A Tale Of Texas Tulips And My Great Grandpa Rejecting The Lone Star State

This morning among the ads on the back page of the Dallas Observer I saw an ad that upon first perusal I thought was advertising tulip fields back in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley of Washington, where the annual Skagit Tulip Festival starts up April 1, lasting through April 30.

What was being advertised was not a tulip field in Washington called Texas-Tulips, but instead what was being advertised was a tulip field in Texas, called, appropriately, Texas-Tulips.

I do not recollect ever seeing a tulip blooming in Texas. I figured the extremes of the climate made that bulb reluctant to bloom.

I figured wrong.

This morning I blogged about the Texas-Tulip operation on my Eyes on Texas blog in a blogging titled Tiptoe Through Texas Tulips.

On the Texas-Tulips website I learned that their "story begins in Holland, the Netherlands."

It seems like just about every tulip story traces back to Holland. I know that is the case with the Skagit Valley tulips.

The Dutch Americans who planted the Texas-Tulips did so in a field located near Pilot Point, east of Denton, at the north end of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Way back around the start of the new century I had reason to learn my family history, on my dad's side, going all the way back to when my great-great grandpa brought my great-great grandma, great grandpa , great grandma and great aunt to America, back in 1889, the year Washington became a state.

But, it was not to Washington my ancestors first journeyed to when leaving Ellis Island. They ended up in a town somewhere in the middle of America. Iowa maybe. It's been a few years and I have a bad memory. However, I do remember my great grandpa was sent to Texas to see if a Dutch community they'd heard of somewhere in the Denton/Pilot Point zone looked promising.

My great grandpa returned to his family to report that Texas is not where they wanted to be. My great grandpa was then sent, by train, to Washington, eventually ending at the far northwest corner of the state, a short distance from the Canadian border, at a Dutch town called Lynden.

My great grandpa returned to his family with tales of apple orchards, berries growing wild, the tallest trees he'd ever seen, fertile land similar to Holland. And mountains. Soon my relatives boarded a train and made their way to Washington, where they soon had a farm and a road named after them, which exists to this day.

And somehow I ended up in the land of Texas, which my great grandpa rejected a long long time ago....

Why Is Another Million Dollars Needed To Fix Fort Worth's Heritage Park Embarrassment?

This morning Elsie Hotpepper emailed me a link to an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram titled Additional money needed to properly fix Heritage Park downtown.

Reading the article I quickly realized why Elsie Hotpepper sent the link to me.

First off, when Fort Worth turned Heritage Park into a boarded up, chain link fence surrounded eyesore, the park had no problems in need of fixing of the structural sort.

The city closed Heritage Park in an over-reaction to the tragic drownings of four people in a dangerous pool of deep water in the Water Gardens at the south end of downtown Fort Worth.

Heritage Park has multiple water features, very well designed and aesthetically pleasing. None of the Heritage Park water features featured water sufficiently deep to present a drowning hazard.

The Star-Telegram article informs us that $2.2 million has been raised, with another $1 million needed to "properly fix" Heritage Park.

How do you spend $3.2 million to properly fix a park which was not broken til the city broke it?

The paragraph in the Star-Telegram disinformation article which annoyed me the most....

The city park closed in 2007. A chain link fence has kept people out since. A structural assessment of the 112-acre park a couple of years ago found no significant safety issues. All the issues in need to repairs are in the 1.5-acre area at the top of the park, a section designed by famed landscape architect Lawrence Halperin.
Closed since 2007. An assessment of the 112-acre park found no safety issues? First off, while Heritage Park may cover 112 acres in its entirety, the boarded up part of the park, turned into an embarrassing eyesore by the city, is the part designed by the famed landscape architect mentioned in the above paragraph. I would be surprised if the boarded up part of the park covers more than an acre, let alone 122 acres.

As for that chain link fence keeping people out. I easily got around that fence and took a  lot of photos of what I saw on the other side. I made a webpage of those photos, with other information, titled, Fort Worth's Lost Heritage.

