Skagit River Crests Near Record High With New Flood Wall Successful

Much of my old home zone of Western Washington is currently under water thanks to a Pineapple Express delivering an Atmospheric River.

I don't quite understand this photo from the front page of the Seattle Times, showing people on the downtown Mount Vernon Riverwalk, standing where the flood wall is.

Except the flood wall is about ten feet tall, and is not at all in evidence in this photo. 

Just yesterday Nephew Jason emailed video showing the flood wall, and commenting that he had to stand on his car's roof to see over it.

You can see that video below.

The downtown Mount Vernon flood wall is designed to install quickly by just a few installers, when the need arises. And to be taken down equally fast.

A huge improvement over the former sandbagging method of saving downtown Mount Vernon from getting inundated by the Skagit River.

The flood control wall was just part of a $25 million riverfront rebuild in downtown Mount Vernon. If I remember right the flood wall cost something like $8 million of the $25 million.

Meanwhile, there is this backwards town in Texas with imaginary flooding issues, trying to get the rest of America to pay around a billion bucks to build an un-needed flood control system in an area which has not flooded in well over half a century because of flood control levees the rest of America paid for way back in the 1950s.

I read yesterday that Fort Worth is starting the process of taking the land needed to dig the cement lined ditch that will go under the three little bridges which took seven years to build, creating an imaginary island, solving an imaginary flood control problem.

I would have thought that the land for the ditch had already been acquired. I suspect soon more classic Fort Worth eminent domain abuse will be underway, taking property for an imaginary public works project the public has never voted to support.

And people wonder why I refer to that Texas town as being backwards....

Mary Kelleher Wins Back TRWD Board Seat

Above you are looking at Mary Kelleher, on the right. On the left is the D/FW legend known, by some, as Elsie Hotpepper.

It seems like a long time ago I was hiking in Fort Worth's Gateway Park when the infamous Elsie Hotpepper called me whilst she was being in thrilled and happy mode, due to having met with someone with serious Fort Worth flood issues who had agreed to run for a seat on the Tarrant Region Water District Board.

That someone was Mary Kelleher.

In that water board election Mary Kelleher won in a landslide, with what, at that point in time, was the most votes any water board candidate had ever received.

What followed was a tumultuous four years as Mary Kelleher tried to bring to light that which the TRWD had kept hidden in the dark, for years.

Mary Kelleher was frequently blocked in multiple ways. Denied an entry key to TRWD headquarters. Not allowed in the 'secret room' where the longtime board members met. Denied requested information.

Eventually Mary Kelleher was censured by the TRWD Board. A ridiculous attempt to shut her up which resulted in a big throng of protesters bringing shame to those who tried to intimidate Mary Kelleher into going along with the shenanigans she had vowed to put to a stop.

Things like the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, which had, even then, way back years ago, become an obviously idiotic, ineptly managed, slow motion boondoggle doing damage to the heart of Fort Worth.

Damage such as three simple little bridges being built over dry land, ever since 2014, causing traffic disruption, ruining businesses, stealing property by abusing the perfectly legal, if properly used, concept of eminent domain.

The Trinity River Vision was sold as a vitally needed flood control/economic development scheme.

Where there had been no flooding for well over half a century. With the economic benefit going to those who owned property in the area of the scheme.

And yet this vitally needed flood control scheme is actually so vitally un-needed that the project has limped along the length of this new century, with nothing done regarding the imaginary flood control problem.

While Mary Kelleher's east Fort Worth neighborhood regularly floods, due to Fort Worth's criminally inept urban planning. 

When Mary Kelleher ran for re-election, she lost, in what seemed to be an actual obvious fraudulent election. With that obviousness leading to a investigation by the state which resulted in a few low level perpetrators being held to account, but with the actual fraud perpetrators left untouched.

And now, another four years later. Or is it eight? Time flies so fast. Mary Kelleher is back on the TRWD Board. 

The next four years should be interesting for Fort Worth.

The times they are a'changing...

Tale Of Two Cities: Seattle Boon & Fort Worth Boondoggle

Last week a Fort Worth local emailed me asking what I knew about the current status of that town's three simple little bridges which have been stuck in slow motion construction mode for six years, trying to build bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

I replied that I had not been to the DFW zone in about a year, so have had no eye witnessing of the mess which has become such an embarrassing Boondoggle. I do not know if the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision still sends out quarterly slick propaganda brochures detailing the imaginary progress of a public works project the public did not vote for, which has been limping along for most of this century, with little to show for the millions of dollars wasted.

Those who foisted this Vision on Fort Worth tried to claim it is a vitally needed flood control and economic development project. Where there has been no flooding for 70 years, due to flood control already in place. Vitally needed, and yet not vitally needed enough to convince the locals to support a bond issue to pay for it. Instead begging for federal dollars, unsuccessfully. And giving a local congresswoman's son a job for which it is now totally clear he was not qualified, in order to, hopefully, get the mother to somehow secure those federal funds.

Also, last week, a fellow former Washingtonian asked me what I knew about the current status of the rebuild of the Seattle waterfront.

I replied that I had not read anything about the waterfront rebuild since the Alaskan Way Viaduct was removed. And so I Google searched and found a lot of info about the Seattle Waterfront rebuild. More on that later in this post.

For someone who might be wondering why we are looking at a public works project in Fort Worth, and one in Seattle. Well, these are the two big cities with which I am most familiar, and whose stark differences have been of interest ever since seeing Fort Worth up close and wondering how an American city can be so different from another American city.

The town's two public works projects both had their beginnings back near the start of the century. Seattle's was sparked by an act of Mother Nature known as the Nisqually Earthquake. This earthquake serious damaged a structure known as the Alaskan Way Viaduct, a double decker state highway built between the Seattle downtown and the Seattle waterfront. This viaduct was of a similar sort to the Embarcadero Viaduct which collapsed in San Francisco during the Loma Prieta Earthquake.

Also near the start of the new century a group of Fort Worth insiders foisting on the public a public works project the public did not vote for. At the time it was foisted it was known as the Trinity Uptown Project, later the Trinity River Vision, before many name additions, in total, the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision. The Fort Worth project claimed to be about vitally needed flood control and an economic development scheme.

After the Nisqually Earthquake it was quickly realized the Alaskan Viaduct needed to be replaced. Temporary fixes were installed, along with quake activated gates to stop traffic entering the Viaduct if a quake was detected. A long debate began as to how to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth, after the Trinity Uptown Vision project was announced not much of anything happened. Some earth was moved around near Gateway Park. A quick to fail wakeboard park was built. A lot of signs were installed touting the wonders of the still not seen vision.

And then in 2014, with a TNT exploding ceremony, construction began on three simple little bridges, to be built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Around the same time, up north, in Seattle, the solution to the Alaskan Way Viaduct began in the form of the world's biggest (at the time) tunnel boring machine, digging a transit tunnel under downtown Seattle.

Both Fort Worth's bridge building and Seattle's tunnel digging soon ground to a halt. No one has ever explained the long stall to the Fort Worth bridge building. The Seattle tunnel boring machine, known as Bertha, ground to a halt when Bertha hit a big steel pipe, stalling the project for a year.

