Upcoming High Noon Shootout Between Sundance Sasha & Reata Micallef

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...

Time To Worry About Sundance Sasha With Lady Whistleworth

 

Yesterday Elsie Hotpepper pointed me to a couple news articles about what is currently worrying locals regarding downtown Fort Worth.

This morning, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, I saw the headline you see screen capped. 

So, the Star-Telegram is also reporting on that which is worrying downtown Fort Worth.

Basically, what is worrying people is troubles with the management of the downtown Fort Worth organization known as Sundance Square.

Sundance Square perplexed me, and others, upon first visiting downtown Fort Worth and seeing signage pointing to Sundance Square. But, there was no square in Sundance Square, til years later when one of the downtown parking lots was turned into Sundance Square Plaza. I forget how many years it was til I learned Sundance Square was the name given a downtown Fort Worth revitalization project.

I remember learning this and thinking, yikes, if this is the revitalized version, what was this sleepy downtown like before getting vitalized?

Is that homage to Fort Worth's heritage, known as Heritage Park, still a boarded up closed eyesore on the north end of downtown Fort Worth? Or has Heritage Park been revitalized? Heritage Park at the north end of downtown Fort Worth, and the Water Gardens at the south end, are really the only two things about downtown Fort Worth which are even remotely unique.

Well, I guess it could be said that downtown Fort Worth is also unique in that it is the only big city downtown in America without any department stores. Or full sized grocery stores.

Because of the lack of shopping venues downtown Fort Worth is a ghost town on the busiest shopping day of the year, that being Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. We have made mention of this in various venues, including Day After Thanksgiving on my Eyes on Texas website, and multiple blog posts, including Having Fun Looking For Black Friday Shoppers Today In Downtown Fort Worth.

The two articles about Sundance Square which Elsie Hotpepper directed me to are...

'It is a shell': Reata's departure isn't the only issue facing Fort Worth's Sundance Square

and 

What's the Deal With Sundance Square?

The comments following the What's the Deal article are quite informative and enlightening.

Basically locals with an interest in downtown Fort Worth, such as restaurant owners, and other business owners, have been having trouble with a woman named Sasha Bass, the young trophy wife of Fort Worth billionaire, Ed Bass, who is 76 years old.

A paragraph from the Wikipedia article about Ed Bass...

Bass is a long-time supporter of downtown redevelopment, and has been described as a "leader in what is recognized as one of the most successful urban revitalization efforts in America". He and his family began the Sundance Square development in 1982. It combines commercial and residential space in the central business area of Fort Worth, and it received the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce's Spirit of Enterprise award in 2004. He led the development of Bass Performance Hall, financed without public funding, which opened in 1998.

The high cost of parking in downtown Fort Worth has become a troubling issue, and may account for being one of the reasons for the drop in the number of downtown Fort Worth visitors.

Since I have been keeping my eyes on Fort Worth I have witnessed many incredibly stupid things. The stupidest may have been letting Radio Shack build a new corporate headquarters at the north end of downtown Fort Worth. A corporate headquarters which Radio Shack could not afford, which was eventually turned into a Tarrant Community College campus.

The reason the Radio Shack debacle was stupid was that it ruined the other thing remotely unique about downtown Fort Worth, in addition to Heritage Park and the Water Gardens, that being the acres of free parking, with the world's shortest subway line taking visitors from the parking lot into the heart of downtown Fort Worth. 

Free to park, free to ride the subway.

I frequently frequented downtown Fort Worth when the parking and the subway made it easy. After the subway and parking was destroyed I only visited downtown Fort Worth a few more times.

The Sundance Square Sasha Bass Scandal has spawned another amusing thing Elsie Hotpepper directed me to, that being the Lady Whistleworth Instagram page, where Lady Whistleworth is the "Center of morality, governance, fashion - precisely because they are all broken."

No one knows who Lady Whistleworth is. Below is a screencap from the Lady Whistleworth Instagram. And below the screencap you can read the most recent Instagram posting from Lady Whistleworth. And just to be clear, the Evil Queen to which Lady Whistleworth refers is Sasha Bass...

Dearest Readers,

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

While we all learned this morning that a long time iconic downtown restaurant is unfortunately looking for a new location, this author has also heard that the dark cloud of Servitude is beginning to fold inward against the evil oppressor.  It seems, you see, that time is indeed running out for our Queen. As previously penned, there is increasing pressure with lenders to resolve the mortgages concerning the Queen’s properties which are on the verge of default. The problem is whilst she actively shops new lenders, in what we all hope will be another one of her futile endeavors, she is also actively working against tenants and commerce in general! Raise the rents? Check! Raise parking prices? Check! Pay any tenant to leave the Square that does not share her “vision”? Check! One would think that this rate of failure, combined with her immeasurable grandiosity, should finally prove persuasive enough to bring justice to Fort Worth!

At this point it may also be instructive to review the Queen’s resume, which won’t take long: No college degree. No career. No business experience. Family history of criminal activity, arrests, convictions, shoplifting, green card marriage, & disenfranchisement of all associated Royals. How could a lender look at this background and track record and do anything BUT foreclose? The real silver living to the cloud though is that perhaps the Brothers will hear the cries of their fair City, and come to the rescue. It would resolve things for all parties involved.

God Save the Queen? No, God Save Fort Worth!

 

Ever Yours,

Lady Whistleworth

___________________________

The verbiage of all the Lady Whistleworth postings is at the same high level of elevated snarkiness as the above example.

Upon reading the Lady Whistleworth words I thought she might be Elsie Hotpepper. I asked Elsie if it was she, to which Elsie said no, it was not she. So, who is Lady Whistleworth?

Sleepy Downtown Fort Worth Opens A Drug Store

Well, that which you see here is the type thing I have seen in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram ever since I first became aware of that pseudo newspaper, almost two decades ago.

Fort Worth is a town approaching 900,000 in population.

With the deadest downtown I have ever seen in a town of a population over a half million.

As witnessed by this indicator of such, a When will that new CVS Pharmacy open in downtown Fort Worth? headline on the front page of the Star-Telegram.

Would a legit newspaper in a big town wearing its big boy pants be front page speculating regarding when a drugstore might open in its downtown?

