Grapple Fort Worth's Bizarre Bridge Battle Boondoggle

This last Saturday morning of the 2019 version of April I woke up my computer to soon see I had been pointed to a post on Facebook, or tagged, or whatever the nomenclature is which means someone has stuck ones Facebook handle on a post so as to get ones attention.

This tagging was Elsie Hotpepper pointing me to yet one more article about America's Biggest Boondoggle. This one is in the Fort Worth Business Press, titled Bridge battle: Businesses, local officials grapple with project delays.
I read the article, then opined on Elsie Hotpepper's Facebook post something along the line of being really tired of this nonsense. I read these articles to find myself annoyed at mention being made of one thing or the other which just is not true.

At least this article did not repeat the ridiculous assertion that those pitiful little bridges being built in slow motion are being built over dry land to save money, and to make for easier construction, when the fact is there will never be any water running under those little bridges until a ditch is dug under them, with Trinity River water diverted into the ditch.

This particular article's worst instance of repeating nonsense without questioning it was repeating the idiocy that that ditch will "add flood control protection as well as carve out an 800-acre center island, which would create waterfront economic development opportunities. The bridges will cross the channel."

Add flood control protection? There has not been a flood of the Trinity River in the location in question since well over a half century ago when levees were built. Waterfront development opportunities? It's a ditch. It's a polluted river. How can anyone think someone this is going to end well, with any sort of viable waterfront opportunities?

I really don't know why I continue to bother opining about this, other than I just find it so aggravating to be eye witness to something so embarrassingly inept. With the nonsense just going on and on, year after year after year.

A couple days ago I blogged about the ridiculous Fort Worth Star-Telegram TRWD board endorsements in a blogging titled Fort Worth Star-Telegram Bizarre TRWD Board Endorsements. That blog post has only had a little over 800 page views when I saw the stats when logging in to write this current post. It feels like preaching to the choir. And never to the numbskulls who might benefit from wising themselves up to their civic reality.

As the Bridge battle: Businesses, local officials grapple with project delays title suggests this latest FW Business Press article about America's Biggest Boondoggle is mainly about the most visible symptom of the problem, that being the simple little bridges being stuck being built in slow motion.

The article points out various elements of the delay, such as "malfunction of design" problems, conflicts with contractors, conflicts with the management of the project. Yet, just like in a Star-Telegram article about this subject, we get zero details about what the precise design problems have been.

The article brings up the the recent revelations posted by the Texas Monitor, about emails discovered from 2016 in which it is clear J.D. Granger mucked around with the design of the bridges, thwarting a preferred design which the state agreed to pay for in total. Read the entire article for all the details, but suffice to say, why is Mary Kelleher the only current TRWD board candidate calling for the obvious? That being the firing of the ineptly unqualified J.D. Granger?

This latest article about America's Biggest Boondoggle is also about all the damage done to businesses affected by the long, messed up construction timeline. In my Facebook comment I opined that in addition to those currently being damaged there were also the hundreds damaged way earlier in this century by the Trinity River Vision's abuse of eminent domain, one of whom is a Fort Worth native, Bob Lukeman, who had his place of business taken, bulldozed whilst still awaiting a hearing in court, left damaged and not whole.

Criminal corruption, in my opinion, on the part of various elements of what passes for government in Fort Worth. And one of the reasons I hold the town in such low regard.

Bob Lukeman also commented on Elsie Hotpepper's Facebook this morning, after I commented.

The Lukeman comment in its entirety...

Wrote this in reply to Mark Greene’s post of the recent FWST article casually calling the levees obsolete and fostering the notion that I guess, we all agree with that.

Well! This is not what the Corp originally said (from the article)...

“The Panther Island project will replace levees the Army Corps of Engineers says are obsolete and pull about 2,400 acres out of the flood plain for what the Corps calls a “standard project flood,” which is the most severe flood considered possible for a region. This is a more traditional flood, such as when a river runs over its banks.”

The first idea about the state of the existing levee system from the Corp came after they routinely examined the current levee system and concluded that they needed to be raised in key areas to comply with the standard project flood requirements. This was budgeted at around 10 million dollars, and if initiated, would have been completed over a decade ago. This plan was disregarded with the ushering in of the TRV development plan and the Central City Corp plan adapted to comply with and compliment the TRV development plan. The statement that the levee system is obsolete is incorrect. These levees work as designed and implemented in the early 1950’s following the disastrous flooding in 1949. It’s the flooding along smaller tributaries and low lying areas that are damaging homes, property, threatening lives and in some cases causing deaths do to high fast flood waters.

I have copies of the Corp maps that show where their studies told them to bolster the existing levees. Anyone who categorizes these levees as obsolete is in the thrall of the development plan that takes down the levees to allow mixed use development right up to the waters edge in the TRV development plan.

Just like the promises of this new urban development, delivered to us via pretty pictures and the illusion of a San Antonio style river walk, the effectiveness of the flood control capabilities of the proposed bypass channel, with its mitigation of large and fast moving flood waters being downstream of the project, are unproven and are part of the same initial plan that submitted bridge designs that needed to be re-engineered at additional cost and are a part of the further delays in getting these bridges built over dry land, with the project claiming that this is a faster and less costly method.

Will E.Coli Levels Be Low Enough For Six Saturday Fort Worth River Rockin's?

Big announcement in this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Trinity River Vision Authority is moving its hugely popular Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats from Thursday to Saturday, with six floating events, with Saturday allowing for extended floating  hours.

From the Rockin’ the River series moves to Saturdays article...

Rockin’ the River is changing course this year. The weekly summer concert-and-tubing series, thrown by the Trinity River Vision Authority at Fort Worth’s Panther Island Pavilion, is moving from a Thursday happy-hour event to an all-afternoon Saturday festival to be held over the course of six Saturdays.

"Thrown by the Trinity River Vision Authority at Fort Worth's Panther Island Pavilion" where the island is imaginary, and I think that spot where the guitar player is strumming is what America's Biggest Boondoggle misnomers as a pavilion.

The article's illustrative photo shows a lot of floaters.

I have long been puzzled as to why the fact that so many Fort Worthers are willing to get themselves wet in the Trinity River, what with occasionally cancelled river floats due to E.Coli pollution levels being too high, that, and the occasional visiting alligator, is not seen as being a real pitiful indicator that Fort Worth is sadly, badly lacking in water venues in which to cool off when Summer gets HOT.

Just a couple days ago I was similarly puzzled when I read that downtown Fort Worth's only venue that even faintly resembled a grocery store, Oliver's Fine Foods, had closed. I would think that the failure of downtown Fort Worth's only grocery store-like venue would prompt some sort of realization that there must be something not quite right with downtown Fort Worth.