When Bertha began boring again the tunnel project moved full steam ahead, was completed, with traffic flowing under downtown Seattle via a double deck highway tunnel. With the tunnel now handling the Alaskan Way traffic, the Viaduct could come down. Which quickly happened, so now Seattle is in the rebuilding of the Seattle Waterfront phase of the multi billion dollar project.

Meanwhile, in Fort Worth

Six years after that TNT exploding ceremony Fort Worth still has three simple little bridges under construction over dry land, which had been projected to be completed two years ago, and now are projected to maybe possibly be completed sometime this current decade.

So, how does one town successfully manage a multi-billion dollar, complex public works project, fully funded, whilst another American town can not even manage to get three bridges built, along with other "promises" which the Trinity River Vision purported to see?

I have asked, more than once, is the Trinity River Vision still mailing those slick full color brochures quarterly? Detailing all the imaginary progress and wonders to come?

Now, in 2020, Seattle is in the midst of the final third part of its HUGE public works project. Phase One, the tunnel which began construction the same time Fort Worth started trying to build three bridges has long been completed. Phase Two, the removal of the Alaskan Way Viaduct has long been accomplished.

And now Phase Three, the rebuild of the Seattle Waterfront is well underway.

In addition to the Seattle project being fully funded, whilst the Fort Worth project relies on federal handouts hopefully secured by a local congresswoman motivated to do so due to the project hiring her son to do a job for which it is now obvious he was not qualified, the Seattle project, unlike the Fort Worth project, seems to operate with absolute transparency.

When Bertha ground to a halt a 24/7 camera was aimed at the fix-it operation, with constant website updates detailing the progress. For a short time Fort Worth aimed a 24/7 camera at one of its bridges under construction, but that has long been disabled due to the fact there was not much activity to see.

Just check out this Seattle Alaskan Way Waterfront Projects website ( screen cap at the top) and see the timeline of the waterfront rebuild part of this project, and you in the Trinity River Vision zone ask yourself why you never see anything this detailed regarding the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision?

How much longer are the people of Fort Worth going to put up with this bizarre Boondoggle mess which was foisted upon them without a vote? Taking property via abusing eminent domain, disrupting traffic flow for years, causing multiple businesses multiple woes.

Why is no one held accountable for this embarrassing mess? Are the voters actually going to re-elect Kay Granger again, after her part in this mess?

Well, if so, I guess Fort Worth gets what it deserves.

Ineptitude, incompetence and civic embarrassment...

After Years Of Delays Fort Worth's Emperor Still Wears No Clothes

I saw that which see you above this morning on the front page of the online version of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I read the headline and thought to myself what fresh ridiculous absurdist propaganda is this?

And then I was surprised to find myself not blocked from reading the article which tries to make sense of that senseless headline.

It has been several months since Mr. Bobalu asked me if I had heard anything of late regarding the status of the bridge building which had wreaked havoc on Mr. Bobalu's life due to how the Boondoggle, known as the Trinity River Vision Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, had abused using eminent domain to take Mr. Bobalu's property in order to build a bridge over dry land, connecting the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Construction on these three bridges built over dry land began way back in 2014, with a then astonishing four year project timeline.

It is now six years later, with Fort Worth's only newspaper claiming the bridges could be ready sooner than expected.

The Golden Gate Bridge, built over actual deep, swift moving water was built in less than four years. Tacoma's newest Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge was built over actual deep, swift moving water in less than four years.

But Fort Worth has been unable to build three simple little bridges over dry land in four years, in five years, and now in six years. With no actual projected estimate of when the bridges might be of actual use, let alone having water flow beneath them, after a cement lined ditch is dug, channeling Trinity River water to create the imaginary island.

This latest Star-Telegram article about those hapless hopeless bridges and the Boondoggle of which they are only part, contains multiple instances of Star-Telegram type nonsense. Let's start with the first paragraph...

Work on the downtown Fort Worth bridges, needed for the Panther Island project, has moved swiftly enough that officials now say two of the three spans may be done slightly early.

Work has moved swiftly enough that officials now say two of the three bridges may be done slightly early? Swiftly enough? It's been six years. If the completion is already two years behind the original timeline  how can finishing any of them, at any point in time, now be remotely considered to be slightly early?

Well, that question is sort of answered by the paragraph which follows the first..

Of course, early at this point is still behind the original completion date and a later delayed schedule, but Doug Rademaker, a senior project manager for the city, said work on bridges for Henderson and North Main streets is moving faster than expected.

Okay, now we are saying we are behind the original completion date, as well as behind the later delayed schedule, but work on two of the bridges is moving faster than expected. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

And then there is this perplexing sentence later in the article...

Traffic may be allowed on the bridges before they’re completely finished.

Did San Francisco allow traffic on the Golden Gate before it was finished? How about NYC's Brooklyn Bridge? Why would you allow traffic on an unfinished bridge?

From the following paragraph we learn the bridge construction has been a beehive of activity...

Contractor Texas Sterling increased workers on site to as many as 120, Rademaker said, and had been running three shifts seven days a week. Sunday shifts were recently canceled.

As many as 120 workers working in apparent slow motion, in three shifts, seven days a week, til recently.

And then there is this paragraph which raises questions...

Earlier this year, project managers increased the bridges’ $69.9 million budget to a little more than $89 million. The North Central Texas Council of Governments’ Regional Transportation Council approved the extra money in the form a $15 million federal transportation grant and another $5 million that will be paid back to the council of governments through a special tax district.

Okay, originally these three simple little bridges were projected to cost only $69.9 million, then increased by another $20 million. How much of that extra cost has come from having those 120 workers working years longer than the original project timeline projection? Why has there been no investigation looking into finding out why Fort Worth has been unable to build these three simple little bridges? Is it problems caused by J.D. Granger's interference insisting on those controversial V-Piers rather than the bridge supporting piers of which the Army Corps of Engineers approved?

And then there is the following...

The three bridges are needed for a $1.17 billion project that would create Panther Island by cutting a bypass between the two forks of the Trinity River as a means to control river flooding.

First off there has been a means to control river flooding in the area in question for well over a half century. This project is fixing a non-existent problem. Which is likely why the project has such trouble getting funding. It can't be sold to the public to vote on and approve of funding. The federal funders looking at it quickly find out it is an economic development scheme, poorly planned, ineptly implemented, which the rest of America should not be expected to pay for.

And please, please, please, drop the Panther Island nonsense.

Surrounding an industrial wasteland with a cement lined ditch does not an island make. It is only gonna end up being one more thing which causes Fort Worth's few tourists to giggle when they ask for an explanation.

Like where is Sundance Square? The answer to that one was an embarrassment for decades.

Where is Panther Island? Uh, it is what you come to when you cross one of those little bridges over that cement lined ditch. Are there panthers on the island? No. Why is it called Panther Island when there are no panthers. And it is not an actual island?