One would think if such was a noteworthy item one might think this to be indicative of maybe there might be something wrong with the town.

The first three paragraphs in the article also makes one think such...

FORT WORTH - Seventeen years have passed since downtown Fort Worth had a drug store within walking distance of most hotels and offices.

That long wait is just about over.

A two-story, "urban-style" CVS Pharmacy is on the verge of opening at Fifth and Houston streets, just outside the city's Sundance Square. A handwritten sign on the window of the store tells customers the CVS will be "opening June 24, 2018."

________________

Now why is the Star-Telegram continuing to go along with this ridiculous labeling of the town's downtown as Sundance Square? This re-development zone should never have been given such a misrepresenting name in the first place. The Sundance Development Project, or some like name would have been much better, and would not have confused the town's few tourists for decades, looking for a non-existent square, until finally a couple parking lots were turned into a tiny square and then named Sundance Square Plaza.

Seventeen years since downtown Fort Worth had a drug store? How about some journalistic type investigating as to the reason for this. And why downtown Fort Worth is the only downtown of an American town with a population over a half million with zero downtown grocery or department stores.

With public transit provided by a re-tooled Australian bus named Molly the Trolley.

Read the entire When will that new CVS Pharmacy open in downtown Fort Worth? article and see how many head scratching bits of info you can spot which one would think a town's only semblance of a newspaper of record would find sort of embarrassing to be reporting about its town...

Fort Worth Needs An Incentive To Fix Its Downtown Embarrassments

I see this incentive type headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and find myself once again wondering why this type thing is not seen as a problem in the town which the Star-Telegram ill serves as its only newspaper.

"AC Hotel, a brand popular in Europe, gets key incentive to build in downtown Fort Worth"

Does anyone in Fort Worth wonder what the problem is with downtown Fort Worth which requires incentives to get someone to build a hotel? Or why the voters have to be bothered to vote to help subsidize the building of a downtown convention center hotel?

I don't think towns with functional downtown's need to resort to incentivizing developers to develop downtown hotels, department stores and other such items common in most thriving downtown's which are not ghost towns on the busiest shopping day of the year, that being the day after Thanksgiving.

How many downtown hotels do you think New York City has had to offer incentives to get built? Or Chicago? Or San Francisco? Or Seattle?

Seattle has dozens of downtown hotels all built without the city offering bribes. The latest expansion of downtown Seattle's Washington State Convention Center includes another convention center hotel. Hotel developers competed to get to be the developer to develop that new hotel. And nothing as absurd as asking voters to help subsidize such a hotel happens in downtown's where developers want to develop hotels.

Fort Worth seems to have some sort of repeating pattern of having to offer what amount to bribes to get some developer to develop something. That or Fort Worth succumbs to ridiculous flattery, or a combo of both.

Such as when a sporting goods store called Cabela's wanted to build the first Cabela's in Texas. Cabela's convinced the rubes who incompetently run Fort Worth that this sporting goods store would become the #1 tourist attraction in Texas, thus making all the incentives Cabela's was asking for a bargain.

Fort Worth fell for that con job. Soon the Fort Worth Cabela's was not the only one in Texas. Now it is not even the only Cabela's in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metro zone.

No way do I know of all the instances where the Fort Worth city government has been conned into incentives, or abusing eminent domain. Such as what was done so that Radio Shack could build their long defunct corporate headquarters in downtown Fort Worth.

Or that Mercado boondoggle on North Main Street, south of the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Or the Santa Fe Rail Market Boondoggle. I know a con job was involved in that embarrassment, misrepresenting what that lame development would be. Were incentives also part of the scam?

Why doesn't Fort Worth focus on fixing its downtown? How many more years will that park celebrating Fort Worth's heritage, appropriately called Heritage Park, act as a metaphor for what is wrong with downtown Fort Worth? A boarded up eyesore allowed to deteriorate, sitting at a prime location at the north end of downtown Fort Worth.

Maybe the city could offer some developer incentives to re-open Heritage Park in all its former scenic glory.

Another fix for downtown Fort Worth?

Cease referring to part of the downtown area as Sundance Square. This is just goofy and confusing to the town's few tourists, even with the addition of an actual square, after decades of there being no square in Sundance Square, the downtown zone is still being called Sundance Square, with the actual square called Sundance Square Plaza, sponsored by Nissan.

And how does Fort Worth ever expect to have a vibrant downtown if few people live there? And why would many people choose to live in a downtown with no department stores, no grocery stores, and few restaurants?

And lose that embarrassing Molley the Trolley public transit device. Converting an old bus to look like a trolley and then charging people $5 to use this public transit is just bizarre. And like already said, embarrassing...

Downtown Fort Worth May Get A New Store For Christmas

I saw that which you see here this morning on the front page, online, of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and found what which I saw to be amusing.

Amusing for a couple reasons.

Toy store headed to Sundance Square? With an illustrative photo of the former parking lot re-purposed as Sundance Square Plaza.

Have the goofballs who run downtown Fort Worth decided to drop "Plaza" from the name of the re-purposed parking lot?

It was after several years of exposure to Fort Worth that I finally learned that Sundance Square was the name given to a multi-block downtown Fort Worth revitalization scheme. Why would such a name be chosen for such a scheme with no one realizing it was confusing to call something Sundance Square, where there was no square?

Last week I blogged about the frenzy of new construction in downtown Seattle, with 65 major buildings under construction.

While in Sick City, Fort Worth, it is big news that a toy store is headed to Sundance Square by Christmas.....

Amusing Bass Static Over New Downtown Fort Worth Hooters

Last week's Fort Worth Weekly Static column Who’s Against Hooters? told us about Ed Bass being behind the attempt to constrain the opening of a Hooters in downtown Fort Worth.

This week's Fort Worth Weekly Static column Chest Having Fun is mostly a tongue in cheek apology for supposedly erroneously blaming Ed Bass for the anti-Hooters Conspiracy.

This week's Static column is sort of a look at how Fort Worth's shadow government works, with Ed Bass and the Bass family having way too much control over that which they seem to treat as their personal fiefdom.

