Miss Daisy's New Driver To Maricopa's New Bridge Over Dry Land

Yesterday Sister Jackie was Miss Daisy's replacement driver, whilst Miss Daisy's regular driver got to sit behind the driver, thus better able to enjoy the passing scenery as we drove out of the Phoenix metro area to the distant suburb of Maricopa, population 48,007.

When I am in Arizona I am regularly impressed with the differences between this American location and what I see when I am in some other American locations, such as some Texas towns.

Texas towns like Fort Worth, Texas.

A railroad passes through Maricopa. This is where the Amtrak station is located which serves all of the Phoenix area to the north. Other trains also pass through Maricopa. When a train comes through town this has long created a traffic backup, waiting for the train to pass.

On my last visit to Arizona, when we visited Maricopa, I asked what that was being constructed by the Amtrak station. I was told it was a new highway overpass, passing over the train tracks and a road or two.

And now a few months later this bridge project, being built over dry land, appears to be near completion.

Meanwhile in Fort Worth, Texas, population over 800,000, the town has been struggling for over four years to build three simple little bridges over dry land, hoping to one day connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

How can such a similar project be realized so efficiently in one town in America, and so ineptly in another town in America?

Perhaps someone other than the dopey unqualified son of a local congresswoman is in charge of this Maricopa bridge building project.

Seeing this new Maricopa railroad track overpass in the making brought to mind another mystery regarding how one location in America can be so different from another.

Regularly at various locations in DFW, such as Highway 377, a train can bring all traffic to a halt, creating massive traffic jams. This has been going on for years, with the locals, near as I can tell, seeming to think there is no solution to such a problem.

And another item noted.

Being driven around the Valley of the Sun with Sister Jackie being Miss Daisy's driver I was freshly impressed with what I was seeing when I saw new development. Sister Jackie confirmed that when new development develops it is mandated that parks, landscaping and sidewalks be installed along with the new homes and apartment complexes under construction.

Every month when I return to DFW I am appalled at the mess of zero urban planning I see in north Fort Worth, where thousands of new homes have been stuck on the ground, with little if any landscaping, parks, sidewalks. The main roads are the same roads I drove on in this area when I first moved to Texas, with little upgrading.

It is like an entire area of America is greatly lacking in basic common sense, whilst another area of America seems to have a surplus of common sense.

So perplexing...

Uncle Jake Builds Little Library In Chandler Arizona

Last Friday, after having way too much to eat at Scottsdale's Fiesta Burrito, our three vehicle caravan made its way to Uncle Jake's Scottsdale location where we got a first glimpse at the Little Library he was building to install in Chandler at Aunt Jackie's.

Aunt Jackie had decided it was time to introduce the Little Library concept to Chandler. So, Uncle Jake agreed to be the architect.

Summer of 2017 I was introduced to the Little Library concept when I saw the Tin Man Little Library installed in David, Theo and Ruby's front yard.

At that point in time I blogged about it in David, Theo & Ruby's Tacoma Tin Man Little Free Library.

The day after we saw Uncle Jake's Little Library in the making he installed it in Aunt Jackie's front yard, which is what you see above.

Jake built this without use of some sort of shop with a plethora of tools. The base is a tripod of three windfall branches. Somehow Jake was able to bind these together, make their three surfaces flush with the ground and the base of the Little Library, and line up with the bolt holes in the bottom of the Little Library.

Uncle Jake has always had construction skills at a level high above that of his big brother.

And then there was this, taken the day we visited Uncle Jake's house and the Little Library in the making.

We were instructed to pose by photographer Mama Michele. That would be myself and Jake behind Theo, David and Ruby.

I just got a text message that Theo is currently in doctor visit mode due to a rash behind his ears and back of neck. While in Arizona Theo had fun hunting scorpions with a night light. Theo objected to exterminating the captured scorpions, preferring to catch and release.

I hope this Theo rash is not a delayed reaction to a scorpion sting...

David, Theo & Ruby In Mesa's Riverview & Pioneer Parks

On this second Tuesday since I have been in Arizona this morning we are going to go back to last Friday.