An associate of the famed landscape architect, Lawrence Halperin, saw my info about what had happened to the park he had helped design, then emailed me verbalizing his surprise that this was allowed to happen. You can read that email by clicking the Fort Worth's Lost Heritage link above.

Prior to the city turning Heritage Park into an embarrassing eyesore there were some issues that needed addressing. Easily addressed issues which I doubt would cost all that much, certainly not $3.2 million, to address.

For instance, some visitors to Heritage Park complained of not feeling safe, due to the walled nature of the design that separates the park from the street. I think that wall could easily be taken down, opening up the park, making it more connected to the Tarrant County Courthouse across the street.

Lighting should be easy and relatively inexpensive to install. Along with security cameras and alarm buttons. It should be rather easy for Fort Worth police to make a regular stroll though the park, what with a large  Fort Worth police facility being adjacent to Heritage Park. I think that facility is, in part, a jail, but I am not sure about that.

The City of Fort Worth needs to cease with the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle type dawdling and re-open this park. And do so without waiting for another million dollars to waste....

The Formidable Gayle Reaves Fired From Fort Worth Weekly

That is Gayle Reaves you are looking at here, with her arms crossed.

This morning I got a text message telling me that Gayle Reaves had been fired from Fort Worth Weekly.

Soon thereafter I shared this information with another FW Weekly reader who asked me "How could she get fired, I thought she was the publisher."

No, it was the publisher who fired her, Gayle Reaves was like the Perry White of FW Weekly, the editor-in-chief.

I have never met Gayle Reaves. However I have been in her presence. At a forum type deal at which she was one of a panel of journalists asking questions of some players in the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Except for J.D. Granger. He chickened out, after agreeing to appear. I suspect he chickened out due to fear of being asked probing questions by Gayle Reaves.

It did not take me long observing Gayle Reaves to ascertain that she was a bit formidable. She sort of came across to me as a tall version of Hettie from NCIS: Los Angeles, combined with Meryl Streep from The Devil Wears Prada, with maybe a little bit of Hillary Clinton mixed in.

Upon my arrival in Texas, and soon thereafter figuring out something was not quite right with the cheerleading, distorting, chamber of commerce propaganda, lackey way the Fort Worth Star-Telegram covered much of what happens locally, I quickly learned that it was Fort Worth Weekly which covered issues and stories which needed to be told, for the most part, which the Star-Telegram ignored.

I imagine being the real newspaper of record for Fort Worth is a bit challenging for Fort Worth Weekly, wanting to expose wrongdoing and dirty deeds, but at the same time having to be careful not to annoy advertisers.

Anyway, I suspect Gayle Reaves will be moving on to a greener pasture somewhere soon.

We probably should have some sort of city-wide Goodbye & Thank You Party. Maybe this upcoming Friday. Somewhere on the imaginary Panther Island perhaps.

Or maybe in that classy Panther Island Pavilion Shack where the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle holds beer parties....

Yesterday's TRWD Board Meeting Caused Me To Learn How San Antonio's Riverwalk Was Born

Yesterday I was peacefully minding my own business when I got a text message telling me that the text messenger was getting reports about nonsense being spewed at yesterday's Tarrant Regional Water District board meeting.

Apparently one of the bits of nonsense had one of the TRWD perps claiming that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is all about flood control, nothing to do with economic development.

I then went to the TRWD website and found the video of yesterday's meeting. These are long meetings. I skipped around in the meeting. I don't have the patience or fortitude to listen to such a thing in its entirety.

At one point I came to a moment in the meeting where Mary Kelleher seemed to be raising this issue of the millions of dollars being spent on The Boondoggle. The discussion seemed to me to turn all sorts of sideways. I heard one voice making some claim about the TRV's funding mechanism generating funds in excess of projections and that in the end it would not cost the taxpayers anything.

I may have misunderstood, which may be why what I was hearing sounded like nonsense to me.

