Downtown District

A Letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram makes an excellent point.  Downtown Fort Worth isn't a congressional district.  It's part of one.  Don't show up in the rest of the district asking for our money to dump into our river.  Pay attention. 

Seeking attention

The Sunday article about Rep. Kay Granger gave much information about her international activities. I wish she would do as much in her own district, which is not just Fort Worth. The Tarrant County portion of her district, before redistricting, has 14 percent of the area and 79 percent of the population.

If you go by her own claim for appropriations in 2010, 61 percent was spent in Fort Worth and 4 percent in Parker County, with the rest being national or regional. Most of the Parker County spending went to a company that does business outside the county. Wise County got nothing. I got appropriations information from her website but can no longer find that link.

Granger does come to Parker County to raise money. With 86 percent of the area and 21 percent of the population, Parker and Wise counties would like to have more than 4 percent of the attention.

-- Darrel Behrens, Aledo

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Give it up

Instead of saying, “we can’t add”, the Star-Telegram chooses to call the call out on them “grumbling”. 

And don't miss the comments on Durango's boondoggle post.  They keep getting better.

Drive-in grumbling

A "back to the future" drive-in movie theater promises to reap a profit of $1.7 million over a 10-year contract with the Tarrant Regional Water District. The enlightened Star-Telegram Editorial Board says this "sounds like a way to jump-start activity along the Trinity River -- and at no risk to the taxpayer."

A 1.8 percent return on $909 million may sound like a good deal to the dim bulbs at the water district, Trinity River Vision Authority and Star-Telegram, but it sounds to me like yet another departure from a flawed Trinity Uptown plan that includes a flooded wakeboard park (what is the profit from that?), and a no-bid, one-time good-deal restaurant lease. And at no risk to the taxpayer, you say?

A couple hundred million to remediate flood potential caused by a half-billion-dollar rechanneling of the river, all to return far less than it costs. That's visionary?

-- Clyde Picht, Fort Worth

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Of course they did

The Tarrant Regional Water District voted to open a drive-in theatre as part of the Trinity River Vision, you know, that "flood control" project downtown.

Don't worry, there is finally one aspect of this billion plus dollar boondoggle they say you aren't paying for.

You should read the comments from THE PEOPLE on some of these articles and Facebook. 

Priceless.

Don't kid yourself, YOU are still paying. 

 What a crock.  In June 2010, as Carl Bell faced foreclosure on LaGrave Field, the TRWD sweeps to his rescue with a $17.5 million gift by buying his parking lot.  His parking lot!  Of course, according to the always reliably forthright TRWD board, these 42 acres were direly needed for flood control for the futuristic boondoggle known as Trinity River Vision. 

Now stuck with a bankrupt LaGrave Field and FW Cats, the TRWD is saddled with a $17.5 million environmentally contaminated parking lot.  What can you do with a contaminated parking lot?  Why, put up a few screens and call it a drive-in theater.  Surely there will be enough suckers brave enough to shell out a few bucks to experience the thrill of making it home alive after spending a few hours after dark huddled in a car in this neighborhood, feasting on breakfast burritos from the handy dandy food truck. 

How many will come?  Well, according to the mathematically challenged scion of that truth in government pinup girl, Congresswoman Kay Granger, over 300,000 annually.  Really now?  That's over 800 a night every night all year.  Even when it's 110 in July and August.  Even when it's 32 in March.  But never mind.  JD said it so it must be true and the ST dutifully reports it as Gospel.  Welcome to the future of Fort Worth and the bold Trinity River Vision: environmentally contaminated drive-in theaters!  Please turn off your headlights.  You'll be glowing in the dark anyway.

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Two Fort Worth's...

Downtown.

And everywhere else.

Way back in 2008, the Mayor and a council member stood on the side of the road and promised to fix streets in north Fort Worth if voters passed the combined bond.   

In 2010, residents were still asking WHEN?

Far north Fort Worth residents aren't so sure. They point out that downtown projects have already gotten their share of funding, while roads for their area have languished.

"I pretty much guarantee it went to the Trinity River Vision bridges, which is exactly what we said would happen," said Shirley Gansser, who analyzed the city's financial data for the North Fort Worth Alliance.

Residents' concerns about the Trinity River project prompted Moncrief to make his appeal in 2008.

The alliance wanted the city to split the bond election into two propositions, one for roads and one for the Trinity River bridges. Moncrief appealed to voters to support the whole package, and it passed with 68 percent of the vote.

The expansion of North Fort Worth in the Alliance area and beyond has caused many issues for those citizens.  Last year, THE PEOPLE informed us all of the lack of emergency response to that area.

In this week's Star-Telegram, seems the story is still the same.  What happens when you do nothing?  It just gets worse. 

As usual, the comments tell the story. 