That day began with an early morning horse ride at a Dude Ranch in West Chandler.

After we parked the horses we had a McDonald's visit before heading north to Mesa, that being the location of two parks we intended to visit, one of which I have wanted to play in with David, Theo and Ruby ever since I first saw it last year.

The first Mesa park is called Riverview Park. This park is adjacent to the Chicago Cubs Cactus League version of Wrigley Field.

In the first photo you see Theo climbing on some ropes arranged in a climbing device. In the distance you see a taller climbing device shaped like a pointy pyramid.

When Theo reached that pyramid he quickly climbed high, like a monkey in a tree. I tried to follow, but soon gave up due to shaky ropes and shaky nerves.

But soon Mamas Michele and Kristin followed Theo in monkey mode.

That is yellow Kristin on the left, and pink Michele on the right, with Theo far above them.

And then Mama Michele somehow monkeyed herself higher than Theo. We assumed this playground attraction has been rigorously tested for safety, that if one fell one would catch oneself in the mesh of rope before actually falling to the thickly padded ground. But, I did not want to test this myself.

Neither of Ruby's brothers were brave enough to take the zip line ride. Ruby is a bit of a daredevil.

Mesa's Riverview Park's playground is impressive beyond any I have seen anywhere else. And unlike what I see in some town's parks in Texas, this park had zero outhouses, but did have an extremely modern large restroom facility.

Mama Michele whilst infosearching Mesa parks, after I had said I would really like to take the twins and David to Riverview Park, found another Mesa park, near downtown, called Pioneer Park.

Miss Daisy and I saw Pioneer Park last February whilst looking for a Mesa concert location. Since then almost $8 million has been spent upgrading the park with a playground of the likes I had also never previously seen.

Also with no outhouses, but with a modern restroom with attributes I had never seen, such as the hand washing sinks were outside, used by both genders. And the interior facility was so large the men's wheelchair stall had someone using it who had brought his mountain bike in the stall with him. That seemed a bit odd, but it did seem a good way to make sure the bike did not get stolen.

Fort Worth might want to send some sort of study group to towns like Chandler and Mesa and just check in on the quality of their parks. This might provide big clues as to why when a corporation looks to relocate they take a look at Fort Worth and decided to locate elsewhere. Outhouses in your public parks really do not a good impression make.

So, Ruby went from swinging on a zip line at Riverview Park to a different type swinging at Pioneer Park.

We had never seen a swing before like the one above. A tandem swing. Uncle Jake saw this and opined if our dad had seen such in a park he would have managed to build us a replica in our backyard. So true.

Above that is Ruby in the air on the left, with Theo pushing on the right.

Below is the centerpiece of this playground in Pioneer Park. I had never seen anything like this in a park, that was not a waterpark.

Ruby and Mama Kristin were the first to go up this thing, whilst the rest of us watched. At the top a little kid panicked at the point Ruby and Kristin were at the final climb to the crow's nest at the top. It took several minutes to get the panicked little kid back down the crawl space.

Above we are seeing Ruby shoot out of the tube, graceful, at high speed, landing on her feet like an Olympic gymnast.

Followed by Mama Kristin who used a different exit strategy, while proclaiming she felt like she was having another birthing experience, only this time being the one being birthed.

And then Mama Michele and I decided to give it a try. The climb to the crow's nest was more arduous than I anticipated, involving some knee crawling through tighter spaces than my claustrophobic self finds comfortable.

Before making the slide to the bottom we tried to photo document how high we were, via selfie mode, which I am quite adept at doing, taking only a minute or two to get my phone ready to take the photo you see above.

No photos were taken of Michele and me making our slide exit. But I can tell you we were graceful, like Ruby.

When I realized how accessible this playground was I talked Miss Daisy out of her chariot on to her non-mechanized mobile device. What you see above is Miss Daisy and David in a sort of treehouse accessed via the elevated walkway which give anyone mobile access to the various locations on the playground installation.

Now, the above slide looks like no big deal, doesn't it? Aunt Jackie was the first to slide down it. She was quite vocal whilst doing so, some screaming may have been part of the vocalizing. I thought she was exaggerating.

