Star-Telegram Wonders How Long Until Panther Island Becomes An Island

 

This morning a new article showed up in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about America's Biggest Boondoggle. By the end of this long article we learn the article was written by a new reporter, recently moved to Fort Worth, Emily Brindley, who the Star-Telegram is characterizing as an "investigative reporter".

This should be interesting. The Star-Telegram has not had one of those before, regarding anything to do with the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, which has become, after limping along for years, America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The article is titled As another bridge opens, how long until Fort Worth’s Panther Island becomes an island?

Just the article's title raises red flags. Such as, even the article's title admits that that which has been called an island, is not an island. 

Let's go through this article and comment as we go along. The first paragraph...

Late this weekend, Fort Worth officials plan to open the new North Main Street bridge that leads to the eventual Panther Island — marking another step forward in a project that has been more than a decade in the making and is still years from completion.

First off, this project has been limping along this entire century. Just the building of the three simple little bridges is taking almost a decade. Is it not even remotely concerning that a project which originally was touted as being a vitally needed flood control/economic development scheme is still years from completion?

Clearly, not vitally needed.

The second paragraph...

But local officials say the many moving pieces of the project are beginning to align. With a new presidential administration, an impending federal infrastructure bill and the return of appropriations earmarks, officials say that federal funding could soon flow into the project and kick off the next big phase of construction.

Have we not heard this moving parts beginning to align propaganda before? There is actual vitally needed infrastructure work in America, including much work needed in Fort Worth, such as addressing actual, real, flooding issues in Fort Worth. Why would, or should the rest of America help pay for Fort Worth's inept Boondoggle after it has been so badly mismanaged for so many years?

Why should, or would, federal money flood into Fort Worth for this project when the voters of Fort Worth have never voted to approve this public works project? Let alone be asked to support a bond issue to pay for it, like towns wearing their Big City pants do.

The next two paragraphs are a doozy, followed by one of the photos from the Star-Telegram article illustrating the imaginary beautiful bridges...

Tarrant County administrator G.K. Maenius pointed to the bridges as evidence that “we’re finally seeing some results” — and he said he’s pleased with the aesthetics of those results, too.

“I don’t know if anyone realized just how beautiful those bridges are going to be,” he said. “I’m not a bridge guy, but even to me, they look pretty darn good.”

Yeah, that is one super beautiful bridge. And look at those signature V-Piers, which J.D. Granger insisted on, rather than the actual cool looking design of the West 7th Street Bridge over the Trinity River. Clearly this guy who admits he is not a bridge guy, has not seen any of the world's actual impressive signature type bridges. Maybe heading west and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge might be too much bother for education purposes, but this Tarrant County administrator could simply drive a short distance east, to Dallas, and see the two actual signature bridges over the Trinity River, which actually do look pretty darn good.

You reading this in non-Fort Worth America, you good with your tax dollars helping Fort Worth build this?  Moving on...

The creation of an island necessitates the digging of a new channel north of downtown Fort Worth, which would connect the Clear and West forks of the Trinity River and then connect the ends of a U-shaped bend in the Trinity River. The new channel would effectively create two islands, together called Panther Island.

This is the first I have read there will be two imaginary islands. Both called Panther Island. If there are two, shouldn't they be known as the Panther Islands? Like in my old home zone in Washington, where the dozen of islands in the San Juan Strait are known as the San Juan Islands. But those islands in Washington are real islands, not cut off from the mainland by a cement lined ditch.

Moving on...

And for access over the eventual channel, the Texas Department of Construction in 2014 began building the three bridges, which currently span dry land. At the time, officials said the bridges would be completed by 2018.

Texas Department of Construction? I have not heard of this Department before. Maybe the Star-Telegram's new investigative reporter can do some actual investigating to find out why it has taken so long to build three simple little bridges over dry land? With construction to be completed three years ago.

Moving on a couple paragraphs...

Officially, the $1.17 billion project is broken into two pieces: the flood control portion, which is known as the Central City project and primarily involves digging the 1.5-mile channel, and the economic development portion, which is known as the Panther Island project and primarily involves the development of the industrial land in the area.

Officially? When did this breaking the project into pieces thing officially happen? When America's Biggest Boondoggle began around the start of this century it was called Trinity Uptown. A few years later this became the Trinity River Vision. I saw Central City on signage in Gateway Park, years ago, far east from the area which does not need new flood control, because it has not flooded since well over a half century ago, due to flood prevention measures already in place. When did the economic development part of this scheme become known as the Panther Island Project? The Boondoggle has been sold as a flood control/economic development scheme from the start. Slapping the Panther Island label on this that and the other thing came around about the time J.D. Granger and the Trinity River Vision began hosting Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the polluted Trinity River, labeling this as happening at Panther Island Pavilion. Where there is no island or pavilion, by any sane person's definition of either island or pavilion.

Skipping ahead a few exhausting paragraphs to the following doozy...

Officials have long said that it was cheaper and easier to build the bridges over dry land, and that the federal government would pay for the channel construction because it’s a flood control project.

Uh, if it was easier to build these three simple little bridges over dry land, why is the project years behind being completed? And, as has been pointed out many many times, there was no option other than to build the bridges over dry land. How could there be any other option? I mean, this entire project is rife with wanton stupidity, but it is hard to believe the stupidity could be so dumb as to dig a ditch, line it with cement, fill it with water. And then build bridges over it.

There has never been any other option than to build these bridges over dry land. How many times must this be repeated before the Star-Telegram ceases repeating this "cheaper and easier" nonsense?

The next paragraphs repeat the propaganda about securing federal funds, Kay Granger's failed role in doing so, the Trump administration refusing to help because the project has never done a comprehensive cost-benefit study and thus is not policy compliant, which then leads to hoping "the Biden administration will look more favorably on the Fort Worth project."

This article makes no mention of the fact Kay Granger's unqualified son, J.D., was hired as the Trinity River Vision's Executive Director, at a salary which has now gone over $200K, so as to motivate J.D.'s mother to secure those federal funds to secure J.D. a good paying job.

Why would the Biden administration look favorably at the Fort Worth project with all its baggage? There still has been no cost benefit study. The project is mired in mismanagement and project delays. The project wastes money on flood control where there has been no flooding for over half a century. Why would the Biden administration waste federal money on this Fort Worth boondoggle while the town ignores actual real flooding issues in other parts of the town?

Moving on deeper into this article...

Mark Mazzanti, a consultant on the flood control portion of the project and a 35-year veteran of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the federal government’s finite funding allocation means difficult decisions about which projects to fund. But he also said that the Panther Island/Central City project has “a number of strengths,” including support from locals, from Congress and from the Corps itself.

A number of strengths? If the locals support this boondoggle why have they never been allowed to vote on it? Like voting yes on a bond issue to pay for it. The amount of money we are talking about here is not that big for most big cities and their public works projects. What makes Fort Worth different? If this is such a good idea, such a brilliant scheme, such a well thought out and important project, why would those who want to make this happen not go to the voters and ask for their help by passing a bond issue to pay for the thing?