I've long thought Fort Worth would be better off if it did some things on its own, like a city wearing its big boy pants does, rather than relying on the Bass family. Yes, I know, many locals think the Bass family has done wonders for Fort Worth and have no problem with the family imposing their personal tastes on the town.

Or slapping their names on the results of their largess. I know many people think the Bass Performance Hall is a wonder to behold. But to me it looks out of place, and sort of weird with those giant trumpet blowing angels stuck to the front of the building.

I digress, back to Static.

For a long long time I verbalized my perplexation regarding downtown Fort Worth having signs pointing to something called Sundance Square, where there was no square, thus confusing Fort Worth's few out of town tourists.

Eventually I was informed that there was no square in Sundance Square, that Sundance Square was a downtown development scheme run by the Bass Family.

After decades of downtown Fort Worth embarrassing itself, due to there being no square in Sundance Square, a square was finally built on one of the parking lots which many had assumed was Sundance Square, and then goofily, redundantly named Sundance Square Plaza.

So, now there is a plaza in Sundance Square.

Now, what did I learn in this week's FW Weekly Static column that I did not know before? Well, I learned that that which is still known as Sundance Square is even more convoluted and odd than I realized.

Read the entire Chest Having Fun  Static column to get the entire amusing scope of the Bass Sundance Square ridiculousness after you read the following paragraphs gleaned from the column.....

Last week, Static discussed how billionaire businessman Ed Bass was behind an organized push to keep a particular breastaurant out of downtown. We also wondered why the people who created the Facebook page Say NO to Hooters in Downtown Fort Worth (2,000 “likes” and counting) were so upset about the well-established wings chain featuring scantily clad female servers when another breastaurant, Ojos Locos, has been operating in Sundance Square for several years.

That prompted a Sundance Square spokesperson to ask for a correction. Seems Ojos Locos is not located in Sundance Square.

Anyone who has visited Ojos Locos would swear they were in Sundance Square. The sports bar with barely dressed female servers is located at 515 Houston St., and it sits next door to Milan Gallery (505 Houston St.), which is billed as being in Sundance Square.

As it turns out, streets, blocks, borders, and addresses don’t define Sundance Square, the downtown wining/dining/shopping haven and brainchild of the Bass family. Your business is considered a part of the exclusive district only if you lease space in a building owned by Sundance Square Inc., a real estate management company whose employees oversee more than 40 downtown buildings, all owned by the Basses.

___________________________

The anti-Hooters Bass Conspiracy has made itself a Facebook page titled SAY NO to HOOTERS in DOWNTOWN FORT WORTH.

After FW Weekly's Static made mention of the hypocrisy of the Bass anti-Hooters being against a Hooters in Sundance Square, while another Hooters-like restaurant named Ojos Locos seemed to be operating in Sundance Square, the anti-Hooters Facebook page was re-titled SAY NO to HOOTERS & OJOS LOCOS in DOWNTOWN FORT WORTH.

How did downtown Fort Worth suddenly get so prudish? The downtown used to host one of the most notorious red light districts in the world.

Known as Hell's Half Acre.

With dozens of bordellos and saloons. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid frequented Fort Worth to visit Hell's Half Acre, so much so that that is why Sundance Square is so-named.

What would Butch and Sundance think of Fort Worth now? The town run by prudes trying to run restaurants out of downtown simply due to the slightly revealing nature of a restaurant's waitress uniforms.

This is an appalling state of affairs....

Spencer Jack On Mount Vernon's Skagit River Vision Flood Control Riverwalk & Plaza

That would be Spencer Jack looking happy to be walking on my old home zone's newly finished Skagit River Vision Flood Control and Riverfront Development.

Part of this project provides a long walkway along the river, as in that on which Spencer Jack is waving.

There is also a plaza and other amenities.

Including a flood wall that can be erected quickly should a rampaging Skagit River threaten downtown Mount Vernon, a situation which previously required an army of volunteer sandbaggers to save downtown from a New Orleans in a hurricane type fate.

Yes, unlike another town which comes to mind, the Skagit River Vision actually fixes an actual flood problem.

I believe that is part of the new plaza we are looking at below. It looks to be a nice open area which likely will come in quite handy when the next Skagit Valley Tulip Festival takes place next spring.

Below we get a closer look at Spencer Jack and part of the plaza. I like how giant boulders are incorporated into the design. In the HUGE versions of these photos, which Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew, Jason, sent me last night, you can much more clearly make out details, such as the giant boulders.

That thing sticking up into the air above Spencer Jack is known as the Tulip Tower. Every spring the Skagit Valley has a month long Tulip Festival, with downtown Mount Vernon being one of the festival sites. The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival attracts over a million visitors to the valley every spring. These are real actual visitors, not an imaginary 10 million visitors like that which Fort Worth propagandists claim visit Fort Worth's imaginary Sundance Square every year.

Fort Worth's propagandists have used that bogus 10 million visitors to Sundance Square number in falsehood filled submissions to get awards no one has ever heard of so the Fort Worth propagandists can then make embarrassingly absurd claims, such as Fort Worth has the Top Downtown in America.

Those of you reading this who do not know anything about Fort Worth, let alone its downtown, Sundance Square is what the Fort Worth propagandists years ago named a 36 block area of Fort Worth's downtown which was, apparently, in dire need of revitalization. After a couple decades of confusing Fort Worth's few tourists, who thought Sundance Square was the parking lots at the heart of downtown, Fort Worth finally added an actual square on those parking lots, then goofily named the new square Sundance Square Plaza.

Continuing on, a broader view of the picture above, below in the distance you can see the Skagit River bridge which connects downtown Mount Vernon to west Mount Vernon. It is a big bridge, built over water, in less than four years.

The above picture sort of gives you an idea of the size of Mount Vernon's Skagit River Vision. Unlike Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision the Skagit River Vision had a project timeline, a qualified project engineer, was fully funded, was completed on schedule and did not hire the unqualified son of a corrupt local politician in order to try and motivate a corrupt local politician to secure federal pork barrel money to help pay for the project.

Below another look at part of the plaza, the Tulip Tower and the Skagit River Bridge.