And then it was might turn.

The slide is made of rollers. One slides down at high speed, faster the more mass one is blessed with. So, David, Theo and Ruby did not slide fast, until they slid down the slide in front of me, with that extra mass making for a fast slide.

Above I am on my one and only solo slide, with Ruby at the bottom, Theo at the side, and Mama Michele and Uncle Jake at the top.

You can use the rubberized climb at the side of the slide to get back to the elevated walkway, or use the more sedate way to get to the same location.

In the above photo you can see a section of that elevated walkway.

So, Mesa has two extremely impressive parks the likes of which I have not previously seen.

At some point during exploring this park someone sarcastically opined that this is an example of that horrible socialism right wing nut jobs find so disturbing.

Someday, hopefully, the right wing nuts jobs will be no more, and America will be a democratic socialist paradise, and backwards towns like Fort Worth, Texas will have public parks with no outhouses, with modern playgrounds, and public pools....

Cool Arizona Pool With Theo Driving Ruby On Handlebars

Saturday saw an Arizona relative gathering at Aunt Jackie and Uncle Jack's house in Chandler. This gathering gathered in one place all the fun Jones relatives currently in Arizona, plus some friends of Theo and Ruby's who had moved from Tacoma to Maricopa.

A few hours into the gathering Miss Daisy directed us to go to the nearby park, rolling down the street with a Macklemore Downtown soundtrack, with Ruby leading the way., which is what you see above.

But, before that happened there was a water balloon street battle, which eventually moved to the backyard where the unexpected happened, photo documented in the next two photos.

The five kids were at pool's edge, David, Theo, Ruby and the two kids from Maricopa, whose names I have already forgotten due to age related memory limitations. Theo asked the Maricopa kid's mom if they could get in the pool. She indicated she had no problem with this but that the other parents needed to approve.

I then said I was the designated parent of Theo and Ruby and it was okay with me. I said Uncle Jake was the designated parent of David and asked if it was okay with him. Jake gave his go ahead, and almost instantly Theo jumped in the pool, followed by a loud shriek of horror from the actual parental units who were looking out from inside the house.

Soon all kids were in the pool, deemed way too cool by all the adults in attendance, but one. Aunt Jackie came out and asked why I was not jumping in. I said I did not bring my swimsuit.

No problem, said Aunt Jackie.

Soon I was in a new swimming suit, still with its price tag attached.

And here we see me lifting David out of the pool. In the photo above that photo that splash you see in the pool is the result of Theo pushing brother David into the pool. David was the last to participate before I joined in.

The Arizona weather babies seemed not to understand that the unheated pool was my Texas norm, and that just a few days prior I had been shivering at 3 degrees below zero.

After an hour, give or take a minute or two, we all got out of the pool and hot tub for the BBQ part of the day.

The BBQ was followed by that walk to the park we saw at the top.

Here we see Aunt Jackie being Miss Daisy's driver, in the park, whilst Miss Daisy holds her new best friend, whose name I have already forgotten, again due to that age relative memory problem. Miss Daisy's new best friend lives with nephew Christoper (aka CJ) and semi-niece in-law, Carrisa.

At some point during the park visit Aunt Jackie arrived on her bike. I soon found myself helping Theo try to ride the bike. But lowering the seat to its lowest turned out not to be low enough. I tried pushing Theo on the bike, but that soon turn out to be too aerobically stimulating.

Years ago when Aunt Jackie was a wee little thing I used to give her bike rides whilst  she balanced on my handlebars. Theo was onboard for trying this. Soon Theo mastered balancing on the handlebars. And soon after that I found myself giving handlebar bike rides to all the kids, including Ruby, who was the easiest, due to being the lightest.

While the bike rides were happening Cousin Jeremy (aka JR) showed up on his skateboard. Theo soon was asking if we could return to homebase to get a skateboard. We used the ride on the bike's handlebars method to ride to get the skateboard. We then left the bike in the garage and drove Miss Daisy's vehicle back to the park.

Well.

Actually Theo did most of the driving. His first time behind the wheel. Theo did a good job of driving. But, when Theo told brother David that he got to drive, David did not believe him.

