it was Kay Granger who actually started this absurd project. Second off, we learn that J.D. has been removed from the one job he botched to instead working directly for the guy who hired J.D., years ago, Jim Oliver, who later claimed he hired Granger because it was the right thing to do. I've long wondered why no one has ever asked Jim Oliver why hiring Kay Granger's son was the right thing to do. As for that working directly for Jim Oliver, did we not learn among the multiple "findings" in the widely reviled Riveron Review, that one of the problems with the Trinity River Vision mess was the management structure, and that in that Review it was stated that J.D. Granger reported directly to Jim Oliver? So, really, what has changed? Anything reality based?

And then this...

Oliver told NBC 5 Investigates that Granger will focus on flood control projects, while the economic development part of Panther Island - once a major interest for Granger - will be taken over by the city of Fort Worth.

Oh. Granger will now work on flood control projects. In an area of Fort Worth which has not flooded in well over a half century due to Trinity River levees long ago installed to prevent flooding. Yes, that should keep Kay's son real busy, and well worth his exorbitant salary.

And then this...

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger is credited with creating the project, first labeled Trinity Vision, and she is nearly solely responsible for securing federal dollars for its creation.

This article marks the first time I have ever read that Kay Granger is credited with creating that which has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle. If that is true that alone should get her booted out of Congress in 2020. And she is responsible for pork barreling the federal funds for its creation? I thought Kay was supposed to find federal funds to augment the dollars the locals were contributing.

Maybe it is the use of the word "creation" which seems off. Maybe, because so far, with millions already spent, nothing much has been created. Well, there are those remnants of three simple little bridges stuck in slow motion construction mode for years. I do not recollect The Boondoggle ever labeled "Trinity Vision". Long ago, near the start of this century, it began as "Trinity Uptown" before morphing into "Trinity River Vision". Then various iterations added to the mix "Uptown" and "Central City". Then J.D. Granger, and his minions of nonsense purveyors, conjured the Panther Island absurdity, where there is no island, and never will be an island, by any sane definition of what makes an island.

And then this...

Despite the many setbacks, the city of Fort Worth has continued to pledge its commitment to completing Panther Island, with voters last year approving a $250 million bond package to make that happen.

I do not recollect reading about this particular city of Fort Worth pledge. As for that $250 million bond package. That was the result of a fraudulent ballot measure which had voters believing they were approving "Flood Control and Drainage" projects. There was no mention of "Panther Island" or "Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision" or any of the other names by which the project goes, on that ballot measure.

Now let's take a look at the Star-Telegram's Panther Island to hire manager, as J.D. Granger’s role with Fort Worth project changes article about J.D. Granger's new job status.

First off we learn...

Granger will no longer be the top manager of Panther Island. Someone with experience coordinating multiple government entities is needed to help finish the $1.18 billion project, according to the authority.

Oh my, isn't that nice. After all these years of frittering away time and money someone with actual experience will be hired to help finish America's Dumbest Boondoggle. One can not help but wonder what sort of fool it would be who would want to take on this un-funded debacle.

And then this...

Granger, who makes more than $200,000, has worn many hats since the Trinity River project was first conceived more than a decade ago. The authority has been responsible for entertainment on the river, like Oktoberfest and Fort Worth’s Forth, finalizing design standards for development on the island, and working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

I have always wonder at what point in time it was that the Trinity River Vision evolved into being responsible for entertainment on the river. Conceived more than a decade ago? Try conceived almost two decades ago, near the start of the new century. One can also not help but wonder what those finalized design standards might be for development on the imaginary island.

And then this...

The project, first envisioned in the early 2000s, aims to cut a 1.5 mile bypass channel in the Trinity River north of downtown Fort Worth. The channel will form two islands, collectively known as Panther Island, and will help mitigate flooding while creating roughly 800 acres of prime real estate. It requires significant federal funding but has received little.

Okay, previously, as we pointed out, this article says the project was conceived more than a decade ago, and then in the above paragraph says it was first envisioned in the early 2000s. I did not know til reading that above paragraph that there are now two imaginary islands. Shouldn't they then collectively be known as the Panther Islands? Prime real estate? We haven't even reached the point where that prime real estate, currently an industrial wasteland, becomes an EPA superfund cleanup site.

The project requires significant federal funding? Well, isn't that special? What sane town begins a project of such magnitude without the funding already in place? Particularly when this project is propaganda-ized as being vitally needed flood control.

Land was stolen for this project, via the eminent domain abuse method. Eminent domain is used to take property for the public good, such for highways, schools, hospitals, that type thing. The fact that it is now obvious the land taken was not for a vital public need, due to the dawdling slow motion of the project, that and the fact it has never been about actual needed flood control, well, I would think at this point in time a lawyer would have an easy time bringing massively expensive lawsuits against the perpetrators of this fraud.

I personally know one or two of the victims of the Trinity River Vision eminent domain abuse, which is part of what fuels my disgust.

The article contains multiple typical Star-Telegram bits of propaganda, repeating debunked nonsense without questioning the ridiculousness of what is being quoted, such as verbiage from J.D. Granger.

