Fort Worth's Shanty Town Has Vanished While The World's Biggest Outhouse Graveyard Is Still Prominently On Display

Last week I learned of, and blogged about, Fort Worth's Shanty Town of Homeless People.

The Fort Worth Shanty Town had existed for over two years, becoming a town with about 50 dwellings. The Shanty Town was visible from Interstate 30, that being the freeway that runs from Arlington, with Arlington being where the Super Bowl will be played in a couple weeks, and Fort Worth, where no Super Bowl will likely ever be played.

Even though Fort Worth is the envy of the entire nation.

When I wrote about it, I had not actually seen Fort Worth's Shanty Town with my own eyes. So I asked for directions to it from one of my fellow Eyes on Texas, known as YSD. YSD told me to drive down Bomar Street and before I got to Lancaster and the homeless shelter zone I would see the Fort Worth Shanty Town.

However, on Saturday, all I saw was one tent and some sort of ramshackle structure, where I thought I should be seeing the Shanty Town.

I turned from Lancaster on to Riverside, thinking I'd then see the Shanty Town, but I saw nothing, except what I believe may be the World's Biggest Outhouse Graveyard.

Clearly viewable, from I-30, are 100s of Outhouses, just to the west of where I had expected to find Fort Worth's Shanty Town.

I returned to Bomar Street on Sunday, taking along an extra pair of eyes to look for the elusive Shanty Town.

Still no luck. But I did stop to take some pictures of the Outhouse Graveyard.

Most of the Outhouses are labeled "Texas Toilet.." But one had the special label of "CAN DOO DFW."

Yesterday I told YSD of my inability to locate Fort Worth's Shanty Town. So, YSD took off to check it out and reported back that it was just as I saw on both Saturday and Sunday.

Fort Worth's Shanty Town is gone.

All that remains is one tent and one ramshackle structure. With no Homeless People to be seen.

Now, how did this happen? Last week the local supposed newspaper of record, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, reported that the city code people were taking issue with the Shanty Town. Some of the Homeless People claimed they'd been given 10 days to get out of there.

City officials claimed no evacuation order had been given.

So, where did the Shanty Town and its residents go?

Where is the mother with the baby in a stroller? Where is the pregnant lady?

How was the Shanty Town so quickly de-Hoovervilled?

And does the City of Fort Worth really think a little Shanty Town of tents was more embarrassing than having what must be the World's Largest Graveyard of Outhouses so prominently displayed?

It is all very perplexing.

UPDATE: cd0103 has informed me that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram did have an article regarding the disappearance of Fort Worth's Shanty Town. Apparently I arrived on Saturday after the removal had taken place.

Taking A Long Walk Under A Blue Sky On Arlington's Veterans Park Boardwalk

The early morning cloudy gray sky soon gave way to blue. I prefer my sky to be blue and not gray.

I had to be in Pantego today. Being in Pantego gave me a perfect opportunity to take a long walk on the boardwalk in Arlington's Veterans Park.

Ahead of me on the boardwalk, where it takes a left, there was a little kid screaming at his dad because the kid was sure there was a troll hiding under the boardwalk. I think the dad was egging the kid on about the troll.

I told the kid I'd seen no trolls, just snakes.

How was I to know the kid was more scared of snakes than trolls?

There is a lot of work being done on Veterans Park. There was a "Bridge Closed For Construction" sign. But I saw no construction on the already constructed bridge.

The playground equipment has been removed with the new playground construction underway. The previous playground equipment was quite nice, so this new playground is likely going to be spectacular.

Unlike Fort Worth's parks, the Arlington parks have restrooms of the modern sort, with indoor plumbing. Plus picnic facilities, with running water.

If you live within 20 miles, give or take a mile or two, of Arlington's Veterans Park it is worth a look. The park has a variety of hiking choices, a Xeriscape to show you what you can grow in a low water Texas climate. A composting exhibit that shows you what you can do constructively with your lawn clippings. And a disc golf course where you can dodge flying discs.

Clouds Return On The Morning Of The 3rd Tuesday Of 2011 While My Drinking Water Source Changes

The sun has not quite illuminated my surroundings enough to make an absolute determination, but currently it appears we are back under a gray cloud cover on this 3rd Tuesday of 2011.

On a warmer note it is not freezing at only 2 degrees shy of being 50. Which you can sort of tell because no steam is fuming from my hot tub.

