Taking A Look At The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Products

Yesterday I found myself in downtown Fort Worth.

Since I was in the neighborhood, I thought it would be interesting to check out what I could find of the current state of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

It did not take long to notice that Panther Island signage, in various iterations, had proliferated since I'd last been in this location. Signage such as a billboard pointing to the parking lot for that which is called Panther Island Pavilion.

More on Panther Island Pavilion later on our tour, but first, before I got to that location I came upon something I had not expected to see.

As I walked towards Panther Island I saw cranes hovering above the Trinity River levees. Could those cranes have anything to do with the building of The Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing I wondered to myself.

When I got to the area of the cranes, by the Henderson Street bridge across the Trinity, I hiked up the levee to see that which you see above, that being signage touting The Boondoggle's bridges, claiming I was witnessing "Progress in Motion".

Below you can see what "Progress in Motion" looks like.

Traffic is now detoured off Henderson Street. I could not figure out what the cranes were doing. The only sign of construction that I could make out was it appeared some dirt has been moved. With these bridges being built over nothing, over where eventually, maybe, a ditch will be dug, one would assume that the bridge's foundations would be dug to ditch level, or deeper, to build a bridge over nothing.

Regarding bridges, yesterday during my walk along the Trinity River I discovered something shocking about one of the bridges over the Trinity, documented with a historical marker, which I will blog about in a subsequent blogging.

After marveling at The Boondoggle's bridge "Progress in Motion" I continued on to the Heart of The Boondoggle. Panther Island Pavilion, where there is no island or pavilion. Well, what most people would consider to be a pavilion in propaganda free locations on the planet where words have specific meanings.

I assume the sad structure in the foreground and the other structure on the other side of the river are what The Boondoggle is referring to as being pavilions. So, why is the venue not called Panther Island Pavilions, if there are two of the imaginary pavilions on the imaginary island?

I then crossed the Trinity to the "beach" side of the river, where I saw that the sophisticated restroom facilities for one of the world's premiere urban music venues had not been upgraded since my last visit.

Shouldn't that be "OMG" on the door of the outhouse? Not "MMG". What is the point of surrounding an outhouse with a concrete enclosure? To the left of the outhouse is a solitary shower, I assume so all the River Rockers can line up and wash off the river water when they are done with their happy hour inner tube floating.

I did not think anything could impress me more than the Panther Island Pavilion Outhouse, and then I came upon that which you see below.

The Boondoggle is now calling the area where the Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats take place a beach. For your amazed amusement I'll copy that which is on the sign on the lifeguard's perch below.

PANTHER ISLAND PAVILION

PUBLIC BEACH

CLOSED FROM 10pm - 5am

SWIM AT OWN RISK

NO LITTERING

NO GLASS OR STYROFOAM

NO FISHING FROM BEACH AREA

NO UNAUTHORIZED VEHICLES

NO OPEN FIRES

CLEAN UP AFTER PETS

NO DISORDERLY CONDUCT

A PRODUCT OF THE TRINITY RIVER VISION

I think the Panther Island Pavilion Outhouse and the Panther Island Pavilion Beach are perfect visual metaphors for the product quality level the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is bringing to Fort Worth and its millions of visitors.

Continuing on with my Boondoggle tour, just when I thought nothing could top the Panther Island Pavilion Outhouse and the Panther Island Pavilion Beach as visual metaphors for the product quality level the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is bringing to Fort Worth and its millions of visitors I came upon that which you see below.

The Panther Island Pavilion Shack. In an admirable example of recycling.

The garage which used to house the Tandy subway cars before the world's shortest subway was lost to the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters debacle has been re-born as another product of the Trinity River Vision by being turned into a beer hall.

I was able to sneak a peak inside the Panther Island Pavilion Shack and realized I was looking at yet one more visual metaphor for the product quality level the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is bringing to Fort Worth and its millions of visitors.

Well, that concludes today's look at what some of what Fort Worth has bought with the millions of dollars already spent by the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

I wonder how much The Boondoggle has spent on all its self-serving signage? And how much concrete enclosed outhouses cost....

