Mayor Betsy Price Thinks The Late Nancy Bass & Her Four Sons Made Fort Worth One Of The Greatest Cities In The World

In the picture you are looking at a campaign ad for Betsy Price from the mayoral election that installed Betsy Price as Fort Worth's replacement for Mayor Mike Moncrief.

I don't know if it is some sort of tradition that Fort Worth mayors say and do goofy things, or what. I think I've only experienced two Fort Worth mayors, those being Moncrief and Price. I don't remember who was mayor before Moncrief.

Moncrief did really goofy things, such as dying the Trinity River purple and having a downtown Fort Worth shoot out with Texas Governor Rick Perry. Moncrief also said memorably goofy things which I am currently not remembering, so I guess the memorably goofy things were not all that memorable.

Last month Fort Worth's Mayor, Betsy Price, said a memorably goofy thing about Fort Worth being the Envy of the Nation due to a new Police & Firefighter Training Center. Mr. Galtex pointed me to this mayoral goofiness, which had me blogging about it in Mayor Betsy Price Thinks Fort Worth Will Once Again Be The Envy Of The Nation.

Last night, on his way to Lisbon, Portugal, for lunch, with Mrs. Galtex, I heard from Mr. Galtex again, with some new goofiness from Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price.

Speaking about the recent passing of Fort Worth notable, Nancy Bass, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said, "She left an indelible mark in our community as a compassionate leader and as a mother of four boys who would become instrumental in defining Fort Worth's reputation as one of the greatest cities in the world."

I guess it is important for a town's mayor to be a cheerleader for their town. But, when the cheerleading becomes sort of delusional, it becomes a tad worrisome.

There is methodology where the world's cities are analyzed by their importance to the global economic system. New York City and London are at the top of all the various rankings of this sort. A City which has reached a certain level of importance to the global economic system is known as Global City.

From Wikipedia a blurb about what a Global City is...

A global city (also called world city or sometimes alpha city or world center) is a city generally considered to be an important node in the global economic system. The concept comes from geography and urban studies and rests on the idea that globalization can be understood as largely created, facilitated, and enacted in strategic geographic locales according to a hierarchy of importance to the operation of the global system of finance and trade.

Go to the Wikipedia Global City article and you will find several lists listing Global Cities by various criteria.

Fort Worth is not on any of the Global City lists. Dallas is. Austin is. Houston is. San Antonio is. But, Fort Worth is not. Many other cities in America are on the various lists, like Seattle. But not Fort Worth.

So, one can not help but wonder by what criteria it is that Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price determines that Fort Worth has a reputation as one of the greatest cities in the world?

Very, very perplexing....

A Futile Arlington Armadillo Lunch Hunt With Ducks

I was back walking with the Indian Ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area on this 1st Sunday of the 3rd month of 2013.

We are currently being heated to above 60 degrees in the outer world at my location. That is the warmest it has been for quite a few days.

In the picture you are standing on one of the dam/bridges over which the VCNHA paved trail crosses, looking south at a couple of the dams that dam up water to create canals for Interlochen.

I was hoping to find lunch today whilst walking, that being lunch in the form of an armadillo. But I saw no armadillos. I did see some squirrels, turtles and ducks, none of which sounded as tasty as an armadillo.

Last night, via Wikipedia, in a Wikipedia article titled Nine-Banded Armadillo, I learned the following...

During the Great Depression, the species was hunted for its meat in East Texas, where it was known as the poor man’s pork, or the "Hoover hog" by those who considered President Herbert Hoover to be responsible for the depression. Earlier, German settlers in Texas would often refer to the armadillo as Panzerschwein ("armored pig").In 1995, the nine-banded armadillo was, with some resistance, made the state small mammal of Texas, where it is considered a pest and is often seen dead on the roadside. They first forayed into Texas across the Rio Grande from Mexico in the 19th century, eventually spreading across the southeast United States.

A Hoover Hog? Because armadillo tastes like pork?

I did not know that the armadillo being made the state small mammal of Texas was controversial. I also did not know armadillos are considered, by some, to be a pest.

I figured the armadillo was the state small mammal of Texas because they are just so darn cute and cuddly.

The lunch bell just rang.

Pizza.

With no roasted or barbecued armadillo

Today I Narrowly Escaped Being Arrested For Standing By A Wide Open Gateway Park Gate

I had myself a brisk walk at Gateway Park today, before going to Town Talk.

A very cold brisk walk.

