Huge August 1 Beto O'Rourke Rally In Wichita Falls Stone Palace

Beto O'Rourke made his 4th return to Wichita Falls last night, on the first day of August, a little over three months before I, along with millions of other Americans, hope Beto puts an end to Ted Cruz being the senator from Texas.

I had previously watched short clips of Beto speaking. I had had others tell me how impressive he is in person.

Last night I found myself among those impressed to see Beto in person.

I do not recollect ever previously witnessing a political figure be so articulate, speaking so long, with no notes, or teleprompter, and with that which was being said seeming so authentic and so in the moment, what with Beto making Wichita Falls and surrounding area references over and over again.

The Beto rally took place in the Stone Palace in downtown Wichita Falls. Last night marks the first time I have been to an event in the Stone Place without running into one of my favorite Texans, Dana Wood Knot.

Miss Wood Knot was likely in the Palace, but I did not see her due to the size of the crowd, with some estimating the number as high as a thousand, and some as low as 700. There were not enough chairs, so it was literally standing room only.

I do not recollect when I was last at an event where those attending were so fired up. When Beto arrived a rock band began blaring, with the crowd standing, trying to see the incoming Beto.

I only had my phone camera with me, hence the bad photo above, and the equally bad YouTube video below, with that video showing part of the aforementioned Beto arrival.

Way back in 2016 I found myself in downtown Fort Worth on the same day Trump held one of his campaign events at that town's convention center. This was before the term "Deplorables" had been used to describe many of those not repulsed by Trump's repulsiveness. That day I had a visceral bad reaction to all the creepy people I was seeing lined up to get in to see Trump.

Last night, surrounded by hundreds of liberal, progressive, democrat decent type people, it felt like I was witnessing something historic, like this is what it is like when America comes roaring back, decent, good, right-minded, intelligent, caring America.

I hope I am right....

Perplexing TRWD Land Swap Deal For Fort Worth LaGrave Baseball Park

A couple weeks ago, whilst I was in modern America, Arizona to be precise, Braig Prickley Facebook messaged me with a link which led me to the TRWD PRESS RELEASE you see partially screen capped here.

I read the press release and thought to myself what fresh ridiculousness is this nonsense.

I then replied to Mr. Prickley telling him something along the line of what with me currently being in modern America I just don't have the energy or desire to much care about fresh nonsense from back in backwards America.

And then I got back to Texas and soon found myself reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's "news" article about this fresh nonsense, with the article titled Deal to reopen Fort Worth Cats’ LaGrave Field full of dreams, but is there money?

Reading the Star-Telegram's question about money was not the question I was asking when I read about this "deal".

Before we get to looking at this deal let's look at what Mr. Prickley had to say after I replied to his message...

Yeah, looks like slimy Jim Lane got his way.  When they won the election, he said his TOP PRIORITY was getting minor league baseball back at Lagrave Field.

The slimy Jim Lane to which Prickley refers is one of the TRWD board members.

There is no mention made of it in the Star-Telegram article, but wasn't it Jim Lane who finagled an earlier "deal" regarding the land around LaGrave Field? A deal which had the TRWD spending multiple millions of dollars to rescue a bankrupt friend of Jim Lane. A friend somehow associated with LaGrave Field and its demise, if my memory is serving me correctly.

And then after the TRWD paid for that land, part of that land became the world's first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century.

Any of this ringing a bell with anyone? No mention is made in the Star-Telegram article about the previous TRWD property purchasing shenanigans in the LaGrave Field area.

This Star-Telegram article about LaGrave Field tells us...

The Fort Worth-based water district, teaming with the federal government to split the Trinity and create the new island, also got $1.3 million in the trade plus 8.1 acres including the stadium.

The water district is teamed with the federal government to split the Trinity River and create a new island? Does the federal government know they have been teamed with the TRWD to split a river and create an imaginary island?

And then this about the land that was swapped so the TRWD could take over LaGrave Field...