Unlike Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision, eminent domain was not abused to take people's property to build the Skagit River Vision. The businesses and buildings which had to be removed were removed after this thing called "negotiating a fair price" took place with the owners, leaving no one feeling abused, unlike what has happened in Fort Worth.

We end this look at Mount Vernon's newest attraction looking southwest across the new plaza, which I doubt has a goofy name, at the sun setting on a Pacific Northwest fall day.

The Yellow Pages Got Me Thinking About Fort Worth's Sundance Square & The Defunct Soviet Union

On the left you are looking at a screencap of the Sundance Square website.

I did not know til this morning that Sundance Square had a website.

I learned Sundance Square had a website when I was thumbing through the Attractions sections of the Yellow Pages phonebook which showed up at my front door yesterday.

The Yellow Pages entry....

Sundance Square
Sundance Square is a vibrant, award winning entertainment district spanning 35 blocks of downtown Fort Worth. The multiuse development attracts more than 10 million visitors each year. Sundance Square offers a shopping, dining and an entertainment district all in walking distance with free valet parking.

Way back when the old Soviet Union was mostly closed off from the West, with the communists in charge of the information propagandaized to the comrades, the Soviets had a tendency to boast about how wonderful living conditions were for the Soviets, how advanced the Soviets were, how superior the communist system was to the capitalist system.

Eventually the communists were unable to keep up the charade when way too many Soviets started getting a good idea of how much better living conditions were in the West.

Claiming Fort Worth's downtown has more than 10 million visitors a year seems such a ridiculous thing to be claiming. How is this count made? Who is counted? Am I counted the one or two times a year I visit downtown Fort Worth?

The implication is that more than 10 million visitors are attracted to visit the attraction known as Sundance Square.

But, there is no Sundance Square. Is there any other town in America which  refers to 35 blocks of its downtown as a square?  Up til a plaza was finally added to downtown Fort Worth most visitors thought Sundance Square was the parking lots where the new plaza is now located.

Who is this Sundance Square propaganda aimed at? The locals? To make them feel that their downtown is something special? When that local finds him or herself in another downtown do they react like a Leningrad Soviet visiting New York City?

Paraphrasing Mr. Galtex, downtown Fort Worth is a perfectly fine downtown, but why its promoters persist in pretending it is more than it is is a mystery to me.

I agree with the well traveled Mr. Galtex.

The Sundance Square website touts "Shopping".

But Fort Worth is the biggest town in America with no department store in its downtown.

No Macy's, no Nordstrom, no Neiman Marcus, not even a Sears or a Penneys.

There also is no grocery store, but I don't know if Fort Worth is the biggest town in America with no grocery store  in its downtown.

Somewhat related, Betsy So Pricey made an amusing comment to a blogging from a couple days ago...

Betsy So Pricey has left a new comment on your post "FW Weekly Has Me Doing Some More Fort Worth Multipurpose Arena Questioning": 

That ain't no ordinary list of "co-chairs." With that many " chairs" and so many impo-tant folks, it seems more like the first class section of the Titanic. Ah, Fort Worth, the small town that wants to act like a big city but doesn't seem to know how to go about it other than talk big and waste taxpayer dollars. 

Elsie Hotpepper Helped Me Learn How Fort Worth Became The Top Downtown In America

Yesterday Elsie Hotpepper text messaged me telling me to check out the Sundance Square Facebook page.

I always do what Elsie tells me to do.

I'd already blogged about the subject Elsie was pointing me to in a blogging from early September titled Mr. & Mrs. Galtex Are In Argentina Where They Learned Fort Worth Has America's Top Downtown.

In that blogging I wondered what demented entity deemed Fort Worth's to be the Top Downtown in America.

Well.

That to which Elsie Hotpepper pointed me quickly had me understanding that no entity deemed Fort Worth's to be the Top Downtown in America. This bogus claim is just one more example of the same embarrassing propaganda puffery that pervades this part of America

The Sundance Square Facebook page had a link to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article titled Sundance Square wins top downtown award for new plaza.

So, while it may be sort of true that an entity did award an aspect of downtown Fort Worth an award, that entity did not in any way indicate that Fort Worth has the Top Downtown in America. The award was for downtown Fort Worth's tiny plaza known as Sundance Square Plaza.

The entity making this prestigious award which has sent Fort Worth into a spasm of city wide celebrating is the International Downtown Association. Yeah, I'd never heard of it either.

You can go to the IDA website and read the list of their 2014 Pinnacle Award winners. Note the words "list" and "winners" indicating more than one Pinnacle Award winner.

Multiple towns won Pinnacle Awards from the IDA. But only one of those towns, near as I can tell, is spewing propaganda claiming that due to this award that town's downtown is the Top Downtown in America. Most towns have a real newspaper, not a propaganda purveyor like the Star-Telegram, so such nonsense does not get spewed.

Three paragraphs from the Star-Telegram article...

“Each year, the IDA awards jury honors the very best programs and projects in each category to recognize great work and most importantly to set the standard for best practice in our industry. The Sundance Square Plaza is a wonderful example for all cities to emulate.”

The 1-acre plaza, which opened in November, received one of two Pinnacle Awards. The other went to the Wichita Downtown Development Corp. for a $500,000 downtown master plan. Seven merit awards were also given.

“The addition of the plaza created a centerpiece in downtown Fort Worth that has quickly become a destination for North Texas residents and visitors from all around the world,” Johnny Campbell, president and CEO of Sundance Square, said in a statement.

So, Fort Worth is sharing an award category with Wichita and that town's downtown master plan? And Fort Worth's teeny downtown plaza is something all cities should emulate? Yes, I can see towns all over the planet copying Fort Worth's little downtown plaza, except for all those towns which already have downtown plazas. And most ridiculous, this plaza has become a destination for the people of North Texas and visitors from around the world?

Sundance Square Plaza is a perfectly fine thing, I'm not suggesting otherwise. And it is a huge improvement over the parking lots which Fort Worth's few out of town visitors thought were Sundance Square. But this plaza is NOT some sort of special destination drawing anyone to it.

How did the International Downtown Association learn about the wonder which is Sundance Square Plaza I am sure you are wondering.

Well.

Apparently Sundance Square submitted Sundance Square Plaza for consideration for this prestigious award which permits a town to claim to be the Top Downtown in America.

