Arlington Pit & Fort Worth Wall Of Shame Examples Of Civic Irresponsibility

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

Clicking the headline Creek erosion pits Arlington homeowner against school district actually worked, with the Star-Telegram allowing me to read the article without insisting I become a subscriber.

In that article I learned about a big pit growing from a creek in an Arlington resident's backyard, with the creek part of land owned by the Arlington school district.

A month or two ago I blogged about a Fort Worth erosion nightmare known as the Pulte Wall of Shame. I blogged about this in Why Is Fort Worth's Best Public Servant Ignoring The Pulte Wall Of Shame?

The best Fort Worth public servant being referred to is Fort Worth mayor, Betsy Price. As far as I know Fort Worth's best pubic servant has still not checked out the Pulte Wall of Shame, or directed the city to do anything about this growing menace.

The Arlington mayor apparently is slightly more deserving of a best public servant accolade, due to at least paying some minimal lip service to the nightmare being endured by one of his constituents. We learned this in the following paragraph in the Star-Telegram article...

Tinderholt and Scism have enlisted Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams in their cause. Williams said he has seen the erosion behind her house and found it distressing, but he said there are many others facing major erosion problems around the city.

So, apparently neither the Arlington School District or the City of Arlington can do anything about a growing pit that gets closer to swallowing a home with each incoming storm.

Has the Star-Telegram reported, yet, on the Pulte Wall of Shame? Has anyone seen any mention made in the inner pages of that dwindling newspaper? I believe Fort Worth Weekly has also ignored the Pulte Wall of Shame, despite pleas by those affected for some sort of journalistic help.

Why would the City of Fort Worth, and its highly esteemed mayor, turn a deaf ear to something like a golf course's giant wall in the process of crumbling and tumbling onto Fort Worth resident's property?

Is the owner of the golf course a member of Fort Worth's ruling oligarchy, known locally as the Good Ol' Boy (and Girl) Network? Is Betsy Price, or her husband, or one of her many minions, somehow invested with a vested interest in the Eagle Golf Club Fossil Creek?

Why would a city wearing its grown up pants totally ignore a failing wall which was allowed to be built with substandard construction techniques approved by city inspectors?

When the Pulte Wall of Shame comes tumbling down, with property damage and possible loss of life, how BIG of an increased liability will the city face due to ignoring the many pleas to do something about this problem?

Making certain all the water features in the Fort Worth Water Garden were safe would have saved Fort Worth a lot of money, rather than waiting til one of those features turned into a Drowning Pool before fixing an obvious problem.

Very perplexing.

Equally perplexing is how could any legit media operation declare Betsy Price as being Fort Worth's Best Public Servant in its annual Best of edition? That is sort of like a damned by faint praise type thing. Because if that woman is the best Fort Worth has in the public servant department, well, it seems that is a big clue why the town has so many problems.

Problems like a severe sidewalk shortage and America's Biggest Boondoggle come quickly to mind, along with other problems I could probably think of if I took a minute or two to think about it.

Oh, I know, the majority of Fort Worth city parks have no modern plumbing. That's right, the city that is the envy of the nation has America's highest number of outhouses populating its city parks.

Would it not be a good thing if Fort Worth ever had itself a public servant of the mayor sort who was an advocate of things like sidewalks, modern facilities in the town's parks, public transit of the modern sort, easy access to help for citizens with problems like crumbing walls and an open mind, heart and ears?

I know, never gonna happen. Which is yet one more example of how I am a doomed eternal optimist partially braced for the horrific nightmare that Donald Trump or Ted Cruz could be the next president.....

Gun Toting Santa Guards East Fort Worth From Possible Incoming Christmas Refugees

On the way to ALDI today I noticed that Santa was back doing his yearly duty, guarding the eastern entrance to Fort Worth from atop the Fort Worth Gun Outlook Post.

As I exited my vehicle to walk into ALDI a really BIG goober in a really BIG truck pulled up, window down, asking me if I was around these parts. I said I was.

