Why Is No Privately Financed Ballpark Possible In Arlington?

With voters in Arlington, Texas being asked, yet again, to lend their voting support to the building of yet one more sports palace for the sports watching enjoyment of the rest of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, and North Texas, I thought this, which I saw in the Seattle Times, to be interesting.

A few years ago Seattle balked at upgrading Key Arena where the Seattle Supersonics played basketball. This balking led to Chesapeake Energy's Aubrey McClendon and others, moving the Sonics to Oklahoma City.

Many in Seattle were sad to see the Sonics go, others, tired of demands for sports palace upgrades, thought good riddance.

But, ever since the Seattle Sonics left the Pacific Northwest there has been an ongoing effort to return NBA basketball to one of its best markets.

A Seattle hedge fund manager, Chris Hansen, came up with a plan to finance the building of a new basketball arena, to be built slightly south of were the Mariners and Seahawks play their ball games.

Hansen and Seattle reached an agreement regarding how this arena plan could move forward. The original plan had the city paying part of the cost of the new arena. But, there were complications.

Now Chris Hansen has come up with a new plan, an all private plan to finance the building of a new Seattle basketball and hockey arena.

This is a bit of a contrast with how similar arenas gets built in the D/FW zone.

A few years back Fort Worth voters were asked to approve the funding for the building of a new multi-purpose arena in what Fort Worth calls its Cultural District. The public approval was in the form of three ballot propositions. One proposition asked voters to approve a dollar fee on livestock stalls, another a tax on parking, another a tax on tickets.

You reading this in democratic parts of America, I am not making this up. This is how Fort Worth voters were asked to approve half the funding of a multi-purpose arena.

Has that new Fort Worth arena begun construction yet? Such seems to take an awful long time in Fort Worth.

Back to Seattle.

Now that Chris Hansen has come up with a new plan to build a new arena another group has come up with another privately financed plan, with that plan renovating Key Arena, that being the location where the Sonics played before moving to Oklahoma City.

Key Arena began during the Seattle World's Fair as the Washington State Pavilion. After the World's Fair the Washington State Pavilion was remodeled into being the Seattle Coliseum, a sports palace. In the early 1990s Key Arena was once again remodeled, increasing fan capacity.

It was the fact that Key Arena had been recently remodeled that voters balked at approving one more remodel, hence saying goodbye to the Sonics.

This was a voter reaction similar to that taking place in Arlington where there is some voter fatigue, having voted to build what the public had been told was a state of the art ballpark, back in the 1990s. Then early in the new century approving the building of a state of the art football stadium, a home run hit distance from the baseball park.

And now, in 2016, being asked to build a new air-conditioned baseball park, to replace the ballpark most locals still think of as new.

I wonder why no one in the D/FW zone comes up with any sort of private plan to build or remodel any of the area sports palaces? Like a clever, privately financed plan to somehow provide shade and conditioned air in the existing Arlington baseball park....

Bizarre Star-Telegram Bridge Boondoggle Report

Comment from Captain Andy this morning regarding The Boondoggle's Bridge Fiasco....

Andy N has left a new comment on your post "Why Does Fort Worth Star-Telegram Not Recommend Rejecting Trinity River Vision's Bad Plan?":

Fort Worth’s Panther Island bridges a year behind schedule

Star-Telegram finally takes a swing on the delay and it's a miss. There ARE NO PIERS. What you see is a form for unpoured concrete. 

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I had already read the Star-Telegram's article about the Bridge Fiasco and thought, as did Captain Andy, that the article took a lame swing at the Boondoggle's bridge delay.

And missed.

The first paragraph...

It started with a bang and a fiery explosion. But nearly two years later, construction of three bridges north of downtown Fort Worth leading to the planned Panther Island development has slowed to something more like a simmer.

That Star-Telegram has the bridges being a year behind schedule. But construction was halted back in March. Eight months ago. Well, I guess that is getting close to a year.

Such a long delay to this vitally needed project and after eight months the Star-Telegram finally, sort of, reports on the delay. A report which does not address what the actual problem is with constructing these relatively simple little bridges.

I mean, these bridges are no Golden Gate being built over deep, fast moving saltwater.

A gem from Fort Worth's esteemed mayor...

Price, answering critics who had questioned whether the $910 million project would ever get built, declared, “This is not a bridge to nowhere.”

Proper grammar should have had Betsy saying "These are not bridges to nowhere".

