Trinity River Vision Should Cataract Kay Granger Out Of Congress

I think I may be about to write the longest blog post I have ever written. So much material.

Yesterday Miss B emailed me regarding an email she had received from a Texas Watchdog, who asked Miss B if she knew how to contact that guy who writes that blog that so frequently mentions America's Biggest Boondoggle.

I told Miss B how the Texas Watchdog could contact me. This morning the Texas Watchdog emailed me, asking about something I really knew nothing about, with a link to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article which contained the mis-information I knew nothing about. This mis-information was in a Star-Telegram article earlier this month, August 6, I think.

Then, later in the day, Elsie Hotpepper emailed me with a subject line of "Early Birthday Present". The early birthday present was to yet one more Star-Telegram article, an editorial published, I think, on Monday, August 8, about the same subject as the earlier article, that subject being America's Biggest Boondoggle, which the Star-Telegram still, occasionally, refers to as the Trinity River Vision.

Well, now that I've gotten the prelude out of the way, where to begin?

The Star-Telegram article the Texas Watchdog referenced was titled Fort Worth’s water project is finally on the verge of funding.

Let that title sink in. According to the Star-Telegram America's Biggest Boondoggle, after nearly 15 years of boondoggling, is on the verge of finally being funded.

How is this funding on the verge of happening, you might wonder?

This paragraph from the article answers that question...

Granger, a former mayor of the city “where the West begins,” has, after nearly 20 years as a member of the House of Representatives, helped smooth the way for Congress to approve about $520 million in federal funds from the Army Corps of Engineers for the Fort Worth project. It is estimated that the completed cost, which includes nonfederal funding, will be nearly $1 billion.

The Granger being referred to is Kay Granger, mother of J.D., who was hired to be The Boondoggle's Executive Director in order to motivate his mama to do some pork barreling and attach some earmarks to bills to get money to fund this ridiculous project.

So, Granger, after all this time, years and years and years after her unqualified son was hired to muck up a project he was unqualified to execute, has now supposedly smoothed the way to get some of that federal money siphoned to Fort Worth.

But, the article tells us time is running out for the bill to get passed to add this pork to the president's budget.

(Note to president: If this ludicrious waste of public funds gets to your desk, please veto it, or line item it into oblivion.)

The article spends some time explaining various reasons this Kay Granger scheme might fail.

I particularly found the following paragraph of interest...

There are some differences between the House and Senate bills in funding the Trinity Vision project – the House bill authorizes $526.5 million and the Senate $520 million – and the Senate bill stipulates that the assistant secretary of the army for civil works certify that the project meets cost-benefit criteria.

Certify that the project meets cost-benefit criteria?  This "project" has been touted as a much needed flood control project, with the side benefit of providing an economic stimulus to a blighted section of a blighted town. There are areas of Tarrant County in dire need of flood control mitigation. Haltom City and Fossil Creek come to mind. The area where Kay Granger expects the American people to send Fort Worth money has not flooded for over half a century due to the fact that the Army Corps of Engineers built flood control levees that have kept that zone dry ever since.

This ridiculous "vision" has always been a crooked scheme to line the pockets of those who instigated it. What the federal government needs to do, instead of sending money to Fort Worth for a bogus flood control project, is to investigate who, including Kay Granger, stood to have their property values enhanced if the Trinity River Vision ever became something someone could see.

It also might be a good idea to investigate, on a federal level, how and why it was that Kay Granger's unqualified son, a low level district attorney, was hired to direct this project.

Okay, now let's get to the Star-Telegram editorial about this subject.

I will copy the entire short editorial, in its entirety, with its tortured verbiage intact...

Trinity River Vision nearing reality

THE EDITORIAL BOARD

The Trinity River Vision project is one step closer to being a reality.

Thanks to the tenacity of its principal advocate in the U.S. Congress, Rep. Kay Granger, the massive flood control and economic development project is close to receiving the congressional authorization needed to ensure its inclusion in the president’s budget.

Approval would unleash $520 million in federal funds from the Army Corps of Engineers — the majority of the estimated money needed to see the almost $1 billion project to its completion.

