Tacoma's Visible Point Ruston Thea Foss Waterway & Fort Worth's Invisible Trinity River Vision

If you are in Fort Worth, or one of its surrounding burgs, looking at that which you see here, you might be thinking it is some sort of new advertisement for the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, what with mention made of Waterfront Condominiums, Waterfront Apartments, Shopping & Dining and a 2017 Sunfest & Summer Concert Series, along with Valet Parking.

Well, you would be wrong if that is what you thought. Not even America's Biggest Boondoggle is (so far) brazen enough with its absurd propaganda to tout such, what with the Boondoggle apparently unable to even manage to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

No, this is a screencap from the Point Ruston website. Point Ruston is a free market private sector developer development on the Tacoma waterfront which has transformed a former industrial wasteland into a booming residential area and tourist attraction.

All done without employing, as project director, the unqualified son of a local congressperson to motivate the congressperson to secure federal funds to fund the project.

Tacoma's Point Ruston development at the north end of the Tacoma waterfront, and the Thea Foss Waterway development on the south end of the Tacoma waterfront have perplexed me ever since I visited them last month.

Perplexed me because it got me wondering how does such development take place in one town, while another town, Fort Worth, flounders along for years, trying to develop an industrial wasteland, whilst operating under the pretext the project is a vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme.

Yet, in Fort Worth, this "project" is not so vitally needed that the public is asked to support the project, you know, with money, but instead Fort Worth asks for charity in the form of federal funds in order to have sufficient capital to try to actualize their imaginary vitally needed flood control economic development project.

If Fort Worth's pitiful vision were actually viable wouldn't the free market come along and cause it to happen, such as what has happened at both ends of the Tacoma waterfront, during the past nine years, nine years in which little has happened, that anyone can see, with Fort Worth's embarrassing Trinity River Vision?

Soon after I returned to Texas, last month, I found myself freshly appalled by a new instance of Fort Worth Star-Telegram propaganda regarding America's Biggest Boondoggle. I blogged about this in Fresh Bridge Boondoggle Nonsense. A paragraph from the Part of Fort Worth’s Main Street closes as work revs up on Panther Island bridges article...

The private sector is interested in investing in the project. Last year, a Dallas company confirmed that it had bought nearly 2.5 acres on what will become part of Panther Island at Fourth and Main Streets for a 300-unit apartment community that is expected to cost $55 million. The development, Encore Panther Island, would be the first privately-funded development for the project.

The Boondoggle has spewed this "private sector interest" propaganda for years. Including mentioning, for years now, a Dallas company building an apartment community. After all these years the Trinity River Vision is still nothing anyone can actually see. If it were viable to build an apartment community why is it not under construction? If the Trinity River Vision is actually viable why is there not a lot of private sector building going on, such as what has taken place in Tacoma over the past nine years? And in other locations in America, locations which are actually economically viable and not a foolish poorly executed pipe dream?

Like I have already said, more than once, perplexing. And pitiful....

Ruby, David & Theo Thea Foss Waterway Uncle Walk Vision

Earlier this month, on the way to the airport, David, Theo & Ruby took me to the downtown Tacoma museum zone where we went book shopping in a University of Washington bookstore, to find a book about Washington to send to Boston to David, Theo & Ruby's cousin Kwan.

After completing the bookstore task, along with something called Cake Pops from the adjacent Starbucks, David, Theo & Ruby led us across the Bridge of Glass to the Thea Foss Waterway.

I usually incorrectly refer to this waterway as Theo Foss, likely due to one of my favorite nephews being named Theo. However, Thea Foss was a Tacoma mill operator over a century ago, operating her mill in what is now known as the Thea Foss Waterway.

The Thea Foss Waterway was part of the Commencement Bay Superfund site. The final Superfund cleanup was finished in 2006. After the cleaning was complete an entity called the Foss Waterway Development Authority Board took over.

At the time of my previous visit (August 2008) to the Thea Foss Waterway a couple residential developments had sprung up, along with office space and restaurants and a marina. The promenade/esplanade, at that point in time, was maybe a mile long. In 2008 there were some water features, mostly tied into the Museum of Glass.

By the time of my recent walk along the Thea Foss Waterway, in August of 2017, multiple new water features, and other features, have been added. Along with several more residential buildings, and restaurants. And the promenade/esplanade has been extended under one of Tacoma's actual signature bridges.

That signature bridge comment is what is known as a dig. Directed at one of Fort Worth's ongoing embarrassments. That being referring to three simple little bridges slowly being built over dry land as signature bridges. Those Fort Worth bridges are being slowly built as part of a project overseen by the Trinity River Vision Authority.

The Trinity River Vision Authority has been boondoggling along during the same time frame as the Foss Waterway Authority Vision, only with the Tacoma vision you have this alien to Fort Worth concept known as, well, a successful, mostly completed, project.

With the Tacoma project coming about without using the property stealing technique so popular in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, known as abusing eminent domain.

Let's take a walk with David, Theo & Ruby and see some of what Tacoma has built during the time frame Fort Worth has dawdled.