And then this...

Federal funding would mean that workers could begin on the new channel — first with final planning and then actual digging and construction.

Yes, federal funds would mean the planning for the ditch could be finalized with actual digging beginning. The same could have happened if years ago voters voted to support a bond issue to finance this vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme, which apparently really is not even remotely vitally needed, due to the backwards way Fort Worth has gone about actualizing the ill begotten project.

And then the following two paragraphs...

Even after federal funding comes through, it would likely be another eight to 10 years until the channel was actually completed, according to Buhman, the soon-to-be general manager of the water district.

That means that the channel would be finished — and Panther Island would actually become a full island — by 2030 at the earliest.

So, eight to 10 years after these three bridges are finally completely built over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, the channel, actually ditch, will actually be completed. Yeah, this sounds like a really well thought out project that the federal government should jump right on and help to the max. Oh my, Panther Island might actually be a full imaginary island by 2030, after calling it Panther Island for two decades.

We are almost at the end of this article, two more paragraphs...

In the meantime, Buhman said, officials are focused on getting the land as ready as it can be for the channel. The water district is working on environmental cleanup of the Panther Island properties, he said, while the city moves and sets up utilities.

“We are shovel-ready for that channel and we’re still doing that prep work but I would say it is well on its way,” Buhman said. “And we are at the place that we are ready for that federal investment and for that construction.”

Really? What is the manifestation of those officials getting the land ready for the channel? Are they clearing the land of weeds and debris? What? How is the water district working on the environmental cleanup? Many have long thought that if this ever gets to the point where a lot of dirt is moving it will uncover a contamination level requiring an EPA Superfund cleanup. Shovel-ready and doing prep work? Again, what prep work does one do preparing to dig a ditch? It's well underway? As in how? Ready for that federal investment which likely will never come?

So, one can not help but wonder, if this new Star-Telegram 'investigative journalist" is the real thing.

Will she be doing some investigating to let us know, after all these years, why it has taken so long to build three simple little bridges? Will she look into what it is that J.D. Granger actually does to warrant being paid so much money? How about looking into the real reason J.D. Granger was hired? 

Tiptoe With Me Through The Skagit Valley Daffodils

I saw that which you see screen capped above this morning on Facebook, via the "You Know You're From Anacortes When..." Facebook page.

The caption says "Daffodils are beginning to pop up around Skagit County. This is a field located across from Christianson's Nursery in Mount Vernon".

To which someone commented saying, "That's what I miss the most since I moved away..."

The Mount Vernon town referenced is the town I live in before moving to Texas. For Flatlander Texans reading this, that big wall of blue in the distance, behind the daffodils, are what are known as foothills. In this case, foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

Anacortes is not part of the Skagit Valley, but the town is in Skagit County. Anacortes is on Fidalgo Island, and is the location of my nephew Jason's Fidalgo Drive-In.

The flowers blooming in the Skagit Valley every spring is not what I miss most since I moved away. I think fresh produce, readily available, along with fresh seafood, also readily available, I miss more than seeing fields of colorful flowers.

This century I have been back in the Skagit Valley only one time during the tulip blooming time of the year. That being April of 2006, when I was in the valley to go to the aforementioned Nephew Jason's first wedding. That time I was in the valley for only part of one day, and during that day we did not drive out to the Skagit Flats, where the flowers bloom.

When I lived in Mount Vernon, particularly when I lived in West Mount Vernon, before moving across the river to East Mount Vernon, I was not all that fond of the tulips and the throngs of visitors the flowers brought, from all over the world, to the Skagit Valley.

The month long Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is an extremely well done operation. The festival began several decades ago, and created massive traffic problems from the start. Which is why I was not all that fond of this event, whilst living in West Mount Vernon.

But over the years multiple fixes have greatly exacerbated the traffic congestion. Things like directional signage, alternative freeway exits to keep Mount Vernon from getting clogged up by people exiting via the Mount Vernon exits. Tour buses were added, where people could park at one of the valley's mall's parking lots and ride a bus to tour the tulips. And venues were added, like Tulip Town, to spread the visitors all over the Skagit Flats.

The Skagit Valley is pretty much one BIG tourist attraction. It's the gateway to North Cascades National Park. La Conner is the valley's top tourist town. Anacortes is where you find the gateway to the San Juan Islands, via ferry boats, which will also take you to Victoria, British Columbia.

Where I currently am located, in Texas, there is not a single tourist attraction, remotely tourist worthy, for hundreds of miles in any direction you choose to go. No foothills or mountains. No ocean waves waving within hundreds of miles. No tourist towns.

However, this month something starts to happen in Texas which I never saw happening in Washington. That being wildflowers appearing and coloring up the landscape. It really is sort of spectacular to see, particularly down in Texas Hill Country.

Just a sec, I shall see if I can find the link to the webpage I made years ago of the Texas Wildflowers.

Found the link to that wildflower webpage, which is what you see via clicking the last two words in the paragraph above...

Fort Worth's Dunce Confederacy Strikes Again

Since my current exit from Texas I have been receiving a higher than usual number of emails, text messages and Facebook messenger messages, leaving me a little frustrated at not being at a location with an Internet connection.

The messages from the various sources have all been about the uproar which erupted when it was announced the long anticipated independent investigation of the Trinity River Vision Authority, with that investigation costing around a half million bucks, spent to try and find out why and how so much money has been spent, for so many years, with so little progress, after so much time and money, what with the fact that that which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle has been limping along most of this century.

Many were under the apparently false assumption this independent investigation was going to be a forensic audit, examining where the money has gone and on what the money has been spent.

For instance, after all these years of zero transparency many were hoping a forensic audit would reveal how much has been spent on salaries, in total, of all those employed by the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision Authority.

And how much has been spent on all the TRVA's various propaganda operations. Such as the incredible volume of signage which began sprouting up around Fort Worth way back in 2010, with sign proclamations such as "Trinity River Vision Underway". Or the HUGE sign propaganda installation at Gateway Park touting all the imaginary things the Trinity River Vision was going to see, at some point in time, apparently distantly into the future.

Or how much the bizarre propaganda installation cost which sits on the ground floor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram building.

Or how much has been spent on all the junkets J.D. Granger and his minions have taken, supposedly to check out other visions at other locations on the planet, in towns which have actually managed to bring a vision to fruition.

I have long wondered how much money has been wasted on all the TRVA various websites. Or all the propaganda mailers sent out quarterly.

Or how much has been spent paying people to "execute" this myopic vision, years after the project would have been, should have been, completed if it was competently executed, and if this project was an actual legitimately needed flood control project.

If this were a legit flood control project, should not someone be held responsible for the fact years have gone without this imaginary flood control problem fixed.

