Searching For Fort Worth Indoor Plumbing, Sidewalks & Public Pools

Prior to leaving Texas for my recent two week Arizona visit I had resolved to myself that on this Arizona visit I was going to photo document the excellent road landscaping, the streets with sidewalks, the multiple public swimming pools, the parks with modern restroom, running water and zero outhouses, and then compare what I photo documented to what I do not see in some Texas towns which pretend to be modern American cities with hopes of hooking a corporation to move its headquarters to town.

Yes. Fort Worth. I am talking about you. A town with parks without modern facilities, but plenty of outhouses, miles of streets without sidewalks, zero public pools, roadside landscaping which is shoddy, if it does exist, and, well, you get the point.

But, my best laid plans went awry, for the most part, once I was on the ground in Arizona, relegated once again to driving Miss Daisy way too many miles to way too many locations.

However, on my last day in Arizona, whilst being driven to the airport, I was able to do a little photo documenting of some of the roads on the route to Sky Harbor. I will likely soon get around to blogging about those landscaped roads.

One more thing. I was also planning to photo document, and take video, of some of the multiple waterfalls I see when driving around the Phoenix metro zone, particularly in Chandler.

I do not understand why the town I am currently in, named Wichita Falls, with no actual waterfall, but one well done fake falls, does not install realistic looking waterfalls at the town's entry points, and other locations around town. It must not be too cost prohibitive, with with the myriad of manmade waterfalls I see in Arizona. Or is that state just way more prosperous? Or more aesthetically imaginative?

Back to Fort Worth and the town's love of outhouses.

Years ago I recollected photo documenting signage in Fort Worth's only actual sort of unique tourist attraction, that being the Fort Worth Stockyards. With that signage, on multiple business venues, proudly boasting they had INDOOR RESTROOMS with INDOOR PLUMBING.

It took a little looking but I found the webpage I made of this, titled FORT WORTH STOCKYARDS INDOOR PLUMBING.

It has been several years since I have visited the Fort Worth Stockyards. Maybe the signs touting Indoor Plumbing no longer exist...

New Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Propaganda Source

Early this morning Elsie Hotpepper text messaged my phone with a message telling me she had emailed me a link to something downright terrible.

What fresh hell is this gonna be, I sat and thought to myself?

Checking my email I found the email from Elsie Hotpepper, with the email consisting of a link and a message saying...

"It must be something in the water. Lead? Total BS with one of the worst articles ever in the Fort Worth Business Press."

I clicked the link to the During hearing, Army Corps officials express Trinity River Vision support article and soon understood what was appalling Elsie Hotpepper.

The Fort Worth Business Press usually does not spew Fort Worth Star-Telegram type propaganda. Usually the FWBP asks cogent questions of the responsible journalism sort.

Let's look at some of what is in this article, but to get the full picture, click the link and read the article in its entirety.

First paragraph...

During a hearing in front of the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee on March 27, officials from the Army Corps of Engineers testified to Congress about the Central City project, also known as the Trinity River Vision project in Fort Worth.

Also known, in all its multiple names glory as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, or more commonly as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

So a couple officials from the Army Corps of Engineers did some testifying. And in the following two paragraphs we learn the basic gist of what the officials are testifying to...

Responding to a question from Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, two Army Corps officials voiced support for the project and for other projects that have yet to be funded.

“I very strongly support the project and I’m not sure the administration doesn’t support the project,” said R.D. James, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “They’re trying to elevate projects based on their priorities, economic return to the nation, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera."

So, the official is not sure the administration does not support the project? That sounds definitive, something you can really bank on. And they are trying to elevate projects based on their priorities and economic return to America?

Well, that criteria alone should doom this hapless project which has been limping along most of this century.

And then there is the statement released from Rep. Kay Granger regarding her commitment to the project...

“The Central City project is my top priority, it is vital to the future of Fort Worth,” she said in a statement. “Assistant Secretary of the Army, R.D. James, expressed his strong support of the project and the Army Corps of Engineers committed to completing Central City.”

An accurate statement from Kay Granger on this subject would be "The Central City project is my top priority, it is vital to the future of my son..."

And then there are the final three paragraphs in this article...

James said he had talked to Granger about the project.

“I have talked with Ms. Granger before and intend to do so again to see if there are other ways or other authorizations this project needs. At this time I don’t know of any.

