Deep Moat III Takes Us To Venice In Cowtown Via Fort Worth Weekly

Deep Moat III moved to Fort Worth years after that which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle began boondoggling, way back early this century.

So, Deep Moat did not know that when this was first foisted on the Fort Worth public it was announced via a banner headline in the Sunday Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

"TRINITY UPTOWN TO TURN FORT WORTH INTO VANCOUVER OF THE SOUTH"

I remember reading that like it was yesterday, wondering what fresh nonsense is this. I was still adjusting to the Star-Telegram's tendency to spout ridiculous hyperbole.

If I remember right touting a lame food court as being modeled after public markets in Europe and Seattle's Pike Place Market, came later, as also did the Star-Telegram touting that a sporting goods store would be the #1 tourist attraction in Texas.

Fort Worth being made into the Vancouver of the South is probably the most absurdly ridiculous thing I've read in the Star-Telegram.

Vancouver has mountains hovering over the town, along with bodies of water connected to the Pacific Ocean, along with a big river named Fraser. Vancouver has hosted a Winter Olympics and an extremely successful World's Fair called Expo '86.

Meanwhile, Fort Worth is currently sponsoring America's Biggest Boondoggle, which no one currently claims will turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

Regarding America's Biggest Boondoggle, I told Deep Moat III that back when this started, back near the start of this century, early on there were  controversies regarding Granger property holdings which would benefit from the Trinity Uptown economic development scheme. If I remember right Granger, and others, had to divest themselves of holdings which might benefit from their scheming.

I do not remember where the news of the Granger controversial holdings was published. I suspect it was not in the Star-Telegram, what with that newspaper's tendency to not deal with real news requiring actual investigative journalism. I told Deep Moat the news about the Granger holdings may have been in Fort Worth Weekly.

That got Deep Moat III doing some deep Googling which took Deep Moat III back as far as 2005 in Fort Worth Weekly, to that year's Fort Worth Weekly Turkey Awards.

The Fort Worth Weekly Turkey Award awarded to that which 14 years later has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, is rather revealing, that all those years ago it was already obvious something was dire wrong with this development scheme.

The 2005 Do Turkeys Float Fort Worth Weekly Turkey Award...

When the Trinity River Vision plan was slowly being unveiled over the past few years, it seemed like a decent idea. Take 800 under-used acres on the north side of downtown and turn it into a playground with a lake, canals, 10,000 new housing units, and tons of new commercial and retail real estate. But there was a flaw in the plan (well, OK, several) that nature exposed: Half of the $435 million price tag was to come from federal funds, including $110 million from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a “floodway project.” It didn’t matter then that the Corps said it could do the flood control part of the project for about $10 million. Now, it matters. When Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans and broke that city’s levees, federal flood control spending was, um, diverted — as it should have been. Fort Worth’s plan to spend $110 million on what’s really not much more than a high-end real estate deal is under water right now. What Fort Worth political leadership — Mayor Mike Moncrief, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, and the Tarrant County Regional Water District — need to do is re-examine the whole Trinity River Vision project. For now, a water-logged turkey to all those who keep pushing this pricey Venice in Cowtown — for not being able to tell the difference between “flood control” and making a lot of money for their big-time real estate developer friends.

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Deep Moat III was particularly taken with the Venice in Cowtown concept suggested by this FW Weekly Turkey Award, commenting the following...


Venice in Cowtown, all the way back to 2005. 

What a great slogan for the new Fort Worth. I hope this meme sticks.

Forget horses and cows. We now want gondolas in a new waterfront development instead of levees and green space on the Trinity Trails for horseback riding from the Stockyards to Downtown. 

We want this instead of spending the millions needed to help neighborhoods with real flood control. 

Is this the new Fort Worth Way?

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Venice in Cowtown. That seems appropriate in multiple ways. Venice frequently has trouble with too much water flooding the town. Venice has spent a lot of money trying to control the water flooding the town. But Venice is slowing sinking as the ocean water level continue to rise.

