Vancouver Of The North Has A New Riverwalk

I saw that which you see above Saturday in the Seattle Times. A link to an article titled With new options for food, wine and walks on the Columbia, the Vancouver waterfront is buzzing. 

The first two paragraphs of this article...

Sawmills, shipyards, breweries and a paper mill once lined the north bank of the Columbia River in the “Other Vancouver,” the Washington town across the water from Portland that thrived with industry in the late 1800s.

Fast-forward to a post-pandemic 2022. People walk their dogs and kids play in a waterfront park flanked by restaurants, wine tasting rooms, a gourmet coffee “gastro” cafe, and, coming later this year: two hotels; an El Gaucho and 13 Coins restaurant; a brewery; and another taproom.

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Looks like Vancouver has built itself a Riverwalk, of sorts, on the banks of the mighty Columbia. How did this come to be I wondered? The answer came in the next paragraph...

“It intrigued me from the beginning,” said developer Barry Cain, who spearheaded Waterfront Vancouver, a mixed-use project with office buildings and residences, for the Gramor Development company. When Boise Cascade decided to close its paper mill in 2006, leaving dormant 35 acres of prime waterfront property just south of downtown Vancouver, Cain saw the opportunity “to take a situation like that, and do something that could change the face of the city.” 

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So, it appears private developers are the ones developing some prime Vancouver real estate, land which had previously served an industrial purpose, and is now being re-imagined. The next paragraph tells us how this land is being re-imagined...

Tying everything together is a 7-acre city-owned park connecting to the 5-mile Columbia River Renaissance Trail, popular for jogging and biking. Open-air patios stand on the half-mile paved path at Waterfront Park, lined with granite benches, play areas and water features, separated by the Grant Street Pier, an overlook suspended 90 feet over the river.

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That all sounds quite nice. And, what with this land only becoming available in 2006, rather quickly developed. Apparently without begging for federal funding. Or hiring a local politician's son to be part of the project to motivate that politician to secure federal funds.

What a concept. A big city wearing its big city pants.

And then there is this paragraph...

“Vancouver has always lived in the shadow of Portland,” says Seidy Selivanow, owner of Kafiex Roasters’ Gastro Café, which opened on the waterfront last April. “Now it’s taking on an identity of its own.”

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A city living in the shadow of a bigger, more well known city. Now, what does that remind me of? Oh, yeah, Fort Worth living in the dark shadow of Dallas.

When I saw this article referencing Vancouver I thought back a couple decades to that Sunday morning when I read a blaring headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram screaming "TRINITY UPTOWN TO TURN FORT WORTH INTO VANCOUVER OF THE SOUTH".

I remember reading that and thinking what fresh ridiculous nonsense is this gonna turn out to be? Little could I realize how totally absurdly ridiculous Trinity Uptown would become over the following decades, eventually morphing into the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Riverwalk Vision, proudly, after years and years of construction, managing to build three pitiful freeway overpass type bridges over dry land, hoping one day to see a water filled ditch go under the bridges, thus creating an imaginary island.

I remember when I read that Star-Telegram article about Fort Worth being turned into the Vancouver of the South, wondering which Vancouver they were talking about. The Canadian Vancouver, or the Washington Vancouver? The Canadian Vancouver is surrounded by water, with mountains looming in the background, and a big river, the Fraser, passing by. The Washington Vancouver also has a big river, the Columbia, and mountains visible, such as the Mount Hood volcano in Oregon.

Fort Worth has zero of these attributes both Vancouvers possess.

Turns out it was the Canadian Vancouver Fort Worth was destined to become like. 

When this Star-Telegram Fort Worth nonsense happened I was early on in experiencing what I came to see as the town's, well, tendency to delusion, as reflected in its leaders and its one and only newspaper.

Trinity Uptown turning Fort Worth into Vancouver happened before the Santa Fe Rail Market was supposedly modeled after Seattle's Pike Place and public markets in Europe, when it turned out to be nothing more than a soon to fail lame mall food court type thing.

And then after that there was the time the Star-Telegram trumpeted that the Cabela's sporting goods store opening in far north Fort Worth would become the #1 tourist attraction in Texas. Has the Star-Telegram ever apologized for misleading its few readers over that nonsensical nonsense? Even after a second Cabela's opened in DFW?

One more blurb from this article about this actual Vancouver development...

Fodor’s Travel took note, naming the Vancouver waterfront to its 2021 list of the nation’s 15 best river walks.

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I wonder if Fodor's Travel book will ever find itself adding Fort Worth to its list of the nation's 15 best river walks?

I suspect that will never happen, but if it does, Fort Worth will likely have a city wide celebration whilst bragging such is making towns, far and wide, green with envy...

Tale Of Two Town's Waterfront Attractions: One Real One Imaginary

I saw that which you see above, this morning on the front page of the Seattle Times online version. The photo illustrating an article explaining why it has become easier than ever for Amazon tech hires to buy homes in Seattle.

That buying homes thing is not what I found interesting. It is the photo I found to be interesting.

Most photo views of downtown Seattle are either from Elliot Bay, looking east at the skyline, with the Space Needle on the left, and the sports stadiums on the right, with the Seattle skyscrapers between them. That and ferry boats and cruise ships on the waterfront, along with a giant wheel. Or the most popular view, that being from Queen Anne Hill, looking south, with the Space Needle looming tall above the Seattle skyline, with Mount Rainier hovering in the distance.

In the rare above view we are looking south across the south end of Lake Union. The Space Needle is that stick sticking up on the right. The towers you see are not the main part of the Seattle skyline, but are mostly what makes up the Amazon campus. Somewhere amongst those towers are the Amazon spheres my favorite Ruby niece took me to see a couple summers ago.

Anyway, looking at the above photo of part of downtown Seattle caused me to realize why I have such an automatic revulsion reaction when I read ridiculousness in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about that which has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle, the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

I think my revulsion at the ridiculousness began almost two decades ago when I read a banner headline on the front page of the Sunday Star-Telegram, screaming "TRINITY UPTOWN TO TURN FORT WORTH INTO VANCOUVER OF THE SOUTH".

I remember thinking to myself have these idiots never been to Vancouver? What can they possibly think could possibly turn this landlocked scenery free town into anything remotely resembling Vancouver?

Who could have dreamt that that ridiculousness would continue on for so long, soon to be boondoggling along into its third decade, with Fort Worth still not even remotely resembling Vancouver, or, actually, any other actual big modern city in North America, most of which have streets with sidewalks, city parks without outhouses, and no public transit of the Molly the Trolley sort.