In exchange, Houston-based Panther Acquisition Partners will get 15.3 acres along what is now a levee, giving the group a total of 26 acres on what will become Panther Island when the river is split.

What is this new nonsense about splitting the river?

Am I understanding correctly? The land which the TRWD swapped for the land including LaGrave Field is currently underneath 15.3 acres of Trinity River levees, which will be removed if the Trinity River Vision ever becomes something someone can see, with that land under the levees then part of the imaginary island.

And then there is this...

Right now, we’ve only heard lofty promises. If they come through, the new Panther Island development across the Trinity River from downtown will be anchored by a boutique ballpark and events facility built around the legendary 92-year-old ballfield. Here’s how iffy this deal is: It requires $4 million at signing from a charity foundation that does not even have a board of directors yet but is already collecting money.

The imaginary island development will be anchored by a boutique ballpark? And an events facility? Built around a legendary ballfield?

You reading this somewhere in modern America, have you ever heard of Fort Worth's legendary ballfield?

The deal required $4 million from a charity?

Why does Fort Worth never seem to do things the way towns wearing their BIG CITY pants get things done?

If you are reading this and have not seen Fort Worth's LaGrave Field, back when it re-opened, after reading what seemed likely to be hyperbolic exaggeration in the Star-Telegram about this newly re-opened facility, I ventured to the future imaginary island and took some photos, and then webpaged what I saw in Fort Worth's LaGrave Field.

During my multiple visits to the Phoenix metro zone this year, and last, I have seen multiple baseball parks, some beautiful big complexes, complete with a hotel and other amenities, such as the Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field at the north end of Dobson Road, in Mesa. Or my most recent last day in Arizona when Miss Daisy's driver drove us by the spring training ballpark for the California A's. Any of these Cactus League ballparks would be a worthy ballpark model for a big city like Fort Worth.

And why is the TRWD, as in Tarrant Regional Water District involving itself in something like trying to re-open a defunct ballpark?

Perplexing...

Giant Duck Takes Over Wichita Falls Catfish Pond

Driving Southwest Boulevard, east, this morning, heading to Walmart, as I drove by my neighborhood catfish pond at the south end of Weeks Park I was surprised to see a giant duck floating by the catfish pond's fountain.

I decide to put the short drive to Walmart on hold whilst I parked at the catfish pond's parking to get a closer look at the plus-sized duck via walking the paved trail which circles the catfish pond.

When I reached the part of the trail which afforded a look at the duck's backside I learned that, apparently, the duck's name is WALLY. That may be an erroneous assumption. Maybe WALLY is who owns this duck. Or maybe WALLY made the duck.

Sikes Island Leads Me To Ponder Fort Worth's Deluded Ridiculousness

What you see above, under the pavilion at Sikes Lake, is an island born from the lack of rain. Sikes Island has existed so long greenery has sprouted on the island. I know of no plans to build bridges across water to the new island.

Behind my handlebars there is a bridge which crosses Sikes Lake, it being one of two bridges over water at Sikes Lake.

I have no way of knowing if the Sikes Lake bridges were built over dry land during the period of time during which Sikes Lake was drained and dredged, with the dredged residue hauled to Lake Wichita where it was deposited near the lake shore, eventually becoming Mount Wichita, after a year or two of the mud sludge solidifying.

I also do not know if anyone in Wichita Falls was deluded and ridiculous to a level sufficient to embarrass themselves by referring to the simple little Sikes Lake bridges as "signature bridges", which is the case in another Texas town with which I am familiar.

Fort Worth.

Where bridges are built over dry land with astonishingly long bridge building construction timelines, and touted as being "signature bridges", you know, like the Golden Gate Bridge.

And also touted by those responsible for Fort Worth's public works debacle as being built over dry land to save time and money.

When there was never any other option but to build Fort Worth's simple little bridges over anything but dry land, since there was no water where the bridges are being built. And where there will never be any water until a ditch is dug under those three simple little bridges, with water diverted into the ditch from the Trinity River.

