Downtown Fort Worth Construction Frenzy Hits Imaginary New High

In addition to this blogging being yet the latest iteration of our popular bloggings about items we read in west coast online news sources, usually the Seattle Times, that one would not expect to be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about something happening in the environs of Fort Worth, this blogging is also about reality as opposed to the ignorant blatherings of ill-educated, ill-informed right wing nut job types.

Like Rush Limbaugh and his college dropout ilk.

But, before I get to that.

In all the years I lived in Fort Worth I never saw a single new skyscraper scrape the sky.

I did see some corporate sweetheart deals come to town. Like when Radio Shack convinced the easily bamboozled town into giving concessions, abusing eminent domain and other shenanigans to build the hapless corporation a new headquarters in downtown Fort Worth, which the corporation could not afford and soon lost.

Out of that embarrassing deal downtown Fort Worth lost acres of free parking and the world's shortest free subway. Both of which, pre-Radio Shack debacle, made visiting downtown Fort Worth an easy experience. Which is not the case, post Radio Shack debacle.

Fort Worth is the largest city in America without a single downtown department or grocery store, let alone a vertical mall. Downtown Fort Worth has relatively few downtown residents, per capita, compared to other big city downtowns.

Yet the locals don't ask why their downtown is so moribund. As in what is wrong with this sick city? Maybe most don't realize their downtown is so moribund and their city so sick. Maybe most don't ever visit other towns. I don't know what the explanation is.

It has been going on well over a century where an out of towner will visit downtown Fort Worth to be stunned over how sleepy it is, including a Dallas reporter reportedly stunned to find a panther sleeping on the courthouse steps.

Meanwhile, up north, in my old home zone, the big city is Seattle.

Excerpt from the Seattle Times Downtown construction frenzy hits new high article...

The building boom sweeping downtown Seattle is hard to miss, between the jostling cranes, giant holes in the ground and construction crews closing down streets. But new data show just how intense things have gotten — and how much more is still yet to come.

There are currently 65 major buildings under construction across downtown, South Lake Union and surrounding neighborhoods, more than at any point since the figures were first tracked in 2005, the Downtown Seattle Association said in a new report. The previous midyear high was 50 buildings under construction in 2014 and 49 last year.

“There is a ton of development on all fronts,” said Don Blakeney, a vice president for the downtown group.

And the frenzy isn’t set to end anytime soon: Most of the structures will take until next year to finish, and there are dozens more in the pipeline set to start in the next year and a half.

After a record-setting 2015 for new homes downtown, there are still even more on tap for this year and the next — 8,661 in all downtown, more than the entire city of San Francisco has added in the last three years. Altogether, by the time current projects are done, downtown Seattle will have added 44 percent more housing units than it had at the start of the decade.

“It’s a sign of the times that people want to live close to where they work, and have access to the things that are available in a major city,” Blakeney said.

Office buildings are still booming, too: 5.7 million square feet of it is under construction, down a little from last year but double the amount from three years ago.

More than one-third of the offices under construction is for Amazon.

The downtown group says the internet behemoth is on pace to occupy 12 million square feet of office space by the time current projects are finished. That’s the equivalent of eight Columbia Centers, the tallest building in Seattle at 76 stories.

But other companies are expanding their presence here, too, including Facebook, Expedia and Google.

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Can you imagine a similar article in the Star-Telegram describing the current state of Fort Worth?

Me either.

Office space for Amazon the equivalent of eight Columbia Centers? Columbia Center is a Seattle skyscraper about twice as tall as any Fort Worth scraper.

Might I add that, unlike Fort Worth, the Facebook, Expedia, Google and Amazon building projects all came to be without Seattle giving those corporations tax breaks or abusing eminent domain, or any of the other pitiful, pathetic things Fort Worth does to try to attract a suitor to its extremely unattractive town.

Changing the subject to those under educated right wing nut jobs I mentioned above.