"It’s a good project. There have been misunderstandings about the project.”

Now that is earth shaking news. James, he being the Army Corps of Engineers official who testified in front of a house sub-committee, reveals he has talked to Ms. Granger, and will do so again. Because talking to Ms. Granger is the avenue to finding other ways or authorizations this project needs, while at the current time he is unaware of any needs.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Maybe someone has not told this James person that this project has never been fully funded, that it has limped along for years, with little to show for the effort. And that Ms. Granger's son, J.D., was given the job of being the project's Executive Director, a job for which years of embarrassing incompetence have made clear J.D. was not qualified.

This is a good project? Really? Then why is this project progressing in ultra slow motion? There have been misunderstandings about the project? Such as what? Not understanding why it was not scandalous nepotism to give Kay Granger's job a high paying job to motivate her to secure federal funds? Misunderstanding why it is taking so long to build three simple little bridges?

Maybe if that sub-committee meets again, with this James guy testifying, he might be asked why the project did not go along with the Army Corps of Engineers design for the Boondoggle's three simple little bridges, with the Corps design mirroring the design of the West 7th Bridge? A design we learned a few months ago was thwarted by J.D. Granger, for what seemed ridiculous, unfounded reasons, because the J.D. engineering and design whiz thought bridges supported by V-piers would really be something cool.

The design mirroring the West 7th Bridge design was approved by the Army Corps. The Corps was slated to cover the costs. Costs which were estimated to be way less expensive than the three simple little V-pier bridges, which have turned into a construction nightmare, beginning construction in 2014, with a then astonishing four year project timeline, which has now been stretched into the next decade.

It would also be a good idea for the members of that sub-committee to ask why, if this project is a vitally needed flood and economic development project, why has it been developed at a snail's pace?

If this project is so vital why was it not sold to the Fort Worth public, asking for support long ago in the form of approving of the project via a bond funding vote, in the manner towns wearing their Big City pants get projects done. Particularly projects touted as being vitally needed flood control.

And one would also think it would behoove that sub-committee to ask why this is a vitally needed flood control project, in an area of the Trinity River which has not flooded for well over half a century, due to flood control levees which have worked ever since they were installed.

Why should money be wasted on flood control where there has been no flooding, while other areas of Tarrant County have serious flooding issues, deadly, property damaging flooding issues, which are not being addressed, while those who will financially benefit from this bogus flood control project continue to drag this Boondoggle along, underfunded, begging for federal dollars?

Yeah, I can see why Elsie Hotpepper was offput by this article and what appears to be the FW Business Press's dereliction of their journalistic duty...

Hank Frank Happy Six Month Birthday Today

Six months ago today, on September 26, 2018, Spencer Jack's Grandpa Jake got the best birthday present ever.

That being the arrival of the newest Jones boy, Henry Francis, known also as Hank Frank, or HF.

Hank Frank was born at United General Hospital*, located between Burlington and Sedro Woolley, the same hospital in which Hank Frank's dad, my Favorite Nephew Joey, was born, way back in the previous century.

Grandpa Jake was in Washington at the time of the arrival of Hank Frank, and so grandpa and grandson were able to celebrate their first birthday together.

And now it is already a half a year later, with Hank Frank in Happy Birthday mode, which you can clearly see via the red 6 Months tie HF is wearing in the first photo.

In the second photo Henry appears to be getting ready for his birthday lunch. It is not known what Henry had for his birthday lunch. The photos you see here arrived this afternoon, sent by Henry's dad, with no explanatory text. It was left to Henry's great elderly uncle to detect the details of what he was seeing.

In the following photo that aforementioned great elderly uncle's best guess as to what we are seeing is Hank strapped into his car, heading to Grandma Cindy's for his Six Month Birthday Party.

Back when Hank Frank's Dad and Uncle Jason were at the age of birthday parties their Favorite Uncle would get quite elaborate with what Joey and his big brother would have to un-wrap at their birthday parties.

I remember after one of these events Mama Cindy complained she was finding glitter for the next month.

Soon after Joey's first nephew, Spencer Jack, was born, Joey called me and told me that he would need to consult with me regarding making complicated to un-wrap birthday presents when Spencer Jack got old enough for such.

But, there has never been a consult in all the following years.