Someone spewed verbiage about the extensive studying that went on before the decision was made to build a flood diversion channel and to take down the levees which have protected central Fort Worth from flooding for over a half a century.

It was at that part of the discussion when mention was made of the fact that The Boondogglers had visited Vancouver, Portland and San Antonio to look at what those towns did with their rivers.

That then turned into a semi-long soliloquy about San Antonio's Riverwalk and how that came about as a flood control project.

I thought San Antonio's Riverwalk came about as part of the 1968 San Antonio World's Fair. I soon found out I was wrong about how the Riverwalk came to be. Finding out how and when the San Antonio Riverwalk came to be turned out to be very interesting.

And quite a contrast with how Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle came to be.

From the Wikipedia San Antonio Riverwalk article I learned....

In September 1921, a disastrous flood along the San Antonio River took 50 lives. Plans were then developed for flood control of the river. Among the plans was to build an upstream dam (Olmos Dam) and bypass a prominent bend of the river in the Downtown area (between present day Houston Street and Villita Parkway), then to pave over the bend, and create a storm sewer.

Work began on the Olmos Dam and bypass channel in 1926; however, the San Antonio Conservation Society successfully protested the paved sewer option. No major plans came into play until 1929, when San Antonio native and architect Robert Hugman submitted his plans for what would become the River Walk. Although many have been involved in development of the site, the leadership of former mayor Jack White was instrumental in passage of a bond issue that raised funds to empower the 1938 “San Antonio River Beautification Project”, which began the evolution of the site into the present 2.5-mile-long River Walk.

So both the San Antonio and Fort Worth river visions had their origins in flood concerns. Both involve a bypass channel. But that is about where the similarities end.

Way back in 1938 San Antonio was a city progressive enough that the town's mayor led an effort to have the public vote to pass a bond issue to fund what became known as the San Antonio River Beautification Project.

I would hazard to guess that no local San Antonio Congresswoman's son was hired to be the executive director of San Antonio's River Beautification Project.

I would also hazard to guess that the San Antonio River Beautification Project progressed rapidly, with the voters soon seeing the results of that for which voted, thus causing a steam roll of following improvements to the San Antonio Riverwalk, which continue to our current era, with San Antonio's Riverwalk now an iconic tourist attraction known the world over.

And all this was done, in San Antonio, without building, in slow motion, Three Bridges Over Nothing, connecting to an imaginary island.....

North America's Longest Continuous Truss Bridge Took Less Than Four Years To Build While In Fort Worth....

Continuing on with our popular series of bloggings devoted to bridges, or other feats of engineering, which took four years, or less, to construct, today we look at the Astoria-Megler Bridge.

To recap, way back in November of last year the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle put on an explosive show to mark the start of construction of three very small, very ordinary, very simple bridges being built over dry land over an imaginary channel to connect the mainland to an imaginary island.

These three very simple bridges are scheduled to take four years to build. The TRV Boondoggle propagandists have tried to sell the the idea that the bridges are being built over dry land so as to save money, when the real reason the bridges are being built over dry land is because no money is available to start digging the un-needed flood diversion channel, sold as a vitally needed flood control and economic development project, but apparently so un-urgent that the project has no timeline, one of many reasons that many of those who have been watching this embarrassment up close now refer to it simply as The Boondoggle.

Another thing, early on The Boondoggle referred to the Three Bridges Over Nothing as being signature bridges which would become iconic symbols of Fort Worth. That propaganda seems to have been dropped, likely after the propaganda-izers realized how ridiculous it made them sound.

Now, on to today's bridge.

The Astoria-Megler Bridge connects the state I was born in, Oregon, to the state I grew up in, Washington.

This bridge spans a real river, not a ditch, with that real river being one of the biggest rivers in the world, the Columbia, only 14 miles from where the Columbia meets the Pacific Ocean, hence the river is wide, which is why the Astoria-Megler Bridge is 4.1 miles long.

The Astoria-Megler Bridge is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America.

