McNutty Inspired Iconic Commentary About A Texas Town & Seattle

I saw this last night, via Facebook, via a fellow ex-PNWer, Miss McNutt, who shares with me the frequent seeing of scenes from our old home zone which make us long for seeing a scenic wonderland when we look out any random window of our abode.

The above scene of Seattle and the Space Needle is just a tad hyper realized. As in this is not a totally realistic scene of the view from Elliot Bay, looking at the Seattle waterfront, the Space Needle, and Mount Rainier.

However, it is close enough to the reality to evoke that dreaded homesick feeling.

I see this type iconic imagery of my old home zone, Seattle specifically, and it activates my annoyance at the delusional nonsense I experience at my current Texas location, well, not my exact current Texas location, but my previous Texas location.

A Texas location where absolutely nothing is remotely iconic, as in remotely anything which one sees an image of and knows exactly what one is looking at. And yet this Texas town, via its various propaganda purveyors, ever since I arrived, has touted this that or the other perfectly ordinary thing as being something special, something so special it causes other towns, far and wide, to be green with envy.

Or that that perfectly ordinary thing is so special it is iconic. A signature iconic image representing the town to the world. Things like three simple little bridges built over dry land, which look like freeway overpasses, get promoted as somehow being special, unique iconic signature bridges.

Or, something like a sporting goods store will be propaganda-ized to the locals as destined to be the #1 tourist attraction in Texas, thus worthy of subsidies and tax breaks.

And then six months later, when another of the same sporting goods store opens in Texas, followed soon thereafter by yet one more of the same sporting goods store in the same metropolitan area as the one which was going to be the imaginary top tourist attraction in Texas, those who spouted the ridiculous propaganda turn silent, never uttering a mea culpa confession to being part of a what amounted to being a scam.

Or there was the time those same lame propaganda-izers spewed nonsense regarding a lame food court type enterprise opening in the town's sleepy downtown, touting it as being the first such public market in Texas, modeled after public markets in Europe, and Seattle's Pike Place Market.

Seattle's Pike Place Market is yet one more iconic signature reality which exists in that Pacific Northwest town. The quickly failing imaginary public market in the Texas town I am talking about was called the Santa Fe Rail Market. It was pitiful. Even more pitifully pathetic than the town's current three little freeway overpass type bridges being touted as being iconically signature structures.

This Texas town we are talking about has been working on building itself a water feature for most of this century. That's what the three little bridges being built over dry land are part of. To one day connect the town's mainland to an imaginary island, where there may be canals, and a lake.

Over the years of this century, that Texas town's touted imaginary lake has changed in size, at times as big as 33 acres, some times shrinking to less than 10 acres. 

So far, we have not made note of that Texas town's propaganda-izers claiming that lake will create a waterfront like Seattle's, where cruise ships dock, along with ferry boats. 

However, the propaganda for that town's future waterfront does claim there will be a Panther Island Houseboat District.

You reading this in modern, sane locations in America, we are not making this up...

Does Arlington's Founders Plaza Make Arlington The Top Downtown In America?

The past week or two we seem to have been inundated with propaganda puffery pieces from Fort Worth's Ministers of Propaganda.

Top Downtown in America. Sundance Square Plaza is an award winning novelty, which towns across America should emulate. Panther Island Pavilion is a huge success drawing thousands to festival after festival.

I have blogged about my various perplexations on these subjects in several bloggings, such as...

Did The Prophet JD Granger Foresee The Irving Music Factory Making Panther Island Pavilion Look Like A Hillbilly Mudpit? and The Futile Search For The Missing Pavilion, Island & Panther At Fort Worth's Panther Island Pavilion and Elsie Hotpepper Helped Me Learn How Fort Worth Became The Top Downtown In America.

I'd come to terms with the fact that there is no island or pavilion in Panther Island Pavilion. I'd already sort of addressed the fact that the music events that take place at the erroneously named Panther Island Pavilion are not as "special" as Trinity River Vision Boondogglers, like J.D. Granger, propagandasize.

But what has been nagging me in the back of my memory is the thing where the Fort Worth Ministers of Propaganda spew the propaganda that Sundance Square Plaza in Sundance Square, a square which suffered for decades without a real square, is anything all that special.

