New Look At Fort Worth's Multi-Decade Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

It has been a while since I have read an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about America's Dumbest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, or TRV for super short.

A couple days ago I found myself writing a blog post titled New Zealand Family's Seattle Visit Reminds Me Of Fort Worth's Infamous Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, written after seeing the result of a successful public works project completed in a more modern area of America, then finding myself comparing that project to what many simply refer to as The Boondoggle.

And then, ironically, the very day I posted the blog post referencing Fort Worth's embarrassing Trinity River Vision mess, the Star-Telegram publishes an article about the current state of The Boondoggle, in typical Star-Telegram faulty information fashion.

I suspect the reporter writing this article is new to Fort Worth, and the Star-Telegram, and thus does not have a well-developed ear for hearing nonsense.

We are now in the third decade of what has become America's Oldest Boondoggle. Over the years I have written dozens of posts about this subject. Just go to the Durango Texas blog and enter "TNT exploding ceremony" into the search function, or "Kay Granger Boondoggle" and you will come up with many of those posts about this subject.

Now, something I have not made mention of during the many years of writing these blog posts about America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Over the years I have been sent information from persons close to the problem. As in, someone with access inside J.D. Granger's inner Trinity River Vision operation. I referred to this person as Deep Moat. I was told a couple times, by a couple sources, that the TRWD and the TRV were annoyed, a time or two, by things they saw on my blog.

Also, regarding the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, someone working for that newspaper, anonymous to me, has long found my making fun of that newspaper to be amusing. And accurate. It has not happened for a couple years, but yesterday it did. That person, who they are, I do not know, sent me the link to this new article about The Boondoggle, a link I am not blocked from reading. I assume I would always have been able to read the Star-Telegram, if I was a subscriber, but I cancelled the hard copy long ago.

Anyway, I clicked the Fort Worth’s Panther Island riverfront project has seen years of delays. What’s next? and read it. And copied it.

I then messaged Elsie Hotpepper, asking if Elsie had read this latest, because her dear departed friend, Clyde Picht, is quoted. Elsie then asked for the link. I sent it. But, for her, she was blocked. I then sent Elsie the copied article.

Interesting that the Star-Telegram successfully blocks Elsie Hotpepper, but not me.

Anyway, let's now go through some of this article and comment as we read along. Let's begin with the first paragraph...

Government officials and curious citizens left no seats empty in Fort Worth’s city hall chamber on April 5, 2005. That day, then-Mayor Mike Moncrief locked horns with skeptical City Council members over the purpose and price of the “Trinity River Vision,” a grand plan to revamp the river’s flood control system and transform a sliver of the waterway twisting around downtown into a haven of urban leisure and recreation.

2005. Two decades ago. And that is years after The Boondoggle actually began. Flood control system? This project was originally touted as a vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme. So vitally needed, almost three decades later, little has been done. So vitally needed, the public was not asked to support it via a bond issue.

Moving on, the next paragraph...

Fort Worth’s powerful optimists first fleshed out plans for the venture the year before. Moncrief and fellow proponents hailed the undertaking, later rechristened Panther Island, as “the most significant local project since construction of Dallas/Fort Worth airport.” “Everyone feels the synergy of this project,” Moncrief told the audience in city hall, among them Panther Island champion U.S. Rep. Kay Granger. “They realize this will create a new gateway ... a new face for future generations.” Doubters weren’t sold on the mayor’s lofty aspirations. “I think the final cost of the project will be substantially higher” than the original $360 million price tag (around $613 million today), said council member Clyde Picht during the hearing.

The "later rechristened Panther Island" remark is what made me think this reporter is new to The Boondoggle. This pseudo public works project started out being called the Trinity River Vision. Then Uptown was added to the name. Then Central City. Then Panther Island District. I do not believe the project has ever been somehow rechristened as Panther Island. Such is just how some have come to refer to it, even though it is an imaginary island which no sane part of the world would refer to as such.

Moving on to the next paragraph...

The project’s budget ballooned to $1.17 billion around 2017 (a figure still listed in project documents today despite inflationary pressures). The most hopeful Panther Island advocates in the early 2000s expected a pocket of high-rises and tree-lined promenades to take form by the end of the decade. No development has happened since. The Tarrant Regional Water District has yet to acquire 23% of the land within Panther Island’s future boundaries; the body agreed in December to pay a real estate consulting firm $1 million to start thinking up a strategy for selling off land to interested developers.

Just the info contained in the above paragraph, one would think, is enough to make one think maybe it is time to just kill this embarrassing failure. The "no development has happened since" line is so telling. Basically, little real development has happened for almost three decades, not in the way developments happen in parts of the world known to be more, well, developed.

It gets worse. Next paragraph...

Much of the new flood control system has yet to be completed. TRWD and the other bodies tasked with bringing Panther Island’s renditions to life predicted in 2018 that every dam, channel and storage pond would be complete by 2028. The project’s latest completion date, as of June, is 2032.

Much of the flood control system is yet to be completed? Remember? This was originally touted as a vitally needed flood control project, to control floods in a section of the Trinity River which had not flooded for well over a half century due to levees installed in the 1950s. And now the completion date is in the next decade.

The final paragraph...

Past delays foreshadowed current ones. It took the Texas Department of Transportation roughly six years and $126.2 million to complete three bridges designed to funnel traffic to and from the island. Construction for the structures, totaling less than a mile in length, began in November 2015, with tentative completion dates set between 2017 and 2018. “This was a bad deal early on,” Picht said of Panther Island in 2018, a few years before he died. “It’s probably the worst managed public project in the state of Texas, if not the nation.” Where exactly do things stand today?

Why is the Star-Telegram blaming the Texas Department of Transportation for taking so long to build the simple little bridges? Did not the actual fault lie with the incompetent leadership of the TRV? As in, Kay Granger's son, J.D., made Executive Director, to motivate his mother to try and secure federal funds? J.D. Granger insisted the design of the bridges have these totally ordinary V-piers, which J.D. thought would make them Signature Bridges, which was part of the original Trinity River Vision, having Three Signature Bridges, matching the Dallas Trinity River Vision's proposed Three Signature Bridges, which was the actual start of The Boondoggle, Fort Worth once again trying to keep up with Dallas.

And failing.

Dallas did end up building two actual signature bridges, which add a cool looking element to the Dallas skyline.

As for The Boondoggle's employment of Kay Granger's son. Kay never did come up with federal funding. And when a Biden bill, the Infrastructure Bill, passed, sending funding to Fort Worth's un-funded project, Kay voted no. J.D. was then fired, given a $72,000 parting gift, and is now trying to open a restaurant.

Meanwhile, I have another nugget of news, sent to me anonymously, which I have no way of verifying, but which makes sense to me.

I have been told the real reason the Trinity River Vision project has stalled is due to serious engineering complications. When the Army Corps of Engineers was brought in, again, after those three little bridges were built over dry land, with a cement lined ditch to later be dug under them, an obvious issue became apparent.

As in, the cement lined ditch should have been built at the same time as the bridges. To dig under the bridges now presents serious engineering issues, as in without sufficient mitigations, digging under the bridges could cause a bridge collapse.

And so, the project is stalled, with the current funding now in limbo due to the project's ineptness, poor planning and bad design.