Yeah, Venice is a good metaphor for Fort Worth...

Imaginary Fun Phase Begins For Fort Worth's Entertainment Boondoggle

Captain Andy sent me a link to that which you see here, a FOX4 News online article titled Development phase begins for new Fort Worth entertainment district.

I read the article, which was posted August 2, 2016, thinking it seemed so outdated, as in maybe a decade out of sync.

Regarding this article this is what Captain Andy had to say...

Get out your hipwaders, the propaganda machine is stirring again. Panther Island is a new name? Construction is about to start? What the hell? Hasn't construction been delayed for the last several months after starting with a bang (or a dull thud) quite some time ago? Every time they move a spade of dirt they restart the timeline on the project. 

I think it was a year ago, or maybe two, time flies so fast, that The Boondoggle had a ceremony capped by a TNT explosion to celebrate the momentous occasion of the start of construction of one of The Boondoggle's three bridges connecting the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.  That bridge construction of that one bridge has been halted for months now, due to design errors.

Has anyone read any news, anywhere, among the multiple reliable Fort Worth news sources, regarding the current stalled state of The Boondoggle's bridge building?

When that explosive TNT ceremony took place J.D. Granger was quoted as saying that now the public will finally be able to see this project rise from the ground. Literally. With the appearance of monumentally unique signature wooden V-pier forms. Currently a few of those wooden forms are all that can be seen of this stalled project.

Some embarrassing excerpts from this bizarre propaganda laced article...

The land has already been purchased, utilities moved, environment cleaned up and now building begins. "Now we're going to the fun phase -- the development phase,” said Granger. “So over the last year, we've had lots of development interest. We've been talking through many different parcels." Parcels include a sports complex, festival grounds, parks, canals, housing, office space and more.

Now we're at the fun phase, the development phase, the incompetent, unqualified Granger failure claims?

Why is no one asking about the stalled construction of those bridges?

And then there is this...

The city's future plans of making a river-walk, lakes and canals along with an entertainment district and condos and apartments are about to take some big steps forward, which could double Fort Worth’s downtown area. The new development will also come with a name change.

Another name change? What is the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision going to be called now? This project which has been dawdling along since around the start of the century, eventually turning into America's Biggest Boondoggle is about to take some big steps forward?

And then we learn about the name change....

It would be bigger than San Antonio's river walk and would rival Austin's Town Lake. Newly-named Panther Island District would stretch 12 miles along the Trinity River, just north of downtown Fort Worth. By 2024, the development would double the size of the central part of the city.

Oh, the new name is the same name The Boondoggle has been using for years now.

Panther Island.

Where there is no island. Who wrote this idiotic article?

And then this gem....

But if you think it's a new idea, JD Granger with the Trinity River Vision Authority has been working on it for several years. With about $280 million in, Granger said now is when the fun part begins.

If you think this Boondoggle is a new idea you have been totally out of touch with local Fort Worth reality. It's a bad, old idea, that has been stumbling along for years and years, with very little to show for all the effort and extensive signage and quarterly mailed updates detailing the lack of real progress.

And what is up with Kay Granger's boy's fixation with the supposed "fun part" of this Boondoggle beginning?

The following paragraph contained the most embarrassing nonsense of this entire embarrassing propaganda piece....

Construction for the development could begin in a month or two. After Tuesday’s vote, the area was officially renamed from the Trinity Uptown District to the Panther Island District, one of many changes to come over the next few years for the area.

Construction could begin in a month or two? What construction? The stalled bridge construction? The digging of the ditch to go under the stalled bridge construction? Officially renamed from Trinity Uptown District to Panther Island District?

Is it not time now to say enough of this nonsense is enough? This Boondoggle needs to be put to rest before it does more damage to Fort Worth than has already been done.

And J.D. Granger needs to be fired if this Boondoggle continues to go forward. Who is to blame for this becoming America's Biggest Boondoggle?

If not J.D. Granger, who?

His mama?