Back when Seattle voted to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour, within about a week right wing falsehood purveyors started up the lie that four Seattle restaurants had already closed due to the wage increase. When legitimate, non-Breitbart,  non-Fox type media pointed out that the $15 hour minimum wage had not yet gone into effect and was to be phased in over several years, and that no restaurants had closed due to the wage increase, the right wing nut jobs sort of did a collective "never mind".

For awhile.

Then after six months, give or take a month or two, someone in the right wing nut-o-sphere cranked out the same already disputed Seattle restaurants going under due to the new minimum wage lie, including that chief spewer of ignorant nonsense, Rush Limbaugh.

Now, let's talk reality. Seattle raised the minimum wage to $15. It is not at that level yet. Yet Seattle is booming. 65 major buildings under construction downtown. Most to be completed by next year, with many in the pipeline preparing to start construction.

8,661 new homes in downtown Seattle this year.

Clearly raising the minimum wage has had a disastrous effect on the Seattle economy. (That's ironic sarcasm, to be clear, for any nimrod reading this)

Maybe Fort Worth should try a baby step. Raise the minimum wage to $10 over three years. Maybe that would be just the catalyst to cause a new skyscraper to get built in the next decade. And maybe a few downtown residential buildings. Maybe even a department store.

Imagine that.

Downtown Fort Worth with a department store.....

Sunny Wichita Falls Walk Around Sikes Lake With Art & Mona Lisa

Anticipating incoming thunderstorms, on this final Sunday of June I decided to take a walk, a short distance from my abode, where I've not walked before.

That being a walk around Sikes  Lake.

Sikes Lake is at the south end of Midwestern State University. I think the lake may be part of the campus, due a sign you will see later in this blogging.

I have not lived so close to a university since decades ago when I lived in Ellensburg, Washington, a slight distance north of the Central Washington University campus.

I was a bit non-plussed when I saw the above sign at the outdoor entry door to the aquatics center. But, mistakes happen, even on at a university full of people in the process of getting educated. Or as MSU might say "proces of getting educated."

The Sikes Lakes paved trail takes one past the Wichita Falls Museum of Art, where one sees multiple pieces of outdoor sculpture installations, along with the covered pavilion you see below.

I believe concerts and lectures take place at this pavilion location. It appears to be a real pavilion, unlike a Fort Worth style imaginary pavilion. I do not believe any Rockin' the Lake Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats take place at this location in Sikes Lake.

Above you see a couple examples of the aforementioned outdoor sculptures. The one in the foreground is titled "Screen Sculpture #49 Painted Steel".

The Sikes Lake Trail has one of those ubiquitous Mustang installations one sees all over Wichita Falls. I had no way to tell if this particular Mustang and her baby were part of the Museum's outdoor art, or not. I do know I have never seen Mona Lisa displayed on a horse's right rear leg before.

Multiple signs warn against swimming in Sikes Lake. And no kayaking or canoeing without prior MSU approval. Why no swimming? Lake too shallow? Polluted? Why does kayaking require MSU approval?

I have no clue.

Freedom loving Texans are so much more restrictive with their rules than I was used to in the free spirited progressive liberal minded state of Washington.

I saw four covered picnic gazebo type installations as I walked around the lake. Three of them with  a water fountain, such as the one you see above.

How is it that Wichita Falls has figured out how to deliver drinking water to remote locations around a lake? While a much bigger city, such as Fort Worth, can not figure out how to deliver such? Or how to install, in its parks, restroom facilities of the modern, non-outhouse variety?

Wichita Falls seems to have a real sense of civic pride, grounded in reality, unlike that Texas town from which I recently escaped. Wichita Fallers seems to realize their town has some problem areas in need of work, with the town actively addressing those areas, rather than pretending the problems don't exist, such as was the case in that delusional town from which I recently escaped....

Wichita Falls Floral Heights Gold Dome Leads Me To Possible Turkey Trot

A week or so ago I mentioned I might get around to blogging about a Gold Dome I came upon whilst driving the streets of Wichita Falls.

Apparently this is the day I get around to blogging about the Gold Dome.

Soon after taking this photo of the Gold Dome, hovering above a couple buildings which have seen better days, I turned a corner to learn the Gold Dome sits atop the Floral Heights Methodist Church.