The BIG goober then asked me if I knew where the Spit & Stomp Shop was, or some name like that. I said I had never heard of that shop and asked what they sold.

Guns and ammo was the BIG goober's reply.

Oh, well, said I, I think what you are looking for is Fort Worth Gun, just get back on Eastchase and cross the freeway where you can not miss the HUGE Santa guarding Fort Worth from on top of the gun shop.

The BIG goober thanked me mighty profusely and then was on his way.

After I was done with my ALDI business I decided to head back to the machine gun toting Santa to take  the picture you see above.

The BIG goober's Big truck was parked in front the gun supply supermarket.

Now, I can not be the only person to whom it strikes that this just a bit tasteless, in this age of frequent mass murders, by guns, that a store would stick a heavily armed Santa on its roof, aiming his gun at the freeway?

Fort Worth's Streetcar Line Will Not Be Ready To Ride Anytime Soon

This blogging is going to be the latest in our popular series of bloggings about something read in a west coast online news source which would be surprising to read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

In this case the screen cap came from today's Seattle Times. An article about Seattle's latest streetcar line being almost ready to ride.

A paragraph from the article...

Voters approved the $134 million line in the 2008 Sound Transit 2 sales-tax measure. Service was supposed to begin in early 2014, connecting next year’s Capitol Hill light-rail station to the existing International District/Chinatown Station and Pioneer Square.

Imagine that.

Voters voted on a transit measure.

The Seattle/Tacoma/Everett tri-county zone seems to pass a lot of transit measures. The voters must see the value in improving public transit, making it easy to get around without needing to find a parking space.

The key to successful public transit is not having long waits to hop aboard. Currently, the new streetcar line is practicing its regular schedule, with trolleys running about every 10 minutes, but with no passengers onboard.

This is an electric streetcar powered system, with overhead power lines. The streetcars are hybrids, like some electric cars. Going downhill, braking power is converted to stored battery power to be burned when the streetcar is back heading up steep First Hill.

A couple years ago Fort Worth for a short time toyed with the idea of having a streetcar line run from downtown, south to the Magnolia Avenue zone, if I am remembering correctly. This project was somehow associated with America's Biggest Boondoggle,  then still only known as the Trinity River Vision. I suspect the association with the inept Boondoggle is part of what doomed Fort Worth's attempt to have a modern streetcar line.

I remember a sample streetcar was shipped in from Portland. Was it one of Portland's MAX train cars? I don't remember. I do remember Portland's MAX transit system is not known as a streetcar system. I remember that which was brought to display in Fort Worth did not look like a streetcar to me.

It would greatly behoove Fort Worth to build a modern streetcar line, looping from downtown to the Stockyards to the Cultural District, passing by, or going over, The Boondoggle's stunning signature bridges, if those complicated feats of engineering ever finish getting built.

Imagine what a boost such a transit line would be to Fort Worth. It would be transformative. In a real way, not an imaginary, hope it works way, like that vision The Boondoggle sees.

Can you imagine a forward thinking transit proposal being put before Fort Worth voters? A real vision for the future? And the voters approving the proposal?

No, I can't quite imagine that happening either.

But, it sure would be a good thing for Fort Worth if it did....

My Favorite Ex-Sister-in-Law & Cousin Olivia In Maui Possibly With Spencer Jack

Last month I blogged about Celebrating Retirement With Spencer Jack On A Beach In Maui.

The retirement being celebrated was that of my favorite ex-sister-in-law, Spencer Jack's Grandma Cindy.

After seeing that Spencer Jack was on Maui the following Facebook exchange occurred  between me and my Favorite Cousin Scott.

Scott Barry: tell spencer to say hello to cousin Olivia while he's on the island...

Durango Jones: Spencer, your cousin Scott wants you to say hello to your cousin Olivia whilst you are on Maui. I think Olivia manages a big hotel somewhere on the island. She should be easy for you to locate. You could maybe ask your cousin Scott for precise directions...