Why would any sane city want to artificially turn their town into something it is not? Look at that view of downtown Seattle. See all that water? All that waterfront? And that is only part of it. To the left, out of view, is Lake Washington, across Elliot Bay, that land you see across the bay, is even more waterfront, as in West Seattle. To the right of the photo, out of Elliot Bay, is more waterfront, along the shores of Puget Sound.

All natural waterfront. With manmade attractions built on the waterfront, as in miles upon miles of private development, with not one inch of that waterfront being the result of some bizarre vision to create such out of nothing, under the guidance of some local politician's unqualified, inept, son, and expecting to do so via the largess of federal money doled out from the more prosperous parts of America, such as Seattle.

Let's take a current, 2019, look at the Vancouver of the South.

That wide creek is known as the Trinity River. Those buildings across the river are the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, someday destined to become the Vancouver of the South, just as soon as the Trinity River creek can be diverted into a cement lined ditch diverting water around an 800 acre industrial wasteland, creating an imaginary island, imaginatively already named Panther Island.

Since 2014 Fort Worth has been trying to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to that imaginary island. But that bridge building has been slow, now in its 5th years, currently slated to maybe be completed sometime in the next decade.

That is if you in the more prosperous parts of America can be convinced to send federal funding to Fort Worth to help with its imaginary (un-needed) flood control project and ineptly implemented economic development scheme where local delusionists conjure visions of riverwalks, waterfronts, lakes, canals, houseboat districts, thousands of residents and other never gonna happen nonsense.

All on what is currently an industrial wasteland still waiting on its EPA investigation which will likely discover epic levels of ground pollution costing a fortune to mitigate, which will likely be the final death knell of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. That or the digging of the ditch under one of those possibly finished bridges causing the bridge to sink or collapse.

Or, J.D. Granger reaching retirement age, with that bringing to a close the lifespan of the main beneficiary of what has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle.

I just had a thought which surprises me that it had never occurred to me before.

A thought which vividly points out the obviousness of the Fort Worth Vancouver of the South embarrassment. Can you imagine another city somewhere in North America, let's take Boise, Idaho for example, touting some project as a "VISION TO TURN BOISE INTO FORT WORTH OF THE NORTH".

No, would never happen, because there is not one single thing about Fort Worth any town anywhere in America would want to emulate.

And that fact is what the people who run Fort Worth in what is known as the Fort Worth Way might want to ponder.

A ridiculous project touted as turning Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South is not the solution to what ails Fort Worth.

I don't know if there is anything a town like Fort Worth could ever manage to do which would cause other towns to want to turn themselves into the Fort Worth of the North, or East, or West, but I do know for sure the solution ain't copying Vancouver, or San Antonio, or...

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...

Is Fort Worth The Vancouver Of The South Yet?

Saw this Is this the future of Seattle transit? A look at Vancouver, B.C. — a city that figured it out years ago article in yesterday's Seattle Times and thought, for more reasons than one, this is the type article I would never expect to be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

First off, the article is well written, detailed, full of facts, maps, photo documentation and intelligent analysis comparing public transit development in Vancouver and Seattle.

Oh, and the article is totally honest and reality fact based, with no embarrassing chamber of commerce type Fort Worth delusional puffery.

Both Vancouver and Seattle have a transit problem for similar reasons. Limited land due to the towns being hemmed in by mountains and water. And being fast growing boomtowns.

Seattle made a big goof way back in 1969 when a rail transit proposal failed with the voters, delaying for decades light rail coming to Western Washington.

Meanwhile Vancouver opened its first rail transit line, called Skytrain, by the time of their world's fair, Expo 86. Over the decades since, the Skytrain has greatly expanded.

By the 1990s Seattle voters knew something had to be done, and so voters began approving transit measures, one after another, with the latest passed a $54 billion bond approved in the November 2016 vote.

Seattle is now playing catch up with Vancouver, public transit-wise.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth, Texas, earlier in this century a bizarre public works project was foisted on the public, without a vote, called the Trinity River Vision, which, in its original propaganda, was supposedly gonna turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

I am not making that up.

Landlocked, saltwater-free, mountain-less Fort Worth was gonna be the Vancouver of the South.

The pitifully pathetic effort eventually became America's Biggest Boondoggle.

In all the years of boondoggling, Fort Worth has not even managed to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island which was/is supposed to be part of the Vancouver of the South.

And now, this week, we have learned that that imaginary island is so contaminated with toxins it makes workers sick to work on it.

And something of concern to modern locations in North America, like public transit, is not even remotely on the Fort Worth radar screen, as the city builds more and more sprawl without adequate modern transportation infrastructure.

Another huge difference in this Seattle Times article as compared to anything one would read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is the number of comments, intelligent, thoughtful detailed comments. Not dozens of comments, hundreds of comments. The comment flood happens over and over again in Seattle Times articles.

A Star-Telegram article may generate a comment or two, sometimes, and often the comments are, well, embarrassing in their ignorance and wrongheadedness.

Methinks that until Fort Worth gets a real newspaper the town has no real hope of ever lifting itself up from being an American backwards backwater.

Seattle has more than one newspaper, in a town smaller than Fort Worth. I don't know how many newspapers Vancouver has...

Scientific Survey Determines Texas Has No Hip Towns

No, what you are looking at here is not one of Fort Worth's imaginary signature bridges crossing the Trinity River. Those Fort Worth bridges are being built in slow motion over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island. No real river is being crossed. Someday there may be a ditch under those bridges, though.

What you are looking at here is a bridge which was built over a real river, a real big wide river named Columbia. I am not sure, but I think this is the I-5 bridge connecting Vancouver with Portland, but it may be one of the other bridges. There are several.

All built over actual fast moving real river water, in less than four years.

A couple days ago Queen Diamond D of Tacoma commented on Facebook regarding her surprise that Tacoma had out hipped Seattle in some listing of America's hippest cities.

And then yesterday via the Seattle Times I was surprised to learn that Tacoma's fellow Washington town, Vancouver, was determined, via detailed scientific analysis, to be America's hippest city. The screen cap you see above came from the Seattle Times America’s hippest city is Vancouver, Washington? article.

Vancouver being America's hippest city had a lot of people thinking, huh?

