Celebrating Easter In Fort Worth With Jesus & The KKK

The screen cap from today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which you see above, is a variant of our patented theme of seeing something in an online west coast news source that one would not expect to see in a Texas online news source.

Usually, the west coast news source is the Seattle Times, with the Texas news source being the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

In today's case it is seeing something in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, about something in Fort Worth, that one would not expect to see in the Seattle Times about a similar thing in Seattle.

If I remember correctly, the Ku Kluz Klan was active in Fort Worth as recently as the 1960s. 

Methinks finding oneself seeing a group like this in person would be scary, almost as scary as finding oneself facing a group of Nazi Gestapo.

Or a group of Putin Russians...

Happy Birthday Sister Michele

 

UPDATE REPOST: Another year has been added to my baby sister's accumulation of time spent revolving around the sun. The following is a repeat of last year's happy birthday blogging...

On this day, many decades ago, my youngest sibling was born.

I have been extremely distracted for a few days, with those distractions causing me not to remember til now that on this day, many decades ago, my youngest sibling was born.

Happy Birthday Sister Michele

I talked to my sibling who was born seven years before Michele, this morning. That would be Sister Jackie.

Sister Jackie was back in Arizona after spending 10 days in Washington, where she got to spend time with Sister Michele, Mama Kristin, David, Theo and Ruby.

And got to meet Hank Frank and Hank Frank's Mama Monique, for the first time.

Jackie had herself a mighty fine time in Washington this visit, particularly enjoying meeting Hank Frank and his Mama.

It is looking increasingly unlikely I will be having myself a mighty fine time this coming summer in Washington meeting Hank Frank and his Mama, along with having fun with David, Theo, Ruby and Spencer Jack. Among others.

But who knows? Circumstances can quickly change...

Skagit Valley Tulips Looking At Mount Baker With Chris & Sheila

I saw that which you see above on Facebook, this morning, via the "You know you're from Anacortes when..." Facebook page.

It is the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival time of the year. During the month of the festival more than a million visitors descend on the Skagit Flats to view the flowers and visit the various Tulip venues. On weekends this creates epic traffic jams.

I have not been in the Skagit Valley whilst the tulips are blooming since April of 2006. Since that time a Jones Family Compound has been established on Beaver Marsh Road, near the Roozen Garde epicenter of the Tulip Festival.

A couple months ago the elder Jones Boy told me I could stay in one of the unoccupied houses in the Jones Family Compound if I wanted to visit the valley during Tulip time. This seemed tempting, but I am not quite ready to resume flying, yet.

The past couple days I have been seeing non-Tulip photos of the Skagit Valley zone, on Facebook, via the Washingtonians known and Chris and Sheila. Chris and Sheila have been at the RV Park at the Swinomish Casino Resort.

The Swinomish are one of the Skagit Valley's Native America tribes. The Skagit tribe also has a casino resort. I do not know if the Samish tribe have built a casino since I left living in the valley. My favorite buffet whilst living in Washington was the one found at the Skagit Casino.

One of the Chris and Sheila photos showed me that Mount Baker is back fully covered in white. During last year's drought Mount Baker, and the other Washington volcanoes lost most of their snow covers.

At the above location we are looking east. Anacortes is behind us. To the right are the Skagit Flats, where one finds the Tulips. The town I grew up in, Burlington, is on the other side of that slight hill you see in the middle of the photo, covered with trees. Mount Vernon, the town I lived in before moving to Texas, is to the right a couple miles.

This view of Mount Baker gives on an inkling as to why it might be a bit problematic if Mount Baker decides to erupt again. The last time Mount Baker blew its top was back in the 1860s, if I am remembering correctly.

Back when Mount St. Helens went active and eventually blew up, Mount Baker also got active, blowing off way more steam than it usually blows. It got bad enough that all the recreational land around Mount Baker was closed til the mountain calmed down.

A volcano blowing up is one thing I do not need to worry about at my current mountain free zone location. Today all I have to worry about is keeping cool with the outer world temperature going into the 90s...

Multiple Monday Lucy Park Bridge Closures

It was back to Lucy Park my motorized motion device took me on this second Tuesday of April, a day destined to be heated into the 80s.