Granger, a former Fort Worth mayor, has been working for years to secure federal dollars for the endeavor, which, when finished, would divert the Trinity River and create an urban lake and 12 miles of developable waterfront in the northern quadrant of the city.

The funding still has a few hurdles to overcome: The House and Senate have to resolve slight differences in their respective authorization bills, and then legislators have to pass the bill in the time that remain this congressional session.

_____________________

"Developable waterfront in the northern quadrant of the city"?  Who is on this Star-Telegram Editorial Board? People who have never been to Fort Worth? The northern quadrant of the city is a long distance from the area at the north end of downtown Fort Worth where The Boondoggle is doing its boondoggling.

This editorial was illustrated by that which you see at the top. The infamous TNT explosion which marked the start of construction of The Boondoggle's three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Underneath that explosive illustration was the following blurb...

Officials detonate a blast on Henderson Street at the official groundbreaking of construction of the Panther Island Bridges being built on Henderson Street, North Main Street and White Settlement in Fort Worth, TX, Monday, Nov. 10, 2014. The ceremony included remarks by Congresswoman Kay Granger, Texas Department of Transportation Commissioner Victor Vandergriff and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price.

_______________________

Make note of the date of the TNT explosion. Nov. 10, 2014. Almost two years ago. At that point in time The Boondoggle shamelessly informed us that the bridge construction would take four years.

Longer than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge.

Almost two years after the TNT explosion all that can be seen of the bridge construction is some wooden V-pier forms near the site of the TNT explosion, that being the only one of the three bridges to have had any construction activity.

With that solo bridge construction activity halted months ago due to design problems.

You reading this in sane locations in America. This Boondoggle has been boondoggling along for a long time, Funds have been wasted on parts of the project which have already failed, such as Cowtown Wakepark. J.D. Granger has been making money for years longer than a real project director would have been making money from a legitimate project which should have been long completed, with the legitimate project director having moved on to his next project.

As an indicator of how absurd it is that Kay Granger's son was given this job, do you think, if this project ever does actually come to any sort of fruition, would any other city, anywhere, hire J.D. Granger to be the Executive Director of a public works project, after turning this Fort Worth embarrassment into America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Why is the Star-Telegram still cheerleading this disaster? Are owners of the Star-Telegram among those whose property values will increase if this project ever actually happens? What possible reason would the Star-Telegram have to bring up the subject of those bridges, with no mention made of the fact that building these simple bridges has run into a major snag?

Why does the Star-Telegram not have issue with the fact that The Boondoggle has been boondoggling along for such a long time with so little to show for the effort?

Why does the Star-Telegram not see a problem with a statement such as "Fort Worth's water project is finally on the verge of funding?"

This public works project which the public has never been allowed to vote on  was foisted on Fort Worth almost a decade and a half ago. And now, all that time later this project is finally on the verge of funding? And the local newspaper of record does not find this embarrassing, inept, stupid, irresponsible and, well, idiotic?

And definitely not the way major projects happen in modern locations in America.

Kay Granger needs to be booted out of Congress. Her son needs to be fired. A federal investigation into the various nefarious shenanigans needs to take place. And the plug needs to be pulled on this totally unneeded pseudo flood control project before any more harm is done to Fort Worth.

It's just appalling. 

Why Is There No Vision To Clean Up The Polluted Trinity River?

Yesterday, or the day before, I blogged about cities in America and the world, other than Fort Worth, which were having success with cleaning up their blighted rivers.

On a related subject I also blogged about Fort Worth's Trinity River's E. Coli and dead bodies pollution problem.

In a conversation with a Wichita Faller I recently found myself discussing how backwards Fort Worth was compared to Wichita Falls, and other modern American cities, in so many ways.

Such as, why, in Fort Worth, is there no effort to clean up the various polluted waterways? The main one being the Trinity River, along with waterways like Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park. It's not as if no other towns have cleaned up their waterways, hence Fort Worth having no examples of doing the same such thing.

New York City, for example.

The NYC blurb in the wired.com article about seven cities which turned their rivers from blight to beauty....