Portland, on the Oregon side of the Columbia, has long been considered to be a trend setting hip type town. There is even a TV show sort of celebrating Portland's uniqueness, called Portlandia. Portland is on the list of 20 most hip towns, but it comes in at #12, Seattle is also on the list, in last place, at #20 most hip town.

I only remember Vancouver as a town one passes through on I-5, heading south to Oregon or California or elsewhere, or being the town one passes through when almost home from a long road trip.

I think the last time I was off I-5 in Vancouver was back in the 1990s. For reasons no longer accessible to my memory I had been talked into driving a relative back to Portland to rejoin her cult attending a strange pseudo school called Multnomah Bible College.

On the way home from that bizarre weekend in Portland (which included attending services at a Rock n' Roll church, which was actually pretty cool, as in the preacher played electric guitar with the singing rockers in the choir) we stopped in Vancouver to have ourselves all you can eat fish, chips, chowders and cole slaw at a Skippers restaurant.

Skippers was a real hip seafood joint before it went out of business.

Shockingly no Texas town shows up on the list of America's Top 20 Hippest Towns. Not even Fort Worth, which bills itself as "Junky Town", I mean "Funky Town". How can a town which is proud of being funky not be hip?

Anyway, the surprising list of America's Top 20 Hippest Towns...

1. Vancouver, Washington
2. Salt Lake City
3. Cincinnati
4. Boise, Idaho
5. Richmond, Virginia
6. Tacoma
7. Spokane
8. Atlanta
9. Grand Rapids, Michigan
10. Rochester, New York
11. Orlando, Florida
12. Portland
13. Knoxville, Tennessee
14. Tucson, Arizona
15. Santa Rosa, California
16. Huntsville, Alabama
17. Tampa, Florida
18. Reno, Nevada
19. Albuquerque, New Mexico
20. Seattle

Salt Lake City is #2? Well, Mormons are rather hip. San Francisco isn't on this list? The town which made hippies famous? Reno? Has Reno had a resurgence from the hard times which came upon the town with the collapse of it being a casino mecca? Boise? Spokane?

Apparently, at four, Vancouver, Tacoma, Spokane and Seattle, my old home state has more hip towns than any other state.

These type list are sort of silly, but also sort of amusing. And possibly somewhat accurate.

It has long been obvious to me my old home state of Washington is hugely more hip than the state I currently find myself in, Texas, where all sorts of things freedom loving states allow are not allowed, like gambling in casinos, smoking marijuana, marrying anyone you like, no pockets of prohibition, being well educated, the list goes on and on....

Bud Kennedy Reporting For Star-Telegram From Fort Worth Of The North

Yesterday I saw that which you see here on Facebook. A posting by a Facebooker named Bud Kennedy sharing the fact that he has been away for a few days in Vancouver, B.C.

The place Bud Kennedy is away from is Fort Worth, Texas, where he can usually be found at a local restaurant or somewhere in the offices of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Bud Kennedy has multiple "journalist" roles. Among them he is the Star-Telegram's food critic, reviewing restaurants. Bud Kennedy also operates as one of the Star-Telegram's propagandists, serving as a mouthpiece for the bizarre good ol' boy and girl network which runs Fort Worth in what is known as The Fort Worth Way.

Put another way, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is not a real newspaper in the way most other towns have a newspaper covering local news with what is known as journalistic integrity. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram operates more like the old Soviet Union's Pravda, spewing the "party" line.

An example of this is the way Bud Kennedy and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, over the course of the current century, have covered the ongoing pitiful debacle known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, or, America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Way back when this century started, soon after I arrived in Texas, well before I realized that the Star-Telegram was not a real newspaper of the quality sort I had been reading for decades whilst a resident of Washington, I remember one Sunday morning, opening the Star-Telegram, laying it on the floor, which was my usual reading position back when I still read a hard copy newspaper, getting prone with a hot cup of coffee, opening the newspaper to see a GIANT headline screaming TRINITY UPTOWN TO TURN FORT WORTH INTO THE VANCOUVER OF THE SOUTH.

What fresh ridiculous hell is this I remember laying there and wondering.

What could possibly turn Fort Worth into any semblance of Vancouver? Have any of these people actually been to Vancouver? A town with mountains hovering above it, with large bodies of water surrounding it, with a big scenic river running through it. A town which held one of the most successful World's Fairs ever held, Expo 86. And a Winter Olympics.

What could possibly be done in scenery challenged, clean/clear water challenged, Fort Worth, which could turn it into anything even remotely resembling anything in Vancouver?

And then I read about the "plan" to divert the Trinity River into a channel, thus creating a little lake and canals, which would result in a "waterfront" feature where residential and restaurant and retail developments would develop.

Oh, and three signature bridges.

There was no talk, at the time, about an imaginary island being part of the original vision. Or rockin' the river happy hour inner tube floats. Or an imaginary world class music venue. Or an ice skating rink. Or the first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century. Or a (long failed) wakeboard park lake. Or hiring a low level deputy prosecutor, with zero project engineering experience, as the executive director of the "vision".

The Star-Telegram breathlessly told its readers about this vision to transform Fort Worth. And as the years have passed, with no transformation, with the project evolving into being an embarrassing boondoggle, overseen by a local congresswoman's unqualified son, the Star-Telegram continues to operate as an irresponsible cheerleader for this blighted vision, failing even to report responsibly on the more obvious failures such as the multiple problems regarding the construction of three simple bridges intended to connect the Fort Worth mainland to that aforementioned imaginary island, built over dry land, awaiting the digging of a ditch to go under the bridges.

When I saw Bud Kennedy was in Vancouver I wondered to myself if being in Vancouver he spent any iota of a moment remembering his part in foisting the ridiculous Fort Worth as Vancouver of the South propaganda on his newspaper's readers, when all these years later that vision has become a BIG nothing to see, while the real Vancouver has continued its dynamic growth as one of the gems of the west coast.

So, I Googled "Trinity Uptown Fort Worth Vancouver of the South" to see what, if anything, came up. Well, several instances of the blog you are reading right now came up. Along with defunct links to Star-Telegram articles. And a link to something called the Fort Worth Forum, the Trinity River Vision section of a forum apparently dedicated to what would seem to be the rather limited subject of Architecture in Fort Worth.

The Fort Worth Forum link went to the first page of many pages which have accumulated over the years of the Fort Worth architecture aficionados discussing the Trinity River Vision. This discussion starts in 2004.

2004.

Thirteen years ago.