Clearly, it is obvious now, after all these years, this public works project never had anything to do with flood control. Or helping protect the public. It has long been an ineptly implemented money making scheme, benefiting few. With a few having already benefited from their scheming.

The name "Granger" comes to mind.

So, many people back in Fort Worth are not okay with that independent investigation having been announced as completed, and turned over to the TRWD board, which then indicated only a redacted version would be released to the public, once the TRWD board approved of the independent investigation's findings.

Yeah, that sounds like what you do with an independent investigation. Can't imagine why people would be offput by this.

Gateway Park Visit With Beautiful New Fort Worth Outhouses & Boondoggle Signage

Yesterday, for the first time in years, not since 2015, I visited Fort Worth's Gateway Park to see if there has been any progress with the progress in motion we have been told is in motion for years now, with that progress in motion information on signage in the park installed years ago by what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Actually, now that you are causing me to think about it, it was via construction signs at Gateway Park where I first saw the Boondoggle referred to with Central City and Uptown added to the usual Trinity River Vision name. Panther Island District was added to the name years later.

I had previously seen the new overlooks which look over the Trinity River, which replaced boarded up boardwalks which had been a hazardous eyesore for years.

What you see above is near the entry to one of those new overlooks. The green/blue plastic signage is pointing to the "North Observation Deck" which I guess makes this one the "South Observation Deck".

Also at the entry to the South Overlook, I mean Observation Deck, is a Fort Worth staple, that being a classy outhouse.

Recently the nation, well, a few people in Fort Worth, were shocked to learn Fort Worth mayor, Betsy Price, is "fantastic friends" with Donald Trump. We all talked about this in Betsy Price Fantastic Friend Trump Fort Worth Sewer Flood Fix.

One can not help wonder if an Outhouse Factory is one of Trump's many business enterprises, one of those he operates via a shell corporation so as to avoid being identified as Trump's. That and even Trump probably wouldn't like his name slapped on something like TRUMP TOILETS.

Obviously I am always looking for some explanation as to why Fort Worth is the Outhouse Capital of America. This Trump Betsy BFF explanation is probably a long shot.

Below is a look at part of the South Observation Deck. That blue sign we see stuck on the deck has been added since I was last at this location.

Oh, turns out it is a sign informing us of something the whole world already knows, that being that "RECREATION ABOUNDS ALONG THE TRINITY RIVER".

On this sign we see multiple photo documentation examples of all the recreation abounding on the Trinity River. Starting with the upper left and going clockwise we shall try to identity the various recreation which is abounding. A kid holds a big fish, a group of skullers skulling, a pair of bikers stopped to do some canoodling (not sure on that one), a trio of paddleboarders doing some litter dodging, the instruction to download the TRWD Trails app, dozens of foolish people floating on inner tubes rockin' the river, kayakers with the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth behind them, and finally, a pair of cowgirls riding their horses on one of the Trinity Trails.

Years ago a hurricane, I think it was Hermine, or maybe an earlier one, caused the Trinity to flood. That flood destroyed sections of the paved trails in Gateway Park, leaving the trail in sections hanging over the edge of the river, and closed off by cyclone fence. The most recent time I eye witnessed this was in May of 2015. You can go to the Finding Imaginative Sign Progress By America's Biggest Boondoggle On Saturday Gateway Park Bike Ride blog post and see photos of the sad state of the Gateway Park paved trails at that point in time.

Well, yesterday I was pleased to see, all that was damaged has been fixed, totally removed, with new paved trail installed further away from the river. HUGE improvement. That is a section of the new paved trail you see above.

On that last visit to Gateway Park, when I saw signage identifying the project as part of the Trinity River Central City Uptown development, I saw bulldozers and other heavy equipment busy churning up the earth where a long abandoned sewage treatment used to hide mysteriously behind easily crossed cyclone fence and decades of foliage growth.

That long abandoned sewage treatment plant is all gone now, and what you now see is a big hole, and a lot of earth scraped clear of vegetation. No further activity was noted.

And then I came to something which appalled me, years ago, when I first saw it. A HUGE installation of signage touting the wonders of what America's Biggest Boondoggle was going to do to Gateway Park.

I was freshly appalled to see this signage yesterday, when I saw it and realized it had all been upgraded. With the new signs touting even more things no one currently living on the planet will probably live long enough to see. You can see the new signs have added the important detail of including those green/blue signs you see giving directions all over the zone of occupation of what originally was called the Trinity River Vision.

Searching the blog the earliest I could find where I blogged about this signage was October 10 2010, eight years ago. That blog post is titled The Trinity River Vision's Gateway Park Vision.

The details showing all the wonders to come have grown much more elaborate, showing many of those equally imaginary "community requested recreational amenities" on a large map of Gateway Park. On this big sign there is also mention made of what have become known as J.D. Granger's Magic Trees. The billboard refers to the Magic Trees as "a key initiative, including the planting of over 80,000 native oak and pecan trees."

This billboard includes a "KEY TO GATEWAY PARK AMENITIES" such as "new parking, new entry towers, new pedestrian bridge, new splash park (where is the old one?), new boat launch, existing boat launch, new rock weir (again, where is the old one?), new playground, new picnic area, new ecosystem restoration (again, where is the old one?), existing dog park, new mountain bike course, new equestrian trails, new primitive hiking trails, new soft paved trails, existing trails, existing disc golf course, new scenic river overlooks (I knew I called them such for some reason, before they became observation decks), new concession areas, new restrooms (again, where is the old one?), new skate park (again, where is the old one?), new baseball/softball fields, new soccer fields, existing baseball/softball fields, existing soccer fields.

Now.

How much has America's Biggest Boondoggle spent over the decades on its incredibly prolific sign posting fetish? I think I have asked this question previously. It seems, if I remember right, former TRWD Board Director, Mary Kelleher, tried to find out, but ran into yet one more brickwall block on that information which would seem to be something the public should have access to, the Boondoggle being a public works project, after all.

Supposedly...

I suspect I will be checking in on Gateway Park more frequently. It will be interesting to see if I can detect anything happening...

TRV Boondoggle Transforms Imaginary Bypass Channel Into A True Promenade

A few minutes ago I heard from Elsie Hotpepper, via text message.

Part of that message made mention of the fact that the TRV was propagandizing about something which had someone usually not prone to such being profanely poetic.

For those who do not know what TRV is, those initials stand for Trinity River Vision, also known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The full name of TRV has grown over the decades to TRCCUPIDV.

Or Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Elsie Hotpepper's text message eventually lead me to something I did not know existed, or maybe I did not remember it existed.

A TRV Facebook page.

Click the link and you can experience the propaganda yourself.

Such as that which you see above, which was at the top of today's TRV Facebook page. A congratulations to some entity which had won an award for their work on the London Olympic Park.

The propaganda shows up in the line "They are also the team responsible for transforming our bypass into a true promenade".

What?

Where is this promenade? Prior to the transformation to being a true promenade was this imaginary promenade a false promenade?