Am I One Of Downtown Fort Worth's Imaginary 6.5 Million Annual Visitors?

No, that is not a headline from a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article from several years ago, back when there was a constant drumbeat over the need to expand Fort Worth's Convention Center, where few conventions take place, and add a Convention Center hotel.

I believe an actual rare Fort Worth public vote, of sorts, took place on that previous expand the convention center/build a hotel issue. After the vote the Convention Center was expanded and a hotel was built. I do not remember what the public part of the vote was, whether or not it was voting to approve charging a fee to use the Convention Center's restrooms, or what.

Anyway.

The headline above is from a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article, titled, as you might guess, Fort Worth should expand convention center, add downtown hotel, travel expert says.

This is what is known as deja vu, all over again.

The article contains what seems to me to be some rather amusing jaw droppers. I'll copy part of the article below...

FORT WORTH
Expanding the Fort Worth Convention Center could be a “game changer” for the city, one of the nation’s top travel and tourism leaders said Wednesday.

“You’ve got such a unique thing. It’s just so special,” Roger Dow, president and CEO of U.S. Travel Association, told more than 300 people attending the second annual Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau meeting on Wednesday.

“To grow the convention center ... it will be a driver for business in this community,” Dow said. “It’s the biggest thing you have to do.”

The city is considering a consultant report from last summer that calls for tearing down the round arena on the north end of the 45-year-old convention center at Ninth and Commerce streets, and building a multistory structure to provide an additional 200,000 square feet of meeting and ballroom space. The report also calls for a second convention center hotel, saying that as many as 1,400 hotel rooms are needed downtown to remain competitive.

Fort Worth had 6.5 million visitors last year, up 20 percent over the past five years, he said.

“I don’t know what you’re doing, but you’re doing something special,” Dow said. “I can’t think of a market that is better poised to take advantage of the growing leisure market than this whole area.”

_________________________________________

Where do I start?

Okay, first off, Fort Worth has a perfectly nice downtown, for the most  part. I would never suggest otherwise.

However.

There is nothing remotely special about downtown Fort Worth.

Nothing.

The only way anyone could think downtown Fort Worth is special is if they have never visited any other big city downtown in America. Or the world.

If by special one means Fort Worth is unique in that for years now it has allowed a park at the north end of its downtown, a park celebrating Fort Worth's heritage, titled, appropriately enough, Heritage Park, to be a boarded up, cyclone fence surrounded, run-down eyesore, I agree, a big city allowing such an eyesore to fester for so long is pretty special.

Fort Worth had 6.5 million visitors last year? Are we talking all of Fort Worth? Or just the downtown?

Either way, 6.5 million visitors is a bit hard to believe. That works out, if my calculator is calculating correctly, to 17,808 visitors a day.

I have been to towns which attract out of town and out of state visitors. In those towns one sees many vehicles with out of state license plates. Visit Los Angeles, Denver, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, New York City, San Antonio, Miami, New Orleans, Boston, Phoenix, Orlando and many of America's other big cities and you will see towns where it is believable they attract 6.5 million, or more, visitors a year.

I am going to downtown Fort Worth today. Am I going to be counted as one of those 6.5 million visitors?

Years ago when the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the rest of the Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy propaganda machine was in full hyperbole mode it was claimed that a sporting goods store, Cabela's, would draw between 5 and 8 million (the number varied depending on who the propagandist was) visitors, giving Fort Worth the #1 tourist attraction in Texas.

Are the same propagandizing reality distorters who came up with those numbers of predicted Cabela's visitors the same hyperbolizers who came up with Fort Worth having 6.5 million visitors?

Have you seen many of those downtown Fort Worth visitors? Have you seen a downtown with a lot of visitors? The downtowns of towns with a lot of visitors have streets teeming with people, including on the Day after Thanksgiving. Have you seen what happens in a town where cruise ships dock? Or a town where actual big conventions take place?

What is it those 6.5 million visitors to downtown Fort Worth are visiting? We have already eliminated the boarded up Heritage Park. Are they cramming into downtown Fort Worth's little square known a Sundance Square Plaza? Roaming around the Water Gardens?