As you can clearly see, above, the Lucy Park Suspension Bridge remains closed. The bridge deck has been totally replaced. After new side railing is installed, the bridge should be back open to traffic.

With the Lucy Park bridge across the Wichita River, closed, the Circle Trail which passes by the west entry to the bridge has also added a closure since the last visit to Lucy Park.

It is easy to get around the CLOSED TRAIL. The closure was caused by damage to a wooden bridge which crosses a shallow gulley. The railing on the left, which inhibited falling into the Wichita River, is missing. The bridge deck also looked in need of replacement.

From the TRAIL CLOSED sign it is about a half mile to Wichita Falls, that being the manmade waterfall, made by man to provide an answer to tourists asking where the waterfall in Wichita Falls is located.

Making an artificial waterfall is sort of a version of what Fort Worth did after decades of confusing that town's few tourists with signage pointing to Sundance Square, where there was no square, til finally turning a parking lot into a little square, called Sundance Square Plaza.

So, that has been my exciting Monday, so far...

Vancouver Of The North Has A New Riverwalk

I saw that which you see above Saturday in the Seattle Times. A link to an article titled With new options for food, wine and walks on the Columbia, the Vancouver waterfront is buzzing. 

The first two paragraphs of this article...

Sawmills, shipyards, breweries and a paper mill once lined the north bank of the Columbia River in the “Other Vancouver,” the Washington town across the water from Portland that thrived with industry in the late 1800s.

Fast-forward to a post-pandemic 2022. People walk their dogs and kids play in a waterfront park flanked by restaurants, wine tasting rooms, a gourmet coffee “gastro” cafe, and, coming later this year: two hotels; an El Gaucho and 13 Coins restaurant; a brewery; and another taproom.

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Looks like Vancouver has built itself a Riverwalk, of sorts, on the banks of the mighty Columbia. How did this come to be I wondered? The answer came in the next paragraph...

“It intrigued me from the beginning,” said developer Barry Cain, who spearheaded Waterfront Vancouver, a mixed-use project with office buildings and residences, for the Gramor Development company. When Boise Cascade decided to close its paper mill in 2006, leaving dormant 35 acres of prime waterfront property just south of downtown Vancouver, Cain saw the opportunity “to take a situation like that, and do something that could change the face of the city.” 

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So, it appears private developers are the ones developing some prime Vancouver real estate, land which had previously served an industrial purpose, and is now being re-imagined. The next paragraph tells us how this land is being re-imagined...

Tying everything together is a 7-acre city-owned park connecting to the 5-mile Columbia River Renaissance Trail, popular for jogging and biking. Open-air patios stand on the half-mile paved path at Waterfront Park, lined with granite benches, play areas and water features, separated by the Grant Street Pier, an overlook suspended 90 feet over the river.

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That all sounds quite nice. And, what with this land only becoming available in 2006, rather quickly developed. Apparently without begging for federal funding. Or hiring a local politician's son to be part of the project to motivate that politician to secure federal funds.

What a concept. A big city wearing its big city pants.

And then there is this paragraph...

“Vancouver has always lived in the shadow of Portland,” says Seidy Selivanow, owner of Kafiex Roasters’ Gastro Café, which opened on the waterfront last April. “Now it’s taking on an identity of its own.”

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A city living in the shadow of a bigger, more well known city. Now, what does that remind me of? Oh, yeah, Fort Worth living in the dark shadow of Dallas.

When I saw this article referencing Vancouver I thought back a couple decades to that Sunday morning when I read a blaring headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram screaming "TRINITY UPTOWN TO TURN FORT WORTH INTO VANCOUVER OF THE SOUTH".

I remember reading that and thinking what fresh ridiculous nonsense is this gonna turn out to be? Little could I realize how totally absurdly ridiculous Trinity Uptown would become over the following decades, eventually morphing into the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Riverwalk Vision, proudly, after years and years of construction, managing to build three pitiful freeway overpass type bridges over dry land, hoping one day to see a water filled ditch go under the bridges, thus creating an imaginary island.

I remember when I read that Star-Telegram article about Fort Worth being turned into the Vancouver of the South, wondering which Vancouver they were talking about. The Canadian Vancouver, or the Washington Vancouver? The Canadian Vancouver is surrounded by water, with mountains looming in the background, and a big river, the Fraser, passing by. The Washington Vancouver also has a big river, the Columbia, and mountains visible, such as the Mount Hood volcano in Oregon.