Scott Barry: liv owns the marriiott hotel north of lahaina...

Durango Jones: There you go, Spencer. Drive your mom to the Marriott north of Lahaina and find Olivia.

And now, on this evening of the 2nd day of December I got email from Spencer Jack's dad,  my Favorite Nephew Jason, with the above photo and text saying....

Cindy and cousin Olivia. In Maui.

I assume Spencer Jack drove his Grandma to Olivia's Maui Marriott where he took the above photo, but I am only making an assumption, based on very flimsy evidence. All I can say, with absolute certainty, is that that is, in fact, Olivia and Cindy in the photo.

Since both of the photo posers look so young, I must point it out that that is Spencer Jack's Grandma on the right, apparently old enough to retire, which would make that Olivia on the left....

Today The Bluest Sky I See Is Glowing Bright In Texas

As you can see via the skyward view looking through the bars of my patio prison cell, blue sky has returned to my location on the planet.

I suspect my current bout of SAD (Seasonally Affected Disorder) will soon abate.

I had to pick up an optical device in downtown Fort Worth this morning. This had me in my vehicle earlier than the norm.

Dew made visibility an issue that had to be taken care of before rolling any wheels.

I thought I had taken care of the dew related visibility issue completely until I reached the point where I needed to see out of the rear view mirror whilst merging on to the freeway. It was when the bright sun hit the south facing window, and mirror, that it became apparent visibility was still a problem. Hitting the roll down the window button quickly solved the problem.

Among the many good things I can say about downtown Fort Worth one is getting there is real easy, even during rush hour. It took about 8 minutes once I got on the freeway to get to my optical device location at West 6th Street and Houston.

Currently, two hours before noon, the outer world at my location is a bit chilly. 45 degrees. I think in an hour or two I will expose myself to the cold to get some much needed Vitamin D and some endorphins....

A Tale Of Two Town's Multi-Purpose Arenas

I saw that which you see here this morning on Facebook. A post from KING 5 News, in Seattle, about a new Seattle arena getting closer to being a done deal.

I saw this and thought I was looking at something coming to me via a west coast online news source which would likely not be something I would read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about something similar happening in Fort Worth.

Which, actually, is sort of not exactly true.

The Star-Telegram has had an article, or two, about a new multi-purpose arena in Fort Worth. An arena whose construction was approved by voters in an election held over a year ago, in which voters passed three propositions, with the three propositions proposing goofy things, like one proposition allowed the charging of a $1 fee to rent an arena livestock stall.

So far I don't believe any dirt has been moved to begin building Fort Worth's new arena.

I read the KING 5 News article about the new Seattle arena. That article made no mention of what the new arena is projected to cost, or how many attendees would be able to be in the new arena.

So, I Googled "Chris Hansen Seattle Arena". Chris Hansen grew up in Seattle before ending up managing hedge funds in San Francisco. An activity which apparently made Chris Hansen a lot of money and want to spend some of that money on a new Seattle Arena. Googling came up with multiple websites with info about the new Seattle arena.

Including a detailed Wikipedia article titled Sonics Arena. The Wikipedia article had a link to a Sonics Arena website, a screen cap of which you see below.

No amount of Googling will cause you to find a Wikipedia article about Fort Worth's proposed multi-purpose arena, or a Fort Worth multi-purpose arena website.

Because such articles do not exist.

I wonder why?

From what I can glean, the Seattle Arena is a bit more evolved than the Fort Worth Arena, including having a big parking garage, a plaza and mixed use office buildings.

Seattle voters have not been asked to vote on anything goofy under the pretense that approving a goofy proposition gives the go ahead to build.

From the Sonics Arena website....

The Arena will be developed and primarily financed with private funds. The public participation is designed to be self-financing and requires no new taxes or fees. The public financial participation will be repaid solely with Arena generated revenues that would not otherwise exist. The MOU includes multiple layers of protection built into the financing that protect the general funds and bond ratings of the city and county from being affected. 