We know Fort Worth's 6.5 million visitors are not shopping in any of downtown Fort Worth's vertical malls or department stores, because none exist.

What is this president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association talking about when he says Fort Worth is doing something special and that no market is better poised to take advantage of the growing leisure market?

Really?

Can anyone explain to me what downtown Fort Worth's leisure activities are that are not taking place in every big city downtown in America? Restaurants? A movie theater? A performance hall? Parking lots?

What?

Downtown Rockin' the River Inner Tube Happy Hour Floats in a polluted river are about the only thing I can come up with that you can do in downtown Fort Worth that you can not do in any other big city in America....

A Balmy Texas Winter Bike Ride Around My Neighborhood With Elderly Golfers

This second Sunday of the second month of the 15th year of the new century had me rolling my wheels in my neighborhood for the first time in what seems a long time, with today's wheel rolling being enabled by the return of warm air to this formerly frigid part of the planet.

I would have thought I would have seen oodles of golfers when my neighborhood golf course came into view, what with that aforementioned balmy temperature, but as you can see, via the view over my handlebars, nary a golfer in sight.

Though, I must admit I did see two groups of what appeared to be extremely elderly golfers, riding their carts far from the paved trail, so as to access their gone awry balls with minimum exercise, except for club swinging and cart driving.

Is that the return of green we see in the foreground? Is this yet one more harbinger of the incoming Spring? Are we close enough to Spring now to be past the possibility of an Ice Storm? Or Snow? I hope so.

By mid-March, years past, the pool becomes warm enough for a morning swim without a hot tub retreat. I miss the regular morning swim. It is not easy getting endorphins from aerobic stimulation in a hot tub, though I am able to sort of mimic the swimming motions.

Tomorrow I am making a rare midday visit to downtown Fort Worth. I think the last time that occurred was two years ago on the day after Thanksgiving to check out the least busy downtown in America on the most busy shopping day of the year. That and to check out the newly opened, oddly named, Sundance Square Plaza.

I am almost 100% certain that tomorrow's midday visit to downtown Fort Worth will be followed by lunch at Uncle Julio's on Camp Bowie. I will not be having the relleno platter.....

Induct Sister Camella Menotti Into The National Cowgirl Hall Of Fame

When I saw this week's Fort Worth Weekly's cover article titled HABITS ON HORSEBACK: A South Texas rodeo queen became a hardworking nun, educating children from California to Tanzania  I did not think the subject would be of interest to me.

I thought wrong.

Sister Camella Menotti is an 84 year old Texas cowgirl, a long time nominee for entry into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, located in Fort Worth.

Reading the history of the life of Sister Camella Menotti I really do not see how adding the Sister to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame is not already a done deal.

A blurb from the Fort Worth Weekly article.....

"More than a decade has passed since Unsworth nominated the 84-year-old for the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Menotti wondered aloud about whether there’s still a chance she might someday join the more than 200 women who have been inducted into the prestigious circle — women such as Cynthia Ann Parker, Sacagawea..."

Sacagawea and Cynthia Ann Parker are famous cowgirls?

While both are historical figures, I am completely bum puzzled as to why either would be in the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Sacagawea helped Lewis & Clark explore the Louisiana Purchase after Thomas Jefferson bought the land from Napoleon.

How is Sacagawea a cowgirl?

Cynthia Ann Parker's claim to fame was being kidnapped by the Comanche, eventually marrying Comanche chief Peta Nocona, with whom she had a son, known as Quanah, with Quanah Parker being the last war chief of the Comanche. Cynthia Ann Parker was eventually "rescued" from the Comanche, brought back to Texas, to Fort Worth and Tarrant County, where she soon died, some say from a broken heart, brought on by the trauma of being taken from what she considered to be her Comanche family.

How is Cynthia Ann Parker a cowgirl?

Now, Sister Camella Menotti, that is a cowgirl. That and the youngest, best looking 84 year old I have ever seen. Looking good, and young, whilst fighting the awful cancer known as multiple myeloma.

I hope the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame inducts Sister Camella Menotti soon. It's  the right thing to do....

