Looking For What Fort Worth's Stalled Boondoggle Needs To Find

I saw what you see here this morning in the Seattle Times. Another instance of something I read in a west coast online news source I would not be expecting to be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about something going on in Fort Worth and the county of Tarrant, in which Fort Worth is located.

In the $225 million more needed to build light rail across I-90 bridge article there were a couple bits info of the sort one would not be reading about Fort Worth's bizarre Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, affectionately known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Five paragraphs from the Seattle Times article....

The cost to build light rail on Interstate 90 between Seattle and Bellevue has zoomed $225 million higher than Sound Transit once estimated, now that final engineering work has revealed the challenge of retrofitting the roadway.

Transit-board members voted unanimously to approve a contract increase Thursday afternoon with construction group Kiewit-Hoffman.

The additional money would come out of contingency funds for the Eastside line, without causing delays or a tax increase.

The vote raises the contract amount to $712 million for 7 miles of work, from the International District/Chinatown Station to South Bellevue. It’s a crucial phase in creating a $3.7 billion East Link corridor to downtown Bellevue and Overlake, where train service is scheduled to begin in 2023.

The job includes building the world’s only trackway on a floating bridge. The roadway moves with Lake Washington’s water level and must be kept buoyant despite the weight of tracks, ties and trains to be placed in the existing express lanes.

________________

First off, let's talk about the transparency inherent in the above information. Fort Worth's pitiful Trinity River Vision (short version of the ever changing project name) has had a mysterious malady cause the cessation of construction of the Boondoggle's three simple bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island. The bridge construction halt has gone on for over a year now.

The Boondoggle's boondogglers have not shared with the public why their bridge construction area has become a construction ghost town. And due to the fact that Fort Worth does not have a real newspaper engaging in this practice called investigative journalism, no one knows what has actually gone wrong with the Ghost Bridges.

Unlike the Sound Transit Light Rail project, Fort Worth's embarrassing boondoggle has never been funded in the way most public works projects are funded. Voters in the Sound Transit area have approved multiple funding measures over the years. Voters in Fort Worth have never been allowed to vote for what has become a boondoggly mess directed by a local  politician's unqualified son.

The Sound Transit project design has built in contingency funding to cover unforeseen cost increases.
 
No one knows how much extra funding will be needed if Fort Worth's cloudy vision ever becomes something someone can see. For instance, the diversion dam, which will direct flood waters into the ditch which may be dug under those three stalled bridges, has not been designed and engineered, yet. Who knows how much such a thing will cost?

In one of the above paragraphs from the Seattle Times article mention is made of the fact that the $3.7 billion East Link from downtown Seattle to Bellevue will begin train service in 2023.

In a Star-Telegram propaganda piece about America's Biggest Boondoggle's stalled bridges J.D. Granger was quoted as saying, "the project's infrastructure should be completed by 2023". No one knows what J.D. means by infrastructure.

I am no longer living in the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle zone, so my mailbox no longer sees the bizarre quarterly Trinity River Vision Authority Updates.  Currently I assume the Summer Update has arrived in people's mailboxes and that it is a slick full color propaganda production touting all the floating on the river music events upcoming, along with other bits of fluffy nonsense, with no mention made of the stalled bridges or any of the other myriad problems.

The Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has never had a project timeline. Periodically the propaganda will tout something as having a timeline, such as having a big bang TNT ceremony for the start of construction of one of those bridges, with a  four year project timeline, to build a simple bridge over dry land. Now stalled for over a year.

Public works projects in modern parts of America have project timelines, and full transparency regarding the progress of the project.

For instance, below is a simple graphic from the WSDOT, via the Seattle Times. Have you seen anything similar from America's Biggest Boondoggle? Anything even this simple?

The Trinity River Central City Uptown  Panther Island District Vision can not produce a map showing what is under construction.

I suppose a map could be produced showing what has been constructed, and then gone out of business, like the highly touted Cowtown Wakepark.

I guess a project graphic map could show where the Boondoggle has produced an embarrassing water venue with an imaginary pavilion sitting on an imaginary island, with really cool concrete enclosed outhouses with outdoor showers to wash off the dirty river water when one finishes a Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Float....

Gruesome Murder Mystery On Wichita Falls Circle Trail

Approximately a quarter mile east of Mount Wichita, on the Circle Trail, in Lake Wichita Park, I came upon the death scene you see here.