And then it came to me what has been nagging my memory.

The repetitive pattern of the Fort Worth propaganda.

I think the first time I was burned by Fort Worth propaganda was when I read, over and over again, in the main propaganda spewer, the Star-Telegram, that a new enterprise in Fort Worth, the Santa Fe Rail Market, was going to be the first public market in Texas, and was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and public markets in Europe.

Well, you can go to the webpage I made about being appalled about various aspects of this Sante Fe Market propaganda and see quite clearly why it clearly aggravated me. That being the propaganda that this totally lame group of "stores" was the first public market in Texas and was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market, with both claims being not even remotely legit.

What further aggravated me was just a short distance to the east, in this town called Dallas, there is a public market which every single one of my visitors from the Pacific Northwest have opined reminded them of Pike Place Market, that being the Dallas Farmers Market.

Okay, now let's switch to the subject of this little plaza that downtown Fort Worth's propaganda spewers are currently touting is drawing thousands of visitors a week.

There are a couple plazas in Dallas which actually do draw a lot of visitors. One is called Dealey Plaza. The other is called Pioneer Plaza. Dealey Plaza is known world-wide in a way I seriously hope Fort Worth's plaza never is. I have been in Dealey Plaza at an event, along with several thousand people, many more people than I think can cram into Fort Worth's Sundance Square Plaza.

But it is not in Dallas where the plaza is located that I finally remembered and realized came along before Fort Worth's, and is very similar to Fort Worth's. And is bigger.

The little town of Arlington, sandwiched between Dallas and Fort Worth, at its city center, you will find Founders Plaza. Founders Plaza has an actual pavilion, called Levitt Pavilion. There is no imaginary island surrounding Levitt Pavilion.

That is a screencap of the Founders Plaza Levitt Pavilion website at the top. Below  is a screen cap of a lot of people in Founders Plaza enjoying one of the 50 free music events held at Levitt Pavilion annually.

A description from the Founders Plaza website informs us that it has every feature you will find in the Fort Worth plaza. And more. Did the Fort Worth plaza people copy Arlington, I am wondering?

The Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts is inside Founders Plaza, a city park in the heart of Downtown Arlington at 100 W. Abram St. on the corner of Center and Abram streets directly across the street from City Hall. Founders Plaza is the crown jewel in the revitalization of Downtown Arlington and has become a favorite place for an impromptu picnic lunch, community gatherings and celebrations. The park includes a spacious lawn, walkways, seating walls, beautiful trees and flower beds, an interactive water fountain generously donated by the Junior League of Arlington, public art, a history garden and the Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts.

Inside Founders Plaza, visitors will find two special areas: the History Garden and the Meditation Grove. The History Garden, near the northeast entrance to Founders Plaza directly across from City Hall and the library, features historical markers about Arlington and its founders along with native plants. The Meditation Grove, nestled in the southwest corner behind the Junior League fountain, offers a tranquil area for reflection.

I have been to an event at Founders Plaza, several years ago. I remember, also years ago, when the Super Bowl took place in Arlington, with ESPN setting up on a downtown Fort Worth parking lot, wondering why they did not use that plaza in downtown Arlington.

And then I forgot about that plaza til today.

So, did those who make what little happens in downtown Fort Worth get Green with Envy, years ago, upon seeing what Arlington had done, plaza-wise, and finally decide it was time to add a square to Sundance Square?

Modeled after the square in Arlington?

We all know how Fort Worth likes to model things after other things, like Pike Place Market. Only this time they did a good job of modeling. The similarities between the two plazas really are striking, however, with Arlington having a real stage, more landscaping, trees and a lawn.....

Funkytown Gets Down While Dallas Can't Tube Along With Other Nonsense

On the left you are looking at what is known as a screencap. This particular screencap is the home page of the Panther Island Pavilion website.

I was peacefully reading this week's Fort Worth Weekly when I found myself looking at a large ad for Panther Island Pavilion and its current cast of music acts of whom I have never heard, playing at what is, supposedly, the only waterfront stage in Texas.

I remember when Fort Worth's Santa Fe Rail Market was promoted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and other local propaganda purveyors as being the first and only public market in Texas, ignoring the fact that it was not only not the first and only public market in Texas, it was not even the first Public Market in Fort Worth.