Now, I really do not think there is anything wrong about entering something you represent into any sort of award competition.

However.

You can read the Sundance Square Plaza Award Submission document in its entirety, a reading of which will have you seeing the award submission is full of the patented propaganda puffery of the sort the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is notorious for.

Two paragraphs from the Award Submission propaganda to illustrate the propaganda point....

Sundance Square Plaza has been an enormous success, attracting thousands of visitors weekly, including many families with children. The project has also boosted the success of restaurants and retail stores in Sundance Square, led to new soft-goods retail leases in adjacent buildings and helped attract commercial leases in the new office buildings. In its first six months of operation, Sundance Square Plaza hosted an elaborate Christmas celebration, a huge (even though unadvertised) New Year’s Eve Celebration and the four-day MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival. In March, ESPN used Sundance Square Plaza as its broadcast headquarters during coverage of the NCAA Final Four. The Plaza also hosts regular events such as morning yoga, outdoor movie nights for families and a free Sunday Jazz Series.

Here’s another proof of success: out-of-town developers are asking DFWI, “How close can I get to the Plaza?” Hotel and multifamily developers are now jockeying for position near the Plaza. A modestly performing, historic Class C office building one block away has been purchased, and plans are underway to convert it into a boutique hotel. New market pressure has been added to the center of downtown, adding demand four streets away where there was none before – purely because the plaza is perceived as such a valuable attraction and developers want their projects to be within walking distance.

This plaza is one acre in size. Do you know how big one acre is? Not very big. This little plaza attracts thousands of visitors weekly? Including many families? With children?

I think Mr. Galtex, he being who first let me know that Fort Worth now had the Top Downtown in America, said it best when he opined the following....

For the life of me, I've never been able to figure out why the Fort Worth locals are not content to simply say they have a nice downtown, a good this, and a swell that, instead of labeling everything with ridiculous superlatives. Fort Worth would be even nicer without a chip on its shoulder.

Is A Fort Worth Arctic Blast Helping Freeze Panther Island Ice In The Vancouver Of The South?

Yesterday after I mentioned that an Arctic Blast was scheduled to arrive, today, in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone, along with the rest of North Texas, someone, calling him or herself Anonymous, made the following comment, with a website link....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Drizzly Swim Before Today's Arctic Blast Blew Cold In To Texas": 

The Arctic Blast should go well with Panther Island Ice.

http://www.trinityrivervision.org/pantherislandice/ 

Panther Island Ice. An ice rink located at the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century, that being the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Coyote Drive-In.

Why is the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle persisting in this Panther Island name foolishness?

Was nothing learned from the debacle of decades of confusing Fort Worth's few tourists by naming its downtown Sundance Square, with that confusion only recently slightly mitigated by actually adding a square in downtown Fort Worth, but then goofily naming that square Sundance Square Plaza?

So, decades from now when, or if, the Trinity River Vision ever becomes clear, a future tourist may ask what makes this Panther Island place an island to be told that the island is surrounded by the Trinity River and an un-needed flood diversion channel, that may, or may not, have water in it.

As for this Panther Island Ice ice rink, which opens for business November 22, 50 years, to the day, after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, well.....

Who would have thought, over a decade ago, when we first learned of the Trinity River Vision, in a totally breathless piece of propaganda puffery in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in which the Star-Telegram informed us that what was then called Trinity Uptown would transform Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South, that that lofty expectation would come to this.

An ice rink.

You reading this in Vancouver, or other locations in the Pacific Northwest, I guarantee I am not making this up. The local newspaper of record informed its readers that this public works project, which the public has never voted on, would transform Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

Vancouver of the South without mountains, large bodies of saltwater, cruise ships or a highly educated population with an annoying tendency to add "eh" to the end of every sentence....

Sundance Square Plaza Redundancy Along With Goofy Propaganda Puffery & Other Questions

Sundance Square Plaza Photo by Mr. & Mrs. Galtex

On the left you are looking at fountains spouting in the oddly named Sundance Square Plaza.

When I hear Sundance Square Plaza the word 'redundant' comes to mind.

Redundant and goofy.

There are reasons some well known downtown public spaces are not known as Times Square Plaza, Westlake Center Square, Pioneer Square Plaza, Trafalgar Square Plaza or Dealey Plaza Square.

Well, you get the point.

The newly opened downtown Fort Worth public plaza is featured on the cover of this week's DFW.com Ink Edition, along with an article titled Hip to be Squared.

Before I got to the article I learned via the cover that the newly opened downtown Fort Worth plaza cost  $110 million. I don't remember funding for this project being voted on in any sort of bond election. So, I am curious, how was this $110 million financed?

DFW.com is a Fort Worth Star-Telegram production, hence the overblown Chamber of Commerce type propaganda puffery the Star-Telegram is known for, in this article.

Regarding the long standing mystery of there being no square in Sundance Square the Hip to be Squared article included these three paragraphs....

“We get the ‘Where is Sundance Square?’ questions. ‘How do I know I’m in this place that people are talking about?’” says Johnny Campbell, Sundance Square president and CEO. “So we ask them where they are. They say, ‘I’m at Third and Main.’ We say, ‘You’re standing right in the middle of it.’”

That’s long been the mystery of Sundance Square. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, “There is no square there.”

And yet, Sundance Square has become as emblematic of Fort Worth as the Stockyards. A magnet for retail, restaurants, entertainment and people-watching, Sundance Square is one of the main reasons Fort Worth is regularly recognized among the nation’s best downtowns.
Really?

Sundance Square has been as emblematic of Fort Worth as the Stockyards? Who, other than Fort Worth locals, has the slightest idea of what Sundance Square is? Did not the article just mention the fact that this non-existent square has long been a mystery?

This mysterious, non-existent square is one of the main reasons Fort Worth is regularly recognized among the nation's best downtowns?

Really?

Classic Fort Worth Star-Telegram propaganda.

Who is it that is regularly recognizing Fort Worth's as one of the nation's best downtowns?

No one I know, outside of Texas, knows anything about downtown Fort Worth. The only thing I ever have mentioned to me is people knowing of the Fort Worth Stockyards.