Maybe Spencer Jack has not had epic birthday parties of the sort his Dad and Uncle Joey had.

And on another note. A couple days ago Joey told me he was hoping to fly Henry and his mom to Arizona next fall, after the heat of summer dies down. We are going to try and coordinate this Arizona visit so that I am there at the same time.

By then Hank Frank likely will be walking. I know a couple fun parks to take him to in the Valley of the Sun...

*UPDATE---Hank Frank's Uncle Jason has corrected our erroneous location of Hank Frank's birthplace, saying "I know with much certainty that your great FNHF was born at the Mount Vernon hospital."

Safe Bike Landing On Lake Wichita Park Airstrip In Shadow Of Mount Murphy

Looking at what you are seeing here you may be thinking it looks like a plane may be going in for a landing in front of a big green mountain.

Well, you would be wrong on all counts.

Yes, my bike's handlebars do sort of look like flying wings. Yes, that is a landing strip between the handlebars and the mountain. And yes, that is the closest thing to a mountain for many miles in any direction.

And that actually is an airplane landing strip. It is located in Lake Wichita Park.

The mountain is man made. The inspiration of a man with the last name of Murphy, hence many locals call it Mount Murphy, whilst I prefer Mount Wichita.

A week ago today I flew to Wichita Falls, from DFW. After dark. Arriving shortly before midnight.

The flights between Wichita Falls and DFW always seem to be adventurous. The return this latest time was via a different route than previous times. We were not long in the air before the pilot informed us to prepare for landing, trays up and locked, seats upright.

For a long distance we seemed to be descending. And then there came a point when I looked out the window and realized we were crossing the Red River. Which means we were coming in to Wichita Falls, and Sheppard Air Force Base from the north, as in from Oklahoma. After crossing the Red River it seemed to take a long time to fly the additional short distance to the air force base.

Upon landing I feared the pilot would once again get lost and take us on a long dark tour of the tarmac. But, unlike the time when that happened, last week the pilot seemed to make a beeline for our final destination.

I seem to be repeating this particular flying experience every few months. I am really looking forward to the next instance...

Wichita Falls Roundabout Art & Fort Worth Boondoggle Roundabout Art

Today whilst riding around Sikes Lake I saw a new art installation has been installed in the center of what one might characterize as some sort of traffic roundabout, located at the northwest side of the Wichita Falls Museum and Arts Center.

That would be the art installation we are talking about which you see here, looming over my bike parked in a bike parking stall.

Some of the WF Art Center's art installations have plaques installed nearby which name the work of art and who it was who created it.

Such was not currently the case with this new installation.

I can not help but wonder how much this work of art cost.

Likely not nearly as much as the art installation installed years ago in Fort Worth at the center of a still unfinished traffic roundabout which is part of the HUGE mess of uncompleted construction blighting a large area of Fort Worth courtesy of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The homage to an aluminum trash can had been blighting the Fort Worth landscape for years before I finally got around to seeing it in person, back in 2018. Photos do not do justice to how absurd this thing looks when one sees it directly. I blogged about seeing this in Fort Worth Drive By America's Biggest Boondoggle Embarrassment.

Years ago the Boondoggle's Visionaries brought Fort Worth wonders such as an urban wakeboard venue, called Cowtown Wakepark, which was the first of the Boondoggle's visions to fail.

And then around the time Cowtown Wakepark was in obvious failure mode the Boondoggle brought to Fort Worth Rockin' the River Inner Tubing in the polluted Trinity River, located at an imaginary pavilion with an imaginary music venue across from an imaginary island, floating only when the e.coli level was low enough.

Even more ridiculous than Cowtown Wakepark and Rockin' the Polluted River is an absurd art installation installed at the center of that aforementioned still unfinished traffic roundabout.

This homage to an aluminum trash can was foisted on the Fort Worth public years ago.

If I remember right, this was installed even before that embarrassing TNT exploding ceremony celebrating the start of construction of three simple little bridges.

Two of those bridges, still not built, years later, are a short distance from the un-finished, un-landscaped roundabout eyesore with its homage to an aluminum trash can, or what some have seen as a giant cheese grater.

The Boondoggle paid almost a million bucks for this work of art.

Why?

Why was money spent on this years ago, spent before construction began on the related road and bridge work?

Why?

