Cinco De Mayo Pseudo Circle Trail Snake Encounter

On this first Sunday of the 2019 version of May, with is also the 5th May day, as in Cinco de Mayo, I am feeling a bit depressed, which has me thinking, again, it is time to get our of Texas.

Thinking a bike ride on this first blue sky nice day of the new month might cheer me up I rolled out of my abode this morning to head north on the Circle Trail.

My snake fear sensibilities were heightened this morning, first off due to watching a real bad movie last night called Snake Island.

And then this morning Energy Secretary Rick Perry's possible younger brother, Jon Perry, posted on Facebook a photo of an encounter he and his wife had this morning on a paved Fort Worth trail with a giant possible rattlesnake blocking their way with the snake lounging halfway across the trail.

So, with my snake fear activated I was rolling semi-happily along the Circle Trail when suddenly the hit the brakes impulse hit due to what you see my handlebars looking at above.

It looked to be a possibly venomous reptile, slithering across the Circle Trail.

But, I quickly ascertained this possibly venomous reptile presented no snakebite danger. Because it was not a snake, it was a piece of relatively harmless electrical cable.

Then, with my speed accelerated by Adrenalin I rolled on to the Circle Trail underpass which goes under Midwestern Boulevard on the Circle Trail's way to Hamilton Park. Eventually I made my way to MSU, and then the trail around Sikes Lake.

I suffered no actual snake encounters today, but I did see two of the Sikes Lake goslings...

Linda Lou Takes Me On Tour Of Our Old Hometown

My favorite nurse, Linda Lou, was visiting our old hometown, Burlington, this morning, and proceeded to send some photos to my phone.

I shall share a couple instances of Linda Lou's photo documentation.

I saw these photos and wondered if what I was seeing is one of the reasons, stored far back in my memory, memories of the little town in Washington I grew up in, with those long stored memories being part of what caused me to be so appalled when I first came to see what was not to be seen, in my new location in Texas.

Fort Worth.

Fort Worth, a town with a population nearing a million, well, over 800,000, and little Burlington, Washington, a town with a population around 3,000 when I was located there.

As you can see above, via Linda Lou's photo of my old home in my old hometown, Burlington's streets have sidewalks. I did not know there were towns in America without this convenience, til I saw that most of Fort Worth's streets lack this type modern conveyance.

Now, the street I lived on really did not need a sidewalk. Because right across the street was one of Burlington's city parks. That particular park is named Maiben Park.

In Maiben Park there was this other thing I thought was the norm in modern America. Running potable water with modern restrooms. Actually, if I remember right, Maiben Park had at least two instances of modern restrooms. One in the community center, which was part of the five acre park, the other in the center of the park, near the preserved old growth forest.

Naive me assumed it was a civic safety code thing for parks in America to have running water and modern restrooms, til I saw my first Fort Worth park, Gateway Park, which has outhouses of a sort I had not seen before. Outhouses seeming to be installed permanently in concrete enclosures.

Eventually I was to learn outhouses were the Fort Worth city park norm. And that few of the town's parks have running water. I had zero understanding of how it was allowed, for sanitary safety reasons, to have parks with picnic tables without a means to wash ones hands.

Even Fort Worth's highly touted (by local propaganda purveyors) imaginary world class music venue, the Panther Island Pavilion mess, has an installation of those Fort Worth signature concrete enclosed outhouses.

And Fort Worth somehow is perplexed that the town is not attractive to corporations looking to re-locate, no matter how big the bribe to do so is.

One of the other photos Linda Lou sent me was of the new Burlington Public Library, located a couple blocks west of my old home location.

In the photo of the Burlington Public Library you also see Skagit Valley Public Transit in action.

The valley wide public transit system did not exist when I was growing up. Skagit Area Transit (SKAT) came along later in the previous century from the period when I lived in Burlington.

I do not know if SKAT is still the working acronym for Skagit Area Transit. I don't remember anyone objecting to the name.

When Seattle's South Lake Union area got a trolley, South Lake Union Trolley, with SLUT being its acronym, there were some who thought it embarrassing that people were saying things like "I rode the SLUT downtown", or "Just take the SLUT to the Needle". But, SLUT stuck.

Back when SKAT being providing public transit to the Skagit Valley it was free to ride. I only remember availing myself of this one time. For some reason I needed to get home from the Skagit Mall and something was malfunctioning with my vehicle.