New York’s once ridiculously-polluted East River and Hudson waterfronts were long considered great places… to dump bodies. After transforming the banks on all sides over the last two decades with riverfront parks and paths, the city is further reimagining them through several new initiatives, including BIG’s Big U, a 10-mile-long protective system of landscaping and barriers around Manhattan that double as public space. But the most ambitious foray into the water itself is Family’s Plus Pool, a plus-shaped structure floating in the East River, filtering river water for swimming through a three-level purifying system. Final site selection is set to be announced later this year, and completion is set for 2019. Cities around the world are now shouting for similar facilities.

Fort Worth has been shuffling along for about the same amount of time it took New York City to transform the Hudson and East Rivers, with Fort Worth's embarrassing badly managed Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision having little to show for the multi-year effort.

Instead of a warped vision encouraging people to get wet in the E. coli alligator infested Trinity River why not focus instead on cleaning up that pitiful river?

Look what New York City is doing, installing a floating swimming pool type structure on the East River, filtering the water to make it totally safe to swim in.

One of America's Biggest Boondoggle's, early on, obvious to fail absurdities, was Cowtown Wakepark. Described by Fort Worth's favorite son, J.D. Granger, as being a world class state of the art facility which would bring the coveted sport of wakeboarding to the people of Fort Worth, who, apparently, in J.D.'s frat boy arrested development mind, longed for such.

Cowtown Wakepark is now a ghost town, worse than the stalled ghost town where once The Boondoggle celebrated the start of bridge construction with a TNT explosion and a lot of hot propaganda air.

Now, the pond The Boondoggle built for Cowtown Wakepark had an obvious flaw, in that it was so close to the Trinity River that the pond and that which surrounded the pond got flooded whenever the Trinity River ran extra water. Why did none of the useless idiots in charge of America's Biggest Boondoggle not realize this would be a problem?

Might there be a way to turn the Cowtown Wakepark pond into safe clean water, using some version of that system NYC is using to make a floating swimming pool in the East River? And somehow make this impervious to floods? And a safe place to be Rockin' the River whilst floating on inner tubes drinking beer?

Fort Worth, and Texans in general, seem way too comfortable with polluting their waterways.

Irresponsible fracking comes to mind.

In my old home state, decades ago, various waterways had become terribly polluted. Salmon no longer returned to Lake Washington. Various lakes were no longer safe to swim in. The pollution levels in the various rivers which drained into Puget Sound were polluting Puget Sound, having dire effects on the health of the Sound and its sea life.

So, what did the people of well educated, progressive Western Washington do? The various counties passed bond issues that brought about new water treatment plants, raising the treatment level to what is known as tertiary treatment. King, Pierce and Snohomish County passed what was called Forward Thrust, with the people voting to spend a lot of money on various projects that would clean up the water, and do things like upgrade Pike Place, the Woodland Park Zoo. Oh, and build the Kingdome. Among other items.

The result.

Salmon long ago returned to Lake Washington which has been safe to swim in for decades now, along with the other Western Washington lakes. Puget Sound is healthy. A crystal clear level of clean water. I remember in late July of 2008, walking along the beach at Point Defiance in Tacoma, astonished at how clear the water was. I remember thinking what a contrast with what I see in the area of Texas I live in.

I make that "area of Texas I live in" caveat because some of the clearest water I have ever seen has been in Texas. Aquarena Springs in San Marcos comes to mind.

If Western Washington could clean up its rivers and lakes, why can't North Texas? I do not get how people can tolerate their town having a river run through it which regularly hosts too much E. coli, while an idiotic pseudo public works project encourages people to get in that polluted water under the pretense they are participating in really special floating music events at a unique special music venue, which is actually quite mundane and the fact of the matter is there are few towns in the world, so backwards, that the town's officials would promote such unhealthy behavior in such an unseemly location.

I guess Fort Worth can take some solace in the fact that the town has something in common with Rio de Janerio. As in, water one is advised not to touch. However, there is a snowballs chance in hell that Fort Worth could ever be picked to host an Olympics.

Hosting America's Biggest Boondoggle will likely continue to be Fort Worth's claim to fame for the near future...

Climbing Mount Wichita On A Cool Cloudy August Texas Monday

Til today it seems like it has been weeks since I rolled myself to Lake Wichita Park to do some mountain climbing to the summit of Mount Wichita.

Mountain climbing has not seemed appealing with the temperature over the century mark.