Below I gleaned some of the comment posts from way back in 2004. The posters are, ironically, quite excited about this wonderful vision which they think will quickly be transformative for Fort Worth. As the years have gone by I suspect some level of disappointment has set in. I have previously been told that some who participate in this Fort Worth Forum have been offput by this particular blog and its tendency to clearly indicate Fort Worth is way too often a naked emperor preening about its imaginary beautiful clothes.

And now a select few comments from the Fort Worth Forum...

Posted 15 June 2004 - 09:35 PM
I saw nice TV coverage of the trinity river vision meeting. Very positive, sounds like they have a quick timeline 6-8 year? Also was confused to Fox4 allusion that canals would be constructed to allow boating from Stockyards, and Cultural District to Downtown? Also nice teaser article in the S-T today about the kayaking in the river.

Posted 16 June 2004 - 07:10 AM
I hope they update their website now. And it's good they have a time frame, I was beginning to think the project was dead after not hearing anything for a year. But I'm so glad it's not, that section of town is going to be booming in a decade or so...just watch.

Posted 20 June 2004 - 09:37 AM
Fort Worth: The Vancouver of the South?

Posted 20 June 2004 - 12:05 PM
I absolutely love the plan. I think that the plan gives the city the chance to get national recognition, while also providing a strong incentive for a dense, highly populated and interesting urban environment that most cities would be very envious to have. Do you notice in the plan how the river and lake corridors would preserve prominent views of the county courthouse from long distances?

Posted 21 June 2004 - 08:38 AM
Personally, I'm extremely excited they're using Vancouver as an example. Has anyone here been there? I have, and they've done incredible things with their waterfront and downtown area, and if we use that as a model, we can't go wrong.  And what's this about rowhouses and whatnot? I was under the impression that the city/committee/whatever was stressing not just dense but highrise residential. That was one effect of Vancouver's waterfront-HIGHRISES!!! One more thing, I hope the final name for this district isn't "Trinity Point". It sounds like some cheesy retirement community or something. I think it should be called Uptown or Town Lake, something that defines it as a unique, diverse district rather than one consolidated project.

Texas Woman Visits Washington And Finds It Astonishing

I was looking for an old email, yesterday, when I saw a blog comment email from Techsas Woman from around three years ago which I did not remember.

My not remembering this email is clearly yet one more indicator of my failing memory function, because not only had I previously read this comment, I had hit the publish button on it and had replied to the comment.

In my memory's defense, I have multiple blogs, with the total number of posts on those blogs being in the thousands, all of which can get commented on.

The comment  from Techsas Woman and my reply.....

Techsas Woman has left a new comment on your post "The Skagit Valley's Big Rock With Spencer Jack's Grandma Cindy & The Nookachamp Star Child Falling From The Sky": 

I was so happy to find your blog, as I have a Texas / Mt. Vernon connection, too, though from the other side. My Texan daughter moved to Mt. Vernon three years ago. My husband and I made our first visit two years ago and found the beauty to be astonishing - the San Juan Islands, Deception Pass, Snoqualmie Falls... breathtaking! (The second thing we found astonishing was the number of ex-patriot Texans we ran into up there.) While I find some of your remarks towards Texas and Texans to be awfully stinging, I'm so pleased to find great travel commentary for the area. We're heading back in late June with hopes to head up towards Mt. Baker and also make a trip to Vancouver. 

Durango Northwest said...
Thanks for the comment, Techas Woman. Did not get "Techas" til I read the comment. I can't remember any stinging remarks directed at Texas or Texans. I have age related memory issues. You are really gonna like Vancouver. Very scenic. And the town's Skytrain & Sea Buses make it easy to get around. If your visit to Mount Baker is to the ski area you are in for some classic mountain driving that might be unsettling if you've not experienced that before. Later in summer hiking up Mount Baker becomes doable from the south side, hiking to the side you can see from Mount Vernon. You might also like driving over Stevens Pass. It being, in my opinion, the most scenic of the Washington mountain passes, with Leavenworth on the east side being Washington's best tourist themed town. The North Cross State Highway is also very scenic with another tourist theme town on the east side, in Winthrop. I miss Washington and its extremely varied topography.

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I can't imagine to what Techsas Woman refers when she says some of my remarks regarding Texans and Texas are awfully stinging. Anything I have ever remarked has always been reality based. I guess reality can have a bit of a sting if ones view of ones world is through tainted rose-colored glasses....

Proposed Dallas Skyscrapers Cause Cyberspace Stir But Not In Fort Worth

Today we are going to have an extreme variant of our popular series of bloggings about something I have read in an online west coast news source which I would not likely be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram regarding something similar taking place in Fort Worth.

Today's variant is that it was not via a west coast news source online where I read something I have never read in the Star-Telegram about something happening in Fort Worth. Today it is in the Dallas Morning News online where I read something I have never read in the Star-Telegram reporting a similar thing happening in Fort Worth.

That being a stir of interest caused by proposed skyscrapers such as what is taking place in Fort Worth's neighbor to the east, Dallas.

A couple snippets from the Dallas Morning News Pictures of proposed skyscrapers north of downtown Dallas cause a stir in cyberspace article....

Some eye popping pictures of planned Dallas skyscrapers have been getting tons of clicks on architecture and real estate Internet fan pages.

The drawings of fanciful high-rise buildings look like a chunk of Hong Kong or Vancouver has landed just up the road from the El Fenix restaurant.

Vancouver? Unless Vancouver has changed since I was a neighbor, that town has height restrictions on its downtown buildings, hence no high-rise skyscrapers. Even without skyscrapers Vancouver has an impressive skyline. I think Vancouver limits the height of high-rises so as not to block the views of the nearby mountains.

Nearby mountains, or blocking views, is not a problem in Dallas or Fort Worth.

Ironically, when the project, then known as Trinity Uptown, was breathlessly announced via a HUGE headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the headline read "Trinity Uptown To Turn Fort Worth Into The Vancouver Of The South."

I remember reading that and being completely bum puzzled. And then when the details of what is now known as the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision, or America's Biggest Boondoggle, became clear, the idea that this project would somehow turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South, became even more bum puzzling.

Before the Great Recession hit I remember being in Dallas and being surprised by the number of construction cranes all over the downtown zone. Last Saturday's visit to downtown Dallas again saw a lot of construction cranes.