Deluded and Ridiculous.

That really should be Fort Worth's city motto. Drop "Where the West Begins" and go with the more accurate "Deluded and Ridiculous"...

Star-Telegram Actually Answers A Question I Asked

A couple days ago I blogged that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Was Unable To Answer Why Boondoggle Bridges Take So Long To Build.

In this Saturday morning's Star-Telegram, on the front page, top of the fold, I saw another headline question asked...

When your plane lands at DFW Airport, why does it take so long to get to the gate?

Once again I found myself hopeful the Star-Telegram was going to answer a question I recently found myself asking.

This time the Star-Telegram did not disappoint me, sort of.

My last two times landing at DFW I have found myself annoyed at how long it took to get to the gate after touchdown.

Last Saturday was the longest taxi ride yet. I was beginning to think the pilot was lost on the tarmac. I only had 55 minutes to make my connection to Wichita Falls. When the pilot finally parked the plane at the gate, and after the 10 or 15 minutes it took to finally get off the plane, I hurried to the SkyLink to make my way to Terminal B, Gate 38.

Upon entering Terminal B I heard the loudspeaker loudly speaking "Flight 3715 to Wichita Falls is now boarding at Gate B38. That's Bravo 38".

I did not remember hearing this type announcement before upon entering a terminal. And so I picked up my pace. I got to the Gate B38 to find everyone already on board. I handed the check-in person my boarding pass, and then boarded. Less than ten minutes later we were in the air.

I had 55 minutes to make this connection. And managed to get there with only ten minutes to spare. This tells me we took around a half hour between touchdown and parking at the gate.

This article in the Star-Telegram explains why it takes so long to get the gate, what with the planes having to taxi across active landing zones, waiting for an all clear to proceed, so that question did get answered. Along with an upcoming solution.

But, the article claimed the taxi time is usually between 5 to 10 minutes.

A taxi ride on the DFW tarmac has never been as short as 5 to 10 minutes in my experience. Maybe I just have bad luck.

The return last May to DFW was particularly annoying. After the long tarmac taxi ride, when we reached the gate, the pilot soon announced something along the line of "We seem to have caught the ground crew by surprise. We are bugging them to hurry up."

I recollect thinking the "bugging them" verbiage was amusing. And likely not officially approved pilot-speak.

About 20 minutes went by and then the pilot again apologized for the delay. The elderly man sitting next to me was getting nervous. I soon found out his nervousness was due to needing to make a connection to Abilene. And time was running out. And that this was the first time he had flown anywhere since the Vietnam War. I had plenty of time, so I told him I would help him get to his connection, if we ever got off the plane.

Landing at other airports I have never experienced the long waits I have experienced at DFW, after the plane docks.

And the only other airport at which I have experienced an ultra long taxi ride over the tarmac, was at the Denver airport, flying United. The tarmac taxi ride was long, but at a much faster speed than that which the DFW airport allows its pilots to taxi.

This morning David, Theo and Ruby's mama texted me from Reagan International in Washington, D.C., verbalizing what a terrible airport the one named after Reagan is. I do not know what, precisely, my little sister finds annoying about the D.C. airport.

My mom called me last night, asking me to come back to Arizona as soon as possible. I do not see that happening for more reasons than just that I do not like flying...

Lake Wichita Biking With Snakes & Nurse Canecracker Thinking About Trump's Dementia

When I opted to roll my wheels to Lake Wichita this morning, about an hour before noon, the outer world was chilled to somewhere in the high 70s.

Brrrr.

I had to find my sweatpants and insulated underwear before venturing out into the semi-Arctic blast.

There were a lot of other wheel rollers enjoying the momentary respite from triple digits.

When I reached the top of Lake Wichita Dam I decided to roll down to the floating dock which today was not occupied by people wielding fishing poles. You can see the Mount Wichita pseudo volcano on the far side of the lake. The pseudo volcano is my eventual destination.

