Is America's Biggest Boondoggle Stopping Downtown Fort Worth From Being A Boomtown?

In yet one more variant of our popular series of bloggings about things I read in west coast online newspapers, usually the Seattle Times, which I would not likely be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, yesterday I saw that which you see here, an article titled Five takeaways from the downtown Seattle boom.

I have mentioned previously that hardly a week goes by without me reading about some new construction project in downtown Seattle.

For some time now I have known Seattle and Western Washington are booming, but I did not know til yesterday the extent of new project construction in downtown Seattle. The following paragraph is where I learned why I'm constantly reading about new projects...

The Seattle Times Sunday Buzz logged the report in, noting, “Thirty projects were completed in 2014. But, with 24 projects completed in the first six months of 2015 alone, and 36 scheduled for completion by the end of the year, downtown Seattle is on track to see the largest number of completed projects in the last decade…”

Can you imagine reading in the Star-Telegram about 24 projects completed in downtown Fort Worth so far in 2015, with 36 more scheduled for completion by the end of the year? It takes Fort Worth four years to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the mainland to an imaginary island.

Another interesting paragraph from the Seattle Times article...

The “back to the city” movement has legs. All over the country, millennials and others want to live in vibrant central cities with walkable neighborhoods, real downtowns and good transit. In Chicago, giant Kraft Heinz is the latest company to abandon suburbia for downtown.

Los Angeles is also seeing a big boom in its downtown as people and corporations return to the city center.

A few days ago in a blogging titled No Sturgeon Dying In Trinity River While Largest Hotel In Texas Is Not Built In Fort Worth I made mention of a comment made by Mr. Spiffy, where Mr. Spiffy opined along the line that America's Biggest Boondoggle boondoggling along in slow motion is the reason nothing of the big project sort is happening in downtown Fort Worth, due to no investor wanting to invest in downtown Fort Worth when there is a chance that the Trinity River Central City Uptown Gator Island Vision Boondoggle might actually become viable, with that being where one would want to invest, not in the existing moribund downtown.

Regarding America's Biggest Boondoggle, I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but I think the actual concept is a good idea. Turning a large area of urban blight into an urban village with water features, restaurants, residential towers, public transit.

It is the way Fort Worth has  gone about actualizing this "vision" that I find objectionable. Hiring the unqualified son of a local politician to run the project. Not having the public vote to approve and fund the project. No project timeline. Over a decade and a half after its inception, very little to show, except  for a slow motion boondoggle sponsoring floating beer parties in a polluted river, which really is just shameful.

Though the locals really do not seem to mind.

Which is baffling.

America's Biggest Boondoggle is basically killing downtown Fort Worth, with the town stuck in neutral while other towns in other areas of America are in boom town mode.

Regarding that "back to the city" movement mentioned in the Seattle Times article, where people are drawn to city centers with real downtowns, walkable neighborhoods and good transit. Fort Worth fails miserably on all three of those draws.

Fort Worth is the biggest town in America without a single department store operating in its downtown. Fort Worth is the biggest town in America without a single grocery store operating in its downtown.

Not enough people visit downtown Fort Worth to support a department store. Not enough people live in downtown Fort Worth to support a grocery store.

These are symptoms of something being not quite right with downtown Fort Worth, despite the downtown cheerleader's constant attempts to pretend otherwise.

How many department stores are in downtown Seattle? Several. Along with several vertical malls. And multiple grocery stores. And a huge public market drawing tourists from all over the world. With good public transit in the form of a transit tunnel running under the downtown zone.

Can you imagine a transit tunnel running under downtown Fort Worth? On the plus side, it would not need to be a very long tunnel...

Euless Doctor Appointment Takes Me To Palm Treed Viridian Beach Volleyball Court

Today was the day of my regularly scheduled monthly doctor appointment in Euless.

The doctor's workshop is near Collins Street. Driving south on Collins Street soon takes one to the north entry to River Legacy Park, which was closed today, and likely for several days, due to the road and parking lot surface being upgraded.

So, I continued south, took a right on Green Oaks Boulevard and continued west til I got to the south entry to River Legacy Park.

Arlington seems to have the highly evolved good habit of constantly improving its parks. If River Legacy Park is not the best park in the entire D/FW Metroplex, I wish someone would point me to the park that is.

Today I rolled my bike wheels back across the Trinity River to the north side of River Legacy Park with the intention to take my handlebars to the Viridian development, if Lake Viridian had receded enough from last month's flooded state, to allow trail access from River Legacy to Viridian.