Other big cities, smaller in population than Fort Worth, about which I am familiar, have multiple large full functioning grocery stores in their downtown zone. Along with multiple department stores.

Downtown Fort Worth has not a single department store. Not a Neiman-Marcus, not a Nordstrom. Not even a Sears or a Dillards. One would think the lack of a department store, and grocery store, would  prompt some serious thinking about such a downtown's vitality. But, I guess it is easier just to continue to trumpet the imaginary wonders of Sundance Square, where there is no square, but there finally is a plaza, called Sundance Square Plaza, after confusing Fort Worth's few tourists for decades with signage pointing to Sundance Square, where there is no square.

As for Fort Worth's lack of a place for the locals to cool off and get wet in mass. All of Fort Worth's ponds and lakes, like Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park, forbid swimming due to pollution problems.

Fort Worth does have one pristine water venue. Burgers'  Lake.

From the Burger's Lake website...

Located in Fort Worth, Texas, Burger's Lake offers summer fun for everyone. Burger's Lake is a 30-acre park featuring a one-acre spring-fed lake for swimming. Our facility includes two sandy beaches for sunning with wonderful big trees for shade.

Burger's Lake is run as a private business, charging a semi-hefty admission fee.

The "government" in its various forms, which runs Fort Worth like an oligarchy fiefdom, has no qualms about abusing eminent domain to take private property, even when it is not for eminent domain's intended use of taking private property for the public good.

Instead, in Fort Worth, eminent domain is abused for the private gain of those whose property value stands to increase due to the theft.

How about a correct use of eminent domain, for once in Fort Worth's sordid eminent domain abuse history? Why not take Burger's Lake for the public good and turn this pristine spring-fed lake into a public park? With Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in an E.Coli, alligator free environment.

Or build a HUGE water venue. This has been done in other locales in America. In towns much smaller than Fort Worth. Take Garden City, Kansas, for instance. Population less than 30,000.

Garden City has a pool, bigger than a football field, originally called "The Big Dipper", now simply called "The Big Pool". The Big Pool is big enough for water skiing to take place. On a HOT summer day as many as around 2,000 people can be found cooling off in The Big Pool.

What stops a city like Fort Worth, obviously in dire need of such a venue, from digging itself a Big Pool? I know the usual excuses. Lack of vision.  Horrible city leadership. Corruption. The same type thinking which has the majority of Fort Worth city parks lacking running water or modern restrooms.

And much of the city's streets lacking sidewalks....

Storm Clouds Over Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

What you are looking at here is the likely future site of a historical marker explaining why those V shaped structures are sticking up out of the ground at this location. sort of a modern era Stonehenge, without the mystery as to how the structures came to be.

I screen capped that which you see here after someone special Facebook tagged me in that particular post.

This photo was taken from the location of one of the many properties stolen years ago, via eminent domain abuse, so that the property could be used as part of what is currently a failed economic development scheme known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

More commonly known  as  America's Biggest  Boondoggle.

Those structures pointing to the cloudy sky are wooden V-pier forms that were supposed to be bridge supports for one of the simple little bridges America's Biggest Boondoggle was trying to build over dry land.

Something went dire wrong with the Boondoggle's bridge construction about a year ago, leaving the construction zone the abandoned wasteland you see above.

You reading this in sane locations in America. Your federal tax dollars are helping pay for this nonsense, with those federal funds secured by Fort Worth's congresswoman, Kay Granger, whose unqualified son, J.D., was made the Executive Director of this project (which has become America's  Biggest  Boondoggle) in order to motivate J.D.'s mother to help keep him employed until he reaches retirement age.

Hence this embarrassing public works project dawdling along in slow motion, year after year after year after year. With little to show for the effort.

Well, there are those cool monuments to hubris, nepotism, corruption and eminent domain abuse piercing the Fort Worth sky. We can credit the Boondoggle's vision for those...

Inquiring Minds Want To Know What Made The Trinity River Vision A Boondoggle?

Yesterday I got an email in which the person emailing asked me if I could explain why so many people, including myself, refer to the Trinity River Vision as a boondoggle.

Well.

Googling "Boondoggle" and clicking on the Wikipedia Boondoggle article, in the first and second and third paragraphs we read....

A boondoggle is a project that is considered a useless waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy motivations.

The term "boondoggle" may also be used to refer to protracted government or corporate projects involving large numbers of people and usually heavy expenditure, where at some point, the key operators, having realized that the project will never work, are still reluctant to bring this to the attention of their superiors. Generally there is an aspect of "going through the motions" – for example, continuing research and development – as long as funds are available to keep paying the researchers' and executives' salaries.

The situation can be allowed to continue for what seems like unreasonably long periods, as senior management are often reluctant to admit that they allowed a failed project to go on for so long. In many cases, the actual device itself may eventually work, but not well enough to ever recoup its development costs.

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has been boondoggling for over a decade. After that passage of time the Trinity River Vision's executive director has clearly stated that only about 20% of the project has been completed.

Boondoggle.

With the other 80% not expected to be completed until 2023.

Boondoggle

Completed if federal money can be acquired to pay for about half the current almost $1 billion price tag.

Boondoggle.

Three bridges are supposedly going to start being constructed in 2014, bridges spanning where a flood diversion channel will be built if those federal funds can be found to pay for it.

Boondoggle.

In the meantime dozens of business owners have had their property taken via the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's eminent domain abuse. In many other parts of America taking property in this manner is not allowed. In other parts of America property can be taken by eminent domain only for projects for the public good, like roads, hospitals, schools. Not economic development projects or for an un-needed flood control project.

Boondoggle.

In other parts of America not only is this type of eminent domain abuse not allowed, using eminent domain to take property for the public good would not even be considered for a project for which the public has not voted. There has been no public vote to fund the Trinity River Vision.

Boondoggle.

The lack of funding is one of the reasons this project's construction timeline covers such a long time. And will likely grow longer. For years in to the future Fort Worth will have an un-finished construction mess, sporadically worked on, awaiting funds.

Boondoggle.

For the job of running the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle project the TRV could have conducted a nation-wide search for a person with the engineering credentials to run such a project. Instead the TRV found an assistant district attorney named J.D. Granger, whose qualification for the job was his mom is Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger. Kay Granger was thought to be key to getting those much needed federal dollars. But, that has not quite worked out as planned.

Boondoggle.

If the Trinity River Vision was a legitimate public works project, addressing a legitimate flood control problem, along with bringing needed development to a blighted part of town, why is there no urgency to build the project? Why is there no attempt to convince the public to vote to tax themselves to build this project,  if this project really did provide a big benefit to the people of Fort Worth?

Boondoggle.