Anyone playing along with this nonsense is like that Emperor having no clothes fable, with the sheep going along with pretending the Emperor is finely dressed, when in reality he is walking around naked. Or, in the Fort Worth case, walking around with the sheep pretending to see a mighty fine island, when all there is is a chunk of wasteland accessed via three little bridges over extremely muddy water.

And one last amusing gem from this latest Star-Telegram article about America's Biggest Boondoggle. See if you can spot what the editor missed...

The progress has been a welcome site for business owners along White Settlement Road, which have taken a financial beating from the road closure, said Steve Metcalf, president of the White Settlement Road Development Task Force.

After six years of Boondoggling along I don't see how the word "progress" fits, let alone be some sort of welcome "sight"....

Fort Worth's Incredibly Pitiful Boondoggle Bridges Over No Water

An article I saw yesterday on the online version of CNN, titled Italy's incredible 'floating ship' bridge reaches for the sky caught my eye. And then upon reading the article what I read instantly provoked the urge to compare this Italian bridge building with Fort Worth's inept attempt to build three simple little bridges over dry land.

With those three simple little bridges over dry starting their Fort Worth construction in 2014 with a TNT exploding ceremony, with a then astonishing four year project timeline. And it is now 2020, and still no bridges completed.

Are those irresponsible for this Fort Worth mess still trying to sell the embarrassingly stupid propaganda that the bridges are being built over dry land to save time and money? When there was never gonna be any water under those bridges til a cement ditch was dug under them with polluted Trinity River water diverted into the ditch.

Anyway, those hapless Fort Worth bridges came to mind last week when Fort Worth's Mr. Bobalu emailed asking if I have heard anything of late regarding the status of those pitiful Fort Worth bridges.

Mr. Bobalu was an early victim of what has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle, having his property stolen via eminent domain abuse over a decade ago.

If taking Mr. Bobalu's property was justified as being for the public good, which is the legit use of eminent domain, is it not disturbing, the fact that, a decade later, the public has yet to see any good come from this ineptly implemented project? Shouldn't there be legal remedy after all this time and the obvious fact that the property was not taken for the public good.

I told Mr. Bobalu I have heard nothing about those bridges, for quite some time, and that I suspected most everyone is more focused on other more immediate concerns, like navigating a pandemic. I think I also mentioned looking forward to Kay Granger being booted out of Congress by the incoming, upcoming Super Blue Wave Tsunami ripping the Republican party to smithereens and into the dustbin of history.

And that one can assume that upon losing her job that Kay's son, J.D., would also lose his high paying job, currently overseeing flood control efforts in an area which has not flooded for well over a half century. And paid well over $200K a year to basically doing nothing, for years now.

So, I read this article about the new bridge in Genoa, Italy, with the new bridge replacing the Morandi Bridge which catastrophically failed on August 14, 2018, killing 41 people, and Fort Worth's hapless bridge building came to mind.

Some lines from this CNN article about the building of this new Italian bridge which are not what one might read about Fort Worth bridge building...

That the replacement has arrived less than two years after the disaster is something of an achievement. It was constructed rapidly, in a country rarely considered an exemplar of efficiency. Some of the most challenging work was carried out amid Europe's worst coronavirus outbreak.

If Italy is rarely considered an exemplar of efficiency, how is Fort Worth considered? Okay, I guess the reality is that extremely few people consider Fort Worth about anything. But, efficient sure is not a word one would use to describe Fort Worth.

And then there is info about the cost of this new Italian bridge.

The new bridge was built by Salini Impregilo, an Italian construction company, and Fincantieri, a state-owned shipbuilder. The project cost 200 million euros, about $220 million, not considering the cost of demolition of the Morandi bridge, which cost another 90 million euros, or about $98 million.

How many dollars have been spent so far on those three pitiful little Fort Worth bridges? Is it over $200 million yet? Or more?

And this about the Genoa, Italy bridge building project timeline...

"Normally it would take three to three and a half years to design and build a bridge of this size. This one took a little over a year," says construction manager Stefano Mosconi, who added that up to 1,000 people were working on the project at the same time.

Anyone seen 1,000 people working on Fort Worth's imaginary vitally needed flood control and economic development project, which is how the project was sold when it came to stealing property by abusing eminent domain?

A couple more sentences which give us a clue as to how this feat of bridge building engineering, over water, in Italy, was accomplished in such a short time, whilst Fort Worth flounders trying to build three simple little bridges over dry land...

Piano says that the project attracted a high level of expertise, which makes it less surprising that it could be achieved in such a short time. "It's not a miracle. It's just what happens when competence wins over incompetence. Italy is a special country, with capacity to do things. Work on the site never stopped, continuing at night with tasks deemed compatible with noise regulations.

Competence winning over incompetence. What a concept. Anyone ever heard J.D. Granger speak and think to themselves, now, there is a boy who inspires confidence with his competence. Has Fort Worth been able to attract even a medium level of expertise to help build three simple little bridges over dry land?

Now, for a look at this new Italian bridge, built in a little over a year, over water, actual water...

Maybe Fort Worth could hire the Italians who built the above bridge in such a short time to come show Fort Worth how to do such a thing? I wonder if any Genoans are bragging about this being a "signature" bridge? With "iconic piers"?  I would hazard to guess not, whilst in Fort Worth how many times have you heard those pitiful little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island as being "signature" bridges? With iconic "v-piers" making the pitiful little bridges somehow unique when in reality their design looks like an ordinary freeway overpass.

I do believe pitiful is the right word to use when describing the Fort Worth bridges.

Pitiful "signature" bridges....

Kay Granger's Imaginary Powerful White House Panther Island Delay

Just yesterday someone asked me if I had any photos of the current state of Fort Worth's three bridges which have been stuck in slow motion construction since 2014, currently not expected to be completed until possibly some point in this decade. Or the following decade.

I replied that I did not have any recent photos of those bridges, and then this morning the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in its Sunday online edition, on the front page, had the photo you see above, of one of those "signature" bridges in the making, along with the stunning, iconic skyline, of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

The headline under the photo...

 Rep. Granger: ‘Powerful’ White House appointee is delaying Fort Worth’s Panther Island
Local leaders expected federal money to come by now. The White House wants them to do more homework.

________________

Seems likely Kay Granger is making up some imaginary powerful White House appointee as an excuse for her inability to secure federal pork barrel funds, what with, to help motivate Kay, her son being given a cushy high paying job planning Rockin' the River happy hours in the polluted Trinity River, along with other nonsense.

Kay Granger is up for election, again, and her part in the Panther Island Boondoggle mess is finally an issue, which many voters see as a scandal, after so many years.

For those who have no idea what Panther Island is, well, it is the imaginary island that those three bridges being built over dry land will connect to, connecting the Fort Worth mainland to that imaginary island.

What is now most frequently referred simply as The Boondoggle, began as the Trinity River Vision, way back near the start of the current century.

Over the years the name for the Boondoggle morphed from Trinity River Vision to Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

In recent years the Boondogglers usually refer to their slowly failing project as Panther Island, where there is no island, and where there has never been a panther, except in the long ago imagination of a Dallas news reporter.