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All that glitters

Letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

Fool's gold

Letter writers and columnists are lambasting the new Museum of Science and History and nostalgically longing for yesterday's old museum. What if after a billion earmark dollars are spent on new-fangled Trinity Vision with its boondoggle of canals, condos and bridges to nowhere, Fort Worthers, suffering buyer's remorse, wake up, tax bills in hand, and long once more for the old nature-carved Trinity and its vanished West Fork-Clear Fork landmark confluence admired by Ripley Arnold, Robert E. Lee and Amon Carter -- the confluence where the deer and the antelope played and Indians pitched their tepees, a picture that no museum artist ere could paint.

An 1898 painting by Frederic Remington portrays Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado on his ill-fated quest in 1541 to find the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola. The expedition, which included hundreds of soldiers and Native American guides, lasted two years and traversed some 4000 miles of the American West. In the end, no cities of gold were found and Coronado returned empty-handed and in debt.

Coronado's Seven Cities of Cibola. Kay Granger's Trinity Vision. All that glitters is not gold.

-- Don Woodard Sr., Fort Worth

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Texas Eminent Domain Superheroes Unite

For the benefit of THE PEOPLE.  Monday, across the state of Texas, many will come together to save Texans property rights.

There are 80 properties in the way in Texas with the Canadian pipeline, up 90 in Tarrant County with the Trinity River Vision, how many due to the freeway projects taking place across the state, what about local pipelines?  WHO's next?

WHO's standing up for YOU?  Your "leaders"?  Of course not.  THE PEOPLE. 

MEDIA ADVISORY

In Texas Private Property a Growing Issue for Keystone Pipeline

A new statewide coalition of groups and advocates for private property rights is announcing its support for landowners along the path of the Keystone XL pipeline in Texas. The group charges that TransCanada, the company proposing to build the pipeline, has used eminent domain to bully landowners and condemn private property.

“Texas politicians talk tough on eminent domain, but with Keystone we have a pipeline acting as a ‘common carrier’ and bludgeoning private property owners with eminent domain when there’s a real question whether it meets the legal requirements to do so,” said Debra Medina, former Republican gubernatorial candidate and director of We Texans.

WHAT: Press conference on private property and eminent domain issues facing Keystone XL

WHEN: Monday, February 13th (various times, see below)

WHERE: Dallas – Turley Law Center, 6440 N. Central Expressway, 10:30am
       Houston – Location & Time TBA
       Austin – Texas Railroad Commission, 1701 Congress Ave., 3:30pm
       San Antonio – Location TBA, 3:45pm

WHY: Landowners and prominent private property advocates uniting on Keystone XL

The coalition boasts a diverse group of advocates who are hosting press conferences around the state on February 13th. Press conferences will feature private property owners from East Texas who’ve had property condemned or been bullied into negotiated settlements and who say their story has not been told. The press conferences will be as follows:

• Dallas – Calvin Tillman, former mayor of DISH, TX will present landowners Julia Trigg Crawford and Eleanor Fairchild
• Houston – Debra Medina,executive director of We Texans and  former Republican candidate for governor, will present landowner Mike Hathorn
• Austin – Linda Curtis, director of Independent Texans, and Jessica Ellison of Texans for Accountable Government will present landowner Julia Trigg Crawford
• San Antonio – Terri Hall, director of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, will present landowner Eleanor Fairchild

The coalition of advocates points to more than 80 cases in Texas where TransCanada, a foreign pipeline company, condemned private property belonging to Texans. The group also points out that the company misled landowners, telling them the pipeline had all necessary permits and repeatedly telling individual landowners that they were the last holdouts, making the pipeline seem inevitable and securing more favorable terms for the company.

The groups advocates draw parallels between the Keystone XL pipeline and the Trans-Texas Corridor, a proposed highway that many of them were active in defeating.

Debra Medina –  979.253.0220
Calvin Tillman – 940.453.3640
Linda Curtis – 512.535.7208
Terri Hall – 210.2750640
Jessica Ellison – 512.653.9179

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HOW old?

We've asked this question before, finally some answers. 

YOU don't want to hear them, but YOU can't afford not to.

Read about the 119 year old water lines in Fort Worth.  In the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Water pipelines- Age of pipe by decade

Unknown: 296.3 miles

1910: 5.3 miles

1920: 60.1 miles

1930: 25.5 miles

1940: 116.7 miles

1950: 347.5 miles

1960: 265.7 miles

1970: 298.9 miles

1980: 531.5 miles

1990: 454.5 miles

2000: 990.0 miles

Source: Fort Worth Water Department

In fiscal 2010, the most recent year for which data is available, the city had 3,511 miles of water lines and replaced about 20 miles. For wastewater, it had 3,469 miles of sewer lines and replaced about 11 miles.

That's far less than the old goals of replacing 2 percent annually, but officials said those guidelines are unrealistic with the city's rapid growth since the mid-1990s.

In fiscal 2011, $35 million in pipeline contracts were awarded, while $126 million were awarded in fiscal 2010. A number of relocation projects in 2010 were tied to work on Trinity River Vision projects and on Texas 121.