Witness the vast amounts of delusional propaganda spewed by the Trinity River Vision. Check out the bizarre signage at Gateway Park's Fort Woof touting the imaginary wonders the Trinity River Vision will bring to Gateway Park and East Fort Worth. Check out the quarterly propaganda mailing from the Trinity River Vision. Make note of all the Trinity River Vision propaganda signage one sees at various locations. Check out the Trinity River Vision's website for more propaganda.

Boondoggle.

In addition to its main website the Trinity River Vision also has a Panther Island website. At the Panther Island website we read--- © Panther Island Pavilion - A Product of Trinity River Vision Authority. How many taxpayers dollars are being spent on all the Trinity River Vision propaganda products?

Boondoggle.

Anyway, I hope I have managed to somewhat illuminate some of the reasons I, and others, refer to the Trinity River Vision as the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle....

Gazing Into Lake Tandy Thinking About Moving Back To Washington Where Voters Get To Vote

In the picture that is me and my shadow standing today on the Tandy Escarpment, above Dry Tandy Falls, looking down at the crystal clear water of Lake Tandy.

Looking at Dry Tandy Falls and Lake Tandy had me thinking about Dry Falls and crystal clear Sun Lakes in the state from whence I came, Washington.

I've blogged about Dry Falls and Sun Lakes a couple times on my Durango Washington blog in bloggings titled Sun Lakes State Park & Dry Falls and Dry Falls, Sun Lakes, Wind, Riots & Streakers.

I've been thinking about Washington a lot lately. It has been almost 5 years since I've visited the Pacific Northwest.

When I renewed my Texas driver's license, last summer, was the first I realized I'd been in Texas for over 12 years. I was a bit mortified when I realized how quickly 12 years had passed, and how old I will be after the passage of another 12 years.

If I still had a house in Washington I think I'd be moving back. But, my house in Mount Vernon was sold in 2002. There was a house waiting for me when I made the move to Texas, which made moving easy.

When I moved to Texas I knew I was moving to a much more conservative, much less progressive state than  Washington. In the years since I moved to Texas, Washington has become even more progressive and even more liberal. While Texas has sort of regressed.

The depressing, non-progressive, regressive state of being in the state of Texas was brought again to mind a couple minutes ago when I got a blog comment from Dannyboy in response to a blogging I blogged yesterday morning.

Dannyboy has left a new comment on your post "The Befuddling Mystery Of Tarrant County & Texas Public Transit": 

Durango:

You are a bit wrong about Tarrant County mass transit. When it was proposed some decades ago, every city in Tarrant County had the vote to join in. Most did not, including Arlington. So it wasn't that there was "no effort" made to include the whole county, it's just that most of the county said "no" and continues to do so. It is a fact of life in North Texas. Mass transit is considered something that poor people use, and consequently, the funding and improvement of such transportation plans are not seen as important in any way. So it is a conundrum that has no simple fix. People don't use mass transit unless they have to because it is crappy in FW, but they don't want to spend anything to make it better because it is for the crappy poor people. Get it? It will never happen in FW until those attitudes change and I don't see that happening anytime soon. 

If I am understanding Dannyboy correctly, at some point in time individual towns in Tarrant County voted for or against funding mass transit. With only Fort Worth, apparently, voting yes.

Why would this not be a county wide vote, rather than having each town vote regarding its mass transit participation?

The lack of cohesive mass transit in Tarrant County affects the entire county. Why let Arlington vote no and thus make it impossible for Fort Worth residents to take mass transit to Six Flags? Or to watch the Rangers play baseball at The Ballpark in Arlington?

I remember being very perplexed when the Dallas Cowboys were demanding a new football stadium, with how, when it came time to fund the building of a new stadium, the Cowboys ceased being America's Team, the Cowboys were not North Texas' team, not the D/FW Metroplex's team, not the Dallas County team, not the Dallas team, but instead somehow it was the voter's in little Arlington, in Tarrant County, upon whom it fell to help fund a new stadium and proudly engage in one of the worst acts of eminent domain abuse in American history.

By the 1990s congestion had grown into gridlock territory on Washington's Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge. That  infamous bridge connects Tacoma to the Kitsap Peninsula. I remember shortly before I moved to Texas, in 1998, voters in the Washington counties affected by the congestion voted on whether or not to support building a second suspension bridge. The voters voted yes and have been driving over the new bridge since 2007.

If I remember correctly the new Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge cost around $1 billion, about the same cost of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, with key differences being that voters voted on the bridge.

Construction began in 2002, completed 5 years later.

Meanwhile, voters have not voted on the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, and well over a decade since this incredibly important Fort Worth flood control project was begun, very little can been seen of the vision. And what can be seen ain't at all pretty, visions like the Cowtown Wakeboard Park, the world's pre-eminent urban wake boarding facility.

So, why is it in Texas the voters in a county can not vote on a county-wide project? Why can't all the voters in all the counties that make up the D/FW Metroplex vote in a project that benefits everyone?

Like mass transit for poor people.....

Hiking The Tandy Hills Thinking About Fort Worth's Corruption With Its Dis-Connect From Paradise & Gestapo Goon Squads

The Tandy Bamboo Teepee was still standing tall, and unoccupied, today when I saw it around noon.

Such a perfect day and yet I saw no one but myself out enjoying the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

I've been making up for all those days being snowbound. This morning I was in the pool for around 45 minutes. Today's Tandy Hill hiking was over an hour.

I'd really been missing my endorphins.

I'd gotten myself all twisted up this morning, obsessing about a Google/AdSense/Feedburner feed confusion, that was having me confused and annoyed.

I was also obsessing about an Inconvenience Bank problem that arose yesterday, that I'm going to wait to blog about when I'm not quite so obsessive about it. The bank problem was not exactly mine. But I sort of got blamed for it.

So, as I hiked the hills today I was continuing to obsess. But as the aerobicizing continued and the endorphins started having their desired effect I found myself slowly sliding into my preferred mindset of living in the moment and not letting things bug me.

Sort of.

No further word on the fate of Fort Worth's Paradise Center. This morning I remembered the bizarre incidents of the Fort Worth Gestapo raiding Steve Doeung's house to intimidate him at various times when he'd appear in the press, using ridiculous strong arm tactics to scare Fort Worth's Lone Ranger into giving up his fight against Chesapeake Energy and their Henchmen on the take in the City of Fort Worth.

Steve Doeung was featured in an article in FW Weekly last week regarding State Bill 18. A bill that supposedly was supposed to reign in eminent domain abuse in the eminent domain abuse Capital of America.

Texas.

But instead the bill was written in cahoots with those who do the eminent domain abusing.

Which has had people like Steve Doeung and Bill Mitchell criticizing it.