From what source did the funds come to pay for this?

The Boondoggle has been starved for funds. Hence begging for federal dollars which are being denied. Hence a bogus fraudulently worded ballot measure to try and secure funds.

Where is the accounting for the almost million bucks spent on this homage to an aluminum trash can? Is it part of the bridge building funds? The White Settlement Road re-build funds?

Who made the decision to spend money on this work of art and have it installed, years before the roadwork it was intended to beautify was any where  nearfruition?

Who benefited from the almost million bucks spent on this? Who associated with the Boondoggle is a crony of whoever benefited? Friend of J.D. Granger? Friend of his mother? Friend of Jim Oliver? Cousin of Mike Moncrief? Ex-boyfriend of Betsy Price?

Who?

And Why?

Inquiring minds really want to know....

Hank Frank & Spencer Jack's Dad's Want Me To Know Seattle Is Skinny & Dying

Friday night my phone made its incoming text message noise. When I found where the noise was coming from I saw the text message was from Hank Frank's dad, also known as my Favorite Nephew Joey.

I tapped the message link to quickly see Joey had texted me a link to a YouTube video.

Clicking on the link to the video I assumed I was about to see a video of baby Hank Frank being cute.

I was erroneous.

The YouTube video was one I had already had myself pointed to, multiple times. But had yet to watch. The video is a KOMO TV production where "KOMO's Eric Johnson explores the impact the drug and homelessness problem is having on our city and possible solutions in Seattle is Dying."

And then Saturday night Hank Frank's uncle, who is also Spencer Jack's dad, and my Favorite Nephew Jason, emailed me another Seattle related link.

This one to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article titled Seattle is one of the skinniest metro areas in the fattest country in the world.

I have no idea why my Washington based nephews are suddenly flooding me with Seattle input.

The homeless problem in Seattle is a shocker. I remember way back in August of 2008 being in downtown Seattle, at an event in Pioneer Square, when I found myself looking for parking and came upon the homeless encampment under the I-5 freeway.

I believe that homeless encampment under the freeway in downtown Seattle is no longer there. I may be wrong.

In August of 2017 I found myself back in Seattle, being slowly driven north on I-5, as there was no option other than go slow. This allowed a long look at the huge homeless encampment along I-5 as it passes through downtown Seattle.

I was shocked.

It was a Dystopian scene. Something you might have seen in a movie made in 1999 showing a bleak Seattle, twenty years in the future.

All the west coast boom towns have a bad homeless problem to various degrees. A result of the boomtowns attracting a lot of people hoping to find their futures there, and then discovering it not easy to find a place to live.

I may be over simplifying.

You can watch the Seattle is Dying YouTube video at the end of this blog post.

As for that Seattle P-I article about Seattle being skinny.

Well.

When I moved to Texas one of the elements of culture shock was suddenly being where way more people were way bigger than I was used to seeing. And I do not mean being bigger in the being taller sense of the bigger word.

I remember driving back to Washington summer of 2001 for mom and dad's 50th. It was in Colorado I first noticed it seeming like the people were smaller. And then in Oregon I went in a Walmart in Ontario and was struck by how much smaller the people looked.

And then in February of 2004 I flew to Seattle, was picked up at Sea-Tac and before my final destination was brought to downtown Seattle to a gallery in Pioneer Square where I uttered the memorable utterance "The people here look like they've had the air let out of them".

So conditioned was I, by then, to the plus sized Texas norm which I had become accustomed to seeing, that skinny people looked alien to me, seeing so many of them.

Now when I am in Tacoma I do see more plus-sized sorts of the type I see in Texas. Maybe that is because so many people from all over America are stationed in nearby Fort Lewis. Or some other explanation.

Anyway, below is that afore promised Seattle is Dying YouTube video...

Sunday Spring Biking Lucy Park Finding Six Flags Still Flying Over Texas

What with today being the first Sunday of the 2019 version of the season known as Spring, and what with a blue sky sun warming the outer world to almost a balmy temperature, I decided to slather on sunscreen and use my motorized means of motion to roll to Lucy Park so as to have a bike ride on my non-motorized means of motion.

A lot of people were similarly motivated. A crowd was all over Wichita Falls, making for slow rolling as I pedaled past one of the most scenic artificial waterfalls I have ever seen.