But today, as you can see, is a bit overcast, with thunderstorms in the realm of the possible, according to the weather prognosticators.

Since I last mountain climbed giant dandelion-like flowers have sprung up at the lower elevations of Mount Wichita, adding a welcome bit of yellow to the green and brown earth tones.

The temperature at the base of Mount Wichita, according to my phone, was 83 degrees when I began the ascent. I did not think to check the temperature when I reached the high elevation of the summit.

The air is being pretty much dead calm today, which helped make that relatively chilly 83 degrees feel relatively hot.

I made only two ascents to the Mount Wichita summit today, with the first ascent via the rarely climbed east face of the mountain. The second ascent was via the popular, heavily trekked west ascent.

From the Mount Wichita summit it did not look like there was much thunderstorm potential in the looking south view you see below. However, taking a 180 degree turn and looking north, the dark sky did look like there was thunderstorm potential. I did not think to photo document the dark northern view.

You can see today's dead calm windlessness reflected in how glassy like smooth Lake Wichita is being today. Nary a ripple in sight.

Upon reaching the summit of Mount Wichita today I found a guy taking photos with his phone. He was from Missouri, in town to visit his grandma and introduce grandma to his fiance.

The last time he was in Wichita Falls was during the drought. He said that on that visit Lake Wichita was reduced to being a small pond. He also said that when he was a kid he and his friends would swim in Lake Wichita.

I knew long ago, like early in the previous century, swimming was doable. People in this century have told me no one swims in Lake Wichita.

The Lake Wichita Revitalization Project hopes to restore Lake Wichita to being swim worthy, with a sandy beach near the base of Mount Wichita. That would be a real good thing....

Boondoggle's River Rockin' Sinks With Too Much E. Coli & Dead Bodies In The Trinity

I first saw that which you see here last night via Layla Caraway on Facebook.

I was more than a little surprised to see this because that sure looks like Ms. Caraway in the upper middle of the photo, floating in the Trinity River at the notorious location oddly named Panther Island Pavilion, where there is no island or pavilion.

The Facebook post linked to a Star-Telegram E. coli found in Trinity River at Panther Island Pavilion article.

Apparently the TRWD takes a water sample every Tuesday, with the results coming in on Thursday, which is the day of America's Biggest Boondoggle's Rockin' the River Inner Tubing Happy Hour in Fort Worth's favorite polluted river.

This week's test found the E. coli level HUGELY elevated, far above the level considered safe by TCEQ, or any sane human.

Now, what I wonder, and what seems so obvious to me, with this testing done only once a week, with the possibility of the E. coli levels spiking so dangerously, what if the water sampled on Tuesday was a pure as the water in a civilized location on the planet, but by Thursday's Rockin' the River the level spikes to the 1,700 E. coli organisms per 100 milliliters level it spiked to on Tuesday?

How can anyone suggest it is safe to get wet in the Trinity River without testing taking place simultaneous to the time when The Boondoggle schedules one of its ill-conceived water events?

The Star-Telegram article neglects informing its few readers that in addition to way too much E. coli being in the Trinity River, this week three bodies were also fished out of the river.

The last paragraph of the article tells us that The Boondoggle's Sunday Funday family friendly tubing, kayaking, canoeing and boating at Panther Island is still scheduled.

Scheduled two days before the next scheduled water quality test? What sort of responsible parental figure would consider this to be an appropriate family event to take ones kids to?

I can't be the only person who has observed the fiasco that has become America's Biggest Boondoggle who thinks it is time to pull the plug.

And get that plug pulled before someone gets hurt. Fort Worth seldom does anything or has anything happen with garners national, let alone international attention.

I really don't want to see Fort Worth known as the town where hundreds of people were sickened by E. coli, or worse. Can you imagine the world's media coming to town, with J.D. Granger trying to explain why he helped instigate getting people floating and drinking beer in a dangerously polluted river, known to be one of the most polluted in Texas, and America?

Is Fort Worth A City Transforming Its River From Blight To Beauty?

A couple days ago someone named Anonymous made an anonymous comment to a blogging about the latest embarrassingly stupid propaganda from America's Biggest Boondoggle, now officially known, supposedly, as the Panther Island District.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Imaginary Fun Phase Begins For Fort Worth's Entertainment Boondoggle":

Somehow Fort Worth didn't make the list.