And then Thursday bully thugs working for Tarrant County used Gestapo tactics to shut down the Paradise Center. And what is Steve Doeung's connection to the Paradise Center? Well, it was Steve Doeung's wife who was the object of the Gestapo this time.

I really think it is time to use Twitter and Facebook to organize protests on Sundance Square, demanding Fort Worth Regime Change and the arrest and prosecution of the Fort Worth Gestapo and those who give the Fort Worth Gestapo its orders.

Did you know that the Paradise Center is very close to the Rainbow Lounge? With the Rainbow Lounge being another Fort Worth location that was subjected to a Gestapo Raid. That raid injured people and made news world-wide. One of the many reasons Fort Worth is the Envy of the World.

Now, how can we get the story of what Fort Worth and Tarrant County has done to the Paradise Center to be a national story? I suppose protest signs could be made in support of the Paradise Center, to wave in front of the TV cameras covering the thousands of Fort Worthers holding Sundance Square hostage until we get Regime Change in this sadly corrupt city.

And let's add a total sweep from their jobs of those who are the administrators of the Fort Worth schools, starting with Superintendent Melody Johnson. Read this week's FW Weekly cover story "Dis-Connects" and you'll see why I think total regime change of the Fort Worth school administrators is needed.

And then send a task force to observe how a successful school district is run. It ain't rocket science. But, in Fort Worth, apparently, it is.

Walking Through Village Creek Natural Historic Area Looking For Indians & Wondering If The Christmas Lights Have Dimmed In Interlochen

I am still in the midst of my personal recession. I am fairly certain my condition has stabilized and I will not slip into a full blown depression. However, I am currently not seeing a recovery in the near term.

Maybe tomorrow.

My therapist, Dr. L.C., told me to get vertical and mobile.

So, I followed Doctor's order and went to Village Creek Natural Historic Area to commune with nature and talk to all the Indian spirits who hover about the location of one of America's biggest Indian Villages, back before Texans started using a brute force version of eminent domain abuse to kick the locals out of their town.

A proud tradition which continues in modern Texas times, what with the new Dallas Cowboy's Stadium, built with the help of what many believe to be the worst case of eminent domain abuse in American history, a couple miles to the east.

As I walked through the remains of the Indian Village, I eventually exited to the Bob Findlay Linear Park. This linear park is on the west side of the Interlochen neighborhood,. Interlochen is usually an extremely popular Christmas display viewing venue.

Today it appeared that many of the Interlochen houses are free of Christmas decorations. It seems like I may have read of there being some problem with Interlochen this year, something to do with the Arlington police not wanting to police the traffic mess.

Or maybe the Interlochen canal dwellers have had to cut back on frivolous spending, like Christmas lights. I know I have cut back.

Actually, now that you are making me think about it, I have never burned any electricity on Christmas lights.

Is George's Specialty Foods Back In Operation After Successfully Battling Chesapeake Energy?

Well. I saw this morning via an ad in FW Weekly that George's Specialty Foods is back after being closed to deal with some eminent domain abuse issues brought to George's Specialty Foods courtesy of one of the world's biggest abusers of eminent domain, Chesapeake Energy

I do not know what the outcome was, or if there was an outcome, in this particular eminent domain abuse case.

If this particular case of eminent domain abuse was covered in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, I missed it.

I'm guessing that in Star-Telegram world it is not newsworthy when a local business closes in order to defend itself against having its property taken so a pipeline can be run through their property carrying non-odorized natural gas.

Can someone tell me what the outcome was regarding this particular case of eminent domain abuse? Or what the current status is?

Hiking & Heading To Downtown Fort Worth In Elsie Hotpepper's Peptomobile

You are looking west towards the stunning skyline of downtown Fort Worth skyscrapers, all 4 of them, this Tuesday in June, around noon.

The temperature was a pleasant 86 when I hit the Tandy Hills Natural Area Sanatorium, with the humidity having the Heat Index make it feel like 92.

A breeze counteracted the humidity, somewhat. It was good to get an endorphin fix today after yesterday's withdrawal.

Speaking of downtown Fort Worth. In a few hours Elsie Hotpepper should arrive in my neighborhood to pick me up in the Elsie Peptomobile to head west to Billy Miner's Saloon for a cheeseburger.

I think, in addition to the cheeseburger, there will be some people seeking ways to stage a revolution against the Fort Worth Oligarchy and the Good Ol' Boy & Girl Network that has foisted the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle on the Fort Worth public without a vote on the issue.

And maybe learn a thing or two about fighting back against wanton eminent domain abuse, such as what is practiced in this, the Eminent Domain Abuse Capital of the Civilized World, Tarrant County, Texas.

That garish pink of Elsie Hotpepper's Peptomobile may seem a bit extreme, but it comes in real handy when it comes time to find your car in a busy parking lot. It sort of stands out. Just like Elsie Hotpepper.

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World In Fort Worth Texas

Saturday night, recovering from my fist fight with my bedroom wall, I watched Turner Classic Movies Essentials. On Saturday the movie was Judgment at Nuremberg.

Judgment at Nuremberg is a fictionalized account of the Nuremberg trials, yet based on facts. In this movie the really bad Nazi boys have already met their fate with the hangman. It is a group of Third Reich judges who are being judged in the Judgment at Nuremberg.

There is a scene in the movie where Spencer Tracy is pondering the conundrum of how it is that good men can be corrupted, by the state, to the point of going along with doing bad deeds.

Spencer Tracy recollects how, in the small town in America in which he had been elected to be a judge, it was made well known to him that there are certain people in town who are off limits from judicial scrutiny.

Sort of like how Fort Worth's Mayor Mike Moncrief seems to be safe from judicial scrutiny, despite being on the take to the tune of 100s of thousands of dollars a year from the Barnett Shale natural gas drillers operating in Fort Worth.

Or how some judges operating in the Barnett Shale zone, seem to be taking their orders from the local Nazi equivalents, that being entities, like Chesapeake Energy, running rough shod over Texas citizens, abusing eminent domain, to take property to force non-odorized, high pressure, natural gas under homes, via pipelines, which have been known to explode.

Stanley Kramer directed Judgment at Nuremberg. Judgment at Nuremberg was released in 1961. In 1963 Stanley Kramer released It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. It seems to me that this could have been used as the title for Judgment at Nuremberg.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World would be a great title if any latter day Stanley Kramer shoots a movie about the corruption in North Texas, with the focus being on the Eminent Domain Abuse Capital of the World, that being Fort Worth and Tarrant County, with all the willful ignoring of all the dire data, now pouring in, about just how bad and how dangerous all the bad toxins are that are being spewed into the Barnett Shale atmosphere, courtesy of all those Bad Boys who operate in cooperation with Fort Worth's corrupt mayor and the corrupt city government he oversees. And the corrupt Texas agencies which are supposed to oversee safeguarding the public safety. But don't.

