Sticky Trails With A Fallen Tree Led Me To The Gateway Park Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Master Plan Propaganda

I was in a bad mood this morning, an after effect of a raging political printer debate last night on Facebook which left me exhausted.

A long swim, early this morning, under the sliver of light provided by a skinny crescent moon did little to alleviate my bad mood.

So, I decided some fast wheel rolling on the Gateway Park mountain bike trails would be just what the Mood Doctor would prescribe if I had a Mood Doctor.

As I made the left turn into Gateway Park I began to see puddles of water. This did not bode well. While no rain fell on my location yesterday, it appeared that five miles to the west some precipitation precipitated.

As I drove to the bike unload zone I decided if the trails were muddy I would instead pedal the paved trails, trails which I have not pedaled in a long time, not since I discovered I enjoyed the Gateway Park mountain bike trails.

As you can clearly see above, I made it to my favorite Gateway Park photo op location. A scenic look at the Trinity River in its natural state, not needing tricky lighting and special filters to make the Trinity River look good which is what you usually need if you want to take an "enhanced" Trinity River photo in the downtown Fort Worth zone of the Trinity River.

The fact that I made it to my favorite Gateway Park photo op location would indicate the trails were not muddy, which they weren't. But rain had left the trails a bit sticky, thus impacting how freely the wheels roll.

I had already decided I was only going to go one time around the trails due to the sticky trails issue, when I came to the below obstruction.

Getting over the fallen tree was fairly easy, but doing so rendered me a wet sweaty mess. I was already in adrenaline over drive due to an encounter with a big cranky snake stretched across the trail. I slammed to a stop, did not reach quickly for my camera, figuring by the time I got the camera turned on the snake would have slithered off. I  figured wrong. The slithering took long enough that I likely could have taken a picture had I quickly reached for the camera. I think the snake may have been slithering slow due to the cool temperature, as in chilled to the low 80s.

Continuing on I came to one of Gateway Park's infamous boarded up boardwalks, where I saw signage had been added, signage with very tortured verbiage whose meaning my feeble grasp of English had trouble understanding.

ENTERING CLOSED AREAS; HOURS OF OPERATION, IT SHALL BE UNLAWFUL FOR ANY PERSON TO ENTER ANY PORTION OF A PARK  OR RECREATION AREA WHICH IS DESIGNATED AS RESTRICTED.

So, is the Gateway Park boarded up boardwalk designated as restricted? Does the AREA CLOSED TO PUBLIC sign you see below designate the boarded up boarkwalk as being restricted? Why use such clunky verbiage on a sign?

An even better question than wondering about clunky verbiage on a sign is to wonder how many more years is this Gateway Park eyesore going to exist? Either fix the boarded up boardwalks or tear them down.

Or are we  waiting on the Gateway Park Master Plan to fix the boarded up boardwalks? Which leads us to the next sign.

The Trinity River Vision may be one of America's top all time Boondoggles, but one thing the TRVB does do well is produce long lasting signage spewing imaginative propaganda about imaginary plans.

Like the Gateway Park Master Plan signage. The forest of Trinity River Vision Boondoggle propaganda signs showed up years ago, near Fort Woof in Gateway Park touting the Gateway Park Master Plan. The propaganda on the sign above, under the title "The Gateway Park Master Plan" says...

"The revitalization of Gateway Park is a major component of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. The park's ecosystem will be restored to its natural beauty and over 80,000 native oak and pecan trees will be planted. Community-requested recreational amenities will be added throughout its 1,000 acres, making it one of the largest urban programmed parks in the nation. The master plan will spur economic development and connect the east and southeast neighborhoods of Fort Worth to the Trinity River Corridor."

80,000 trees to be planted. When? These are known as J.D. Granger's Magic Trees. I mentioned the Magic Trees in a blogging in early August and first mentioned the J.D. Granger Magic Trees in a blogging way back in 2011, which included video of J.D. Granger describing the Magic Trees.

Shouldn't a Master Plan have some sort of plan? You know, something like a project timeline?

When are we going to see any of the wonderful things we see on the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's propaganda signage about the Gateway Park Master Plan?

More than once whilst reading Trinity River Vision Boondoggle propaganda I have been baffled by the Boondoggle making a claim along the line that something has been requested by the community. In the Gateway Park Master Plan's instance the sign says "Community-requested recreational amenities will be added throughout its 1,000 acres."

I really would like to know how the Boondoggle manages to find out what the "community" is requesting. I'm part of the "community". No one asked me what amenities I'd like to request.

Since, apparently, the Trinity River Vision Boondoggles does what the "community" requests, on behalf of the "community" I would like to request a project timeline letting us in the "community" know when we well be able to start enjoying the amenities the "community" has requested?