Way back when the Boondoggle began it was billed as a vitally need flood control and economic development project.

Where there had been no flooding for well over half a century.

The original price tag for the Boondoggle was something in the $300 million range. That price tag is now well over $1 billion.

Just paying the exorbitant salaries of the Boondogglers for so many years, as the Boondoggle boondoggled along, has added greatly to the price tag.

That Kay Granger lady, referred to in the headline above, well, her son, J.D. is currently being paid over $200,000 a year, plus perks, even after he was fired from his Trinity River Vision Authority Executive Director position, and moved to being responsible for the imaginary flood control in the area which has not flooded for well over half a century.

Why should the more prosperous parts of America be expected to fork over funds to pay for this Boondoggle which has been so ineptly managed?

Way back when this started, when the project was announced, I wondered why, and how, such a public works project could be legit without the public voting on the funding mechanism for the project.

Eminent Domain was abused to take property for this economic development scheme, with some property taken over a decade ago in the area where those bridges have become embarrassing eyesores.

Tarrant County is the Eminent Domain Abuse Capital of America, but, even so, one would think there would be some limit to what is tolerated. But, bulldozers began to destroy buildings even before property owners had their cases heard in court.

One would think an imaginative lawyer could come up with a viable lawsuit on behalf of the Eminent Domain Abuse victims.

Because, clearly this project does not fall into the category of taking property for the public good, because if that were the case, if this actually was some sort of vitally needed public works project, it would have been properly funded and long ago completed.

But, instead we have the Boondoggle....

Pre Winter Communing On Wichita Bluff Nature Area

Already we are at day 11 of the 2019 version of December.

Only ten more days, give or take a day, til winter arrives.

Today I felt the need to commune with nature, and so I used my mechanized motor device to take me to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area where I soon found myself sitting on my favorite bench doing that communing with nature thing, whilst gazing north across the prairie bluff listening to the roar of jets doing their training thing.

Today before getting benched I came upon a trio of French mademoiselles speaking loudly in their nature tongue. One frequently comes upon foreigners whilst hiking the bluffs.

Or in ALDI.

Usually the foreigners are in this land which is foreign to them due an association with Sheppard Air Force Base, which is a NATO training facility.

I always wonder if Wichita Falls is these foreigners only exposure to America.

Some of that which one sees in Wichita Falls, and other towns I have seen in Texas, I never saw the likes of til I arrived in the South.

I was just remarking on this fact today whilst driving from the Bluffs to ALDI, driving north on Lawrence road, asking the co-pilot if he had any memory of ever seeing anything like this in any other west coast town.

For some reason when a building goes defunct in Texas, like a motel, or any business, the structure is allowed to deteriorate into being a rundown eyesore. I have never understood why this is considered okay in Texas.

When asking about this I get told nonsense about property rights. They are big on property rights, apparently, except when it comes to abusing eminent domain to take someone's property. A phenomenon which I also never witnessed whilst observing west coast towns.

Perplexing...

Why Seattle Seahawks Will Not Beat Dallas Cowboys In Super Bowl

This blogging falls into the category of seeing something in an online west coast newspaper, usually the Seattle Times, which I would not be expecting to see in a Texas newspaper, usually the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, about a similar thing happening in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro zone.

In this case the thing one does not see in D/FW is the local NFL team winning a game and taking over first place in NFC West, East, North or South.

As long as I have been in Texas I have been reading and hearing the North Texas locals lamenting about the Dallas Cowboys never seeming to have themselves a mighty fine winning team.

When I lived in Washington I recollect the Seattle Seahawks being like the Dallas Cowboys, as in never making it to a playoff game, let alone the Super Bowl.

Since I have been in Texas the Seahawks have made it to more than one Super Bowl. I think they won the Super Bowl once, maybe twice. My memory of this type thing ain't all that great, and I don't think the need for the actual number is great enough to warrant consulting Google.

Earlier in this century when the town of Arlington, in cahoots with Jerry Jones, he being the hapless owner of the Dallas Cowboys, went for a record breaking level of abusing eminent domain to dislodge hundreds of citizens and businesses so as to have enough land onto which to build a giant homage to a space ship serving as a football stadium.

Years ago I webpaged this blight of Dallas Cowboy Stadium eminent domain abuse, with that eminent domain abuse being the primary reason Tarrant County is known as the Eminent Domain Abuse Capital of America, with that title made even more solid when Fort Worth went in for some outrageous eminent domain abuse in order to take property for its ill-advised, ineptly implemented economic development scheme disguised as un-needed flood control.

Way back when I was shocked to see all the homes, apartment complexes and business taken away for a sports stadium I opined that the bad karma of this will likely keep the Dallas Cowboys from ever being in another Super Bowl, and would put an end to the Cowboys being known as America's Team.

As of 2019, both bad karma results seem to be happening. There are fans of the Dallas Cowboys over a quarter century old who have never seen the team play in a Super Bowl.

Eminent domain was not used or abused to get the land on which to build the Seattle Seahawks stadium. All they had to do was blow up the Kingdome and build a new structure in its place.

I saw the above on Facebook this morning. Seeing this caused me to wonder anew if this will finally be the year I secure an invite to the legendary Knappson Super Bowl Party. Those tickets are even harder to get in a year when the Seahawks are in the big game...

UPDATE: Ex footballer, or long distance jobber, Bruce F., points out that it is impossible for the Seattle Seahawks to play the Dallas Cowboys in a Super Bowl, unless one or the other moves from the NFC to the AFC. I probably should have already realized this...

New Small Multi-Purpose Arena Will Turn Fort Worth Into Imaginary Business & Culture Mecca

I saw that which you see above, this morning, side by side, on the front page of the Sunday October 27 edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, online version.

Two articles.

On the left "Dickies Arena will promote Fort Worth as important city for business and culture".

On the right "Protesters interrupt Mayor Betsy Price during Dickies Arena opening ceremony."

I did not bother reading either of the articles. I knew, just from the article headline, that the one on the left would be full of Star-Telegram style propaganda puffery. Touting the nonsense that a relatively small multi-purpose arena will somehow have some sort of trans-formative effect on Fort Worth's business and culture fortunes.

While the article on the right likely sort of accurately reported on the continuing disgust of many Fort Worth locals regarding the Fort Worth police's multi-year history of shooting deaths of innocent citizens.

Fort Worth might want to think about improving the national and international bad reputation of its police force before the town deludes itself into thinking anything about Fort Worth promotes the town as important for business, let alone culture.

Maybe Fort Worth might want to think about the message the town sends with the boarded up eyesore of a park at the north end of its downtown.

Heritage Park.

Intended as an homage to Fort Worth's imaginary storied heritage.

Heritage Park was closed soon after four visitors to Fort Worth drowned in a poorly designed part of the Water Gardens at the south end of downtown.

Heritage Park also had a couple water features. Water features of a depth too shallow to drown anything, but maybe a mouse or rat.

But, those who run Fort Worth so ineptly feared Heritage Park might become the source of another costly lawsuit, you know, should someone somehow manage to drown in the shallow depths of one of Heritage Park's water features.

