A Botched Albertsons ATM Heist Soon Had Me Chasing Puerto Rican Floor Monkeys

Around noon I walked over to Albertsons hoping to find this week's Fort Worth Weekly.

I was barely in the door when I found FW Weekly, along with Miss Puerto Rico removing money from an ATM.

Miss Puerto Rico did not see me come up behind her. Even so, jabbing a finger in her back, hoping to replicate a pistol barrel, along with the demand that she hand over the money yielded zero loot in my first ever robbery attempt.

Instead I soon found myself going on a roller coaster ride in Miss Puerto Rico's 4 wheel drive vehicle known as a Jeep. During the course of the roller coaster ride Miss Puerto Rico told me her baby floor monkeys missed me after so greatly enjoying me taking care of them for a week, a week or two ago, whilst Miss Puerto Rico was visiting the island for which she is named.

So this afternoon, needing a break from the relentless task of editing 387 webpages, adding code like  to make a non-mobile friendly website into a more mobile friendly website, I hiked over to Miss Puerto Rico's for a visit with the baby floor monkeys who had been missing me.

I was greeted at the door by the baby floor monkey now known as Bella, who quickly ran away. I found her sister, now known as Stella, on her favorite bed perch.

Previously Stella had been the difficult to corral kitty, but today Stella seemed quite happy to have me pick her up for some heavy petting, sufficient enough to put her in full bore purr mode.

I took the picture you see above of the beautiful blue sky view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony, said goodbye to the baby floor monkeys, remembered to set the alarm, and then returned here where I am now going to return to being an HTML code monkey....

Historically Marking A Visit To Fort Worth's West 7th Bridge With Signature Irony

I think I already may have mentioned that on Monday I found myself in downtown Fort Worth. At that point in time I decided to check out some of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's "Products".

One of The Boondoggle's "Products" is three bridges being built over nothing. Prior to it causing an epidemic of eye rolling The Boondoggle referred to these three simple bridges as being signature bridges which would become iconic symbols of Fort Worth.

No, that is not an artist's rendering of one of The Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing you are looking at here.

When I was in downtown Fort Worth on Monday I decided to head west out of downtown, on West 7th Street on my way to Uncle Julios. I parked at the north end of Trinity Park and proceeded to get an up close look at the new West 7th bridge across the Trinity River.

As you can see this is a visually interesting, futuristic looking bridge. With a wide pedestrian path, outside the lanes of traffic, on both sides of the bridge.

A close up look at the West 7th Bridge had me thinking that it would not cause giggling to refer to this bridge as a signature bridge, with it being a one of a kind type deal. I also thought that this bridge had the potential to become a sort of iconic image of Fort Worth, as the connector between its downtown and the town's fabled Cultural District.

From the location from which I took the above picture I then proceeded under the bridge to find myself soon making an amusingly ironic discovery in the form of a historical marker.

I will copy the information one sees on the above West 7th Bridge Historical Marker....

One hundred years after the initial W. 7th Street bridge opened, the world's first pre-cast network arch bridge was dedicated on November 15, 2013. The innovative design by Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Engineer Dean Van Landuyt and progressive construction techniques allowed the bridge to open in only four months.

The $26 million signature bridge connects motorists and pedestrians with downtown Fort Worth and the Cultural District, offering a scenic view of the Clear Fork Trinity River, and was a successful partnership between the community, TxDOT, Sundt Construction and the City of Fort Worth.

Progressive construction techniques allowed this bridge to open in only four months?

While downstream a short distance, the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is building three simple bridges over nothing, with a 48 month construction timeline. Not four months.

The re-built West 7th Bridge cost $26 million? How much are The Boondoggle's plain, simple bridges supposedly going to cost? I may be remembering wrong, but it seems like $27 million is an amount I have read.

I like how this historical marker accurately refers to the West 7th Bridge as a "signature bridge".

Are the Trinity River Vision Boondogglers aware of this feat of bridge engineering, completed in four months, a short distance upstream from where The Boondoggle has currently made a big mess?

Today Spencer Jack Is Getting His Kicks On Route 66

This afternoon an incoming email from my favorite Nephew Jason had a subject line of "Spencer Jack on Route 66".

I opened the email to find text which said "Enjoying the February sunshine!" along with two photos which looked to me as if Spencer Jack was somewhere on Route 66.

Just yesterday Spencer Jack's great grandma mentioned she thought maybe Spencer Jack and his dad might come down to Arizona whilst my favorite ex-sister-in-law was there.

With Arizona being the only location on Route 66 which might have the Utah type scenery I was seeing in these two pictures I figured Spencer Jack and his dad must have flown to Las Vegas, rented a car and then proceeded to head east, getting their kicks on Route 66.

So, I text messaged Spencer Jack's dad and asked where they were on Route 66, saying I assumed they were somewhere between Kingman and Flagstaff.

I then got a text message in return with precise location information as to where Spencer Jack was on Route 66, it being a location which I would never have guessed.

California.

Anaheim, California, to be more precise.

Disney California Adventure to be even more precise.

Disney California Adventure Cars Land to be even more precisely the exact location where Spencer Jack found himself standing in front of cacti on Route 66.

I have not been to Disneyland since Christmas Day of 1994. Which means I have never seen Disney California Adventure, or Cars Land. Reading the Wikipedia articles about Disney California Adventure and Cars Land makes it sound fun.

After Jason told me this was the Disney version of Route 66 I asked if that was some sort of realistic mural behind Spencer Jack, to be told that, no, it is an actual real life-like replica.

When I moved to the land of Six Flags Over Texas I figured I would be getting myself a season's pass, what with me being a lifelong fan of Disneyland, with more visits to the Magic Kingdom than I can remember. But, one visit to Six Flags Over Texas, via a free pass, quickly had me realizing I would not be paying any real money to visit that sad, compared to Disneyland, version of a theme park.

And now, speaking of theme parks, Fort Worth is currently in the midst of once again getting snookered by an out of state con job. This time in the form of something called DreamVision, yesterday holding a big press reveal in Fort Worth about a $3.5 billion theme park in Fort Worth with a tall indoor mountain covered with snow, along with New York City and other wonders.

I'll believe in the DreamVision vision about the same time I see water flowing under the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing....

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.