Our bypass?

What bypass? All there is is one bridge stalled under construction where a ditch, I mean, bypass, may be dug at some point in the distant future.

And then there was this. A guy appearing to be welding during one of The Boondoggle's construction stalled V Piers. I thought this post on the TRV Facebook page was going to be about the stalled bridge construction. I thought wrong.

The post with the V Piers appearing in the background has nothing to do with The Boondoggle's bridges. It has to do with how to prepare a bid packet with a bang for The Boondoggle's projects. Here I was thinking the Panther Island Bid Opportunities would have something to do with soliciting bids to get those bridge design errors fixed and construction back underway.

And then there was the following doozy. I have blogged multiple times over the decades about The Boondoggle's signage at Gateway Park touting the wonders that would one day appear.

Next time I am in Fort Worth, which is currently scheduled to be in less than two weeks, maybe I will swing by Gateway Park to check on The Boondoggle's upgrade of its propaganda signage. For years this has been a bizarre spectacle to behold.....

Rerouting Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Propaganda To The Truth

With disturbing regularity a ridiculous propaganda puff piece pops up in an obscure publication touting an alternative universe version of what is known as the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island District Vision.

Or America's Biggest Boondoggle.

This time the propaganda puff piece was in something called Urban Land Magazine in an article titled Rerouting the Trinity River.

After reading the article astute Fort Worth observer, Mr. Spiffy, observed this magazine should be called Urban Myth Magazine.

This article has multiple quotes from J.D. Granger, which always guarantees a high nonsense level.

Let's start at the start of this article and opine as we go along.

The first paragraph...

In an industrial area north of downtown Fort Worth, three bridges are under construction that, at least for now, serve little purpose. The bridges are going up over dry land in anticipation that they will someday span a 1.8-mile (3 km) channel off the Trinity River, part of an ambitious 13-year-old plan to transform the heart of the Texas city. The channel, which has not yet been dredged and still awaits federal funding, is the centerpiece of the $900 million development that combines flood control with the city’s dreams of creating a new urban district.

Three bridges are under construction? Construction has been stalled on the only one of the bridges under any sort of construction, with that stall now lasting over half a year, supposedly due to design errors.

Ambitious 13 year old plan? Really? Ambitious? As in ambitious in slow motion?

The un-funded un-dredged channel is the center piece of this development? So, you have an unfunded centerpiece, but go ahead and build some bridges over the unfunded centerpiece, in case the ditch ever does get dredged?

Next up the first of the embarrassing nonsensical J.D. Granger quotes...

“There’s not another city in North America that has this type of phase two opportunity in one swipe,” says J.D. Granger, the executive director of the Trinity River Vision Authority (TRVA), which is overseeing the project. “It’s a blank slate.”

I have no idea what the above Granger gibberish means. A "type of phase two opportunity in one swipe"? What does that mean?  The project is a "blank slate"?  After 13 years this project is a blank slate? As for no other city in North America having a project such as this in the works, well, that is true. Fort Worth is the location of America's Biggest Boondoggle. No other town in America tops Fort Worth in the Boondoggle department for this type of project.

Skipping forward a paragraph or two...

The a-ha moment came with the radical proposal to dig the channel to address the city’s flooding problems, introduced by Vancouver-based architect Bing Thom. The channel would allow removal of the tall levees lining the river and create an opportunity for the city to reconnect with the river. Instead of fighting the course of the river, the system will let the water go where it wants to go, Thom says. “What nature wants to do is take the straightest line,” he says.

A previous paragraph informs us that there was a big discussion among Fort Worth's city representatives as to what to do about the river, with nothing off the table, advised to think outside the box, look for big ideas, and new approaches, to think creatively about how the river relates to the city.

All this creative out of the box thinking then led to that a-ha moment, with a radical proposal to dig a ditch to address the city's flooding problems.

Why did that out of the box thinking  not lead to a radical proposal to clean up the dangerously polluted river?

Dig a ditch to address the city's flooding problems? The city has had no flooding problem for well over half a century, ever since the Army Corps of Engineers built levees which have contained the Trinity River when it is in flood mode. However, there are other towns in the Fort Worth area, such as Haltom City, which have had bad flooding problems, this century, deadly flooding problems.

Deadly, un-addressed, un-fixed flooding problems.

The next paragraph with a similar nonsensical point....

The ability to redevelop the area was simply a bonus. A neglected industrial area suddenly became a potential urban center. “Using flood control as a catalyst for economic development became the driving idea,” Costa says.

Again with the claim that this Boondoggle has to do with flood control.  Like I already said, the area being damaged by this ill-conceived project has not been flooded for well over half a century, because it is already protected from floods.

The next paragraph contains a super gem of propaganda nonsense...

Thom was hired to create the master plan, which was approved in 2003 by the Fort Worth City Council and various local authorities and agencies, including Tarrant County and Streams and Valleys, a nonprofit group focused on preserving the river. The flood control plan made an ally of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which was in charge of the levee system. But making the plan a reality required the backing of a dizzying array of local, state, and federal agencies, including local environmentalists. More than 200 public meetings were held, focusing on everything from hiking trails to transportation systems.

Flood control plan? Where there has been no flood for over a half a century? More than 200 public meetings were held, focusing on everything? Really? I know no one who attended one of these likely imaginary more than 200 public meetings. I have been to a public meeting or two, post the beginning of The Boondoggle, public meetings trying to fix what was obvious to many was slated to become a Boondoggle disaster.

And then this eye roller from the woman who gave the world J.D.....

“Bringing people together took an extraordinary amount of time, energy, and communication,” says U.S. Representative Kay Granger, a former mayor of Fort Worth (and J.D. Granger’s mother.) “We always felt that to do the things we wanted to do, everyone had to buy in.”

Oh the hubris, the irony, the willful mindlessness. “We always felt that to do the things we wanted to do, everyone had to buy in.”

Everyone had to buy in? Who is everyone? Investors who stood to benefit from this development scheme? Buy in? The public was certainly not part of the buying in, because the Fort Worth  public has never been allowed to vote on this public works project which greatly impacts their town.

How does that sound to you reading this in democratic parts of America? In Fort Worth eminent domain has been abused to take property for a public works project the public has never voted on.

More nonsense in the following paragraph,...

The planning group took several trips to Vancouver, Thom’s base, to get a sense of the Canadian city’s approach to urban growth. Among other examples, he wanted to show them how to handle the connection to the waterfront—the idea “that the water’s edge should always be public,” he says. “There is a very subtle dimension between the public realm and private realm.”

I remember years ago, on a Sunday morning, opening the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to see a screaming headline in BIG letters proclaiming 'TRINITY UPTOWN TO TURN FORT WORTH INTO VANCOUVER OF THE SOUTH'. I remember reading that and thinking what absurdist ridiculousness is this? I was already attuned to the Star-Telegram's tendency to hyperbolize. Like when the Star-Telegram told its readers a lame little food court like thing was the first public market in Texas, modeled after public markets in Europe and Seattle's Pike Place. When I saw how lame the Santa Fe Rail Market was this was the point I realized one can not trust what one reads in the Star-Telegram.