Now, I know there are right wing numbskull sorts who get all wiggy when one says something like public transit is free. Too dumb to understand that some areas have sufficient numbers of people who understand the concept of using money raised via various taxes to pay for a needed service, such as public parks with modern restrooms, streets with sidewalks, and public transit, due to the fact that having such makes the entire community more economically viable.

Now, I do know that in this century SKAT now does charge a transit fare, and that the system has expanded greatly from when I lived in the valley. One can now ride public transit all around Puget Sound. What a concept.

Regarding Skagit County having county wide public transit, while Tarrant County, where Fort Worth is located, does not have county wide public transit.

Let's look at a couple data bits.

Tarrant County has a population of 2,054 million in an area covering 902 square miles.

Skagit County has a population of 125,610 in an area covering 1,902 square miles.

So Skagit County is hugely bigger, size-wise, than Tarrant County, with a small fraction of the Tarrant County population, and yet Skagit County manages to cover all that area with public transit.

Along with many other amenities lacking in Tarrant County, and particularly in Fort Worth.

Such as the county seat of Skagit County, Mount Vernon, has managed to install an actual needed flood control wall along an an actual river, protecting its downtown from an actual flood, and in addition to that turned its waterfront into a riverwalk promenade, along with a large public plaza, and public modern restrooms.

All done without using or abusing eminent domain, in a fraction of the time Fort Worth has been boondoggling along with its national embarrassment.

All done without begging for federal dollars. Or without employing the unqualified son of a local congresswoman in order to bribe her, I mean, motivate her to try and secure federal funds.

Meanwhile, the county seat of Tarrant County, Fort Worth, has been boondoggling along most of this century trying to install some un-needed flood control in an area which does not flood due to existing flood control, and has also been trying to make some sort of riverwalk promenade with ridiculous bridges stuck unbuilt after years of dawdling due to project mismanagement, mucking up a simple project which has messed with people's lives for years.

And this mucked up project has used and abused eminent domain, in ways many consider to be criminal.

And in Fort Worth the unqualified son of a local congresswoman was given the job of directing Fort Worth's river project, ineptly, unsuccessfully, stupidly, corruptly, incompetently, while being paid over $200K a year, while his mother tries to scam some of your tax dollars.

Anyway, thanks Linda Lou for bringing me some old memories today, and triggering remembering some newer memories...

Panther Island Noise Makes Fort Worth Residents Stark Raving Mad

The Fort Worth local news media of the TV sort continues to report, accurately, realistically, and non-propagandaly (to coin a word which should be one) about America's Biggest Boondoggle, that being the ongoing mess originally known as the Trinity River Vision, before going through multiple name changes before sort of landing on an imaginary island.

Last night a comment to a previous blog post from someone named Anonymous pointed us to another Fort Worth local TV report about yet one more instance of Panther Island absurdity...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Bridge Contractor Admits Panther Island Project Bungled & Woefully Mismanaged":

Party like a frat boy. The hits just keep hitting the mismanagement. Try this: Fort Worth residents complained about noise at Panther Island Pavilion rave

_____________________

Click the link to the WFAA report and you will see a video detailing Fort Worth resident's disgust regarding the noise pollution assaulting Fort Worth ears as far as 10 miles north of the source, that being some sort of Trinity River Vision sponsored loud music Rave event.

Apparently loud Rave event's emanating from an imaginary pavilion on an imaginary island have something to do with flood control and economic development.

And then this morning Fort Worth's sad excuse for being the town's only newspaper of the daily sort, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, had another article about the problems with bridge construction causing more delays with the bridge building which began with a TNT celebratory explosion way back in 2014, with a then astonishing four year project timeline.

Four years to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to that aforementioned imaginary island. Now with a completion date moved forward to some to be determined year in the next decade.

Today's Star-Telegram article about the Boondoggle is titled Panther Island contractor: Bridge changes could drive up costs, delay project.

The above is an illustrative photo from that Star-Telegram article about the delayed bridge project. One look at that photo and you can clearly see this is one super complicated bridge building enterprise. Not some simple bridge to build, like the Golden Gate (built in less than four years) or other actual signature bridges of world renown.

Some have characterized these bridges as looking like freeway overpasses. That seems accurate. In the photo you can see part of one of those supposedly unique V-piers.

J.D. Granger, and other delusional sorts responsible for causing this nonsense, think those V-piers are some sort of signature design which will give some recognizable style to that future riverwalk which may never come to exist.