Where is the FBI in this Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World I'm living in? Where is the EPA? Why are criminals exempt from being punished for the crimes they commit in the Eminent Domain Abuse Capital of the World?

I've said it before and I'll say it again

I don't get it.

Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness In Moscow, Texas

Yesterday I indicated this would happen, that I'd hear from someone outside America and then feel the need to change the CARO logo. Again.

So now it's the "World To Save Carter Avenue."

Apparently, Vladimir from Moscow, Russia, follows American eminent domain abuse cases, paying particularly close attention to the Eminent Domain Abuse Capital of the World.

Tarrant County, Texas.

Ironically, Vladimir lives in the country that pretty much invented eminent domain abuse and used to be the world capital of such abuse, when it was the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union eminent domain abuse was called Communism.

The Communists used to run roughshod over the Soviet people. If the Communists decided they wanted to drill for natural gas where you lived, they'd just remove you from your land, using some flimsy legalese, maybe throwing you in the Gulag if you did not leave your land peacefully.

If the Communists wanted to run a non-odorized natural gas pipeline under your home and you didn't want them to, tough luck, they'd go through some trumped up legal formality and build the pipeline.

If the Communists wanted to build a sewer plant next to your farm and needed some of your land, they'd throw some papers in your face, informing you that part of your land was being taken and then proceed to proceed, with no attention paid to how you were impacted.

If the Communists wanted to build a new stadium, where dozens of homes and apartment buildings sat, they'd inform the apartment dwellers and homeowners they had to get out, because the people need a stadium. And then bring in the bulldozers.

I can't imagine what it must have been like to live in the Communist former Soviet Union, where such horrible abuses occurred. I'm so grateful to be living free in America where such things can not occur, because here in America we are guaranteed, by our Constitution, that prime among our many rights is the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. And to be safe and secure on our property.

See you all in downtown Moscow, I mean, Fort Worth, Thursday morning.

Texas Eminent Domain Abuse: Willow Park Sewer Plant Coming To Aledo

In this week's FW Weekly Billy Mitchell has a new Anti Eminent Domain Abuse ad. The new ad is a full page on the inside cover. And on the opposite page is last week's half page ad.

When you attend next Thursday's Downtown Fort Worth Rally, in support of Steve Doeung and Carter Avenue in their battle against Chesapeake Energy's abuse of eminent domain, you will find that Billy Mitchell is one of the featured speakers.

Below is what Billy Mitchell had to say in this week's FW Weekly....

Eminent domain is so easy under Governor Rick Perry, that the City of Willow Park used it to try to put their sewer plant in ANNETTA NORTH's jurisdiction. RIGHT NOW Willow Park has an application filed with TCEQ to put their sewer plant in THE CITY OF ALEDO's jurisdiction (mighty neighborly!) Willow Park also used eminent domain to acquire a private water system that is not even close to their city limits, but is inside THE CITY OF ANNETTA and ANNETTA SOUTH. These selfish deeds were done against the will and without the consent of these cities. (Does Willow Park know where their city limit ends?)

Willow Park filed fee simple eminent domain on my family's farm and mineral rights at $6,500 an acre. FEE SIMPLE TITLE means they are going after everything including mineral rights. They saw a drilling rig preparing to drill a gas well on my property and asked if we own the mineral rights (maybe this is why they wrote FEE SIMPLE TITLE in the eminent domain papers!)

My family has owned this land for over forty years, it is in Aledo ISD, has a stock tank, multiple building sites, 100 year old pecan trees, Trinity River frontage, a coastal hay field, a sudan hay field, and a producing gas well ($6,500 an acre using Texas eminent domain law and a Parker County court.)

Willow Park informed me that they are leaving my family the building sites next to the sewer plant (how generous!) No guarantee of access, but we get to keep the home sites next to the sewer plant. (Just what I have always wanted, a home with no access, next to a sewer plant.)

Willow Park wrote in a certified letter to my family, "We are aware of your need to preserve adequate ingress and egress to the remainder of your property, and we will make every effort to try to meet your needs. The flexibility we have in doing this will be tempered by the City's obligations to maintain the integrity of our sewer site." (Maybe we can use Willow Park's airspace and fly to our home site with our cow suspended from a helicopter!)

Friendly criticism suggests I not use the word CRAP in my ads but use the word BULL instead. Another friend suggests, "Is Rick Perry a True Blue Conservative or Just Another Big Spending Politician?" These two suggestions do not communicate my true feelings toward Willow Park or Governor Rick Perry. I believe Rick Perry is beyond "Another Big Spending Politician." I believe the eminent domain abuse under Rick Perry and his political appointments to his campaign donors is "CRIMINAL."

For more on eminent domain in Parker County visit:

WWW.BILLYMITCHELLSWORLD.COM

Be sure to see the pictures.

Pondering In Texas About No Condemnation Without Representation No Eminent Domain For Private Gain

I'd been stuck at the computer til 2, or thereabouts. I had need to do some pondering. Pondering works best, for me, while wandering. So, I wandered around Village Creek Natural Historic Area, while I pondered.

What has me pondering is all the eminent domain abuse taking place in Texas. Well, actually an element of the abuse, which only recently was pointed out to me.

I was barely moved to Texas when I was shocked by my first exposure to eminent domain abuse, that being the taking of Hurst citizen's homes so the Northeast Mall could expand its parking lot.

The next abuse of eminent domain happened in Fort Worth when hundreds of low income citizens were booted out of the Ripley Arnold apartments so that Radio Shack could build a new corporate headquarters it could not afford and which is now a branch of Tarrant County Community College.

Next up was the dislocation of over 1,000 people, the taking of dozens of homes, apartment complexes and businesses, so Jerry Jones could build a new football stadium in Arlington. At least out of that worst case of eminent domain abuse in American history the mayor of Arlington, Chuck Cluck, wised up and said there'd be no more use of eminent domain, by the city, in cahoots with Jones.

And then it's back to Fort Worth, where eminent domain is being abused to take homes, businesses and land for something that goes by various names, Trinity River Vision, Trinity Uptown Project, or Fort Worth's Biggest Boondoggle. This use of eminent domain for a project ostensibly for the greater public good, has not been voted on by the public.

And then we stay in Fort Worth for what I think is the worst abuse of eminent domain yet. The scale may be smaller, but the abuse is greater. Courtesy of Chesapeake Energy and the City of Fort Worth.

The Steve Doeung & Carter Avenue versus Chesapeake Energy and Fort Worth case.

This is the one that has me pondering.

Chesapeake Energy has evoked eminent domain to take Steve Doeung's home. Steve decided to fight this in court. As is his right.