It is a puzzling, perplexing mystery to me why more people are not puzzled and perplexed by the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's propaganda nonsense....

Today Is North Texas Giving Day With Dorothy's Ruby Slippers On The Tandy Hills

A message from Dorothy and the Friends of the Tandy Hills...........

Dear Friends,

Today is the Day!

It’s North Texas Giving Day. Please choose Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area to be the recipient of your Environmental dollars on this special Giving Day.

From 6 a.m. until midnight, your donation of $25 or more will yield bonus funds and prizes which means that your tax deductible donation to Friends of Tandy Hills, TODAY ONLY, will go further.    

Need 32 good reasons to support us?
Go here: http://www.tandyhills.org/campaign

The direct link to donate to Friends of Tandy Hills is here:
www.northtexasgivingday.org/#npo/friends-of-tandy-hills-natural-area-inc

A Pre-Fall Barbecue Chicken Burger With The Village Creek Indian Ghosts

Fall falls upon us in a few days.

Today I needed to go to ALDI so I decided to roll my wheels with Arlington's Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area prior to ALDIizing.

In the picture my handlebars are looking at the formerly blue Village Creek Blue Bayou.

Currently the formerly blue Blue Bayou is looking like it has adopted fall colors, with green fading to brown.

Bike riding was extremely pleasant today. No wind, the air chilled to the mid 80s, no overheating.

The pool is back not being cool after its bout last week of being almost too cool for this time of year. I suspect the too cool pool will soon return and that I will acclimate to it.

In the meantime I'm having a barbecue chicken burger with cabbage salad. Fall food.....

The Economic And Fiscal Reality Of Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

This morning Elsie Hotpepper pointed me to a 20 page document on the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's website titled Economic and Fiscal Impacts of the Corps of Engineers' Trinity River Vision Project in Tarrant County Texas.

More than once I have verbalized my wonderment regarding the fact that there does not seem to be any sort of project timeline for the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's urgently needed flood control and economic development scheme.

Well.

Reading through the TRVB document there is a lot of jaw dropping information. But the main thing I gleaned was way back over a decade ago, when this document was produced, the Boondoggle had a project timeline which had construction projects starting in 2005, running through 2015, which is about three months from now.

The Boondoggle's document says the corps will spend about  $357 through 2015, generating more than $600 million in economic activity. Wow. That is one HUGE return on investment. I suspect though that the Boondoggle forgot to add the word "million" after $357.

In this Boondoggle document, near the end, we learn that way back over a decade ago, developers noticed what will  be happening on the Trinity River in Fort Worth, with one un-named business leader opining that this project can catapult Fort Worth into the upper echelon of American cities.

I wonder what that un-named business leader is thinking now?

A decade later.

With little to show after a decade of Boondoggling.

Well, there are those Three Bridges Over Nothing supposedly under construction, a drive-in movie theater, an imaginary island with an imaginary pavilion, inner tube floating music parties with beer and a brewery. Oh, and a wakeboard lake.

Below are three excerpts from the Boondoggle's document containing that which I referenced above.....

The preliminary cost schedule calls for the Corps of Engineers to spend $435 million to realign the Trinity River with ancillary construction projects starting in 2005 through 2015. This spending will pay for engineering, architectural, environmental and other studies as well as hard and soft costs of building bridges, realigning the bypass channel, building gates, walls, levees, and several other features as well as management, administrative, and other costs. Though the budget includes over $76 million for property acquisition, we have not included this spending in our impact estimates. We do not have sufficient information on property ownership to ascertain the degree to which any income gains from the sale of property would contribute to local economic activity. In addition, $1.5 million is budgeted to help existing businesses relocate. The impact of this spending will depend on the nature of the assistance provided; therefore, we do not include this comparatively modest spending in our impact assessment.

The Trinity River realignment project and related Trinity River Vision have already spurred redevelopment efforts in the City of Fort Worth, without turning one shovelful of dirt. Corps spending on the proposed project will be about $357 through the year 2015, not including payments for land acquisition and business relocation assistance. This spending will generate more than $600 million in economic activity in Tarrant County and support over 6,000 person-years of employment. However, as impressive as these impacts are, they pale in comparison to the private commercial and residential development that will likely follow the TRV project.

Business and city officials note that developers from outside Tarrant County and outside Texas have taken notice of what will be happening along the Trinity River in Fort Worth. As observed by one business leader, this is the project that can catapult Fort Worth into the upper echelon of American cities.

Today I Found A Fallen Hoodoo In The Tandy Hills Natural Sauna Steam Bath

There really are few things sadder than a fallen Hoodoo, shattered and scattered about, a ruin of its former vertical self.