I Am Not Having Second Thoughts About Floating In The Polluted Trinity River

In this week's Fort Worth Weekly 2nd Thought Safety First article, guest opinionizer, Kendall McCook, opinionized about something about which I have long wondered why more people do not verbalize a similar opinion.

That being what the hell are people thinking going floating in the Trinity River, in summer, when it is hot, with that dirty water obviously being a breeding ground for who knows what?

I have also long wondered why we have never seen photos of the perpetrator of the Rockin' the River nonsense, J.D. Granger, and his girl friend, floating in the river, during one of the Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

Mr. McCook makes a point that should seem obvious to everyone, that being if you want to have a Trinity River Vision should not the first thing that vision sees be a clean up of the river, making it safe, and clean, to play in?

Mr. McCook was inspired to verbalize his opinion after seeing the Amon Carter Museum's controversial Terry Allen photographic exhibit about the Trinity River as it sludges through Fort Worth.

Below is part of what Mr. McCook opined in Safety First, you can click the link to read his entire 2nd Thought....

I finally found the opportunity to visit the Amon Carter Museum of Modern Art and enjoy Terry Allen’s photographic exhibit, Meet Me at the Trinity. The impressive work, commissioned by the museum, represents a vision of a river long troubled by neglect and pollution but now suffering from too much of the wrong kind of attention, as illustrated by a photo of graffiti sprayed in black on a Trinity River stone abutment. The spray-painted words ask, “What does this have to do with nature?”

The river has become more a viaduct than a stream. Her waters seem murky and stagnant. One telling portrait shows a man and his teenage daughter floating in the flotsam on tubing day.

Most of Allen’s images capture the working poor and homeless who gather for refuge along the riverbanks. There are runners and walkers, bicyclists, and families reclining on 4th of July blankets surrounded by ice chests and picnic baskets and towels they barely use, for no one ventures into the Trinity for a casual swim. They all seem to somehow know better.

It is this issue of water quality that neither the Tarrant Regional Water District nor Trinity River Vision officials are willing to address. They go blithely about, completely ignoring the problem, although, according to Jeff Prince’s Oct. 9, 2013, Fort Worth Weekly article (“Does Untested = Clean?”), evidence indicates that there are real concerns. San Antonio River authorities provide weekly testing and public disclosure of the results,  while Trinity officials test only once a month and do not publish the results. Instead they provide a disclaimer for all tubers to sign, absolving the TRV from any responsibility for any possible disease acquired in the water.

Cowboys Want To Stop California's DreamVision From Ruining The Fort Worth Stockyards

Last night that which you see here showed up via my primary electronic communication device.

Apparently the Dallas Cowboys are upset about their favorite playground, that being the Fort Worth Stockyards, where one finds the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplexes most concentrated collection of cowboys, being potentially damaged by a California developer.

In the past couple days I have heard a time or two reference made to some sort of theme park coming to Fort Worth, this being a supposed 5,000 acre, multi-billion dollar development, by a California developer called DreamVision.

My reaction to reading that DreamVision is claiming it wants to make Fort Worth the family entertainment capital of the world involves some eye rolling, along with other gesturing.

Yes, it seems possible landlocked Fort Worth, with its beautiful bodies of water, including the pristine Trinity River, along with its mild weather, cool summers, warm winters, could easily supplant places like Orlando and Anaheim as the family entertainment capital of the world.

Googling "DreamVision Fort Worth" I came upon an instructive article via WFAA titled "Proposed Fort Worth Theme Park" part of which I will copy below...

FORT WORTH — Fort Worth is no stranger to fun; just look to the ongoing Stock Show and Rodeo.

But a 5,000-acre theme park would be a game-changer.

That's what Fort Worth-based The DreamVision Company will reveal Monday, according to a news release. Its website alludes to plans for a sprawling attraction in Cowtown, complete with golf courses, hotels, and more

If this whole concept sounds familiar, there's good reason. We spoke to DreamVision's CEO Rick Silanskas in 2013 after his company held a huge event downtown and announced similar plans, which have not yet come to fruition.