In a sense, the current state of Heritage Park does serve as an accurate metaphor for the town's actual heritage.

A short distance to the west of Heritage Park we have the location of the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters Boondoggle.

Eminent domain was used to take property so Radio Shack could build a new corporate headquarters, which Radio Shack soon found it could not afford. So, Tarrant County College then took over much of the campus.

But, the damage to Fort Worth was already done. Due to the Radio Shack Boondoggle Fort Worth lost the world's shortest subway line, lost acres of free parking, which, with that subway line, made visiting downtown Fort Worth easy, and with free parking.

Then due north of Heritage Park we have another homage to the actual inept incompetent heritage of Fort Worth. The massive ruins of what has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Currently with three simple little bridges stuck partly built over dry land, with construction started in the first half of this decade, currently scheduled to possibly be completed at some point in the next decade. With water added under the bridges at a currently undetermined date way in the future.

Yeah, one can really see how a new, relatively small, special events arena will be just the ticket to help promote Fort Worth as an important city for business and culture.

When will this propaganda nonsense ever end? When will Fort Worth ever get a real newspaper?

Well, James Michael Russell, a real journalist, is now journalizing for Fort Worth Weekly. Maybe there is hope that that weekly "newspaper" will again start practicing actual legit investigative journalism...

J.D. Granger Booted Off Fort Worth's Panther Island

I first learned of the alleged "J.D. Granger Out" news via what you see here, a screen cap from Facebook, seen last night.

Soon thereafter a couple incoming text messages and emails told me the same thing.

The news in the Facebook screen cap came via NBC DFW. I clicked the link to the J.D. Granger Out as Top Manager of Fort Worth’s Panther Island Project article to find both video of the TV news segment, and a print article summarizing, sort of, the TV news segment.

We will get to the news from NBC DFW later in this blogcast, but before that mention must be made of the fact that soon after first learning this news I found myself reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram version of this "news" in an article titled Panther Island to hire manager, as J.D. Granger’s role with Fort Worth project changes.

Okay, we seem to have a bit of a contradiction just in the titles of these two articles. NBC DFW has J.D. Granger "Out", whilst the Star-Telegram simply has J.D. Granger's "Role Changed".

Let's look at both "news" articles to see if we can figure out what the truth might be.

First in the NBC DFW article, let's look at the first paragraph...

Major management changes at the embattled Trinity River Vision Authority included the removal of its executive director, J.D. Granger, who had headed up the “Panther Island” project since its beginning more than a dozen years ago.

Okay, that seems fairly clear. J.D. Granger has been removed from the executive director job for which he was ridiculously unqualified.

But, then this...

Granger, the son of a powerful congresswoman who started the project, will instead work directly for Jim Oliver, head of the Tarrant Regional Water District.

First off, I don't believe it was Kay Granger who actually started this absurd project. Second off, we learn that J.D. has been removed from the one job he botched to instead working directly for the guy who hired J.D., years ago, Jim Oliver, who later claimed he hired Granger because it was the right thing to do. I've long wondered why no one has ever asked Jim Oliver why hiring Kay Granger's son was the right thing to do. As for that working directly for Jim Oliver, did we not learn among the multiple "findings" in the widely reviled Riveron Review, that one of the problems with the Trinity River Vision mess was the management structure, and that in that Review it was stated that J.D. Granger reported directly to Jim Oliver? So, really, what has changed? Anything reality based?

And then this...

Oliver told NBC 5 Investigates that Granger will focus on flood control projects, while the economic development part of Panther Island - once a major interest for Granger - will be taken over by the city of Fort Worth.

Oh. Granger will now work on flood control projects. In an area of Fort Worth which has not flooded in well over a half century due to Trinity River levees long ago installed to prevent flooding. Yes, that should keep Kay's son real busy, and well worth his exorbitant salary.

And then this...

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger is credited with creating the project, first labeled Trinity Vision, and she is nearly solely responsible for securing federal dollars for its creation.

This article marks the first time I have ever read that Kay Granger is credited with creating that which has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle. If that is true that alone should get her booted out of Congress in 2020. And she is responsible for pork barreling the federal funds for its creation? I thought Kay was supposed to find federal funds to augment the dollars the locals were contributing.

Maybe it is the use of the word "creation" which seems off. Maybe, because so far, with millions already spent, nothing much has been created. Well, there are those remnants of three simple little bridges stuck in slow motion construction mode for years. I do not recollect The Boondoggle ever labeled "Trinity Vision". Long ago, near the start of this century, it began as "Trinity Uptown" before morphing into "Trinity River Vision". Then various iterations added to the mix "Uptown" and "Central City". Then J.D. Granger, and his minions of nonsense purveyors, conjured the Panther Island absurdity, where there is no island, and never will be an island, by any sane definition of what makes an island.

And then this...

Despite the many setbacks, the city of Fort Worth has continued to pledge its commitment to completing Panther Island, with voters last year approving a $250 million bond package to make that happen.

I do not recollect reading about this particular city of Fort Worth pledge. As for that $250 million bond package. That was the result of a fraudulent ballot measure which had voters believing they were approving "Flood Control and Drainage" projects. There was no mention of "Panther Island" or "Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision" or any of the other names by which the project goes, on that ballot measure.

Now let's take a look at the Star-Telegram's Panther Island to hire manager, as J.D. Granger’s role with Fort Worth project changes article about J.D. Granger's new job status.

First off we learn...

Granger will no longer be the top manager of Panther Island. Someone with experience coordinating multiple government entities is needed to help finish the $1.18 billion project, according to the authority.

Oh my, isn't that nice. After all these years of frittering away time and money someone with actual experience will be hired to help finish America's Dumbest Boondoggle. One can not help but wonder what sort of fool it would be who would want to take on this un-funded debacle.

And then this...

Granger, who makes more than $200,000, has worn many hats since the Trinity River project was first conceived more than a decade ago. The authority has been responsible for entertainment on the river, like Oktoberfest and Fort Worth’s Forth, finalizing design standards for development on the island, and working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

I have always wonder at what point in time it was that the Trinity River Vision evolved into being responsible for entertainment on the river. Conceived more than a decade ago? Try conceived almost two decades ago, near the start of the new century. One can also not help but wonder what those finalized design standards might be for development on the imaginary island.

And then this...

The project, first envisioned in the early 2000s, aims to cut a 1.5 mile bypass channel in the Trinity River north of downtown Fort Worth. The channel will form two islands, collectively known as Panther Island, and will help mitigate flooding while creating roughly 800 acres of prime real estate. It requires significant federal funding but has received little.

Okay, previously, as we pointed out, this article says the project was conceived more than a decade ago, and then in the above paragraph says it was first envisioned in the early 2000s. I did not know til reading that above paragraph that there are now two imaginary islands. Shouldn't they then collectively be known as the Panther Islands? Prime real estate? We haven't even reached the point where that prime real estate, currently an industrial wasteland, becomes an EPA superfund cleanup site.

The project requires significant federal funding? Well, isn't that special? What sane town begins a project of such magnitude without the funding already in place? Particularly when this project is propaganda-ized as being vitally needed flood control.