In this latest Star-Telegram article we learn of conflicts over serious, dangerous problems with the design between the bridge builder and those responsible for coming up with this bridge design .

The Star-Telegram has repeatedly made mention of design problems with these bridges. But, we never get a single detail as to what is the nature of those design problems.

Curious minds want to know. What is the actual problem?

In this latest Star-Telegram bridge problem article we learn that supposedly each V-pier somehow presents its own unique design problem. Why is each V-pier unique? Is this the first time on the planet a freeway overpass type bridge has been built?

Way back in 2014, we blogged A Big Boom Begins Boondoggle Bridge Construction Three Months Late about that now infamous TNT explosion marking the late start of the building of these hapless bridges in which there is a J.D. Granger quote which now, years later, seems so ironic...

“The two big things you’ll see over the next year are the three bridges coming out of the ground showing vertical construction — in addition to that, a lot of people have been speculative buying of property waiting for the first sign,” J.D. Granger said.

Absurdly after J.D. Granger uttered those words the first year long stall happened with nothing being built showing any sort of vertical construction coming out of the ground.

And really, J.D., you're claiming way back then a lot of people were doing some speculative buying of property waiting for that imaginary vertical sign of construction?

And now, all these years later, basically nothing to show after an astonishingly long project construction timeline which seems to stretch forever further into the future...

Stormy May Day Pondering Texas Goodbye

I had myself a dark Circle Trail walk this second day of May in Texas.

Tornadoes have been touching down around Wichita Falls the past couple days, but none too close to my location.

Late May Day afternoon a thunderstorm struck bolts at the same time the boom exploded, as in, directly overhead.

I don't like it all that much when that happens.

The decibel level is way too high.

And it sets off car alarms and dogs howling.

So far on this second day of May there have only been a few distant lightning flashes. I am ready for the return of blue sky.

Yesterday, as in May Day, the first day of May, something unexpected set off a revolution in thinking, with me realizing I have been Durango in Texas since 1999. Twenty years ago. That was when I got my durangotexas.com domain, using my Durango nickname which I acquired in the early 1990s, back when the Internet and email were starting to be a thing.

Durango became my nickname for multiple reasons, the root one of which I no longer remember. I know the Durango birth pre-dated using the Durango nickname to send out trip planning info for the Durango Wild West Houseboat Roadtrip, or whatever it was I titled this way back then. I remember my first email address was durango@wolfenet.net, or something like that. Or maybe it was mj2@sos.net.

"mj2" stood for Moose Jaw 2. I was the #2 Moose Jaw. Details are sketchy. Trying to remember way back in the previous century it gets hard to render details.

I remember my Durango nickname was solidly in place when Lulu & Durango in As the WWWeb Turns became Cool Site of the Day, back when that actually was a cool thing, which I think now, decades later, is long gone. Soon after the Lulu & Durango website became cool I had my own website for the first time. It was called Dialing Doctor Durango.

Dialing Doctor Durango was soon picked to be Funky Site of the Day. This was not nearly as cool as Cool Site of the Day. But, even so, being Funky Site of the Day generated emails from all over the world, including one from someone in Singapore, asking me for advice. All these years later I still communicate with my Singapore patient, as recently as this morning on Facebook.

When I got the durangotexas.com domain I did not realize there was a town in Texas called Durango.

I had been to the Durango in Colorado, after I had acquired the Durango nickname. I remember when I was in Durango I bought multiple wearable items with the Durango name on them. Now, all long gone. I think I gave my Durango baseball cap to Miss Puerto Rico, if I remember correctly.

After discovering there was a town in Texas named Durango, I found the town and made a webpage of what I found in Durango.
Anyway, back to that May Day revolution epiphany I had yesterday. Something happened that has me seriously thinking I am ready to get out of Texas.

Durango Arizona?

Durango Washington?

Durango California?

Durango Oregon? Returning to the state in which I was hatched.

Durango Mexico? Which I think is the location of the original Durango.

By the end of this month the decision will likely be made whether or not to say so long to Texas...

Bridge Contractor Admits Panther Island Project Bungled & Woefully Mismanaged

Last night an incoming blog comment brought some interesting news...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Grapple Fort Worth's Bizarre Bridge Battle Boondoggle...":

From the article: The contractor building three bridges as part of Fort Worth’s Panther Island development says the project has been bungled and "woefully mismanaged from the top."

Contractor Building 3 Bridges for Panther Island Project Says It's 'Woefully Mismanaged'

Bungled & woefully mismanaged is an exquisite combination that is all too typical for the Fort Worth Way. The Fort Worth Way is, frankly, not a gem in this regard. 