Added since my last visit is the water feature you see above, on the promenade/esplanade near the Museum of Glass. Water flows down those glass tubes.

Here you see Ruby at the far side of the above oval area, playing music on one type of instrument, whilst Theo & David make louder music on some giant chimes. That blue water is part of the Thea Foss Waterway, now used as a marina, among other uses.

And now David, Theo and Ruby, and their parental units are about to walk under that aforementioned Tacoma signature bridge, built over water, in way less than four years. Fort Worth's pitiful little bridges began construction way back in 2014, with construction sputtering off and on, originally with an astonishing four year construction timeline, recently stretched to some year in the 2020s.

Above David is in the distant lead, leading me, Ruby & Theo up the stairs which lead to the Museum of Glass and the Bridge of Glass.

The Theo Foss Waterway is at the south end of Commencement Bay, at the far south end of the Tacoma waterfront. Several miles to the north is an equally impressive waterfront development, known as Point Ruston.

Pont Ruston did not exist during my visit to Tacoma in 2008. I blogged about Point Ruston whilst I was in Washington, including video, in a blogging titled Point Ruston Ruby, Theo & David Surrey Survey Of Tacoma's New Waterfront Development.

I likely will be blogging a followup blogging about Point Ruston, due to being freshly appalled at the slow motion nonsense of Fort Worth's Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, bizarrely touted as a vital flood control/economic development scheme, so vital it has been dawdling along in slow motion most of this century, taking property by abusing eminent domain, depending on federal dollar handouts to pay for the ongoing debacle, attracting zero real private investment.

And then there is Tacoma's Point Ruston. And the Thea Foss Waterway...

Tacoma's Foss Waterway Development Authority vs. Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Authority Boondoggle

A couple days ago, whilst sorting through my YouTube videos looking for a video I made six years ago of a drive over Tacoma's Two Bridges Over Water, I came upon another video I made during that year's stay in Tacoma, a video of a walk around Tacoma's Thea Foss Waterway.

You can watch that video below, in which you will see a pair of Tacoma Link street cars, full of riders, crossing paths in Tacoma's Museum district, which is not called The Cultural District.

Those Tacoma Link street cars are free to ride from Tacoma's Intermodal Transport Center where you can hop a bus, train or streetcar, to go to all sorts of locations, after parking in a big parking garage, for free.

At the Tacoma Intermodal Transport Center you will also find Freighthouse Square, a Fort Worth Santa Fe Rail Market-like development on steroids, which has thrived for years, rather than die a quick death like Fort Worth's pitiful public market attempt.

Watching that video I made years ago, made well after the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle was well underway, with its slow motion construction, I was struck by the similarities between what Thea Foss Waterway has become and what the Trinity River Vision purports to want to be.

Both have bridges. That is the Thea Foss Waterway Bridge below, built across water in way shorter time than four years. The TRV Boondoggle currently has three simple bridges under construction, over dry land, with the water to be added later. Maybe. With these simple bridges slated to take four years to build.

Above you are looking at just a small section of the Thea Foss Waterway. What is called the Esplanade meanders along the waterway for about 1.5 miles. I believe that is about the length of the Fort Worth Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's imaginary promenade alongside its imaginary channel alongside its imaginary island.

Below is another look at the Thea Foss Waterway Esplanade. When I visited for a month in August of 2004 I had myself a mighty fine time roller blading on the Esplanade.

The Thea Foss Waterway Development is a mixed use type of deal. There is a large marina with boats of all sizes, restaurants, a big apartment complex, which you see part of on the left above, stores, parks, other amenities, including museums, some of which are accessed by crossing over a freeway spur via what is known as The Bridge of Glass.

Above you are looking at the broad stairway which leads to the aforementioned Bridge of Glass, where you will find an installation of Chihuly Glass worth millions. That cone shaped structure is part of the Museum of Glass.

Okay, now that I have given you some idea of what the Thea Foss Waterway is, let's talk about how this development came to be.

Historically the Thea Foss Waterway was an industrial zone. Those industries polluted the waterway. In 1983 the Environmental Protection Agency designated the waterway and Commencement Bay a Superfund cleanup site.

Tacoma city and business leaders then created the Foss Waterway Development Authority with its goal being the restoration of the waterway to being a dynamic part of Tacoma. From that point on the FWDA has set precedents in planning, engineering and development, in cooperation with regulatory agencies and the public.

In 2014 the result is a mixed use urban village combining housing, retail, restaurants, along with recreation amenities.

The Thea Foss Waterway is on ongoing development, growing and expanding.

So, how does Tacoma, a town a quarter the size of Fort Worth, population-wise, manage to pull of a massive public works project, successfully, including the building of bridges, water features, walkways, along with cleaning up a pollution mess, while Fort Worth dawdles along with an embarrassing boondoggle which had an explosive celebration celebrating the start of the four year construction of Three Bridges Over Nothing?