Til today it had been over a week since I last did some fast hill hiking.

Though the temperature was in the relatively chilly mid 80s, compared to last week's over 100 record breaker, the humidity still managed to turn the Tandy Hills into a virtual sauna steam bath.

A very salubrious sauna steam bath.

Last week after I finished my Tandy Hills hill hiking I was told that a bobcat had been following me at the start of the hiking, unbeknownst to me.

Today when I neared the currently dry Tandy Falls I heard some creature crashing through the jungle.

Bobcats are stealthy, they don't draw attention to themselves by noisily crashing through the jungle. I stood still for a couple minutes hoping to see what was making the noise, but never did. And so I continued on.

Earlier today Elsie Hotpepper directed me to some good blogging fodder. Post hiking, back at my computer, I found more good blogging fodder. Blogging fodder of the scandal in Fort Worth sort.

I must ponder a bit before I blog about these scandalous subjects...

Spencer Jack Did Not Go Swimming In The Trinity River Yesterday

No. That is not an artist's rendering you are looking at of what it would look like if Spencer Jack, whilst visiting his favorite great uncle in Texas, jumped into Pond Granger, if it ever exists.

What you are looking at is Spencer Jack jumping into the crystal clear water of Lake Samish, yesterday, in an escape from an unexpected, rare, mid September heat wave in Western Washington.

Spencer Jack's dad emailed me several pictures of yesterday's heat escape. A few minutes after that I checked in on Facebook to see the same pictures there. So, I don't have myself a Spencer Jack exclusive.

Speaking of the phantom Pond Granger, that being the little lake that might come to be if the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle ever becomes anything anyone can see, this morning I was conversing with an engineer. Not of the train driving type of engineer, this was a build things type of engineer I was conversing with.

The subject of the Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing came up. The subject of the claim that the four year bridge building project was taking place before the un-needed flood diversion channel was built, because the Boondoggle claims this will save money, was scoffed at by the engineer.

The engineer said a properly designed project would have the bridges and the channel being built at the same time. That no water would be in the channel til water is diverted into it. That integrating the building of the channel simultaneously with the building of the bridges would in reality be the most cost effective way to engineer such a project.

I opined that the non-propaganda fact of the matter is there is no money to build the un-needed flood diversion channel, which is why it is not currently being built at the same time as the un-needed Bridges Over Nothing.

Has anyone given any thought as to how ridiculous those Three Bridges Over Nothing are going to look?

If, in four years money is found to build the un-needed flood diversion channel, how many years will that take? Four years to build three simple bridges? What? 20 years to build a channel?

And no, in the second picture you are not looking at an artist's rendering of Spencer Jack standing in a clean, litter free, crystal clear Trinity River of the future.

What Spencer Jack is in the middle of is known as Friday Creek. Spencer Jack and his dad stopped at Friday Creek on their way to cool off in Lake Samish....

An Ides Of September Walk Around My Neighborhood's Billboards

I had myself a mighty fine time in the not so cool pool this morning.

By the time my regularly scheduled midday break from keyboard tapping came around I was not in the mood to drive anywhere, so I took a walk around my neighborhood.

When I got to the part of my neighborhood walk that walks on the narrow sidewalk next to the I-820 frontage road I looked across the freeway to see the billboard you see here, with something not looking right hanging off the billboard.

I wondered if this was some sort of Chick fil A type cleverness relating to floors which my feeble imagination was unable to understand.

When I got the picture off the camera I was surprised to see that there were two men on board the billboard which my eyes did not see. But my camera did.

The lesson I glean from this is I need to pay closer attention to the details of that at which I am  looking.

Save the Date! September 18th, 2014: Tandy Hills North Texas Giving Day

Message from Don and Debora Young------

Dear Friends,

It was ten years ago this year that Debora and I organized a volunteer team of folks called the Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area. This is our first year to participate in the fund and profile-raising event called North Texas Giving Day. On September 18, 2014 from 6 a.m. until midnight, each donation of $25 and above made through our page on the North Texas Giving Day website will receive bonus funds and prizes which means that your tax deductible donation to Friends of Tandy Hills on Giving Day will go further.    

Your donations to Friends of Tandy Hills are vital. There are no paid staff members in our nonprofit organization. All donations fund conservation and education initiatives. Where specifically do your donations go?