And, might I add. I have long predicted that eventually we will get to the point where it is realized the ground in the Panther Island zone is seriously contaminated, due to being a former industrial zone. There have already been some indications of this. I suspect it would take an EPA Superfund cleanup, which will likely never happen.

It is time for Fort Worth to kill this project, clean up the mess it has made, and get around to finally, at least, fixing Heritage Park, the boarded-up eyesore at the north end of downtown, a park celebrating Fort Worth's heritage, which, ironically, overlooks America's Biggest Boondoggle....

What I Love About Fort Worth...

The following was written last month whilst I was stuck in limbo trying to fly to Arizona. I forgot about this, til today, along with another blog post I wrote whilst in the air, with that one being about the controversial Riveron Review of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Without further adieu, let's see what I love about Fort Worth...

A few days ago I made mention of the latest fiasco of the ongoing Panther Island mega fiasco which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. Well, maybe not the Biggest Boondoggle, I should probably concede, as it has been pointed out to me that nothing regarding Fort Worth is the Biggest or Best at anything in America. Perhaps it would be more accurate to refer to the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision as America's Worst Boondoggle.

So, like I said, a few days ago I made mention of this fiasco after reading about a parking garage sinking which is part of the Encore Panther Island residential complex so highly touted as the first of many imaginary projects blooming on Fort Worth's imaginary island.

Well, apparently a guy named Dylan took some umbrage regarding what I have said, or say, about Fort Worth and its various shortcomings, like America's Worst Boondoggle, and so Dylan commented the following...

Dylan has left a new comment on your post "Will Panther Island's Encore Include Sinking Bridges?": 

The Panther Island Project has many issues, especially with the bridges that engineers are concerned about and contractors don't know how to build.

That said, many people would like to see the project as a whole come to fruition. Aside from Panther Island, there are many great things happening in this city. TEXRail is now open, a new arena is under construction (though it's a bit small), new hotels are under construction, and new residential buildings are being built throughout the urban core. There's certainly more happening in Fort Worth than in Wichita Falls.

So, I'm curious: Why do you hate Fort Worth so much? Is there anything positive you can say about the city? 

_________________

I shall try to help Dylan alleviate his curiosity.

Let's see if we can answer Dylan's probing question. Why do I hate Fort Worth so much? Well. I do not hate Fort Worth. Over my time of observing Fort Worth I have made note of a number of things which I do not think worthy of a modern era American city with a large population.

Let's just look at that first thing Dylan mentions in a la-de-da, no big deal way. Those three bridges, which Dylan tells us have been a bit of a problem because engineers have concerns, and the contractors do not know how to build the bridges which have been stuck in eyesore mode for years. And apparently the majority of the Fort Worth locals, and those who run Fort Worth in what is known as the Fort Worth Way, are okay with this, year after year after year.

Let's just start with why I have long given myself permission to say what I really think about Fort Worth, without doing any sugar coating. Early on I was offput by what I would characterize as false bragging. I would see this reflected frequently in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in what I came to call Green With Envy Syndrome, where that newspaper would have an article about something or someone and would claim that this that or the other thing was making towns far and wide green with envy, or give Fort Worth bragging rights, or some similar verbiage.

I found this bizarre. And then I soon also found myself personally experiencing longtime locals verbalizing what seemed to me to be totally delusional ideas about their town. This sort of struck me as some sort of be true to your school thing. That and some sort of civic inferiority complex and jealousy of Dallas, which is an actual world known town.

Let's take Sundance Square for example. When I moved to the DFW zone, signage in the downtown Fort Worth area pointed to Sundance Square. I had trouble finding a local who could tell me where this square was. Some thought it was parking lots by the downtown Chisholm Trail mural. After a couple years I learned that Sundance Square was the name given a multi-block downtown Fort Worth revitalization plan, with apparently no one realizing naming this Sundance Square, where there no square, was not a good idea.

And then after a couple decades of confusing the town's few tourists an actual square was built on those parking lots which had long been rumored to be Sundance Square, and then named Sundance Square Plaza.

Pointing out this non-existent square absurdity does not mean I hate Fort Worth, it means I find something goofy and not big city worthy.

And then there is a Fort Worth inept embarrassment such as the long closed, cyclone fence surrounded Heritage Park. A park supposedly celebrating Fort Worth's heritage. This has been a boarded up eyesore for over a decade, located at the north end of downtown, across from the Tarrant County courthouse. What sort of self respecting town would let such a thing go on, un-fixed, for so long? Pointing this out does not mean I hate Fort Worth.

The kid who pointed out the emperor wore no clothes, did not point this out because he hated the emperor. Instead the kid felt sorry for the emperor's embarrassing clueless naked condition and thought someone should mention it to him.

Same as pointing out that Fort Worth streets have few sidewalks, Fort Worth parks have way too many outhouses. And there are way too few parks for a city of Fort Worth's size. And way too few public pools.

And then add in the fact that Fort Worth charges an entry fee to its only two unique parks, those being the Fort Worth Refuge and Nature Center, and the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. Charging entry fees to two of a town's few parks is not worthy of a big city. Pointing this out does not mean I hate Fort Worth.

Oh, I almost forgot when Fort Worth's city government, under the corrupt leadership of mayor, Mike Moncrief, decided it was a good idea to make Fort Worth the world's first experiment in massive urban gas fracking. Where I lived in east Fort Worth this resulted in two nearby frackings, noisy, dirty, dusty frackings which no modern city would allow on such a massive scale within its borders.

During the period when Fort Worth was getting fracked the town was basically run by a shadow government of Chesapeake Energy, operating out of the Pier 1 Imports building.

And then there is that Boondoggle which Dylan indicates he and others would like to see come to fruition. I have never ever said I thought the concept of the Trinity River Vision was a bad idea. I have said the idea has never been properly vetted, as in analyzed and examined and discussed in public forums of various sorts.

Then sold to the public. Who then vote to approve the public works project after being convinced it is a good idea. Thus funding the project in the way such projects get funded in other areas of America. Just look a few miles east of Fort Worth to Arlington to see how such miraculous wonders occur.

For instance, since Fort Worth began trying to build three simple little (un-funded) bridges over dry land, voters in Arlington voted to build a new baseball ballpark, which is nearing completion.

Dylan makes reference to that new Fort Worth arena, kookily called Dickies. The vote to build this was typically Fort Worth goofy. Half the funding from private sources. Half from the public who somehow approved of their half by passing three separate bizarre ballot measures. With one measure approving a fee on event tickets, another approving a fee on livestock stalls, and another an add-on fee on parking.

This just is not a normal way to have the public vote to approve a public works project. Pointing out this obvious fact does not mean one hates Fort Worth.

Switching back to the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Pointing out the various absurdities of this Fort Worth embarrassment does not mean I hate Fort Worth. It is absurd that this boondoggle was foisted on the town's population as being a much needed flood control project. When the area in question has not flooded in well over half a century, due to levees long ago paid for by the rest of America. And if this were about actual needed flood control, why has the project not been actualized with any semblance of urgency?

And, might we add, there are actual serious flood control issues in Fort Worth and Tarrant County. Deadly, property damaging flood issues in multiple locations.

Just look at what happens in the West 7th area when too much rain falls on that poorly planned new development.

Pointing out that Fort Worth is woefully lacking in the urban planning department does not indicate I hate Fort Worth.

