Arlington Pit & Fort Worth Wall Of Shame Examples Of Civic Irresponsibility

I saw that which you see here this morning on the front page of the online version of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Clicking the headline Creek erosion pits Arlington homeowner against school district actually worked, with the Star-Telegram allowing me to read the article without insisting I become a subscriber.

In that article I learned about a big pit growing from a creek in an Arlington resident's backyard, with the creek part of land owned by the Arlington school district.

A month or two ago I blogged about a Fort Worth erosion nightmare known as the Pulte Wall of Shame. I blogged about this in Why Is Fort Worth's Best Public Servant Ignoring The Pulte Wall Of Shame?

The best Fort Worth public servant being referred to is Fort Worth mayor, Betsy Price. As far as I know Fort Worth's best pubic servant has still not checked out the Pulte Wall of Shame, or directed the city to do anything about this growing menace.

The Arlington mayor apparently is slightly more deserving of a best public servant accolade, due to at least paying some minimal lip service to the nightmare being endured by one of his constituents. We learned this in the following paragraph in the Star-Telegram article...

Tinderholt and Scism have enlisted Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams in their cause. Williams said he has seen the erosion behind her house and found it distressing, but he said there are many others facing major erosion problems around the city.

So, apparently neither the Arlington School District or the City of Arlington can do anything about a growing pit that gets closer to swallowing a home with each incoming storm.

Has the Star-Telegram reported, yet, on the Pulte Wall of Shame? Has anyone seen any mention made in the inner pages of that dwindling newspaper? I believe Fort Worth Weekly has also ignored the Pulte Wall of Shame, despite pleas by those affected for some sort of journalistic help.

Why would the City of Fort Worth, and its highly esteemed mayor, turn a deaf ear to something like a golf course's giant wall in the process of crumbling and tumbling onto Fort Worth resident's property?

Is the owner of the golf course a member of Fort Worth's ruling oligarchy, known locally as the Good Ol' Boy (and Girl) Network? Is Betsy Price, or her husband, or one of her many minions, somehow invested with a vested interest in the Eagle Golf Club Fossil Creek?

Why would a city wearing its grown up pants totally ignore a failing wall which was allowed to be built with substandard construction techniques approved by city inspectors?

When the Pulte Wall of Shame comes tumbling down, with property damage and possible loss of life, how BIG of an increased liability will the city face due to ignoring the many pleas to do something about this problem?

Making certain all the water features in the Fort Worth Water Garden were safe would have saved Fort Worth a lot of money, rather than waiting til one of those features turned into a Drowning Pool before fixing an obvious problem.

Very perplexing.

Equally perplexing is how could any legit media operation declare Betsy Price as being Fort Worth's Best Public Servant in its annual Best of edition? That is sort of like a damned by faint praise type thing. Because if that woman is the best Fort Worth has in the public servant department, well, it seems that is a big clue why the town has so many problems.

Problems like a severe sidewalk shortage and America's Biggest Boondoggle come quickly to mind, along with other problems I could probably think of if I took a minute or two to think about it.

Oh, I know, the majority of Fort Worth city parks have no modern plumbing. That's right, the city that is the envy of the nation has America's highest number of outhouses populating its city parks.

Would it not be a good thing if Fort Worth ever had itself a public servant of the mayor sort who was an advocate of things like sidewalks, modern facilities in the town's parks, public transit of the modern sort, easy access to help for citizens with problems like crumbing walls and an open mind, heart and ears?

I know, never gonna happen. Which is yet one more example of how I am a doomed eternal optimist partially braced for the horrific nightmare that Donald Trump or Ted Cruz could be the next president.....

Why Is Fort Worth's Best Public Servant Ignoring The Pulte Wall Of Shame?

Dog Wall Watcher

Last night I got an email informing me I had been "tagged" in Facebook. I learned from past taggings that this means someone wants me to look at something. This time that something turned out to be what I soon learned is known as the Pulte Wall of Shame.