The Boondoggle  planning group took several trips to Vancouver to check out how that town dealt with urban growth and handled its connection to the waterfront? I remember when I read that Star-Telegram headline about Fort Worth turning into the Vancouver of the South thinking to myself have any of these idiots actually been to Vancouver? Vancouver and  Fort Worth have absolutely ZERO in common. Vancouver's waterfront is marine waterfront, as in saltwater inlets and bays connected to the Pacific Ocean. Water on which big boats, like freighters, cruise ships and ferry boats float. Vancouver has a big river flowing through the south part of town, the Fraser. Unlike the Trinity, an unpolluted river.

An all powerful God working miracles could not turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

Two more paragraphs, the second of which contains another J.D. Granger gem....

While the different elements progress, a large part of the TRVA’s effort has focused on activating the river—getting it on the radar of a community that saw it as an industrial wasteland. That included resurrecting the image of the river. Parks and new projects have gone in around sections of the river in recent years, but many people remain wary of the brownish, clay-bottom waterway.

“It’s a problem for us,” J.D. Granger says. “We need to educate people about the desirability of living on the river.”

Yeah, imagine that, many people remain wary of a waterway which appears to be anything but clean. But, J.D. Granger has a solution. The people need to be educated about how desirable it is to live on the river.

I am not quite sure if J.D. literally means "live on the river" or what. However, the most recent iteration of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision has added two new islands, the West Island and the East Island.

And a Houseboat District,

Maybe that is where J.D. means people need to be educated as to being a desirable place to live. In a houseboat, on a dangerously polluted river.

And then we learn some of what J.D. has done to get people getting used to being close to the e.coli infested river...

To make that happen, TRVA has staged a variety of events, including Rockin’ the River, free waterside concerts that encourage people to watch the performances while floating on inner tubes. A paddle sports rental shop has also opened. The goal is increasing direct experience with the water. “You can’t just tell people the water is fine,” J.D. Granger says.

For once true words from J.D., as in you can not just tell people the water is fine. Because the water is not fine you have now been forced to regularly test the water due to multiple instances of elevated to a dangerous level of e.coli, and other contaminants. How many of this past summer's Rockin' the River inner tube floats had to be cancelled due to too much e.coli?

I think I have already said, way too much hubris, way too much stupidity. But it bears repeating.

And then we learn of other wonders brought by The Boondoggle to get the public on board with it....

To help bring people to the area, TRVA has opened a drive-in theater, an ice skating rink, and a waterfront music pavilion where more than 40 events a year are held. In 2014, a brewery opened on what will be Panther Island. And the project is already having a larger impact on the river. Upgrades are moving forward on Gateway Park, a 1,000-acre (405 ha) greenbelt on the water’s edge, which is also a component of the TRVA’s project scope, and in 2009 the Tarrant County Community College opened a campus overlooking the river.

To bring people to the area? Why was it a thing to bring people to that area? To do so the TRVA opened the first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century? And thought this was a good idea? An ice skating rink? There is no pavilion in the area called Panther Island Pavilion. Not by any normal definition of the pavilion word. This waterfront music venue is where The Boondoggle encourages locals to float on inner tubes in the polluted river.

The project is having an impact on the river? Really? How? Is the river cleaner? An impact because Tarrant County Community College opened a campus overlooking The Boondoggle?

Uh, that campus was a boondoggle all on its own. Never completed as planned, Huge budget over runs. And then, to finally open a new campus, rather than complete the original campus, the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters, which is another infamous Fort Worth boondoggle, was bought and retro-fitted as a college.

And now, before we get to the final J.D. Granger embarrassment, what may be the most misleading propaganda in this article...

Rival Dallas has been struggling for years to implement far-ranging improvements to its stretch of the Trinity, with little success, supporters of the Fort Worth project note. Fort Worth’s approach was unorthodox, but it will eventually produce results, they say.

Rival Dallas has had little success with its Trinity River Vision? Read the Wikipedia Trinity River Project about the Dallas vision. First off, the Fort Worth Trinity River Vision did not come about after some sort of a-ha moment which lead to America's Biggest Boondoggle. The Fort Worth Vision came about because of Fort Worth's civic inferiority complex developed over decades of living in the Dallas shadow.

In 1998, five years before Fort Worth started up its Boondoggle, Dallas voters, I repeat, Dallas voters, approved a bond proposal to fund a cleanup of the river, new park facilities, wildlife habitats, build a couple lakes, and in addition to other elements build three signature bridges over the Trinity River.

In common with Fort Worth's Boondoggle, progress on the Dallas Trinity Project has gone slow,  and has had funding problems.

When the Fort Worth Trinity River Vision was announced three signature bridges were also part of the plan, yet one more instance of copying the Dallas plan.

However, one of the Dallas signature bridges, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge has been built, over water, with a second signature bridge almost completed. Fort Worth had to scale back its bridges from being signature bridges designed by a renowned bridge designer, like well regarded Santiago Calatrava, who designed the Dallas bridges. The design for the three Fort Worth bridges ended up being extremely ordinary, totally non-signature, though The Boondoggle still describes their bridges as being signature bridges.

And unlike the Dallas bridges, not only have none of the Fort Worth bridges, over dry land, been completed, the only one under construction has been stalled for over a half a year.

Tell me again how the Dallas Trinity Project has had little success compared to Fort Worth's Boondoggle?

The Dallas Trinity Project has also opened the Trinity River Audubon Center, along with trails and parks.

Another element the Fort Worth copycat vision copied from the Dallas vision was including residential developments, office buildings, retail stores and restaurants.

Is Trinity Grove, and all its restaurants, part of the Dallas Trinity River Vision? I don't know. But I do know that Trinity Grove is right by the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.

And now the final paragraph with some final words from J.D. Granger...

“Frankly, looking back, I don’t think it could have been done any other way,” J.D. Granger says. “We could have done it faster and cheaper, but the project would not be as good as it is today.” The majority of the infrastructure work should be completed by 2023, if all goes according to plan. “We couldn’t speed up the process, even if we wanted,” he says.

Really? J.D. thinks they could have done this project faster and cheaper. But, had they done so it would not be as good as it is today? Most of the infrastructure work will be completed by 2023? The process could not have been sped up, even if they wanted to?

Previously The Boondoggle propaganda had this vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme completed by 2023. Now it's the infrastructure being mostly completed by that date?

Looking back this project could not have been  done any other way? How about approved for by the voting public, fully funded, with a real project engineer overseeing the project who knows how to get a project completed in a timely fashion?

Most infrastructure work will be done by 2023, if all goes according to plan? Does J.D. mean, unless little glitches happen, like bridge design errors causing a construction halt?