And so, when playing at the park was over and everyone headed back to home base, Theo drove back, with me doing video documenting, which you can see below.

In the video you will see Theo drive by all his favorite Arizona relatives, including Miss Daisy...

Fountain Hills Frappe With Miss Daisy On Beeline Bush Roller Coaster

Due to my erratic internet connections my blog postings will be being a bit out of sync for the next 10 days, give or take a day or two.

Right now I am successfully connected to the internet at Miss Daisy's Clubhouse.

This is an open wi-fi connection.

At the DFW airport Google did not like an open wi-fi connection. It took a few minutes before Google objected. If this gets posted, successfully, I guess Google did not object.

I have yet to be able to blog about all which happened on Friday, except for the horse riding/McDonald's part of the day, with the rest of Friday consisting of things such as playing in the two best playgrounds I have ever played in.

Or Saturday's fun which included a re-enactment of Macklemore's Downtown video, along with a little Butch Cassidy raindrops falling on the head bike handlebar fun. Plus a swimming pool incident which seemed to shock those not used to year round swimming. And a new Arizona Little Library.

But, before I get to any of that I will just stick with today.

David, Theo and Ruby flew their parental units back to Washington this morning. I have received text message confirmation of their safe arrival.

Around the mid-morning time frame Miss Daisy directed her driver to drive north to Fountain Hills. That  may have been the driver's idea.

Way back in 2012 on the first day of an Arizona visit, a rainy day, dad drove Miss Daisy and me to Fountain Hills, and then on a mountain road, at high speed, which was quite memorable to me. I was not sure upon departure that I would be able to find that road, even with Miss Daisy's detailed help.

So, we headed north on Highway 87 where it is known as Arizona Avenue in Chandler, which turns into Country Club Avenue in Mesa, before becoming the Beeline Highway when Highway 87 leaves civilization surrounded by saguaro infested desert.

Finally reaching Fountain Hills Miss Daisy asked if I have ever had a McDonald's frappe. One gets asked this question frequently. Soon I found myself in a McDonald's drive-thru duo line ordering two medium frappes, costing $3.99 each. This seemed to me to be an absurd price to pay for such a thing. But, what do I know?

After exiting McDonald's Miss Daisy directed me to the heart of downtown Fountain Hills, where we found the lake and the giant fountain. The Fountain Hills fountain erupts on the hour (like Yellowstone's Old Faithful) with one of the biggest fountain eruptions on the planet.

There were hundreds of people walking, jogging, biking and blading the paved trail around the lake. Miss Daisy did not want to join them while she still had some McDonald's frappe to deal with.

We did not get to see the fountain erupt.

Exiting Fountain Hills I continued on Highway 87, making a beeline for the Fort McDowell Casino, which I quickly passed until exiting on to the Bush Highway., which is the wild ride I was looking forward to driving.

The Bush Highway did not disappoint. I thought it was a rock and roll roller coaster when dad was doing the driving. It remained as such with me driving much slower.

The Bush Highway had a lot of traffic, which made it funner. There are a lot of recreational opportunities along this highway, including hiking, mountain biking, boating, inner tubing, kayaking and horse riding.

I do not know if the Bush Highway is named after 'those' Bush people, or what Bush, if any.

Another interesting thing today. Due to all the rain which has fallen on the Arizona desert the landscape was not its usual brown, instead tinted green.

With wildflowers.

I am almost certain the blue wildflowers I saw alongside the road today were what we call bluebonnets in Texas. But, I am not registered horticulturist, so what do I know?

Riding Horses With Miss Daisy, David, Theo & Ruby

I am once again back at an Internet connection.

Actually when I wrote that previous sentence I was at my mom's, without an Internet connection. But, I thought maybe I would be able to describe my Friday day today and then turn what I typed and the photos I took yesterday into a few blog posts.

The first major event of the day, yesterday, was driving Miss Daisy to an equestrian center in west Chandler.