Fort Worth's new multi-purpose arena is estimated to cost $450 million. Seattle's is estimated to cost $490 million.

Fort Worth's multi-purpose arena will seat about 14,000 for concerts. Seattle's will seat 19,000. I do not know if basketball and hockey are able to be played in Fort Worth's multi-purpose arena.

There has been criticism directed at those behind Fort Worth's multi-purpose arena that the price is out of whack for the small number of visitors it can seat.

And one can assume the Fort Worth arena will not see as much action as an arena hosting an NBA and NHL team, meaning the Fort Worth arena will sit idle a lot of the time.

And if a big concert type act comes to the D/FW zone, given a choice are they going to opt to choose an arena that can hold only 14,000 ticket buyers? Or a venue like the Dallas Cowboy stadium? Or that place in Dallas where the Mavericks play basketball?

Read the Wikipedia article about the Seattle Arena  history and make note of all the finagling which goes on to make something happen, like a new arena, in Seattle.

Contrast that with a town that has people voting yes or no on whether to charge $1 to rent a livestock stall, and then not much of anything happening over a year after the vote....

In Texas Looking At Snow Geese Flying From An Island To A Snow Covered Volcano

Yesterday I blogged about a Rainy Walmart Drive With Mom To A Mallard Cove Mystery.in which I made mention of the fact that the cold gray rain currently infesting Texas reminded me way too much of a stereotypical Western Washington winter day after day after day after day of rain.

I also made mention of the fact that when winter Western Washington rain finally dried up with a return to blue sky that in any direction one looked one would see snow-capped mountains, unlike  my current mountain-free zone.

In that aforementioned blogging I also made mention of Fir Island in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley.

And then this morning, in one of those serendipitous coincidence type things, what do I see in one of my west coast online  news sources?

That which you see above, with a caption of....

Been out to catch the snow geese yet? They are really getting thick out there! This was shot on Fir Island Road with Mount Baker for backdrop. photo credit: Eddie Murdock Photography

Now, that sure is something I would never see at my current location. A real island. A real mountain, which is a volcano. Glaciers. And snow geese....

Rainy Walmart Drive With Mom To A Mallard Cove Mystery

When I was a young lad I recollect on days like this my mom would sing a song part of which went something like "rain rain go away, come again another day..."

Since Thanksgiving Texas has been reminding me of what a Washington winter can be like. Day after day after day after day after day of rain.

And cold.

But there is one HUGE difference. When the rain in Washington finally stops and the sky is once again blue you look in just about any direction and you see these things called mountains, snow-capped, this time of year. If the sky ever turns blue again, at my current location, no matter which direction I look I will not be seeing any snow-capped mountains.

I tried going jogging this morning. That did not go well after a downpour started getting me extra wet. About an hour before noon I texted my mom and dad to ask "Are you kids home and by the phone?" My dad texted back with a "Yes".

So, I called and asked mom if she wanted to ride to Walmart with me in the rain. Mom was onboard for the Walmart trip.

I got gas a couple days ago but it was not convenient to call my mom, like I usually do, when I get gas, to tell mom how much it cost. That and usually also mentioning the temperature.

After I finished my walk around Walmart I returned to Mallard Cove Park for the third day in a row. I figured the flood would be flooding much higher, what with a lot of rain continuing to fall.

Instead, when Mallard Cove came in to view I was surprised to see the water had receded quite a distance. Today's photo through the rain spattered windshield sort of shows you the Mallard Cove reduction, compared to the photos from Friday and Saturday.

Why has the river level gone down whilst rain still falls in copious amounts?

If this were in the aforementioned Washington, in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley, when the flooding Skagit River suddenly drops it means only one thing. A dike downstream has broken.

I remember a flood event back in the early 1990s. The storm that sank one of the Lake Washington floating bridges. Downtown Mount Vernon was in major emergency mode. An army of locals poured into downtown to help sandbag, along with a couple hundred servicemen from the Whidbey Island Naval Station. Or was it the National Guard?