How many people would the Star-Telegram have to randomly call, outside of Texas, asking the persons called what the person knows about downtown Fort Worth before, finally, after a million or two phone calls someone says, "Well, Fort Worth is regularly recognized among the nation's best downtowns."

How many million people would the Star-Telegram have to randomly call, asking the person called if they know what Fort Worth's Sundance Square is, before the person called answered, "Well, that's that mysterious non-existent downtown square that has been perplexing visitors for decades."

Why must the Star-Telegram, in its various forms, always resort to this type nonsensical propaganda puffery?

There are plenty of reality based good things one can say about downtown Fort Worth. Instead of pretending that downtown Fort Worth is on the nation's radar screen, why not focus on why downtown Fort Worth is a national non-entity that is not on the nation's radar screen, rather than pretend that is it nationally known and recognized?

This type propaganda is very perplexing. And sort of embarrassing....

Sundance Square Plaza Opens Friday Under Teflon Umbrellas In Downtown Fort Worth

On the left is a scanned image of a full page ad I saw this morning in this week's Fort Worth Weekly.

The ad is very clever. Near as I can tell, two things are being advertised.

Sundance Square and Sundance Square Plaza.

The ad has 15 lines, starting at the top, each line gets shorter til the last line is only 4 words.

The top line says THIS IS THE PLACE TO LOOK DEEP INTO THE EYES OF SOMEONE YOU LOVE AND GO OH YEAH.

The last line says THIS IS THE PLACE TO...

And directly below THIS IS THE PLACE TO... we see that that place is SUNDANCE SQUARE.

Those who are familiar with other towns and their public squares may be thinking that Sundance Square is one of those type public squares. One would be wrong thinking that. What Sundance Square is is the downtown Fort Worth collection of parking lots, restaurants, hotels, galleries, clubs and stores, covering a multi-block area.

Well, having signs pointing to something called Sundance Square confused many of the millions of tourists who visit downtown Fort Worth, with those tourists perplexedly inquiring where Sundance Square is as they are standing in one of the parking lots they just parked in, finding themselves being told they are in Sundance Square, then continuing to be perplexed as they ask "So, this parking lot is Sundance Square?" to be told that no, it is not just this parking lot.

The powers that be who came up with the Sundance Square idea decided it was time to alleviate the tourist confusion and get downtown Fort Worth an actual public square, so the locals could point those millions of tourists to an actual Sundance Square.

Only, well, we've got a problem. Those powers that be somehow thought it a good idea to name Fort Worth's new downtown square SUNDANCE SQUARE PLAZA.

So now tourists can ask where Sundance Square is to be told it is all around you, and then when further inquiring as to why there is no square in Sundance Square to be told that for that you need to find Sundance Square Plaza.

Sundance Square Plaza has its Grand Opening with a three day celebration starting this Friday, November 1. Sundance Square has its own website touting the wonders of what will be happening at Sundance Square Plaza in Sundance Square. That is a screencap of the Sundance Square website below.

A blurb from the website about Sundance Square Plaza and its Grand Opening celebration...

Join us for the Opening Celebration of the highly anticipated Sundance Square Plaza, November 1-3. Come and go during this weekend celebration. Enjoy music and fun while taking in the new sights of the 36-foot Teflon umbrellas and the 216 jet water feature. See the wave wall and much more! Enjoy this 55,000 square foot space, bookended by two new beautiful buildings: The Westbrook and the Commerce Building will be sure to impress. This Sundance Square Plaza is the new heart of downtown Fort Worth. Come celebrate with us!

I am so looking forward to seeing those Teflon umbrellas....

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....

Riding A Fort Worth Bus To Sundance Square While Not Enjoying In-N-Out Double Double Burgers

What you are looking at in the picture is the interior of a Fort Worth bus. Today I got myself a Fort Worth bus day pass and hopped on board the #21 to make  my way to the transfer station where I hopped on board the #2  bus which took me to downtown Fort Worth's Intermodal Transit Center.

Near as I can tell, by Intermodal Transit Center, Fort Worth means you can take a bus to get on an Amtrak train. And vice versa.

Today I learned that riding a Fort Worth bus is great exercise, particularly the articulated bus ride from the transfer station to downtown. This is one very bumpy ride that I think must do wonders for the abdominal muscles.

By articulated bus I mean a bus that can bend in the middle like an accordion. The only other articulated buses I have been on are the ones that run through the Seattle bus tunnel. The Seattle articulated buses are like well suspended Cadillacs, while Fort Worth's are like not so well suspended oversized VW buses.

In other words, the Fort Worth articulated buses, and the un-articulated Fort Worth buses give riders a much more adventurous ride than the sedate, smooth riding Seattle buses.

When I exited the #2 I had myself a fine time wandering the streets of downtown Fort Worth for the first time in a long time. One of the things I was wanting to see is Sundance Square. Ever since I moved to Fort Worth Sundance Square has perplexed me. Because there is no Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth. There are signs pointing visitors to Sundance Square, but there is no square. Eventually, I and others concluded that by "Square" downtown Fort Worth means "parking lots".

So, last year it was announced that, after all these years of there being no Square in Sundance Square, Fort Worth was finally going to build one.

On one of the parking lots.

And call it Sundance Plaza. I assume to continue the tradition of confusing tourists.

I was a bit surprised to find that Sundance Plaza is a long ways from becoming a square. The parking lot in front of the Chisholm Trail mural, where the plaza is being built,  is a construction mess, with two new buildings being built on the west and east ends of the former parking lots, with the new plaza currently pretty much a hole in the ground. However, there are multiple signs, all around the construction site, such as the one you see above, where the guy in the cowboy hat is telling the Butch Cassidy lookalike in the derby, that "THERE'LL ALSO BE A NEW OUTDOOR PLAZA. A REALLY GREAT SPACE  THE WHOLE CITY CAN BE PROUD OF."

Below you see some of the signage around the Sundance Plaza construction site, with one of the new buildings, butted up against the old Flying Saucer Emporium building, with the Angels on the Bass Performance Hall blowing their horns on the right.

Isn't this Sundance Plaza project well past its projected completion date?

Regarding downtown Fort Worth, other than the construction zones, I have never seen downtown Fort Worth looking so good. Lots of street activity, new restaurants, many open to the street, well manicured landscaping.

