A Walking Around My Neighborhood Freshly Lamenting Fort Worth's Sad Sidewalk Shortage

It has been a week or two since I took myself on a walking inspection of my neighborhood, other than walking up the hill to Albertsons for this, that or the other thing.

Yesterday whilst driving to the Tandy Hills I found myself freshly annoyed about a subject which has annoyed me previously, that being Fort Worth's sad sidewalk shortage.

I drive Bridge Street to get to the Tandy Hills. Bridge Street runs parallel to I-30. Bridge Street has multiple businesses, apartment complexes and a library along side its north side.

Yesterday, ahead of me as I drove west, I saw a mom carrying a little kid running towards a bus stop on Bridge Street, with the running taking place on a well worn dirt path. I saw the mom trip on the dirt path with the bus taking off before the mom returned to being vertical.

Above you are looking at the sidewalk that goes around the big block in which my abode is located. You are looking north at four lane Bridgewood Drive. The sidewalk takes a right at the green street sign. There is no sidewalk if one wanted to cross the street and continue north.

And what's up with sticking a light pole in a sidewalk? This repeats multiple times to varying degrees of sidewalk penetration.

Is Fort Worth the #1 major city in America in miles of roads without sidewalks?

If I remember correctly sometime around the last time I harped about Fort Worth's sad sidewalk shortage I read that the city was looking into possibly maybe developing some sort of sidewalk building program.

I have a suggestion on where to start. On major streets, like Bridge Street, where you can clearly see the volume of foot traffic has created a dirt path, that is where the city needs to add a sidewalk.

Maybe Fort Worth could send some sort of task force to a west coast town, like Tacoma, for instance, to find out how a little town like Tacoma manages to have wide sidewalks alongside both sides of pretty much all the town's streets.

The First Sunday Of August With A New Hoodoo At A New Location On Fort Worth's Tandy Hills

On this first Sunday of August I was back on the Tandy Hills for some natural sauna time in Fort Worth's best natural area.

Today's hiking route took me from the summit of Mount Tandy, north over the Tandy Escarpment above currently dry Tandy Falls, then over the fallen log obstruction to head west up the hill to the location of the Tandy Hills Hoodoo Central Zone at the north end of the View Street trail.

In the picture you are not looking at today's Hoodoo at Hoodoo Central. That Hoodoo had been totally Humpty Dumptied. I was heading back up Mount Tandy, on the trail on the south side of Mount Tandy, when ahead of me I saw a Hoodoo where I'd not seen a Hoodoo before. I took a picture then turned the camera to video mode, which I YouTubed and is watchable below.

When I was last on the Tandy Hills, last Monday, when I made the turn to the parking zone on top of Mount Tandy I found my way blocked by that which you see below.

Last Monday I could not figure out what this contraption was doing. Today I was very surprised to make the turn towards the parking to find the contraption still doing whatever it is doing.

On a Sunday.

When I exited my vehicle one of the guys waved at me, so I decided to walk over to the contraption to ask what they are doing. The guy nicely explained it to me, but all I got out of the explanation was they are replacing the cables which keep the Tandy Tower vertical. And that it takes a long, long time to do so.

And below is the aforementioned video of the exciting discovery of a new Tandy Hills Hoodoo....

Searching Fort Worth's Gateway Park For J.D. Granger's 80,000 Magic Trees

Yesterday prior to my regularly scheduled Saturday pre-Town Talk Gateway Park mountain bike ride I asked Has Anyone Seen The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Bridges Under Construction Since 2011?

Thinking about the Boondoggle's Bridges Over Nothing got me wondering about the Boondoggle's Gateway Park Master Plan as I rolled my wheels along with a lot of other wheel rollers.

It has now been a lot of years since the Boondoggle's Gateway Park Master Plan signage was installed touting the Boondoggle's imaginary Master Plan. As far as I can tell the only thing the Boondoggle has done in Gateway Park is to install the signs showing all that the Master Plan would entail if anyone was ever able to master the plan.

I recollect hearing J.D. Granger himself touting one aspect of the Gateway Park Master  Plan. That being 80,000 trees J.D. claimed were already being planted.

I remembered blogging about J.D.'s trees, so I entered "Magic Trees" into the blogs search tool to find that way back on April 1, 2011 I blogged about J.D. Granger's Army Of 80,000 Flood Protecting Trees Planted In Gateway Park To Save Arlington.

Four paragraphs from that blogging....

But, the strangest, funniest thing J.D. came up with was in response to a guy from Arlington verbalizing his concern that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle was going to make flooding worse in Arlington. That, and he asked J.D. if the people of Fort Worth get to vote on this project.

J.D. acted like he's been worn out by all the referendums and votes there have been on this project. Somehow I don't remember these taking place.