Today, for the first time since I have been in my current North Texas Wichita Falls location, I saw a snake.

It was in the drought dried lily pond creek which flows into Lake Wichita I saw the snake, slithering in the little bit of water remaining in the creek.

What you see above are my handlebars perched on the Circle Trail bridge which crosses the aforementioned dried up creek. Apparently the snake slithered out of camera view by the time I snapped the above photo.

Lately dementia has been on my mind. I deal with a lot of dementia in Texas.

And when I leave Texas.

Last night Nurse Canecracker called.

My favorite nurse and I had an hour long conversation about dementia, and other topics. It is useful to consult a wise medical professional when one is troubled by such things as dementia.

I heard from David, Theo and Ruby's mother this morning. She has been in Washington, D.C. all week. I do not know the precise purpose of my little sister's D.C. visit, but I am just about 100% certain the visit did not involve consulting Donald Trump about his obvious dementia issues...

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Unable To Answer Why Boondoggle Bridges Take So Long To Build

Just a day or two or three ago I blogged about a Bizarre Star-Telegram Propaganda Video About Boondoggle Bridge Detours.

That video contained no useful information of the factual sort which in anyway explained how or why these simple little bridges have been so difficult for Fort Worth to build.

Over dry land.

Bridges to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, with that imaginary island not really an island, but in actuality, if it is ever dug, a chunk of land surrounded by water in the form of a cement lined ditch filled with diverted polluted Trinity River water.

And then a day or two after the Star-Telegram's propaganda video showed up about the Boondoggle's bridge detours, another article appeared, the headline of which you see above, asking Why is it taking so long to build those bridges over the Trinity River?

I saw that headline and thought, wait, what? The Star-Telegram is finally publishing an article looking into why those bridges which began construction in 2014 are still in an early stage of being built, four years later, when, originally these simple little bridges were supposed to take an astonishing four years to build. Longer than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge over actual, real, treacherous water.

And now the Boondoggle's bridge construction timeline has been stretched to 2020.

So, I eagerly read this article, thinking the Star-Telegram is finally doing some honest investigative journalism, perhaps actually telling its few readers about all the engineering complications and disagreements the design of the V-piers have caused.

But, in true Star-Telegram fashion, one reads this entire article to find not one iota of an answer to the question asking why it is taking so long to build these three simple little bridges.

Yesterday there was only one comment to this Star-Telegram article, with someone named Will Smith asking...

An interesting article, but it doesn't answer the headline's question: Why IS it taking so long to build those bridges?

Let's take a look at some of the erroneous nonsense in this latest Star-Telegram propaganda piece about America's Biggest Boondoggle's pitiful bridges...

The first paragraph...

Three bridges over Fort Worth’s Trinity River just north of downtown are now set to open in 2020, a year later than previously scheduled.

Uh, no. Construction of those bridges began with an absurd TNT explosion celebration back in 2014, with the then four year construction timeline having the construction of the simple, little bridges completed in the year we are in now. 2018. We blogged about this already way back then in A Big Boom Begins Boondoggle Bridge Construction Three Months Late.

And again the Star-Telegram repeats one of the biggest lies associated with this bridge building boondoggle...

Construction of the bridges is taking place over dry land to save time and money, said Val Lopez, Texas Department of Transportation spokesman. Once the bridge work is done, the new river channel can be dug beneath them.

The bridges are not being built over dry land to save time and money. There was never any option but to build the bridges over dry land. Due to the fact that funding for the ditch and diversion dam does not yet exist. It does not take being an engineering whiz to think that digging the ditch and the bridges at the same time makes more sense than digging the ditch under the bridges after they are built, with that idea seeming fraught with the possibility of more project stalling complications.

Does the Star-Telegram have any editors who check this drivel before it goes to print? Like this gem...