So, how is it right that a private company, like Chesapeake Energy, can put a private citizen, like Steve Doeung, in harm's way, via the installation of a non-odorized natural gas pipeline under his land, using the legal system to do so?

A citizen is thus forced into the position of having to defend himself, from this assault on his right to peace in his own home. And this defense is at his expense. How is that right? It is as if you are being metaphorically raped, by the very government that is supposed to protect you, and while you are being metaphorically raped you can not get any legal help to stop the metaphorical rape.

I would think it only common sense that if a private company wants to put a private citizen in harm's way, via the use of eminent domain to take their property, well that private company should have to provide funds so that the victim of their metaphorical rape at least has a fighting chance.

I don't know, for example, Chesapeake Energy files whatever legal documents they file to initiate eminent domain. As part of that filing Chesapeake puts up a bond of some amount sufficient to cover the legal help for the victim they are metaphorically raping.

I can not imagine how violated I would feel, suddenly having my home under assault by a corrupted city and a company the city is in cahoots with. And then to find that there is no mechanism in place to balance the playing field, to make it fair, to make certain the little guy does not get squashed by the big evil guy.

Just a couple days ago, or was it just yesterday, someone added a famous quote to a comment. The famous quote that goes something like "All it takes for Evil to prevail in the world, is for the Good people to do nothing."

I'm getting the sense that there is a rapidly increasing number of good people in the Fort Worth zone who are soon going to be prevailing against the evil in our midst. I'm often very intuitive about matters like this.

Steve Doeung & The Carter Avenue Rescue Operation On Facebook

The Queen of Wink has started a Facebook Cause Page as part of ongoing efforts to save Carter Avenue and Steve Doeung from the corrupt City Government of Fort Worth and the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Companies who are running roughshod over the Victims of the Shale, abusing eminent domain, endangering citizens, polluting the air, and the water.

The cause is called CARO. CARTER AVENUE RESCUE OPERATION.

Steve Doeung is back in court in downtown Fort Worth on Thursday, March 4 at the Old Courthouse at 100 West Weatherford and Main Street, across the street from the Heritage Park eyesore.

If you can think of any way to help Steve Doeung in his battle to save his home from Chesapeake Energy and its lapdog, the City of Fort Worth, you can email him.

The People Are Not Feeling Sweet About The Suite Deal Jerry Jones Gave Arlington City Officials

A few days ago I blogged about the Suite Deal Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys have given the City of Arlington officials who had helped abuse eminent domain to take Arlington citizen's homes, apartments and businesses, for the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium.

Lately I have made note of the fact that I'm not the only one in these parts who is detecting that there are ever growing numbers of Texans who see the unethical, corrupt, just plain wrong, stuff that goes on in this location, and are becoming ever more disgusted and willing to be vocal about it.

I see this as an extremely positive thing and an excellent example of how that good ol' American concept known as Free Speech is supposed to work and why it was ingrained in our Founding Documents by our Founding Fathers.

Even the Fort Worth Star-Telegram seems to be getting onboard and is seeming to be less of a mouthpiece for the Ruling Oligarchy and more like a legitimate newspaper. Of late that newspaper seems to have skewed more toward facts, regarding the Barnett Shale pollution, than the gas industry propaganda the newspaper had been previously spewing.

The Star-Telegram was quite feisty in its expose of the obviously improper free Cowboy Stadium Suite that Jerry Jones gave City of Arlington officials.

And now in this morning's Star-Telegram there are several Letters to the Editor verbalizing righteous indignation over the "Suite Deal." My favorite of the letter writers suggests that each game day, or other event, a lottery take place. For instance, Dallas Cowboy game, a lottery of the Arlington residents who are helping pay for the stadium, is held, the winners go to a game and get all the perks. Another lottery for those who's homes were taken. Well, you get the idea. And I think it's a good one.

And now the letters....

The Suite Deal

Just when I thought the hypocrisy of politicians had reached its zenith, I read the Sunday report on the stadium "perks" received by Arlington's mayor and council members. I was dismayed but not surprised at their attempt to put as good a face as possible on what amounts to corruption in the eyes of ordinary residents. They argued that the wealth the stadium was going to bring to Arlington coupled with the insignificance of the personal benefit to themselves (i.e., the seats were not the best, they were there primarily to conduct business for Arlington, some made limited use of the perks, some use was for charities, etc.) justified the perks.

No suggestion was made that legal research had confirmed the perks did not violate the city charter limits on their compensation, that tax research absolved the city of responsibility to report these perks as income for tax purposes, or that there was no conflict of interest when fire code violations were not imposed at the Cowboys opening game against the Giants.

This reminds me of my grandfather's response after a church service when a fellow member rose to give testimony to his attainment of sinless perfection. Grandpa left church as soon as the service was over, went home and locked his chicken house. Arlington missed its chance for that when the majority voted for the stadium in 2004.

-- Terry Witt, Arlington

So, Arlington officials can't see how being bought and paid for by Jerry Jones is unethical?

Perhaps they should have their eyesight checked.

-- Bill Youngblood, North Richland Hills

We have the following suggestions in response to the ethical issues raised by the city's free suite at Cowboys Stadium:

1. Reserve at least one game each season for which some seats at the suite would be allocated by a lottery in which all city employees would be eligible to participate.

2. Reserve one game each season for which some seats would be allocated by a lottery to those households whose homes and neighborhoods were demolished to make room for the stadium.

3. Reserve some seats each game at the suite to be allocated to the city's employee(s) of the month.

This would not address all the ethical issues raised by the article, but it at least would provide a few opportunities for some who might never be able to afford to attend a Cowboys game the opportunity to see what their city has bought. It would relieve the mayor and council from some of the burdensome responsibility they apparently find comes from using this perk (or, as one councilperson called it, a "workday" experience) and it would give the mayor and council another opportunity to mingle with the folks whose sacrifices made possible this "gift" that the Cowboys gave the city.

-- Norma and Richard Cole, Arlington

Arlington City Councilman Mel LeBlanc's remarks concerning the large bouquet of perks for the council's Cowboys Stadium effort really hit the mark. I know it was really rough on them having to take private property away from their constituents to build the stadium. But as a reminder, there is still a lot of low-hanging fruit to be had. After all, in Arlington, economic development and eminent domain go hand-in-hand.

-- Ron Tovar, River Oaks

Once again our Arlington City Council members are taking advantage of their job with perks for being elected by the residents of Arlington.

For example, in six months Kathryn Wilemon obtained benefits of between $6,000 and $11,167 from the Dallas (Arlington) Cowboys in the form of tickets, parking, food, etc. Does she claim this as income on her federal taxes?