When I moved to DFW, to the hamlet of Haslet, on the border with Fort Worth, huge tracts of open ranch land were all one saw, looking south to the teeny skyline Fort Worth barely poking the sky way in the distance.

It may have been 1999, maybe 2000, when Fort Worth had one of its many failures at luring a corporation to locate a facility in town. This instance was a HUGE Intel facility, to be built on land in the triangle formed when 287 exits I-35 on its way to Amarillo.

An overpass was built over I-35 as evidence of the effort Fort Worth would go to to please Intel, in addition to a lot of other perks. But, Intel went elsewhere, I believe to the town I am currently in, Chandler, Arizona. It does not take a rocket scientist to see why Intel would prefer this town to Fort Worth.

That new overpass was pretty much abandoned. I remember a period of time when a big pile of trash remained dumped on it for a long time.

And now, years later, the epic bad urban planning Fort Worth is infamous for is on full display at that location. Crossing that overpass over I-35 one now comes to a collection of stores, like Costco, Winco, Target, and many others. That is on the west side of the freeway. On the east side there is more development of the retail sort, including a mall.

Thousands of homes have been built on that open ranch land I saw when I was first in Texas.

And for the most part the roads are still in the same sad state they were in when I first drove them. North Tarrant Parkway, on its way to Highway 287 now goes around a poorly designed, un-landscaped, mess of a roundabout, which you exit to get on the same entry to 287 in the same bad condition it was in two decades ago.

I am appalled every time I see what has happened in that area of Fort Worth with which I was so familiar when I first moved to DFW. In modern America, like where I am right now, all that development, retail and residential, would had resulted after careful urban planning. Roads would have been upgraded, infrastructure, such as drainage, installed, parks built, and then the homes and businesses get built.

Pointing out the fact that Fort Worth lacks modern urban planning does not mean I hate Fort Worth. How many more kids are going to drown due to the increased water run off from all that poorly designed development?

I almost forgot that Dylan asked if there was anything positive I could say about Fort Worth. Well, over the years visitors visiting from the Pacific Northwest have unanimously been impressed by two Fort Worth attractions. The Fort Worth Stockyards and the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.

I have long thought Fort Worth sort of neglects the Stockyards. The lighting at night is terrible. The sidewalks are in bad shape in way too many places. And I've already mentioned Fort Worth is making a mistake now charging an entry fee to one of the town's few actual attractions.

I see I have gone long-winded with this, and boarding begins soon, if there is not another delay.

Before I close I want to make mention of another thing Dylan had to say, that being saying there is certainly more happening in Fort Worth than Wichita Falls. That comment came after Dylan mentioned the "great" things happening in Fort Worth, with those things being a new small arena under construction, new hotels under construction, new residential buildings and that TEXRail is now open.

TEXRail is a train link from downtown Fort Worth to the DFW airport, built on existing rail, covering about 20 miles. So, that and a few buildings under construction are great things happening in Fort Worth?

Well, let me point out to Dylan that Fort Worth is a town around 800,000 in population. Wichita Falls has a population around 100,000. Wichita Falls is still recovering from a multi-year drought which hit the town hard.

Wichita Falls has way more park acreage per town size than Fort Worth. And I have never seen an outhouse in a Wichita Falls city park.Wichita Falls has one public pool. For Fort Worth to have the same pool number, ratio-wise, Fort Worth would have eight public pools. Wichita Falls is part owner of a waterpark, Castaway Cove, thus making for a much less expensive entry fee than Arlington's Hurricane Harbor.

Downtown Wichita Falls has been making a lot of improvements since I first saw its rundown reality.

Unlike Fort Worth I have experienced no delusional verbiage about something ordinary in Wichita Falls being the envy of anyone. And, I like how Wichita Falls seems to have a sense of the town's history, its booms and busts, its ups and downs. I've detected zero false bragging in Wichita Falls about anything, well, there is that historical marker denoting the World's Littlest Skyscraper...

Wichita Falls Roundabout Art & Fort Worth Boondoggle Roundabout Art

Today whilst riding around Sikes Lake I saw a new art installation has been installed in the center of what one might characterize as some sort of traffic roundabout, located at the northwest side of the Wichita Falls Museum and Arts Center.

That would be the art installation we are talking about which you see here, looming over my bike parked in a bike parking stall.

Some of the WF Art Center's art installations have plaques installed nearby which name the work of art and who it was who created it.

Such was not currently the case with this new installation.

I can not help but wonder how much this work of art cost.

Likely not nearly as much as the art installation installed years ago in Fort Worth at the center of a still unfinished traffic roundabout which is part of the HUGE mess of uncompleted construction blighting a large area of Fort Worth courtesy of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The homage to an aluminum trash can had been blighting the Fort Worth landscape for years before I finally got around to seeing it in person, back in 2018. Photos do not do justice to how absurd this thing looks when one sees it directly. I blogged about seeing this in Fort Worth Drive By America's Biggest Boondoggle Embarrassment.

Years ago the Boondoggle's Visionaries brought Fort Worth wonders such as an urban wakeboard venue, called Cowtown Wakepark, which was the first of the Boondoggle's visions to fail.

And then around the time Cowtown Wakepark was in obvious failure mode the Boondoggle brought to Fort Worth Rockin' the River Inner Tubing in the polluted Trinity River, located at an imaginary pavilion with an imaginary music venue across from an imaginary island, floating only when the e.coli level was low enough.

Even more ridiculous than Cowtown Wakepark and Rockin' the Polluted River is an absurd art installation installed at the center of that aforementioned still unfinished traffic roundabout.

This homage to an aluminum trash can was foisted on the Fort Worth public years ago.

If I remember right, this was installed even before that embarrassing TNT exploding ceremony celebrating the start of construction of three simple little bridges.

Two of those bridges, still not built, years later, are a short distance from the un-finished, un-landscaped roundabout eyesore with its homage to an aluminum trash can, or what some have seen as a giant cheese grater.

The Boondoggle paid almost a million bucks for this work of art.

Why?

Why was money spent on this years ago, spent before construction began on the related road and bridge work?

Why?

From what source did the funds come to pay for this?

The Boondoggle has been starved for funds. Hence begging for federal dollars which are being denied. Hence a bogus fraudulently worded ballot measure to try and secure funds.

Where is the accounting for the almost million bucks spent on this homage to an aluminum trash can? Is it part of the bridge building funds? The White Settlement Road re-build funds?

Who made the decision to spend money on this work of art and have it installed, years before the roadwork it was intended to beautify was any where  nearfruition?

Who benefited from the almost million bucks spent on this? Who associated with the Boondoggle is a crony of whoever benefited? Friend of J.D. Granger? Friend of his mother? Friend of Jim Oliver? Cousin of Mike Moncrief? Ex-boyfriend of Betsy Price?

Who?

And Why?

Inquiring minds really want to know....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_______________

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


Venice in Cowtown, all the way back to 2005. 

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

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

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

Is this the new Fort Worth Way?

________________

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

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

Corruption Crusader Asks If You Can Believe That Mike Moncrief Quote About James Hill

A few minutes ago that which you see here arrived at my location, sent by someone calling him or herself "Corruption Crusader".

The only text in the message said...

Can you believe that quote?

The only quote quoted on that which you see here is...

"Don't let a Dallas businessman control our water. Support James and the local water team!"