David, Theo and Ruby were scheduled to do some trail riding, with Miss Daisy, Grandma Janet, Grandpa Gary, Mamas Michele and Kristen, Aunt Jackie and me watching the pre-ride preparation and training inside a corral, before the trio reached a skill level sufficient for the teaching cowgirl to have her horse open the corral gate.

The kids then disappeared into the desert, returning about a half hour later.

That is the corral practice you see at the top, with next photo being the wave goodbye as the trio trotted out into the desert.

There was a moment of high anxiety when one of the Equestrian Center's cowboys took off at high gallop, heading in the direction where we had last seen David, Theo and Ruby disappear into the horizon. And then a few minutes later the trio appeared in the distance, heading our direction. All was well.

Here we see Ruby on top of 27 year old Alice, who was heavy with child.

David rode Butch, named after the Sundance Kid's Cassidy partner in crime.

And then we have Theo on Eyeore. Theo had a little trouble shifting Eyeore out of first gear.

And above we see the  trio as they leave civilization to head out into the wild, with David and Ruby leading Theo and Eyeore.

After the horse portion of the morning was completed it was off to the nearest McDonald's where Aunt Jackie and Uncle Jack had arranged a special McDonald's welcome. We entered McDonald's greeted by Miss Ricki who had Happy Meal boxes filled with every one of the current Happy Meal toys which usually require multiple McDonald's visits to acquire.

Above you see Theo, Ruby, David and Miss Daisy enjoying their Happy Meal toys.

I knew a visit to a Scottsdale Mexican Burrito purveyor was scheduled for later in the day, so I only had myself a limited selection from the McDonald's buffet. A fish sandwich, the new french fries smothered with cheese and bacon option (okay one time, not a second time), with a few random things thrown in, such as some of Miss Daisy's chicken tenders.

I have a lot of blogging material from yesterday. With more incoming from today. But, my current typing position is not conducive to being quick about it. That and I hear a party blaring nearby which requires my attention.

More later...

Driving Miss Daisy To Swim In And Out To Tucson

I have discovered the world's best exercise guaranteed to strain every muscle in ones body to the edge of failure.

Play with three kids in a swimming pool for three hours. Or more.

I'm glad we got mom two transport chairs. I may need to use the second one by tomorrow....

Okay, the above was written yesterday whilst I was still in recovery mode from hours of swimming.

In the photo documentation of this I believe that is David in the foreground, myself on the left, and Theo directly behind me.

Eventually I was sent to Grandma's kitchen to bring back some sort of treat before heading to In 'n Out for a different type treat. The In 'n Out was in Gilbert, a distance from the swimming location in Sun Lakes. David, Theo & Ruby's grandma provided navigation direction to the Gilbert location. Thus adding to the exploration adventure element. Eventually we reached the location we long sought.

Above we are still at the pool in Sun Lakes. You are looking at Ruby, David and Theo's favorite aunt and uncles, Jackie, Jake and myself. Can you tell we are now sunburned?

After getting our fill of burgers, David, Theo and Ruby directed their parental units to a nearby shoe store whilst Miss Daisy directed her driver to head south to Sprouts to get some Irish Soda bread before heading to the Oasis Veterans Park, in Chandler, so David, Theo and Ruby could take turns driving Miss Daisy.

Above that is Theo driving Miss Daisy to the main trail around the Oasis Veterans Park lake, with me providing directional oversight.

David, Theo and Ruby liked visiting the snakes, cougars and bobcats housed in the Oasis Veterans Park Visitors Center. That and finding all the jackrabbits and regular rabbits hopping all around the park, along with the dozens of fishing poles angling at the lake's edge.

Today David, Theo and Ruby had their mother drive Miss Daisy to Tucson to see their other grandma and walk through Tucson's Desert Museum before leaving their non-driving maternal parental unit behind with her parental units.

Aunt Jackie and I are now back in Chandler after doing some extensive area explorations, preparing for tomorrow morning's horse ride. We are currently awaiting the return of Miss Daisy, David, Theo, Ruby and whoever is currently driving Miss Daisy, most likely Mama Michele.

Miss Daisy lost her wi-fi connection since my last Arizona visit. And so my only connection so far with the Internet has been at my current location, at Chandler's Casa Weston.