Fort Worth has zero of these attributes both Vancouvers possess.

Turns out it was the Canadian Vancouver Fort Worth was destined to become like. 

When this Star-Telegram Fort Worth nonsense happened I was early on in experiencing what I came to see as the town's, well, tendency to delusion, as reflected in its leaders and its one and only newspaper.

Trinity Uptown turning Fort Worth into Vancouver happened before the Santa Fe Rail Market was supposedly modeled after Seattle's Pike Place and public markets in Europe, when it turned out to be nothing more than a soon to fail lame mall food court type thing.

And then after that there was the time the Star-Telegram trumpeted that the Cabela's sporting goods store opening in far north Fort Worth would become the #1 tourist attraction in Texas. Has the Star-Telegram ever apologized for misleading its few readers over that nonsensical nonsense? Even after a second Cabela's opened in DFW?

One more blurb from this article about this actual Vancouver development...

Fodor’s Travel took note, naming the Vancouver waterfront to its 2021 list of the nation’s 15 best river walks.

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I wonder if Fodor's Travel book will ever find itself adding Fort Worth to its list of the nation's 15 best river walks?

I suspect that will never happen, but if it does, Fort Worth will likely have a city wide celebration whilst bragging such is making towns, far and wide, green with envy...

Fort Worth Main Street Arts Festival Is Back With Sasha Bass Threatening To Ruin Everything

The Fort Worth Main Street Arts Festival is an event the likes of which I have never seen done better, anywhere.

I was so impressed with the Main Street Arts Festival, way back when I first attended it, the following year I made a Fort Worth Main Street Arts Festival webpage.

This event takes place in downtown Fort Worth. Well, there was that one year around the turn of the century when a tornado wreaked havoc in downtown Fort Worth, causing the Main Street Arts Festival to move off Main Street to head a couple miles west to what is known in Fort Worth as the Cultural District.

So, this year a civil war of sorts has broken in downtown Fort Worth caused by Queen Sasha Bass.

We have blogged about this ongoing debacle a couple times, in...

Upcoming High Noon Shootout Between Sundance Sasha & Reata Micallef and in Time To Worry About Sundance Sasha With Lady Whistleworth.

Apparently, Queen Sasha got into some sort of turf war with the Main Street Arts Festival.

Sasha initiated a competing arts festival featuring local artists, with the local artists showing their arts in the area known as Sundance Square Plaza, that being the little square built on parking lots after years of confusing Fort Worth's few tourists with signs pointing to Sundance Square, where there was no square, til the parking lots were turned into one.

A lifelong DFW native sent my phone that which you see above, with the text about Queen Sasha ruining everything, along with photos of the Main Street Arts Festival, which opened on Thursday and runs through Sunday.

That same lifelong DFW native also asked me if I was Fort Worth Duke, a new entry on Instagram, doing the same, I assume, well written snarkiness about Queen Sasha and the ongoing downtown Fort Worth debacle, currently on Instagram as Lady Whistleworth and Fort Worth Confidential.

I blogged about Lady Whistleworth in Time To Worry About Sundance Sasha With Lady Whistleworth, but do not remember if I blogged about Fort Worth Confidential. I do remember that I had intended to do so, after getting a blog comment pointing me to Fort Worth Confidential.

Oh, and I am not Fort Worth Duke...

Fort Worth City Manager & Billionaire With A Purse Puppy's Bad Bar Behavior

UPDATE: We did not realize we had previously made mention of the bad behavior of Sasha Bass, til a couple days ago, when we saw that this particular blog post from way back on November 21, 2021, was getting thousands of page views. In Spring of 2022 we have blogged about the Sasha Bass troubles in  Upcoming High Noon Shootout Between Sundance Sasha & Reata Micallef and in Time To Worry About Sundance Sasha With Lady Whistleworth.

A couple days I learned of an interesting incident that happened in Fort Worth involving Fort Worth's City Manager, David Cooke and Fort Worth billionaire, Sasha Bass and her purse puppy.

A bartender named Kimberly working in Fort Worth's Hotel Dryce was not happy with the behavior of Fort Worth's City Manager and that local billionaire with the purse puppy. 