Read the entire Panther Island to hire manager, as J.D. Granger’s role with Fort Worth project changes.article for the whole scope of this latest iteration of America's Dumbest Boondoggle, but before you do that we leave you with the last paragraph, with one final gem from Fort Worth's least favorite son, J.D. Granger...

“I thought I’d be gone long before,” he said. “I’ve always said I’ll stay here until this thing’s on cruise control. I think we’re right about there, and so that’s at least my commitment to local community.”

Yeah, J.D., there were a lot of us who thought you'd be gone long before. And yet you are still here. So, J.D. thinks the unfunded project is almost on cruise control, which apparently is what he thinks was his commitment to the local community.

I am still waiting for the forensic audit to find out where the money spent has gone. How much has been wasted in salaries being paid long after a project of this sort should have long ago been completed? How much has been spent on all the websites promoting the propaganda? How much has been spent on signage? How much has been spent on propaganda publications mailed quarterly? How much has been spent on junkets?

It is over a decade since I first heard from someone close to the J.D. Granger Trinity River Vision operation. This person identified as Deep Moat. Eventually I learned Deep Moat's identity. Way back then, over a decade ago, Deep Moat was upset by what Deep Moat eye witnessed. The party atmosphere at TRVA headquarters. This sitting around discussing where to go for lunch on the TRVA expense account. The well stocked liquor supply. Discussing where to go on another junket. Deep Moat was privy to the discussions of that which became the various Trinity River parties, like Rockin' the River and Octoberfest. Deep Moat did not understand why this was part of the Trinity River Vision. Deep Moat resented seeing tax payer dollars being spent in what Deep Moat thought was wrong and wasteful.

When, if ever, is there going to by any sort of accounting of the money which has been wasted by J.D. Granger during the course of well over a decade during which he has been on the public dole?

When, if ever, will Fort Worth get an actual legitimate newspaper of record? And is Amon Carter rolling over in his grave seeing what has been done to his city?

Futile Right Wing Trumpist's Boot Kay Granger Attempt

 A few days ago I blogged in Republican Hopes To Boot Kay Granger In 2020 Primary about a cryptic text message I received regarding an unidentified Republican supposedly about to announce that she or he was going to challenge Kay Granger in the upcoming primary.

And that that challenger was going to make Kay Granger's involvement in the Trinity River Vision mess, which has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle, and her son's part in creating that mess, as being the central focus of this challenger's assertion that Kay Granger needs to be removed from Congress.

I made a couple attempts to get the text messenger to tell me who it was who thought they could un-seat Granger.

I also emailed another person about this, because that person had emailed me weeks ago about his possible Republican challenge to Granger. I emailed this person asking if it was he who I was being texted about.

The reply was that it was not he, and that his attempts to ask fellow Republicans if they knew who this might be came up with no answer. Since I have no known connections to Republicans, I knew no one to ask, other than this guy who emailed me saying he was considering a Republican challenge to Granger.

Then, a day or two ago, that aforementioned emailer who was thinking about challenging Granger emailed me that which you see above. Some sort of announcement by a guy I have never heard of, Chris Putnam, planning a primary challenge to Granger.

In that previous blogging about this I made mention of the fact that I did not know why I was being told about some guy possibly running. I was then told it was hoped I would be supportive. This perplexed me. How would anything I said or did be of any use to a Republican trying to un-seat Granger?

And when I read this Putnam guy's announcement it further perplexed me as to why anyone would think I would think this guy was a good Granger replacement.

I then text messaged the entity who originally texted me about some un-identified person who was thinking of challenging Granger, who supposedly wanted me to know such a challenge was in the works. I asked if it was this Putnam guy and why in the world would anyone think I would think this was a good guy to challenge Granger?

Just the following from the announcement is disturbing, saying Putnam is someone who "will stand with...Trump, protect our border, & defend the sanctity of innocent life. Kay Granger hasn't - I will".

Stand with Trump? Okay, anyone standing with Trump is someone the majority of Americans do not want to stand anywhere near.

"Protect our border"? This is what is known as a dog whistle, heard by the types who are unable to figure out our current president is a moron, with this protect our border dog whistle being shorthand for stopping that imaginary invading flood of illegals marching into America so they can vote and overthrow the government, whilst stealing government services, like food stamps and health care. If you have no awareness that this type nonsense is believed, just listen to right wing hate speech. WBAP radio, if you are in the DFW market.

And then there is this Putnam guy's other dog whistle, "defend the sanctity of innocent life". Right wing Republicans are big on worrying about protecting unborns from being aborted. But, after those unborns are born the right wing Republican concerns mostly disappear. Defending the sanctity of innocent life from automatic rifles is not a concern. Or making sure kids have adequate health care, or mom's get both pre-natal and post-natal care from places like Planned Parenthood.

The following meme, gleaned from Facebook is illustrative of this point...

If this Chris Putnam guy who wants to replace Kay Granger wants to defend innocent life, how many of these other pro-life issues is he supporting?

So, no, I will be of no support to this Chris Putnam guy's attempt to boot Kay Granger.

Quite the contrary...