I went swimming again this morning, eventually with a crowd of a couple dozen Sun Lakes ladies doing their daily water aerobics tuned to loud rock music.

I am liking being back at a location where the air is warm...

Star-Telegram Has No Clue What's Going On With Fort Worth's Panther Island Boondoggle

What is up with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram?

Has whoever decides such things decided to start having a daily front page propaganda piece about the Panther Island debacle?

Today's iteration is titled What’s going on with Panther Island? Fort Worth readers have questions.

Really?

How did these probing questions get asked? The questions certainly were not in the form of comments from readers reading the Star-Telegram propaganda.

More than once the Trinity River Vision propaganda has spewed the nonsense that all the various wonders of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle are the result of almost 100 public meetings where the public made suggestions.

And yet no one I know has ever heard of one of those apparently imaginary meetings, including Fort Worth citizens living directly in the area affected by the Boondoggle.

So, does this latest Star-Telegram article actually answer any questions a reader might actually ask, or has actually asked? Or is it just more propaganda in cahoots with the Boondoggle?

Read it for yourself and see what you think.

To me the article seemed to by yet more rationalizing excuse making for the fact that there is so little to show after so many years and so much money wasted.

I have asked more than once if anyone knows how much money the Boondoggle has spent on the salaries of all those employed by the Trinity River Vision who are headquartered on the ground floor of the Star-Telegram building.

J.D. Granger is currently being paid a salary over $200K a year, plus perks and benefits. Others have similar high salaries, including J.D.'s ex-employee girlfriend, current wife, Shanna Cate Granger (I am assuming the nuptials took place as planned, though I have had no confirmation of this).

Because the Boondoggle has been boondoggling along way more years than any sane person would think such a simple project could last, J.D. and his merry band of fellow fun lovers have received way more money, as in taxpayer public funds, than as would be the case if this public works project worked like such things do in non-corrupt, modern locations in America.

Where is the accounting of how much money the Boondoggle has spent on advertising, signage, propaganda print publications, websites and the like?

Earlier this year Deep Moat III sent me a link to interesting information hidden in plain sight right on the Trinity River Vision Authority website.

A TRVA Quarterly Project Status Report.

Click on that link and you will soon be looking at all sorts of financial records recording how much has been allocated, spent, and remains to be spent on various aspects of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.

There is also astonishing project timeline information.

But in all the numbers there is nothing accounting for the taxpayer funds spent on salaries for entities like J.D. Granger, or any of the others benefiting from nepotism.

There is no accounting for the money spent on the various events such as the Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats, or the music events at the imaginary world class music venue, the ice skating rink, the Octoberfest beer party, or any of the other like nonsense which would seem to be not related to flood control, or actual economic development.

This all continues to be so perplexing...

Heading To Arizona Twice As HOT As Texas

A few minutes ago I checked in on the current temperature at my current location, and the current temperature at the location I will arrive at later today.

In addition to this temperature information I also learned what the current time difference is between my current location in Texas and my future location in Arizona.

The time difference often confuses me, due to all of Arizona south of the Grand Canyon not playing along with the antiquated Daylight Savings Time nonsense.

Speaking of which, don't we soon switch back to Daylight Savings Time? Maybe that will have happened by the time I return to Texas, along with, I hope, warmer temperatures.

I thought it interesting when I checked on the temperature, at 9 am my time, that Phoenix was precisely twice as hot as where I am right now.

Last night Spencer Jack and Henry's grandpa text messaged me a couple times and in one of those messages told me 85 was the predicted high today in the Valley of the Sun.

I suspect tomorrow morning I will find myself in a swimming pool.

Tonight, an hour after I arrive in Arizona, if my flight is not delayed like it was the last time, sister Jackie and mom and I will make our way to the Alaskan terminal to pick up David, Theo and Ruby, along with their parental units.

I do not know what I will be getting to do with David, Theo and Ruby. I am hoping I get to drive them to the summit of South Mountain, and to the Chicago Cubs Wrigley Park playground. What I do know for sure is I am scheduled to go horse riding with David, Theo and Ruby on Friday. Well, to be perfectly accurate, I will be watching David, Theo and Ruby go horse riding.