One sees no construction cranes in the downtown Fort Worth zone, unless one counts as downtown the area where America's Biggest Boondoggle is building three simple bridges over dry land in a four year construction timeline.

In a recent blogging titled Why No Residential Towers Are Currently Planned For Fort Worth's Imaginary Island I opined as to what I thought was the reason downtown Fort Worth was a construction ghost town, repeating what Mr. Spiffy had previously opined, with Mr. Spiffy suggesting no developer is going to want to develop anything in downtown Fort Worth while America's Biggest Boondoggle has the status of downtown Fort Worth in a state of confusion.

The Dallas version of the Trinity River Vision is a bit further along than the Fort Worth version, with one signature bridge completed, built over water, and another well underway, also over water. The Dallas version of the Trinity River Vision has implementation problems, just like Fort Worth's version has implementation problems.

But the two town's vision implementation problems are different. And the Dallas implementation problems have not been exacerbated by having installed a local Dallas congresswoman's unqualified son in charge of running the Dallas vision.

Hence, the Dallas vision currently has a new bridge to drive over. But no beer drinking inner tube music parties, with e.coli, in the Trinity River, no drive-in movie theaters, no ice skating rinks, no music festivals at imaginary pavilions on imaginary islands, no beer breweries, no beer halls, no failed wakeboard parks....

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....

Going Swimming Then Finding More Tandy Hills Tires While Thinking About Floating Across Pond Granger In The Vancouver Of The South

Tandy Tires

I was surprised today, on a seldom walked side trail near the center of the Tandy Hills, to see a tire laying above a gully. When I walked closer to check out the mysterious tire I saw it was not alone. There were two mysterious tires.

Unlike the previous Tandy tires that appeared on the Tandy Highway, there was no easy way to get these tires to their location.

Methinks the Tandy Hills had a previous life as some sort of garbage dump before it morphed into its current state of being a Natural Area.

Today is not HOT, like yesterday was, but still totally pleasant.

The big happy news for me today is I successfully went swimming, this morning, for the first time in 2012. About a minute into the water I realized I was going to be able to stay in it as long as I wanted to. And so I did.

Vancouver Seabus

My nephew emailed me last night after he read me mentioning on my blog about us taking the Seabus to North Vancouver. Jason included a picture of the Seabus crossing the bay to North Vancouver.

In just a few short years we may be able to be seeing a similar scene in the Vancouver of the South, Fort Worth, when Pond Granger is filled with water.

J.D. Granger brought a streetcar to Fort Worth to show the locals what one of those rare transportation contrivances looks like. I wonder if J.D. will be bringing a Seabus to Fort Worth to show the locals what they might get to ride across Pond Granger on?

In addition to sending me the picture of the Vancouver Seabus, my nephew made a compelling case for me flying to Phoenix in a couple weeks, when he and Spencer Jack are there. I will decide by tomorrow if I will be doing that.

Top Chef Texas In Vancouver Has Me Pondering The Fort Worth Vision Boondoggles

In the picture you are looking at part of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Vancouver is on my mind due to watching the finale of Top Chef Texas, which did not take place in Texas, but instead took place in Vancouver, with the first part of the finale taking place north of Vancouver, at the Whistler Ski Resort.

The final two Top Chefs were both Texans. One of the Texans, Paul, remarked, upon seeing the view of Whistler, from a gondola, that the scenery he was looking at was about a total opposite of Texas.

Been there, thought that.

On Wednesday night's Top Chef Texas finale the chefs went to find food at Vancouver's Granville Island Public Market. Vancouver has several of these type markets. Many of them located near Skytrain Stations.

I remember going to a very cool one with my oldest nephew a few months before I moved to Texas. We rode Skytrain to its northern terminus at Canada Place and took the Seabus across the bay to North Vancouver, where it docks at a big public market.

Granville Island is near False Creek. False Creek is where Vancouver's Expo 86 took place. False Creek has since been re-developed into combo residential/commercial type enterprises.

That re-development is part of what helped bring about the bizarre thing in Fort Worth known as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

I believe the False Creek developer/designers were consulted early on in the Boondoggle.

I remember being barely recovered from the bizarre nonsense spewing from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about a lame little nondescript enterprise called the Santa Fe Rail Market, touted as being modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and public markets in Europe, thinking to myself, does it cross the mind of no one at this idiotic newspaper that there might be readers who have actually been to Seattle's Pike Place Market, who know the absurdity level of this propaganda?

And then the Star-Telegram topped itself with more absurd propaganda.

With a headline along the line of "Trinity Uptown Project to Make Fort Worth the Vancouver of the South."

I remember thinking to myself, have none of these morons actually been to Vancouver? How can they insult their readers like this by assuming such a high level of ignorance?

It was very perplexing.

I remember making fun of this "Vancouver of the South" absurdity, sort of around the same time I had fun making fun of the Star-Telegram's tendency to find nondescript things in Fort Worth to be causing spasms of envy across the world.

The "Vancouver of the South" propaganda did not last very long.

Looking at the photo above, of part of Vancouver, I am sure some people can see the resemblance to Fort Worth. Mountains. A lot of natural water features. Marinas. Dozens of tall buildings. Long bridges.

The towns are almost twins.

See that big expanse of green at the north end of downtown Vancouver? That is Stanley Park. Sort of Vancouver's Tandy Hills Natural Area. Only with a world class aquarium, zoo and a cool suspension bridge, called Lion's Gate, across to North Vancouver.

Fort Worth does not have sufficient elevation changes to warrant suspension bridges. We did have some cool signature bridges scheduled to be built across an un-needed flood diversion channel. But, we found out we were too poor to build those in the billion dollar boondoggle vision.

However, we did find enough money to build the world's premiere wakeboard lake, called Cowtown Wakeboard Park.  Cowtown Wakeboard Park was recently damaged by a flood because our Trinity River Vision Boondoggle flood control project isn't finished yet, so we are still vulnerable to flood damage. That or our Cowtown Wakeboard Park was built in a really stupid location, due to bad vision.

Before the Cowtown Wakeboard Park got wiped out by a flood it was one ugly eyesore, I have to say.

I wonder what a Fort Worth native thinks when, or if, they visit something like Vancouver's Granville Island? And see a well designed, well developed, well landscaped development developed with zero nepotism or bad taste?

There are 3 big cities in the world with which I am very familiar.

Fort Worth, Seattle and Vancouver.

Vancouver's population is 603.000 in a metro area of 2.3 million.