This morning I learned my drinking water may be tasting not so good for a few days. Apparently the Tarrant Regional Water District will be working on the water supply lines that bring water in from East Texas.

While the water lines are being worked on, the water I drink will be coming from Benbrook Lake. That is to the southwest of my location.

One thing I've not understood about Texas drinking water coming from lake sources is the lakes are also used for recreation. As in boats and swimming. Where my drinking water came from in Washington, the Judy Reservoir, that lake is surrounded by high fence with concertina wire on top.

I am used to enhancing the drinkability of my Texas water by keeping a big pitcher of water with lemon slices floating in it, in the fridge.

All this water talk is making me think it is time to go swimming now. Talk to you later.

Martin Luther King Day With Blue Sky At Village Creek Thinking About An Unstoppable Woman, A Hotpepper & A Grammar Challenged Queen

You are looking at an impoundment of part of Village Creek, at least I think it is part of Village Creek, although the main branch of the creek is to the left of the water in the picture. This impoundment may have something to do with the system that puts water in to the cool canals of Interlochen.

But. What is really important about this picture is something else that is shows.

Can you see it?

Blue sky has returned to my zone of North Texas.

And it is almost 60 degrees.

I really was starting to suffer my first bout of SAD of this winter. If I remember correctly I had several bouts of Seasonally Affected Disorder last winter.

I never was a SAD sufferer when I lived in Western Washington. A place with way more SAD type days than North Texas has. I guess I had developed a tolerance for drippy, gray days when I was a Washingtonian and Texas has caused me to lose my immunity.

Texas has caused me to lose so many things.

I heard from my favorite Unstoppable Woman today. The Unstoppable Woman is just about my favorite person I ever worked with to make a website. So many people do not communicate well. The Unstoppable Woman knew exactly what she wanted and was able to explain exactly what she wanted. It made it all so easy.

My other favorite Unstoppable Woman, Elsie Hotpepper, well, it goes without saying you really can not stop the Hotpepper. Even if you are foolish enough to try. Anyway, Elsie is safely back from her long weekend of tropical island saloon hopping.

And then there is the Queen of Wink. Near as I can tell her Wink Realm is growing evermore chaotic. I am not even certain that the Queen is still the Queen and has not been replaced by a King, who is now keeping the former Queen prisoner in the Wink Tower.

I got the oddest message from the Queen of Wink this morning, going on about her grammar errors, which the Queen called grammatical errors, as she complained, out of nowhere, about me being a Grammar Bully. I don't even know what a Grammar Bully is, let alone how to be one. And then, in her message complaining about me being a Grammar Bully, the Queen made at least one rather bad grammar error. I'd point it out, but I don't want to be a bully.

So, there you go, my exciting Martin Luther King Day. So far.

Fort Worth Mayor Moncrief Thanks TCU For Making Fort Worth The Envy Of America

You are looking at Fort Worth's ultra-goofy, ultra-corrupt mayor, Mike Moncrief, in purple shirt and tie, in Texas Christian University's Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on Sunday for a public celebration where only around 6,000 TCU fans showed up to celebrate TCU winning the Rose Bowl.

You who live in the part of America that is not Fort Worth may be surprised to learn that Fort Worth is the "envy of the nation" because a university in this town won the Rose Bowl.

At Sunday's celebration Mayor Mike Moncrief thanked TCU "for making us the envy of the entire nation."

The "entire nation."

That is impressive.

I no longer subscribe to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Because it was no longer worth subscribing to. So, I do not know if the paper has reverted to using its "Green with Envy" type verbiage over and over again in its print version regarding some nonsensical thing that no one is envious of. Like some little known country music singer moving to town.

But.

I do look at the online Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and, though I missed it til Elsie Hotpepper pointed me to it, there it was, once more the goofy "envy of" conceit. This time in quote form on the front page, linked to an article titled "More than 6,000 TCU fans pay tribute to 'unbelievable' season for Horned Frogs" in which the Star-Telegram repeats the "envy of the nation" verbiage....

FORT WORTH -- As the community heralded its university and Rose Bowl champions as the "envy of the nation," one couldn't help but wonder whether guys named Baugh, O'Brien, Meyer and even Wacker weren't somewhere looking down and sporting smiles as big as Fort Worth.

More than 6,000 enthusiastic Texas Christian University fans filled Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on Sunday for a public celebration honoring coach Gary Patterson's football team and recognizing a 2010 season that was about as good as any in the 110-year history of the program.

I have no clue who guys name Baugh, O'Brien, Meyer and Wacker are.