7 Cities Transforming their Rivers from Blights to Beauties

________________

Somehow Fort Worth did not make the list, but, Oklahoma City did, as did a Texas town named San Antonio. But no mention made of Fort Worth, with its river boondoggle mired in inept mediocrity (and too much e.coli) with its ill considered attempt to turn the Trinity River into a lake with canals and imaginary islands. A project which has been ambling along in slow motion since soon after the start of the new century.

Meanwhile, other towns in America, and the world, have actually transformed their town's rivers from blights to beauties.

However, in Fort Worth, after all these years, the Trinity River is still the same polluted river it was back when the Trinity River Vision was first foisted on the unsuspecting Fort Worth public, years before it became an imaginary island named after an imaginary panther.

The seven cities which have turned their blighted rivers into beauties are Chicago, Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh, Medellin, Columbia, New York City, San Antonio and Los Angeles.

The transformation of Oklahoma City's river is quite impressive. I have been impressed with Oklahoma City each time I have visited. I recollect being in OKC soon after Fort Worth's Trinity Uptown project was announced. OKC had this development underway called Bricktown. There were signs telling of the funding mechanism, based on a bond issue which was the result of a vote. I remember thinking, wow, Oklahoma City is a much more advanced American city than pathetic Fort Worth. That was well over 15 years ago.

The blurb about Oklahoma City's river revival in the Blight to Beauty article...

In the 1920s and 30s, the US Army Corps of Engineers rerouted the North Canadian River around downtown Oklahoma City, to avoid flooding. The result was a marshy watercourse that locals liked to joke about mowing instead of rowing. A $53-million project completed in 2004 rejuvenated the stretch, creating the seven-mile, dam-controlled body of water whose name was then changed to the Oklahoma River. Since then, a one-cent sales tax initiative has funded additional enhancements to the river and its surrounding Boathouse District. Master planned by local architecture firm Rand Elliot + Associates, the area includes walkways, performance spaces, shopping, and angular glass and steel boathouses. The newest feature, an 11-acre whitewater kayaking and rafting site known as RiverSports Rapids, opened this spring.

Of the seven cities profiled the only one not in America is Medellin, Columbia. That's in South America, for you who skipped geography class. Being in South America, and with Columbia being a third world country, this town most closely matches Fort Worth, development wise, both politically and economically.

The blurb about Medellin's river renewal...

Medellin, a once broken city that has already reinvented itself through innovative urban projects like parks, squares, an aerial tram, and a green belt, is now completely rethinking its river. Like so many others, that waterway was channeled in concrete in the 1950s, a highway built right next to it. But now, following a competition-winning plan by Latitude, Workshop of Architecture and City, the city is burying a 1,300-foot-long stretch of that highway and building a park (Parques del Rio Medellin) on top, providing recreation and re-connecting the river to the rest of the city.

Okay, maybe Medellin is not as much of a third world type city as Fort Worth is, what with Medellin having successfully reinvented itself through multiple progressive projects, whilst Fort Worth really has not ever reached the stage where reinvention is a possibility.

I wonder if Medellin has indoor plumbing in its urban parks projects, or if it follows the Fort Worth third world type reliance on multiple outhouses?

Fort Worth is a town which finally installed a square in its downtown after decades of pointing the town's few tourists to a non-existent Sundance Square.

Maybe Fort Worth could send some sort of task force to Medellin, Columbia to try and learn how that town manages to get projects done without becoming an embarrassing boondoggle.

I suspect that that Fort Worth task force, upon inspecting how things get done in Medellin, will learn that Medellin's successful projects did not employ the unqualified son of a corrupt local politician, even though that is a third world type cliche....

Texan Expedition To Lucy Park Looking For Trump's Log Cabin

This first Sunday of August I decided to escape air-conditioned comfort to journey to Lucy Park to take a walk in the shade of tall oak and pecan trees.

One of my favorite locations on the planet is the redrock zone of Utah.

Today at Lucy Park, near a Wichita River overlook I saw the big chunk of redrock you see here, with a plaque stuck to the redrock informing redrock gazers that the Texas Santa Fe Expedition crossed the Wichita River near this spot August 4, 1841.