Wichita Falls, what waterfall, not the town, is not in Lucy Park. Wichita Falls, the waterfall, is accessed via the Circle Trail, which circles over a bridge past the waterfall.

After checking out the Wichita Falls waterfall I circled back to Lucy Park, eventually exiting the paved trail to a non-paved trail which eventually took me to the location you see above.

You can not tell it from the photo, but between my bike's handlebars, and that building with a lot of flags, the Wichita River runs. And today the Wichita River was running a lot of water. Rain must have fallen whilst I was in Arizona.

That building is one of the Texas Travel Information Centers one comes upon driving across Texas.

Hence all those flags. When I first noticed the flags I saw only five. I think the brisk wind rendered one of the flags unfurled. I took several  zoomed photos of the flags, thinking I would make mention of there only being five displayed, assuming the Confederate flag must have been removed, rendering Five Flags Over Texas, rather than the expected Six Flags Over Texas.

But, when I got the photos off the phone I saw all Six Flags Over Texas were still waving over this Texas Travel Information Center.

Since it is a fact that for a brief time Texas decided to be on the wrong side of history and ceased being one of the states of the United States of America to become one of the Confederate States of America, and thus for a short time the Confederate flag flew over Texas, and even though homages to the Confederate era are considered by many to be an embarrassing outdated offensive relic, it would seem to me that it would be real dumb to pretend that there have not been Six Flags Over Texas.

That and the name of that theme park in Arlington would sound wrong if called Five Flags Over Texas...

No Artist Rendering Fort Worth's Pitiful Panther Island Bridges

No, what you are seeing here is not an artist's rendering of what one of Fort Worth's Panther Island bridges will look like if they ever become something someone can see, some distant day in the future.

What you see here is one of the spans of the Deception Pass Bridge, connecting two actual islands, crossing a small island, between the two larger islands, with those three islands being Fidalgo Island, Pass Island and Whidbey Island.

This photo appeared to me in Facebook, via former Skagit Valley Girl, Tess Sakuma, with the photo captioned "Tonight's moon and Venus over Deception Pass Bridge." With the photo credit going to Rakan AlDuaij Photography.

The Deception Pass Bridge is an actual iconic, signature bridge, as described in the Wikipedia article about Deception Pass Bridge "The bridge is a commonly photographed landmark of the Puget Sound region."

As you can see, unlike Fort Worth's pitiful little bridges being built over dry land (low bridges which, according to artist's renderings, look like freeway overpasses, yet promoted as somehow being unique signature bridges of the becoming iconic Fort Worth images) Deception Pass Bridge was built over actual water.

Actual water which is deep and which during extreme tidal ebbs flows so strongly ships are not able to navigate against the rushing tide.

Ironically, those Fort Worth bridges are in the process of becoming an iconic ironic signature symbol representing what a messed up, corruptly run town Fort Worth has become.

I almost forgot to mention. Fort Worth's pitiful Panther Island bridges began construction way back in 2014, with a four year construction timeline. That construction timeline has now been stretched into the next decade.

While construction of Deception Pass Bridge began in August of 1934 and was completed in less than a year, on July 31, 1935.

I have blogged about the Deception Pass Bridge a few times on my Washington blog...

Deception Pass Bridge Connecting Whidbey Island with Fidalgo Island

Washington's Deception Pass Bridge Took A Deceptively Short Time To Build

July 31 Deception Pass Bridge 75th Anniversary Celebration Picnic

Can you imagine, at some point in time in the next century, the 75th Anniversary Celebration of Fort Worth's pitiful Panther Island Bridges?

No?

Me either.

When will the sheep of Fort Worth stampede and demand the shut down of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle?

How much longer can this embarrassing mess continue blighting what could be a reasonably okay town if responsible adults with common sense somehow took over and booted the crooks and charlatans, including one local congresswoman's ineptly unqualified son?

One would think just the bizarre inability to build three simple little bridges part of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle would put a stop to the nonsense before more money gets flushed down the river....

Star-Telegram Propaganda Claims Fort Worth Is All In On Panther Island Boondoggle

What you see here is a photo which appeared yesterday in an article in the online version of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The title of the article?

As Fort Worth is all-in on Panther Island, what are our odds on this billion-dollar bet?