For almost two decades now I have refused to get on top of a horse, due to an incident where a horse tried to kill me, or so it seemed, at a location I was unfortunate to live at, at the time, in the north of Fort Worth suburb of Haslet...

Why Can't Star-Telegram Tell Why Fort Worth's Panther Island Is So Complicated?

Yesterday on the day known as Sunday, after Elsie Hotpepper and Mr. Wayneman pointed me to it, I found myself opinionizing about that to which I had been pointed, that is the Sunday edition of the hard copy Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The result of that blogging is what you see here, a screen cap of part of the aforementioned opinionizing post titled Is Fort Worth Star-Telegram Finally Truthfully Reporting About Panther Island Boondoggle?

In that blogging I mentioned that I would withhold judgement on whether or not Fort Worth finally has a real newspaper til I could read the entire article to see if those feeling optimistic that their local newspaper was finally going to act as one, by accurately reporting on the mess which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, or if the article was yet one more instance of incompetent reporting, combined with blatant propaganda.

The online version of the article in question showed up this morning, on this first Monday of March. The title of the article has been changed from the hard copy version, now acting as if the article is going to answer the question "Why Panther Island is so costly and complicated".

The screen cap from this morning's online Star-Telegram $1.2 billion and no end in sight: Why Panther Island is so costly and complicated article is what you see below...

The online article begins with a video, which is what you see above, above the title. The elderly gentlemen in the video is Woody Frossard, Tarrant Regional Water District Engineer. At the start of the video we are told via a caption "Engineer explains Panther Island flood prevention project".

But what Woody actually does in the video is bizarrely describe why it is impractical to raise the Trinity River levees (which have prevented flooding for well over half a century).

I think this raising the levees bogeyman is what is known as a straw man. As already mentioned, flooding has not been an issue for over a half century in the area claimed to be in vital need of new flood control. That is how this was sold to the apparently gullible public early in this century, that the Trinity River Vision was a flood control and economic development project.

And yet, if this flood control is so vitally needed, why has this project limped along in slow motion ever since it was foisted on the public?

Despite its title the article does not explain what is supposedly so complicated about this project, which seems to be a relatively simple project, compared to actual feats of engineering, such as something like the Golden Gate Bridge (built in less than four years over actual deep, moving, dangerous water), or the Panama Canal, or the new tunnel under downtown Seattle (also built in less than four years).

The majority of America's interstate highway system was built over fewer years than Fort Worth's embarrassing Boondoggle has been boondoggling along.

It always amazes me how few comments are generated by what should seem to be a controversial article in the Star-Telegram, compared to other online newspapers I read, such as the Seattle Times, which on the morning of an article's publication can generate 100s of intelligent, responsive comments, whilst this morning's $1.2 billion and no end in sight: Why Panther Island is so costly and complicated in the Star-Telegram, covering a controversial subject, had generated only one comment by the time I read the article this morning, and that comment is a good one, which speaks to what I have already mentioned...

Beeks Land
Has anyone ever said exactly how much it would have to rain and for how long for the water to crest the levees in the vast majority of the river, from what I see the river has to rise up and out of its banks, then rise another 50 feet in some areas before it goes over the levees. This boondoggle will have a very hard time getting completed with the current leadership, however it looks like everyone will just look the other way and let it drag on. Stay on them for some accountability.

________________

Speaking of that which Beeks Land mentioned about the current leadership of this project.

No mention is made of the recent J.D. Granger controversies. No mention of the hostile work environment he created by having an extra-marital office affair with one of his sub-ordinates. Then promoting the girl friend to a job title for which she, like her boy friend, was not qualified.

No mention was made in this article over the public outrage over learning how much J.D. Granger and former girl friend (now wife, if the Caribbean wedding took place as planned in February) are paid in salary and perks and benefits.

Unless I missed it this article purporting to tell us why this hapless project is so costly, and complicated, does neither. Nor does the article give us an explanation as to why it is taking so long to build three simple little bridges over dry land.

So perplexing...