The photo you see here was clipped from a video Elsie Hotpepper shared on Facebook showing the latest flooding in the West 7th Street zone of Fort Worth.
This area floods pretty much every time copious amounts of rain falls. The drainage system is antiquated, not updated when the area went into what counts as a boom in this sleepy town.
I was not going to bother commenting on this, what with a why bother feeling of ennui of late. And, really, what is the point of pointing out the obvious to the apparently oblivious?
This is a town which has elected the leader of the Granger Gang to Congress over and over again. And is likely about to do so again, unless some miracle of common sense takes over the town.
Years ago a little girl named Ally Collins drowned in a flash flood in Haltom City. The volume of water in the flash flooding creeks in Haltom City had been greatly exacerbated by huge areas of North Fort Worth which had been developed with homes and malls, with no mitigating done to slow down the water when the sky goes rogue in downpour mode.
Ally Collins drowned about the same time what was then known only as the Trinity River Vision was starting to become something some of the locals were aware of.
Kay Granger visited Haltom City after the deadly flood. She promised to look into the causes and do something about it.
Kay Granger has done nothing.
I do not remember if when Ally Collins died Kay Granger had already installed her unqualified son, J.D., as the Executive Director of the Trinity River Vision.
After Ally Collins died, and after it was apparent Kay Granger was doing nothing to help with the flooding problems. And after it was realized that the Trinity River Vision was being purported to be a vitally needed flood control scheme, in an area of Fort Worth which has not flooded for well over a half century, due to massive levees keeping the river in check when it goes in to flood mode, several Tarrant County citizens suddenly found themselves turning into political activists.
It did not take much looking into it for those new political activists to clearly see there was something dire wrong with the Trinity River Vision. And thus the opposition to this now obviously ineptly implimented corrupt project, was born.
And now, years later, the Trinity River Vision Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision is known as America's Biggest Boondoggle. An embarrassing pseudo public works project which has little to show for the millions of bucks spent except for things like an homage to an aluminum trash can, multiple V shaped forms in various stages, looking ridiculous in a mess of a construction zone, floating beer parties in the Trinity River, an ice rink, a failed wakeboard park and other bits of nonsense, like the first drive-in movie theater of the 21st century.
In May Fort Worth's corrupt political leaders managed to dupe the apparently easily duped local voters to approve what was touted as a quarter billion buck flood control and drainage bond.
After the voters approved of this flood control and drainage bond those benefiting from the new funding arrogantly touted this vote as the voters approving of the Trinity River Vision, and that the money will go to the idiocy known as "Panther Island", not directly to flood control and drainage.
And yet, where is the outrage? Where are the demands for accountability? Where are the demands that something be done about this ballot fraud?
Burnout. Methinks a lot of people are just exhausted by nonsense overload and the feeling that truth, justice, common sense and what used to be known as the American Way, no longer are in play.
Corruption is in control. Or so it seems.
And now, this past week, more flash flood drownings in Fort Worth due to excessive water flow caused by poorly engineered, poorly planned development.
Does Fort Worth, as in the leaders in charge, even understand the concept of urban planning?
Methinks not, and I think this every time I return from what I refer to as modern America, to Texas, well, parts of Texas, such as Fort Worth, which I have come to think of as backwards, not modern.
In modern America, such as the Phoenix, Arizona metro area, infrastructure is built ahead of development. One sees this all over that area, roads, sidewalks, landscaping, drainage, all those things needed in order to add houses, apartment complexes, industry and retail, being built, as a result of sensible urban planning.
While Fort Worth allowed thousands of homes to be built in North Fort Worth without even upgrading the existing roads, let alone the drainage system. Hence that area can now be a nightmare to drive through, which I have learned to avoid on my monthly trips back to DFW.
Fort Worth really needs to grow up and start wearing Big City pants.
Lives depend on it....