If this were located on a road with vehicular traffic I would assume the armadillo was the victim of a hit and run.

But, there is no motorized vehicular traffic on the Circle Trail, except for city employees driving vehicles like oversized golf carts to empty trash cans.

Years ago at Gateway Park in Fort Worth I came upon a murdered armadillo, clearly the victim of a gunshot wound.

The Wichita Falls Circle Trail dead armadillo had no obvious cause of death, at least to my amateur forensic pathologist eyes.

Why would anyone murder an armadillo? Armadillos are such cute creatures. I tried to find the Texas armadillo due to foul play death rate, to no avail, but I did find the declaration by which the armadillo was named the State Small Mammal of Texas....

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The State of Texas traditionally has recognized a variety of official state symbols as tangible representations of the proud spirit and heritage of our state; and

WHEREAS, The bluebonnet, the pecan tree, the Guadalupe bass, and the lightning whelk are examples of some natural specimens that serve to symbolize the great diversity of the Texas landscape, while the state dish, chili, fittingly represents another aspect of our shared culture as Texans; and

WHEREAS, In keeping with this custom, the designation of an Official State Mammal of Texas has been the subject of an extensive statewide mock election participated in by hundreds of elementary schoolchildren throughout our state; and

WHEREAS, The two front-runners in this race have been the armadillo and the longhorn; and

WHEREAS, Once the cornerstone of the Texas cattle industry, an estimated 10 million longhorns were herded from Texas to midwestern and western markets during the quarter century that followed the Civil War, providing invaluable stability to the state's postwar economy; and

WHEREAS, The longhorn's distinctive profile commands an immediate association with the State of Texas nationwide and is fittingly used as a visual symbol by businesses from the Rio Grande Valley to the Panhandle; and

WHEREAS, The other candidate for designation as Official State Mammal, the armadillo is a hardy, pioneering creature that chose to begin migrating here at about the time that Texas became a state; and

WHEREAS, The armadillo possesses many remarkable and unique traits, some of which parallel the attributes that distinguish a true Texan, such as a deep respect and need for the land, the ability to change and adapt, and a fierce undying love for freedom; and

WHEREAS, As proud and indomitable as the state from which they hail, both the longhorn and the armadillo will serve as fitting symbols of Texas' unique heritage; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the 74th Legislature of the State of Texas hereby designate the longhorn the official Large State Mammal of Texas and the armadillo the official Small State Mammal of Texas.

Why Is No Move Fort Worth Building 50 Blocks Of New Sidewalks?

This blogging falls into the category of news I read in west coast online news sources, usually the Seattle Times, about news I would not expect to be reading in a Texas newspaper about a similar subject in Texas, or in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about something to do with Fort Worth.

Today we have a double dose of such items.

The first is a headline on the front page of the Seattle Times, online. An article about a recipe adding marijuana to a homemade chocolate-nut spread.

A couple days ago I read an article about a trio of Texans who were refusing to be Medical Tourists, forced to travel to California, Oregon, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Canada or other civilized areas of the world and America to legally acquire marijuana to treat their medical woe.

If I remember right this trio of Texans were veterans, you know, veterans of military service, wounded defending our supposed freedoms, one of which, for a large part of America, including Texas, is not the freedom to choose to treat an ailment with the well known effective treatment of cannabis, because, you know, unlike being in a war, marijuana is dangerous and needs the government to protect you from its danger.

Over the years I have multiple times verbalized my disgust at Fort Worth's backwardness regarding sidewalks.

(That and Fort Worth's multiple city parks without modern facilities such as running water and restrooms, with, instead, way too many outhouses)

Time and time again, in Fort Worth, I was appalled to see a young mom pushing a baby carriage on a dirt path worn into the side of a busy road.

Or an elderly person wobbling on a cane.

Such third world backwardness would not be tolerated in most towns in America, and much of the rest of the world.

So, this week Seattle's mayor and other city leaders announced a $22 million plan to build 50 blocks of new sidewalks this year.

Funds for this sidewalk upgrade come from the $930 million Move Seattle levy voters voted for in 2015.

Imagine that. A town's voters allowed to vote on something which improves their city. Quite the contrast with a town like Fort Worth, where voters have not been allowed to vote on a public works project with a price tag about the same as Seattle's Move On project.

