I saw the above Facebook screencap, via Elsie Hotpepper, screencapping it from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Facebook page. I then made the following comment to Elsie Hotpepper's Facebook post.
It occurred to me recently that it had been a long long time since I had heard anything about that embarrassingly absurd Fort Worth embarrassment which I took to referring to as America's Biggest Boondoggle. It has been about a decade since I lived in Fort Worth, able to witness the absurdity in person. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram was the worst newspaper I ever experienced. Any legit newspaper in any normal town would have had many instances of investigative journalism trying to find out why this public works project, which was originally sold as a vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme, in an area which had not flooded for over half a century due to flood control measures long installed, has languished for decades. One would think, what with the project being so vitally needed, that the local newspaper of record would want to get to the bottom of the nonsense.
Elsie Hotpepper than made a comment to my comment....
It has been over two and a half decades since the Trinity River Vision has been boondoggling along. In all that time, near as I know, all that can been seen is three freeway overpass type bridges, built over dry land, awaiting a cement-lined ditch to be dug under the bridges, with Trinity River water diverted into the ditch.
Oh, and a million buck oddball looking shiny work of art which was stuck near one of the bridges.
Fort Worth had no plan to finance the Trinity River Vision in the way normal towns finance their public works projects. Instead, Fort Worth tried to motivate Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger, to secure federal funding, by hiring her totally unqualified son, J.D. Granger, as the project's Executive Director.
J.D.'s main contribution to the ongoing Boondoggle, was instigating "Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube floats."
J.D. Granger was removed as the project's Executive Director after his mother ceased being Fort Worth's congresswoman. I think it has been several years now since the Rockin the River floats have ceased.
Like I already mentioned, the Trinity River Vision was touted as a vitally needed flood control project, and economic development scheme.
But not vitally needed enough to finance the project in the way normal towns finance such projects.
For instance, during the same period Fort Worth's project has stalled the town I lived in before moving to Texas, Mount Vernon, Washington, built an actually vitally needed flood control project. Rebuilding the Skagit River waterfront as it flows through Mount Vernon.
The Skagit River is a much bigger river than the Trinity River
And then there is another Washington town, Seattle, which had a waterfront project much more ambitious than Fort Worth's pitiful project.
The Seattle Waterfront was totally rebuilt, in a fraction of the time Fort Worth's Boondoggle has accomplished little. The double decker Alaskan Way Viaduct was removed, replaced by a tunnel under downtown Seattle. The Seattle Waterfront is now even more park-like than it has always been, with wide sidewalks and multiple attractions.
And now the Star-Telegram is claiming dirt might finally start turning on Panther Island. The nonsensical reality that the Star-Telegram plays along with calling this area of dirt, an island, when it is not an island, is yet one more Star-Telegram embarrassment. Maybe no one has explained to the Star-Telegram that the dirt needs to be surrounded by water, to create an island.
I have long opined that if ever dirt is ever finally turned on the imaginary island it is going to be discovered that that dirt is seriously polluted, due to being an abandoned industrial wasteland, which likely would require an EPA Superfund Cleanup, before actual development can happen....