Apparently Kimberly emailed Fort Worth Weekly regarding her experience with these overly self-entitled Fort Worth minions. I do not know if Fort Weekly published Kimberly's email on their hard copy edition. But I do know Fort Worth Weekly published Kimberly's email on their online version.

By the time I clicked on the link to the Fort Worth Weekly printing of Kimberly's email it had been removed, resulting in a no page found error. It was suggested in the subsequent Facebook discussion that Fort Worth Weekly took down the email after being threatened with a lawsuit.

Fort Worth Weekly meekly taking down an email after being threatened with a lawsuit seems highly unlikely to me.

Someone managed to save Kimberly's email and posted it in pieces on Facebook. That person made the following comment...

"Please read. Please share. This story has thus far been suppressed by one local newspaper. Fort Worth City Manager David Cooke, billionaire Sasha Bass and entourage. Jonathan Morris is the proprietor of Hotel Dryce. It’s been going around on Twitter but not so much on Facebook due to lack of a press URL."

I took the email pieces and turned them into one piece, which is what you can read below...

Wichita Falls Troubled Bridge Over Peacefull Water Nearly Restored

On this latest day of my ongoing daily, seemingly apparent, recreation of the Groundhog Day movie, where it almost seems as if I live a version of the same day, over and over again, with some days there seeming to be some slight difference.

Or improvement.

On this first Thursday of the 2022 version of April, it was back to Lucy Park for some high wind communing with nature via fast walking for a few dozen minutes.

A change today at Lucy Park was seeing that the rehabilitation of the Lucy Park Suspension Bridge bridge deck is completed. Awaiting the installation of new side guards to keep bridge walkers from falling into the roiling waters of the Wichita River.

This extensive restoration of this major crossing of the Wichita River is taking place over actual water.

In Wichita Falls we do not wait for the river to go dry to do anything bridge-wise, you know, to imaginarily save time and money, like some other Texas towns, well, one Texas town, is known to do.

You can see above that the Lucy Park forest floor is getting ever more green, day by day. Soon one will not be able to see through the forest of trees.

Time is flying by so fast. April will be gone in an eye blink. Then May. Then the arrival of Summer.

A few months ago I was just about 100% I would be heading northwest this Summer, to return to Washington for the first time since Summer of 2017.  There was a reunion I felt sort of like attending, but that seems to have morphed into something I can't see the point of going to the bother of attending.

I may change my mind, which I have a tendency to do. Of late I am thinking if I am going to subject myself to being on a plane I would like the destination to be some place tropical. 

I hear good things about Bora Bora. And Singapore...

Rain Brings Color Cacophony To Lucy Park With Locked Suspension Bridge

Yesterday, the first Tuesday of the 2022 version of April, saw the outer world, at my location, heated to hotter than Death Valley.

95 degrees.

Midday Tuesday, I drove in air-conditioned comfort to Lucy Park to commune with nature. Monday's storming left the outer world a bit damp and muddy. With the big infusion of incoming water causing a lot of foliage sprouting. 

Including that cacophony of wildflower color you see above, in the aforementioned Lucy Park. In the background, behind that line of skinny trees, is the Wichita River, flowing with increased water due to Monday's excessive sky drippage.

The Wichita River running high did not explain what I found next on my walk with nature yesterday.

A locked gate blocked access to the Lucy Park suspension bridge across the Wichita River. 

Why? I wondered. And soon found out. 

Though direct access was blocked by a locked gate, it was rather easy to walk around the obstruction.

In the above look at the view from the other side you can see how easy it was to walk around the locked gate, and then turn around and see why the bridge is closed.

The Lucy Park suspension bridge appears to be in rehabilitation mode. The fencing which previously prevented one from falling off the bridge has been removed, leaving only the cables which hold up the suspended bridge deck. 

At the far end I could see a large section of bridge deck has been replaced. Something I have long thought has been needed. I am assuming this replacement will continue til the entire bridge deck is refurbished, with new guard rail fencing installed. 

All of which will be a major upgrade to one of Lucy Park's main attractions.

Today is scheduled to be another HOT day. I'm glad I shed 20 pounds in March. Losing insulative adipose tissue renders it easier to keep cool when the outer world is way too HOT...