Fort Worth's public works  project, which the public has never voted for, is known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District, or, more commonly, America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Apparently Seattle is going to upgrade 50 blocks of sidewalks this year.

Fort Worth's Boondoggle has been boondoggling along for most of this century with little constructive to show for the effort, but currently showing a large area of ghost town-like wasteland where a bridge was once being built, with the entire fiasco symbolized by a bizarre traffic roundabout in the ghost town zone with a giant aluminum homage to a trash can at its center...

Spencer Jack Takes Me Down Ghost Town Memory Lane Over Washington Waterfalls

Last night, somewhere in the 9 in the evening time frame, my phone made its telltale incoming text message noise.

I was distracted by other noises at the time, so it was several minutes later I looked at the phone to see the text message.

It was from Spencer Jack and my Favorite Nephew Jason.

No text message, just three photos of which you see two here.

When I saw the photos on the phone my first reaction was I was looking at Snoqualmie Falls in flood mode.

But then I got the photos off the phone and saw the full size versions and saw that this was not Snoqualmie Falls falling a lot of water.

Looking at the above photo I became almost 100% certain that that which I was looking at is Granite Falls.

Granite Falls is also a town, named after the falls, a few miles to the south (or is it west? I am losing memory of these type details) from where Spencer Jack is taking a picture. Granite Falls is at the southern entry to what is known as the Mountain Loop.

Driving the Mountain Loop takes one into the Cascade Mountains and the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, with many attractions along the way, such as the infamous Big Four Ice Caves. And the Monte Christo ghost town.

In 1889 a gold rush came to this area, with Monte Christo becoming a gold boom town til 1907 and then a sort of tourist town til Monte Christo eventually became the ghost town it is today.

A railroad was built to take the Monte Christo gold out and bring supplies in, with that railroad running, in many locations, alongside the Stillaguamish River, which is the river making the falls you see above.

Building this railroad was quite a feat of engineering, requiring tunnels and treacherous bridges. The railroad did not last long, but remnants remain. Back in the last decade of the previous century Spencer Jack's Favorite Uncle Joey and I hiked the trail which follows the abandoned railroad, along with hundreds of other hikers. It was a scary trail, what with much of it being beside that raging river, with us hikers having to hike on the remains of bridges and make our way through dripping tunnels.

I remember two kayakers passing by and being appalled, knowing as I did that a few miles downstream those kayakers would come to Granite Falls. I figured they must know what they were doing, with a safe exit point before coming to the falls.

If you go to the webpage I made years ago about the Cascade Mountains, you will see some of what one finds on the Mountain Loop, such as Mount Pilchuck, and my Favorite Nephews, Chris and Jeremy taking me to the Big Four Ice Caves.

Like I think I already said, the town of Granite Falls is named after the town's nearby waterfall. The town I am currently in, Wichita Falls, is also named after a waterfall. But, that little three foot waterfall on the Wichita River was obliterated by a flood in 1886.

For 100 years, give or take a year, visitors to Wichita Falls were asking where the waterfall was.

Eventually the townspeople tired of explaining why there was no falls in Wichita Falls, so an artificial waterfall was built, near Lucy Park, visible, when the waterfall is turned on, from the 287 freeway, easily seen if you are southbound, possible to see, if you know where to look, when you are northbound.

I wonder if Spencer Jack has yet taken his dad to Nooksack Falls? Nooksack Falls is the scariest waterfall I have ever been scared by. One can climb to all sorts of precarious locations at Nooksack Falls.

One of the many blessings of living in relatively flat Texas is I have never been scared by a Texas waterfall. Ironically, though, I have been scared by Texas water.

The Trinity River comes to mind...

UDDATE: This morning Spencer Jack sent me video he shot of his dad at Granite Falls. This video arrived upside down and sped up super fast. I was able to turn it upside right and slow the video down, somewhat, but it still sort of looks like a color version of a long ago silent movie---

Can You Watch The Fort Worth Boondoggle's Bridges Make No Progress On Live Cam?

I know what you think you are looking at here.

J.D. Granger and one of his minions in the control room monitoring the ongoing progress of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Also affectionately known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

No, that is not America's Biggest Boondoggle's control room you see here in the Trinity River Vision Authority's headquarters on the ground floor of the Boondoggle's partner in propaganda, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

America's Biggest Boondoggle has no control room where the lack of progress of that ongoing slow motion project is monitored.