The island would be built in the area that currently features LaGrave Field and the Coyote Drive-In.

Island would be built? Whoever wrote this thinks an island is going to be built? In an area which currently features a closed eyesore of a cobbled together baseball park and an equally tacky looking drive-in movie theater? The writer failed to mention one of the Boondoggle's early failures on the imaginary island, that being Cowtown Wakepark, which the Boondoggle's project manager, J.D. Granger long ago breathlessly bragged this doomed to fail operation would bring the coveted sport of wakeboarding to an urban setting.

And this paragraph with another bit of propaganda erroneousness...

Panther Island has been planned for more than a decade, and at times the Trinity River Vision Authority has struggled to obtain funding for the project, which is being billed not only as an economic development effort but a crucial flood control improvement project to protect Fort Worth’s city center from future storm water drainage problems.

Panther Island has been planned for more than a decade? Really? What, and kept a secret from the public til years later? Way back in September of 2010 I was biking the Trinity Trails and near what later become the now defunct Cowtown Wakepark I encountered my first instance of bizarre over the top Trinity River Vision signage in full TOUT the project mode. I blogged about this in The Trinity River Vision Is Underway With A Lot Of Signs.

At that point in time, eight years ago, what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle was still referred to as the Trinity River Vision. Over time additional monikers have been used, such as Central City and Uptown. And then a few years ago suddenly what had been known as the Trinity River Vision morphed into Panther Island, where there is no island, where there never will be a legitimate island. Which is actually a perfect metaphor for the entire mismanaged boondoggle.

And again the Star-Telegram repeats the lie that this is a crucial flood control project, protecting Fort Worth's city center, where there has been no flooding for well over half a century, due to massive levees which have kept the Trinity River under control ever since they were built back in the 1950s.

And the following, most outrageous bit of misinforming propaganda in this article...

In May, Fort Worth-area voters approved the issuance of about $250 million in bonds to ensure there would be enough local money to build Panther Island, much of which is being federally funded.

On the ballot, the bond measure which was approved, indicated the money was supposedly for flood control and drainage. There was no mention made of the money being approved for ensuring there was enough local money to build the imaginary island.

And the following on the same subject from one of those responsible for creating America's Biggest Boondoggle...

Jim Oliver, water district general manager, said the approval of the bond sales by about two-thirds of voters was “very important. It’s going to allow us to complete the project, keep it online and on track.”The money is needed to buy land, rechannel 1.5 miles of the river and build water storage areas and floodgates, he said.

So, Oliver is admitting the verbiage on the ballot measure was a fraud. The Boondoggle and its Godmother, Kay Granger, have used the fact this measure passed to refute the claim, made by many, that the public has never been allowed to vote on this pseudo public works project. Such would be true only if the ballot measure somehow asked voters whether or not they approved of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision project. Instead the ballot measure asked voters to approve a quarter billion bucks for flood control and drainage.

Outrageous fraud, just as fraudulent as this article in the fraudulent Fort Worth Star-Telegram...

HOT Mount Wichita Bike Ride After Haltom City Doctor Appointment

After returning from the DFW zone, this final Wednesday of July, I thought rolling my bike wheels to Mount Wichita in this 110 degree natural sauna seemed like a good relaxing idea when I thought of it.

But the reality turned out to be a bit warmer than I thought it might be, even with a somewhat cooling breeze blowing from Lake Wichita.

As long as one is in motion the heat does not feel too hot. But, when one stops for a liquid refreshment break the heat quickly feels HOT.

On Saturday, when Miss Daisy took me out for lunch, before launching me on a plane back to Texas, she asked, yet again, about my monthly drive to DFW to visit a doctor. This doctor visit has been explained to Miss Daisy multiple times, but apparently Miss Daisy expressed a worry about my health problems to Sister Jackie, with Miss Daisy verbalizing her concern that I was having to make a monthly visit to some sort of brick specialist to have my brick situation monitored, with Miss Daisy asking Sister Jackie if she knew what my brick ailment was all about.