How did design errors occur with the design of Fort Worth's simple little bridges? While the first of the Dallas bridges, an actual complex engineering feat, has been completed and carrying traffic for several years. That, and adding an impressive element to the Dallas skyline.

How much has been added to the cost of the Fort Worth Boondoggle having the project limp along in slow motion for years longer than such a project would take in modern American towns? How many millions of extra dollars have been paid to the TRVA employees, such as J.D., than would have been paid if the project were completed with those who completed the project having moved on to new projects?

How much money was wasted on all those junkets to Vancouver, and other towns, to check out their waterfront projects?

How much money has The Boondoggle spent on all its propaganda publications and signage?

Shouldn't The Boondoggle budget be transparent and readily available information?

If The Boondoggle propaganda is now claiming if all goes well most of the infrastructure will be completed by 2023, when will the entire actual vitally needed flood control and economic development project going to be actually completed?

And if this actually were a vitally needed flood control project, why is it being built at a record breaking slow pace?

If I have said it once I have said it more than once, so much hubris, so much stupidity. The people of Fort Worth deserve better. America deserves better. Federal funds should never have been sent to this mis-managed project....

Over Half Decade Ago Trinity River Vision Pretended To Be Underway

Yesterday after I blogged about Hoping The Lake Wichita Revitalization Project Happens Soon it got me to thinking, anew, about Fort Worth's pitiful Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, known now as America's Biggest Boondoggle, due to boondoggling along for most of this century, with little to show for the effort.

Currently Fort Worth's clouded vision is being made more murky due to the inability of Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger, to secure federal pork barrel money to help jump start the stalled project in dire need of a money infusing defibrillator.

Kay Granger's son, J.D., with no experience running any sort of public works project, was hired by America's Biggest Boondoggle to be the Executive Director of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Hiring J.D. was supposed to help motivate his mama to secure those federal handouts.

That has not quite worked out as planned. Instead, J.D., with a highly honed frat boy mentality, has turned that long ago Trinity River Vision into seeing things like muscial happy hour inner tube floats in the polluted Trinity River.

Yesterday a conversation about how Wichita Falls seems to wisely go about a project, such as revitalizing Lake Wichita, turned into musing about how bizarrely backwards Fort Worth is when trying to do just about anything.

That musing had me thinking back to when I first saw signage claiming that the Trinity River Vision was underway. With that "underway" verbiage referring to the actual moving of dirt, rather than simply propagandizing about moving dirt. The dirt moving propaganda began in 2002. Eight years later the signage appeared announcing that the cloudy vision was underway.

The last day of September, 2010, I rode my bike from Gateway Park, west, towards the Stockyards. A short distance after passing under I-35 I found myself seeing signage such as you see above, informing me, and others, that the long stalled Trinity River Vision was finally underway.

Six years ago.

I blogged about being astonished by the number of Trinity River Vision underway signs, and other ridiculousness in The Trinity River Vision Is Underway With A Lot Of Signs.

Among the things astonishing me that day was an area where the Trinity Trail had been re-routed around what looked like a big excavated area.

When she read that long ago blogging Connie D commented asking if this (a link to a TRV webpage) could be what I saw.

Cowtown Wakepark.

What I saw that day, six years ago, was America's Biggest Boondoggle moving a lot of earth to build a private business a pond. Soon after Cowtown Wakepark opened it went out of business, due to what seemed to me to be a rather obvious bad business model.

That and building such a thing where a predictable flood could do a lot of damage.

Ironic that such an easily flooded entity would be built by a project touted as a much need flood control project.

How much money did The Boondoggle spend to build that pond for the Cowtown Wakepark? Why has the Cowtown Wakepark's failure and The Boondoggle's part in that failure not become an issue with the local media? You know, journalists covering wrongdoing.

J.D. Granger was quoted multiple times touting the viability and wonders of Cowtown Wakepark giving the citizens of Fort Worth the ability to satisfy their imaginary long held desire to participate in the sport of wakeboarding.

Why has J.D. Granger not been held accountable for the failure of Cowtown Wakepark? Or any of the other failures of America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Like that simple little bridge being built over dry land to connect Fort Worth's mainland to an imaginary island. Is that bridge yet back under construction after a half year delay due to supposed design problems, and not due to the rumored lack of funds, due to J.D.'s mama not delivering that federal pork?

Both J.D. and his mama need to be fired....

Burlington's Maiben Park Upgrade Has Me Wondering Anew Why Fort Worth Is So Backwards

A couple days ago Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason, emailed me an email with the subject line "Spencer Jack may be on a zip line through Burlington's city park in the future".

All that was in the body of the email was a link to an article in Skagit County Breaking Community News titled Safety Improvements Continue at Maiben Park.

Maiben Park is one of the city parks in the town I grew up in, Burlington, Washington. Maiben Park is across the street from our home location on Washington Avenue.

About a year ago a still unsolved murder took place in Maiben Park. This set in motion a community effort to make the park safer.

Community meetings have been taking place to solicit input from the public. Three paragraphs from the article about this effort...

Burlington, Washington– Burlington Community Leaders having been holding community meetings and asking  residents for input on some big changes that are coming to Maiben Park in the next year.

Some of the upcoming changes include improved L.E.D Lighting, Security Cameras, a separate play area for 2-5 year old children, an expanded  play area for 5-12 year old children that includes a zip line, new park benches, Free Wifi, parking epansions,  new restrooms with shelter and security options, picnic tables, and a new splash pad. Some of the items that will stay the same are the trees and bike jumps, among other things.

In the latest community meeting, which was held on Wednesday May 11th, officials shared  some digital copies of two of the new park diagrams that are now being considered.  The layouts are very similar with the position of the restroom building at different angles as the only major difference between the two options.

_____________________________

What a difference between the town I grew up in and the town I recently escaped from, Fort Worth, Texas.

Fort Worth has a bizarre pseudo public works project which has been dawdling along for most of this century, known as the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision, or more commonly, as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Every three months America's Biggest Boondoggle mails out a slick propaganda production.

For years, each quarter, those propaganda productions tell the easily duped that The Boondoggle's Vision of the Gateway Park Master Plan includes over 90 user requested amenities.

Signage at Gateway Park's Fort Woof also mentions these 90 user requested amenities. For years I have been asking who these users are and what was the mechanism by which they made these amenity requests.

All I have heard is crickets chirping.

I think growing up in a little town like Burlington, population then somewhere around 3,000, now somewhere around 8,000, and then seeing a big city, like Fort Worth, up close, with a population around 100 times bigger than Burlington, yet so backwards by comparison, is what has long perplexed me about Fort Worth, trying to figure out why the town is so backwards and lacking in so many ways. Like the miles of roads without sidewalks. And parks without modern restrooms.

Decades ago, when I was a kid, playing in Maiben Park, the park had modern restroom facilities and running water for the park's picnickers.