Is the Boondoggle's live cam still aimed at that one and only of the Boondoggle's three simple little bridges to have sort of  reached construction mode, but halted over a year ago, due to mysterious undisclosed problems?

The control room you are looking at above is not in Fort Worth. It is underground in Seattle. That control room is part of the world's biggest tunnel boring machine, nicknamed Bertha, who is nearing the completion of her boring task.

Unlike Fort Worth, Bertha and other Seattle public works projects are totally transparent operations. When Bertha ran into a snag a couple years ago there was no cover  up, no dissembling, no hiding.

The problem and the fix were all out in the open, literally.

Such a contrast with how a backwards backwater corrupt town like Fort Worth operates.

Or does not operate.

There are multiple online locations where one can monitor the progress of Bertha and the ongoing Seattle waterfront re-build.

Fort Worth's congresswoman, Kay Granger, has dementedly propagandized that Fort Worth's pitiful Trinity River Vision is the largest urban water project in North America.

I mentioned this ridiculous Kay Granger assertion in a blog post on the day the Boondoggle had its explosive start of bridge construction ceremony way back on November 11, 2014. titled A Big Boom Begins Boondoggle Bridge Construction Three Months Late. A couple paragraphs from that blogging, one of which mentions Bertha...

Apparently Kay Granger is not at all surprised at the length of time it is taking to secure those federal dollars, because she knew it was going to take a long time because “It’s the largest urban water project in North America. It’s huge.” 

The only other urban water project currently underway in North America, which I am aware of, is Seattle's re-do of its waterfront seawall, along with replacing a section of waterfront elevated highway with a big tunnel, to the tune of several billion dollars. Already fully funded, with no unseemly begging, 

A couple years ago Bertha hit that snag, well, actually an unexpected big chunk of steel, which halted her for about a year. But, unlike the TRCCUPIV's stalled bridges, Bertha got herself fixed and back to tunneling, and is now nearing the tunnel completion point, in a much shorter time frame than the four years which was originally claimed it was going  to take for the Boondoggle to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

There is no project timeline for Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision. There have been multiple instances of shifting estimates of the completion dates of aspects of the Boondoggle, such as within the past year J.D. Granger has been quoted saying "the project's infrastructure should be completed by 2023".

One can assume that part of that infrastructure is the three simple little bridges being built over dry land whose construction has been halted for a year.

Contrast America's Biggest Boondoggle's lack of any sort of project timeline, or project accountability, or transparency with Seattle's Bertha project. Go to WSDOT's Follow Bertha webpage where you will find all sorts of information, including the interactive project timeline graphic you see screen capped below.

Among the tidbits of info you will find on the Follow Bertha webpage you will find the following up to date stats about Bertha's progress...

UPDATED MON AND THURS
As of March 16, 2017: 556 feet remaining
Total rings built: 1,332 of 1,426
Distance traveled: 8,714 of 9,270 feet
March progress to date: 404 feet
February progress: 930 feet

It would be easy for the Trinity River Vision Boondogglers to update their bridge construction progress...

As of March 20, 2017: ZERO PROGRESS

Below is a WSDOT video tour showing multiple aspects of Bertha and the tunnel she is boring. This video is unique in that it provides a 360 degree look as you watch the video and maneuver the view via the controls at the upper left.

Now, after all this time, wouldn't you think the Trinity River Vision Boondogglers could come up with some sort of video documentation showing all the progress made in this vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme which has been dawdling along for most of this century?

You can take a Stormy Look At Zero Panther Island Bridge Motion Progress before you take the video tour of Bertha below...

Goodbye Winter Hello Spring Looking For Tulips

Scrren cap from Skagit Breaking News via Facebook

No, that is not what is known as a Luenserized look at a North Texas, or Fort Worth, scene you are looking at here.

The mountain foothills in the distance is one clue this is not a North Texas scene.

That and the huge field of daffodils.

This harbinger of spring flowerly view is from my old home zone of the Skagit Valley, with those daffodils blooming in a field in what is known as the Skagit Flats.

The Skagit Flats is one of the world's most fertile agricultural areas.