I must repeat, because I was surprised to find myself thinking this, downtown Fort Worth is looking really good.

I also thought I'd never find myself saying that downtown Fort Worth is a much more lively, people oriented downtown that what one finds in Dallas. Then again, it has been a few years since I've wandered around downtown Dallas. Maybe downtown Dallas has improved just as much as downtown Fort Worth has.

After an hour or two of wandering around downtown Fort Worth my group of wanderers grew hungry. So, it was back to the Intermodal Transit Center to hop back on the #2 bus to head west to 7th Street.

The feeding choices were Sweet Tomatoes or In-N-Out.

All the wanderers had been to Sweet Tomatoes, but only I had been to an In-N-Out. So, it was to In-N-Out we went.

Today was my 4th In-N-Out Double Double Burger. The first two were consumed in Phoenix in 2004. Number 3 was consumed in Tempe, (or was it Scottsdale?) in 2012. I don't know what it was, for sure, but the Fort Worth In-N-Out Double Double Burger did not match the Double Double Burger of my memory. It seemed smaller, messier, not as tasty. And the french fries, something was way off with the fries. Almost as if they were powdery. As in flavorless starchiness. Very disappointing. I think I will be waiting til next I am in Arizona or California to have an In-N-Out Double Double Burger.

As you can see in the above photo of the In-N-Out Burger joint, traffic on 7th Street is a congested mess. Methinks something needs to be done to ameliorate this, but what that amelioration might be, I have no idea.

But, I am almost 100% certain the traffic congestion is not going to be solved by the 300 bikes, newly operational, that I saw at several kiosks in the downtown zone today. I saw no one riding one of the bikes.

Even though I saw no one riding one of the 300 bikes, several seem to be missing from this 7th Street kiosk. Or maybe those are just empty spaces awaiting incoming bikes.

Like I said, 7th Street is terribly congested. But one block to the south, on Crockett Street, one finds a totally more sedate, better designed street experience. I think Crockett Street benefited from being developed long after long established 7th Street.

Crockett Street has wide sidewalks, well designed landscaping, with an overall more pleasant street walking experience than 7th Street.

Finishing exploring the 7th Street zone it was back on the #2 bus to head back to the Intermodal Transit Center. This bus had no seating available, standing room only, which made the ride a very rock and roll, standing on a subway train-like experience. I was enjoying the carnival ride aspect, but was sort of relieved to finally get off the ride at the Transit Center.

From the Transit Center we had to switch to an eastbound #2 bus to the transfer station, then back on the #21 to return to the starting location.

Today the buses were well timed. Very little waiting to make a switch.

It only cost $3.50 for an all day pass on the Fort Worth bus system. I really don't understand why more of the locals don't have themselves a really fine time trying out out this mode of transport. I saw more than one family group, today, with little kids, with the kids having a lot of fun on the Fort Worth bus carnival ride.

Up In Seattle Mount Rainier Comes Out For Fort Worth's Galtex's In Search Of Uwajimaya

In the picture, in the foreground, you are looking at the Seattle Seahawk Stadium, behind the Seahawk Stadium you are looking at Safeco Field, where the Seattle Mariner's play baseball, behind that you are looking at Mount Rainier, where a volcano erupts every once in awhile.

Fort Worth residents, the Galtex's, are currently up in Seattle.

This morning I purloined the Mount Rainier picture from Gail Galtex when I saw it on Facebook.

When the Galtex's first visited Seattle a March or two ago, I opined that they would be very very lucky if the Mountain, as in Rainier, made an appearance. Well, they were lucky, an appearance was made.

And now, with the Galtex's in Seattle in the middle of Winter, I opined that they would be very very very lucky if the Mountain, as in Rainier, made an appearance.

Well, yesterday, the Mountain came out.

I suspect this has something to do with the upbeat natures of Mr. and Mrs. Galtex spreading sunshine wherever they go.

The Galtex's have been getting 'what to do' suggestions from natives, or former natives, familiar with what to do in the Seattle zone. One suggestion was to drive over Stevens Pass to Leavenworth.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it to Seattle in time to provide taxi service.

I have two new suggestions.

One is ride the Super Ferry to Bremerton. It does not cost too much to walk on. Unless the fare schedule has changed since I was a Washingtonian, you pay only one way. A Washington Super Ferry is way bigger than the ferry you might be able to use to cross Fort Worth's Pond Granger if that lake ever floats anything.

Suggestion number two is to go to Uwajimaya. I saw on Facebook that the Galtex's have already been all over Pioneer Square, which is an actual square, unlike Fort Worth's Sundance Square.

Uwajimaya is in what is now known as Seattle's International District. When I was a kid this was known as Chinatown. Seattle's Chinatown was not nearly up to the par of the Chinatowns in San Francisco, Vancouver or Los Angeles. I don't know if that is why the name was changed to the International District. Or maybe it was some politically correct thing to be more inclusive with the other Asian cultures.

If the Galtex's have been watching Top Chef: Seattle they have seen Uwajimaya  a couple times when a couple chefs went food shopping there.

Mr. and Mrs. Galtex, if you are reading this, it is very easy to find Uwajimaya . You can take the transit tunnel to the last station, that being the International District Station. Or walk from Pioneer Square to the Seahawk Stadium. There you will see the Union Station train building. Near there you will see a pedestrian bridge across the train tracks. Cross the bridge, on the other side you will come to a plaza and should see Uwajimaya.

In Uwajimaya you will find the best food court I have ever been to. Nothing like this exists in the D/FW Metroplex. Nor does anything like Uwajimaya exist in the D/FW Metroplex. Not that I've seen, anyway.

Hope the Mountain comes out for you again today!

Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. Has Invited Me To A Sundance Square Plaza Open House

This afternoon I finally got my invitation from Downtown Forth Worth, Inc. to tomorrow's Open House featuring the Sundance Square Plaza.

I have no idea what this means.

I have been aware for some time that downtown Fort Worth's Sundance Square was finally going to have a Square, after years of confusing tourists with signs pointing to the non-existent Sundance Square, with the bizarre explanation given those who asked, that Sundance Square was the name for the downtown area of Fort Worth that had been revitalized from its previous craptacularness.