"We want to see Fort Worth become the family entertainment capital of the world," he said then.

Perhaps this time around, DreamVision will turn its dreams (and visions) into reality.

So.

We find out Monday if the family entertainment capital of the world is going to be located in the Fort Worth Stockyards. Are there 5,000 acres of land available for developing in the Stockyards zone? I would think not.

Before the Dallas Cowboys, and others, in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex get themselves all twisted with worry about the California destruction of the Stockyards, let us review some Fort Worth history of these type grandiose pronouncements and their actual reality.

Early this century we had the Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy's Santa Fe Rail Market debacle, sold to the public as the first public market in Texas, modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market, but which was, in reality, a small, food court type failure which did not last long before closing.

Also early in this century we had the Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy foisting a "public works" project on Fort Worth which would allegedly turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South. This was called Trinity Uptown, which then became the Trinity River Vision after an un-needed flood control aspect was added to the project in order to try and secure, unsuccessfully, federal money for what is now know, years later, simply as The Boondoggle.

Then we had the Cabela's Embarrassment, where Cabela's convinced the Dunce Confederacy, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram went along with the nonsense, that being the bizarre idea that a sporting goods store would give Fort Worth the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas. The Dunce Confederacy fawned all over this con job, giving all sorts of tax breaks to Cabela's.

I blogged about the Cabela's Embarrassment several times, including a blogging titled Fort Worth and Cabela's and another titled The Top 15 Texas Tourist Attractions With #1 Not Being Cabela's Sporting Goods Store.

And then there was back in 2009 when another Fort Worth theme park development was announced. I blogged about that one in Fort Worth Glacier Peak Bearfire Resort Vision. And needless to say, no one is skiing down a fake mountain at the Glacier Peak Bearfire Resort, because it never was built.

I suspect never being built is the same fate that will come to DreamVision's possible plan to turn Fort Worth into the family entertainment capital of the world, with no theme park ever built, and the Fort Worth Stockyards remaining safe in its currently slightly neglected state....

Volunteers Feed Fort Worth Stock Show's Homeless Day Laborers

I saw that which you see here this morning on Facebook.

Apparently the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo is employing Fort Worth homeless people as day laborers.

And, according to the Facebooker's comment at the top, we can intuit those homeless day laborers have been provided 6,000 sack lunches from Fort Worth churches.

As you can see, the source for the photo and the caption below the photo is the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

I tried to find the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article about the Stock Show's homeless day laborers, to no avail.

How much are the homeless day laborers being paid, I can not help but wonder? Are they being paid in free lunches?

How do the Fort Worth homeless people get transported to the Fort Worth Stock Show? Do buses arrive each morning in the Fort Worth Homeless District, on the opposite side of downtown Fort Worth from the Fort Worth Cultural District, where the Stock Show is located, to take the homeless people to the Stock Show?

How many homeless people are being day laborers at the Stock Show? And what labor are they laboring at during the day?

Who decides who gets hired for the day? Is it first on the bus gets the job for the day?

I remember a shocking experience I experienced soon upon my arrival in Texas. I was checking out the Water Gardens in downtown Fort Worth. At that point in time the elevated I-30 freeway still hovered over Lancaster and the south end of downtown. When I drove away from the Water Gardens, in my white van, I saw a statue like thing, looking all neglected.

I was curious about the neglected statue, and so I stopped to check it out. I had barely exited the van when I saw that dozens of men were running towards me. This made me a bit nervous. And then suddenly they stopped and went back from whence they came, that being under the elevated freeway.

I was later to learn that these were day laborers, desperately hoping to get work for the day, who thought I was driving a van looking for someone to work for me, and then realized I was just a tourist. I had never experienced such a thing before and at that point in time I had no idea such a thing existed in America.

Anyway, I wonder if a similar scene occurs each morning in Fort Worth's Homeless District when buses arrive to haul day laborers to the Stock Show?

By the way, that neglected statue I was checking out was a monument to Al Hayne and Fort Worth's Spring Palace. The neglected monument has since been restored to its original glory and now is surrounded by a park-like setting befitting its historical significance.