Only the Netherlands produces more tulips and tulip bulbs than what grow annually on the Skagit  Flats.

A harsher winter than is the norm, with more rain than is the norm, has slowed up the blooming of the flowers this year on the Skagit Flats.

The annual month long Skagit Valley Tulip Festival brings over a million Tulip Tourists to the Skagit Valley.

I have blogged about the Skagit Tulip Festival a time or two, such as Tiptoeing Through The Skagit Valley Tulips, and way back in 2010, The 27th Annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

I lived in West Mount Vernon way back in the last century during the early years of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. At that point in time I did not like the traffic jams which brought a sort of gridlock to much of the Skagit Flats.

Over the years much of the traffic jam problems have been improved, spreading Tulip Tourists out to more locations, with destinations like Tulip Town, and events in the valley's various towns. And better signage directing incoming tourists to the various freeway exits available.

North Texas gets colorful this time of year too. Not so much via planted fields of flowers, but via Mother Nature in the form of wildflowers.

Spring is the most colorful time of the year to visit Texas...

Anonymous Wondering About The Rising Fort Worth Cost Of America's Biggest Bridge Boondoggle

It has long puzzled me why I have never read details regarding the "cost" of various elements of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

"Costs" such as how much the Boondoggle has spent on its various propaganda productions, both in print media and what turns out to be ironic signage, such as a large billboard touting "Panther Island Bridge Progress in Motion" near where there has been no bridge building motion for a year.

How much has the Boondoggle spent on the Boondoggle's headquarters on the ground floor of the Star-Telegram building? That space must lease for quite a hefty price tag. How much have all those installations showing the imaginary wonders of the Boondoggle cost?

How much extra have J.D. Granger and his minions been paid past what they would have been paid had this public works project progressed and been finished in a timely fashion, such as is the norm in more modern locations on the planet?

How much has J.D. Granger spent taking his minions out to lunch, over and over and over and over again, the many years the Boondoggle has been boondoggling along? How about the Boondoggle's junkets to other towns, or hotel stays in Dallas? How much has been spent on that type thing?

And then we have this relatively small (Boondoggle caused) increased cost brought to our attention by Anonymous.

$2,000 a month paid to Fort Worth and Western Railroad Company (FWWRR) to maintain temporary railroad crossings near two of the Boondoggle's stalled  bridges.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Stormy Look At Zero Panther Island Bridge Motion Progress":

The bridge delays are costing real money. Here's one example that has to be dealt with at the next city council meeting. 

Adopt Appropriation Ordinance to Continue Funding Temporary Railroad Crossing Maintenance for the N. Henderson Street and N. Commerce Street Fort Worth and Western Railroad Crossings as Authorized Under City Secretary Contract No. 44661-A1

RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the City Council adopt the attached Appropriation Ordinance increasing estimated receipts and appropriations in the Intergovernmental Contribution Fund in the amount of $48,000.00 to continue funding temporary railroad crossing maintenance for the N. Henderson Street and N. Commerce Street Fort Worth and Western Railroad crossings as authorized under City Secretary Contract No. 44661-A1.

DISCUSSION:
On October 4, 2013, the City entered into a Compromise Settlement Agreement for TRV Bridges (City Secretary Contract (CSC) No. 44950) with the Fort Worth and Western Railroad Company (FWWRR) whereby the City agreed to maintain the temporary crossings at N. Henderson Street and N. Commerce Street. The temporary at-grade crossings are required for construction of the N. Henderson Street and North Main Street bridges in conjunction with the Trinity River Vision Central City Project.

Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement, the City agreed to pay for monthly maintenance/inspections until the temporary at-grade crossings are no longer needed for the TRV bridges. CTC Inc., was engaged to provide the required maintenance and inspection of the N. Henderson Street and N. Commerce Street crossings and crossing warning systems since they were already providing similar services at other locations within the City (CSC No. 44661).

On February 10, 2015, the City executed Amendment No. 1 to the referenced maintenance contract with the intent that the amendment would remain in full force and renew annually for as long as necessary, but shall terminate when the City ceases using the temporary crossings for regular vehicular traffic. Funding for the initial 24 months of maintenance inspections has since been exhausted.

It is anticipated that the temporary railroad crossing will need to be maintained until February of 2019, or approximately 24 months. CTC's monthly charges for maintenance/inspection services are $2,000.00/month.