I am retired and would love to see a Cowboys game or shows at the stadium, but I cannot afford tickets, parking and food. Oh well, I am only helping to pay the city's $325 million portion of the stadium's cost.

I do not buy the idea of promoting Arlington by going to the games and shows with family or friends. I only hope that when election time comes up, the voters remember this and the extra benefits that our elected officials receive.

-- John Feuling, Arlington

It breaks my heart to see City Council members take advantage of the perks offered just because of the position they hold. I am a registered nurse of 15 years and I, along with my colleagues, can do more in a 12-hour shift for this city than some council members do in an entire term. What do we get? Self-satisfaction! That should be enough for the council members.

Give up this unethical means of self-pleasure and give back to the city. The money wasted on that suite could go to our local schools, churches, etc.

It's unbelievable how this is being justified as a legitimate gift. Anything can be considered legit if enough heads turn the other way. To try to justify the perk because other suite holders "stop by" is ridiculous. The "substantial things" that Mayor Robert Cluck says occur because of the "discussions in the suite" could have as easily occurred with talks in the office or over the phone.

-- Denise Kubat, Arlington

Arlington City Officials Get Big Payoff For Helping Jerry Jones Abuse Eminent Domain For New Cowboy Stadium

I am really starting to feel sick and tired of feeling sick and tired of all the goofy stuff I see and hear here in this Orwellian Occupied zone of Texas I'm currently seeing too much of.

The sense of right and wrong that governs other parts of the civilized world is reversed way too much in these parts.

The latest example is the latest chapter in what for about 6 years I have called the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal, due to what many, myself included, believe is the worst case of eminent domain abuse in American history.

Where Jerry Jones, conspiring with the City of Arlington, abused the perfectly legal concept of using eminent domain to acquire property for the public good. Like a road, hospital or school. That type thing. In Arlington eminent domain was abused to take homes, apartment complexes and businesses.

For a football stadium, a building that is pretty much a monument to one strange man's strange sense of entitlement.

Now, what did I learn today? Well, the Arlington city officials who conspired with Jones to abuse eminent domain to build the stadium have been rewarded.

Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys have given Arlington city officials the private use of one of the stadium's luxury suites. I believe the technical term for this is Payoff.

Since the stadium opened, Arlington city officials, like city council members and Mayor Chuck Cluck and their family and friends, have received free tickets to attend Cowboy games and other events, like the Paul McCartney concert. So far the comping has totaled almost $80,000.

The City of Arlington suite users also get to be additionally bribed with $1,000 in free food, when they use the city's luxury suite.

And they get special, close to the stadium, parking spots, that go for $75. For free. And if they want, the city officials can get coveted sideline credentials, for an up close look at the game, for which some fans would be willing to pay a small fortune.

There are some wise heads in Arlington who are complaining about Arlington city officials receiving this particularly onerous payoff for cooperating with Jerry Jones.

Have any of the victims of the storm that leveled their homes been invited to experience the City of Arlington luxury suite, high above where their homes used to stand? I suspect not.

I suspect the only Cowboy perk the victims could maybe obtain is making use of one of the 100s of custom made outhouses that surround the new $1.1 billion stadium.

Something besides those outhouses is really stinking in Arlington.

The Dallas Cowboy Wal-Mart Supercenter Continues To Perplex Me

See that white rectangle in the upper right of the picture? That is the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Wal-Mart Supercenter.

This picture was taken in July of 2004. I was flying up to Seattle and when I realized the plane was going to fly directly over the worst case of eminent domain abuse in American history I got out my camera and started snapping pictures.

This was very early on in the project. The last house standing is still standing in this picture.

Now, why is the Dallas Cowboy Wal-Mart Supercenter on my mind this morning? Well, you may recollect me mentioning that the Wal-Mart parking lot is blocked off on Dallas Cowboy game days. On Saturday I saw the entries off Randol Mill Road were blocked off during the Cotton Bowl. And dozens of buses were parked on the lot.

When I found the parking lot blocked during a Dallas Cowboy game I figured it was just Randol Mill Road that was blocked. So, I tried to get to the entry on the north end of the parking lot, but found all roads leading there to also be blocked.

On Saturday we saw people walking in to Wal-Mart. So, it was open.

And now this morning I got a perplexing comment from the ubiquitous Anonymous claiming to work at the Wal-Mart in question.

"Perhaps you should have looked closer.

That Walmart doesn't close during games. The North entrance of the parking lot is open.

How do I know? I f*$%ing work there."

I don't know what to make of this. I know what I saw. Blocked roads. And on Saturday dozens of buses parked on the Wal-Mart lot. Do they pay to park there? When other vehicles get towed if they park there during a game, when signs say "No Event Parking?"

If it is true that the north entry is not blocked, then what is the route to that entry? And what is the reason Randol Mill Road is blocked?

It's very perplexing.

Tony Romo's Backwards Cap & America's Dallas Cowboy Team's Eminent Domain Abuse

I found some good letters to the editor and comments in this morning's Dallas Morning News about Dallas Cowboy, Tony Romo, he being the team's quarterback and former boy toy of Jessica Simpson.

Tony Romo often wears a baseball cap backwards. I have read negative comments about this previously, and again this morning in the DMN letters to the editor.

The cap backwards umbrage commenter also mentioned the Dallas Cowboys being America's Team. That got a good comment. I also have commented before about the Dallas delusion of being America's Team.

Another letter to the editor was regarding the abuse of eminent domain crimes that were committed in Arlington to get land for the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. This letter was written in reaction to a Dallas Morning News article about America's Team and the corrupt Jones family.

I'll copy the letters and comment below, followed by the YouTube video I made of the homes and apartments destroyed in Arlington for the new stadium.

Turn that hat around

If Tony Romo wants to turn the Dallas Cowboys around, he needs to turn his hat around first.

Romo is the quarterback for the Cowboys, not a street musician. He should wear the uniform properly until he has earned the right to assume the casual nature he projects with his various hat-wearing contortions.

Perhaps if he wins a Super Bowl, he will have earned the respect needed before he can take a casual approach to dressing for America's Team.

Patrick Gallagher, Fort Worth

The Dallas Cowboys are NOT America's team. There is no such thing. And get a little perspective here. They are a private entertainment company like any other sports team or league. Sports teams do become part of our culture like musicians and other entertainers but they are not any more deserving of respect than any other private enterprise.

Comment Posted by Mike D

The right to take away homes

Re: "Behind America's Team and its home, an American family -- State-of-the-art facility a labor of love for Joneses," Monday news story.

How do the Jones family and Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck justify the use of eminent domain to seize homes and businesses in order to build the stadium where they wanted?