I think part of the explanation for the difference is in Tacoma adults are in charge. The executive director of the Foss Waterway Authority is not the unqualified son of a local congresswoman. The Foss Waterway Authority sets and meets clear goals with project timelines.

Fort Worth's Boondoggle has no actual goals or project timelines, unless one wants to count that four year goal to build three simple bridges over dry land.

Comparing the Foss Waterway Development Authority website with the Trinity River Vision Authority website is very revealing.

The Tacoma website it totally reality based, sharing information about projects already completed, or in progress. The Fort Worth website is mostly propaganda, sharing pseudo information about plans which have no plan or project timeline, such as the Gateway Park Master Plan.

The Fort Worth website does a lot of bragging about things they should be embarrassed about, such as their various "Products" and "Programs".  Products like ice rinks, drive-ins, breweries and wakeboard parks. Programs like Rockin' the River Inner Tube Floats and music festivals.

You will find no information on the Fort Worth website about project timelines. You will find a lot of propaganda puffery.

The Tacoma website has a page listing the Foss Waterway Development Authority's Completed Projects.

You will find no similar list on The Boondoggle's website.

The mission statement type blurbs on the two website's home pages are telling.

From the Thea Foss Waterway Development Authority website...

The Thea Foss Waterway is quickly becoming a popular place to live, work and play. Mountain views, marina access, walking distance to downtown Tacoma and nearby services make Foss Waterway an attractive master planned community. Development sites are available along the Foss Waterway, just 35 miles south of Seattle. The Foss Waterway Development Authority (FWDA) is the coordinating agency for the waterfront's development. We can be advocates for developers through our established relationships with regulatory agencies.

From the Trinity River Vision Authority website...

The Trinity River Vision Authority (TRVA) is the organization responsible for the implementation of the Trinity River Vision (TRV) - a master plan for the Trinity River in Fort Worth, Texas. It is underway now - connecting every neighborhood in the city to the Trinity River corridor with new recreational amenities, improved infrastructure, environmental enhancements and event programming. The TRV will create Panther Island (formerly Trinity Uptown), a vibrant urban waterfront neighborhood, expand Gateway Park into one of the largest urban-programmed parks in the nation and enhance the river corridor with over 90 user-requested projects along the Trinity Trails.
Every time I read the TRVB's propaganda about 90 imaginary user-requested projects I cringe. I tell you, the Fort Worth Boondogglers, led by J.D. Granger, have no shame, no matter how absurd the propaganda they spew.

A master plan to connect every neighborhood in the city to the river? Can we see that plan please?

The plan is underway? Really? Where can we check out the project timeline for that plan which is underway? Such a timeline does not exist on The Boondoggle's website.

And, before I shut up, I must add one important thing. The Boondoggle is not yet at the point, if it ever gets there, when pollution issues come up that need mitigating, such as Tacoma had to deal with. The area where The Boondoggle is boondoggling is an industrial wasteland. It is highly likely contamination is going to be encountered if digging into the ground ever actually takes place.

Does the EPA Superfund still exist? Methinks that may be the only federal money The Boondoggle may actually be able to get its hands on.....

Tacoma's Cultural District & Fort Worth's

There is a town in Texas with so much culture they had to build an entire Cultural District to contain it. That would be Fort Worth, with an area of its 700,000 plus population town designated as "The Cultural District."

It's true. I'm not making it up.

Fort Worth's Cultural District is basically a few museums, a fair grounds and one theater.

Meanwhile, little Tacoma, where I am right now, a little town, less than a third the size of Fort Worth, has no "Cultural District."

But, though Tacoma does not have enough culture to assign the title "District" to it, Tacoma does have a cluster of museums in the south end of downtown. among other cultural amenities, like a new convention center. Due southeast from the convention center is the Tacoma Art Museum, next to that is the Washington State History Museum, across a Bridge of Glass, from there, is the Museum of Glass.

The setting for Tacoma's "cultural district" is quite scenic, with Mount Rainier hovering above, on a clear day, like today. There are a lot of restaurants and shops and galleries in Tacoma's "cultural district." The Glass Museum connects to the Thea Foss Waterway, which is a sort of promenade along the waterfront, with marinas with a lot of docked boats. A cable stay bridge and the Tacoma Dome anchor the south end.

The free to ride Sound Transit train runs through Tacoma's cultural district, along Pacific Avenue.

Tacoma's "cultural district" is quite aesthetically pleasing. It would be a stretch to say the same regarding Fort Worth's Cultural District. Sadly, even if Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision's Town Lake and canals ever get built, that still won't provide Fort Worth's Cultural District with any water-based culture. While Tacoma comes by water features naturally.

As for any sort of rail moving people to Fort Worth's Cultural District. Well, I don't know if they are still running, but there are these little green trolleys that Fort Worth bought from some place in Australia, that putter from the Cultural District to downtown to the Stockyards. I've never seen anyone riding one. They may be gone now.

Below is video I took today of a walk by Tacoma's museums and the Bridge of Glass and Thea Foss Waterway. Sadly, I took the video about 1pm. An hour later The Mountain was out.