 -Rosie & Mike Moncrief

______________

The James referred to by Rosie & Mike is James Hill, he being one of the Favored Trio, along with Leah King and Jack Stevens, favored by the Oligarchy Gang which runs Fort Worth like a Medieval Fiefdom.

The Favored Trio are the three TRWD Board candidates, favored by the aforementioned Oligarchy Gang, in tomorrow's election, with the Oligarchy Gang helping the Favored Trio with thousands of dollars, many of which were donated by Dallas donors, which renders the Rosie & Mike quote ironically hypocritical.

Ironically hypocritical, what with all that money buying a massive propaganda campaign full of deceptions and lies, playing on irrational fears, much of which has targeted senior citizens.

There is no Dallas businessman trying to control Fort Worth water. There is a man who owns businesses in Fort Worth and Dallas who has helped with a relatively puny amount of money, the campaign of Mary Kelleher, the current TRWD Board Member who the Oligarchy Gang desperately wants off what they think of as "their" TRWD Board.

I have no way of knowing if this James Hill guy is a willing dupe, fully aware of the defamatory deceptions the Oligarchy Gang has been spewing regarding the imaginary Dallas bogeyman, or if this James Hill guy is just a naive, relatively young man, relatively clueless about the corruption he is now involved in.

Don't let the corrupt Oligarchy Gang win tomorrow. Vote for Mary Kelleher and Andra Beatty.

TRWD Slandering Corruption Enablers Ordered To Cease & Desist Defamatory Deceptions

In Fort Worth and parts of Tarrant County tomorrow is TRWD Board Election Day.

The previous TRWD Board Election Day resulted in a scandal which is still being played out. In that election Marty Leonard and Jim Lane were the beneficiaries of thousands of bogus absentee ballots enabling the stealing of the election from the actual winners, Craig Bickley and Miki Von Luckner.

That scandal has not caused the apparently shameless Marty Leonard and Jim Lane to resign in shame from the TRWD Board.

Using bogus absentee ballots is not available to the TRWD racketeers this election, due to that aforementioned scandal and it resulting in the biggest election fraud investigation in Texas history.

So, for this election the TRWD racketeers racked up huge sums of money, with much of the money coming from Dallas donors, then using that money to finance mailing multiple slanderous mailers attacking Mary Kelleher and Andra Beatty with lies and innuendo.

The TRWD's chosen trio has sent out multiple attack mailers spewing the lie that Mary Kelleher and Andra Beatty are bought and paid for stoolies for the evil Dallas billionaire bogeyman, Monty Bennett.

Andra Beatty fought back with the filing of a cease and desist order against former Fort Worth Mayor, Mike Moncrief's Out Water Our Future PAC, with Beatty asserting the PAC's mailer maliciously intended to defame.

Meanwhile Mary Kelleher sent out a mailer, one side of  which you see above, which lists some of the Dallas (and Colorado) donors donating to the TRWD's favored trio, James Hill, Leah King and Jack Stevens.

Mary Kelleher's campaign has received less than $10,000 from the imaginary Dallas bogeyman.

Looking at the above list of donors donating to James Hill, Leah King, Jack Stevens and their enabling PACs, can you believe the raw gall of these racketeers claiming Mary Kelleher is in cahoots with an evil Dallas businessman trying to wrest control of Fort Worth's water?

A higher than average turnout for early voting as water district race heats up article published yesterday in the Fort Worth Business Press is a must read for anyone who is confused by the slanderous mailers mailed by Hill, King, Stevens and their support PACs.

A few  paragraphs from the FWBP article...

This year’s race has been uncharacteristically peaceful as five candidates have campaigned to become the three top-vote getters in Saturday’s election. Running for the board are incumbents Mary Kelleher and Jack Stevens. Also running is banker James Hill, Realtor Andra Beatty and Leah King, chief development officer of United Way of Tarrant County. The three candidates with the largest vote totals will have seats on the board. Victor W. Henderson, president of the TRWD board who has been on the board since 1985, did not seek re-election.

But then a political action committee called Our Water, Our Future released campaign fliers supporting Stevens, King and Hill that charge their opponents, Kelleher and Beatty, of accepting campaign contributions from wealthy Dallas businessman Monty Bennett through MJB Operating L.P.

The PAC has sent out a several mailers that target Kelleher and Beatty as “puppet candidates” of Bennett.

One mailer states that Kelleher and Beatty have been helping “Bennett with his ongoing efforts to disrupt and take over control” of the local water supply.

Beatty, running as an independent candidate, responded with a legal filing of a cease and desist order against Our Water, Our Future, claiming that PAC’s mailers are false and defamatory. The order states that Beatty has “never met or spoken with Bennett.”

“Ms. Beatty’s campaign finance statements clearly indicates no donations by Mr. Bennett or any organization related to him,” the order states. “The mailer sent was maliciously intended to defame Ms. Beatty, and cause damage to her business reputation.”

The order also insists that the PAC, Stevens, King and Hill as well as political consultants Tim Reeves and Brian Epstein stop “making or publishing the false allegation that Ms. Beatty is associated with or influenced by Mr. Bennett.”

_______________

I believe I have mentioned a time or two that there really needs to be a Federal RICO Racketeering Investigation into the Corrupt Shenanigans known as The Fort Worth Way...

Shocking TRWD Board Election Campaign Finance Reports

Yesterday someone anonymously sent me seven documents documenting TRWD Board Election Candidate Campaign Finance Reports, along with the Finance Report for one of the multiple PACs funneling funds to three of the candidates.

The seventh document, which you see at the bottom left of the screen cap, documented the Specific-Purpose Committee Report regarding something called the Clean Water Committee.

The people on the Clean Water Committee are all the current board members of the TRWD, except for Mary Kelleher, plus candidates James Hill and Leah King, as if they had already been elected, which indicates, clearly, that Hill and King are the chosen candidates of the Fort Worth oligarchy which feels endangered by any usurpation  of their control of the TRWD Board, as evidenced by the amount of money raised and spent by the incumbent, Jack Stevens, and the chosen two, James Hill and Leah King.

Four years ago, in the previous TRWD Board Election, fearing losing control of the TRWD Board, ballot shenanigans took place to insure the re-election of Jim Lane and Marty Leonard. Shenanigans so obvious the result eventually triggered the biggest Election Fraud investigation in Texas history. An investigation which is ongoing.

And yet, in the four years since that fraudulent election, there has been no demand, from anyone in a position to demand such, that Jim Lane and Marty Leonard resign from their ill gotten board seats, with the actual winners, Craig Bickley and Miki Von Luckner, installed to their rightful TRWD Board positions.

With the ballot shenanigans option temporarily closed, for obvious reasons, the fear of losing control of the TRWD Board has brought the ruling oligarchy to a different tactic.

That tactic being a flood of money and amping up their misinformation propaganda scare tactics.

About that flood of money.

Let's look at the Finance Reports for James Hill, Leah King and Jack Stevens..

The Finance Report documents for Hill, King and Stevens include page after page after page detailing the sources of donations. Many people donate to all three, and also donate to Fort Worth's ex-mayor, Mike Moncrief's Our Water Our Future PAC, which itself makes a HUGE donation to all three. Many donate in the $50-100 range. Most donate way above that low range. The number $250 seems to be very popular.