But they sort of are bridges to nowhere. The bridges certainly currently are going nowhere. And if the bridges are ever completed, connecting the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, well, they really will still be bridges to nowhere.

And then there are these two paragraphs....

Now officials involved in the massive effort say construction of the bridges has fallen about a year behind schedule and likely won’t be completed until 2019. The bridges, which are being financed with state highway funds, were originally expected to be completed in 2018 and cost $65.5 million, although that cost could go up if the delay continues.

The main cause of the delay, officials say, are changes in the design for the steel-reinforced concrete piers that will support the bridges. The changes have been in progress for about a year, slowing work on the bridges to a crawl.

Building these three simple little bridges is a massive effort? If construction halted in March, why are they saying construction has fallen about a year behind schedule?

What schedule? Is it not one of the many reasons the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision has become a boondoggle is the fact that this project has never had an sort of project timeline schedule?

The main cause of the delay are changes to the design? Those changes have been in progress for a year? Why was construction started on those V Piers if the design was "in progress"?

I am particularly fond of this short tidbit...

The delay comes at a time when substantial progress has been made in other areas of the Panther Island project, formerly known as Trinity Uptown.

Substantial progress had been make in other areas of the Panther Island project? Which used to be known as Trinity Uptown? The Star-Telegram mentions substantial progress, without detailing what this progress is. The successful closing of the Cowtown Wakepark? That did seem like progress.

We are told the Boondoggle was formerly known as Trinity Uptown. Earlier in the article The Boondoggle was referred to as the Trinity River Vision.  Elsewhere it is the Panther Island Project. Apparently the Star-Telegram has some awareness of the various names The Boondoggle has given itself as it boondoggles along.

Another bizarre bit in this article...

Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said the modifications were described to him not as a design problem but rather as an effort to be abundantly cautious about the bridges, which have an unusual flattop design essentially with most of the supports below the driving surface. He said he was told that designers built scale models to test out the piers and ensure they could support the rest of the bridge.

Whitley added that it was his understanding work on the bridges would resume soon.

“I have been told the models worked like they thought they would work and they have given the green light to get started on it,” Whitley said.

Oh, so there is no design problem. Instead, after construction was started, it was decided now was the time to be abundantly cautious about the bridges. Yes, that makes a lot of sense.

So, some V Piers get stuck in the ground, construction grinds to a halt, the Star-Telegram tells us at the time the construction halt has to do with a mistake in the steel reinforcing the concrete.

So, then models were built to test if these V Piers would actually hold up a bridge? With a judge being told the models worked and so the green light has been given to re-start the building of those bridges to nowhere.

Who knows what the truth is?  Anyone? When I first saw those V Piers I did not understand how such would support a bridge deck. But, I'm no engineer, so I figured the bridges were designed by engineers who knew what they were doing.

It has long seemed odd to me that it is not an issue building those bridges before a ditch is dug under them. Won't the ditch digging be made more complicated due to having the bridges in place?

How many more years, or decades, is America's Biggest Boondoggle going to keep boondoggling along before the plug gets pulled? It seems that is the likely inevitable fate of something as badly mismanaged as this pseudo public works project has been....

You Know You Are Back In Fort Worth When....

On Wednesday I was in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro zone for the first time in a couple months.

The night before making the long trek to D/FW I wrote a blogging and set it to auto-publish at 10 Wednesday morning.

At some point in time after that someone with the extremely unique name of Anonymous posted a comment which struck me as amusing due to title of the article to which the comment had a link.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Why Does Fort Worth Star-Telegram Not Recommend Rejecting Trinity River Vision's Bad Plan?":

You know you're from Fort Worth when...

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Now, the reason I found the "You know you're from For Worth when...." title amusing is because when I was in Fort Worth I drove into Quanah Parker Park and saw what you see below.

When I saw the above I remarked, "Well, you know you're back in Fort Worth when you see an outhouse in a park". This particular Quanah Parker Park outhouse seems badly placed, even for the Fort Worth norm of badly placed outhouses.

I have been in Wichita Falls now for nearly six months. I have yet to see a single outhouse in a Wichita Falls Park. The Wichita Falls parks have modern facilities, including running water with drinking faucets. What a concept.

Quanah Parker Park does have one feature that most Fort Worth parks do not have. That being running water in the form of a drinking faucet.

Spencer Jack Can Not Fly His Drone At Snoqualmie Falls

 Email this morning from Spencer Jack's dad.