So, today I decided I would photo document the Brick Doctor's office, located in Haltom City, which is a suburb of Dallas, which borders Fort Worth.

Above you are looking at the Brick Doctor's new clinic. No patients are treated in the clinic. All patients are treated on a sort of out patient basis.

The view from my vehicle's driver's side window, looking at the new Brick Doctor sign and an incoming Brick Doctor truck, with the 121 freeway hovering above.

After the Brick Doctor appointment was over we heading west to the rock and roll roads of Fort Worth, bumping our way to the Stockyards neighborhood, and Esperanza's, where I had a chili cheese relleno and did not find Elsie Hotpepper among the hot peppers in my favorite Mexican restaurant....

Bizarre Star-Telegram Propaganda Video About Boondoggle Bridge Detours

I saw this bizarre item in the Monday online version of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

On the front page.

A link to a Star-Telegram produced embarrassingly bad propaganda video about the hapless bridges being build in ultra slow motion by the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Under the While you take detours Trinity bridges are taking shape there was the following blurb...

The detours will last until early 2020 on north Main Street, White Settlement Road and Henderson Street as 20 distinctive V-shaped piers are built to bridge the re-channeled Trinity River that is part of the Trinity River Vision.

You who live in modern America, can you imagine living in a town where a pseudo public works project dawdles along for years, with little to show for the effort, with project timelines, such as bridges which began construction in 2014, with a then astonishing four year project timeline, now stretched out two additional years.

Six years to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

The imaginary island was not part of the original vision. The fake island came along years later. Though project propagandists try now to make it seem as if this bizarre mess has always been about making Panther Island.

In the video you will hear some sort of bridge builder official tell you the bridges are being built over dry land because, you know, that is way easier than building over water.

I have said repeatedly now for years, there never was any option but to built these little bridges over dry land because there will be no water under them until a cement lined ditch is built in which the Trinity River's polluted water will be diverted.

And currently funding of that ditch does not exist.

This propaganda video also shows you the Boondoggle's roundabout, with its million dollar homage to an aluminum trash can. And claims this roundabout part of the project is completed.

What?

Completed?

With the Fort Worth norm of no landscaping other than the weeds and litter which currently decorate this eyesore?

I saw this ridiculous waste of money last month and blogged about it in Fort Worth Drive By America's Biggest Boondoggle Embarrassment.

I will likely be back in the DFW zone on Wednesday. I do not plan on another drive by the mess that has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. I suspect no progress would be possible to notice...

Driving Miss Daisy To The Top Of The Rock Before Leaving Arizona

I have been in recovery mode since my midnight return to Texas on Saturday, leaving the humid heat of Arizona's Valley of the Sun for the dry heat of the Texas Red River Valley.

Does the Red River actually have a valley? And is Wichita Falls in that valley?

I have no idea.

All I know for sure is the Red River, and Oklahoma, are about 20 miles north of my current location.

That and that dry HEAT of Arizona turned muggy from monsoon rain during my two week stay. whilst rain-free North Texas seems to have developed dry HEAT, hotter than Arizona.

In other words, when I exited the Wichita Falls Airport on Saturday, rather than being slapped in the face by a wet blanket of cotton, such as was the case a couple months prior, this time the Texas HOT air felt good.

Refreshing.

And not all that HOT.

My vehicle's temperature monitor indicated the outer world was 115 degrees HOT when I ventured to Walmart in the late afternoon of Sunday.

Anyway, back to Arizona.

In the photo above you are looking at Sister Jackie being Miss Daisy's driver. With me in the back seat enjoying the scenery without having to follow Miss Daisy's driving directions..

Miss Daisy was directing a pre flying out of Texas lunch excursion, with one of the highlights being the restaurant location known as the Top of the Rock, where we did not have Wagyu Short Ribs, Alaskan Halibut, Arctic Char, Roasted Duck, Buttes Mac & Cheese or Herb Gnudi, but instead opted for Sweet and Sour Cashew Chicken.