But, I do know I read in west coast online newspapers, more than one Pac-10 football fan opine that a Fort Worth school named TCU, from one of the non-top type conferences, playing in and winning the fabled Rose Bowl is the final nail in the coffin of the widely disliked BCS system of choosing who plays in what football Bowls.

This somehow does not sound like envy to me. It seems more like disappointment that a fabled institution like the annual Rose Bowl has been greatly lessened. And is no longer even played on New Year's Day.

Now, what I am really curious about is all the years some team other than a Fort Worth football team won the Rose Bowl, was Fort Worth collectively envious of the town in which that winning team was located?

I do not recollect ever reading in the Seattle P-I, or hearing anyone opine that Seattle was the "envy of the nation" because the University of Washington won the Rose Bowl.

Do these locals who tout this type verbiage have even the slightest clue that it gets read by people outside of Fort Worth, you know, out in America, and that it makes Fort Worth seem really silly? And that it is sort of embarrassing to be saying this that or the other thing in a town like Fort Worth is the "envy of the nation."

This type bragging really needs to be retired permanently from this town. Until the day comes where something is actually worthy of such lofty verbiage.

The Dawn Of Martin Luther King Day In Texas Thinking About Going To Fort Worth's Stock Show

I went to bed early Sunday night and yet still somehow managed to sleep in late after a long night of very strange nightmares which I will not go into detail about because my memory of the nightmares is sketchy.

My chicken football fajitas turned out good yesterday. Much better than the football game. I erroneously thought the Seahawks were scheduled to start getting beat by the Chicago Bears around 1 in the afternoon.

I did not get back to my TV until a bit after 1 in the afternoon yesterday. By then Seattle was behind by 3 touchdowns and the second half was under way. By the time the 4th quarter was ready so were my fajitas.

I did not last long watching Seattle play football before the boredom syndrome kicked in. How do people keep watching these games through all those commercial breaks? I think I suffer from a bad case of FADD, Football Attention Deficit Disorder.

Changing the subject from football back to my dire existence in Texas. As you can see looking out my computer room window, it is yet one more gray sky winter morning. Currently nothing is precipitating from the sky. And it is again a balmy 13 degrees above freezing.

I have no idea what lies ahead for me on this Monday Martin Luther King Day. If it were warmer I might consider going to the Fort Worth Stock Show. I've only gone twice. It can be interesting. Saturday's Fort Worth Stock Show Parade drew a smaller number of parade watchers than what shows up when it is not cold. It has been several years in a row now that it has not been warm for that parade. If I remember right, ice cancelled the parade a couple years ago.

Well, it is time to go for my morning swim before it gets any later.

Sunday Dawns Foggy In North Texas While I Ready Fajitas To Watch Seattle Beat Chicago On Their Way To The Super Bowl

The Ides of the first month of the New Year dawns late with the ground covered in wetness from last night's downpours and fog making a haze of the view into the distance, which you can sort of see from the view from the window I am currently looking out.

On a happier note, it is currently 13 degrees above freezing.

I did not stay up all that late Saturday night, but, for some reason, I got up later this Sunday morning than any time in recent memory, as in, my eyes did not open to the dawn of this Sunday til well after it dawned. As in, past 8 o'clock.

It feels borderline scandalous to sleep in in this manner.

It is now almost 9 am. I have just a few hours to get my Football Fajita Feeding ready to watch the Seattle Seahawks beat the Chicago Bears so that the Seahawks can play in the AFC Championship Game. Which apparently will be a home field advantage game for Seattle, if I understood what I was reading correctly.

All Seattle has to do is win today, and then one more game and then they will be visiting here in Texas to play in the Super Bowl in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium where the Dallas Cowboys are not allowed to play in the Super Bowl.

In anticipation of an exciting day of football, I guess I will go swimming now, out in the fog.

Fort Worth's Fosdic Sinkhole Grows Bigger & Now Requires Protective Measures

On Wednesday I was surprised to see a sinkhole forming near Fosdic Lake in Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park.

Today, as I was on the phone talking to Elsie Hotpepper, who I am happy to report is not saloon hopping on a tropical island, I was surprised to drive in to Oakland Lake Park to see the Fosdic Sinkhole has sunk deeper since Wednesday.

And it is now surrounded by orange and white pylons and yellow crime scene type tape.

As you can see, this sinkhole is nothing you would want to accidentally walk into while you were out on a peaceful stroll.

