Is Fort Worth Star-Telegram Finally Truthfully Reporting About Panther Island Boondoggle?

I was in the midst of writing a relating blog post somewhat about this subject, and then this came in, which seemed more timely.

Apparently what you see here is the front page of the Sunday, March 3, 2019 edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Moments ago Elsie Hotpepper text messaged this to me via my phone.

Seconds later I saw myself flagged on Facebook via Mr. Wayneman. I went to Facebook to see this is also appearing on Facebook's "Panther Island Boondoggle" page.

I am not sure I remember if I knew there was such a Facebook page.

On that Panther Island Boondoggle Facebook page, regarding Sunday's Star-Telegram, Mr. Wayneman had this to say...

WOW did a journalist wake up from a coma to report some real news at the Star Telegram? It's been ages since I've bought an edition, but I might actually go out and get this one.

I was able to read the part of the article which is on the front page. At my current location I do not have access to the hard copy Star-Telegram.

From what I was able to read I am not sure if a journalist has actually woken from a coma to actually honestly, accurately report about this ridiculous absurdity which has been boondoggling along most of this century.

With no end in sight.

Does the article make mention of the Star-Telegram's complicity in this debacle? Starting with that long ago, early in this century, Sunday edition headline trumpeting "Trinity Uptown to turn Fort Worth Into Vancouver of the South?"

And all the following years of not accurately reporting on all the various aspects of this, which in the end may end up being some sort of criminal conspiracy of the RICO racketeering sort.

Will the Star-Telegram now report on all the dozens upon dozens of instances of eminent domain abuse which have left hundreds hurt by this project? With their property taken years ago, their land gone, some of which is now covered by those pitiful little bridges stuck in slow motion construction, over dry land?

Will the Stat-Telegram finally accurately report about those bridges? About what the construction problems are?

Will the Star-Telegram finally point out that it is a lie to claim those bridges are being built over dry land in order to save time and money.

When there was no option but to build them over dry land.

Because the funds to dig the ditch to go under the bridges do not exist. And if being built over dry land in order to save time, why has the construction now been going on for over four years? With the new completion dates being in the next decade?

Is the Star-Telegram answering those questions? If not, I think their reporter is still in a coma...

Wondering Again Why Fort Worth Does Not Vote On Public Works Projects While Other Towns Do

No, on the left you are not looking at an artist's rendering of the little lake envisioned in the Trinity River Vision Panther Island Boondoggle.

The size of the lake and the mountains in the distance likely clued you that this is not a view of anything Fort Worth related.

What you are looking at is the new floating bridges crossing Lake Washington, connecting Seattle with towns to the east, like Redmond, where Microsoft lives.

That is an East Link light rail train you see on the north floating bridge. The East Link is part of a $2.5 billion project, one of America's largest and most expensive transit expansions.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth the TRVPIB may soon start building its three non-signature bridges to nowhere, built over an imaginary flood diversion channel for which there is no funding to build.

I don't believe anyone in the Seattle zone has the hubris to refer to the above bridges as signature bridges, even though they are quite unique, with something like 4 of the world's 5 biggest floating bridges doing their floating over water in Washington.

Now, where am I going with this?

Well, yesterday something had me reading the Wikipedia article about Venice. That somehow had me going to the Wikipedia article about Seattle, in which I found the following paragraph interesting when it occurred to me that I would read nothing of its kind if I read the Wikipedia article about Fort Worth....

Seattle has started moving away from the automobile and towards mass transit. From 2004 to 2009, the annual number of unlinked public transportation trips increased by approximately 21%. In 2006, voters in King County passed proposition 2 (Transit Now) which increased bus service hours on high ridership routes and paid for five Bus Rapid Transit lines called RapidRide. After rejecting a roads and transit measure in 2007, Seattle-area voters passed a transit only measure in 2008 to increase ST Express bus service, extend the Link Light Rail system, and expand and improve Sounder commuter rail service. A light rail line from downtown heading south to Sea-Tac Airport began service on December 19, 2009, giving the city its first rapid transit line with intermediate stations within the city limits. An extension north to the University of Washington is under construction as of 2010; and further extensions are planned to reach Lynnwood to the north, Des Moines to the south, and Bellevue and Redmond to the east by 2023. Mayor Michael McGinn has supported building light rail from downtown to Ballard and West Seattle.

Read the above and make note of how many times this century Seattle and King County voters have voted on various transit measures, funding various transit projects. If I remember right the vote that resulted in Seattle's first rapid transit line took place in the 1990s.

Also in the 1990s Seattle voted five times on a measure to extend the Seattle monorail. The first billion dollar measure passed. But some voters did not like the plan. So another measure was put to a vote and then another and another and another and finally the monorail extension was killed, replaced by the Link Light Rail, which now seems obvious to most everyone is a much better idea than extending the monorail.

Now, isn't it interesting how a town like Seattle puts public works projects to a public vote and thus secures funding, which results in completed projects, some of which have been voter approved and completed during the period of time the Trinity River Vision Panther Island Boondoggle has been dithering along, with no public vote.

Is it even legal in Washington to have public works projects which the public has not approved of by voting?

It's likely not a legal issue which has the public voting on public works projects in Washington. It is likely more of a common sense type deal.

As in, if a public works project is legit and will benefit the public, the public can be sold on the benefits of the project and will agree to be taxed to fund the project.