A very short cold brisk walk.

The location you see in the picture is the entry to a construction project. Every other time I've been at this location the gate has been padlocked shut.

Today the gate was wide open, with no apparent activity going on inside.

What is being built here is something called Riverside Wastewater Treatment Plant Digester Sludge Disposal.

There are "DANGER" warning signs.

On the gates, that were wide open, the gate on the right warned....

Entry By Any Person Other Than Authorized City Of Fort Worth Personnel Is Forbidden. Violators Subject To Arrest.

While the gate on the left warned...

This Area Is Under 24 Hour TV Surveillance. Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted.

I looked to see if I could see any cameras. I saw none. I did not venture beyond the wide open gate. When I took my last picture my phone made its incoming call noise. I had to do a bit of juggling to get the camera in one pocket and the phone out of another.

It was Elsie Hotpepper calling.

I talked to Elsie Hotpepper for about 15 minutes when my phone made its battery low noise.

As soon as I hung up the phone I saw a Fort Worth Police car speeding down the road that leads to the wide open gates.

Had there actually been camera surveillance, with the cops being called because someone was standing at the wide open gate taking pictures?

Very perplexing.

People Get Run Over & Die Because Of The Lack Of Sidewalks In Fort Worth

Continuing on with my popular series of bloggings devoted to Fort Worth's sad sidewalk situation.

Yesterday my most recent blogging about Fort Worth's sad sidewalk situation got an interesting comment from Dannyboy...

Dannyboy has left a new comment on your post "A Sidewalk Free Fort Worth Walk With Poor People":

The FW Weekly raised the sidewalk issue in 2007, pointing out that people get run over and die because of the lack of sidewalks in FW.

Dannyboy's comment included a link to the article Here, the Sidewalks End, in FW Weekly about the sidewalk issue.

The Here, the Sidewalks End article was written by Dan McGraw.

Dannyboy?

I have seen dangerous walking situations on Fort Worth streets, but til I read this article in FW Weekly I did not realize that people have been killed in Fort Worth due to the sidewalk shortage.

Reading the article I was a bit appalled to learn that Fort Worth city officials, including then mayor Mike Moncrief, have long known Fort Worth has a sidewalk shortage.

Six years ago this was a known problem.

And yet, schools are still being built in Fort Worth with no sidewalks for kids to walk to school on, like the new John T. White Elementary on John T. White Road in my neighborhood.

But, kids can walk well worn dirt paths to get to John T. White Elementary.

How quaint.

Dam Hopping With An Armadillo Wondering About The Sarcastic Jones Curse

In the picture you are looking west across one of the dams that help make the canals that make up Interlochen.

Interlochen is an Arlington neighborhood that one eventually walks to when one walks with the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Today the amount of water spilling over the dam was low enough that I was able to walk across it to Interlochen.

I saw only one armadillo today, doing something I did not know an armadillo could do. As in run fast in a sort of hopping motion.

Armadillos are so cute, today I was wondering if anyone has ever managed to turn an armadillo into a house pet. I suspect not.

Changing the subject from cute armadillos to my cute nephew, Spencer Jack.

This morning I got an email from Spencer Jack's dad which asked an interesting question.....

Thought you'd get a laugh to know that Spencer's kindergarten teacher told him that he is very "sarcastic." 

Is this a Jones curse?

I really don't think being sarcastic is any sort of curse.

Why would a teacher think it is okay to tell a 5 year old that he is "very sarcastic"? That seems wrong to me.

I was traumatized when I was a 7th grader when a teacher told me I was "obnoxiously precocious".

At that point in time I knew what "obnoxious" meant, but had no idea what "precocious" meant. So I found a dictionary and did not really understand the definition. My extremely delicate feelers were terribly hurt, with me assuming that being obnoxiously precocious was a really bad thing.

It was years until I realized that being an obnoxiously precocious 7th grader was a good thing to be.

I hope Spencer's dad is able to get Spencer to understand that being sarcastic is an admirable trait. And that his teacher was complimenting him....

Why Do We Not Know How Much The Trinity River Vision Boondoggles Have Already Cost Us?

No, that is not an artist's rendering of what Pond Granger may look like in Fort Worth if the Trinity River Vision ever clears up and becomes anything anyone can see.

The body of water you are looking at in the picture is Lake Washington, in Washington. A natural lake that is not the result of a public works boondoggle run amok.