I have not heard from Sinkhole Expert, Gar the Texan, as to his assessment as to the cause of the Fosdic Sinkhole. I suspect the Fosdic Sinkhole will not grow to Wink Sinkhole proportions. If it did it would swallow Fosdic Lake.

Is Fort Worth's Shanty Town Being Dismantled Because Of The Super Bowl?

Yesterday's blogging about Fort Worth's Shanty Town generated some interesting comments.

The comments from "Ashamed in FW" mentioned something that had totally not occurred to me.

That being that it is likely the sudden interest in this Shanty Town of Fort Worth Homeless People likely has something to do with the fact that in a few weeks the attention of the nation, and to a lesser degree, the world, will be focused on the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex with the Super Bowl coming to the Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Arlington.

ESPN will be broadcasting from downtown Fort Worth. City officials are expecting HUGE crowds downtown. I think this expectation is delusional, but what do I know?

Visitors driving from Arlington to Fort Worth on Interstate 30 will be driving right by Fort Worth's Shanty Town.

Back during the era of the Soviet Union, when visits by western leaders were rare, when one did get invited to a town, like Moscow, the route traveled by the leader was tightly controlled, with the route all spruced up.

Russia has a long history of creating what are called Potemkin Villages to fool visitors about the quality of life in Russia.

If the City of Fort Worth succeeds in the coming weeks in dismantling the Fort Worth Shanty Town, to remove that embarrassment from the eyes of visitors, what about the other eyesores? What if a visitor visits downtown Fort Worth and decides to head back east on Lancaster, Rosedale or Berry?

I take visitors from the Northwest on drives down those roads. My visitors are always shocked and appalled, not realizing that such Third World type squalor exists in America.

Are there plans to paint some sort of pretty face on the eyesore areas of Fort Worth? What if a visitor gets a bit lost leaving the Fort Worth Stockyards, driving around in the neighborhood around the Stockyards? That won't leave a very good impression.

On a related, but different note, back when it was announced that the 2011 Super Bowl would be played in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium I opined that this was going to end up being embarrassing when the national press gets a look at that bizarre building plopped down in a rundown residential/industrial area.

However, there have been many events that have taken place in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium and I have not heard a word mentioned of the urban blight that surrounds it on 2 sides.

This sort of tells me that other stadiums in America must be located in equally blighted zones. The only stadiums I have seen are those in Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego. All with no blight. And so, I guess I had some sort of elevated expectation of what sort of location a stadium is built.

Anyway, I hope the City of Fort Worth finds a more elevated solution to putting a pretty face on Fort Worth's Shanty Town than doing something ham-handed like when President Hoover sent in General MacArthur and the Army to clear out the Hoovervilles that had sprung up in Washington, D.C. during the Great Depression.

And.

I hope the City of Fort Worth does not send in its Gestapo Army to clear out the Shanty Town that has sprung up during the Great Recession.

A Rainy Saturday In Texas Feeling Homesick For Washington & The San Juan Islands

I was up late Friday night, which has caused me to be up late Saturday morning. I hate it when that happens.

Rain was in the forecast for today. Looking out my peephole on the world this morning I can see it has already been raining.

Raining and 40 degrees. Welcome to a stereotypical Pacific Northwest Western Washington type winter day.

In Texas.

Speaking of Washington, this morning's New York Times had a list of "The 41 Places to Go in 2011.". The San Juan Islands of Washington was #2 on the list, between Santiago, Chile at #1 and Koh Sumai, Thailand at #3. Washington's Olympic National Park was a little further down the list.

I was shocked, shocked I tell you, that no location in Texas was on the list of places you need to go in 2011.

The dock to board the ferry to the San Juan Islands, in Anacortes, is about 20 miles from my abode in Washington. When I lived there I took the San Juan Islands for granted, but had a great time anytime I took the ferry out to the islands. I did this twice in the months leading to my move to Texas. If I remember right the last time included going to the San Juan County Fair at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, eventually sitting at an outdoor bar watching the harbor and catching the last ferry of the night to the mainland.

The San Juan Islands are in the rain shadow of the Olympics, hence getting way less rain than where I lived. What those who have never lived in the Northwest, who think it rains all the time, don't understand, is the geography is so diverse you can easily escape the rain, if you want to, unlike in my current location, where there is no escape, no ferry to anywhere.

So, I'm starting Saturday just slightly homesick for Washington. And all there is to do there on a rainy day.