The requested $48,000.00 amount is considered TRV-related. Having met its $26.6 million commitment to the TRV Project, the City will be reimbursed the full amount of $48,000.00 by the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD). Staff will record a receivable every month for reimbursable expenses and the TRV Program Manager in the Planning and Development Department will be responsible for collecting the full reimbursement from TRWD upon project completion. Once reimbursement is received, the revenue will be receipted to the Intergovernmental Contribution Fund.

Long Hot Mount Wichita Walk Turns Me Into An Old Man

Today, soon after discussing Elsie Hotpepper's serious issues with Laundry, I mistakenly thought it a good idea to go on a long, long, long walk.

The long, long, long walk idea seemed to be a good one due to the sudden appearance of summer-like HEAT. As in heat in the 80 to 90 degree zone, which feels HOT, after this long chilly winter.

So, I walked to Lake Wichita.

From my abode, to the scene you see here of a group of fisher men, women and children, fishing from  the one and only Lake Wichita floating fishing dock, I had walked a couple miles.

By the time I reached the top of the Lake Wichita Dam and looked down on the above fishing scene, and Mount Wichita, in the distance, I thought continuing on with my walk, with Mount Wichita as the goal, seemed like a good idea at the time.

Continuing north on the dam I looked back at the floating dock and the boat you see below, floating among the remains of the Lake Wichita Pavilion which burned down in the 1950s.

The Circle Trail is what one walks on to cross Lake Wichita Dam.

It is a long walk across the dam til one eventually reaches the Circle Trail dam exit which leads to the Mount Wichita pseudo volcanic cone.

The above is a scene soon after the Circle Trail leaves the dam. That is a biker you see rolling across that bridge. I had never seen so many people at Lake Wichita as I saw today. Dozens upon dozens of walkers, joggers, bikers, bladers, skateboarders, boaters and those aforementioned people with fishing poles.

The above is the last photo I was able  to take before my camera told me its battery needed re-charging. So, I switched to using my phone to take a couple more pictures.

I currently have my phone's camera set to "Spring Scene" mode. I mention this and having to switch to using the phone, so as to explain the change in the look of the photos, with the photos now looking like what, in Fort  Worth, is known as Luenserizing a photo.

A Luenserized photo is a photo which sort of alters reality. The above is a good example  of Luenserizing a scene, with the resulting photo looking more like a water color painting than a photograph, and not looking all that much like that which my eyes saw.

The last of the Luenserized phone photos shows no one on Mount Wichita. That is a bit ironic, because as soon as I saw Mount Wichita  today I could see people climbing the mountain. A lot of people. But, with none in sight by the time I took the above photo.

So, why did this walk to Mount Wichita turn out to be a bad idea today?

Well, I estimate the total walking mileage to be around 6 or 7 miles. Walked at a fast pace, but not really all that fast.

By the time I got back to my abode I was dragging, feet hurting, exhausted.

At some point during this ordeal I realized I have now become an elderly person, sort of. I used to get a bit impatient  with certain individuals whilst at locations such as Disneyland or Las Vegas, due to the certain individuals complaining about getting worn out from too much walking.

I have never found  myself complaining about getting worn out from too much walking at Disneyland or Las Vegas.

Today I realized Disneyland or Las Vegas would exhaust me if I enjoyed either like I used to. I have not been to Disneyland since Christmas of 1994. I have not been to Las Vegas since some time in 2000. I have been to Six Flags Over  Texas in Arlington a couple times this century, and did not find the experience to be exhausting. A bit boring, but not exhausting. But, Six Flags is no Disneyland, hence not tiring.

I suspect I will be being a bit depressed now, for a few days, as I come to terms with this new reality of realizing I am virtually a decrepit old man....

U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers Thinks Trinity River In Fort Worth Is Navigable

Yesterday on Facebook Peter Cox asked "Which part of the Constitution says that a developer needs permission from the U.S. Army to build an apartment complex?"

As you can see, via the Facebook screen cap, the U.S. Army answered the Cox question, saying, in part, that the USACE is responsible for all navigable waterways in the U.S.

To which I commented...

Durango Jones: The Trinity River as it mucks its way through Fort Worth is navigable? By what? Beer sodden dimwits floating on inner tubes???