From the Panther Island Pavilion website home page an interesting blurb...

© Panther Island Pavilion - All Rights Reserved.
A Product of Trinity River Vision Authority

The Panther Island Pavilion name has been copyrighted? With All Rights Reserved? How much did that cost the taxpayers? This is a "Product of Trinity River Vision Authority"?

A Product?

Like a flood control product? Or is this an economic development product? Producing the imaginary one and only waterfront music venue in Texas? On an imaginary island? With an imaginary pavilion?

Why do the knuckleheads who provide Fort Worth's chamber of commerce type propaganda have such a penchant for ridiculous hyperbole? There is no island. There is no pavilion. The waterfront is a polluted river.

Panther Island Pavilion is only the most recent example of this type absurdity.

Been to Sundance Square lately?

The fact that there is no Sundance Square has been perplexing Fort Worth's few tourists for decades. Yes, currently there is some sort of actual square under construction on a couple of the parking lots that those few Fort Worth tourists often mistake for being Sundance Square, but the completion date for that actual Sundance Square seems to have the same type fleeting completion schedule as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Back to the Panther Island Pavilion absurdity. On the website's home page is where I learned that Panther Island Pavilion is the only waterfront stage in Texas, in the following blurb...

Panther Island Pavilion (PIP) is a scenic outdoor venue on the Trinity River with the Downtown Fort Worth skyline as a backdrop. PIP has the only waterfront stage in Texas, a main stage for year-round events and two additional band shells for multi-act festivals. A sand beach provides public access to the river for boating, tubing, fishing, and swimming. Kayak and Paddleboard concessionaries are located on site for rentals.

Scenic? PIP? A waterfront stage? Skyline as a backdrop? A sand beach? Swimming?

Ugh. I could elaborate, but I think Ugh suffices.

Also on the Panther Island Pavilion website's home page you get to experience an amazing example of propaganda and hubris in a series of bizarre, for want of a better phrase, slogans...

SOAK YOURSELVES IN GOOD TIMES.
THE COOLEST PLACE TO PARTY IN SUMMER.
WHAT DO YOU MISS ABOUT NEW BRAUNFELS? BEER. WE GOT IT. CHEERS.
YOU KNOW WHAT YOU CAN'T DO IN DALLAS? TUBE.
GOOD TIMES ARE FLOWING IN FORT WORTH.
THIS IS WHERE FUNKYTOWN GETS DOWN.
LET THE COOL TIMES FLOW.
FOR A GOOD TIME...JUST ADD WATER.

You can't tube in Dallas? Add water for a good time? There is no beer in New Braunfels? Funkytown gets down here?

This past week's #1 Fort Worth Scandal has been the revelation that Fort Worth's Mayor, Betsy Price, has been traveling the world with a contingent of Fort Worth Police as she spreads the Fort Worth message across the planet, increasing the flood of tourists coming to Junky, I mean, Funkytown, to experience what can only be experienced in Fort Worth.

So, when one of those thousands of Japanese, Chinese, Australian, German or other tourists arrive and let's say, one of the Japanese, asks the Fort Worth Propagandist, "Where Sundance Square?"

"Sundance Square is downtown Fort Worth."

"What? No square? We want to see square that make other towns green with envy?"

"Sorry. No square."

"Okay, how bout Cultural District. We come to see Fort Worth Culture."

"Great. There are several museums in the Fort Worth Cultural District."

"Museums? We not come to Texas to see museums. We have museums in Tokyo. We want to see western culture. Cowboys."

"No problem. We can go to the Fort Worth Stockyards. There you will see cowboys and longhorns and western cultural stuff."

"Great. That what we come to Fort Worth to see. Get to see real stockyards too?"

"Well....sort of."

I tell you, Fort Worth really needs some sort of federally administered truth in labeling statute imposed upon the town....

Why Did Downtown Fort Worth Not Open A CityTarget On Wednesday?

In the picture you are looking at something called "CityTarget". This is an urban concept Target store.

This new Target store concept opened in three locations this past Wednesday, those being Los Angeles, Chicago and Fort Worth.

I'm sorry, I typed Fort Worth when I should have typed Seattle.