I was not expecting the Gold Dome to sit atop a Methodist Church. I figured it might sit atop a mosque. Which would have been interesting. The Methodist Church under the Gold Dome is a mish mash of architectural styles, including a church entry with multiple tall columns which looked more like a courthouse than a church.

A short distance past the church I began seeing signage indicating I was in the Floral Heights Historical Neighborhood.

It's been multiple days and I have yet to learn why this neighborhood is named Floral Heights or why it is historical.

I did learn the neighborhood has a Historical Floral Heights Neighborhood Facebook page. But on that page I was only able to learn the Floral Heights Neighborhood has a lot of dog issues, garage sales, and community events, like turkey trots.

But nothing about why the neighborhood is named such or why it is historical.

And now I have the added mystery of figuring out what a turkey trot is.

The learning process is never ending....

If You Are Well Born You Find The Trinity To Be Disgusting

Now, I found that which you see here to be a bit amusing. Some people's sense of humor and sarcasm is evolved to such a higher level than mine.

One of my Facebook friends who I do not know and have never met, named Christine Welborn, shared someone named Chris Putnam's post,

Chris Putnam had commented "Hope everyone enjoyed the Panther Island tubing event last night! You might want to see your doctor today."

To which Christine Welborn commented "The Trinity is disgusting. You won't see me getting in it."

As you can see, I then commented the following...

"The Trinity is no different than the water you drink. You are a water bigot. To prove the water was safe, J.D. Granger drank a glass of Trinity River water as it flowed by his imaginary pavilion and island before the river was opened to floaters on Thursday. I assume reports that J.D. Granger is now hospitalized to be simply vicious unfounded rumor...."

Then someone named Claudia Kenngott Bevill responded to what I had said with what I previously referred to as a sense of humor and sarcasm evolved to a much higher level than mine....

Claudia Kenngott Bevill How stupid can one be! I drink purified water, but you can go ahead and drink the sewer water if you like it!

Methinks this Claudia gal must be a real hoot. I wish she was one of my Facebook friends who I have never met and don't actually know....

Communing With Nature In The Wichita Falls Lucy Park Shade

No, that is not the Trinity River you are looking at here, looking inviting as it flows through Fort Worth.

What you are looking at here is the Wichita River as it flows through Lucy Park in Wichita Falls, a town about 130 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

In flood mode the Wichita River turns a cool Utah redrock color that I like. In non-flood mode the Wichita River turns the color you see here. Still murky, but somewhat clear, in that I could see a fish or two or three.

And you have to admit, the Wichita River and its riverbank is scenic. Note the total absence of litter.

Unlike the Trinity River as it sludges through Fort Worth.

I make note of remarkably less litter in Wichita Falls than that which regularly appalled me in messy Fort Worth.

I don't think I mentioned it but yesterday I got my aerobically induced endorphins via mountain climbing on Mount Wichita. The novelty of mountain climbing on Mount Wichita is starting to wear off. It is almost too aerobic. And unlike a place like Fort Worth's Tandy Hills, there is not a lot of trail variation.

Sticking with our comparing Wichita Falls to Fort Worth theme. An item such as you see below I have never seen in a Fort Worth park.

No. It's not some sort of high tech modern restroom facility with running water. What it is is an exercise station. I have come across this type installation in Lucy Park and in Lake Wichita Park, near Mount Wichita.

The exercise device you see on the right is the only one I can sort of do. You sit on the bench and then push forward on the bars, with the strength of your arms lifting the seat up. In other words, the fatter you are the more difficult this is to do.

Which basically is true of all things.

Which may explain why I am unable to manage even one pull up on the pull up bar part of this exercise installation. Or one parallel dip.

Even though the temperature was somewhere in the 90s zone I had myself a mighty fine time today communing with nature in Lucy Park. Plenty of trees provide plenty of shade. And a good cooling wind was blowing.

A lot of kids were enjoying the Lucy Park pool. Next to the pool another large group of kids was engaging in some sort of activity at the Lucy Park log cabin.