Prior to the Top of the Rock, since we were in Tempe, which is close to my final Arizona destination of Sky Harbor Airport, I asked if Miss Daisy could possibly direct her driver to drive me by all the new corporate headquarters which have popped up in Tempe in recent years.

My favorite nephew, Jeremy, had told me all these new buildings were quite an impressive thing to see. And they were.

But first we checked in on Tempe Lake. I think that is the name. Sort of a 'town lake' made by damming, I think it's the Gila River. I have never seen water running in the Gila River, and yet somehow it provides a lake. And on the non-lake side of the dam the river is bone dry.

Above you are looking at one of the "signature" bridges which cross Lake Tempe.

I see things like this and it freshly reminds me of how pitiful Fort Worth, Texas is.

What with imaginary islands with imaginary signature bridges, stuck in engineering failure mode for years, bridges built over dry land, one day hoping to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, crossing over a manmade cement lined ditch filled with polluted water in which the starved for entertainment locals regularly have River Rockin' Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats sponsored by an agency known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

With that Boondoggle currently sporting big wooden bridge supports which look like Paul Bunyan's abandoned teeter totters, which some locals have taken to calling the Yeehaw Seesaws.

Above is one of those new corporate headquarter's which moved to Tempe. I do not know which one this one is, but there were several buildings which looked like this and my woefully inadequate photography skills do no justice.

I think the above is an apartment type complex. There are multiple such things in the area of Tempe's new corporate headquarters.

I do not know if Fort Worth tried to lure any of these Tempe corporate headquarters when those corporations were in re-locate mode. Fort Worth regularly makes such attempts, offering multiple perks in hapless efforts to attract a corporation to town.

I have more than once wondered if those who try to lure a corporation to Fort Worth have visited those towns which win out over Fort Worth to try and figure out why no one wants to come to Fort Worth.

Fort Worth's pitiful attempt to attract Amazon's HQ2 was the most recent Fort Worth failure of which I am aware.

If Fort Worth sent a task force to Tempe, or Chandler, or Scottsdale, or any other Phoenix area town to which corporations have re-located their headquarters. they would find towns with good roads providing easy transportation. Parks with no outhouses. Streets with sidewalks. Paved trails all over town. Aesthetically pleasing landscaping in abundance. And just an overall location any corporation would be proud to call home.

In Chandler, Arizona one finds a HUGE Intel complex on Dobson Road. I do not know how many thousands Intel employs there. Every time we drive by this location Miss Daisy tells me when they moved to the Chandler zone all which is now Intel, and other high tech operations, was agricultural fields.

Fort Worth made a pitiful attempt to lure the Intel development which is in operation in Chandler. This occurred early in my Texas exile, when I lived in Haslet, in far north Fort Worth. Across the street from my then abode what were then acres of open land were slated for Intel. A new overpass was built over I-35 to access the land. Perks were offered. Fort Worth thought they had a done deal. But the deal fell through. Someone from Intel must have visited Fort Worth and decided no way are we building anything in that town.

How much money has the city of Fort Worth wasted over the years in futile attempts to get some company to re-locate to the town? Perhaps the time has come where maybe Fort Worth should spend some research money to identify all the town's elements which leave such a bad impression.

Slow motion pseudo public works projects, such as that which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, that being the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, currently a badly engineered mess of slow motion, or stalled, construction, do not leave a good impression, or lead someone to think the town can get anything done within any reasonable time frame.

Oh, and above is that Top of the Rock restaurant in Tempe I mentioned multiple paragraphs ago before I slipped into my patented regularly scheduled verbalization of being appalled by the Texas town named after a fort, which was a camp, of tents, and which, unlike other Texas frontier forts, nothing remains of the Fort Worth frontier fort, except for a penchant for embarrassing hyperbole...