__________________

I recollect over a decade ago seeing myself being criticized in a Fort Worth publication for referring to the Trinity River Vision as a Boondoggle.

And now, years later, look where we are.

The Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision is known, far and wide, as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

And this Fort Worth Boondoggle, known far and wide, is not making anyone anywhere Green with Envy.

When will Fort Worth wake up and put an end to this embarrassing nightmare?

Will the end begin on May 4? Will the results of that day's election, with the re-election of Mary Kelleher and other like-minded reformers, put an end to the mismanagement of the Tarrant Regional Water District board?

Anyone paying any attention to the history of Fort Worth corruption so blatantly on display at the TRWD and its failed step-child, the Trinity River Vision, can't be optimistic that the election results will not once again be fraudulent.

What was the result of that biggest Texas investigation ever into election fraud?  You know, that investigation trumpeted as having investigators fanning out over Tarrant County gathering evidence.

Well, there was not any result. Nothing of significance happened other than one or two or three low level election workers got in some sort of trouble.

And two of the beneficiaries of all that election fraud, in that previous TRWD board election, Jim Lane and Fort Worth's favorite octogenarian, Marty Leonard, are running again. And the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has bizarrely endorsed one of them, Marty Leonard, for re-election.

Mary Kelleher, running for re-election to the TRWD board, via Facebook, had the following to say regarding the latest revelations about the Panther Island fiasco...


"And when I served on the Board of the Water District from 2013 to 2017 and voted against this project and voted against the use of eminent domain for this project, I was laughed at by my fellow Board members and Water District top administrators. Not so funny now! This project is worse than any of us ever imagined and we need new leadership on that Board. If you haven’t voted yet, please vote on May 4th and vote for me if you really want change."

Sunny Sunday Two-Headed Goose Sikes Lake Sighting

Thunderstorms thundered through my zone of North Texas, off and on, Saturday night til the sun arrived this last Sunday of the 2019 version of April.

Judging by the puddled pools of water which remained under the now sunny Sunday sky the rain fell in copious amounts last night.

Even so, I am glad I decided to brave the elemental remains to find myself having a mighty fine bike ride, north on the Circle Trail, then through the Wichita Falls version of Beverly Hills, to the MSU campus and then Sikes Lake where I saw that which you see above.

The rumored two-headed goose and its flock of baby geese, more properly referred to as goslings. Today's flock of goslings was much larger than previous sightings of the Sikes Lake newborns. Only a few of the goslings are seen with the two-headed goose.

There appeared to be three separate goose families, all allied together in what appears to be a Goose Tribe. The perimeter of the Goose Tribe is defended by three extremely aggressive honking Goose Guards.

Being stealthy I was able to get past the Goose Guards to take the closeup of the gosling group you see here...

And the ultra closeup of the shy gosling guy you see here...

And that brings us to the end of today's communing with nature...

Grapple Fort Worth's Bizarre Bridge Battle Boondoggle

This last Saturday morning of the 2019 version of April I woke up my computer to soon see I had been pointed to a post on Facebook, or tagged, or whatever the nomenclature is which means someone has stuck ones Facebook handle on a post so as to get ones attention.

This tagging was Elsie Hotpepper pointing me to yet one more article about America's Biggest Boondoggle. This one is in the Fort Worth Business Press, titled Bridge battle: Businesses, local officials grapple with project delays.
I read the article, then opined on Elsie Hotpepper's Facebook post something along the line of being really tired of this nonsense. I read these articles to find myself annoyed at mention being made of one thing or the other which just is not true.

At least this article did not repeat the ridiculous assertion that those pitiful little bridges being built in slow motion are being built over dry land to save money, and to make for easier construction, when the fact is there will never be any water running under those little bridges until a ditch is dug under them, with Trinity River water diverted into the ditch.

This particular article's worst instance of repeating nonsense without questioning it was repeating the idiocy that that ditch will "add flood control protection as well as carve out an 800-acre center island, which would create waterfront economic development opportunities. The bridges will cross the channel."

Add flood control protection? There has not been a flood of the Trinity River in the location in question since well over a half century ago when levees were built. Waterfront development opportunities? It's a ditch. It's a polluted river. How can anyone think someone this is going to end well, with any sort of viable waterfront opportunities?

I really don't know why I continue to bother opining about this, other than I just find it so aggravating to be eye witness to something so embarrassingly inept. With the nonsense just going on and on, year after year after year.