Subject line: Favorite Nephew Spencer Jack at Snoqualmie Falls not flying his drone

Text in email----

FUD ---

FNSJ was not allowed to fly his drone this afternoon at Snoqualmie Falls.  It was a non issue as required drone flying conditions were not being met by Mother Nature.

Do you remember when you took me and FNJoey down to Snoqualmie Falls during the November 1990 flood season? You drove us the back route, just as FNSJ and I did today. I recall all the farm land to the west of the highway being saturated by flood water.  The falls then must have been at record levels to provoke such a trip, as once we returned home I saw the local news showing footage of the raging falls.

The small farming towns of Duvall and Carnation are no longer such.  A ton of urban housing has sprung up there.  Safeway, Subway restaurants, mini strip malls, etc. accompany this.   I have not driven that route in years, and was surprised how it has developed.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics.

FNSJ will send you footage of our drone flights, when we are allowed to do such.

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It has been a long time since I drove through the towns of Duvall and Carnation in my old home state. I knew that Duvall had become a bit of a boomtown. When I last saw Duvall it was not much of a town.

I recollect taking Spencer Jack's dad and his Favorite Uncle Joey to Snoqualmie Falls when the Western Washington rivers were in flood mode. When that happens Snoqualmie Falls has so much water falling over it the ground shakes, felt quite a distance from the falls in the park where the Snoqualmie Falls overlook is located.

It is from that overlook Jason and Spencer Jack's photo above was taken.

Was there a problem with people flying drones at Snoqualmie Falls?

Apparently such was the case, hence the sign saying such was not allowed.

Why Does Fort Worth Star-Telegram Not Recommend Rejecting Trinity River Vision's Bad Plan?

This blogging appears to be a twofer of our ongoing theme of things I read in west coast newspapers, online, which I would never expect to read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about anything happening in the Fort Worth Tarrant County zone.

Both these instances were in the Seattle Times.

Can you imagine a headline in the Star-Telegram telling readers that the Fort Worth skyline is tops in construction cranes? Overtaking New York City as the city with the most construction rigs transforming its urban landscape.

Well, to be fair, and I am always fair, Fort Worth does have those V Piers stuck in the ground, currently awaiting construction to continue after over a half year delay due to design errors. No other town in America has V Piers stuck in the ground awaiting an engineering solution. Plus being the only town in America, and likely the world,  building bridges over dry land to connect a town's mainland to an imaginary island.

Fort Worth is special.

And then there was this item I would not expect to ever see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about something similar happening in Fort Worth or Tarrant County.

The Seattle Times is recommending voters reject the Sound Transit 3 plan. A $54 billion ballot issue.

The Seattle Times is recommending the transit planners come back with a better plan, next election.

First off, can you imagine the voters of Fort Worth, or Tarrant County, getting to vote on a proposal of such scope with such a price tag?

Fort Worth voters were not even allowed to vote on what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, struggling along for most of this century due to not being funded in the way normal public works are funded.

And that Fort Worth public works project is relatively puny, price-wise.

The Star-Telegram did not get the opportunity to advise its readers not to vote for the Trinity River Vision, because that plan to drastically alter the landscape of Fort Worth has never been presented to the Fort Worth voters.

Such is the way it is when people do not live in a real democracy, even whilst living in America, but instead settle for a bizarre form of dictatorship, known locally, by most, as The Fort Worth Way, currently under serious scrutiny due to outrageous election fraud.

Speaking of election fraud. I am in Fort Worth today, hoping to successfully vote.....

Walking Past My Neighborhood Pine Forest With Anybody But Hillary

Recently, maybe as recently as yesterday, I blogged about Walking Miles On My Neighborhood Sidewalks Past Disturbing Signs.

In that blogging I mentioned walking past a house which had a forest of pine trees in its front yard. I said the  next time I walked by I would take a picture of the pine forest.

That walk by occurred today, which would make that the aforementioned pine forest you are looking at in the photo.

In that blogging I also mentioned and photo documented a yard sign which I speculated may have been the work of sign vandals, and said I would check on that sign when next I walked by to see if the yard owner had de-vandalized the sign.

Well, on the walk by today I think I can now conclude that the sign is not the act of a vandal, but is the intended, sloppy, message of the yard owner.

Because the yard owner is still advising passers by to vote for Anybody BUT HILLARY.

I don't think this yard owner is one of the Deplorables because those of that ilk tend to call alter our next president's name to Killary, imaginative wits that they be.

Changing the subject from Hillary to something else.