Again comparing Wichita Falls to Fort Worth. I never saw Wichita Falls type park activity in any of the Fort Worth parks I visited over the years.

What is wrong with Fort Worth? Why are there not more people asking that question and demanding answers? There is no reason Fort Worth can not become a modern American city. Except for its inept leadership and backwards ways of getting things done, whilst propagandizing the opposite to be the truth....

Was Proper Trinity Testing Done Before Thursday's Rockin' The Sewage Happy Hour?

I think I have already mentioned earlier this week that a raw sewage carrying pipeline burst, sending a flood of untreated water into a creek which flows into the Trinity River a short distance upstream from the downtown Fort Worth location where America's Biggest Boondoggle hosts Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats at an imaginary pavilion near an imaginary island.

Spokesman for The Boondoggle claimed the raw sewage had been contained prior to posing a threat to the Trinity River and to those choosing to float in that dirty river. It was also claimed that testing indicated the water was safe, with that testing taking place prior to The Boondoggle's inaugural floating beer party of the year.

Well.

In an article this morning in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, titled Fort Worth pumps water out of Mary’s Creek after sewage spill we learn....

On Thursday, the city was collecting samples from the creek and from the Trinity River, which connects to the creek just west of Southwest Boulevard/Texas 183, Gugliuzza said.

The samples’ bacteria levels will be tested, and the results won’t be ready for a day or two, Gugliuzza said. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality was notified Wednesday.

People “definitely” need to stay out of the creek until further notice, Gugliuzza said.

The spill was not expected to affect drinking water, authorities said, but residents with private water wells within a half-mile of the spill site should boil or distill water before using it until further notice.

So, the Star-Telegram is reporting that on Thursday samples were collected from the Trinity River, to be tested, with those test results ready in a day or two.

So, how was it The Boondoggle was able to claim testing indicated the Trinity River water was free of dangerous pathogens, and thus safe to float in, that same Thursday the samples were taken, if the results of the testing were not available for a day or two after the scheduled floating beer party?

Like I think I have mentioned before, something just ain't right about Fort Worth.

It's like the town has the backwards mentality of an undeveloped small Southern town of a few thousand, instead of the mentality of a modern city of around 800,000.

Fort Worth is definitely the most un-sanitary town in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex mess. Fort Worth is the only town in the D/FW zone with multiple city parks with no running water and no modern restroom facilities of the non-outhouse variety.

A town being okay with having parks without modern restrooms, without a place to wash ones hands after using an outhouse, fits right in with a town having a mentality that it is okay to sponsor a water event in river water downstream from a raw sewage spill.

Now, I do not generalize to suggest that all the citizens of Fort Worth are okay with having their city parks so far behind modern times. Or having floating parties in the Trinity River. I am sure the majority of Fort Worth citizens would like to see their town modernized to a level at least matching other towns in their shared metropolitan zone.

Modernized like Haltom City, Keller, Watauga, North Richland Hills, Arlington, Grapevine, Dallas, well you get the drift.

Just this past Wednesday I enjoyed a pleasant picnic, under a shelter at Capp Smith Park in Watauga. The covered picnic area was connected to a modern restroom. Drinking fountains and running water were also near the covered picnic shelter.

What a concept.

I can not imagine a 21st century American city, other than Fort Worth, hosting embarrassing floating beer parties, with music, in water commonly believed to be dirty and polluted, let alone hosting such a thing after a big raw sewage spill  occurred a short distance upstream.

Fort Worth is badly led by bad leaders. I don't know why this is the case, but it is. No other large American city opened itself up to being poked by thousands of holes in the ground to be fracked with pollutants, along with other associated post poking pollutants damaging the life quality of its citizens.

It is a bit symbolic of Fort Worth's backwardness that at the site of the Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats you will also find no modern restrooms. Just a couple outhouses encased in cement enclosures. Methinks most modern American town's sense of civic pride would have the people of that town feeling a bit embarrassed to have permanent outhouses installed at what The Boondoggle propaganda claims is the premiere urban waterfront music venue in Texas.