As for the flooding in Arlington, J.D. explains that the TRV is going to extreme lengths to make sure not one ounce of extra water goes one second faster towards Arlington during a flood.

With the prime facilitator of that flood control being the 80,000 trees now being planted in Gateway Park.

I've seen no trees being planted in Gateway Park.

Over three years later I've still seen none of J.D. Granger's Magic Trees planted in the Gateway Park zone.

Shouldn't those Magic Trees be in the ground, growing roots, so if the Boondoggle's Bridges Over Nothing actually get built, followed by the un-needed flood diversion channel, followed by a big flood, that those Magic Trees can slow down that rush of flooding water shooting through the flood diversion channel, aiming high speed at Arlington?

Has Anyone Seen The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Bridges Under Construction Since 2011?

On the left you are looking at an artist's rendering I found on the Trinity River Panther Island Vision Boondoggle website on a page titled New Trinity River Vision Bridge Designs Revealed.

At the upper right corner we learn "Bridge construction to begin in 2011".

At the lower left we learn "Bridge designs take cues from local architecture".

Oh my.

Where do I start? Well, let's start with the first three paragraphs from the Bridge Designs Revealed article....

On a mission to design bridges that are both beautiful and budget-friendly, the City of Fort Worth worked with the design team to present unique bridge design options that are within budget to a dedicated citizen advisory group to ensure that community needs remain at the forefront of the design process.  A major goal is that the bridges – which will cross over the future bypass channel at White Settlement Rd., Henderson St. and Main St. – will provide a pedestrian-friendly experience and complement the iconic architectural components of the Cultural District and Downtown.

"I am honored to have had the opportunity to design bridges for a community that truly embraces their Trinity River," said Miguel Rosales, lead designer of the bridges. "We hope that these designs captivate the community’s desire for a unique bridge that attracts people to the river and cherishes the rich character and culture of the neighborhoods which they will connect."

The designs that are being released have been described as clean and modern yet suggestive of the arches of the existing Lancaster Ave. and Main St. bridges. The V-shaped pier design is inspired by local architecture found at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Pier 1 Imports/Chesapeake Energy Building – enhancing the sense of connection between Trinity Uptown and Fort Worth’s most cherished cultural hubs.

A "dedicated citizen advisory group" was presented these bridge designs to make sure community needs were at the forefront of the design process?

Really?

The bridge designs complement iconic architectural components of the Cultural District and downtown?

Really?

And what are these iconic components that anyone anywhere else in the world would recognize as iconic? The Modern Art Museum? The Pier 1 Imports Chesapeake Energy monument to corporate woes?

So these "signature" bridges, which are not remotely signature, as in not remotely unique, became the special bridges of the Trinity River Panther Island Vision Boondoggle?

Originally the Boondoggle did have plans to build three actual unique bridges. But those turned out to be too expensive for the unfunded public works project which the public has never voted on. And so a change was made and propaganda spewed to pretend that the three un-built bridges are special signature bridges.

When they are not.

And now it is August of 2014, three years after the above Boondoggle graphic says construction would begin.

The latest Boondoggle propaganda has the construction of the "signature" bridges beginning this very month of August, 2014.

Some refer to these bridges as "Bridges to Nowhere". I refer to these bridges as "Bridges Over Nothing".

The Boondoggle propaganda has been claiming the bridges are being built  over nothing because this will save  money, because, well, you know it costs more to build a troubled bridge over water.

Well.

There would be no water in the un-needed flood diversion channel til water is diverted into it. The real reason the bridges are being built over nothing has nothing to do with saving money. They are being built over nothing, years after construction was supposed to start, because the Boondoggle only has funds to build the bridges.

A normal public works engineering project is a complex undertaking with various elements under construction at the same time. If the Boondoggle were fully funded both the bridge and the un-needed flood diversion channel would have been under construction years ago.

The funding of the Boondoggle was premised on getting federal funds, via pork barrel earmarks, thanks to Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger. This is why Granger's son, J.D., was hired to be the Executive Director of an engineering project for which he had zero qualifications, to help motivate Kay to serve Fort Worth a lot of pork.

Can the Boondoggle give the Fort Worth public some examples of channels or canals where, to save money, bridges across proposed chasms were built before the channels or canals were built? Did Teddy Roosevelt have bridges built across the Panama Canal before the canal was built?

And why is it going to take four years to build these Bridges Over Nothing?

Four years?

The billion dollar plus Dallas Cowboy stadium was built in less than four years. I think the Dallas Cowboy stadium was a more complex engineering project than the Boondoggle's Bridges Over Nothing.

One HUGE difference between the Boondoggle and the Dallas Cowboy stadium is the Dallas Cowboy stadium was fully funded, with part of that funding coming from Arlington voters voting to help build the stadium, which makes the resulting eminent domain abuse, which displaced a lot of people, slightly less offensive than the Boondoggle's eminent domain abuse.