The cabal which runs Fort Worth knew its bizarre economic development plan could not be approved by any sort of public vote. Such a measure would not stand the scrutiny of an actual election campaign where actual legit questions would be asked and need answers before voters would vote to approve.

Questions like how can this be a flood control project when the area of the project has not flooded in over a half a century, kept dry after massive levees were built to contain the Trinity River as it passes downtown Fort Worth?

How could approving to fund the flood diversion channel be given a go ahead by voters when to this day there is no engineering plan in existence as to how the flooding water is to be diverted and how much the mechanism to do so is going to cost to build?

Would the voting public have voted yes for an economic development project disguised as a public works project when that project required using eminent domain to take the property and livelihoods of dozens upon dozens of their fellow Fort Worthers?

Anyway, methinks the only way the Trinity River Vision Panther Island Boondoggle can ever actually be something someone can see is if the project is legitimized by being put to a public vote resulting in the public agreeing to be taxed to fund the project because the public sees the project will greatly benefit everyone.

I know snowballs chance in hell that will ever happen.......

Fort Worth Really Is Where The Jest Begins As The Funniest Big City In America

Last night Elsie Hotpepper emailed me a link with the message in the email saying "Apparently they didn't factor in our politicians...."

The link was to an article in Texas Monthly titled Where the Jest Begins.

Apparently an in depth scientific study was made by a group of some university's scientists to determine the answer to the important question everyone has always wondered about, as in, which big city in America is the funniest.

And so a Top 50 Funny City List was compiled using a complex calculation method factoring in the number of comedy clubs, comedians and how often a town's people visit funny websites.

The computer went to work and eventually figured out that Chicago is America's funniest town.

The Texas Monthly article has a paragraph about how Texas fared, funny-wise....

Texas cities, however, mostly tanked. Austin, at number 14, was the state’s only reasonably funny locale. Dallas and Houston came in at 36 and 37, respectively; Arlington was 46; and San Antonio was 47. Scroll down to the very bottom of the list and there, at number 50, you’ll find Fort Worth—the unfunniest city in America, according to science.

Well, even though I totally respect the scientific method used to determine that Fort Worth is the least funny of the Top 50 biggest towns in America, methinks, like Elsie Hotpepper thought, that the data used to determine a town's funniness was not broad enough.

Methinks things like Kay Granger being Fort Worth's Congresswoman should have been factored in.  Along with Kay's son being given a nepotistic job for which he had zero qualifications, as in running the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, I mean Panther Island Boondoggle. (I just can not get used to the funny, goofy new name for the Boondoggle)

Which is just another funny Fort Worth factor. How many towns on this Top 50 Funny List  have anything as goofy as the Panther Island Boondoggle going on in their town? How many towns on this Top 50 Funny List are building three bridges over an imaginary flood bypass channel for which no money has been secured to dig an un-needed flood bypass channel?

How many other towns in this Top 50 Funny List have something as funny as the Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats going on in a polluted river running past their downtowns?

How many other towns on this Top 50 Funny List have done something as goofy and funny as open the 21st century's first drive-in movie theater?

How many other towns on this Top 50 Funny List has done something as goofy as naming their downtown zone "Sundance Square" and then after decades of there being no square in Sundance Square, finally building a square, but then do something funny like name the new square "Sundance Square Plaza?"

How many other towns on this Top 50 Funny List have had a mayor like former Fort Worth mayor Mike Moncrief, who would do something as funny as pour grape kool-aid in their town's river thinking it would turn the river purple, and do so in some sort of odd homage to a local school's colors?

I really believe a broader funny city scientific survey would have placed Fort Worth in its proper place on a list of the Top 50 Funniest Cities in America, with that proper place being Fort Worth is clearly the #1 Funniest City in America.

Rolling Through Arlington's Findlay Linear Park Causing Me To Think About The Panther Island Boondoggle

This morning my refrigerator informed me I was in need of a re-stocking the milk supply.

ALDI is my milk supplier.

I'd not checked in with Arlington's resident Indian Ghosts for several days, so I decided to do so before going to ALDI to get a couple jugs of processed cow extract.

In the picture you are looking at my handlebars after they'd visited the Indian Ghosts inside the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

The handlebars are parked on the curvy paved trail of the Bob Findlay Linear Park.

Bob Findlay was an award winning developer who had the vision to build what is known as Interlochen. In the middle/right of the picture you can barely see one of the Interlochen canals, with a fountain spouting water.

I do not know if at its inception Interlochen was originally called the Village Creek Vision. I do know that just like Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, I mean, Panther Island Bonndoggle, the public was not allowed to vote on the Arlington project.

However, Fort Worth's Panther Island Boondoggle is a public works project  the public has never been allowed to vote on, while Arlington's Interlochen is a private development that the public had no business voting on.

I am also fairly certain that, unlike the Panther Island Boondoogle, eminent domain was not abused to take property to build Interlochen.  I believe the Interlochen area was pretty much an undeveloped gravel pit type zone before Bob Findlay had the vision to turn it into what Interlochen is today, that being an extremely attractive  residential zone, with many of the homes having a canal in their backyard.

I also suspect that unlike the Panther Island Boondoggle the Interlochen Vision had a very precise project timeline, was likely fully funded and did not employ the unqualified son of that era's Congressperson as the project's director....