I remember I was at home, about midnight, watching the flood news on TV, when the coverage went live to Mount Vernon, where the KING 5 news guy was making it sound like hundreds of people were making their way to downtown to save the library.

It was about a three mile drive from my abode to downtown Mount Vernon. About 15 minutes after hearing the library was in danger I was parking on a hill above downtown and making my way to the library.

Where I learned the library was not in actual immediate danger, but was ground zero for sand bag filling operations, I was told they had plenty of sandbaggers, but able bodied sorts were needed on the revetment (think dike with a parking lot on top) to help build a sand bag wall.

Soon I  found myself in a bucket  brigade type operation. This went on for a couple hours til about a 5 foot wall extended the length of downtown.

The river was predicted to crest around noon, if I remember right. It was expected to topple over the sandbag wall, by a slight amount, hopefully not enough to flood downtown Mount Vernon, which is sort of like New Orleans, as in below the river level when it is in flood mode.

So, before the expected crest I made my way to downtown Mount Vernon again, along with a lot of other people. We were kept a distance away, safe from a catastrophic flood wall failure. We watched as the river rose higher and higher, reaching to the top of the sandbag wall, then starting to go over the wall in spots.

Then, suddenly the water level dropped by a foot, or more.

What happened? No one knew. Soon emergency sirens were wailing. Helicopters were in the air.

I do not remember how long it was before it was known that the dike had broken downriver a couple miles, about a 200 foot breech in the dike that protected Fir Island from a flooding Skagit River.

When the Skagit River reaches Fir Island it splits into two forks, the north and the south forks of the Skagit River. The west side of Fir Island is a body of water known as Skagit Bay, which is part of another body of water known as Puget Sound.

Those reading this who live in the environs of Fort Worth, Fir Island is a real island, surrounded on all sides by moving water. There are two bridges that cross the Skagit River on to Fir Island. Both built in well under four years, and both built over a wide deep river, not dry land.

Those reading this who do not live in the environs of Fort Worth, who are wondering why I am explaining Fir Island's island status and bridges, well, here in Fort Worth we have this pseudo public works project which has been boondoggling along for almost all of this century, with very little to show for the effort.

This project has gone by many names. Currently it is the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision.

Known by many as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Over a year ago The Boondoggle had a big celebration to celebrate the supposed start of construction on its three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

A month or so ago The Boondoggle launched a publicity propaganda burst to proudly share the news that wooden forms were able to be seen being constructed at the location where the only one of the three bridges is currently sort of under construction.

I think I got off subject.

So, the breech in the Fir Island dike caused the Skagit River to flood Fir Island, doing a lot of damage.

When the river receded the dike was quickly repaired. Then, two weeks later, another storm caused another flood. The sandbag wall was still in place. Once again the river rose to a level which was going to top the sandbag wall and once again the Fir Island dike broke. This time not as catastrophically, because the damage  had already been done two weeks previous.

So, what caused the water level in Mallard Cove to drop since yesterday? I drove no further east, on Randol Mill Road, than Mallard Cove. That road is a bit of a pot holed bump fest to drive on any old time. With the flooding driving that road becomes a bit treacherous, what with flooding creeks rushing water over the road and deep puddles.

The sky is actually looking brighter right now than it has in days. Is the gray coming to an end? Will blue sky return tomorrow with clear views of the gorgeous surrounding landscape....

Saturday Look At Texas Flooding & Town Talk

Swimming and hiking were not doable on this last Saturday of the next to last month of 2015, due to rain and air chilled to only a few degrees above freezing.

I did go jogging in the rain this morning, though. I did not get too cold.

Before noon I headed west, towards Town Talk, via Randol Mill Road, not knowing if the road was open or closed due to flooding.

As I drove by Quanah Parker Park I saw the park was flooded more than I'd ever seen previously. Then I got to the bridge crossing the Trinity. I decided to park and walk out onto the bridge to see how the new  bridge construction was faring with the flooding.