This sounds like something Donald Trump would make up. Where is the video documenting this alleged river crossing?  And who was doing the expediting on this Texas Santa Fe Expedition? I suspect some Mexicans were along, due to this area having recently been Mexico til the Texans land grabbed.

No, that which you see below is not the log cabin Donald Trump claims to have been born in.

What you are looking at is the Lucy Log Cabin in Lucy Park. You can rent the Lucy Log Cabin for events like parties and weddings and other such stuff.

Speaking of Donald Trump. And who isn't? If you have been perplexed, as have many, wondering how any sane person could possibly think it a good idea for Donald Trump to be the next American president, I read an interesting article this morning with a good explanation for this inexplicable phenomenon titled A neuroscientist explains what may be wrong with Trump supporters’ brains.

It's a long article. A good excerpt from that long article, which includes something I have said about the inexplicable Trump phenomenon....

“The knowledge and intelligence that are required to be good at a task are often the same qualities needed to recognize that one is not good at that task — and if one lacks such knowledge and intelligence, one remains ignorant that one is not good at the task. This includes political judgment. Essentially, they’re not smart enough to realize they’re dumb."

Not smart enough to realize they are dumb.

I have thought that to myself countless times of late, whilst reading comments on Facebook and other locations. Not smart enough to realize they are dumb....

Happy 65th Wedding Anniversary Mom & Dad

In five days it will be 15 years since I took the picture you see here of my mom and dad.

August 11, 2001.

Exactly one month before life in America changed drastically.

On July 27, 2001 I headed northwest, solo, driving myself back to Washington in order to be a surprise attendee at my mom and dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Today, August 6, 2016 is my mom and dad's 65th Wedding Anniversary.

The 50th Anniversary Party took place at my oldest sister Clancy's and Fancy's abode in Kent. Kent is south of Seattle, about halfway to Tacoma.

About a month after 9/11/2001 mom and dad visited me in Texas for the first time. They were heading back to Arizona after a long roadtrip in their RV that took them to visit former Amish relatives in Ohio, among others.

If I remember right I have photos my dad took in Ohio. I shall look and see if I can find Ohio photos.

Mom and dad had trekked east for a reunion of my dad's siblings and some of their kids. Below is a picture of my mom at that sibling reunion.

Like I said, my dad was taking the pictures, so that is not my dad sitting next to mom. That would be my dad's little brother, my Uncle Mooch, sitting next to mom.

The last time I was in Washington was eight years ago, from July 15 til August 15. Mom and dad arrived in Tacoma, up from Arizona, a few days into that last visit to Washington.

Then, a few months later, during the first week of the new year of 2009, mom and dad drove to Texas once again to visit their Texan kid.

Mom and dad in their cowboy hats, at Lake Grapevine in January of 2009.

I do not know what is planned for mom and dad's 65th anniversary. I will be calling later today.

Happy Anniversary Ma and Pa!

Fruitless Friday Wichita Falls Search For Litter

Walking to my means of motorized vehicular transport today, en route to Sikes Lake, I looked across the street at what you see here and thought to myself something that had not occurred to me, previously, when looking at this scene. That being that this is something one would seldom see in my old home zone of Fort Worth.

A covered bus stop, with a bench to sit on, and a garbage receptacle in which to deposit litter.

Last Saturday on the way to the Watermelon Festival in downtown Wichita Falls one of my passengers verbalized something along the line that there sure is little litter littering this town.

I have made note of that fact a time or two myself. While in Fort Worth I was regularly astonished at the volume of litter littering the landscape. And floating in the Trinity River.

Why such a difference between two Texas towns? Are Wichita Fallers a more tidy breed of Texan than the people of Fort Worth?

I decided litter was going to be my theme of the day, and that whilst walking around Sikes Lake I was going to look for litter, on the ground and in the lake.

Well, what I quickly made note of during my Sikes Lake search for litter was another thing I'd not made note of previously. That being that there are a lot of litter receptacles ready to receive litter around Sikes Lake.

About every 200 feet there is a bench, with a litter receptacle adjacent to the bench.

Above, looking past the horse of many colors, you see a jogger about to run by one of the aforementioned  benches with its adjacent litter receptacle. Please note that you can see no litter on the ground.