Construction began on November 5, 1962, opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony (no Fort Worth style explosion) on August 27, 1966.

Taking less than four years to build.

Unlike Fort Worth and its Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing, the Astoria-Megler Bridge was built over water.

A lot of water.

Deep water. Water that flows fast, at times, like during tidal changes. Or when the Columbia is in flood mode. Or during flash floods caused by an exploding volcano.

Also, during those less than four years it took to build this bridge over the Columbia, the engineers engineering the project had to contend with a lot of ships coming in from the Pacific, heading upriver to port towns like Longview, Portland and Vancouver, and then going the other direction, back to the Pacific.

The Fort Worth Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing have absolutely ZERO construction challenges.

Well, there is that lack of money problem, mostly brought about by the fact that the public has never voted for this project, hence no bond issue, no funding mechanism.

But, there was the hope of securing federal handouts with the hiring of a Fort Worth Congresswoman's son, J.D. Granger, to be the Executive Director of The Boondoggle, a position for which he had ZERO qualifications, a fact that likely is a large part of the reason why, and how, all these years later the Trinity River Vision has developed cataracts with its now foggy vision morphed into a Boondoggle.

Of late there have been reports of The Boondoggle's bridge construction causing woes in addition to the traffic problems caused by detours. Several restaurants which were lucky enough to escape being stolen by TRV Boondoggle eminent domain abuse, managing to stay open, are now hurting, due to the fact that it is now so difficult to get to the restaurants' parking lots.

Has the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on why it is that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Three Bridges Over Nothing are projected to take four years to build? If not, why not? Why does this town's sad excuse for a newspaper of record continue to turn a blind eye to such an embarrassing vision?

If you want to learn more about the Astoria-Megler Bridge, the Wikipedia article covers it well, and is where I found the two photos of the Astoria-Megler Bridge I have used in this blogging, including the one below, shot in what is known locally as the Luenser style...

10th Anniversary Prairie Fest On The Tandy Hills April 25

This morning Jenny C emailed me a press release about the upcoming April 25, 10th Anniversary Prairie Fest on the Tandy Hills, asking me to please help  spread the word.

Since I almost always do what anyone asks me to do, particularly if they ask politely, remembering to say please, below is the aforementioned press release in its entirety...

Press release: 

10th Annual Prairie Fest at Tandy Hills Natural Area Fort Worth, Texas

Tandy Hills Natural Area, a 160 acre native prairie remnant, located minutes east of downtown Fort Worth, will host the 10th Annual Prairie Fest, Saturday April 25, 2015. A FW Weekly Best Outdoor Cultural Event winner, this free, family-friendly festival will run 11 am to dusk. Set amongst wildflower-covered hills, the festival fosters environmental awareness with a fun, innovative, yet down-home event.

Come celebrate the festival’s 10th anniversary with live, local music on 2 solar-powered stages, including End of the World Parade and Brave Combo. Enjoy guided wildflower tours for young and old at the Best Place to View Wildflowers in the Metroplex. Explore local art, craft, and green living exhibitors in the “Prairie Circle”. Experience site-specific interactive art installations, plein air painters and “live artists”, creating art on site. The festival features a kids area with educational activities and discovery hikes. Don’t miss performances by storytellers, belly dancers, and more! Tasty local food and beverages will be available. 

Prairie Fest - the greenest outdoor festival in Texas - is presented by Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area to sustain and grow their award winning environmental education and conservation programs at Tandy Hills. 

WHERE: 
Tandy Hills Natural Area
3400 View Street
Fort Worth, TX 76103

WHEN: 
Saturday, April 25, 11:00 am - Sunset

WEBSITE:
 http://tandyhills.org/fest

CONTACT:
Jen Schultes
information@tandyhills.org
817-888-0594

Getting Sunburned Rolling My Wheels In Mallard Cove Park

What with the temperature today being in the 70s for the first time in what seems like years, I decided to roll my mechanized wheels to Mallard Cove Park to roll my non-mechanized wheels on a bike ride with (virtually) Mallard Cove Park neighbor, Mary K.