I think my last roll through Viridian was about two years ago. There were only a couple dozens homes built at that point in time. The development did not seem all that appealing, what with the high expectations of all that was proposed for the Viridian development before the Great Recession grounded the project to a halt.

Well, from what I saw today one would think the Great Recession is ancient history.

The paved trails along the lake have been expanded since my last visit. A school has been built. A sprawling club house, with swimming pools, has been added, part of which you see above, looking over my handlebars at a sandy white beach volleyball court surrounded by palm trees.

The landscaping at Viridian is impressive. I am a fan of a well landscaped landscape.

For quite a distance Collins Street has received the Viridian treatment, creating an aesthetically pleasing landscaped boulevard of the sort one sees in towns like, I don't  know, Phoenix, Tacoma, Mount Vernon, Los Angeles, and others.

Fort Worth should send a task force to Arlington to see what an improvement, aesthetically speaking, a well landscaped road can be, free of weeds and litter.

Check out the I-35 exits to Fort Worth's #1 tourist attraction, the Fort Worth Stockyards, and imagine those exits with the Arlington landscape treatment, rather than their current eyesore state of being a littered, weedy mess....

Once Again Maxine Has Made Me Homesick For Washington & Japanese Fishing Floats

Last Thursday, in a blogging titled A Hot July Day In Texas Thinking About Catching A Llama With Maxine I lamented about a Maxine salmon barbecue that had me thinking, yet again, about moving back to the Wonders of Washington.

Rarely a week goes by, of late, where someone from Washington does not send me something which makes me feel a bit homesick.

Yesterday it happened again, once again via Maxine.

Last Friday Maxine told me over the weekend she was floating the ferry to the Olympic Peninsula to drive to a knitter's convention in a cabin on the beach in Moclips.

Moclips?

The name was totally familiar, but my memory of place names and their location in Washington is fading as the years of exile pile up. I had to look up Moclips on my Street Finder program to restore my memory that Moclips is slightly north of Copalis, which had me further appalled at the sad state of my failing memory.

Copalis, as a kid, was just about my favorite place we would journey to for a weekend of camping, or a week of summer vacation. There was a store in Copalis which had all sorts of fun stuff.  Every trip to Copalis my brother and I would go to that store and spend a lot of time deciding what balsa wood rubber band propelled airplane we would buy and fly.

I was last in Copalis and Moclips the summer of 2004. I remember quite clearly that it was near Copalis I first saw the Tsunami Evacuation Route signs which had been added since the last time I visited Washington's Pacific coast.

With all the brouhaha of late regarding the impending 9.2 long overdue SUPER QUAKE off the Washington/Oregon coast, and its predicted 300 foot Tsunami, I wonder if those evacuation routes have been altered. Getting oneself to high ground above 300 feet would present a challenge along much of the coast.

In the picture above I am fairly certain we are looking at Maxine, standing on the Moclips beach, with the Pacific Ocean and a very bright sunset creating a Maxine halo, even though Maxine told me she took the photos she sent me. I think the above one may be an exception.

You looking at these photos, who have never been to the west coast, does it surprise you that a Pacific beach can be such a big flat space?

Above, that line you see across the horizon under the setting sun, that would be the line of waves crashing in from the Pacific Ocean.

Maxine told me she and her fellow knitters had fun finding sand dollars on the beach. Finding sand dollars constituted a really fine time when I was a kid.

Another big deal when I was a kid, on the beach at Copalis, and other Pacific beaches, was finding Japanese glass fishing floats. These were glass balls of various sizes, some quite large, which Japanese fishing boats used to float their nets.

The floating balls would break free and journey across the Pacific to wash ashore on Washington beaches. I do not know if this still happens. I suspect Japanese fishing fleets no longer use glass balls. I do know that Japanese glass fishing floats are currently valuable collector items.

I do not remember if me and my brother ever found a Japanese fishing float. I do remember we had ourselves a mighty fine time looking for one....

Perplexed Replacing Deplorable Seats In Fort Worth's Doomed Convention Center Arena

I saw that which you see here this morning on the front page of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram online.

I am only allowed to read the Star-Telegram's front page, but that which I was allowed to read was enough to perplex me.

The Convention Center Arena's seats apparently are deplorable eyesores in need of fixing.

The seats are deplorable eyesores? How about the giant flying saucer the seats sit in? Is that structure not widely reviled as a deplorable, outdated eyesore which architecturally looks way out of sync with the look of the rest of the Convention Center? And downtown Fort Worth?