I think, if I remember right, I have verbalized a time or two how appalling I have long found the fact that most of Fort Worth's city parks do not have modern restrooms or running water.

How is it not some sort of universal health code violation to have city parks with picnic tables with no running water to wash ones hands?

As part of the Maiben Park upgrade the park is getting new restrooms. And free wi-fi. Free wi-fi is not a concept alien to Texans. On Wednesday I was in the Texas Star park in Euless, connected to that park's wi-fi.

The towns surrounding Fort Worth have multiple parks with modern amenities. I really don't understand why there is not some sort of Fort Worth sense of civic embarrassment that the town is so backwards with its outdated parks which belong in another century.

Or a Third World country....

Anonymous Leads Me To New Bridge Ornamentation Over A Swollen Trinity River

Yesterday, after a visit to Fort Worth's Gateway Park, I blogged about America's Biggest Boondoggle's odd signage which has spread like a virus throughout The Boondoggle's domain.

Someone named Anonymous read that blogging and made a comment which caused my curiosity to take me back to the Gateway Park zone today.

Following is the comment from Anonymous...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "America & Fort Worth's Biggest Boondoggle's Berserk Signage":

Taking a trip back to your former stomping grounds, did you notice the 1st St. bridge over a rather swollen Trinity River? Close enough to finished to have some strange ornamentation on each corner... 

Above you are looking at that to which Anonymous refers.

In that photo you are looking west across the nearly completed new 1st Street Bridge over the Trinity River, with what Anonymous refers to as "strange ornamentation" at the northeast corner of the bridge. Just as Anonymous indicated, one of these strange ornamentations is at each corner of the bridge.

I did not find this particular bridge ornamentation all that strange. I've seen far stranger things in Fort Worth. Such as America's Biggest Boondoggle's Million Dollar Wind Roundabout Ridiculousness.

In the above photo and the photo below you get a glimpse of the rather swollen Triniity River.

Above we are looking south at the old bridge the new bridge is replacing. And the aforementioned swollen Trinity River. I am fairly certain the old bridge will become part of the new paved trail from Gateway Park, connecting to Quanah Parker Park's trails and the east and west sides of Gateway Park's mountain bike trails, if those trails ever dry out.

This new bridge over the Trinity River was built in less than a year. This new bridge is part of a big upgrade to 1st Street and Randol Mill Road. Three bridges, in total, have now been completed, in less than a year, as part of this upgrade. All three of the bridges dealt with water issues during construction, with the bridge over the Trinity River being hit with more than one flood during construction.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Fort Worth, three simple little bridges are slowly being built over dry land with a four year construction timeline. I have not heard if America's Biggest Boondoggle's bridges are back under construction after a design error caused a halt to construction last month.

I wonder if whoever it is who engineered the construction of this new bridge over the Trinity River could be hired to get The Boondoggle's three simple little bridges built a bit faster?

Let's change the subject from The Boondoggle back to the new bridge over the Trinity River.

In the above photo you are standing on the middle of the new bridge, looking east towards an empty landscape. Fort Worth has so much open space. This particular open space has been rendered a bit of an industrial wasteland, courtesy of disgraced Chesapeake Energy.

Slightly to the left of the middle of the photo notice that bump sticking up above the horizon? That is an old rusted out water tower. To the right of the middle of the photo notice the limbs of a dead tree. Blending into the limbs of the dead tree is the "strange ornamentation" we saw at the top.

Below is another look at the water tower and tree.

The above looks sort of scenic to me. Not the type of scene one expects to see in a crowded urban zone.

I will miss Gateway Park, the Tandy Hills, River Legacy Park, the Village Creek Natural Historical Area and Oakland Lake Park when they are no longer located in what Anonymous refers to as my stomping grounds.....

America & Fort Worth's Biggest Boondoggle's Berserk Signage

I am almost 100% certain I am not the only person who has noticed the proliferation of signage, such as what you see here, and wondered what fresh tacky hell is this?

The Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision, also known as America's Biggest Boondoggle, has long loved spreading propaganda signage all over the area where The Boondoggle does its boondoggling.

Some of the signage has been of the "Trinity River Vision Underway" sort. I first saw those over a half decade ago, near where the now defunct Cowtown Wakepark sits.

Speaking of Cowtown Wakepark, way back when that easily predicted to fail operation opened, an earlier version of The Boondoggle's signage showed up along the Trinity Trail, informing trail users of the direction and distance to various features one might find along the trail.

Such as the Cowtown Wakepark.

I remember taking a picture of one of those signs and asking what happens with the signage after the easily predicted failure of the Cowtown Wakepark?

As in, does The Boondoggle come along with whiteout and strike out that Cowtown Wakepark element on the sign?

And then there was the follow-up iteration of The Boondoggle's signage, as in the thing you see above.

These signs, to me, look like someone's 1960s idea of something looking futuristic, like one might have seen at a World's Fair, way back then.

The signs are made of thick plastic. Is the design supposed to be some sort of abstraction of a flower opening?

Below is a new Boondoggle sign installation, not yet completed, which I saw yesterday in Gateway Park, near the new Observation Deck on the west side of the park.

How much has America's Biggest Boondoggle spent on all this ridiculous, tacky, cheap looking signage? Should not that information be available to the public? These signs may look cheap, but I suspect they are quite costly to produce.

What with each one needing to be a one of a kind type deal with the special info which that one sign needs to convey, such as we see on the sign at the top, pointing us to two parking lots, a dog park, soccer fields and that aforementioned observation deck.

I do not know how anyone could manage to find the parking lots, dog park, soccer fields or observation deck without this useful sign......

Taking A Fort Worth Walk On Another New Gateway Park Boardwalk Overlook

This morning I had a need to be in the area near Gateway Park.

So, I took the opportunity, since I was in the neighborhood, to check out progress on the east side of the park. Specifically to see if the boardwalk replacement was finished at that location.

A week or so ago I visited the new replacement boardwalk on the west side of the park.

I am not 100% certain, but I believe these new boardwalks are a product of America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Well, I was pleased to see the new boardwalk is finished on the east side of the park. This is a HUGE improvement. I took a few photos, which you see here, and after the photos I inserted a YouTube video I made back on September 29, 2014 of the old boarded up boardwalk.

The above photo of the new boardwalk is taken from the paved trail that meanders along the Trinity River in Gateway Park.

In the above photo we have stepped onto the boardwalk and are looking at some informational signage describing the various flora one sees from this location.

I did not know what to make of the below feature.

The round thing looked like it was made to spin. So, I gave it a spin to find it making a noise. I think the sound was supposed to be the noise made by water rushing over rocks. Maybe.

The furthest reach of the boardwalk posed another mystery.