Those would be my handlebars  looking at a FORT WORTH bench with Mallard Cove a short distance away.

Til today I had not been on my bike since some time before February 9. I know this because on that date I had a hit the brakes incident in west Fort Worth which caused the bike to slide out of its usual position. Today was the first time I have unlocked the bike from its security cable since that unfortunate braking incident.

The fact that it has been so long since I have taken my handlebars anywhere is yet one more indicator of how quickly time flies.

And now, in only four days, Friday March 20 to be precise, the Vernal Equinox arrives and with it the arrival of Spring. I am likely being too optimistic, but I think that the icy winter nuisance is now done for the year.

With Spring scheduled to soon arrive shouldn't wildflowers be beginning to make their annual appearance? Along with strong thunderstorms and tornado warnings?

I probably should have slathered on sunscreen today....

Phuket's Anthem Is No Trinity River Vision Boondoggle Cowtown Wakepark

No, that is not an artist's rendering you are looking at here of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's Cowtown Wakepark, after landscaping has rendered it not to be the shoddy, cheap looking eyesore it currently is.

That is not a lake in Fort Worth Texas you see in the picture, that is Anthem Lake in Phuket, Thailand.

Anthem Lake is the location of Anthem Wake Park, one of two big wakeboard park operations in Phuket, Thailand, with the other, called Phuket Wake Park, being billed as the "Biggest and Best in Asia".

I have no idea if Phuket Wake Park is actually the biggest and best in Asia, or if they hired some Trinity River Vision Boondoggle propagandists to help promote their product.

Below is a screen cap of the well done Phuket Wake Park website. Anthem Wake Park also has a well done website.

Both Phuket Wake Parks seem to be a bit more evolved than the rather primitive Fort Worth version. And bigger. With a lot more towing cables. Plus restaurants and overnight stay accommodations.

For accommodations, I don't think the Fort Worth version even has restrooms, since most Fort Worth parks don't, except for outhouses. Although I do not recollect seeing any of Fort Worth's signature outhouses among the meager Cowtown Wakepark facilities.

The Phuket Wake Parks are located  on an actual island, while Fort Worth's Cowtown Wakepark is located on an imaginary island. Or is it out of the imaginary island zone? It is hard to tell where an island is when there is no island, let alone what is on or off the imaginary island.

I do not have any idea how the Phuket Wake Parks came to be. I suspect their creation had nothing to do with any slow motion river vision being directed by the unqualified son of a Thai congresswoman.

I do know that Phuket Thailand has a huge tourist industry, attracting millions of visitors annually from around the world. Real tourists, not imaginary millions of tourists like those visitors claimed by the Fort Worth propaganda machine to be visiting Fort Worth annually to enjoy, among many attractions, the world's premiere urban wakeboard experience according to Trinity River Vision Boondoggle propaganda.....

Won't You Please Help Me If You Can I'm Feeling Down?

This morning I found myself saying "One thing for sure, those days are gone, nowadays I'm not so self assured, now I find my mind has changed, help me if you can, I'm feeling down".

Or something like that.

I thought the words coming out of my mouth sounded familiar, then I realized I was channeling 1965 and the Beatles.

Help.

I've decided Help is my new theme song. Partial lyrics below, full song even further below, via YouTube...

Help, I need somebody
Help, not just anybody
Help, you know, I need someone

When I was younger, so much younger than today 
I never needed anybody's help in any way 
But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured 
Now I find, I've changed my mind, I've opened up the doors 

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being 'round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won't you, please, please help me? 

And now my life has changed in, oh, so many ways 
My independence seems to vanish in the haze 
But every now and then I feel so insecure 
I know that I just need you like I've never done before 

Won't you, please, please help me?
Help me, help me

____________________________________

Speaking of the Beatles and the ways someone can lose face with me.