Am I remembering correctly when I remember that a few elections ago voters voted to build a new multi-purpose arena to replace the too small, outdated Convention Center eyesore?

If I recollect correctly voters were asked to approve three financing propositions to provide funds to build the new arena. With those financing propositions approving money making schemes such as charging a buck to rent one of the new arena's livestock stalls.

In the long period of time since the voters approved of the three financing propositions, thus approving of the building of the new arena, did someone figure out that those dollar livestock stall rentals were not going to raise enough money to pay for the new building?

Has anyone seen any sort of project timeline schedule for the new multi-purpose arena the voters voted for? Did J.D. Granger get put in charge of this project? Is that why it seems to be going nowhere?

My memory of long ago events may be shaky at times, but I am fairly certain I remember correctly that this new arena was intended to replace the Convention Center Arena, due to the fact that the Convention Center Arena is not big enough to attract the big acts that the new arena, with its additional couple thousand seats, would be able to attract.

Which really never made any sense to me, but must have made sense to the majority of voters, since they voted for the three silly propositions. Why would a couple thousand more seats be the tipping point that would bring One Direction or Maroon Five to town?

I opined at the time that I did not think it was the size of the arena which kept big acts from playing Fort Worth.  It was the fact that nearby there are much bigger venues. Such as the Dallas Cowboy stadium. And in Dallas, that arena where the Dallas Mavericks play basketball. Both with better transportation access and parking than one finds in Fort Worth's Cultural District location of the new multi-purpose arena.

Anyone out there know when ground will be broken for the new Fort Worth arena? Will there be a big ceremony with TNT explosions such as what was done for the ground breaking ceremony marking the start of the four year construction of America's Biggest Boondoggle's three simple little bridges connecting the mainland to an imaginary island, now known as Gator Island.....

Rolling My Wheels To A New Woodhaven Swimming Hole While Thinking About A Blue Mound Move

It seems as if it has been at least a day since I rolled my wheels around my Woodhaven neighborhood, so with the memory fading of my most recent having done so, today I took my handlebars on a roll around the Woodhaven Country Club Golf Course.

Today I came upon a new view, that being that which you see my handlebars looking at. That pool of blue looked very inviting on this day predicted to hit 101 degrees of HOT.

I saw no "NO SWIMMING" signs. But, I'd already had my early morning swim of the day, so the temptation was not too great.

Changing the subject from the above blue pool to Blue Mound.

This morning on Facebook I was messaged with an odd question, asking me if I was moving to Blue Mound. I replied, saying not that I am aware of, why are you asking this?

In a followup message the messenger explained that someone named Durango Jones had the power to their Blue Mound home turned off this weekend, with the power then turned back on in Durango Jones' name.

I then told the Blue Mounder that this particular Durango Jones was not the culprit, along with verbalizing being perplexed at the idea their is another Durango Jones working this territory. Adding to the oddness is the fact that myself and the Blue Mounder share six Facebook friends in common, but myself and the Blue Mounder are not Facebook friends.

I don't know how the Blue Mounder managed to Facebook message me without us being Facebook friends. I thought that was a Facebook requirement to send someone a Facebook message.

Anyone else out there had any contact with someone purporting to be Durango Jones? I hope not....

Today I Celebrate My 8 Year Happy Google Anniversary

Google has a policy regarding its AdSense product similar to the first rule of Fight Club, as in the first rule of Google AdSense is not to talk about Google AdSense.

I think the talking prohibition has more to do with sharing details of how many AdSense cents one makes, revenue generating-wise, than simply mentioning some non-consequential AdSense aspect.

Such as, this morning when I checked in on the Google account Google informed me of that which you see above, that being today is my 8 year Happy Anniversary with AdSense. So far I have not been notified about any Google party celebrating this momentous occasion.

It is a little hard to believe that it has been 8 years since the Google AdSense account went active. I remember having to jump through hoop after hoop and then getting to the point where I was told  I could add AdSense code to my webpages. That day I added the code to about a quarter of my Eyes on Texas webpages, which at that point in time only numbered around 300.

The next day I logged into the Google account to find the AdSense account providing a strong motivation to add the AdSense code to all my Eyes on Texas webpages. And so I did.

And now, 8 years have gone by. If I remember right the blog you are looking at right now came along about a year later, followed by multiple other blogs, all with AdSense ads.