That is the Seattle CityTarget in the picture. It is located one block from Pike Place Market. Pike Place Market is a market that is like the Dallas Farmers Market on steroids.

Nothing like the Dallas Farmers Market, let alone the Dallas Farmers Market on steroids, exists in Fort Worth. Years ago, in a civic delusion that preceded Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle civic delusion, the powers-that-be in Fort Worth, powers like the town's sad excuse for a newspaper of record, the Star-Telegram, trumpeted a lame failure called the Santa Fe Rail Market as being modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market.

The misrepresentations, made by the local powers-that-be, in regards to the Santa Fe Rail Market, are very instructive, what with the same type deluded nonsense being foisted on the public in regards to the TRV Boondoggle.

For example, this morning the Star-Telegraph, (please note I typed Telegraph, not Telegram) pointed me towards an absurdest editorial in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram titled Funding for Fort Worth bridges and bikes good for the future.

The Star-Telegraph blogged about this twisted Star-Telegram editorial in a blogging titled They don't read. That blogging reprinted a very good comment to the Star-Telegram's editorial from someone calling himself gmsherry1953. You can read that comment on the Star-Telegraph's  They don't read blogging.

The fact that downtown Seattle has opened yet one more department store, in addition to all the department stores, grocery stores and vertical malls that already exist in downtown Seattle, with the first floor of the new CityTarget being a grocery store, a type store downtown Fort Worth lacks, except for something called Oliver's Fine Foods, a place which only a very imaginative person would call a real grocery store, has me thinking that it would behoove the powers-that-be in Fort Worth to devote some think time to the reasons why downtown Fort Worth lacks a single department store, grocery store, vertical mall and many of the other amenities one associates with a big town's downtown.

Yes, I know someone is going to say the reason why downtown Fort Worth lacks stores and is the deadest downtown of all the big towns in America, on the biggest shopping day of the year, that being the day after Thanksgiving, is because few people reside in downtown Fort Worth.

So, it would seem the question to be asked is why not enough people live in downtown Fort Worth to cause the normal development one sees in a big town's downtown?

The bizarre Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is partly touted as being the solution to bringing downtown Fort Worth out of its current doldrums, causing people to want to live in what's called the Trinity Uptown zone. An area, supposedly, where condos, apartments and other living quarters will be built. Along with other big town amenities, in addition to a tourist attraction the likes of San Antonio's River Walk. Only bigger.

Did I mention already the tendency of Fort Worth's powers-that-be to come up with exaggerated delusional plans that end up being big boondoggles?

Yeah, it seems really likely that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is going to out-do San Antonio's River Walk.

Just like the Cowtown Wakepark became the world's premiere urban wakeboarding destination.

In the graphic you are looking at the the population increase in downtown Seattle's various downtown areas from 1990 to 2010. Downtown Seattle, as a whole, grew 72%, outgrowing all of Seattle's neighborhoods outside of downtown.

Instead of coming up with pathetic boondoggles in the hope that the boondoggle will somehow cause Fort Worth's downtown to magically become like other big towns, Fort Worth's powers-that-be should look at towns like Seattle and make note of what it is that has caused those other town's Downtowns to become Boomtowns.

Seattle's Downtown became a Boomtown not as the result of a bizarre nepotistic plot using the abuse of eminent domain, with massive influxes of federal dollars to build bridges to nowhere, over giant, un-needed flood channels, with a little pond, and maybe some stagnant canals, to employ a Seattle congresswoman's unemployed son with a job for which he had zero qualifications.

Seattle's Downtown and other town's Downtowns become Boomtowns due to the organic, natural attributes and legitimate efforts of the people who live in the towns, not due to pathetic public works projects that the public is not allowed to vote on.

I'm done now. For now.

Why Does Fort Worth Pride Itself On Having The World's First Indoor Rodeo?

I had been told that, due to finally realizing how embarrassingly dumb it sounded, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had dropped its patented Fort Worth makes other towns "Green With Envy," due to something in Fort Worth, about which no one outside of Fort Worth is actually envious, or even knows about, verbiage.

The Star-Telegram had a few variations of its patented "Green With Envy" verbiage.

For instance, the Star-Telegram might say something like, the Trinity River Vision's Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats are the Envy of the Nation.