I know, gag worthy and again embarrassing.

Fort Worth can and should and deserves to do better. The Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network, also known as the 7th Street Gang, needs to get the boot, with Fort Worth getting replacement leadership which truly represents all the people of Fort Worth, improving all areas of the city for all the people of the city.

As it is, Fort Worth just keeps falling further and further behind the rest of America, and its own suburbs.

Like I said, embarrassing....

America's Biggest Boondoggle Rockin' The Raw Sewage Spill Happy Hour Inner Tube Float

Incoming couple of screencaps from, I assume, Facebook, from Elsie Hotpepper.

Recently I learned of a massive pipe break which was dumping a HUGE volume of untreated sewage into a creek which runs into the Clear Fork of the Trinity River a short distance upstream from the location where America's Biggest Boondoggle holds its Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats at an imaginary pavilion near an imaginary island near downtown Fort Worth.

The Boondoggle has been touting that floating in the Trinity River is no different than floating in the water you drink, since the water the floaters float in flows from the Benbrook and Lake Worth reservoirs.

The Boondoggle spokespeople, in their various propaganda venues, claim the reason the Trinity River is the murky muddy color of flowing feces is that the river has a clay river bottom, unlike the river bottoms further south in Texas where the water runs clear, with thousands of tubers.

The Lake Worth reservoir, in addition to being known for being good drinking water, of late has been more known for its alligator infestation.

The TRWD and The Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision, claim that the raw sewage was somehow magically stopped before any of the voluminous spill made its way the short distance to the Trinity.

The TRWD has one sane board director member, Mary Kelleher.

This is what Mary Kelleher had to say about the absurdity of The Boondoggle going ahead with tonight's fetid float in the Trinity....

For the record, as a director on the TRWD board, I asked TRWD administration to cancel the event tonight just in case the waste made it's way into the Trinity.  I was told the FW officials in charge of clean up assured TRWD the waste had been captured and  did not enter the Trinity. I was also told the Trinity was tested Tuesday and showed the water to be safe. 

I personally disagree with the TRWD's decision to encourage the public to float in the Trinity after a significant spill of sewage upstream.

__________________

This month there has been a Flesh Eating Bacteria outbreak on the Texas Gulf Coast. Pathogens in water can be dangerous, even in places where one might assume the water to be safe, like salt water churned by waves.

Most Fort Worth locals would never consider getting wet in the Trinity River.

Why would anyone with any semblance of common sense get in that river days after a massive raw sewage leak occurred a short distance upstream? Why would any responsible public agency sign on with encouraging people to get in a river after such an incident?

Beyond bizarre, beyond perplexing. I am so glad I no longer live in Fort Worth. Something just ain't right about that town....

Vote For Spencer Jack To Make America Great Again Instead Of His Grandma Cindy

Now this is interesting.

Ever since my Favorite Nephew Jason took My Favorite Great Nephew, Spencer Jack, to a Trump Rally at the Lynden Fairgrounds in my old home state, nine year old Spencer is thinking he is old enough to run for president.

Just like Trump, Spencer Jack doesn't understand how the process actually works. He's only nine years old, after all.

Unlike Trump, Spencer Jack is able to speak in complete sentences using polysyllabic words, so it is understandable that Spencer Jack would hear Trump's meaningless word salad way of talking and think I can do better than that.

Apparently after Spencer Jack told his grandma, she being my Favorite Ex-Sister-in-Law, Cindy, that he was running for president, Cindy told Spencer Jack that she was running too.

Again, apparently, this caused Spencer Jack to make the campaign poster you see above, in which Spencer admonishes voters not to vote for Cindy, but to vote for Spencer, because a vote for Spencer will make America great again.

Just one more indication of the profound effect Donald J. Trump has had on the American presidential election process...

Why Has Regional Council Not Warned 5 Tarrant County Towns They Are Growing Too Fast?

I saw that which you see here, yesterday morning, via the Seattle Times, prior to the long drive from Wichita Falls to the D/FW Metroplex mess.