Finding A Long Lost Trinity Uptown Protest T-Shirt

I think I already mentioned that during the course of rummaging through locations I've not rummaged in for years I am finding stuff I did not remember having

A Trinity Uptown t-shirt?

It seems like a decade or longer ago that what is now known as America's Biggest Boondoggle was known as Trinity Uptown.

I think the current full name of the Boondoggle is the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision Boondoggle.

Did I get this t-shirt whilst manning a booth at the Prairie Fest with Granny Grassroots the time someone thought I was Elsie Hotpepper's papa?

Or did I get this t-shirt at the massive anti-Boondoggle protest at the opening of Tim Love's Woodshed Smokehouse that The Boondoggle gave him in a sweetheart deal?

I sure have a lot of memory issues....

We Finally Have A Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Project Timeline

There has been a time or two or three when I have blogged about being perplexed by the fact that I have never seen any sort of Project Timeline in any of the vast amounts of printed  material churned out by the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, or its propaganda cohort, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

So, imagine my surprise to see an article in the Sunday, September 15, 2013 Star-Telegram titled Trinity Uptown bridges in Fort Worth will initially span dirt, not water in which there is a link to the extremely detailed "Trinity Uptown" Project Timeline you see above.

From that Project Timeline we learn that in 2014 a contractor will be hired to build a bridge. In 2017 three bridges are scheduled to be completed and in 2021-23 the much needed flood control project will be completed, pending federal funding.

I really do not understand why it is that so many people complain that the Star-Telegram is not a real newspaper, what with hard hitting investigative journalism of the sort evidenced by this particular Trinity Uptown bridges in Fort Worth will initially span dirt, not water article and its detailed Project Timeline.

The dirt the bridges span in this article's title refer to the flood diversion channel, which will be dug after the bridges are built.

Regarding that flood diversion channel in the Star-Telegram article we learn...

The timetable for digging the channel and making the other flood control improvements is less certain. Even by optimistic projections, that work likely won’t be finished until 2023 — two years later than the previous target date.

And why is the digging of this channel uncertain? Once more from the Star-Telegram...

Fort Worth is counting on Congress to eventually provide about half the $910 million needed to finish the sweeping project. But it’s not clear when — some say if — all the federal funds will come. “In this constrained funding environment, we must focus on projects that have the greatest impacts on life safety. The result is, we have insufficient federal funding to continue the project at this time,” said Brig. Gen. Thomas Kula, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers’ Southwestern Division, which includes Texas.

You reading this in other locations in America I bet you did not know that Fort Worth is thinking it is going to stick you with half the tab for this combo flood control economic development project.

I'd hazard to guess you'll be even more perplexed when I tell you that you've already paid for flood control levees which have prevented any damaging flooding in the downtown Fort Worth area for well over half a century.

You reading this in other locations in America, those being locations where the citizens vote on these things called bond issues to fund much needed public works projects, are likely wondering two things, with one of those things being wondering, if this project is so important, why don't the locals vote to pay for it themselves? And you are likely also wondering, if this project is so important, you know, for flood control, why is it being built at a snail's pace?

The Star-Telegram inadvertently sheds some light on to what is behind this boondoggle when it quotes Congresswoman Kay Granger's son, J.D., he being the executive director of the boondoggle, installed in this job, for which he has zero qualifications, in order to give his mama a motivation to help get that much needed federal funding. A plan which has not worked out all that well, so far.

J.D. gives the Star-Telegram a typically inane quote the point of which I'm not quite sure I understand...

J.D. Granger, executive director of the authority, said the project won’t need full funding from the corps for many years. Right now, supporters are simply seeking Congress’ approval to build the channel, making it eligible for actual funding. “We couldn’t spend more than $400 million in one year because we’d have to move 800 million cubic yards of dirt,” he said. “It’s impossible.”

I know, you reading this in other parts of America are wondering how it is this boy keeps this job. Well, I'd have to try and explain the Fort Worth Way of doing things, but I really don't understand the Fort Worth Way of doing things, so I can not explain it....