The USACE Facebook comment in its entirety...

U.S. Army The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Headquarters is responsible for all navigable waterways in the country. Since the development is on the banks of a navigable waterway the corps must examine the plans to make sure they are not negatively impacting the river or river traffic.

Without the USCAE we would be missing a lot from our daily lives. If you are wondering what else the USACE is responsible for, they are:
- The Nation’s number one federal provider of outdoor recreation.
- Is the Nation's environmental engineer.
- Owns and operates more than 600 dams.
- Operates and maintains 12,000 miles of commercial inland navigation channels.
- Dredges more than 200 million cubic yards of construction and maintenance dredge material annually.
- Maintains 926 coastal, Great Lakes and inland harbors.
- Restores, creates, enhances or preserves tens of thousands of acres of wetlands annually under the Corps’ Regulatory Program.
- Provides a total water supply storage capacity of 329.2 million acre-feet in major Corps lakes.
- Owns and operates 24 percent of the U.S. hydropower capacity or 3 percent of the total U.S. electric capacity.
- Supports Army and Air Force installations.
- Provides technical and construction support to more than 100 countries.
- Manages an Army military construction program between 2006 and 2013 totaling approximately $44.6 billion — the largest construction effort since World War II.
- Researches and develops technologies to protect the nation’s environment and enhance quality of life.

______________

Now if this commenting representative of the USACE had said the Army Corps of Engineers had a say in a riverside apartment complex development because the USACE was responsible for the levees which it built well over half a century ago, levees which have prevented flooding in the downtown Fort Worth zone ever since they were built, well, that type oversight might be understandable.

But, to claim the Trinity River is navigable as it slowly slogs through downtown Fort Worth? That is ridiculous. How many impoundment dams block the river as it flows between the Fort Worth Trinity River levees? I guess one could navigate past those dams by portaging ones boat if the boat was small enough to portage.

And regarding those Trinity River Army Corps of Engineer levees. If the Trinity River Vision, at some time in the distant future, becomes something someone can see, well, part of that un-needed flood control scheme is to remove those levees which have kept downtown Fort Worth flood free for well over half a century.

There are some who opine the reason the Boondoggle's bridge building  has stalled is because it was realized the bridge spans were not wide enough for the flood control ditch, after further engineering analysis determined the ditch had to be wider and deeper in order to contain a big flood.

So, does anyone know what the 2017 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' position is on Fort Worth's Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision's altering of the Trinity River?

One would think there is much more to be concerned about than the building of an apartment complex on the bluff overlooking the Trinity River in downtown Fort Worth...

Misty Wood Enlightens Me About Diabolically Fishy Bradford Pears

A few days ago I blogged about the trees you see here in a Snowflake Blizzard With Real Desperate Housewives Of Wichita Falls.

In that blogging I wondered what type tree I was seeing which had blown a blizzard of white petal flakes on me.

Then the renowned, appropriately named Texoma horticulturist, Miss D. Wood, also known as Misty Wood, informed me that the type tree which was creating the whiteout of blizzarding flower flakes was known  as a Bradford Pear.

Misty Wood pointed me to an article about the Bradford Pear trees which informed me that It’s official: Bradford Pears are the worst trees, which then led me to KFOR TV's online article in which Oklahoma forestry experts warn against Bradford Pears.

A blurb from the KFOR article...

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Bradford Pear tree looks beautiful but smells terrible, and its scent isn’t the only reason people are cursing the greenery.

“It was deemed the perfect tree. I mean, it’s beautiful in the spring, because it has the flowers and it’s contained. It can grow about anywhere in Oklahoma, and then in the fall it has really great colors,” said Mark Bays, urban forestry coordinator for OK Forestry Services.

They’re also on a watch list for invasive plants in Oklahoma.That’s because, in the last 10 years, the Department of Agriculture started seeing problems with it spreading past its boundaries. “If you have all of these Bradford Pears growing in close proximity to where other native trees are, they start taking from those resources that those native trees need – water in the soil, nutrients in the soil and then they can start crowding out the other trees that naturally should be there,” Bays said.

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Among the many complaints about the Bradford Pear one was that it smelled like rotten fish. On my first visit I had not made note of anything fishy. Today when I walked among the Bradford Pears they were no longer sporting any white blooms. And there was nothing fishy about them...