Years ago I knew a native Texan, born, raised and educated in the Lone Star State, who went to a Beatles tribute concert after which this person, via his blog, opined how surprised he was at all this incredible Beatles music he'd never heard before.

Huh?

I recollect being totally bum puzzled, how anyone on the planet would not be aware of the Beatles  and the impact they had on America and the rest of the world.

I remember expressing my bum puzzlement to the Texan, asking him something like how could he be unaware of the greatest band of the rock and roll era?

The Texan then lost more face by saying something like a greatest band judgement would be  totally subjective, said as if he thought he was making a valid argument.

To which I replied that it is pretty much universally acknowledged that the Beatles are the greatest band of the rock era. I pointed the individual to the Wikipedia article about The Beatles, hoping this would educate the boy.

The Texan then lost more face by making one of those typical dissing Wikipedia remarks, along the line that one can not trust what one reads in Wikipedia due to anyone being able to contribute.

To which I told the Texan to simply look in any other encyclopedia or similar information source and he'd be reading the same thing. Or simply Google "best rock band in history".

The first paragraph of the Wikipedia article about The Beatles...

The Beatles were an English rock band that formed in Liverpool in 1960. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they became widely regarded as the greatest and most influential act of the rock era. Rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock and roll, the Beatles later experimented with several genres, ranging from pop ballads and Indian music to psychedelic and hard rock, often incorporating classical elements in innovative ways. In the early 1960s, their enormous popularity first emerged as "Beatlemania", but as the group's music grew in sophistication, led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, they came to be perceived as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the era's sociocultural revolutions.

And now the aforementioned YouTube video of Help.....

April 25 Historic Tandy Hills Prairie Fest Photo Op

Interesting incoming email from one of Olive the Prairie Dog's housemates, Don Young, about an opportunity to be in a photograph with a horde of North Texas fractivists at the 10th Anniversary Tandy Hills Prairie Fest, next month, on April 25.

The email in its entirety, plus I added Don Young's email address at the end, to help facilitate that RSVP request which is also at the end of the email...

Greetings north Texas Barnett Shale fractivists-

For the past few years I have dreamed of gathering all north Texas fracktivists together at one place and time for a group photo. But the tremendous growth of the movement since 2004 made the the possibility of that happening somewhat daunting.

But I like to dream big, so....with the 10th anniversary of Prairie Fest coming on April 25, the time is right. Are you in?

Why Prairie Fest? As some of you know, Prairie Fest began in 2006 as the first major public event / protest / festival / push-back to bring attention to threatened gas drilling at Tandy Hills Natural Area in Fort Worth. State Rep. Lon Burnam was the keynote speaker. The term, "fracktivist" didn't yet exist but the goal was the same. Keep drilling out of our neighborhoods and raise awareness of the impacts and dangers.

In 2004, a small group of concerned neighbors started the group, Friends of Tandy Hills. We were NIMBY's. After the first ever public protest against fracking and a few key reports by Jeff Prince in the Fort Worth Weekly, Friends of Tandy Hills morphed into FWCANDO (Fort Worth Citizens Against Neighborhood Drilling Operations) and our small group connected up with others in the Barnett, both urban AND rural. Next thing you know, a corp of international media was knocking on my door and a guy named Josh Fox was sleeping on my couch, taking notes about a little film project. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then.

With notable exceptions, victories in the Barnett have been few and far between but, ten years later, awareness has never been greater. Participation in push-back against drilling and fracking is at an all-time high. Organizations and individuals not on-board in 2006 are now leading the charge. Tandy Hills is well protected. Prairie Fest, a solar-powered event, has helped demonstrate the importance of connecting with and protecting the natural world. Friends of Tandy Hills have sponsored field trips for thousands of kids. The tide is turning.

Please join me at Prairie Fest on April 25 for a group photo to celebrate 10 years of fighting the fracking monster. It will be a rare opportunity to meet and make connections with fellow fractivists. A professional photographer will capture the moment. Exact time of photo will be announced soon. I'm making a list of participants so please, spread the word and....

RSVP email