People Perplexed By How A Panther Fest Water Slide Celebrates Local Fort Worth

Yesterday evening, on Facebook, a couple Facebookers messaged me that which you see here. I saw it an wondered what fresh ridiculousness is this?

An hour or two later, also on Facebook, I saw a post which clarified what fresh ridiculousness this Panther Fest thing was about.

Earlier yesterday, or maybe it was the day before, I learned that the giant water slide charity operation which has been sliding in towns across America was coming to Fort Worth. I remember wondering, when I read that, where there was a sufficient elevation change, in downtown Fort Worth, to make water sliding for 1,000 feet doable.

That aforementioned Facebook post generated multiple comments which shed light on this Panther Fest event. I will copy and paste a sampling of those comments below, but before I do that, so that the first comment makes sense, make note of the slogan  at the top of the poster, with the black panther in the middle, "CELEBRATE LOCAL CELEBRATE FORT WORTH".

And now the comment sampling....

"Stick around and celebrate all things local." Except history. Or diversity. Because they've destroyed it.

And then a well known Texas jogger commented...

TRWD's Lawn Whisperer says "Remember to not water your lawns and conserve our precious and dwindling water supply.... so we can flush it down the street for a slip & slide and water gun fights.

Followed by a not so well known Texas blogger....

These giant water slide things are taking place all over the country. I first learned of this a couple weeks ago when I read one was coming to Seattle next summer. It is an expensive slide, with inner tubes for rent, which plays right to the TRV Boondoggle's strength. But, I assumed this slide thing would only be happening in towns with vertical drops. Where can a 1,000 foot water slide be placed in the downtown Fort Worth zone that is not vertically challenged? Has the Boondoggle excavated enough dirt for its Three Bridges Over Nothing to build a hill for a water slide???

Which then had someone explaining where Fort Worth's slide will do its sliding...

It will be on Main Street from the Courthouse going north, i.e. across the Trinity.

Which had one of the Tarrant County Water Warriors sharing a concern about the slide's water source....

Well let's hope that's not where they get the water for it

Which then had TRWD board member Mary Kelleher sharing her sliding befuddlement...

Don't ask me. I'm just a TRWD board member and this is the first I've heard of this. Elections in May! Incredible! Makes one motivated to make change on that board?

Which had a previous commenter elaborating on the Panther Fest slide...

From my inquiry to Slide the City about water, this was the gist:

Here is our general statement as a company on water usage:

The slide is designed to recycle water throughout the day, and to treat the water in a safe and environmentally friendly way. This, as well as the overall design, minimizes the impact and water use. In addition, Slide the City partners with a local charity, preferably a water related one in drought stricken states, and they try to donate (where permissible) the water back to the community at the end of the event.

Approximately 12,000-16,000 gallons of water is typically circulated in a day. Slide the City works with city officials on the proper water disposal. Methods of disposal include local reclamation centers, parks, golf courses and other places dependent upon local regulations.

To which Mary Kelleher let us know she will bring up this Panther Fest slide thing at the next TRWD meeting...

Thanks for looking into this. I most certainly will bring this up st our next meeting. Or at least try to bring it up at the next meeting since I need a second from another board member just to get an item on the agenda. Our current directors have lost focus of the TRWD's mission: flood control and water supply. Elections in May.

_______________________________________

Well, due to the nature of this Panther Fest event, what with beer and bands.

And water wasting.

I am assuming this is a Trinity River Vision Boondoggle product. Doesn't that quasi-governmental  body now own the rights to attaching the name "Panther" to anything they feel like attaching it to?

Isn't the TRV Boondoggle a product of the TRWD. So, how does something like Panther Fest come to be without the subject coming before the TRWD board?

Very perplexing....

Wikipedia Did Not Explain The Fort Worth Way To Me

A few days ago writing a blogging titled Seattle's Stalled Bertha Tunnel Fiasco & Fort Worth's Stalled Trinity River Vision Boondoggle caused me to read Wikipedia article's about the Fort Worth Way.

The paragraph below is from the Fort Worth Way article....