That is the 520 Floating Bridge you see crossing the lake. And in the foreground is one of the pontoons for the new 520 Floating Bridge, a $4.1 billion project that is currently the most expensive public works project in Washington.

Unlike Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision, which seems to have no timeline projection for a completed project, the new 520 Floating Bridge is scheduled to be floating vehicles in just a couple years.

Also, unlike Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision, the 520 Floating Bridge Project is subject to public scrutiny.

For example, the scrutiny provided by Seattle's KOMO TV News. Below is part of an article from KOMO News online titled 520 Bridge mistakes have already cost taxpayers $100M, that I ask that you peruse and ask yourself if you can imagine ever reading such an article in the corrupt Fort Worth Star-Telegram?

FW Weekly? Maybe.

But the Star-Telegram? Not a chance.

SEATTLE -- Washington's Department of Transportation may be admitting its mistakes with the 520 Bridge but it's you, the taxpayers, who will wind up paying for those mistakes.

The KOMO 4 Problem Solvers sued the state, and won, to get information about how much those mistakes will cost us. After digging into the public records, we've discovered the total is already well over $100 million.

"Clearly, this is beginning to spiral out of control," said Washington Policy Center's Vice President Paul Guppy, an organization that advocates for taxpayers on issues of public policy.

The numbers also surprise Eva Zemplenyi with the "No Tolls on I-90' group," 

"We feel that we have not been given the straight story," she said.

The new 520 bridge -- at a total anticipated cost of $4.1 billion dollars was already the most expensive public works project in the state. WSDOT gleefully pointed to cost-savings as contract bids came in low and federal grants saved other money. But most of those savings will never make it to taxpayers -- and you can blame it on the problems we first uncovered with the pontoons.

For months, a Problem Solver investigation has spotlighted problems with cracks and leaks in the massive floating concrete structures that will hold up the new bridge. But WSDOT refused to tell us how much repairing those pontoons will cost. Yesterday, out-going Secretary Paula Hammond reiterated the Agency's position, "we cannot and will not negotiate the financial settlement with the contractor in the media."

KOMO 4 News sued WSDOT for those documents and finally received them: Weekly Reports for all three current contracts involved in 520 construction. Two of them involve those troubled pontoons and are with prime contractor Kiewit.

As of last November: Projections for extra costs to build the pontoons in Aberdeen and to repair the pontoons out on Lake Washington hit a stunning $86.4 million dollars. 

When we added the projected extra costs for the 3rd contract with Eastside Corridor Construction which is connecting 520 to the eastside, as well as the extra costs the state's already agreed to pay it adds up to a shocking $153.8 million dollars. 

______________________________

So, really, why have we here in Fort Worth not read any investigative journalism in the Star-Telegram asking critical questions about the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

I know I'd like to know how much is being spent on the liquor supply in J.D. Granger's office.

How much has been spent on junkets?

How much did the bizarre Cowtown Wakepark cost the Trinity River Vision?

How much was spent on the Woodshed Smokehouse?

How much money has been spent on signage?

What is going on with the world's first drive-in theater in decades? Is that drive-in theater part of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

When is the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's re-make of Gateway Park going to take place?

When is the un-needed flood diversion channel scheduled to be completed?

How much money has been spent, so far, on the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

If the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is such a vitally important flood control and economic development project why is the project progressing at such a snail's pace?

How are the victims of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's eminent domain abuse doing?

And why has the Fort Worth Star-Telegram not devoted any ink to investigating how it was that the unqualified J.D Granger, son of Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger, was given the job of being in charge of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

Taking A Break On A Tandy Hills Amphitheater Bench Before Hunting For A Trout Lily

Another weather perfect hiking day on the Tandy Hills on this last day of the 2nd month of 2013.

Today when I got to the newly installed benches that overlook the new cleared Tandy Hills Amphitheater I had myself a pleasant sit down for a bit.

I do not know if the Trout Lily Walkers will sit down on these new benches at some point during their walking this coming first Sunday of the 3rd month of 2013.

I got email yesterday about Sunday's Trout Lily Walk....

Tandy Hills Natural Area, aka., The Land that Time Forgot, is home to many rare and uncommon plant species. One of the most eagerly anticipated of them is the diminutive yet striking, Trout Lily (Erythronium albidum). Being one of the first wildflowers to bloom each year it is sometimes called, the harbinger of Spring.