A couple days ago I blogged about the ridiculous Fort Worth Star-Telegram TRWD board endorsements in a blogging titled Fort Worth Star-Telegram Bizarre TRWD Board Endorsements. That blog post has only had a little over 800 page views when I saw the stats when logging in to write this current post. It feels like preaching to the choir. And never to the numbskulls who might benefit from wising themselves up to their civic reality.

As the Bridge battle: Businesses, local officials grapple with project delays title suggests this latest FW Business Press article about America's Biggest Boondoggle is mainly about the most visible symptom of the problem, that being the simple little bridges being stuck being built in slow motion.

The article points out various elements of the delay, such as "malfunction of design" problems, conflicts with contractors, conflicts with the management of the project. Yet, just like in a Star-Telegram article about this subject, we get zero details about what the precise design problems have been.

The article brings up the the recent revelations posted by the Texas Monitor, about emails discovered from 2016 in which it is clear J.D. Granger mucked around with the design of the bridges, thwarting a preferred design which the state agreed to pay for in total. Read the entire article for all the details, but suffice to say, why is Mary Kelleher the only current TRWD board candidate calling for the obvious? That being the firing of the ineptly unqualified J.D. Granger?

This latest article about America's Biggest Boondoggle is also about all the damage done to businesses affected by the long, messed up construction timeline. In my Facebook comment I opined that in addition to those currently being damaged there were also the hundreds damaged way earlier in this century by the Trinity River Vision's abuse of eminent domain, one of whom is a Fort Worth native, Bob Lukeman, who had his place of business taken, bulldozed whilst still awaiting a hearing in court, left damaged and not whole.

Criminal corruption, in my opinion, on the part of various elements of what passes for government in Fort Worth. And one of the reasons I hold the town in such low regard.

Bob Lukeman also commented on Elsie Hotpepper's Facebook this morning, after I commented.

The Lukeman comment in its entirety...

Wrote this in reply to Mark Greene’s post of the recent FWST article casually calling the levees obsolete and fostering the notion that I guess, we all agree with that.

Well! This is not what the Corp originally said (from the article)...

“The Panther Island project will replace levees the Army Corps of Engineers says are obsolete and pull about 2,400 acres out of the flood plain for what the Corps calls a “standard project flood,” which is the most severe flood considered possible for a region. This is a more traditional flood, such as when a river runs over its banks.”

The first idea about the state of the existing levee system from the Corp came after they routinely examined the current levee system and concluded that they needed to be raised in key areas to comply with the standard project flood requirements. This was budgeted at around 10 million dollars, and if initiated, would have been completed over a decade ago. This plan was disregarded with the ushering in of the TRV development plan and the Central City Corp plan adapted to comply with and compliment the TRV development plan. The statement that the levee system is obsolete is incorrect. These levees work as designed and implemented in the early 1950’s following the disastrous flooding in 1949. It’s the flooding along smaller tributaries and low lying areas that are damaging homes, property, threatening lives and in some cases causing deaths do to high fast flood waters.

I have copies of the Corp maps that show where their studies told them to bolster the existing levees. Anyone who categorizes these levees as obsolete is in the thrall of the development plan that takes down the levees to allow mixed use development right up to the waters edge in the TRV development plan.

Just like the promises of this new urban development, delivered to us via pretty pictures and the illusion of a San Antonio style river walk, the effectiveness of the flood control capabilities of the proposed bypass channel, with its mitigation of large and fast moving flood waters being downstream of the project, are unproven and are part of the same initial plan that submitted bridge designs that needed to be re-engineered at additional cost and are a part of the further delays in getting these bridges built over dry land, with the project claiming that this is a faster and less costly method.

Colorful Suspenseful Redrock Walk In Wichita Falls Lucy Park

The deluges of Tuesday and Wednesday added some colorful water to the Wichita River. But, not enough to flood Lucy Park like other recent deluges did.

This morning's walk across the Lucy Park suspension bridge provided a good look at the high flowing Wichita River, as you can clearly see here.

One would think after eons of water scouring the prairie that there would no longer be enough material to colorfully dye the Wichita River and neighboring Red River the redrock red color they are known for.

I have long been a fan of this color, ever since my first redrock experience in Utah, decades ago.

Earlier this century, I think the year was 2005, I was brought by the Knappsons to a party in the Washington town of Kent. The color scheme of the house in which the party took place was what I took to be shades of redrock. With light turquoise trim.