Tomorrow I am going to be in the Heart of Darkness, also known as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Due to registering to vote going awry at my new location, I will be voting where I am still registered at my former location.

I have a busy day planned for tomorrow in D/FW. It should be exhausting. I enjoy being exhausted....

Walking Miles On My Neighborhood Sidewalks Past Disturbing Signs

Yesterday, Sunday, I had myself a mighty fine time on a mighty long walk around my neighborhood.

The City of Wichita Falls has so many amenities not available in the Texas town I lived in previously.

Like sidewalks.

Wichita Falls is like other modern American towns, with sidewalks on both sides of the street, with a landscaped buffer between the street and sidewalk.

I now have miles of this type modern amenity accessed as soon as I close the exit door on my abode.

In the first of the street scenes documenting a Texas town with sidewalks the scene is a bit tainted due to a Trump/Spence sign being in view.

Then a few minutes later I saw a different sign on a different street.

Texans for Clinton/Kaine.

Note the trees shading the sidewalk. Lots of big trees of various types, including one house which pretty much has a pine forest in its front yard. I must remember to take a picture of that one when next I walk by.

The last house I saw, as I exited Haiti Street to walk the Circle Trail back to my abode, had the disturbing homemade sign you see below stuck in its yard.

Anybody BUT HILLARY.

I imagine a lot of thoughtful thought went into making this sign. Was there a Hillary sign underneath which someone has defaced with the makeshift "Anybody BUT" message? And the yard owner has not yet noticed their sign has been defaced?

 Maybe I'll walk by this sign again tomorrow and see if it has changed for the better....

A Critical Look At Spencer Jack's Grandma's Big Lake

What you are looking at is a photo taken yesterday at a location in my old home zone.

The body of water you see here is known as Big Lake.

Big Lake really is not very big. I have never known why Big Lake is so named, unless it is because Big Lake is so much bigger than nearby Clear Lake.

Big Lake is located a couple miles east of the Mount Vernon location I lived in prior to my exile in Texas.

Spencer Jack's Grandma, my Favorite Ex-Sister-In-Law, Cindy, is home based at Big Lake.

Texas has no natural lakes. Washington has countless such lakes. I don't know why Texas has no natural lakes. Big Lake is a natural lake. No dam is involved in its creation.

When I saw the above photo I thought of an infamous Fort Worth photographer who makes hyper-realistic enhanced photos of various scenes in Fort Worth, Fort Worth locals, who have no clue as to how one can digitally enhance a photo, gush over this photographer's manufactured images.

I have long opined, regarding these manufactured photos, ever since the photographer got all bent out of shape because the Amon Carter Museum commissioned a photo documentary by a legit photographer, depicting realistic, honest images of Fort Worth, that this particular Fort Worth photographer was doing Fort Worth a great disservice, misrepresenting Fort Worth, showing a version which does not exist.

I have also wondered what this particular photographer would do if he was in a location where the photos did not need digital manipulation to look beautiful. You know, towns like New York City, San Antonio, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, well you get the drift. Or scenic wonders like Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Hawaii, Mount Rainier, well, again, you get the drift.

Or Big Lake.

Just take an ordinary camera and aim it at Big Lake and if the light is right you get that which you see above. An honest photo reflecting a beautiful reality....

Elsie Hotpepper Takes Me To A TRV Boondoggle Encore

A couple days ago Elsie Hotpepper sent me a link to some fresh propaganda from The Boondoggle on the TRVA's (Trinity River Vision Authority) website, with the propaganda titled New 300-Unit Riverwalk Apartment Community Announced for Panther Island.

I read the article and thought to myself, "When will this madness ever end?" and then proceeded to forget about it til now

Three paragraphs from the Riverwalk Apartment article, apartments which you can see via the above artist's rendering, which were named  Encore Panther Island, at the time the artist did his rendering, with that name likely to change several times before ground is broken, if ground is ever broken, which is The Boondoggle's naming modus operandi.

The three paragraphs....

LLC, a subsidiary of the Dallas-based Encore Enterprises, Inc., is officially under contract to break ground on the first private development on Panther Island. The thoughtfully designed 233,198 square-foot multi-family community will feature creative solutions to connect the streetscape to the Riverwalk environment planned for the district. Residents will be able to enjoy exceptional amenities including waterfront balconies, an infinity pool with cascading waterfalls, a state-of-the-art fitness facility and a top floor lounge that will feature the most dynamic views of downtown. Located at the intersection of 4th Street and North Main Street, residents at the 300-unit community will be walking distance to Panther Island Brewing, Coyote Drive-In and Panther Island Pavilion. 