Land was stolen for this project, via the eminent domain abuse method. Eminent domain is used to take property for the public good, such for highways, schools, hospitals, that type thing. The fact that it is now obvious the land taken was not for a vital public need, due to the dawdling slow motion of the project, that and the fact it has never been about actual needed flood control, well, I would think at this point in time a lawyer would have an easy time bringing massively expensive lawsuits against the perpetrators of this fraud.

I personally know one or two of the victims of the Trinity River Vision eminent domain abuse, which is part of what fuels my disgust.

The article contains multiple typical Star-Telegram bits of propaganda, repeating debunked nonsense without questioning the ridiculousness of what is being quoted, such as verbiage from J.D. Granger.

Read the entire Panther Island to hire manager, as J.D. Granger’s role with Fort Worth project changes.article for the whole scope of this latest iteration of America's Dumbest Boondoggle, but before you do that we leave you with the last paragraph, with one final gem from Fort Worth's least favorite son, J.D. Granger...

“I thought I’d be gone long before,” he said. “I’ve always said I’ll stay here until this thing’s on cruise control. I think we’re right about there, and so that’s at least my commitment to local community.”

Yeah, J.D., there were a lot of us who thought you'd be gone long before. And yet you are still here. So, J.D. thinks the unfunded project is almost on cruise control, which apparently is what he thinks was his commitment to the local community.

I am still waiting for the forensic audit to find out where the money spent has gone. How much has been wasted in salaries being paid long after a project of this sort should have long ago been completed? How much has been spent on all the websites promoting the propaganda? How much has been spent on signage? How much has been spent on propaganda publications mailed quarterly? How much has been spent on junkets?

It is over a decade since I first heard from someone close to the J.D. Granger Trinity River Vision operation. This person identified as Deep Moat. Eventually I learned Deep Moat's identity. Way back then, over a decade ago, Deep Moat was upset by what Deep Moat eye witnessed. The party atmosphere at TRVA headquarters. This sitting around discussing where to go for lunch on the TRVA expense account. The well stocked liquor supply. Discussing where to go on another junket. Deep Moat was privy to the discussions of that which became the various Trinity River parties, like Rockin' the River and Octoberfest. Deep Moat did not understand why this was part of the Trinity River Vision. Deep Moat resented seeing tax payer dollars being spent in what Deep Moat thought was wrong and wasteful.

When, if ever, is there going to by any sort of accounting of the money which has been wasted by J.D. Granger during the course of well over a decade during which he has been on the public dole?

When, if ever, will Fort Worth get an actual legitimate newspaper of record? And is Amon Carter rolling over in his grave seeing what has been done to his city?

EXHIBIT A TRVA Board Financial Report Fraud Trial

I saw that which you see above, on Facebook, along with text below commenting on what you see above, with what you see above being EXHIBIT A: TRVA Board Financial Report.

EXHIBIT A?

An exhibit in a criminal fraud type trial? Well, it's about time. Who brought this to trial? The victims of eminent domain abuse who had their property stolen for this Boondoggle which by now obviously has had nothing to do with property being taken for the public good? Because clearly there was no eminent need to take property, what with little having come to fruition with this imaginary flood control scheme where there has been no flooding for well over half a century.

And now that aforementioned comment about that EXHIBIT A you see above...

More than $380 million in taxpayer money has been spent on Kay Granger’s Fort Worth development boondoggle.

According to the agency responsible for the project (TRVA), which is run by Granger's son J.D., only 1 aspect of the project is 100% complete; the design.

After 15 years, and $380 million, the only thing they've completed is the design? Are you serious?

The water district (TRWD) apparently loaned $200 million to the TRVA--and got voters to approve another $250 million in bond debt last year--to keep it going while Granger works to get $600 million more in federal pork.

The price tag started out at $435 million in 2006, and has since ballooned to $1.16 BILLION.

Does anyone believe this will be completed in 2028, or that the cost will not increase...again?

My guess is the price tag will be $2 billion when the dust settles in 10 years.

Ross Kecseg

___________________

I dunno who Ross Kecseg is, but the name sounds familiar. Mr. Kecseg certainly seems to have a firm grasp of the absurdity of what has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle, soon to enter its third decade.

That TRVA Financial Report does not answer questions I have asked many times. Questions like how much did the TRVA spend on its first failure, the harbinger of the Boondoggle to come, that being the Cowtown Wakepark.

How much has the TRVA spent on all its various propaganda websites?

How much has the TRVA spent on all its ridiculous propaganda signage?

How much has the TRVA spent on its year after year of absurd quarterly propaganda mailers?

How much has the TRVA spent on all its various junkets, including even relatively cheap junkets, such as the imaginary fact finding junket taken by J.D. and his now wife which required an overnight stay in a Dallas hotel, billed as an expense to the TRVA.

How much has the TRVA spent on things like its imaginary music venue with its imaginary pavilion, where the TRVA holds events, such as inner tube floats? How much have those events cost? Where is any of this accounted for in this TRVA Board Financial Report?

How much did the TRVA spend on J.D. Granger's beer hall, named the Shack, which is part of that sprawling imaginary Panther Island music venue?

Are all those expenses somehow accounted for somewhere in the items listed in EXHIBIT A? I can think of a few dozen inquiring minds who would like answers...

Decade Old Scale Model Trinity River Vision Video Irony

Last night on YouTube, for mysterious reasons unknown to me, a video showed up among the YouTube video recommendations, tailored for my viewing preferences, with that recommended video being over a decade old.

Published by the Trinity River Vision on April 1, 2009.

A decade seems like a long time for a vitally needed flood control project to not have completed that vitally needed flood control project. Which would seem to indicate that vitally needed flood control was not vitally needed after all.

I wonder how all those property owners who had their property taken by the Trinity River Vision's eminent domain abuse feel now, over a decade after their property was taken for the imaginary public good.

One would think an imaginative lawyer could conjure quite a legitimate fraud case against the Trinity River Vision at this point in time.

Below is the dating info from YouTube which accompanied this video.

The video itself seems bizarre after all these years, touting what now seems to totally be imaginary wonders of what any honest person knows is a failed vision.

In the video there is bragging about this scale model of the imaginary island and the diversion ditch being one of the biggest such models ever built.

In the model we see water flowing under what are now known as the Panther Island bridges. The video does not show these bridges as being built upon V-piers. But the video does show the bridge piers in the model, being in the water filled ditch.

And at one point the model demonstrates how those bridge piers are designed not to impede the flow of litter careening down the Trinity River when it is in flood mode. How bizarre.

Also, one can not help but wonder how much was spent building this model of the imaginary wonders of the imaginary flood control plan? Such info is of the sort one hoped would be part of the Riveron Review of the mess which has become America's Worst Boondoggle. But, the Riveron Review turned out not to be any sort of forensic audit.

So, we did not learn how much money J.D. Granger has been paid over all the years he has been Executive Director of this mess. Or how much "extra" money J.D. Granger has been paid past the time such a project should have been completed, if managed correctly, such as what happens in non-corrupt, modern cities in America.