As you can see the Trinity River is moving a lot of water. I don't recollect seeing it this high before. The river appears to have wreaked some havoc with the new bridge construction. Unlike America's Biggest Boondoggle, this Trinity River bridge project did not have the option of being built  over dry land, with the water to be installed at some distant point of time way in the future.

Were no warnings given that gave the road and bridge builders time to evacuate their heavy equipment? Did the river rapidly rise due to the reservoirs being full from last spring's flood? Mary Kelleher has a farm on Randol Mill Road that also got flooded with Mary not warned a flood was on its way. Mary was alerted to the flood in the middle of Thanksgiving night when she heard her water trapped cows crying.

After checking out the flooded bridge construction I was back in my vehicle, heading west towards Town Talk, dodging some deep water covering the road in several  locations.

Town Talk was not busy and was a bit of a bust, again, in the treasure finding department.

After Town Talk I headed back east, again via Randol Mill Road, continuing to Mallard Cove Park to see how much higher the water has risen since yesterday.

Well, this flood has flooded higher than last spring's flood, at this location. When the previous flood subsided I figured a mess would be left in its wake in Mallard Cove Park. Instead, the water quickly receded with nary a sign of it having been there.

I saw a lot of flood looky-loos, both at Mallard Cove Park and in the Gateway Park/Trinity River Bridge zone. I forgot to mention, the north entry into Gateway Park is currently not doable, due to too much water.

The above was one of the Mallard Cove Park looky-loos. I do not know what this person is doing in the picture. Framing something with his hands? As he was doing this he was also talking to himself. I kept my distance.

I have not witnessed any precipitation precipitating for several hours. Is the worst of this over now? I thought I read the remnants of a Pacific hurricane was scheduled to arrive in Texas after visiting Mexico.

Will this flood be the final nail in the former Cowtown Wakepark's coffin? How has that other project of The Boondoggle, that being those V-pier forms under construction that The Boondoggle seemed so proud about, fared during this latest deluge?

I suppose The Boondoggle's one little bridge being built over dry land likely has not been too impacted by too much water....

Black Friday In Walmart Wondering About Humanity Sanity Before Seeing A Flooding Trinity River

Donald Trump being the Republican front runner has a lot of people concerned about the sanity of a large number of my fellow Americans.

Well, I was finding myself concerned about the sanity of a large number of my fellow Americans when I had myself a Walmart visit on this Black Friday.

As I drove on to the Sam's Club/Walmart parking lot I saw the largest woman I have ever seen. She was loading stuff into her trunk. She was as wide as her trunk. How was she able to drive I found myself wondering. But, I did not linger long enough to satisfy my curiosity.

The two ladies you see using motorized transplant inside Walmart were dainty in comparison to the large woman I just got done telling you about.

In Walmart today I saw an inordinate number of people ill-fitted into clothes, sporting too much weight for the clothes they were stuffing themselves in to, along with sporting tattoos, piercings and one with his ear lobes enlarged into big circles.

The guy with the expanded ear lobes looked quite slovenly.

It always perplexes me when I see such things, wondering why would getting tattoos and piercings and ear lobe expansions be something one thought improved or enhanced their appearance, when there are other things one would think would come first. Like losing weight, getting a haircut, wearing clothes that fit, that type thing.

I did not realize so much rain had dropped during the current storm til I  learned, on Facebook, via Mary Kelleher, that the Trinity has once again flooded her ranch, with some of her cow babies needing a middle of the night rescue from the unexpected flood.

After leaving Walmart, on the way back to relative safety, I drove Randol Mill Road and was surprised to see how high the flood waters  had risen.  Eventually I drove into Mallard Cove Park.

The water appears to have risen higher than last spring's flood, which was the first time I ever saw Mallard Cove Park flooded. I did not get out of my vehicle. Those are big raindrops hitting my windshield you see above looking like Village Creek ghosts.

More rain is on the menu for the next several days. Not good.