Seattle's population is 608,600 in a metro area of 3.4 million

Fort Worth's population is 741,206 in a metro area of 6.15 million.

So, how is it that Vancouver has multiple successful Pike Place Market type enterprises? Has staged a World's Fair. Rail transport in the form of Skytrain. The best Chinatown I've seen other than San Francisco's. Can put on an Olympics.

Seattle has light rail. A massive transit tunnel under its downtown. One of the world's most famous public markets. Has put on a World's Fair. Currently has more than one multi-billion dollar public works project underway.

Meanwhile, Fort Worth, with the biggest population, seems to have no vision, flounders about, falling into bizarre public works projects, like the Santa Fe Rail Market, the Mercado, the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, giving tax breaks to a sporting goods store because the desperate town somehow managed to believe this would be the top tourist attraction in Texas.

This is all just sad. Really sad.

Despite naming a corrupt public works project the Trinity River Vision, there is no vision. Just visit the flood damaged Cowtown Wakeboard Park and you will see a precise metaphor of what this "vision" actually will look like.

I mean, we are dealing with visionaries whose idea of a vision is to go back to the future and open a Drive-In Theater.

If Fort Worth really wants to have a coherent vision for its future the town needs to send a non-nepotistic task force to places like Seattle and Vancouver and Portland  and figure out how it is that these smaller than Fort Worth towns can put on their big boy pants, while Fort Worth can't seem to get out of wearing kneepants.

I am willing to assist with this vision search, but first, J.D. Granger must be fired.

Wal-Mart Replaced My Missing Vancouver PNE Slicer/Dicer After 2 Decades

Multi-Slicer Kitchen Helper

There was an August day back in the late 1980s, or early 1990s when I made my last visit to the PNE in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

PNE is what people who live in the Pacific Northwest call the annual Pacific National Exhibition.

The PNE is like a state fair on steroids. Or a small World's Fair. It is the location where I first rode a giant wooden roller coaster and saw my first strip show.

Several people went with me the last time I went to the PNE. One of them was this nurse who's nickname was the Fat Lady.  I drove us to the PNE in the Fat Lady's car. The Fat Lady's car was a humongous antique Cadillac. It was fun to drive.

Like all fairs, the PNE has a big exhibit hall with vendors hawking their wares. I bought one of those wares, it being the best kitchen gadget I ever bought. A slicer, dicer piece of equipment that made quick work of making french fries, slicing onions and tomatoes and all sorts of other things.

When I moved to Texas, among the many moments of idiocy that later became obvious moments of idiocy, was I boxed all my kitchen stuff and, rather than move it to Texas, I gave it all to my oldest nephew. The only thing from my kitchen that I took to Texas was my Vita-Mix.

When I moved to Texas it did not dawn on my limited imagination that the domestic situation I was moving to might not be long lasting.

In less than 3 years after moving to Texas I found myself having to buy all new kitchen stuff.

But, I could not find a version of my PNE slicer/dicer.

Until last week. At Wal-Mart.

If I remember right my PNE slicer/dicer cost $29.99. That would be Canadian dollars. The actual amount, at that time, would have been less than $29.99 in American dollars. When you visit Canada you can buy stuff with your American money, but it can be confusing. It's much simpler to convert American money to Canadian before crossing the border.

The slicer/dicer I got at Wal-Mart is called a Multi-Slicer. It only cost $9.97. That is in American currency, not Canadian. The 2011 version of a slicer/dicer seems to be better built than the PNE version from a couple decades ago.

On Top Of Mount Tandy Not Really Thinking Fort Worth Bad Seattle Good

It is yet one more beautiful day in May in North Texas, which you can clearly see, looking west from high atop Mount Tandy at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

The Fort Worth water guys were back today, back to fix their washed out creek crossings, driving down the Tandy Highway in slow motion with a piece of heavy equipment emitting an extremely annoying beep that wreaked havoc with the peace and serenity of the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium Area.

Speaking of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. And who isn't?

So, a week or so ago, in Fort Worth Weekly's Blotch blog, Jeff Prince wrote a blogging about the epidemic of phallic symbols that have been seen sprouting up all over Tarrant County.

Somehow Durango was brought into the discussion, with someone named Anonymous saying, "All you need to know about that Durango dude is Fort Worth bad, Seattle good."

I was shocked. I do not recollect ever saying that Fort Worth is bad. Or that Seattle is good.

I have opined a time or two about things I may find a bit perplexing. Like when the Fort Worth Star-Telegram first breathlessly told us about what was then called, I think, Trinity Uptown, saying this would turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

I remember thinking, and asking, does this embarrassing newspaper not realize they may have a reader or two who has actually been to Vancouver and automatically knows how absurd it is to say anything could possibly turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South?

Then today, whilst hiking the hills, it occurred to me that I may have been wrong. The Star-Telegram may have meant that Trinity Uptown would turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver, Washington of the South.

Now that might be possible. Both Vancouver, WA and Fort Worth, TX share a river with a bigger, nearby city. Vancouver with Portland, Fort Worth with Dallas. I suppose if Fort Worth did some major urban renewal it could turn itself into the Vancouver, WA of the South. Why Fort Worth would want to do this is a mystery to me.

Another time I remember making fun of something in Fort Worth, is also Star-Telegram related. That ridiculous newspaper claimed a very lame, long defunct, little food court called the Santa Fe Rail Market was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and public markets in Europe and was the first such public market in Texas. This particular Fort Worth Star-Telegram whopper was like shooting dumb fish in a barrel.

Now, regarding me supposedly suggesting that Fort Worth is bad, Seattle is good. Well, you have to keep in mind, til I came to Texas it was towns like Seattle, Vancouver, B.C., Portland, San Francisco, Denver, San Diego, with which I was most familiar. I'd not seen a downtown that did not seem like a big city downtown, of the sort that Fort Worth is, til I came to Texas.

I was used to lively downtowns where lots of people live, with lots of stores, restaurants and other good stuff. When I would read something about Fort Worth being the best downtown in Texas, or some other such accolade, it would just astound me and have me wondering, do these people ever leave Texas?

Now, a month or two ago a pair of lifelong Texans, now living among the few living in downtown Fort Worth, the Galtex's, ventured up to Seattle, the first time for Mrs. Galtex.

Below is what Mr. Galtex had to say about downtown Seattle. I share this with you as a way to help illuminate why at times, maybe, I sound like I'm saying Fort Worth is bad, Seattle is good, to put it simplistically, but I have perfectly valid reasons why I think such a thing.

