I saw that which you see above in a
High Noon in Sundance Square: Reata’s Micallef takes a stand article in the online version of the Fort Worth Business Press.
This was yet one more article about the mess created in downtown Fort Worth by Sasha Bass. We recently blogged about this mess in
Time To Worry About Sundance Sasha With Lady Whistleworth.
So, the Sasha Bass mess has already been talked about in this venue. This article about the downtown Fort Worth Sundance Square mess did not so directly make Sasha Bass the focus of the mess, such as other articles have about this issue.
What got my attention in this Fort Worth Business Press article was the following paragraph which contained verbiage of the sort I have long been perplexed, and annoyed by, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, but not the more reality based Fort Worth Business Press...
Sundance Square is 35 blocks of downtown Fort Worth real estate owned by Ed and Sasha Bass. Both Sid and Lee Bass, two of Ed’s brothers, exited the Sundance partnership and sold their interests to him and his wife. The concept for Sundance was eldest brother Sid’s idea and he put the plan together back in the early 1970s. It was his brainchild and it developed into a unique and classy urban development, admired by many cities across the country. It came to epitomize Fort Worth’s motto of “Cowboys and Culture,” with its reference to famed Western outlaws and rascals, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, juxtaposed with the addition of a small, world-class art museum, The Sid Richardson. Sundance Square set the tone for the entire city. Today it is dotted by vacant storefronts and is the subject of intense controversy.
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I was several years into up close observation of Fort Worth before I learned that Sundance Square was a 35 block downtown development scheme, foisted on Fort Worth by the Bass family.
Early on, asking downtown locals where Sundance Square was, I was usually pointed to parking lots by a huge mural of the Chisholm Trail. Years later an actual square was finally built at that location, goofily called Sundance Square Plaza.
So, according to this article in the FWBP Sundance Square was a Bass brainchild intending to develop downtown Fort Worth into a unique and classy development.
Really? I really do not mean to be rude here, but, is what I have seen in downtown Fort Worth considered unique and classy? Really? Where? How" When?
Currently the north end of downtown Fort Worth features a boarded up eyesore homage to Fort Worth's history called
Heritage Park. The south end of downtown Fort Worth is the location of the notorious Water Gardens, a location which a few years ago drowned a few downtown Fort Worth visitors.
Are Heritage Park and the Water Gardens outside the 35 block classy and unique Sundance Square area? Why does the classy and unique downtown area have so few shopping venues, such as department stores and full sized grocery stores, which most downtowns have?
The Star-Telegram is notorious for claiming this that or some other perfectly ordinary thing in Fort Worth is making towns far and wide green with envy.
This article in the FWBP is claiming Fort Worth's unique and classy urban development is admired by many cities across the country.
Really? What would those cities be? How was this admiration for Fort Worth's downtown classiness and uniqueness expressed?
I have been to dozens of downtowns across dozens of American states. The only thing remotely unique about downtown Fort Worth is that boarded up Heritage Park, and the Water Gardens. The rest of downtown Fort Worth is perfectly nice, I would not suggest otherwise, but it is also perfectly ordinary, as previously said, not even remotely unique and classy.
And downtown Fort Worth is an extremely small downtown for a town with almost a million population. A downtown with few skyscrapers, thus not having a recognizable skyline, such as many other cities have, such as the worldwide recognized skyline of downtown Dallas.
Really, can anyone explain what is unique and classy about downtown Fort Worth?
Before it was destroyed by the ill-fated new downtown Fort Worth Radio Shack corporate headquarters, Fort Worth actually had something somewhat classy and unique in acres of free parking linked to the heart of downtown Fort Worth by the world's shortest subway.
The free parking and free to ride subway is long gone, with downtown Fort Worth turned into an expensive place to park to enjoy all that imaginary unique classiness. The parking problem is just one facet of the current downtown Fort Worth Sundance Square Sasha mess.
I really do not understand why Fort Worth, as portrayed in its various press, can not be honest about the town. Why the chronic groundless hyperbolic propaganda?
Propaganda pretending to be something you are not is a recipe for not becoming something better.
Downtown Fort Worth is a living example of this...