Doing the Google AdSense thing has become sort of an addiction, like pulling the arm of a slot machine and being pleased by the number that rolls up, or being perplexed by the number that rolls up, while once a month seeing the slot machine tray fill up with coins.

I'd like to break free of this addiction, but I fear it would involve getting some sort of addiction therapy, which seems like way too much bother, all things considered....

My Location In Texas Has Finally Become A HOT 100

The temperature has hit 100 at my location for the first time this year. My phone made its incoming text message noise. After I read the message I checked the temperature to learn it is HOT.

My computer based temperature monitoring device is also being heated to 100.

With the phone I did something I did not know I could do until I did it. As in I emailed myself what I was seeing on the phone, which is that which you see here.

Elsie Hotpepper and Spencer Jack's dad email what appear to me to be screen caps from their phones. Often embarrassing dialogues on Facebook. I figured this must be an i-Phone thing not able to be done on my Korean phone.

As I so often do, I figured wrong.

With the outer world being so HOT I would have thought my air conditioner would be running more frequently than it is to cool down my inner world. I guess it has been so long since it has been HOT that I forget how often the A/C works to keep things cool.

I must go find ice now, and some water to drown the ice in....

One Score And Two Years Ago Is No Way To Start A Wedding Speech

I do some of my best pondering whilst rolling along via my bike wheels.

Today I decided to take my handlebars on a roll around the neighborhood to get me some endorphins and do some pondering on various ponderments.

Apparently "ponderments" is not a word. It has been red flagged. Maybe pondermentable is a word.

Nope.

Also red flagged. Well, both should be words.

Among the things I pondered whilst rolling today was a task I was assigned last night. I was asked to use my highly evolved poetic literary skills to compose a wedding speech, well, actually, wedding reception speech. I got that clarification this morning after opining that I'd never witnessed anyone giving a speech at a wedding, other than the wedding officiator and the pair getting hitched.

As I rolled along I started composing the wedding speech, "One Score and Two Years Ago there Arrived on this Planet...."

And then I realized I was channeling Abraham Lincoln, with the further realization that parodying the Gettysburg Address as a wedding speech, what with that speech dedicating a memorial to thousands of fallen soldiers, would probably be in really bad taste at a wedding celebration type event.

Eventually I gave up on the composing a wedding speech thing and moved on to some other pondering, with equally unsatisfactory results.

I probably should resign from this wedding speech task. What do I know about wedding speeches? Very little. I have attended few weddings. And every one of them has ended in divorce, if I remember right, and I likely do....

No Sturgeon Dying In Trinity River While Largest Hotel In Texas Is Not Built In Fort Worth

Continuing on with our popular series of items I read in Pacific Northwest online news sources, usually the Seattle Times, which I seldom or never would read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, today's Seattle Times had a Mother Lode of such items.

A few years ago in downtown Fort Worth no developer could see the viability of building a hotel, so the voters had to vote to provide funds so Fort Worth's Convention Center could add a hotel. Towns which have a lot of visitors with a lot of conventions need not resort to such measures to build a needed hotel.

A few days ago in a blogging titled Wondering Why There Are No Plans To Build Fort Worth A New Skyscraper I mentioned that rarely a week goes by where I will not read of some new big Seattle construction project, while this rarely happens in Fort Worth, and when it does, it always seems who ever is doing the building has been given a lot of incentive perks.

Regarding the lack of new development in downtown Fort Worth, Mr. Spiffy made an interesting comment on Facebook....

If you were a real estate developer and knew that the downtown plans for a new lakeshore may or may not happen - or may take another decade, would you commit your resources to that project? The Gator Island (let's change the name, please) project is slowing downtown progress. Or eliminating it altogether.

What Mr. Spiffy says seems so true. Downtown Fort Worth is stymied by the slow motion progress of America's Biggest Boondoggle. Why would a developer develop anything in the downtown Fort Worth area when, just to the north of downtown, there is this "project", which in one of its many name iterations was called Central City, which might be the place one would want to invest in, not in the existing downtown area.

If only the Trinity River Central City Uptown Gator Island Vision Boondoggle had been voted on by the public and fully funded in the way successful public works projects are, well, the project would likely be completed by now, with downtown Fort Worth experiencing a booming economy, rather than a downtown where one might still find a panther sleeping.

Or a gator.

The first item you see from the Seattle Times tells us of yet one more construction project in downtown Seattle. This time it is what will be the largest hotel in the Pacific Northwest.