The following make the same donation to each of the TRWD's favored trio...

Freese & Nichols PAC $2,500
AECOM PAC $1,500
HDR, Inc. PAC $1,000
Halff Associates PAC $250
Our Water Our Future PAC $20,000
Kay Granger Campaign Fund $2,700

What has been the total take of the TRWD's favored trio?

Leah King Total Political Contributions $34,915
James Hill Total Political Contributions $46,850
Jack Stevens Total Political Contributions $30,575

How about Mike Moncrief's Our Water Our Future PAC?
Total Political Contributions $152,245.00
Total Political Expenditures $71.858.15

In Sunday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram Bud Kennedy authored an opinion piece in which the political contributions of Andra Beatty and Mary Kelleher were mentioned, but not the contributions made to the TRWD's favored trio. Bud Kennedy appears to be acting as a shill for the TRWD's favored trio, as evidenced by what he had to say about the TRWD's unfavored duo...

Meanwhile, at the very bottom of the local election ballot in Fort Worth and five suburban cities, new campaign finance reports show that Tarrant Regional Water District critic Monty Bennett of Dallas is once again paying the way for contrarian Director Mary Kelleher’s board election campaign.

Bennett doesn’t want a $2 billion water pipeline to Lake Palestine dug across his East Texas ranch. He provided Kelleher $9,680 in mailers, but under the name “MJB Operating.”

She received one other donation, for $50.

Kelleher had said last month she expected Bennett’s help “but I don’t know how much.”

Challenger Andra Beatty of Fort Worth reported $5,201, all of it from Bedford Republican state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, a Tea Party and Freedom Caucus participant.

Former Mayor Mike Moncrief’s Our Water, Our Future PAC raised $152,245 from a long list of donors for incumbent Vice President Jack L. Stevens of Azle and challengers James Hill and Leah King of Fort Worth.

Sadly, TRWD doesn’t post those reports.

_______________

Oh,  I see, according to Bud Kennedy, sadly the TRWD doesn't post the reports of the TRWD's favored trio, and yet somehow someone anonymous was able to get those reports and send them to me. Unable to get the Finance Reports of the favored trio, but somehow Bud Kennedy was able to get the Campaign  Finance Reports of Mary Kelleher and Andra Beatty.

And, just like the last TRWD Board Election, the TRWD Board's propagandists are trotting out the bogus bogeyman myth to try to scare voters that a Dallas businessman is trying to take control of their water.

This brings to my mind the Army-McCarthy hearings where Joseph Welch famously said to Joe McCarthy, "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

The Dallas bogeyman, Monty Bennett, is also a Fort Worth businessman, owning hotel properties in downtown Fort Worth. The TRWD propagandists always fail to mention that fact.

*I have been told by a reliable source that many of the large donors to Hill, King, Stevens, and the Moncrief PAC, are wealthy Dallas people with a stake in keeping the TRWD Board under insider control. But no mention is made by Bud Kennedy of all those Dallas bogeymen and bogeywomen.

To understand why the TRWD insiders fear losing control to outsiders, losing that which they think of as their Board, all one needs to do is look at the main donors.

Freese & Nichols, AECOM, Halff Associates and HDR, Inc. are engineering firms, some of which are used to winning no-bid contracts with the TRWD and its step-child the TRVA (Trinity River Vision Authority).

And then there is Kay Granger donating $2,700 to each of the TRWD's favored trio. If control of the TRWD Board is lost it is fairly obvious that Kay Granger's boy, J.D., will quickly lose the job of TRVA Executive Director, overseeing what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.

If control of the TRWD Board is lost, soon to follow would likely be an investigation into what has gone wrong with the construction of the TRVA's three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, exposing who is responsible for the bridge building foul up.

Like maybe one, or all, of those engineering firm's donating money to the chosen trio have been responsible for the bridge engineering debacle.

And then there is America's  Biggest Boondoggle, otherwise known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Many stand to lose if insider control of the TRWD Board is lost. All those insiders who stand to gain if the Trinity River Vision ever becomes anything anyone can see.

If insider control of the TRWD Board is lost there would soon be a reckoning regarding the entire Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. Likely many people would lose their cushy jobs for which they have been well paid, for so long, for doing so little, so badly.

And then there is the General Manager of the TRWD, Jim Oliver, and all his nepotistic hires. Should the insiders lose control of the TRWD Board I can guarantee Jim Oliver's employment would quickly be terminated. Along with all his relatives.

So, do you see how it is so many have a motivation to do just about anything to keep control of the TRWD  Board? Lie, steal, as in  steal elections, lie some more, cover up, spend a lot of money spewing a lot of propaganda lies.

And the saddest thing, to me, is it is highly likely the TRWD Board insiders are going to win again. The results are stacked in their favor.

Sad, perplexing, appalling and pitiful...

*UPDATE: An entity called the Dallas Citizens Council has donated $20,000 to the Mike Moncrief Out Water Our Future PAC...

ALSO:  And Now A Special Purpose TRWD Committee Report

PLUS: A Motherly Letter From Kay Granger About A TRWD Election

The Fort Worth Way With RICO Racketeering

In a comment from Kat, commenting about a recent blogging about Fort Worth's soon to be memorable landmark, Dickies Arena, Kat mentioned the Fort Worth Way.

The Fort Worth Way was already on my mind due to a variety of reasons two of which were also comments, but from last month, which I noticed, again, yesterday,

We'll get to those comments, but first the Kat comment...

Kat has left a new comment on your post "Dickies Arena Defines What Fort Worth Is":

"The Fort Worth Way." First heard this term from former Mayor Mike Moncrief in council meetings. The tradition continues. Parking lots for the desired arena were underway before the public voted. Asked before the vote if there was a traffic plan for an already overloaded area...."No" said the ruling class. Neighborhood residents knew The Fort Worth Way had its plan in the works and the vote was irrelevant.

Yes, the little town of Fort Worth is run by a ruling class which controls most of what happens in, or to, the town. Control of the town, in this manner, by a ruling class of those who are known as the Good Ol' Boys and Girls Network, or the 7th Street Gang, is what is meant by the Fort Worth Way.

I Googled for a suitable "Fort Worth Way" image to illustrate this blogging to no suitable avail. Too many of my own images came up. And then there was what you see above, a map showing the Fort Worth Way running parallel to an American River, not the Trinity River. This particular Fort Worth Way then is not in Fort Worth, but is in Sacremento, which is not a town in Texas.

And now those two other comments which brought the Fort Worth Way to mind. The comments are from Matthew Clemons and Melodious Skywalker. I do not remember to which blog post these comments were made, but it was either Stormy Look At Zero Panther Island Bridge Motion Progress or Fort Worth Star-Telegram Opines Boondoggle's Stalled Bridges Can't Be A Good Thing.

Matthew Clemons said...
Sometimes I think this whole fiasco is really hilarious. How a relatively late modern city can have something this ridiculous going on is phenomenal. But, then I remember what a blight these idiots have put on the city. The area they have ruined was nothing special. But, it was an honest area of urban industrial Fort Worth. There were real businesses with real people working and using that area. These morons just came in there with their "visions" and destroyed that piece of our heritage. What a sham.

While...