It was always a mystery to me how the Star-Telegram determined that towns far and wide were Green with Envy over something to do with Fort Worth or how the Star-Telegram determined that something in Fort Worth was the Envy of the Nation.

And now, this morning, a fresh Star-Telegram verbiage mystery.

The subject is the world's first indoor rodeo. Apparently Fort Worth has been harboring the delusion that Fort Worth brought the world its first indoor rodeo.

In a caption, on this morning's front page of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, under a photo of Fort Worth's indoor rodeo is this verbiage....

"Fort Worth prides itself on having the world's first indoor rodeo in 1918, but a city in Kansas begs to differ."

And then in the article about this extremely important subject...

"...lots of people, especially Fort Worth boosters and Western history buffs, see the issue as more than bragging rights over a historical footnote."

How is it determined that a city prides itself about something to do with that city?

Bragging rights? People in Fort Worth brag about allegedly having the world's first indoor rodeo?

Is this "prides itself" and "bragging rights" concept a Texas thing? Or a function of a massive civic inferiority complex?

I can not imagine reading in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Seattle prides itself on having the world's first Starbucks. Or a town in Minnesota is claiming bragging rights to the world's first indoor mall, while Seattle has long prided itself on having the world's first indoor mall with Northgate.

I doubt such embarrassing verbiage could make it past a Seattle Post-Intelligencer editor. And likely the writer of such embarrassingly dumb verbiage would be fired.

I imagine back when Fort Worth's indoor rodeo opened, with the claim of being the world's first, little attempt was made to verify if this was true.

This was way back in 1918. Fort Worth would have been even more of a backwater than it is now. I imagine back in 1918 the Fort Worth Star-Telegram spewed way bigger whoppers than the 2012 version does.

But let's just look at some of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's distorted exaggerations from this century.

The Star-Telegram repeatedly breathlessly reported that a new sporting goods store in Forth Worth, Cabelas, would be the biggest tourist attraction in Texas, thus worthy of the tax breaks the city was giving the store.

Within about a year the Fort Worth Cabelas was not even the only Cabelas in Texas, what with the opening of a Cabelas in Buda, down by Austin. And now the Fort Worth Cabelas is not even the only Cabelas in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, what with a second D/FW Cabelas now open in the North Dallas suburb of Allen.

Have you read a single word in the Star-Telegram acknowledging how outrageously that newspaper mis-represented Cabelas in Fort Worth?

Another example is the long defunct Fort Worth Santa Fe Rail Market. A very lame sort of food court, trumpeted by the Star-Telegram as being the first Public Market in Texas, and that it was modeled after Public Markets in Europe and Seattle's Pike Place Market.

Not only was the Santa Fe Rail Market not the first Public Market in Texas, it was not even the first Public Market in Fort Worth. The first Public Market in Fort Worth has a state historical marker designating its significance.

After the predictable failure of the Santa Fe Rail Market did the Fort Worth Star-Telegram do any sort of responsible post-mortem mea culpa type reportage? Not that I noticed.

And now, this morning, the Star-Telegram has Fort Worth bursting with pride due to thinking it had the world's first indoor rodeo.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram should list all the things Fort Worth prides itself on.

Like being the only city in the world to have happy hour inner tube floats in a feces infested polluted river.

Like priding itself on being the city with the fewest skyscrapers of any city in America with a population over 500,000.

Like taking pride in the fact that Fort Worth has the lowest mileage of sidewalks along side its mileage of roads of any city in America with a population over 500,000.

Like taking pride in the fact that Fort Worth's downtown is the only downtown in America of a town over 500,000 population, without a department or grocery store. (little Oliver's Fine Foods does not count}

Like the bragging rights a town gets when it has more drill holes poked in it than any other city in the world, in the world's biggest experiment in urban drilling. That is really something Fort Worth can pride itself on that makes towns far and wide Green with Envy....

An Early Texas Saturday Waiting For The Rapture While Wondering How A City Gives A Right Arm & Other Moncrief Nonsense

I am up early this Saturday morning of May 21, looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at what looks like a cauldron.

So far I have heard no news of the Rolling Rapture of 2011. No earthquakes. No reports of Christians flying skyward.