Four years to build three Bridges Over Nothing.

Then what? From whence will come the money to dig the un-needed flood diversion channel after the Bridges Over Nothing are built?

The Boondoggle was originally touted as a much needed flood control project, to protect Fort Worth from a flooding Trinity River which has not flooded in the downtown Fort Worth zone in well over a half a century, due to a previous public works project which built massive levees, which the Boondoggle wants to remove.

This is all very perplexing and confounding. I am fairly certain I am not the only local who is perplexed and confounded by the Boondoggle....

A Cool Cloudy First Day Of August At Arlington's Black Bayou Of Village Creek

I am sure you recognize the location pictured on the left as the formerly blue Blue Bayou in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Today the formerly blue Blue Bayou, on this first day of August, had become the Village Creek Black Bayou.

Today's clouds look the most drip-worthy of the past couple days of drip-worthy looking clouds. However, unlike yesterday and the day before, no rain has dropped on any location I have been in in the outer world.

For a moment or two I thought I was getting dripped on the pool this morning, but it turned out the drip source was not clouds but wind blowing water from the pool fountain.

I have been having computer problems the past 24 hours that have sort of thrown me off my usual tightly scheduled schedule. I am hoping the computer problems are over because I have other things to fix than a problem computer.

Speaking of fixing things. I did not realize it was as late as it is til I consulted a time keeping device. It is well past time to fix myself some lunch.

A Duck Walk Around Fosdick Lake In Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park

The Fosdick ducks who live in Fosdick Lake in Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park seemed to be in a better mood than the norm today.

Lots of melodious quacking.

I think the Fosdick ducks, also known as Fosducks, were happy due to enjoying the respite from  the HEAT, with the sun blocked by clouds which were producing what felt to me like a fine drizzle drizzling down on a west coast Pacific Ocean beach.

I can't remember when I last experienced drizzle on a Pacific coast beach. In 2004, August of, I drove to Ocean Shores, on the Washington coast, with no clouds and no drizzle. The last drizzle on the Pacific coast may pre-date the move to Texas, as in a pre-move drive down the coast with a stay in Seaside in Oregon. I vaguely recollect waking up to fog and drizzle.

Currently, early in the afternoon of the last day of July the outer world at my location is being chilled to only 78 degrees. I have my windows open. I have never had my windows open in Texas on the last day of July.

Below is a video of the Fosducks on the Run..........

A Walk In Arlington With A Village Creek Cicada Before Biking With The Indian Ghosts

No, that is not an artist's rendering of what Fubbo the Hut would look like as an insect.

What that is, I think, is a cicada who has finished his mating duties and so, with nothing left to do, died.

I can see where maybe the patterns of the textiles which make up the cicadas clothing may have been an inspiration for Indian garb.

I like the color scheme. I would wear it.

I came upon this cicada corpse today in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area, near the overlook which looks over the formerly Blue Bayou which is now green and brown.

There were several cicada corpses in the pool with me this morning. I prefer the cicadas to be alive and making their distinctive cicada mating calls, rather than swimming lifelessly with me.

After I took several pictures of the cicada corpse, motion in the corner of my left eye caught my attention. Looking left I saw what appeared to be a cicada in its death throes.

I switched the camera to video mode and stealthily made my way to the BIG bug. By the time I got to the cicada it was no longer moving, so I used my cicada prompting stick to try and prompt some action.

The cicada prompting stick worked, the resulting action is documented in the YouTube video below.....

Maxine Had Me Breaking Skagit Which Has Me Looking For Tarrant Breaking

A couple days ago I asked Maxine a couple questions about my old home zone of  Skagit County. One question was about Pilchuck Falls which had been in the news in late June due to the loss of a Skagit Search & Rescue rescuer named JB Bryson who was lost along with one of a pair of hikers who had fallen near Pilchuck Falls.

The other question I asked Maxine had to do with my being perplexed as to why kids where no longer allowed to pick Skagit Valley berries, while tons of the world's best berries went to waste.

Maxine answered my two questions, with the first answer about the Pilchuck Falls incident, rendered poignant when it turned out JB Bryson was a Sedro Woolley High School classmate of Maxine's.

In her email reply Maxine pointed me to a Skagit County Facebook page I'd not heard of called Breaking Skagit. I checked out the Breaking Skagit Facebook page to quickly find out the breaking part of the name referred to breaking news.

On the Skagit Breaking Facebook page I saw that there is also a Skagit Breaking website.

Both the Skagit Breaking Facebook page and the website seem to me to be extremely well done. This had me curious as to who was behind Skagit Breaking. That curiosity led me to Skagit Breaking About Us page where I eventually found the names of the Skagit Breaking creators, none of whom I knew.