Don Young Trout Lily Photo

The Vernal Equinox is March 20, but the harbinger of Spring has arrived at Tandy Hills. Their golden-throated white trumpets hang from curvy stems nestled inside mottled leaves that resemble speckled trout. They are scattered across the Tandy hills and hollers hiding in secret places.

It helps to have a field guide. We are lucky to have the best of the breed in, Jim Varnum, who will lead a Trout Lily Walk this Sunday, March 3, at Tandy Hills. The tour starts at 1 pm. Jim will regale you with amazing facts about TL's and help ID other plants along the way. Don't miss this brief window of opportunity. 

I don't know if I'll be going on the Trout Lily Walk on Sunday. It starts a bit later than my usual walk time. I suspect going on the Trout Lily Walk is the best chance I will have to actually see, for the first time, the elusive Trout Lily.

You May All Go To Hell Because I'm In Texas Celebrating Texas Independence Day

I swiped the quote, supposedly from Davy Crockett, from MBK, this morning on Facebook.

March 2, 1836, a day that lives in infamy, because it was on that day that the Texas Declaration of Independence formally declared the independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico.

The Texas Declaration of Independence was adopted at the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836.

The formal signing had to be postponed a day after the conventioneers adopted the declaration so that errors in the declaration's text could be corrected.

I have not committed, yet, to going to any of the many Texas Independence Day celebrations. It is such a conundrum of choices.

A Sidewalk Free Fort Worth Walk With Poor People

Continuing with my very popular Sidewalks of Fort Worth series.

In the picture you are looking north at the well worn dirt path worn at the side of Bridgewood Drive in East Fort Worth.

There is no buffer between the well worn dirt path and Bridgewood Drive, so it is ever so slightly scary when a vehicle speeds by.

I have seen a mom with two kids in a stroller struggling to walk in this sidewalk-less location.

A couple weeks ago I blogged about my perplexation regarding the lack of a comprehensive public mass transit system in Tarrant County and the other counties that make up the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in a blogging titled The Befuddling Mystery Of Tarrant County & Texas Public Transit.

Someone named Dannyboy commented on the befuddling mystery of Tarrant County & Texas public transit,  with part of that comment informing me that, "It is a fact of life in North Texas. Mass transit is considered something that poor people use, and consequently, the funding and improvement of such transportation plans are not seen as important in any way."

Today, when I walked on the dirt path alongside Bridgewood Drive it occurred to me that Fort Worth's sidewalk shortage may stem from the same attitude that causes mass transit in parts of Texas to be a bit behind the modern world as lived in other parts of America and the world.

So, is that the reason for the Fort Worth sidewalk shortage? That being that in Fort Worth sidewalks are considered something that only poor people use?

That only poor people have the need to walk?

Tandy Hill Hiking With Europeans Thinking Of Moving To The Tandy Campground

In the picture you are looking south, across the Tandy Escarpment, over which currently dry Tandy Falls falls into Lake Tandy when a sufficient amount of precipitation precipitates to cause the Tandy River to flow with enough water to fall over the precipice.

Currently the Tandy Hills are in dry mode, even though some rain did fall on this part of the planet in the past week.

Even though the temperature had not risen above the 50 degree mark and even though a strong wind blew, when I hiked the Tandy Hills today I did not get chilly.

I also did not get hot.

Which means today was a perfect hill hiking day in North Texas.

There was a vehicle parked at the summit of Mount Tandy when I arrived today. That does not happen too often.

I was about halfway down Mount Tandy when I came upon the hiker who belonged to the vehicle. A lady in rather good shape who spoke with a very strong European accent, of which flavor I could not tell, for sure. But I don't think she was a German because my usual visceral, anti-German revulsion did not kick in.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I came upon what looked to me to be a campsite on the west side of the View Street Trail.

When I saw this campsite, previously, I think the resident was in residence, so, I quickly scrambled out of there.

Today I came upon the Tandy campsite again. Today I got much closer. The camp appeared to be abandoned. The resident left behind some items, including a pair of Levis hanging from a branch.

A couple times I have come upon what appeared to be a possible homeless person camp on the Tandy Hills.

The Fort Worth homeless shelter zone is not too far to the west of the Tandy Hills.

Whatever became of the big homeless campsite that was removed prior to the Super Bowl when the Super Bowl came to D/FW a couple years ago? Did that homeless campsite later sprout up again in the same location? Or elsewhere?

I wish more effort were put into providing decent quarters for homeless people, with a lot of help given to transitioning the homeless person back in to having a place to live.