J.D. Granger has actually publicly admitted he plans to stick with the Panther Island gravy train until it is completed, and then retire.

Watch the jaw droppingly embarrassing Trinity River Vision video below. In that video you will see a young version of J.D. Granger, before a decade of boondoggling stress has noticeably aged him...

Army Corps Of Engineer's Document Contradicts Controversial Riveron Review

Less than a week to go before I return to my regular Internet connection to the world. It is frustrating having a thing or two I feel compelled to opine about, and not being able to easily do so.

The thing or two I am feeling compelled to opine about have to do with the controversial Riveron Review of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

As more and more people read the Riveron Review it has become increasingly clear that a half million bucks was wasted on what amounts to being a review based on multiple falsehoods.

Near the end of the Riveron Review a couple pages list those "interviewed". No one from the Army Corps of Engineers is on that list. The people interviewed, to varying degrees, are those responsible for the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle mess, people like TRWD General Manager, Jim Oliver, and TRVA Executive Director, J.D. Granger.

Whoever did the interviewing apparently accepted the self serving spin spun by the likes of Oliver and Granger.

More on those other obvious obfuscations of truth later, but for now let's just take a look at one falsehood which shows up in the Riveron Review.

That particular falsehood is the Riveron Review's claim that the Army Corps of Engineers had determined the levees needed to be raised by 10 feet to meet some post-Katrina standard.

The following is copied from the Riveron Review...

"Build the existing levees an additional 10 feet taller, requiring an additional 150 feet on each side of riverway, negatively impacting businesses and neighborhoods, and resulting in an even more inaccessible riverfront."

The above makes ZERO sense.

First off, the area in question has not flooded in well over a half century, due to massive levees which have long done their intended job.

Second off, what are these businesses, or neighborhoods which would be affected negatively? The area is an industrial wasteland.

And third off, the Army Corps of Engineers never suggested raising the existing levees another ten feet. Never determined doing such was needed, feasible or recommended.

As we already pointed out, the Riveron Reviewers did not interview anyone from the Army Corps of Engineers. Instead the Riveron Reviewers only interviewed the various foxes who have been ineptly allowed to guard the hen house.

Methinks this half million buck Riveron Review borders on fraud.

The raise the levees part of this scandal came to my attention via email from one of the early victims of the TRWD/TRVA eminent domain abuse, with this victim's business taken a decade ago, followed by a long struggle trying to be made whole from the taking of his property.

Eminent domain is a legit process where property can be taken, with the owner fully compensated, for a project for the public good, like a highway, hospital or school. That type thing. Not for imaginary flood control or an economic development scheme benefiting the schemers.

Clearly this was not a legit eminent domain use for the public good, what with it now being well over a decade with that totally unneeded flood control project not anywhere close to being reality.

Now the motivation behind the Boondogglers misrepresenting the history of their ill fated project we will look at in future blog posts. In the meantime let's look at the email exchange between that aforementioned victim of America's Biggest Boondoggle and a former Fort Worth city councilman...

Bob Lukeman to Durango---

I did not get too far into the Draft before I hit my first WTF moment. 

Bob Lukeman to that aforementioned former Fort Worth city councilman...

This was news to me. Was the Corp initiating the idea of a bypass channel and was the levee fix an across the board 10 foot raise with a property taking element? We had Corp docs that gave the sparse locations of levees that need topping out in way less that 10 feet and no reference to any takings.

You may know more having been on the Council. Makes me think that Riveron was interviewing TRWD staff about the origins, and they were revising history to justify and defend the flood control aspects. 

10 million was the fix as I recall. Not 10 feet more on all the levees. That early of a suggestion to dig a bypass would have been in conjunction with the taking DOWN of certain levees. The 2 points made in the Draft seem to contradict a levee repair plan.

And then this from that aforementioned former Fort Worth city councilman...

I wasn’t aware that the project was in planning as early as 2001. There was never any discussion about the height of the levees or taking 150’ on either side that I was aware of. Sounds like a little historical revisionism although maybe they have the documents to back it up. I believe the channel idea may have come from Gideon/Toal and the corps bought into it. It started downhill in 2005. At least that’s when it was apparent to me.

Cheers, Clyde

Linda Lou Takes Me On Tour Of Our Old Hometown

My favorite nurse, Linda Lou, was visiting our old hometown, Burlington, this morning, and proceeded to send some photos to my phone.

I shall share a couple instances of Linda Lou's photo documentation.

I saw these photos and wondered if what I was seeing is one of the reasons, stored far back in my memory, memories of the little town in Washington I grew up in, with those long stored memories being part of what caused me to be so appalled when I first came to see what was not to be seen, in my new location in Texas.

Fort Worth.

Fort Worth, a town with a population nearing a million, well, over 800,000, and little Burlington, Washington, a town with a population around 3,000 when I was located there.

As you can see above, via Linda Lou's photo of my old home in my old hometown, Burlington's streets have sidewalks. I did not know there were towns in America without this convenience, til I saw that most of Fort Worth's streets lack this type modern conveyance.

Now, the street I lived on really did not need a sidewalk. Because right across the street was one of Burlington's city parks. That particular park is named Maiben Park.

In Maiben Park there was this other thing I thought was the norm in modern America. Running potable water with modern restrooms. Actually, if I remember right, Maiben Park had at least two instances of modern restrooms. One in the community center, which was part of the five acre park, the other in the center of the park, near the preserved old growth forest.

Naive me assumed it was a civic safety code thing for parks in America to have running water and modern restrooms, til I saw my first Fort Worth park, Gateway Park, which has outhouses of a sort I had not seen before. Outhouses seeming to be installed permanently in concrete enclosures.

Eventually I was to learn outhouses were the Fort Worth city park norm. And that few of the town's parks have running water. I had zero understanding of how it was allowed, for sanitary safety reasons, to have parks with picnic tables without a means to wash ones hands.

Even Fort Worth's highly touted (by local propaganda purveyors) imaginary world class music venue, the Panther Island Pavilion mess, has an installation of those Fort Worth signature concrete enclosed outhouses.

And Fort Worth somehow is perplexed that the town is not attractive to corporations looking to re-locate, no matter how big the bribe to do so is.

One of the other photos Linda Lou sent me was of the new Burlington Public Library, located a couple blocks west of my old home location.

In the photo of the Burlington Public Library you also see Skagit Valley Public Transit in action.

The valley wide public transit system did not exist when I was growing up. Skagit Area Transit (SKAT) came along later in the previous century from the period when I lived in Burlington.

I do not know if SKAT is still the working acronym for Skagit Area Transit. I don't remember anyone objecting to the name.

When Seattle's South Lake Union area got a trolley, South Lake Union Trolley, with SLUT being its acronym, there were some who thought it embarrassing that people were saying things like "I rode the SLUT downtown", or "Just take the SLUT to the Needle". But, SLUT stuck.

Back when SKAT being providing public transit to the Skagit Valley it was free to ride. I only remember availing myself of this one time. For some reason I needed to get home from the Skagit Mall and something was malfunctioning with my vehicle.