Melodious Skywalker said...
That area was special enough to me. Owning property there was a decision made to have a productive place to work, in a central city location, with a view toward the future. How could the decision to work hard to buy property adjacent to a growing and thriving downtown area, become a bad idea. This was an investment in the future. This was a solid calculation that free enterprise might one day, need this area to continue what was started downtown and along west 7th street. Nearly a decade of anxiety and 3 1/2 years of constant stress and concern over trying to eventually get a more fair compensation for the property, after it was taken, building demolished, giving the projects representatives no real incentive to offer a better payment, finally came to an end. However, no real victory. There is nothing fair about this process. Property owners were not made whole. Waging an expensive legal battle to seek just compensation, against a cadre of entities running this project, moving at a glacial pace, with trivial and frivolous activities and attractions, all occurring without the voter approval needed for a project this size, has left such a bad taste and repeated scars from the grinding down of our resolve over the years. Unless it happens to you, no one knows how nasty is the threat of eminent domain. The bank didn't understand. The insurance company didn't understand. The contractors and surveyors that swarmed the area did not seem to be working in consort. The county, a partner on the project, did not seem to have a list of taken properties. Tax bills were sent for full value for years after the Water District had the property in its name. Property owners were told that they might get a small refund. It took attorneys to inform the County that a "Whole Taking" situation, by law, means that no taxes should have assessed at all, once the properties had been signed over to the Water District. I want my property and my decade of strife back. I bet my friends an neighbors do too.

So, there you have it, an observer of the Fort Worth Way and a victim of the Fort Worth Way, sharing their observations of the Fort Worth  Way.

Melodious Skywalker had his land stolen, years ago, by what would be considered, in a lawful part of America, to be a criminal abuse of eminent domain.

When what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle was first schemed and revealed to the public it was touted as a combo flood control economic development plan.  Quickly it became clear the flood control aspect was a scam, with the flood control controlling an area which has not flooded for well over a half a century, due to flood control levees already being in place.

When this scam began it became obvious the economic development part of the scheme was the real motivation, with the economic development benefiting property owners who also happened to be part of Fort Worth's ruling class, the 7th Street Gang, the perpetrators of the Fort Worth Way.

Early on the Granger Gang was revealed to own multiple properties which stood to increase in value from the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision. In an obvious act of collusion and nepotism a member of the Granger Gang was installed as Executive Director of the Trinity River Vision Authority.

The legitimate use of eminent  domain is considered to be abused, and thus illegal, when eminent domain is used for private, not public benefit. Eminent  domain is valid when used to take property when there is no other alternative, for things like public highways, schools, hospitals, that type thing.

In Fort Worth the Fort Worth Way Perpetrators abused eminent domain to take private property, such as the thriving business of Melodius Skywalker, which the FWWP bulldozed years ago, before Melodious Skywalker had his rightful hearing in court.

Can you imagine how wronged you would feel if the town you built your business in did this to you?

It has been years now since Melodious Skywalker's business was stolen, for what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. You can take a look at the construction ghost town that now blights where Melodious Skywalker used to have his thriving business.

Why is there no federal investigation into what seems to be racketeering? With the local Fort Worth government, the Granger Gang and its 7th Street Gang cohorts being the racketeers? Why doesn't all the nepotism, the shady contracting, the conflicts of interest, the eminent domain abuse, the election tampering, all the obvious corruption trigger a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) investigation?

I can think of only two ways the Fort Worth Way can be brought to full stop. Either federal intervention, or the Fort Worth locals cease being sheep and put an end to living in a town which allows crimes, such as that perpetrated against Melodious Skywalker and all the other victims of the Fort Worth  Way and its ridiculous Trinity River Vision Boondoggle...

Vote Kelleher & Beatty To Stop Another Stolen TRWD Board Election

Well, I foolishly thought, what with the last Tarrant Regional Water District Board election resulting in the biggest election fraud investigation in Texas history, with that investigation ongoing, that the perpetrators of that election fraud would tread lightly with the upcoming TRWD Board election in which Mary Kelleher is seeking re-election, with Andra Beatty hoping to join her.

I thought wrong.

Today I was sent examples of mailers being sent to Senior Citizens. Propaganda pieces featuring current Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, and disgraced former Fort Worth Mayor, Mike Moncrief, warning voters, just like the last election, to not let a Dallas businessman disrupt our water.

One of the mailers warns--- VOTERS BEWARE: Two of the candidates running for Water Board (Mary Kelleher and Andra Beatty) have been helping Dallas businessman Monty Bennett with his ongoing efforts to disrupt and take over control of our local water supply. Please BEWARE of FALSE information from them or Mr. Bennett.

Yes, that is actually good advice. BEWARE  of FALSE information (known as propaganda) from those same people who stole the last election, getting a record number of votes for  TRWD incumbents Jim Lane and Marty Leonard, with around 10,000 of those votes coming from absentee ballots, the absurdity of which is what sent up the red flags of obvious fraud.

These shameless people have no scruples.

Preying on the fears of senior citizens, cynically figuring senior citizens can be easily duped.

The above mailer tells senior citizens to vote early by mail, you know, those absentee ballots which were so useful to the TRWD incumbents the last election.

What does the TRWD Board, and the oligarchy which runs Fort Worth, have to fear from having another "outsider" join Mary Kelleher on the TRWD Board?

If "outsiders" controlled the TRWD Board all sorts of uncomfortable questions might get asked with answers unable to be avoided.

Questions such as why does J.D. Granger still have his job as Executive Director of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, with that project's vision having turned into a mismanaged muddy mess.

A muddy mess with the construction of three simple bridges being built over dry land, stalled for over a year.

Stalled with no explanation.

Questions about how much money has been spent on the TRWD's Trinity River Vision for items like various forms of propaganda, such as quarterly updates, websites, signage and other "image" enhancers intended to dupe the public?

A Dallas businessman is trying to get control of the local water supply? I guess this type nonsense worked the previous election, well, combined with absentee ballot fraud, but if I were a senior  citizen, with this type idiocy directed at me, well, I would feel insulted that Betsy and Mike, my fellow senior citizens, think I am this stupid and so easily duped....

Amazon's Spheres Got Me Thinking About Fort Worth's Spheres Of Boondoggles

A couples days ago I was asked if I knew the current status of the stalled bridge construction in Fort Worth.

A question about stalled Fort Worth bridge construction is referencing the three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Fort Worth's four year bridge building project began with a big TNT bang over two years ago. Then, in March of last year, construction was halted due to supposed design errors involving re-bar.

Such is one among many reasons that that which used to be known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision is now known, far and wide, as America's Biggest  Boondoggle.

Now with federal funding to the tune of about a half billion bucks.

That's right, you who live in other areas of America, particularly those areas of America which are allowed  to vote to approve and fund public works projects, you are helping pay for Fort Worth's vitally un-needed flood control and economic development scheme which has been dawdling along for most of this century, and has never been approved by a public vote.

A couple days ago I saw something in the Seattle Times which had me freshly pondering what a backwards backwater Fort Worth is in so many ways. An article titled Amazon's Spheres: Lush nature paradise to adorn $4 billion urban campus.

Can you imagine an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram  about something in Fort Worth with two paragraphs such as....

The fruit of a bold design, the so-called Spheres will serve as a haven of carefully tended nature geared to letting Amazonians break free from their cubicles and think disruptive thoughts. It’s an internet-era, Pacific Rim answer to the architecturally astounding gardens set up by European monarchs during the Enlightenment era.