The second item tells us dozens of sturgeon have been found dead in the Columbia River. I did not know sturgeon in large numbers were still navigating the Pacific Northwest rivers.

To give you an idea of how big a sturgeon is, that is Spencer Jack's dad's, dad's, dad's, dad, my grandpa, displaying a sturgeon he caught in the Nooksack River. The Nooksack is the furthest north of the Western Washington rivers, getting most of its water in summer from snow and ice melting on Mount Baker. I suspect the Nooksack River is currently in creek mode.

The third item of three clustered together in the Seattle Times, that one would not see in the Star-Telegram, tells us that Washington's legal pot businesses are set to make a lot of money. I have no idea why, or how. The Seattle Times only lets me read five articles a month. Which is five more than the Star-Telegram allows me.

That brings us to the fourth item I saw today on the Seattle Times front page which is unlikely something I would see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Can you imagine reading in the Star-Telegram "Downtown Fort Worth hotel development booms to meet record demand for rooms in Fort Worth"?

This is not the first time the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle has expanded. I think the most recent expansion occurred since I've been in Texas, because I remember walking around in the downtown zone in 2004 and being surprised by a giant glass atrium spanning, I think it was 5th Avenue, and learning it was a new part of the Convention Center.

This latest expansion will double the capacity of the already HUGE convention center, is expected to cost $1.4 billion, with construction beginning in 2017, completion in 2020.

Imagine that, a project with a project timeline.

With its three year construction time, this Seattle Convention Center expansion must be a much simpler project than America's Biggest Boondoggle's three simple little bridges, connecting the mainland to the imaginary Gator Island, taking four years to build.

Near as I can tell, no child of any Seattle Congressperson has been given the job of overseeing this project. That may explain why this Seattle project will be a reality in 2020 whilst America's Biggest Boondoggle is still boondoggling along, trying to figure out how to dig a ditch and add water to go under those three simple little bridges to Gator Island.....

A Hot July Day In Texas Thinking About Catching A Llama With Maxine

I decided to roll my wheels around the neighborhood again, which is why you are looking at my handlebars under some dark shade looking at the Woodhaven Country Club Golf Course.

I took a hedge clipper with me today to clear the sidewalk trail of vexing mesquite brush which has been presenting a thorny aggravation.

I think due to the strong dose of moisture delivered in May and June all things green are growing way more than the norm, hence the mesquite brush sidewalk attack.

I have been getting interesting drought reports from Washington. Today's drought report was from Maxine. Years ago, Maxine and her first husband built a cool house on a big chunk of wooded land, on a bluff above the Skagit River, about 20 miles upriver, as a crow flies, from my former abode in Washington.

I remember soon before I moved to Texas I called up Maxine to ask if she'd like frozen beef products I found in my freezer that I was clearing out. So, I delivered them. I found out later, from Maxine, that those beef products were old. Real old. I'd not paid attention to the date which was stamped on the wrapping. Not fit for human consumption. I wonder if Maxine let her dogs have those beef treats?

The last time I was at the Maxine location was in August of 2004. Maxine had a salmon barbecue party. I drove up from Seattle with Wanda and Wally. Chris and David, who still lived in Ada, Oklahoma, at the time, were back home in Washington for a visit, so they were at that barbecue too. Seems like there were others there too, but my age related memory woe is not letting me remember who they were.

Anyway, back to Maxine and the drought. Maxine told me the high country trails that usually don't open til late August, or later, are already open and hikeable. Maxine participates in the same hiking treasure hunt competition thing my favorite ex-sister-in-law, Spencer Jack's grandma, Cindy, hikes in.

So far the Maxine well is still delivering water. Due to the perfect growing conditions, with plenty of sunshine, Maxine's garden is the biggest and best ever, with things, like cucumbers, already ready for pickling or eating. Maxine has the best garden I've ever seen. Raised beds with lawn between the beds, making for an easy garden to work in. Trails around the house with raspberry bushes.

I remember a big party at Maxine's, long ago, way back in the last century, maybe sometime in the 1980s. A neighbor showed up at the party, desperate for help. Her Llama had escaped. She needed help rounding up the Llama. That was a fun adventure. I remember at one point being face to face with the creature, with it turning and running from me. Gradually we closed in on the beast and it was re-captured.

Thinking about Maxine makes me think of yet one more reason to move back to Washington. In all the years I have lived in Texas not a single person, not a one, has invited me to a salmon barbecue. Or even a catfish barbecue. Let alone invite me to help capture a rogue Llama....