Our award-winning outdoor education program Kids on the Prairie. Program expenses include:

• transportation to and from Tandy Hills Natural Area for 250 4th graders from area schools annually
• field journals tailored to the local Cross Timbers prairie and aligned to Texas State and National science standards
• onsite outdoor facilities
• water, snacks, and lunches for the kids, teachers and bus drivers

Our long term goal of restoring the land itself via the Master Plan. These goals include:

• critically needed removal of invasive species
• trail maintenance and creation
• construction of a visitors center

We hope you agree that Tandy Hills is a North Texas jewel, and that Friends of Tandy Hills plays a critical mission in "keeping it like it was."  On Thursday, September 18, please visit FOTHNA’s page on northtexasgivingday.org anytime between 6am and midnight and click "Donate Now". Then put on your hiking boots, grab your water bottle and come, take a hike in our rare prairie remnant.  Just east of downtown Fort Worth, Texas.

Thank you for joining us in our essential work!
See you on the prairie!

Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area
P.O. Box 470041
Fort Worth, TX 76147
817-731-2787
http://www.tandyhills.org

Today I Must Contribute To The Community By Educating Myself About Chesapeake Energy's Fresh Turquoise Water

Way back in the last decade, back when Chesapeake Energy invaded the Barnett Shale, Chesapeake ran a big counter-information operation.

If a blogger blogged something about Chesapeake almost instantly one would see blog post hits from Oklahoma City, that being the location of Chesapeake's headquarters.

Soon thereafter boilerplate blog comments would show up, often mentioning Archie Bunker and horses.

I don't know when it was Chesapeake Energy figured out their heavy handed "information" campaign was being counter productive, but it has long been gone. No more Tommy Lee Jones on billboards. No propaganda ads on buses. No this, that or the other thing brought to you by Chesapeake  Energy.

See that turquoise pond above? Way back in 2010 that pond showed up on the route I take to visit the Indian Ghosts in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

At that point in time that pond did not look a very natural shade of blue. Currently the pond looks like normal murky North Texas lake water.

This morning in my inbox I found a blog comment typical  of what the Chesapeake Energy shills would send in their heyday.....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A Fort Worth Chesapeake Fresh-Water Frac Pond's Unnatural Shade Of Blue":

The water is fresh water as in not salt water or treated water. The fence is in place to keep people out. The pit is lined with high density polyethylene geo textile, if someone tries swimming in it, they cannot climb out due to the plastic, which could cause drowning. You can now go back to ignorantly throwing accusations at the evil oil companies... or you could educate yourself and contribute to your community. I am betting against the latter.

I wonder if this Anonymous person would be willing to let me take video of him or her drinking a glass of this Chesapeake fresh water?

Chesapeake Energy sure has had itself a reversal of fortune from the days it freely ran roughshod  over Fort Worth and surrounding areas. Is Chesapeake's former CEO, the basketball team stealing Aubrey McClendon still a free man? Or is he doing time? With a big fine?

Who would have guessed just a few short years ago that by 2014 the City of Fort Worth would be among the many suing Chesapeake Energy for its shady dealings?

Today I read that a Fort Worth lawyer named Dan McDonald has been holding town meetings and has put together a legal team to hold Chesapeake Energy accountable for their alleged underpayment of royalties to thousands of people who were allegedly cheated by the Chesapeake slicksters.

I must end this blogging now and go and try and educate myself about something....

Today In Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park I Was Partly Protected From West Nile Virus & Possible Mini-Stealth Drones

This morning the pool was cool for the first time since some time early last spring.

For the first time in months I retreated, twice, to the warmth of the hot tub, a tub which ironically is chilled about seven degrees colder than the record breaking 102 we were sweltered with a couple days ago.

This morning the outer world was almost 50 degrees chillier than that 102.

I opted out of my regularly scheduled Gateway Park bike ride and Town Talk treasure hunt today.  I figured with the wind blowing the windchill would likely have the air feeling like it's in the 40s. And I've sort of not been enjoying the Town Talk Saturday traffic jam of late. I think I may be making Wednesdays my Town Talk day.

So, in the noon time frame I put on long pants for the first time in a long time, along with a long sleeved t-shirt and headed west to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake.

Today was the first time I've seen the sign you see above about protecting oneself  from the West Nile Virus. The sign had been added since I was at this location earlier in the week. Sort of ironic that I was wearing the recommended long pants and long sleeves for the first time in a long time.

I own no mosquito repellent.

I have no recollection of getting a mosquito bite during the entire time of my exile in Texas. I do not remember ever going a summer in Washington without getting mosquito bites.

At one point during my walk around Fosdick Lake I saw that which you see below.

Is that a West Nile Mosquito? A mini-Stealth Drone? Whatever it is it was BIG and not moving except for a slight shake. Was it grounded by the cold? Shot down by an anti-aircraft missile? Trying to re-establish contact with the Mother Ship?

All I know is whoever designed this thing I like their design aesthetic. And want a sweater that looks like this....