A lot of people assumed that downtown Fort Worth's parking lots were Sundance Square. Most big city downtown's do not have big parking lots, what with open parcels of land being so valuable for other uses.

Like high rise skyscrapers. Or resident towers. Or vertical shopping malls. Or downtown department stores.

Now, what I am wondering about this Open House for the Sundance Square Plaza, is this what the long promised actual Square is going to be called?

Sundance Square Plaza?

Will the odd "Sundance Square" verbiage still be used to describe the down area that had been revitalized from its previous craptacularness?

Methinks the term "Sundance Square" should be dropped as the descriptor for Fort Worth's downtown core, with the term "Sundance Square" applied solely to the new plaza.

And thus end the decades of confusing the few lost souls who choose to be tourists in downtown Fort Worth.

The Open House is tomorrow, December 5, from 4 til 6 in the afternoon, at the Norris Conference Center at 304 Houston Street in beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

Is the Norris Conference Center in Sundance Square Plaza, I can't help but wonder? I guess I could find that out if I attend this Open House to which I have been invited....

Today I Learned There Is No Sundance Square Under Construction In Downtown Fort Worth

Artist's Rendering Of Sundance Plaza From The
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Way back on Friday June 1, 2012 I got email from Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. which led me to believe that after years of there being no square in Sundance square that a square was finally under construction and that soon the decades of Fort Worth's few downtown tourists being confused by the lack of a square in Sundance Square would come to an end.

I blogged about this in a blogging titled I Love Downtown Fort Worth & The Biggest Comic Strip In Texas That Surrounds Sundance Square.

So, what do I read in this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram in an article titled Sundance Plaza will feature fountain, pavilion and large shaded area?

Well, a group of so-called executives executing the non-existent Sundance Square have "revealed the long-awaited plans for the 1-acre plaza, to be located on former parking lots between Third and Fourth streets and Houston and Commerce in the heart of downtown Fort Worth, during a meeting of the Downtown Design Review Board today."

So, I was misinformed by Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. Apparently, at the present time, there is no square under construction in the misnomered Sundance Square.

This proposed square, I mean plaza, whose plans have now been revealed, covers only one acre? And will be called Sundance Plaza? Thus continuing to confuse tourists in their search for the still non-existent Sundance Square?

According to one of downtown Fort Worth's chief propagandists, Ed Bass, the plaza has been part of the downtown master plan for over 2 decades.

In a sentence which really makes no sense Bass says, "We always envisioned a beautiful plaza that would be the fabric of our wonderful city and is now set to become a vibrant social centerpiece reflecting the best of a lively downtown."

This plaza will be the fabric of this wonderful city? Becoming a vibrant social centerpiece? This one acre plaza will reflect the best of a lively downtown?

This is just embarrassing.

One acre?

With four 40 x 40 feet umbrellas lit by led lights?

A 2,000 square foot glass pavilion? 2,000 square feet? That's like the size of a big apartment.

The pavilion is designed in the English garden style? Why not designed in the Texas garden style? I shudder to wonder what a pavilion designed in the English garden style is going to look like in downtown Fort Worth.

The article in the Star-Telegram makes no mention of when the one acre Sundance Plaza is scheduled to open.

I Love Downtown Fort Worth & The Biggest Comic Strip In Texas That Surrounds Sundance Square

Fairly frequently, I think due to me being such a big booster of Downtown Fort Worth, I get email from Downtown Fort Worth, Inc.

I got one of those emails yesterday. It was via that email I saw the cool new logo and slogan for Downtown Fort Worth.

From the Downtown Fort Worth Inc. website...

It's hard to describe Downtown Fort Worth in a few words. But one thing's for sure: "You Get It When You Get Here." Go ahead, take a look around, then come and see the real thing.

Get what? I'm not quite sure. You might get something if you join in on one of Downtown Fort Worth's J.D. Granger Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

Look around, and then come see the real thing? What real thing? I have no idea.

I have to say, the Downtown Fort Worth Inc. website is very well done. With a lot of information.

In the What We Do: NEWS section I learned that, after years of having no square in Sundance Square, construction has begun on a public plaza on Main Street between 3rd and 4th Streets.

Finally there will be a square in Sundance Square, after perplexing tourists for way too long in their futile search for the formerly non-existent square.

The Biggest Comic Strip in Texas has been built as a construction fence to keep prying eyes from seeing Sundance Square as it is being constructed. The construction fence/comic strip covers 36 panels, 7 feet tall by 16 feet wide. The biggest comic strip in Texas is Sundance Kid themed, in two parts, with part one being about the early 1900s era when the Sundance Kid, Butch Cassidy and the Hole in the Wall Gang wandered around Fort Worth's Hell's Half Acre, before it got covered with a Convention Center.

I'm not sure I understand part two of the biggest comic strip in Texas. From what I can glean, somehow the Sundance Kid finds himself back in modern times after an otherworldly mishap.

Does this mean the Sundance Kid finds himself back in 2012 downtown Fort Worth? Appalled at its current condition, with none of the saloons, bordellos and casinos he'd previously enjoyed in Hell's Half Acre and mad as hell that his name has been used to name a bunch of parking lots Sundance Square? And then uses his Super Hero powers to build a real square?

Also in the What We Do: NEWS section there is an article about a DFWI Luncheon for the Love of Cities that asks the question "How many times have you heard someone say "I love Fort Worth!" when talking about our city?"

I can quite honestly say I can not remember the last time I heard anyone say "I love Fort Worth!"

If ever.

After the article asks the I love Fort Worth question, the next paragraph informs us....

Downtown Fort Worth and the surrounding urban areas have seen a remarkable renaissance in the last decade.  Urban-focused blogs, grass root street events, innovative gatherings and a renewed interest in city life are changing the way people who love Fort Worth express that love. This is a wonderful byproduct of Fort Worth’s growth…the increased engagement of our neighbors in the life and future of their central city.

Have I ever mentioned what a HUGE fan I am of propaganda? I guess I don't have to mention it. It is sort of obvious, I would think, that I am a HUGE fan of propaganda. The more outrageously exaggerated, the better!