But I did learn in the Seattle P-I this morning that Rapture 2011 has sparked a lot of End of Earth parties.

When May 22 arrives on schedule tomorrow, what do all those people who spent their life savings buying all those billboards do after their erroneous beliefs are shattered?

Speaking of erroneous beliefs.

This morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram had another article about the plan to finally put a square in Sundance Square.

According to the article, "For years, downtown leaders have wanted to create a plaza, or square, to host events and gatherings."

So? What has stopped those downtown leaders from turning some of those downtown parking lots into a square for all these years?

And then, in a paragraph which has the words "Mayor Moncrief said" without making clear, with quotation marks, what he actually said, the article said this...

"That need became even more evident when ESPN set up its broadcast center during Super Bowl XLV in February on the very lots that Sundance Square wants to transform, Mayor Mike Moncrief said. Those events drew thousands of people downtown."

I added the quotation marks you see at the start and end of the above paragraph.

So, the need for a plaza became apparent after the ESPN debacle where ESPN set up a broadcast center on one of the parking lots, and then retreated when it got really cold and snow arrived. It has only been a few months since this occurred. And yet the Star-Telegram is re-writing history to suit its propaganda. The ESPN "events" only drew people to downtown Fort Worth on the Saturday before the Super Bowl. Because it was too COLD on the previous days.

In reference to the downtown Fort Worth parking lots and the dream to turn them into a real square, the Star-Telegram quoted Fort Worth's goofy mayor, again, and this time put what he said in quotation marks.

"A lot of cities would give their right arm to have what we have and will have," Moncrief said.

A lot of cities would give their right arm to have what Fort Worth has? And will have? Give up their right arm to have surface parking lots at the heart of their downtown that will become a square/plaza?

I think it'd be more accurate to say a lot of cities, with a population over 500,000, would be embarrassed that their downtown is so undeveloped that is has acres of surface parking lots at the heart of its downtown.

This downtown square propaganda is reminding me way too much of the downtown Fort Worth and Fort Worth Star-Telegram propaganda about the pathetic Santa Fe Rail Market boondoggle. Sold as the first public market in Texas, modeled after public markets in Europe and Seattle's Pike Place Market, the reality turned out to be lamer than a small town mall's food court.

This morning's article about the downtown plaza, that other cities would lose an arm to have, also said, "Fort Worth's Bass family developed Sundance Square."

How does one family develop a town's downtown? That is sort of bizarre.

Then again, in this week's Fort Worth Weekly, I read about the Bass Machine's secretive project to replace the elderly Will Rogers Coliseum. Apparently an attempt was made to get a bill passed that would have raised the tax rate on downtown Fort Worth hotels. Somehow this was to finance the construction of the new arena.

But, somehow the shady Bass Machine operation came to light and the bill was pulled. There is talk of having an actual bond election where the citizens of Fort Worth would actually be allowed to vote on this project. But so far, The Bass Machine is providing no details of their latest development.

What Is Kathleen Hicks Doing In Europe While Fort Worth Loses Its Streetcar?

Last night Fort Worth's City Council voted to stop studying whether or not it made sense for Fort Worth to build a little 6 mile round trip streetcar system, made up of 3 streetcars, carrying around 2,000 people a day.

I was astonished to learn this morning that $821,000 was spent on the now aborted study.

That is a lot of money. Who got that money, I could not help but wonder? They could have paid me $500 and I could have told whoever needed to know that the Fort Wort Steetcar was not a viable idea at this point in time.

How much did Fort Worth spend studying the obviously flawed Santa Fe Rail Market Boondoggle before that long defunct project actually went ahead to its fruitless fruition? For $500 I would also have gladly told whoever needed to know that the Santa Fe Rail Market was a seriously flawed idea based on erroneous misconceptions.

The thing that really caught my eye in this morning's news about last night's Fort Worth City Council streetcar vote, was that Mayor Mike Moncrief had to break a 3/3 tie due to District 8 Councilwoman, Kathleen Hicks being out of the country.

In Europe. On City of Fort Worth business.

I think I live in Ms. Hicks' district.

What in this impossibly strange world could Kathleen Hicks be doing in Europe that is somehow City of Fort Worth business. Who is paying for this junket in this city that can't keep its libraries and swimming pools open?