The Fort Worth Process or Fort Worth Way is a term stemming from the political procedure in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, and to a lesser extent other cities and the Texas state government. The term has no strict definition but refers to the pervasively slow process of dialog, deliberation, participation, and municipal introspection before making any decision and the time it takes to enact any policy. An early definition came from a 1983 editorial in the Fort Worth Weekly, "the usual Fort Worth process of seeking consensus through exhaustion." In its positive connotation the Fort Worth Way values popular participation, transparent process and meaningful debate. 

Okay, you're right, the above does not sound anything like the infamous Fort Worth Way. Transparent process? Popular participation? Meaningful debate? Municipal Introspection?

Well, the truth of the matter is there is no Wikipedia article about the Fort Worth Way. The above was gleaned from the Wikipedia article about what is known as the Seattle Process, also known as the Seattle Way.

I came upon the link to the Seattle Way when reading the Wikipedia article about Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Tunnel.

Read the article about the Alaskan Way Replacement Tunnel and you will read a detailed example of the way things get done in Seattle, King County and most of Washington. A whole lot of talking and various proposals considered before anything gets done. Some think this leads to dithering and projects taking too long to come to fruition. Others think the transparent debating of various points of view leads to an eventual better result.

For those living in the Seattle, or Western Washington zone, who think the Seattle Way is a bad thing, visit Fort Worth and Tarrant County and you will see the results of what you get with the opposite of the Seattle Way, known as the Fort Worth Way, where an Oligarchy of a good ol' boy and girl network makes decisions for the town and foists them on the public as done deals, with no transparency, no debate and usually no vote.

Come to Fort Worth and check out the Trinity River Vision. A public works boondoggle which has been boondoggling along for well over a decade, currently building Three Bridges Over Nothing, to connect to an imaginary island, with a future ditch dug to address imaginary flood control issues.

All foisted on the public with no debate, no public input, no public vote.

The most recent example of the Fort Worth Way of foisting a public works project on the public is the new Fort Worth Multi-Purpose Arena, presented to the public as a fait accompli. An almost half billion dollar teeny arena which only holds around 14,000 ticket buyers, with the public allowed to vote on a bizarre funding mechanism in the form of Three Propositions, voting on things like charging a $1 fee to rent a livestock stall.

No, you who live with the Seattle Way, where you voted five times on whether or not to extend the Seattle Monorail, I am not making this up. The voters of Fort Worth were actually asked to vote on whether or not to charge a $1 fee to rent a livestock stall in their new multi-purpose arena.

I wonder if the Fort Worth Way morphed into being like the Seattle Way what might result.

Would Fort Worth voters be willing to tax themselves to build sidewalks along side Fort Worth's roads?

Would Fort Worth voters be willing to tax themselves to add modern facilities, like restrooms and running water, to the town's parks?

Would Fort Worth (and Tarrant County) voters be willing to tax themselves to improve public transit, such as light rail links to the airport and Arlington's Entertainment District?

Would Fort Worth voters be willing to tax themselves to actually fund the Trinity River Vision? Could the voters be convinced that The Boondoggle is a worthwhile project worthy of public support?

I remember way back when I first moved to Texas, trying to understand why so many things seemed so different to me than what I was used to up north, when I had the Fort Worth Way explained to me it made it both easier to understand, yet even more perplexing....

Two Texas Glamour Queens And A Texas Giant Have Me Feeling Like A Munchkin

I saw that which you see here this morning on Facebook. I have met two of the three people in this photo, that being the pair on the right.

I have not personally, in person, previously seen the two on the right all dressed up in Glamour Queen mode, like I am looking at here.

Well, that is not precisely accurate, I have seen the Glamour Queen on the right looking glamorous at events requiring such, but not to the extent documented here.

I am unclear as to what the exact nature of this event was, other than maybe it had something to do with de-throning someone known as the Queen of the Rhinos.

A resident of the Fort Worth Zoo? I have no idea.

What I do know for sure is that I am way shorter than the two Glamour Queens.

That Mr. Bickley guy on the left must be a giant. I think next to him I would look like a candidate for being one of the Munchkins in a remake of the Wizard of Oz....