Continuing on, a couple benches later we come to this bench, perched at an angle to the lake, looking east. Again, no litter visible anywhere.

Around Sikes Lake there are several gazebo type picnic structures, such as you see above, with a drinking fountain. And a litter receptacle. Looking through the gazebo you can see another of the gazebos on the other side of the lake.

A look at yet one more bench and its litter receptacle companion, looking northwest, by the shade of an evergreen tree of some variety unknown to me. And, again, no litter to be seen no matter where one looks.

So, why such a contrast between two Texas towns? Litter free Wichita Falls with modern parks with modern facilities and amenities like multiple benches contrasted with filthy Fort Worth with its embarrassing, astonishing, disgusting amount of litter, with few modern parks with modern amenities.

Do the people of Fort Worth, for the most part, not visit other towns, even neighboring towns, and see how far behind the modern world Fort Worth is in way too many ways?

Oh, one more thing. In Wichita Falls I have not come across any sort of anti-litter campaign. Apparently because there is no need for such a campaign.

While in Fort Worth the town's goofy government comes up with dumb stuff like Adopt a Drain, and, I don't know if this is still happening, but a city program encouraging Fort Worthers to pick up ten pieces of litter on Tuesdays.

I don't know if one person could find ten pieces of litter in Wichita Falls, even if one had all week, not just a Tuesday....

Imaginary Fun Phase Begins For Fort Worth's Entertainment Boondoggle

Captain Andy sent me a link to that which you see here, a FOX4 News online article titled Development phase begins for new Fort Worth entertainment district.

I read the article, which was posted August 2, 2016, thinking it seemed so outdated, as in maybe a decade out of sync.

Regarding this article this is what Captain Andy had to say...

Get out your hipwaders, the propaganda machine is stirring again. Panther Island is a new name? Construction is about to start? What the hell? Hasn't construction been delayed for the last several months after starting with a bang (or a dull thud) quite some time ago? Every time they move a spade of dirt they restart the timeline on the project. 

I think it was a year ago, or maybe two, time flies so fast, that The Boondoggle had a ceremony capped by a TNT explosion to celebrate the momentous occasion of the start of construction of one of The Boondoggle's three bridges connecting the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.  That bridge construction of that one bridge has been halted for months now, due to design errors.

Has anyone read any news, anywhere, among the multiple reliable Fort Worth news sources, regarding the current stalled state of The Boondoggle's bridge building?

When that explosive TNT ceremony took place J.D. Granger was quoted as saying that now the public will finally be able to see this project rise from the ground. Literally. With the appearance of monumentally unique signature wooden V-pier forms. Currently a few of those wooden forms are all that can be seen of this stalled project.

Some embarrassing excerpts from this bizarre propaganda laced article...

The land has already been purchased, utilities moved, environment cleaned up and now building begins. "Now we're going to the fun phase -- the development phase,” said Granger. “So over the last year, we've had lots of development interest. We've been talking through many different parcels." Parcels include a sports complex, festival grounds, parks, canals, housing, office space and more.

Now we're at the fun phase, the development phase, the incompetent, unqualified Granger failure claims?

Why is no one asking about the stalled construction of those bridges?

And then there is this...

The city's future plans of making a river-walk, lakes and canals along with an entertainment district and condos and apartments are about to take some big steps forward, which could double Fort Worth’s downtown area. The new development will also come with a name change.

Another name change? What is the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision going to be called now? This project which has been dawdling along since around the start of the century, eventually turning into America's Biggest Boondoggle is about to take some big steps forward?

And then we learn about the name change....

It would be bigger than San Antonio's river walk and would rival Austin's Town Lake. Newly-named Panther Island District would stretch 12 miles along the Trinity River, just north of downtown Fort Worth. By 2024, the development would double the size of the central part of the city.

Oh, the new name is the same name The Boondoggle has been using for years now.

Panther Island.

Where there is no island. Who wrote this idiotic article?

And then this gem....

But if you think it's a new idea, JD Granger with the Trinity River Vision Authority has been working on it for several years. With about $280 million in, Granger said now is when the fun part begins.