This community will be the first development to break ground within the Panther Island District – a vibrant waterfront mixed-use development located in the heart of Fort Worth. The more than 10,000 residences planned and 12 miles of active urban waterfront - including flowing canals and corridors that create uniquely-walkable spaces – will give rise to new businesses, trendy restaurants and a booming nightlife.

Construction for Encore Panther Island is slated to begin Summer 2017. Encore Multi-Family anticipates a grand opening date of Summer 2018.

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Sounds good, doesn't it. Operative word. "Sounds".

A couple weeks ago there was another choice piece of propaganda from The Boondoggle. I blogged about that propaganda in Rerouting Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Propaganda To The Truth.

A paragraph from that propaganda piece which is germane to this latest propaganda from The Boondoggle....

“Frankly, looking back, I don’t think it could have been done any other way,” J.D. Granger says. “We could have done it faster and cheaper, but the project would not be as good as it is today.” The majority of the infrastructure work should be completed by 2023, if all goes according to plan. “We couldn’t speed up the process, even if we wanted,” he says.

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I love that line from  J.D. saying they couldn't speed up the process, even if they wanted to. Why couldn't they? I think the answer to that question is The Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, is one of the most ineptly engineered public works projects in the history of American civil engineering. Currently The Boondoggle has been stuck for over half a year with the construction of the only one of The Boondoggle's bridges under construction, being built over dry land to connect Fort Worth's mainland to an imaginary island.

J.D.'s slow motion process is not the item I am focused on it relation to this Encore Riverfront Panther Island Apartment deal. What I am focused on is J.D. saying the majority of infrastructure work should be completed by 2023.

2023.

Five years after the Encore Riverfront Panther Island Apartments are supposedly scheduled to be completed, the majority of the infrastructure should be completed, according to Granger.

The second paragraph in this article about the first private development, which "may" break ground on the imaginary Panther Island, touts 12 miles of active urban waterfront with flowing canals.

So, people moving into these Encore Panther Island Riverfront apartments in 2018 get to wait at least five years before they get to enjoy those flowing canals? That is if those flowing canals are part of the majority of the infrastructure which J.D. Granger says should be completed by 2023.

The Boondoggle's propaganda about its "developments" reminds me of an old Rockford Files episode. Rockford came upon a real estate development scheme somewhere near California's Salton Sea. At one point one of the potential buyers is being shown the property with the salesman touting the lake, the large lots, the beautiful clubhouse. All we see is bleak desert landscape.

Later Rockford's co-hort, Angel, is marveling at the audacity, convincing buyers to pay a premium price for a lot near the imaginary clubhouse with a premium view of the imaginary lake.

No mention was made in the episode of imaginary bridges connecting to an imaginary island in the imaginary lake....

No One Will Harvest Washington's Tootsie Tonasket's Vote

Yesterday I blogged about Washington's Betty Jo Bouvier Missing Old-Fashioned Texas Style Voting.

Betty had verbalized wonderment regarding the fact that Texas still had polling places where voters voted.

Washington has long gone to a polling place free method of voting.

Apparently, somehow, Washington has figured out how to manage mail in ballots without the fraud problems Texas is currently experiencing with a crime called Vote Harvesting.

I suspect Washington has enacted strong penalties of the felony nature for any sort of  Electoral Fraud, while in Texas one can commit outrageous Electoral Fraud, such as harvesting thousands of bogus absentee ballots to ensure the re-election of candidates paying for the Vote Harvesting Service, with doing so being considered a misdemeanor level crime.

You know, like jaywalking.

So, in Texas if you are desperate to maintain control of something like the Tarrant Region Water District Board, because losing control would likely mean a flood of corruption exposure and crony firings and the ending of nepotism, well you have a real strong motive to take advantage of that special Texas election advantage and pay a specialist to harvest you the absentee ballots you need to win.

I know, you reading this in modern democratic parts of America, this seems hard to believe, but it has been happening for multiple election cycles in Tarrant County, currently the focus of the biggest Electoral Fraud Investigation in Texas history.

Meanwhile up in the progressive, modern American state of Washington, yesterday Aunt Alice, also known as Tootsie Tonasket, found her 2016 General Election Ballot in her mailbox and took a photo of it to share on Facebook.

Aunt Alice can vote in the peaceful comfort of her home and then either stick the ballot back in her mailbox to mail, or drop it in the Tonasket town Ballot Box.

What a concept....