Ever since then I have wanted that color scheme for my own abode. The closest I have come is my current location, with brown carpet and matching wood floors. And turquoise rocks from Arizona.

Another look at the colorful Wichita River, with the view being from the center of the suspension bridge. Note the color coordinating with the color of the suspension cable complimenting the river color. I am sure this was done on purpose.

North of the suspension bridge I took a break in the Japanese pagoda and took the colorful picture you see here. I do not believe this is a natural collection of Texas wildflowers.

The Texas exterior color scheme is currently at about the most colorful it gets during the year. Soon all that you see in living color will be shades of one color.

Brown.

Lucky for me brown is my favorite color, if one includes the redrock color as being a shade of brown.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram Bizarre TRWD Board Endorsements

A couple days ago, when I first heard of it via Facebook, I thought someone was making a late April Fool's Day joke posting that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had endorsed the incumbent octogenarian, Marty Leonard, along with C.B. Team, as their recommendation regarding how those few allowed to vote should vote to represent them on the Tarrant Regional Water District board.

Read the entire Endorsement: Leonard, Team, for TRWD board editorial to get the full ridiculous illogical nonsense spouted in this typically embarrassing bit of Star-Telegram propaganda.

The endorsement starts off by stating the obvious fact that water is important.

And then goes from that bit of obviousness to telling us why this election is important....

That’s just one big reason why the impending election for the Tarrant Regional Water District Board of Directors — early voting in the May 4 election starts Monday, April 22 — should command your attention. We’ll give you another reason — in fact, over one billion of them: the Central City/Panther Island project, a $1.17 billion flood control and economic development program overseen in large part by the water board.

Yes, this is true, America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, has been boondoggling along for most of this century, and that absurd boondoggle, brought upon Fort Worth by the TRWD board, should motivate sensible people to vote to replace those responsible, when given the opportunity to do so.

This boondoggle, when first first foisted on the not allowed to vote for it public, was touted as a vitally needed flood control project, and economic development scheme. This ill-conceived, ineptly implemented mess began near the start of this century, and is currently projected to possibly be completed sometime late in the next decade.

Yes. This is one "vitally needed" flood control project. To control floods where there has been no flooding in well over a half a century due to flood control levees already doing their job. Meanwhile multiple areas of Tarrant County regularly flood, as recently as today, due to irresponsible development, which was not required to properly mitigate the increased water run-off the development has caused.

I eye witnessed this development caused flooding yesterday on my once a month return to the Dallas/Fort Worth zone. I was heading south on 820, intending to exit to Randol Mill Road to check in on Mary Kelleher, but was unable to do so because Randol Mill Road was closed due to that aforementioned bad development caused flooding.

Now, let's take a look at why the Star-Telegram recommended re-electing Marty Leonard...

After interviewing and discussing each of the five candidates for the five-member board’s two available seats — you vote for two of the five — we recommend board veteran Marty Leonard and newcomer Charles “C.B.” Team.

Incumbency isn’t often thought of as a positive anymore, but the truth is that experience and knowledge have to count for something — especially when it comes to providing water to well over 2 million. In this regard, Marty Leonard is, frankly, a gem.

The 82-year-old businesswoman and daughter of the Leonard’s Department Store founder has been key plank of the TRWD board since 2006. Besides riding herd on the Central City flood control project, she has, for instance, been among those overseeing the $2 billion-plus Integrated Pipeline Project being built to eventually supply 200 million more gallons a day to TRWD customers and another 150 million gallons to Dallas.

You don’t learn how to do all this overnight.

Okay, well, I know Marty Leonard is a nice lady. Easy to get along with. I have been told this by person's with first hand experience with Marty Leonard. Those same people have also told me that Marty Leonard pretty much just goes along with what she is told to go along with, at the direction of the TRWD's un-elected boss, Jim Oliver.

Marty Leonard may also be a gem. But, she is not a gem at overseeing anything to do with what the TRWD is charged with overseeing.

The Star-Telegram is actually suggesting Marty Leonard has been riding herd on the TRWD's imaginary flood control project? If so, shouldn't the Star-Telegram be recommending instead that Marty Leonard be removed for being part of creating America's Biggest Boondoggle, and for the dawdling slow motion reality of this un-needed imaginary flood control project?

Marty Leonard has been a "key plank of the TRWD board"? What does that even mean? That integrated pipeline project is another problematic TRWD project, which has long been controversial.