Below are some excerpts from various postings from Mr. Galtex's blog........

We spent our first afternoon as we always spend our first afternoon in a new place, walking around the neighborhood. My first impressions are all good: we are in the middle of downtown, and within three or four blocks we've found a Belgian waffle shop, a gelateria, several Thai restaurants, three supermarkets, twelvety-seven coffee shops, and more fresh seafood than I could eat in a lifetime. People actually live here.

The train from SeaTac airport to downtown costs only $2.50, and it took us to within a block of our hotel. Buses and trains converge in the downtown area in a large underground tunnel, making it very easy to transfer from one line to another. A public transportation system that is logically designed and efficiently run -- it's enough to make an old Texan like me weep with joy.

Seattle is clean: little trash, no dog poop.

If you think there are a lot of Starbucks where you live, come to Seattle, where there are at least two on every block. High-rise office buildings have several, conveniently placed on intermediate floors. We've seen one McDonald's.

Seattle has fewer people than Fort Worth and half as many as Dallas. Yet downtown Seattle is much more urban than anything in Texas.

Seattle is a beautiful city. There are lots of apartments downtown and in nearby neighborhoods like Belltown and South Lake Union, and lots of residents means lots of shops and restaurants, even shopping malls, that are not dependent on customers in cars.

Every April in Texas we close up the windows and turn on the air conditioner, and it stays on until October. In Seattle, anything over 80° is considered a heat wave, even in August. Few residences have air conditioning.

There you go, now if you wanted to be simplistic you could say Mr. Galtex is saying Fort Worth bad, Seattle good. But what Mr. Galtex is actually doing is describing his perceptions of Seattle, sort of compared to his perceptions of Fort Worth. Just like I've done over the years....

Up Early On The Last Wednesday Of July In The Vancouver Of The South

The last Wednesday of July has dawned with a nice shade of blue with puffy cotton balls. It is only 76 degrees this morning, so once again I can have my windows open.

Have I mentioned previously that this never happened during my previous Texas summers?

Strange news in the Seattle P-I this morning. Seattle and the state want to ban new houseboats and restrict the existing ones. Due to the houseboats having some sort of bad impact on salmon.

How can you ban houseboats in Seattle? That's like banning the Space Needle. Or coffee.

I wonder if Fort Worth is going to allow houseboats on its magnificent tiny Town Lake and canals if the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle ever comes to any sort of watery fruition.

I remember early on in the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram saying that the Vision's Boondoggle would turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

I don't remember if there are houseboats in Vancouver.

Turning Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South would take a lot more than a little lake, it'd take a couple of really big lakes. And you'd need to add some tall mountains. And really amp up the educational level of the locals.

Somehow I don't see this happening.

Texan & Canadian Is A State Of Mind That Few Can Understand

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a really good editorial cartoonist named David Horsey. He has been doing his cartooning from Vancouver during the Winter Olympics. This morning's Horsey had a Texas punchline that I felt compelled to share. And some amusing comments that I'll stick below the Texas punchline, including one from WA_REDNCK verbalizing a sentiment I've heard innumerable times since I've been in Texas....





Posted by glaucomis sabrinus

Possibly one of the dumbest cartoons Ive seen, even by Horsey's low standards. pretty sad, Dave... surely you can come up with something that at least makes sense??

Posted by Blarney

Heh! Anyone else ever been to Vancouver on Canada Day? They're a lot WORSE than Texans!

Posted by TobyGadd

Hey glaucomis sabrinus, you might not get this one because you aren't too familiar with your northern neighbours. As a dual citizen (US & Canada), I think that it's a hilarious cartoon. Horsey nailed the Canadian and Texan worldviews pretty well--and succeeded in poking good-natured fun at both at the same time. Nice!

Posted by WA_REDNCK

Being a 7th Generation Texan myself it's clear you have NO CLUE.

Texans need NO special event to be proud.... and ...... YES....ARROGANT!!!!!

TEXAN is a State of mind that few others understand. And just moving there don't make you Texan. TEXAN takes at least 2 generations. It takes that long to GET IT!!!!

And for the record, comments such as this don't belittle us, it just makes it apparent how jealous some people are that THEY aren't the REAL DEAL!!!!

Vancouver, British Columbia, The Fort Worth Of The North

This day just keeps getting better. I just got an email from a transplanted Fort Worth native now living in Vancouver, B.C. named Martha. Martha is an obviously very astute, articulate former Texan.

I think I've made mention, before, of Fort Worth's strange plan to build a little lake and some canals, called the Trinity River Vision. When this vision first came into view it was touted as a project that would turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

The Vancouver of the South ridiculous propaganda was quickly dropped. I suppose because there were way too many people who had actually been to Vancouver, who knew there was not enough money on the planet to turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South. You'd need large bodies of saltwater and towering mountains to turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South. An impossible dream that has been scaled way back, with a price tag approaching 1 $billion.

You can build a new Dallas Cowboy stadium for that type of money.

That is an aerial view of Vancouver in the picture. If you really strain your imagination there is still no way you are going to be able to stretch if far enough to imagine Fort Worth looking like that.

And now the email from Martha with her last name removed...

Dear Sir:

My name is Martha, and I just came across your blog for the first time today. I was searching for 'things to do' in Fort Worth (over the Christmas holidays when everyone's in town), and found that there's a park with a lake I'd never heard of very near my parents' house. And since Oakland Park/Fosdic Lake has been the subject of many of your posts... ta-da! Google directed me to Durango Texas.

Mostly, this email is to let you know that I enjoyed reading your blog. FW was my childhood home, and I'd never lived more than 30 miles away from it until I went to Vancouver, BC, for graduate school a few years ago. Now, I know *you're* not happy living in North Texas, and I know that there are plenty of things to be unhappy *about* when living in North Texas, but when I was living in Vancouver, I found it quite impossible to describe what it was I loved or missed about my home-- particularly to Pacific NW natives who couldn't understand how the prairie was beautiful-- and your blog reminds me of the good and the bad and all the pain of displacement in a way that I find compelling and strangely heart-warming. All that to say, I felt just as damned living in BC as you do living in TX, and since we've both lived in both places... I feel a special bond. I hear/read what you're saying and I know what/where you're talking about and I feel more myself for it, so thank you.