At the start of this new year I had said to someone that I was done making mock of Fort Worth's pitiful excuse for a newspaper and the way it does not cover the civic disaster which used to be known as the Trinity River Vision.

But then suddenly there was some hope among some that this pitiful excuse for a newspaper was finally acting as one. This optimism was due to multiple articles about Fort Worth's embarrassing Vision which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. Also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Or Ma Granger's retirement plan for her favorite son, J.D.

With people thinking the Star-Telegram was finally doing some honest reporting about The Boondoggle I felt compelled to point out that these articles were all the same lame propaganda nonsense the Star-Telegram has been spewing this entire century whilst The Boondoggle has been boondoggling along.

Let's just look at those three simple little bridges The Boondoggle has been trying to build over dry land for over four years, connecting the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

In none of these "new" Star-Telegram articles have you read any information as to why this simple bridge building project has been a construction eyesore and traffic impediment for so long. Is it a funding issue? Is it an engineering issue? What is the problem?

And now yesterday's new piece of embarrassing dumb Star-Telegram propaganda.

Just the title is blatant propaganda.

Neither Fort Worth (or America) is "all in on Panther Island".

I'm sure the article author thought they were being extremely clever with the first paragraph...

Long before I listened to talk of Panther Island, I watched Gilligan’s Island extensively. I’m now an expert on fabricated islands.

Comparing Fort Worth's embarrassment to one of the most embarrassingly dumb shows in TV history seems apt.

And then there is the next paragraph...

I’ve listened to the pros and cons of Fort Worth’s Panther Island project since arriving here last October. For a lot of it, I’ve felt a little like Gilligan — who, when caught in the middle of two other people’s argument, would alternatively take both sides.

The author has been in Fort Worth for six months and now feels informed enough to share insights?

A couple paragraphs deeper into the article...

The $1.16 billion plan to cut a bypass channel for the Trinity River north of downtown to reduce the chance of catastrophic flooding would also, as a happy byproduct, create an 800-acre, ripe-for-development man-made island surrounded by riverfront and crossed by canals.

The author has only been observing for six months, so let me be the first to tell this person the fact that that bypass channel has nothing to do with reducing the chance of catastrophic flooding. Catastrophic flooding has been prevented in the area in question for well over a half century, ever since levees were constructed to prevent such a thing.

However, other areas of Fort Worth, and Tarrant County, are subject to catastrophic flooding, with those potential catastrophes not addressed.

And then we have the following gem of blatant propaganda...

Supporters are supremely confident in the project, in vast public support for it as expressed in a $250 million 2018 bond election, and in the prospect of roughly half the money coming from Washington, D.C.

Vast public support? That 2018 bond election was a May election, held when few vote. With the wording on the ballot measure thought by many to be criminally fraudulent, invalidating the election results.

And then this bit of idiocy...

And let’s face it: They need to pull it off. Desperately. With more than $300 million expended, three massive bridges in the works and hundreds of thousands of tons of dirt turned, treated and hauled, if the Panther Island project were a poker game, Fort Worth has already gone all-in.

The Boondoggle needs to continue because thousands of tons of dirt have supposedly been turned? And three massive bridges are in the works? Massive? The Golden Gate Bridge is massive. and built in less than four years over actual deep, fast moving water. Anyone with any measure of common sense knows when something being constructed is massive. These three bridge are not massive. They look like freeway overpasses.

Read the article to read the latest J.D. Granger ridiculous misinformation quotes, followed by the following paragraph...

When you listen to Granger and Trinity River director of communications Matt Oliver — as some 150,000 have, in presentations over the past dozen years — other flood control measures sound inadequate.

Really? 150,000? Those presentations must have been at those public meetings The Boondoggle claims have taken place where citizens supposedly requested dozens upon dozens of imaginary amenities, which The Boondoggle has added to the boondoggle. I have yet to hear from anyone who has been to a meeting where public input has been solicited, including people who live on the bluff which overlooks the mess which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.

And then this following propaganda gem...

And look what the project has already done. It’s remediated some 82 environmental sites, removing 380,000 tons of hazardous material from soil that once was home to foundries, a refinery, auto scrap yard, a battery reclamation center, a Styrofoam plant and a police firing range.

Really? 82 environmental sites remediated? 380,000 tons of hazardous material removed? Can the Star-Telegram please identify for us those 82 sites? And we are curious where those 380,000 tons of hazardous material were moved to.