The Jones family and Cluck always have pat answers that voters voted for it, the stadium brings tourists, the city owns the stadium or the owners were paid, but these homes and businesses were not for sale.

Heir Stephen Jones is correct -- this stadium was built on the backs of families -- the working class and elderly former owners whose homes and businesses were condemned and destroyed.

Linda Lancaster, Arlington

More Texas Citizen Abuse, This Time In Arlington, Again

My bizarre run-in with the Fort Worth Gestapo a couple days ago has had me thinking about how bit by bit freedom can erode, and if you let little freedoms erode, the erosion can eventually reach a Grand Canyon depth level. Just consult a German to see how that can happen.

I think I've not been paying close enough attention to how badly freedom has eroded in my zone of Texas.

Yes, I did clearly make note of how appalled I was by the worst case of eminent domain abuse in American history, when thousands of citizens and hundreds of homes and apartments were taken from people against their will, in an extreme violation of that basic American idea that when we are in our homes we should be safe from the government.

Instead, in Arlington, the government took homes and replaced them with a private business in the form of a football stadium. In the famous words of a wise philosopher named Jesus, "What you do to the least among us, you do to me."

And now, this morning, I learned that Arlington is employing a method loved by the old Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. That being, having citizens, in the form of "Code Rangers," spy on their fellow citizens and report serious violations impacting the public well being. Like putting your garbage out a day early. Or parking your car on your lawn. Yes. Your lawn. You own it. But, in Arlington, you can't decide to park your car on your lawn, if you want to. The Code Rangers will get you.

I might find some sense in this if Arlington was some sort of pristine city, with well paved streets, sidewalks everywhere, no eyesores. Instead, just look at the majority of the area around the new Cowboy Stadium. It is Eyesore City, for the most part. Or drive Division or Pioneer Parkway in Arlington and make note of the number of eyesores you see. They must be more difficult to go after and generate easy revenue.

Oh, I forgot to mention, if you put your garbage out one day early in Arlington, you will get a $132 fine, no warning. Within hours of putting out your garbage on the wrong day, a City of Arlington KGB/Gestapo Agent will show up at your door and hand you a ticket.

The civic sense in Arlington is so twisted that they are actually proud of running this KGB/Gestapo inspired program. They even have a city website that sort of brags about the miscreants they have played nanny too, with Violation of the Week "Before" and "After" photos illustrating the wonderful results of this corrective behavior. People in free parts of the World, and America, I'm not making this up, click the link "city website" link above and see for yourself.

A letter to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, this morning, put me on to this latest bizarre thing in Arlington. I had no idea about this, prior. The KGB/Gestapo victim, in this instance, has decided he has had enough of Arlington and is taking his family and saying bye-bye.

What really gets me is the attitude here, in this extremely repressive part of America, of treating perfectly good citizens as if they are criminals. You put out your garbage on the wrong day and you get a fine? How about being neighborly and simply pointing out to the person that this is not garbage day, and there is this darn city code about not having your garbage out til garbage day.

Or like I said before, if someone is driving real slow in a residential neighborhood, without wearing his seatbelt, for good reason, why not simply stop that person, ask why they were driving slow, tell them they need to put on their seatbelt and send them on their way, once you realize this was not a hardened criminal you stopped.

Instead, in the ham-handed KGB/Gestapo manner in which one simple matter was handled, Arlington is losing one good citizen and his family, and Fort Worth has another citizen having fun expressing his umbrage, in various forms, about the various forms of umbrage-worthy ridiculousness, in this city I live in, that makes the World Green with Envy.

I am almost to the point of leaving myself. I am ready to live in the land of the free again. I hear Austin is quite nice.

Anyway, below is the letter that set me off this morning.....

I’m a concerned citizen who finds he is living among a secret society that the City of Arlington calls its "Code Rangers."

While I was working in South Texas for 60 days, my wife mistakenly put out the trash for pickup on Thursday instead of Friday. Within four hours, she received a ticket. Not a warning — a $132 ticket issued by a code enforcement officer.

My wife, grandson and I have lived here only six months and had no prior incidents. When I brought this to the attention of the local code officer, he said Arlington issues no warnings; it’s an automatic citation. When asked how he found this egregious violation, he said he was not at liberty to discuss how he was notified.

Through research, I found that Arlington trains residents to be "Code Rangers," and it is these fine upstanding residents, sitting in the shadows waiting for flagrant violations to happen, who inform city code officers.

Farewell Arlington, my taxes are going elsewhere.

Robert Reuland, Arlington

Facebooking Natural Mixmaster Eminent Domain Stadium Abuse

I keep forgetting I need to get my bike wheel fixed til I'm in the mood for something aerobic. Maybe I should make a note somewhere. I think I mentioned being up around 4, dipping skinny in the pool around 5, by noon I needed to get out of here.

So, it was back to my ol' standby, the Tandy Hills Natural Area. It was not quite 100 degrees. A bit of a breeze made it a fine hiking temperature.

Usually I take a picture looking west from the summit of Tandy Mountain. Today's picture is looking west from the west end of the natural area. We are looking at the new, what I consider to be hideous, Omni Convention Center Hotel, with it's weird looking gigantic balconies that stick out from the sides, like scaffolding.

In front of the Omni, that mass of ribbons of concrete is what is known as the Fort Worth Mixmaster. It is where I-30, I-35 West and I-287 all join together in one big bunch of flyovers and overpasses. This thing took something like 12 years to build. And cost something like $180 million.

I remember the first time I heard the Mixmaster cost mentioned, as if it was a lot of money, I was quite perplexed. Everything is supposed to be bigger in Texas. I remember the final section of I-90, up in Seattle, across Lake Washington and Mercer Island, cost something like $5 billion. They are replacing a floating bridge and removing a waterfront viaduct up there to the tune of billions. In little ol' Washington, a state with a population smaller than this D/FW Metroplex with its $180 million Mixmasters.

Then again, here in Texas we have a giant, futuristic spaceship inspired football stadium that cost $1.1 billion. Which got built very fast, paid for, in part, by one small Texas town, that being Arlington, while up in Washington, the Seahawks want a new football stadium and the entire state votes on it.

And absolutely no one, not a single person, lost their home so Seattle could have a new football stadium and baseball park. How many were displaced by the eminent domain abuses that occurred in Arlington to build a football stadium and baseball park? In Seattle you have way, way less open space than this D/FW Metroplex zone has, there you are bounded in by water and mountains, yet no one lost their home to a sports stadium. Meanwhile in Texas, well, I tend to harp.

It's perplexing. And maybe just a tad shameful. The Texas thing, I mean, not my harping, my harping is not shameful, it's helpful.

So, that's been my day, up early, hiking hot and spending more time on Facebook than I've spent previously. Why? I am not quite sure.