Upcoming High Noon Shootout Between Sundance Sasha & Reata Micallef

I saw that which you see above in a High Noon in Sundance Square: Reata’s Micallef takes a stand article in the online version of the Fort Worth Business Press. 

This was yet one more article about the mess created in downtown Fort Worth by Sasha Bass. We recently blogged about this mess in Time To Worry About Sundance Sasha With Lady Whistleworth.

So, the Sasha Bass mess has already been talked about in this venue. This article about the downtown Fort Worth Sundance Square mess did not so directly make Sasha Bass the focus of the mess, such as other articles have about this issue.

What got my attention in this Fort Worth Business Press article was the following paragraph which contained verbiage of the sort I have long been perplexed, and annoyed by, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, but not the more reality based Fort Worth Business Press...

Sundance Square is 35 blocks of downtown Fort Worth real estate owned by Ed and Sasha Bass. Both Sid and Lee Bass, two of Ed’s brothers, exited the Sundance partnership and sold their interests to him and his wife. The concept for Sundance was eldest brother Sid’s idea and he put the plan together back in the early 1970s. It was his brainchild and it developed into a unique and classy urban development, admired by many cities across the country. It came to epitomize Fort Worth’s motto of “Cowboys and Culture,” with its reference to famed Western outlaws and rascals, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, juxtaposed with the addition of a small, world-class art museum, The Sid Richardson. Sundance Square set the tone for the entire city. Today it is dotted by vacant storefronts and is the subject of intense controversy.

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I was several years into up close observation of Fort Worth before I learned that Sundance Square was a 35 block downtown development scheme, foisted on Fort Worth by the Bass family.

Early on, asking downtown locals where Sundance Square was, I was usually pointed to parking lots by a huge mural of the Chisholm Trail. Years later an actual square was finally built at that location, goofily called Sundance Square Plaza.

So, according to this article in the FWBP Sundance Square was a Bass brainchild intending to develop downtown Fort Worth into a unique and classy development.

Really? I really do not mean to be rude here, but, is what I have seen in downtown Fort Worth considered unique and classy? Really? Where? How" When?

Currently the north end of downtown Fort Worth features a boarded up eyesore homage to Fort Worth's history called Heritage Park. The south end of downtown Fort Worth is the location of the notorious Water Gardens, a location which a few years ago drowned a few downtown Fort Worth visitors.

Are Heritage Park and the Water Gardens outside the 35 block classy and unique Sundance Square area? Why does the classy and unique downtown area have so few shopping venues, such as department stores and full sized grocery stores, which most downtowns have?

The Star-Telegram is notorious for claiming this that or some other perfectly ordinary thing in Fort Worth is making towns far and wide green with envy.

This article in the FWBP is claiming Fort Worth's unique and classy urban development is admired by many cities across the country.

Really? What would those cities be? How was this admiration for Fort Worth's downtown classiness and uniqueness expressed?

I have been to dozens of downtowns across dozens of American states. The only thing remotely unique about downtown Fort Worth is that boarded up Heritage Park, and the Water Gardens. The rest of downtown Fort Worth is perfectly nice, I would not suggest otherwise, but it is also perfectly ordinary, as previously said, not even remotely unique and classy.

And downtown Fort Worth is an extremely small downtown for a town with almost a million population. A downtown with few skyscrapers, thus not having a recognizable skyline, such as many other cities have, such as the worldwide recognized skyline of downtown Dallas.

Really, can anyone explain what is unique and classy about downtown Fort Worth? 

Before it was destroyed by the ill-fated new downtown Fort Worth Radio Shack corporate headquarters, Fort Worth actually had something somewhat classy and unique in acres of free parking linked to the heart of downtown Fort Worth by the world's shortest subway.

The free parking and free to ride subway is long gone, with downtown Fort Worth turned into an expensive place to park to enjoy all that imaginary unique classiness. The parking problem is just one facet of the current downtown Fort Worth Sundance Square Sasha mess.

I really do not understand why Fort Worth, as portrayed in its various press, can not be honest about the town. Why the chronic groundless hyperbolic propaganda? 

Propaganda pretending to be something you are not is a recipe for not becoming something better.

Downtown Fort Worth is a living example of this...