Upon first arriving at Facebook to see what had tagged me I saw a photo of a tall wall with a tall dog looking like it was standing guard. The text with the photo explained that in the 7 months that this wall has been in failure mode only in the past few days have the worried person's three dogs been acting like something is up. Or about to come down.

From a series of comments I was able to glean that this wall has been posing a threat to a neighborhood, with those who own the wall doing nothing to fix it. I wondered where this disaster waiting to happen was located, so I made a comment....

Durango Jones: Have you informed the city officials of whatever city this dangerous wall is crumbling in of this potential disaster? The city has a responsibility to act to fix such a problem. Should the disaster occur the city would be guilty of some type of criminal negligence, if they had been informed of the problem, pre-disaster.....

Well, imagine my shock when I was told this crumbling wall was crumbling in Fort Worth. Multiple attempts to get help from the city have been ignored. Attempts to talk to Fort Worth's mayor, Betsy Price, have failed.

The lady whose dogs are on wall guard duty then commented...

Krissy Harmon Irizarry: Oh, Durango, they could care less! Just as Layla stated. I've YET to speak to Betsy ONCE in 7 months via email or otherwise. I have invited them all (city council and city heads) out to see the wall in person...no one has come. We had a big meeting with the city in August where lots of promises were made to try to "help us" but it was all lip service. I've only heard from each of them once since then. And David Cooke...city manager...don't get me started. I've NEVER been spoken to so disrespectfully by anyone in my life. Rude is a huge understatement. Oh, did I forget to mention that the city never inspected the wall? Issued a permit, never inspected a 15 foot retaining wall bordering a home and holding back tons of pounds of earth, and then says that even if they didn't inspect they are not responsible. We are so thankful for Rep. Krause and his office...they have been our ONLY ally in this!

I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that Fort Worth's esteemed mayor has been impossible to reach.

Apparently the city issued permits to allow the building of the wall, then did no building inspections. The crumbling wall is at the Golf Club Fossil Creek, also known, apparently, as Eagle Golf.

I think I have gleaned that the neighborhood where homes are in danger is known as the Pulte Development, hence the Pulte Wall of Shame.

Below is a screen cap from the Pulte Walls of Shame Facebook page.

There has been some news coverage of the Pulte Wall of Shame. Nothing in the Star-Telegram, due to that newspaper's policy of not covering anything crumbling in Fort Worth. The local NBC affiliate was the first local TV station to show any interest in the crumbling wall. However, nothing ever made it to air, and NBC5 ceased responding to emails and phone calls.

Now why would NBC5 decide not to cover the story of the crumbling wall after they checked into the details? Well, I think the advertisement below might provide a clue....

In the Capital of Cronyism one can't help but  wonder about NBC5's relationship with Eagle Golf Club Fossil Creek.

I wonder if Betsy Price takes  phone calls from whoever owns the Golf Club Fossil Creek?

Last week Fort Worth Weekly released their highly anticipated Best of Fort Worth 2015 edition. That's the edition where a few readers submit their choices of what they think is Best in Fort Worth.

Who did those few readers think is the Best Public Servant in Fort Worth?

If you guessed Betsy Price you guessed right.

I would have thought the readers would have picked Betsy as the winner in the Best Old Gal category.

Now, why would Betsy Price show no interest in a crumbling wall which poses a threat to some of her constituents she has been elected to serve? Is Betsy Price not aware of the Pulte Wall of Shame? If not, why not? Why does Betsy Price ignore attempts to contact her about the Pulte Wall of Shame?

If the City of Fort Worth issued the permits which allowed the wall to be built. And then did no inspections of the construction of the wall to make it sure it was being built to code. And if that wall fails catastrophically, doesn't the city have some liability? The golf course is responsible for the wall. But who is responsible for allowing the wall to get built?

Wouldn't you think Fort Worth's Best Public Servant would show some concern over the Pulte Wall of Shame crumbling in her town?

Very perplexing.