The structures are also the architectural crown jewel of Amazon’s $4 billion investment in building an urban campus, an eye-catching landmark that symbolizes the rise of what 20 years ago was a fledgling online bookstore into a global e-commerce and cloud-computing leviathan.

During my time in Texas two corporations built new corporate headquarters in downtown Fort Worth.

Tax breaks and eminent domain abuse were used for Radio Shack to build its new headquarters, which caused Fort  Worth to lose the world's shortest subway, acres of easy parking, and which became a Boondoggle when Radio Shack could not afford its new headquarters, with the Boondoggle compounded by another Fort Worth Boondoggle, that being the messed up construction of a downtown campus of Tarrant County College, with that Boondoggle eventually leading to Tarrant County College paying millions to Radio Shack to use the Radio Shack headquarters for a purpose for which it was not designed.

A college.

You reading this in modern areas of America, I am not making this stuff up. Fort Worth has to be the Boondoggle center of the known world, with Tarrant County being the eminent domain abuse center of the known world.

The other new corporate headquarters in downtown Fort Worth was the Pier One Imports building. Soon Pier One also could  not afford its new building. So, it was sold to Chesapeake Energy, from whence Chesapeake then ran its shadow government of Fort Worth during the bizarre reign of Mayor Mike Moncrief. Chesapeake Energy has since been run out of town. I don't know who own the old Pier One Imports building now.

I saw that Seattle Times article about the new Amazon campus. A $4 billion campus, built at the north end of the Seattle downtown, an area already highly developed and thought what a contrast between how such a thing happens in modern America, compared to how projects falter in Fort Worth.

I have read of no eminent  domain use, or abuse, used to acquire the property to build Amazon's buildings. I have read of no tax breaks or sweetheart deals or bribes finagled by Amazon from the Seattle government in exchange for building its new headquarters where it is being built.

If Amazon tried that type tactic, which works so well in desperate Fort Worth, Amazon would likely be told if they can't afford to build without such help, then don't built it there. Which is what Cabela's was told when it tried to shake down a Washington town. Unlike in Fort Worth, the absurd claim that Cabela's would be the number one tourist attraction in Washington was not tried, while Fort Worth bought that Top Attraction in Texas con and gave all sorts of enticements to the sporting goods store, while in Washington Cabela's was told no, if you need subsidies to open here, then don't open here.

Reading about the new Amazon campus in Seattle got me thinking about issues regarding Fort Worth other than just the Radio Shack Boondoggle.

Fort Worth's infamous Trinity River Vision debacle has been boondoggling along for most of this century. Boondoggling along with an ever shifting project timeline, the latest of which had Boondoggle Executive Director, J.D. Granger saying most of the project's infrastructure should be complete by 2023. Who knows what is meant by project infrastructure. The pitiful bridges? The ditch under the bridges?

Thinking about Fort Worth's pitifully slow, badly designed, ineptly implemented public works project got me thinking about other public works type projects I know of which have been happening during the same time frame during which Fort Worth has not managed to complete its relatively simple project.

Arlington voters approved of the building of a new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Construction on that billion dollar plus spaceship began in 2004. If I remember right the first Super Bowl happened there in 2009, or 2010.

Way back late in the last century Dallas voters approved their own Trinity River Vision, well before Fort Worth did its copy cat thing. The Dallas Vision included three signature bridges. Fort Worth's Vision copied the three signature bridges element, then failed to deliver. Whilst Dallas has finished one of its signature bridges, with another soon to be completed, or, for all I know, is completed. I know the second bridge was well under way when last I was in Dallas.

I blogged about the Dallas bridges my one and only time driving over the completed Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in In Dallas Driving & Walking Across Impressive Signature Bridges To Trinity Groves.

During the period of time Fort Worth has been limping along with America's Biggest Boondoggle, up north, in Seattle, two major public works projects have come to be a reality. The new 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington is completed, floating and carrying traffic. Unlike Fort Worth's stalled bridges the Seattle floating bridge was built over actual water. The entire new floating bridge project cost around  $4 billion.

Seattle has another $4 billion project well underway. That being the Alaskan Way Viaduct project This involves the world's biggest tunnel boring machine, nicknamed Bertha, tunneling under downtown Seattle. Bertha is nearing completion after a major hiccup put the project about a year behind schedule.

While Bertha has been boring, other parts of the project have been underway, such as replacing the seawall along the Seattle waterfront.

Seattle projects, and public works  projects in locations other than Fort Worth, have actual project timelines, with full transparency when something goes awry, like the Bertha problem. Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, no one knows the real reasons The Boondoggle's simple little bridges have stalled.

Here is an example of how a responsible public works project's directors let the people know how their public works project is progressing, with that example being on the WSDOT Follow Bertha webpage.

How come such a webpage does not exist for Fort Worth's infamous Bridge Boondoggle? Other than the Trinity River Vision's bizarre quarterly propaganda publications which tout, four times a year, what little has actually been accomplished since The Boondoggle's last quarterly propaganda mailing.

This blogging has gone long. I was going to mention some other west coast public works projects, approved in the November election. The something like $82 billion transit bond approved by Los Angeles voters. And the $54 billion transit measure approved by Pierce, King and Snohomish county voters, those being the counties where Tacoma, Seattle and Everett are located.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth, no public vote funding the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision. But there is that almost half billion bucks that may dribble in to town over time, maybe with enough money arriving that those little bridges being built over dry land  might one day get built, along with the ditch dug to go under the bridges....

Walk Around Green Sikes Lake Brings Back Memory Of A Purple Trinity River

Til today it had been a few days since I had myself a walk around Sikes Lake. I'd not been back since the start of the fall quarter at Midwestern State University, which is where Sikes Lake is located.

Since my last Sikes Lake walk around the lake has turned a beautiful shade of green, as you can see.

I first noticed the green whilst walking across the bridge you see above the green.

I don't know if this is a purposefully dying of the lake green, in some sort of celebrating the start of school deal, like when Fort Worth's goofy mayor, Mike Moncrief, tried to dye the Trinity River purple in some sort of tribute to a Fort Worth football team that had won a game or was playing in a bowl game or some other such thing which I have long forgotten.

I could quickly find the answer to why Fort Worth's goofy mayor tried to turn the Trinity River purple by using this blog's search function.

I will be right back with the link to that purple blogging.

Well, apparently I blogged about this serious issue of Fort Worth's goofy mayor trying to dye the Trinity River purple multiple times....

Fort Worth's Mayor Moncrief Changes The Name Of The Trinity River & Orders It Dyed The Color Purple

Fort Worth Mayor Moncrief Fails To Turn Trinity River Purple

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram Sort Of Sees Purple

TCU Purple Froggies Jinxed By Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief

That last one is mostly copying a funny email from Don Young about the serious issue of Fort Worth having a really goofy mayor lacking in basic common sense.

Thunderstorms are on the menu today for the Wichita Falls location. The potential storminess is evident in another photo I took today at Sikes Lake.

Sikes Lake does not appear to be green when viewed from this location, looking through the Arch de Sikes.

The temperature was barely in the 80s when I walked around Sikes Lake. About the temperature to which I air condition my interior space.

I need to find where I put my winter wear....