The article author seems really taken with J.D. Granger...

It’s also intriguing to watch Granger’s excitement at the mere prospect of repurposing vintage bricks, removed from the Stockyards area and otherwise headed for scrap, to one day line walkways on Panther Island.

Yeah, I can imagine it is really intriguing to watch Granger get excited about removing bricks from the Stockyards to be used to line walkways. Where are these bricks currently stored, one can not help but wonder?

Awhile back I thought it might be fun to compile all the stupid stuff J.D. Granger has been quoted as saying.

But I have yet to go to the bother of doing so.

I remember my favorite is when J.D. Granger claimed he beamed like a madman whilst floating incognito at one of The Boondoggle's Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the polluted Trinity River, so pleased to hear person after person singing the praises of the brilliance which has caused so many to take an e.coli bath.

I wondered at the time what Granger's incognito disguise was. A wig? Groucho glasses with mustache?

Most articles in the Star-Telegram are lucky if they generate any reader comments. This morning I checked on this As Fort Worth is all-in on Panther Island, what are our odds on this billion-dollar bet? article and there are already three quite apropos comments...

Patrick Sheppard

Only time will tell! I still think if we, the citizens of Fort Worth, aren’t willing to foot the bill then it is a boondoggle! I’ve always wondered about “conservative” Fort Worth wanting the federal government to pay for something for us instead of paying for it ourselves! Seems like we love to hate the federal government until we want something from them. 😉

Graeme Cowan

What a waste of monies. I don't buy into the flood threat. The Panther Island idea has missed its timing with all the other new residential and retail developments advancing in the past few years. Also, what is the timing of reopening White Settlement Road? Really...!!!???

Chris Serrano

I am over this project already it such a cluster f**k...& was from the beginning. Let Kay Granger & her son & Betsy Price flip the bill on their screw-up. Federal funding will never come to this project cause when they came to Betsy she couldn't produce any receipts for the project. It wasn't a surprise that Betsy wanted an audit folks. All they had to do was build along the Trinity. I've never been more ashamed of my city like I am now.

_______________

And there you have it. One more chapter in an ongoing perplexing embarrassment in a town without a real newspaper...

Back In Texas With Apache Tears From Grandpa Jake

I made it back to Texas last night, well before midnight.

Previously, due to various delay issues, midnight turned out to be the time my pickup-er needed to arrive to pick me up.

But last night all went well, lift off was right on time, arrival in Wichita Falls seemed to arrive quicker than usual.

And the pilot did not get lost on the large Sheppard Air Force Base  landing zone.

And so when we landed, unexpectedly early, I called my pickup-er so the pickup would not arrive way too late. I was barely out of the terminal when I was happy to see my transport arrive.

What does any of that have to do with BETO?

Well.

Whilst in Arizona it was soon apparent my little brother, Jake, also known as Spencer Jack and Frank Hank's grandpa, was in a productive creative phase.

The first example of this was the Little Library Jake made for Aunt Jackie. We mentioned this previously in Uncle Jake Builds Little Library In Chandler Arizona.

On my last visit to Arizona, back in October, Jake showed us where he hunts for Apache Tears.

Apache Tears are black obsidian agate like rocks hidden inside a coating of perlite rock. Jake harvests a load of perlite rock, releases the Apache Tears, runs them through a rock polisher and adds them to his HUGE Apache Tear collection.

Since that visit last October Jake has found a way to re-purpose the Apache Tears.

At the top, that is an Apache Tear refrigerator magnet holding up the BETO FOR SENATE sign on my refrigerator.

Jake also figured out how to turn Apache Tears into cabinet knobs. Below is one of the pairs of Apache Tear cabinet knobs I brought back from Arizona, still in their packaging.

A load of Apache Tear products is one of many reasons I was overloaded on the return trip, and why I left some stuff behind at Miss Daisy's.

This morning I replaced my kitchen cabinet knobs with the Arizona Apache Tear knobs from Jake.

Now, the above photo of the pair of installed Apache Tear cabinet knobs makes it appear they are both quite different in size, and that my cabinet knobs are not level. Both appearances are erroneous. The knobs are level, and whilst all are slightly different, making each one one of a kind, they are all similarly sized.

And this kitchen upgrade looks real good...