Now, I have been told multiple instances of 82 year old Marty Leonard being charmingly doddery. My favorite is the time at a TRWD board meeting when Marty Leonard told her fellow board members she was walking the Trinity Trail and saw signs warning people not to eat the fish they caught. Marty Leonard asked why we would put up such signs. Unaware, apparently, of the polluted status of the Trinity River and its regularly elevated e.coli levels.

And then we have this ridiculous newspaper's endorsement of C.B. Tram.

Though a first-time candidate, Team, 36, has been attending TRWD meetings for three years and, as one board observer put it to us, is running for the right reasons and “doing his homework.” The son of a well-known ranch family, he teams a land-loving background with experience as a real estate broker — an exquisite combination for this board at this particular time. And despite his real estate background, he wants Panther Island to be a flood-control project first and foremost.

A real estate broker. Who the Star-Telegram tells us is running for the right reasons and who has done his homework via attending TRWD meetings for three years. And he comes from a well-known ranch family, which supposedly gives him a land loving background. And even so he wants the imaginary Panther Island to be a flood control project (where there has been no flooding for way over half a century) before considering anything else, like developing the real estate on the imaginary island.

The Star-Telegram opines Team has the needed experience. But does not endorse Mary Kelleher, who served a four year TRWD board term, and who the Star-Telegram endorsed the last time she ran.

And why did the Star-Telegram choose not to endorse incumbent Jim Lane? Or Gary Moates?

When the Star-Telegram interviewed Mary Kelleher she indicated she would advocate for the resignations of TRWD dictator boss, Jim Oliver, and TRVA executive director, J.D. Granger. And also advocated a thorough forensic audit of the entire Panther Island Boondoggle mess.

While Gary Moates told the Star-Telegram that he thought the ridiculously wasteful Trinity River Panther Island Vision installation on the ground floor of the Star-Telegram building should be removed.

Apparently the Star-Telegram does not think Mary Kelleher or Gary Moates have the "right reasons" to be running.

So, the Star-Telegram basically endorsed a pair of lackeys who will just go along with the incompetent mess which has been an ongoing Fort Worth eyesore for most of this century. With no current end in sight, and the only hope for a fix being booting those responsible...

Why Anyone Thinks Fort Worth Sports Would Get America Talking

A couple days ago I mentioned seeing a trio of headlines, all in a row, on the front page of the online version of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, with those headlines, just those, before reading the articles, causing the eye rolling head shaking reaction one has when reading something which seems obviously goofy.

Those three headlines were...

This north Fort Worth neighborhood will soon be getting a brand-new liquor store

Consultant for Amazon HQ2 explains how Fort Worth missed out

Why Fort Worth hopes sports is the tourism ticket

We will be discussing that third article headline in detail, but first let's make mention of the other two.

A newspaper in a town with a population nearing a million, on its front page, touts a "brand-new" liquor store which a north Fort Worth neighborhood will be getting soon.

How is that not an embarrassing thing to write a news article about?

And that consultant explaining how Fort Worth missed out on Amazon HQ2. Well, despite the headline, the actual article is more about how the entire Dallas/Fort Worth area missed out.

It does not take any sort of consultant to explain why Fort Worth is unable, despite multiple attempts, to lure any corporation to relocate to Fort Worth.

We have pointed out multiple times that it does not look good for a town to have few streets with sidewalks, to not have modern public mass transit, to not have sufficient city parks, and with way too many of those parks sporting way too many outhouses, and few modern facilities.

And a modern America city, which gets HOT in summer, to not have multiple public city pools is just wrong.

It is also not appealing to any corporation looking to relocate for a town to be hosting the world's biggest experiment in urban gas fracking. Which is an experiment which has mostly failed.

And, in addition to all that, what does Fort Worth think a corporation re-locator thinks when visiting the north end of downtown to find a boarded up eyesore park supposedly celebrating Fort Worth's heritage, with that park's boarded up overlook looking over America's Biggest Boondoggle, a failed public works project which has long been mostly stalled in neutral, with three little bridges partially built, over dry land, for years?

And now on to that Why Fort Worth hopes sports is the tourism ticket article.

First off, this type verbiage is annoyingly dumb.

"Fort Worth hopes..."?

Really? How did the author of this article determine what Fort Worth is hoping?

Can you imagine a similar article headline in a town with a real newspaper?