This would fit in with our popular series about things we see in online west coast news sources which we would not expect to see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, reporting about a similar thing in the environs of Tarrant County.

Can you imagine "Regional council warns 5 Tarrant County towns they're growing too fast"?

Me neither.

This came to mind yesterday whilst I was heading back to the northwest. Well, Wichita Falls.

When I first moved to Texas it was to a little town called Haslet, to a ten acre ranch. It seemed very rural, even though Fort Worth was across the street where the mailbox was  located.

The puny skyline of downtown Fort Worth could be seen way in the distance to the south. The nearest grocery store was in Keller, several miles to the east, reached via a bumpy pot holed road hyberbolically named Golden Triangle Boulevard.

Now, in what seems just a few years later, what was once rural is now an urban mess of bad planning.

New houses fill the horizon. Multiple shopping areas, including the sprawling Alliance Town Center, and whatever the shopping area is named on the west side of I-35, across from Alliance Town Center.

Why does Fort Worth and Tarrant County allow construction to take place before adequate infrastructure is in place? Like adequate roads? Adequate drainage?

Example.

Heading west on Tarrant Parkway. Much of Tarrant Parkway is a multi-lane boulevard. Has been for years. And then you drive over I-35, drive past that other shopping zone, with a Costco, the name of which I do not know, to find Tarrant Parkway carrying a lot of traffic, but then reduced to only one lane going each direction.

You then come to a stop sign at US 81 Service Road, servicing I-287, the freeway one is hoping to get on to head northwest, back to Wichita Falls.

You then come to another stop sign, at Harmon Road. I remember when Harmon Road was a pleasant country drive. Now, where Harmon Road intersects US 81 Service Road you come to a poorly designed roundabout which causes traffic to back up on  US 81 hoping for a break in the Harmon Road traffic, so you can make your way around the traffic circle.

Eventually I was able to make my way half way around the Harmon Road traffic circle to continue on on US 81 Service Road. No sign pointed out where the entry was to I-287. Suddenly you come to what looks like a beat up driveway, veering on to the I-287 freeway, with US 81 Service Road continuing on for a few feet before ending in a big traffic barrier wall.

Can we shout together "THAT SOUNDS DANGEROUS"?

This is just one example. Don't get me started on the road mess around Buc-ee's a few miles north. How muy estupido to approve all this development without coordinating it with the infrastructure.

It is all this badly planned development in north Tarrant County which has led to deadly flash flooding in locations downstream, like Haltom City. You cover thousands of acres of land with buildings and asphalt, where previously open prairie absorbed precipitation, without mitigating the water flow with proper drainage systems, well, you've got a mega-disaster waiting to happen.

Meanwhile, up in my old home zone, 5 towns get warned they are growing too fast.....

In Arlington Today At Mount Viridian Causing Elsie Hotpepper To Laugh Out Loud

No, that is not Mount Wichita in Wichita Falls you are looking at here, with trucks hauling in fresh dirt to add to the mountain's elevation.

What you are looking at here is Mount Viridian, in Arlington, as viewed from River Legacy Park.

I was in River Legacy Park gazing at Mount Viridian today during one of multiple stops during my once a month return to the Dallas/ Fort Worth zone.

I was done mountain gazing and sitting at a picnic table in the shade when I woke up my phone to see I had not un-muted it and that I had a few of those text message type messages.

One was from Elsie Hotpepper telling me that this morning I had caused her a rare outbreak of laughing out loud.

I texted back asking what was laughable. And that I was currently in Arlington looking at Mount Viridian.

Elsie Hotpepper texted back making several inquiries about various issues including the perplexing question of asking why I was at the DUMP and asking why she was not informed I was going to be in town so that a lunch could be scheduled..

I texted Elsie back that if she ever read my blog she would have read I was heading to D/FW on Wednesday.

Elsie then made up some convoluted excuse about not being able to read lately.

I don't like going to lunch, anyway, but, I do do coffee.

I think the last time I went to lunch was way back in February with Elsie Hotpepper and Mary K. I ended up having a severe choking bout. It was traumatic. I have yet to fully recover.