Is Kathleen Hicks over in Europe studying European Public Markets, getting ready for a Part II of the Santa Fe Rail Market Boondoggle? Remember how that particular boondoggle was supposedly modeled after public markets in Europe and Seattle's Pike Place Market. Yet somehow what Fort Worth ended up with bore no resemblance to anything in Seattle. Or Europe.

Maybe Kathleen Hicks is over in Europe studying how it is that no European city has an embarrassing eyesore across the street from its courthouse, like Fort Worth's Heritage Park, with Heritage Park being one of the few unique things that used to be a good embellishment to downtown Fort Worth, but is now a boarded up, rundown mess overlooking the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

In Hollywood you can go on a bus tour of the scenes of various Hollywood areas of notoriety and scandal. I wonder if any tourist dollars could be made by taking tourists on bus tours of Fort Worth's various boondoggles? Maybe Molly the Trolley could be used in this endeavor.

Fort Worth's First Public Market

My dear 2 readers. Today is a whine about the Fort Worth Star-Telegram blogging day. I do this for my own enjoyment, not yours. So, read on if you must, but it won't hurt my feelings if you don't.

So, this morning's paper brought me a lotta fresh fodder. Right now I'll only mention one. In the Work & Money section in an article under the headline "List of endangered sites set to get longer."

Among the supposedly historic sites in Fort Worth that are in danger is the one you see in the photo. That being the Fort Worth Public Market Building.

The article describes the Fort Worth Public Market Building as having been built in 1930 to provide space for local farmers and vendors, closing in 1941.

So, what's the big deal? Well. Just a few short years ago the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had absolutely no awareness that Fort Worth had had a Public Market Building where farmers vended their wares.

In downtown Fort Worth a pathetic, obviously doomed to fail, badly designed, poorly executed, dishonestly promoted, small mall food court like thing opened to much Star-Telegram brouhaha. This sad, now shuttered, mistake, was called the Sante Fe Rail Market.

The Star-Telegram over and over and over and over again, even after being told, more than once, they were wrong, repeatedly claimed that the Santa Fe Rail Market was not only the first Public Market in Fort Worth, Fort Worth's disinformation purveyor claimed the Santa Fe Rail Market was the first Public Market in Texas!

The Star-Telegram also served up the ridiculous assertion, over and over and over again, that the Santa Fe Rail Market was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and Public Markets in Europe. Just 30 miles to the west, in Weatherford, there is a Public Market. And 30 miles to the east, in Dallas, there is a Public Market. Both of which, particularly the Dallas Market, actually do resemble Seattle's Pike Place Market, a market no Star-Telegram employee must have ever seen, as in how in clear conscience could they then have repeatedly repeated this absurd assertion?

Regarding the endangered Fort Worth Public Market, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram repeated the misinformation about the Santa Fe debacle being the first in Texas many many many times, even after it was pointed out to them that the first Public Market in Fort Worth was within walking distance of both the new soon to fail pseudo public market and the Star-Telegram's offices. I suggested they send one of their bloviated reporters out for a look. I also suggested they send a reporter to Seattle and have the reporter write an article making note of all the similarities between Pike Place and the Santa Fe Rail Market. If he could find any.

It is sort of sad that a transplant from the west coast, exiled in Fort Worth, has to point out the facts of their own town to the local newspaper. Something ain't right about that.

So, today it was interesting to read that these few years later the Star-Telegram is now not only acknowledging the existence of Fort Worth's first Public Market, they even put a large photo of it in the paper to illustrate the endangered structures.

Now if only they'd examine their part in the Santa Fe Rail Market's failure, due to the Star-Telegram helping create an erroneous expectation for visitors, particularly those who had been to Pike Place or some other successful public market, who were then disgusted to visit that sad Santa Fe operation and see what a lame thing it was and realize they'd been lied to once more by the local paper of record. The Star-Telegram should be ashamed for its part in that enterprise's demise.

With today's discovery of the actual first public market in Fort Worth how does the Star-Telegram reconcile their ridiculous inconsistencies? One can't help but wonder.

Tomorrow, unless something else comes, along I'll blog about the latest outrage from Fort Worth's ruling junta.