If you think this Boondoggle is a new idea you have been totally out of touch with local Fort Worth reality. It's a bad, old idea, that has been stumbling along for years and years, with very little to show for all the effort and extensive signage and quarterly mailed updates detailing the lack of real progress.

And what is up with Kay Granger's boy's fixation with the supposed "fun part" of this Boondoggle beginning?

The following paragraph contained the most embarrassing nonsense of this entire embarrassing propaganda piece....

Construction for the development could begin in a month or two. After Tuesday’s vote, the area was officially renamed from the Trinity Uptown District to the Panther Island District, one of many changes to come over the next few years for the area.

Construction could begin in a month or two? What construction? The stalled bridge construction? The digging of the ditch to go under the stalled bridge construction? Officially renamed from Trinity Uptown District to Panther Island District?

Is it not time now to say enough of this nonsense is enough? This Boondoggle needs to be put to rest before it does more damage to Fort Worth than has already been done.

And J.D. Granger needs to be fired if this Boondoggle continues to go forward. Who is to blame for this becoming America's Biggest Boondoggle?

If not J.D. Granger, who?

His mama?

A No Vote In Seattle Got Me Wondering About Getting Propositioned In Fort Worth

My old home state of Washington had an election of the primary sort yesterday in which Washington voters voted on all sorts of things.

Including what you see here, Initiative 123, a Seattle issue where voters voted to reject a plan to turn part of the Alaskan Way Viaduct into a waterfront park.

In the state I am currently in, Texas, the town of Arlington's city council took a step yesterday towards putting on the November ballot a bond issue asking voters to vote to support tearing down the relatively new Texas Rangers ballpark and replace it with a new ballpark with a roof and air conditioning.

Ever since this new ballpark in Arlington deal popped up I've thought it to be ridiculous. The Ballpark in Arlington is the coolest, nicest baseball park I have ever been in. Having said that I must admit the only other major league ballpark I have been in is the long gone Kingdome.

Reading this morning about the Washington election and the ballpark news out of Arlington it got me to freshly wondering what is wrong with that Sick City named Fort Worth.

It's not like the voters of Fort Worth don't see examples, up close, such as next door, in Arlington, of voters getting to vote on issues affecting their town.

Fort Worth is currently the host city for America's Biggest Boondoggle. A poorly implemented, ill-conceived, ineptly engineered, pseudo flood control economic development scheme the voters of Fort Worth were not allowed to vote on. America's Biggest Boondoggle has been boondoggling along for almost two decades, with little to show for the effort. Currently with The Boondoggle's bridge construction halted for months due to design mistakes.

A couple years ago Fort Worth's voters were actually sort of allowed to vote on a public works project. That being a new Multi-Purpose Arena.

But, that "vote" was extremely goofy and definitely not the way the voters vote on a public works project in democratic areas of America.

To approve of the building of Fort Worth's new Multi-Purpose Arena voters were asked to approve three separate propositions. Now, that really does not sound all that different from what voters might vote on in a normal part of America.

However, those three propositions were three extremely goofy revenue raising proposals, supposedly raising enough money to pay the public part of the project, with the other half paid for by the good ol' boy and girl network which runs Fort Worth in what is known as The Fort Worth Way.

I blogged about this Fort Worth three propositions lunacy multiple times, including in Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy's Congratulatory Arena Propaganda where I opined, regarding those three propositions....

As for those Three Propositions, those have perplexed me ever since I first learned of them. Basically they are three voter approved taxes, as in fees on renting livestock stalls,  parking and event tickets.

To supposedly approve the building of this arena the Fort Worth voters were asked to approve one proposition to charge a livestock rental fee, another proposition to add a parking fee tax. And a third proposition to add a fee tax to event tickets.

Yes, you reading this in an area of America that operates normally, each of those three "propositions" was a separate entry on the ballot. Instead of a straight up vote to approve a bond measure to build an arena, voting to approve of these three goofy propositions was the yes or no vote on the arena.

It's been a couple years now since the Fort Worth sheep, I mean voters, approved of those three goofy propositions. Has construction begun yet on the new arena after all this time since the voters approved of those three goofy propositions? Or has this project become mired in Fort Worth Boondoggle mode along with three stuck bridges being built over dry land to connect Fort Worth's mainland to an imaginary island?