The About Us statement states that they are not a "News" site,  right after saying, "We provide  scanner traffic from our local Police, Fire and EMS airwaves. I enjoy off beat news, and in addition to local news, we also post  odd news stories from around the globe."

I read that Skagit Breaking was not a "News" site just as I was wondering to myself how is it little Skagit County, population of 118,222, manages to have more than one real newspaper, whilst the county I currently live in, Tarrant County, with a population of 1.88 million, has nothing that I know of like Skagit Breaking. Or the Skagit Valley Herald.

Maybe some of the small towns in Tarrant County have real newspapers that I've not seen. Is there a Haltom City Town Crier (other than Layla Caraway)? A North Richland Hills Harbinger? A Keller Knocker?

Prior to Maxine telling me about the incredible memorial event that took place in Sedro Woolley for JB Bryson, another Sedro Woolley-ite, Betty Jo Bouvier, mentioned being amazed and impressed by the size and scope of the memorial.

Read the Breaking Skagit article about the JB Bryson memorial event and notice the good writing, the detailed article and wonder to yourself why it is you never read such a thing in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

If only I knew how to make websites I'd make a BREAKING NEWS TARRANT COUNTY website....

A HOT Tandy Hills Hike With Twin Hoodoos & No Flooding

With rain in the forecast I decided today was a good day to return to the Tandy Hills for the first time since rain muddied my local world earlier in the month.

A breeze blew providing some wind chilling, but not a lot of wind chilling. In other words I got hot, real HOT.

Both the North and South Forks of Tandy Creek were dry today, with no flooding due to a broken pipeline like I had to ford on my last visit.

However, it appeared the South Fork crossing has been pretty much wiped out by flash flooding, either of the Mother Nature sort, or the broken pipeline sort. You can see video of the current Tandy Creek South Fork crossing below.

Above those are not Twin Hoodoos sitting on a Big Rock at Tandy Hills Hoodoo Central at the north end of the View Street Trail. I came upon the Twin Hoodoos slightly northeast of the area known as the Bamboo Tepee Grove.

As usual, there was a new Hoodoo at Hoodoo Central, a much plumper, stubbier Hoodoo than the tall, skinny Hoodoo I saw on the first day of July.

Today's Hoodoo at Hoodoo Central sort of looks like a sculpture of a fat human with a big round head wearing a cowboy hat.

I have known a human or two, sans the cowboy hat part, who could have been the sculptor's model.

I used  my old camera to take video and photos today. The new camera is vexing me. Very complicated. These things really should be designed for those of us with simple minds and short attention spans.

Months ago I got a new oven, with all digital controls. Even ovens have been rendered difficult with digital controls. Though, once I got used to it I like the digital oven controls.

Way back in February I finally got a smart phone. The smart phone made me feel real stupid for a few days. And then that feeling faded. Now I'm a texting maniac and watch TV on the phone. Watching TV on the smart phone seems sort of stupid, but it actually works quite well.

Anyway, below is video where you walk with me across the washed out crossing of the South Fork of Tandy Creek...

In Arlington On A Village Creek Bike Ride With An Indian Ghost Sighting On The Last Sunday Of July

Yesterday a benefactor benefacted me with a new Sony camcorder camera.

I find the older I get the more averse I am to learning something new, or figuring out something new.

This new camera apparently does all sorts of cool things, like it takes 3D photos. However, apparently one needs something called a 3D TV to view the 3D photos. I don't have a 3D TV. I don't think I want a 3D TV, even if a benefactor benefacted me a 3D TV.

This new camera shoots HD video and has a windscreen setting, unlike my Canon camera which I've been using to make videos of late and which can get annoyingly noisy with the wind.

Today I took  the new camera to Arlington, to the Village Creek Natural Historical Area to check in on the Indian Ghosts. That and Sunday is a fun day to go to this location. Usually it is quite busy. However, I'm thinking today's almost empty parking lot indicated a lot of people do not like communing with nature and Indian Ghosts when the temperature gets into the 100 degree zone.

A couple days ago the Queen of Assumption, Miss Julie, asked me how it was I communicated with the Indian Ghosts. Did I see them? Talk to them? Listen to them? I told the Q of A to watch video of my most recent Indian Ghost visit and she would hear them sounding a lot like the aforementioned wind.

Today I used the new camera to take a picture of the Village Creek Green Bayou. Currently, more accurately, the Village Creek Green & Brown Bayou. When I got the photos off the new camera I soon saw it had even cooler capabilities than I thought possible.

Though my eye did not see it, the new camera was able to capture a Village Creek Indian Ghost hovering over the formerly Blue Bayou.

Spooky.....