Love,
Martha

Martha, just so you know, I know I may be a bit critical of things here in Fort Worth. And Texas. But, for the most part, I like it. But not nearly as much as I like Vancouver. That's one of my favorite towns. Always has been. It's only drawback is way too many Canadians live there.

Almost 1 Million Tourists Cruise Onboard in Seattle, Zero In Fort Worth

When I was up in the Pacific Northwest for a long month last summer, I spent only one day in downtown Seattle. I was at a thing called Art in the Park, in Pioneer Square. When I grew bored with the Art in the Park I took off and walked around downtown Seattle, through Pike Place Market, down to the waterfront, up to Westlake Center to ride the bus tunnel back to Pioneer Square.

I remember my first few days in Tacoma my sister remarking that Seattle had changed. That people seem to be all dressed up real nice. The grunge look had gone bye-bye.

Well, what I noticed was there were so many people wandering about, as in huge throngs. Now, Seattle has always been flooded with tourists in summer, but not like this. Pike Place was as crowded as it is around Christmas. The waterfront sidewalks were walls of people. When you live in a zone that really is not much of a tourist attraction, it is really noticeable when you're at a place that is.

I was perplexed by what appeared to be such a huge increase in the number of tourists. This morning, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, I think I got the explanation.

Since I moved to Texas, 10 years ago, the cruise industry came to Seattle. There have always been boats to take you places, like a cruise up to Victoria, or the ferry boats across Puget Sound. But not those big cruise ships that sail the Caribbean. Since I moved, that has changed.

Both Seattle and Vancouver have become big cruise ship towns. 11 cruise ships sail out of Seattle, operated by Norwegian Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Holland America, Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean. In 2008, 210 sailings brought a record 886,039 visitors to Seattle.

That is a lot of people. In 2008 Seattle led Vancouver in passenger numbers for the first time. That is likely to change. The reason being the reason the P-I had an article about Seattle cruise ships this morning.

Under the headline "Disney Cruise Lines Snubs Seattle," the article went on to say that Disney Cruise Line would launch 18 seven night cruises to Alaska on the ship Disney Wonder. And that the ships would sail from Vancouver.

Jeff James, vice-president of sales for Disney Cruise Lines, told The Vancouver Sun, "Seattle is a great port, however, we listened to our guests and believe that Vancouver will provide the experience they are asking for."

Well, I have been to both towns. I've always liked Vancouver a lot. It is very similar to Seattle, yet has some unique differences. Vancouver has a way funner Chinatown than Seattle's. Seattle now has light rail, Vancouver has had SkyTrain since around 1986. Both towns are surrounded by water and mountains, with Vancouver's mountains closer, but Seattle's bigger. Both towns have great downtowns and waterfronts. Both towns put on 2 of the most successful World's Fairs in history.

I'm thinking the best reason to sail out of Vancouver is it's closer to Alaska by about 100 miles.

I wonder if there will be any cruise ships docking at the little $1 billion lake Fort Worth thinks it is building in a project known as the Trinity River Vision? I suspect not. Maybe cruises could go from the little lake, up the unneeded flood diversion channel and back. I think Fort Worth should add a fake mountain to its fake lake. The original propaganda for the Trinity River Vision said it would turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South. I remember when I read that in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram thinking that that was the nuttiest thing I'd read in that paper yet. And that covers a lot of nuttiness.

Trinity River Vision to Turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South

That is a view of False Creek in Vancouver, British Columbia. That's in Canada. False Creek is where Vancouver's Expo 86 took place, leaving a renovated old industrial zone in its wake that has become a very successful part of a very successful, beautiful city.

Why in the world is False Creek on my mind? Well, there was a letter to the editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, this morning, about the Trinity River Vision, that referenced the project's design being modeled after a similar project in Vancouver.

Well, the first time I read about Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision in the Star-Telegram, that first article actually said that the Trinity River Vision would transform Fort Worth into being the "Vancouver of the South." I am not making this up.

I'd already grown fed up with the Star-Telegram's tendency to hype something ridiculously, but this was a new low, this was worse than when the Star-Telegram claimed over and over and over and over again that an extremely lame, extremely little, now long failed, "market" was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place, and public markets in Europe. And would be the first public market in Texas.

It was called the Santa Fe Rail Market. Not only did it bear no resemblance to Pike Place, not only was it not the first public market in Texas, it wasn't even the first public market in Fort Worth! And even more bizarre, there is a public market in Dallas, the Dallas Farmers Market, that anyone visiting from the Northwest always remarks does remind them of Pike Place! But with much easier parking.

When I first read that the Trinity River Vision was going to turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South I thought to myself has no one from that paper been to Vancouver? Just like I thought has no one from the Star-Telegram been to Pike Place? The only thing I can think of that False Creek and the Trinity River Vision have in common is they both involve water.

Anyway, below is the letter to the editor about the Trinity River Vision from this morning's Star-Telegram.

More details on the TRV, please

City leaders say there is no money to renovate our existing but neglected Heritage Park, touted for its grand view of the historic confluence of the West and Clear forks of our Trinity River. At the same time they eagerly continue to support a nonexistent vision.

The Trinity River Vision proposes to destroy the natural confluence of the Trinity to develop commercial property in its place where canals, bridges and a lake will require massive earth moving by the Army Corps of Engineers to prevent flooding just below the bluff where the Tarrant County Courthouse stands.

Descriptions have been vague, but recently a brochure produced for TRV explained that the canals and bridges are modeled after a project designed in Vancouver, B.C., a part of the hemisphere that has almost nothing in common with Fort Worth in the way of climate, culture and water supply.

The TRV brochure reports two trips by TRV advisors to Vancouver to visit the football field-sized model of the Trinity River Vision Central City project. The bypass channel and flood gates of the model demonstrate protection of more than 2,400 acres of neighborhoods possibly subject to flooding in uptown Fort Worth as a result of the channel and associated levees.

J.D. Granger, executive director of the TRV Authority and son of U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, was quoted in part as saying, “We’ve been able to make minor modifications in the design that will save us millions in erosion maintenance costs.”

Let us please learn more about projected maintenance costs and possible flooding. In times threatening depression and drought, when our president asks us to eliminate earmarks, we must know the facts to act wisely and responsibly.

How much taxpayer money is being spent to fund the Trinity River Vision, and how many millions do we guess it will take to finish and maintain it? Residents of Fort Worth deserve a full and open accounting.

— Betty W. Fay, Fort Worth