Why New York City hopes sports is the tourism ticket? Why Austin hopes sports is the tourism ticket? Why Albuquerque hopes sports is the tourism ticket? Why Seattle hopes sports is the tourism ticket?

I've long made note of the fact that Fort Worth gets few tourists, and that there is really only one remotely unique tourist attraction in town, that being the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Let's take a look at why, according to this article, Fort Worth is hoping sports may be the town's tourism ticket.

The first three paragraphs...

Athletics are big business, and Fort Worth wants to grow its slice of the pie.

This weekend’s NCAA women’s gymnastics championship at the Fort Worth Convention Center was expected to bring more than $2 million to the local economy, but that’s a tiny piece of the market. Fans spend more than $10 billion annually traveling for sporting events.

Jason Sands, Visit Fort Worth’s director of sports, thinks the city can tap in to a large chunk of the growing sports tourism market, especially with the 14,000-seat Dickies Arena opening this fall.

Now there's a newsflash for you. Athletics is big business. And apparently Fort Worth, or someone in Fort Worth, wants a slice of that pie.

And, oh my, this weekend's gymnastics championship at Fort Worth's Convention Center is expected to bring more than $2 million to the local economy.

Wow! $2 million! I read that and instantly thought of Austin Powers and Dr. Evil, who, after being in a long coma, wakes up to make a $1 million ransom demand, with Dr. Evil not realizing one million bucks is no longer a HUGE amount. It is a game show prize.

So, Fort Worth has a director of sports who thinks Fort Worth's relatively puny new arena will be able to tap into that growing sports tourism market.

Who thought it was a good idea, marketing wise, to name this new arena "Dickies"? This will just give Fort Worth few tourists one more thing to giggle about.

And then the next paragraph...

The $540 million arena will play host to three years of the collegiate gymnastics finals as well as the first- and second-round games of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 2022. Dickies will also host the American Athletic Conference men’s basketball championships from 2020 to 2022.

$540 million is a relatively small price tag for this relatively small arena in a relatively large big city. And some early round and low interest events have already been scheduled for Dickies? Does it not occur to anyone that major venues in major cities were likely not all that interested in hosting these events?

And then there is this gem...

Sporting events, like conventions, draw thousands from across the country and are Fort Worth’s chance to introduce itself to a national audience. Between those who visit and those who see Fort Worth locales on ESPN, sports can be the city’s introduction to tourists, Sands said.

So, now, in 2019, Fort Worth is ready to introduce itself to a national audience? Via sporting events? In Dickies Arena? Okay, so a tourist comes to see some sporting event in Fort Worth, thus introducing the town to the formerly not familiar tourist.

What does that tourist see when not watching those sporting events? A downtown with few hotels, no department stores, few restaurants for a downtown of a relatively large city, no downtown grocery stores. Molly the Trolley offering public transit between downtown, the Stockyards and the museums in the district devoted to culture. That tourist may also see that aforementioned Heritage Park eyesore which has been boarded up for a decade. Or take a look at America's Biggest Boondoggle, asking for an explanation for the odd forms stuck in the air trying to become a bridge.

That sport director we previously mentioned is then quoted with this gem...

“This stuff is immeasurable in terms of elevating Fort Worth in the national conversation,” Sands said.

So, this stuff is immeasurable in how it is able, or not able, to elevate Fort Worth in the national conversation?

Oh yes, I can see how being host to a few random sporting events well be boosting Fort Worth in the national conversation. People all over America will be talking about those Fort Worth gymnastic meets and basketball games, in addition to marveling at the town being host to America's Biggest Boondoggle.

And then a few more paragraphs of nonsense from that Fort Worth director of sports...

These events are just the beginning of Fort Worth as sports destination, Sands said.

He pointed to Omaha, Neb., which has made a name for itself hosting youth and college baseball tournaments as an example of Fort Worth’s ambitions, either with gymnastics or another sport.

“When you think of baseball you think Omaha,” Sands said. “That’s what we’re trying to build here.”

Oh my, these events are just the start of something big! The beginning of Fort Worth becoming an imaginary sports destination.

Like Omaha.

I had no idea that when I, along with the rest of the world, think of Omaha, we think of baseball.

So, that is what that Fort Worth director of sports is trying to build in Fort Worth.

Another Omaha.

I wonder if Omaha has any imaginary islands, bridges stuck over dry land, a downtown with few stores, city parks with world class outhouses, streets without sidewalks and river rocking inner tube parties in a polluted river

One would think that in its current form Fort Worth would not want to be being part of any sort of national conversation...