When I first saw that green little Martian like thing stuck to the railing I thought it must be a spotlight aimed at the river. On closer examination I discovered that round, white area at the center is a view finder one looks through. The Martian rotates, directing the view finder to different views. The mystery is there is no magnification, like one usually experiences with such things. So, I have no clue as to the purpose. A second Martian was attached to another section of railing at another section of the boardwalk.

Below is the view from the aforementioned mentioned Martian looking west, back towards the paved trail from whence we came.

And below is the aforementioned YouTube video in which you will walk on the now gone boarded up boardwalk, giving you an appreciation of what a HUGE improvement this new boardwalk is to Gateway Park.

The Tale Of Two Town's Stupid White Water Feature's Faulty Visions

This morning my blog subject assignment taskmaster, Elsie Hotpepper, informed me "You must blog about this. I can't wait to read what you have to say about it."

Well.

The this to which Elsie Hotpepper referred was an article in the Dallas Observer titled DEMISE OF STUPID WHITE WATER FEATURE IS A CALL TO TAKE BACK OUR RIVER. by the Dallas Observer's observer of the nonsense which goes on in Dallas, Jim Schutze.

Jim Schutze is amusing and makes so much sense the powers that be in Dallas really should pay attention.

I thought I'd already blogged about the subject of the Stupid White Water Feature (SWWF) in Dallas. So, I was a little confused as to why Elsie Hotpepper thought I should blog about this subject again.

That is a screen cap, you see here, of the previous blogging about what Jim Schutze refers to as the SWWF, a blogging titled This Trinity River Whitewater Rapids Plan Would Have Filled Dallas Potholes.

Okay, reading my previous blogging about the SWWF and the latest Dallas Observer posting about this subject I see, I think, why Elsie Hotpepper thought I might want to opine, maybe.

Both Dallas and Fort Worth have Trinity River Vision projects. In both towns the name of the vision morphs with the passing years.

The current version of the Fort Worth vision's name is Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision. Which many locals simply refer to as The Boondoggle.

I don't know what Dallas is currently calling its Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Dallas has more to show for its Boondoggle than Fort Worth does. Dallas has completed one actual signature bridge, with another under construction. Fort Worth's Boondoggle currently has one little, non-signature bridge under construction over dry land. The Dallas bridges are being built over water, as in over the Trinity River.

Some day, if the money can be found to dig it, a ditch will be dug under Fort Worth's bridges, with Trinity River water diverted into the ditch, creating a fake island, connecting the Fort Worth mainland to the fake island, which America's Biggest Boondoggle has already named Panther Island, even though there is no island. And probably never will be.

Unlike Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, the people of Dallas actually were allowed to vote on that town's river vision, with a bond issue passing way back late in the last century, prior to my move to Texas.

I heard about the Dallas Trinity River Vision soon after I arrived in Texas. And then one Sunday morning, early in this century, I was startled by a HUGE banner headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, boldly proclaiming Trinity River Uptown to Turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South.

What fresh demented nonsense is this, I remember wondering? Reading the breathless article I remember wondering if anyone on the Star-Telegram staff had actually been to Vancouver and realized how ludicrous this Vancouver of the South claim was.

This incident of Star-Telegram nonsense occurred soon after the Santa Fe Rail Market debacle where the Star-Telegram, also breathlessly, had been promoting an embarrassing, lame, little food court type thing as the first public market in Texas, modeled after public markets in Europe and Seattle's Pike Place Market.

When I saw how pathetic the Santa Fe Rail Market was, the idea that the Star-Telegram would mislead its few readers so outrageously greatly annoyed me. Not only was this not the first public market in Texas, it was not even the first public market in Fort Worth. Had no one on the Star-Telegram staff been to the Dallas Farmers Market? A market which every one of my visitors from the Pacific Northwest has opined reminds them of Pike Place.

Back to the Dallas Observer SWWF article.

So, there's been a brouhaha brewing in Dallas due to the SWWF, this bizarre thing the Dallas Trinity River Vision Boondoggle  installed in the Trinity River to make a white water rapids thrill for the few people in Dallas interested in floating a kayak a short distance over a fake rapids in a polluted river.

Well, it quickly became obvious the SWWF was stupid due to being so dangerous it was deemed unsafe. Only a few million bucks were spent building this theme park attraction, which no one could use.

A few years went by with the SWWF blocking navigation on the Trinity River. The Army Corps of Engineers then came to town, all upset that Dallas had broken a long standing law which forbade such obstructions on a navigable river.

I had no idea til reading such that the Trinity River was considered to be navigable. Just a few miles upstream from Dallas, in Fort Worth, navigation on the Trinity River is not possible due to obstructions placed in the river by the same Army Corps of Engineers which is being all cranky over the Dallas SWWF obstruction. In Fort Worth there are multiple dam-like structures on the river, causing mini-reservoirs and crossings for the Trinity Trail.

If a boat floater made it past the little dams, further upstream, on the West Fork, the boater would find their boat trip halted by the Lake Worth Dam blocking the Trinity River. A person floating their boat on the Clear Fork would soon find their journey ended by the Lake Benbrook Dam.

I would think the bigger issue with the Dallas SWWF on the Trinity is not that it impedes the flow of boat traffic, but that it is a dangerous hazard which serves no purpose.

I long ago opined about thinking it to be so bizarre how Fort Worth basically copied Dallas with Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision, but foisting it on the public, with no public debate, no vote, just a done deal, an ever changing vision which has gone from turning Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South to being the world's premiere waterfront music venue for inner tube floating beer parties in a polluted river, the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century, an ice skating rink, a beer brewery, countless festivals, an embarrassing work of kinetic art costing almost a million bucks and one little bridge under construction, with celebrating taking place because that bridge's wooden V-pier forms were finally under construction.

Unlike Dallas, Fort Worth has no Jim Schultze pointing out the various Fort Worth absurdities. I think Jim Schultze should expand his observation area to the west, to include Fort Worth, where he will find a rich treasure trove of incredible nonsense.

In other words, while the Dallas Trinity River Vision may be a mess, the Fort Worth Trinity River Vision hired the unqualified son of a local congresswoman, J.D. Granger, to be the Executive Director of the Fort Worth Vision, hoping that this would motivate his mama to secure some pork barrel earmarks to pay for what has become a bizarre boondoggle with little accomplished in a project which has spanned most of this century.

So far the Fort Worth version of a Trinity River Vision is not seeing any white water rapids.

However, due to the Fort Worth Vision's penchant for copying the Dallas Vision, as much as possible (except Fort Worth lost its three signature bridges) the Fort Worth Vision still includes a kayak white water rapids feature. You can see that illustrated in propaganda signage The Boondoggle long ago installed in Fort Worth's Gateway Park, where, currently, The Boondoggle is removing dirt from what will be Gateway Park West, which is where I believe The Boondoggle's white water rapids will be located.

I do not think the Army Corps of Engineers is going to be able to object to the Fort Worth SWWF due to the fact, like I already mentioned, navigation on the Trinity River in Fort Worth has already been impeded by the Army Corps of Engineers....