Now, I know there are right wing numbskull sorts who get all wiggy when one says something like public transit is free. Too dumb to understand that some areas have sufficient numbers of people who understand the concept of using money raised via various taxes to pay for a needed service, such as public parks with modern restrooms, streets with sidewalks, and public transit, due to the fact that having such makes the entire community more economically viable.

Now, I do know that in this century SKAT now does charge a transit fare, and that the system has expanded greatly from when I lived in the valley. One can now ride public transit all around Puget Sound. What a concept.

Regarding Skagit County having county wide public transit, while Tarrant County, where Fort Worth is located, does not have county wide public transit.

Let's look at a couple data bits.

Tarrant County has a population of 2,054 million in an area covering 902 square miles.

Skagit County has a population of 125,610 in an area covering 1,902 square miles.

So Skagit County is hugely bigger, size-wise, than Tarrant County, with a small fraction of the Tarrant County population, and yet Skagit County manages to cover all that area with public transit.

Along with many other amenities lacking in Tarrant County, and particularly in Fort Worth.

Such as the county seat of Skagit County, Mount Vernon, has managed to install an actual needed flood control wall along an an actual river, protecting its downtown from an actual flood, and in addition to that turned its waterfront into a riverwalk promenade, along with a large public plaza, and public modern restrooms.

All done without using or abusing eminent domain, in a fraction of the time Fort Worth has been boondoggling along with its national embarrassment.

All done without begging for federal dollars. Or without employing the unqualified son of a local congresswoman in order to bribe her, I mean, motivate her to try and secure federal funds.

Meanwhile, the county seat of Tarrant County, Fort Worth, has been boondoggling along most of this century trying to install some un-needed flood control in an area which does not flood due to existing flood control, and has also been trying to make some sort of riverwalk promenade with ridiculous bridges stuck unbuilt after years of dawdling due to project mismanagement, mucking up a simple project which has messed with people's lives for years.

And this mucked up project has used and abused eminent domain, in ways many consider to be criminal.

And in Fort Worth the unqualified son of a local congresswoman was given the job of directing Fort Worth's river project, ineptly, unsuccessfully, stupidly, corruptly, incompetently, while being paid over $200K a year, while his mother tries to scam some of your tax dollars.

Anyway, thanks Linda Lou for bringing me some old memories today, and triggering remembering some newer memories...

Bridge Contractor Admits Panther Island Project Bungled & Woefully Mismanaged

Last night an incoming blog comment brought some interesting news...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Grapple Fort Worth's Bizarre Bridge Battle Boondoggle...":

From the article: The contractor building three bridges as part of Fort Worth’s Panther Island development says the project has been bungled and "woefully mismanaged from the top."

Contractor Building 3 Bridges for Panther Island Project Says It's 'Woefully Mismanaged'

Bungled & woefully mismanaged is an exquisite combination that is all too typical for the Fort Worth Way. The Fort Worth Way is, frankly, not a gem in this regard. 

__________________

I recollect over a decade ago seeing myself being criticized in a Fort Worth publication for referring to the Trinity River Vision as a Boondoggle.

And now, years later, look where we are.

The Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision is known, far and wide, as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

And this Fort Worth Boondoggle, known far and wide, is not making anyone anywhere Green with Envy.

When will Fort Worth wake up and put an end to this embarrassing nightmare?

Will the end begin on May 4? Will the results of that day's election, with the re-election of Mary Kelleher and other like-minded reformers, put an end to the mismanagement of the Tarrant Regional Water District board?

Anyone paying any attention to the history of Fort Worth corruption so blatantly on display at the TRWD and its failed step-child, the Trinity River Vision, can't be optimistic that the election results will not once again be fraudulent.

What was the result of that biggest Texas investigation ever into election fraud?  You know, that investigation trumpeted as having investigators fanning out over Tarrant County gathering evidence.

Well, there was not any result. Nothing of significance happened other than one or two or three low level election workers got in some sort of trouble.

And two of the beneficiaries of all that election fraud, in that previous TRWD board election, Jim Lane and Fort Worth's favorite octogenarian, Marty Leonard, are running again. And the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has bizarrely endorsed one of them, Marty Leonard, for re-election.

Mary Kelleher, running for re-election to the TRWD board, via Facebook, had the following to say regarding the latest revelations about the Panther Island fiasco...


"And when I served on the Board of the Water District from 2013 to 2017 and voted against this project and voted against the use of eminent domain for this project, I was laughed at by my fellow Board members and Water District top administrators. Not so funny now! This project is worse than any of us ever imagined and we need new leadership on that Board. If you haven’t voted yet, please vote on May 4th and vote for me if you really want change."

Grapple Fort Worth's Bizarre Bridge Battle Boondoggle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Lukeman comment in its entirety...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Answers Needed From C.B. Team

Back earlier in the year I received an email from someone I eventually ended up identifying as Deep Moat II.

Deep Moat II sent me some info about someone running for the Tarrant Regional Water District Board, info she felt people needed to know about, so as to know who he is and to whom he is connected.

The name of the guy in question is Charles "C.B." Team.

I blogged about what Deep Moat II had to tell me, mostly about the appalling abuse of the perfectly legitimate legal tool known as eminent domain, as regarding those with whom C.B. Team is associated.

A day or two ago C.B. Team commented, at length, in response to that blog post.

I shared C.B. Team's comments with a few people associated with the current TRWD Board Election. Those people asked me to ask C.B. Team why he opted to not run in the last TRWD Board Election, when he was expected to.

And who influenced him to run this time? Specific names would be useful.

And what is C.B. Team's position regarding the ongoing Granger Scandal, and the other nepotism corruption issues associated with the TRWD?

Multiple inquiring minds would really like to know.

But, as our inquiring minds eagerly await answers, below is the referenced comment from C.B. Team...

Charles "C.B." Team has left a new comment on your post "Deep Moat II Concerned CB Team Not Fit For TRWD Board":

Hi Durango. This is C.B. Nice to meet you. I want to clarify a few things from your blog post. 

I have never been a party to, or represented a client in any eminent domain cases. My company has never represented a client in eminent domain proceedings. I do not take the issue of eminent domain lightly as I have spent my career as a REALTOR standing up for private property rights at the local, state, and national level. I have become very familiar with the eminent domain process because the person, Vic Tinsley, I acquired my company from in 2013 is the most experienced special commissioner in the State of Texas. This means that he has been determined to be a real property expert by State of Texas Judges and then appointed to hear and then decide both sides of eminent domain proceedings in Special Commissioner Hearings. Special Commissioners do not represent either party and are NOT the condemning authority. I have had the opportunity to sit in on these hearings in order to better understand the process and witness first hand what the property owner has to endure during the long and tedious process. 

I am not a politician. This is my first run at public office. I'm just a business owner that saw a need on the TRWD board for fresh energy and someone with real estate and business knowledge to help get us out of the predicament in which we currently find ourselves. I'm committed to responsible and transparent oversight and I figured commenting here directly would be the most transparent approach to tackling these errors. Feel free to reach out to me any time.