I Wonder When A Super Tall Tower Will Be Built In Fort Worth?

It has begun to seem a bit repetitive, pointing out something I read in a west coast news source online, usually the Seattle Times, which I would not expect to be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, about something taking place in Fort Worth.

I have said before that hardly a week goes by where I don't read about some new big construction project in the Seattle zone, usually downtown, with most of that construction having to do with the HUGE demand for downtown living space, due to downtown Seattle, like downtown Los Angeles, like downtown San Francisco, like downtown Dallas, being seen as being extremely desirable as a place to live.

So, now, apparently, Seattle is going to have one of those ridiculously tall Super Towers, well over 1,000 feet tall. There are so many skyscrapers and residential towers being added to the Seattle skyline I don't think I will recognize the town as being Seattle til I see the Space Needle, when next I visit.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth, quaint, sleepy, charming Fort Worth.

A few days ago in the Star-Telegram an article appeared titled Oilman touts new downtown Fort Worth office tower.

A new 25 story office tower, being brought to downtown Fort Worth by something called Jetta Operating.

A gas drilling company.

Yes. Fort Worth has had good luck with the endeavors of gas drilling companies. Isn't the old Chesapeake Energy building available for occupation? You know, that location from whence Chesapeake Energy ran its corrupt Fort Worth shadow government during the reign of Mayor Mike Moncrief, a buffoon of a man also known as the Poster Boy for Gas Corruption.

A rather embarrassing factoid in this piece of Star-Telegram propaganda is contained in the following paragraph....

"... the building, touted as the first high-rise development downtown in seven years, was carefully designed to fit into the available urban landscape."

The city which deludes itself in thinking it is the envy of the nation has not had a single high rise development for seven years?

And trust me on this, most towns wearing their big city pants do not count a short, 25 story building, as being a high-rise. More like a low-rise. Maybe, at best, a mid-rise.

So, why make mock of this, you are sitting there wondering? Well, there is something serious afoot here.

Why is it that other big cities in America, during this time of economic recovery, have been booming to various degrees? Just drive a few miles east to Dallas and you will see a town in boom mode. Go west to pretty much any of the west coast towns and you will see the same thing.

So, what is stifling Fort Worth's downtown from growing and booming like other downtowns in America?

Besides the obvious.

Well.

I think Mr. Spiffy nailed it a couple months ago when he opined that America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision has killed development in the Fort Worth downtown core, due to the fact that developers do not know if The Boondoggle is ever going to deliver on that which its propaganda purports is going to be delivered at some indeterminate future date.

Developers see failed efforts of The Boondoggle, like Cowtown Wakepark, and they opt to move their money in another direction. Like to a tall Seattle skyscraper. Or multi-story residential complexes in Dallas.

Meanwhile Fort Worth flounders, looking ridiculous to outsiders, embarrassing itself, continuing to allow Kay Granger's totally unqualified son, J.D., to continue mis-managing that which has come to be known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

It all really is very boggling.

And very perplexing.

Fort Worth, and the people who live here, deserve better......

Wondering Why There Are No Plans To Build Fort Worth A New Skyscraper

This blogging is a variant of my popular series of bloggings about something I see in a west coast online news source, usually the Seattle Times, that I would not see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The variant is that this particular blogging is about something I regularly see in the Seattle Times which I rarely see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

That being the announcement of some new big construction project.

Seems like hardly a week goes by without reading of some new construction project in downtown Seattle. Pike Place expansion. Residential towers. Mixed use towers. And projects like this skyscraper you see  here.

I've seen no new skyscrapers scrape the sky in Fort Worth since I have been in Texas. I think Dallas has added one or two.

I read yesterday that the Seattle area is currently the fastest growing zone in America, with the economy back in boom mode.

A booming economy would explain all the building projects, I suppose.

But, I thought I've read in the Star-Telegram that Fort Worth is growing fast. I don't think I've read that the local economy is booming though. Is that the reason for the static skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth?

The only semi-tall building I've seen constructed in Fort Worth since I have been in Texas is the Convention Center Hotel. That project did not come about via private enterprise building a hotel to accommodate all the tourists and convention goers flocking to Fort Worth. Due to the paucity of both, no private entity was interested in making that type hotel investment, so the local voters were snookered into helping pay for the hotel.

Since I have been in Texas I have witnessed several large construction projects in downtown Fort Worth.

Such as the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters. To build that building eminent domain was abused to remove a public housing development. Due to building the Radio Shack Headquarters the big free Tandy parking lots were no longer usable. The world's shortest subway line was closed, making access to downtown Fort Worth no longer the easy thing it was prior to this debacle. The lack of easy parking has greatly reduced the number of times I have visited downtown Fort Worth ever since.

A short distance from the Radio Shack debacle we had the downtown campus of Tarrant County College debacle, a grandiose project, with an interesting design, thwarted in mid construction. In the midst of the Tarrant County College downtown campus boondoggle Radio Shack found it could no longer afford its new corporate headquarters. So, in a deal which made no sense to me, Tarrant County College, which had already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on their mangled downtown campus, then paid a few hundred more million to buy space in the Radio Shack building to use as their downtown campus, in a building which was not designed to be a school.

I tell you, Fort Worth has to be the "Boondoggle Capital  of the Free World".

That should be the town's catchy slogan, not "Where the West  Begins".

Adding to the roll of boondoggles, we have the Pier One Imports Corporate Headquarters. A beautiful building built on the spot where buildings were destroyed by a tornado. I don't remember how long Pier One Imports occupied their new headquarters before they, like Radio Shack, found out they could not afford it. The building was then sold to Chesapeake Energy to use as their satellite corporate headquarters from whence they ran their shadow Fort Worth city government during the reign of gas industry lackey, Mike Moncrief.

I don't know who owns the former Pier One Imports building now that Chesapeake Energy has taken the Walk of Shame out of Fort Worth.

If Fort Worth's economy is doing as well as the Star-Telegram propaganda-izes, how come we don't see more evidence of such?

We have America's Biggest Boondoggle currently stalled in slow motion, taking four years to build three little simple bridges from the mainland to an imaginary island, but not much else, except for an extensive music festival schedule taking place in, and beside, the Trinity River, a river which other parts of America would call the Trinity Slough, with no one thinking it a good idea to use as an inner tubing venue.

I'm sure some local would point to the West 7th area as evidence of Fort Worth's booming economy. Well, what I have seen in that area is extremely poor planning, with the area turning into a flooded lake when too much rain falls. The sidewalks are too narrow on West 7th, creating a canyon like effect that is not pleasant.

There is a lot of highway construction underway. Is that a sign of a booming local economy? Or one more sign of bad planning? The I-35 drive north from downtown Fort Worth has turned into an extremely unpleasant experience, particularly when you get past I-820.

I know there has been some effort to have some sort of train transit running from downtown Fort Worth to Grapevine, and, I think, the north entry to D/FW International. But, that project seems to be a lot of talk and little action.

If Fort Worth ever does actually have itself a booming economy do you think maybe sidewalks could be added to more of the city's streets? And maybe get rid of all the outhouses in all the parks and install modern restroom facilities with running water to replace the outhouses?

We have all recently witnessed how fast the South can change when properly motivated. Could not the Fort Worth outhouses go as quickly as the Confederate flag? We can only hope....