In one of the most extreme cases, the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency went to federal court in August and obtained a consent decree against the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District that requires it to spend an estimated $4.7 billion over 23 years to deal with illegal sewage overflows.

"The risk of not making investment is twofold," Curtis said. "First, you spend a lot more in emergency repairs, and it's quite damaging in water and sewer breaks. And if you put off making improvements because of political or financial pressure, the costs only get higher. It is definitely a case of pay me now or pay me later."

In October, Fort Worth removed a 119-year-old valve from its North Holly water treatment plant that dated to the plant's opening in 1892. The city also inherited 7.71 miles of asbestos concrete when it annexed the Lake Country Estates area on the far west side. Gugliuzza said those pipes pose no threat to water quality as long as they are in the ground, but they could create problems if they are disturbed.

"If we had to replace it, that's when it would pose a concern," Gugliuzza said.

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Dallas Fort Worth Media

Please stop reporting on kids being transported at the Stock Show in strollers (duh) and if the Cowboys are still America's team.  Please report on things that affect those you should be serving and things that are going on right under your noses. 

WHAT will the local "news" say when some big city slicker news outfit rolls into town and starts asking WHY no one has reported on these issues?  We can't wait to hear. 

Neither can Durango.

I still have not seen any mention made in the Star-Telegram of the fact that the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's flood control project's first completed project, the Cowtown Wakepark, was severely damaged in the first flood of the Trinity River since its completion.

Of course it's not just our local media making a mockery out of themselves, national media was just put in its place by none other than Miss Piggy.  Here's hoping she also comes to see us in Cowtown soon. 

Anyway, during a news conference last week for the U.K. premiere of "The Muppets," Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy were asked about a December segment on Eric Bolling's "Follow the Money" that posed the question, "Are Liberals Trying to Brainwash Your Kids Against Capitalism?" One guest on the segment blasted the Muppets movie, which makes an oil executive (played by Chris Cooper) its villain.

Piggy said of the segment: "It's almost as laughable as accusing Fox News as, you know, being news."

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Occupy Wood Shed 6%

If you want to see what YOUR tax dollars paid for, you're invited to come out to the Woodshed Wednesday afternoon.  We hear there will be a big group taking a look before the boycott starts Thursday.  We're also told they'll be going to eat bar-b-que at Pappa's on the Trinity River after they occupy.  So, no tent needed to make a statement.

DFW.com just did an article on the repeatedly delayed opening.  Wonder why they didn't do one of the flooded Wakeboard park? 

Love and the Trinity River Vision Authority have taken some heat because the TRVA signed a 10-year lease with Love without open bidding. But Love says he hopes the restaurant, located just west of University Drive not far from Hoffbrau Steaks, will help open the door for other restaurants along the river.

"I've gotten beat up a little bit in the last couple of months," he continues. "But I'm trying to make [the river area] better. When I did the lease, I said, 'I want to do something for the river.' Somehow that backfired on me. I thought people would be excited about the fact that they could come here and drink a beer and 6 percent of it goes back to the [district]. I mean, that's pretty cool."

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Name that Tune - Part 2

A column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has a familiar ring to it.

See if you can name the economic development boondoggle being discussed.  Don't they all start to sound the same?

Add this to the list: the failure of ________.

That was the proposal for a ____-billion dollar development between ________ and _____. Since the _____ was built in the early 1990s, ______ and city leaders dreamed of a town center with shopping, entertainment, hotels and high-rise condos -- an upscale money generator to justify the taxpayer subsidies that went into the ______.

That fantastic notion turned out to be a fantasy, at least for the first two decades. But the proposals also sucked all the retail oxygen out of north _____. In spring 2008, ____ -- a development pushed by former _______ -- was officially scrapped, and not long after, downtown began to emerge with a style all its own just a mile-and-a-half away.

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Behind the Woodshed

It's opening, again.  Or so they say, again.

The taxpayer funded restaurant in a flood plain is set to open in February.  If you're one of those that think it's cool to go eat at a restaurant you paid to build for a "celebrity", you might want to go before the next storm comes.  You saw what happened to the other "flood control" attraction you paid to build.

It's all just a matter of time.

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Fort Worth Vision

Or lack thereof. 

Which do you think would make the "news" in Fort Worth?

Durango watched a mother struggle with a stroller and no sidewalks and reported on it, and then tells you about the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporting on people pushing strollers at the Stock Show. 

THAT is news? Really?

Fort Worth does not have what most city's in America have, that being a major newspaper of record that acts as the community's watchdog.

What Fort Worth has is this pseudo newspaper that calls itself the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, but should more accurately be called the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce Pravda-Like Star-Telegram.

How can a city be so blind that it can have a vision wasting millions of dollars to build a river diversion channel that is not needed, a little lake that will cause giggles, non-signature bridges to nowhere and whatever else it is that is currently being seen by the myopic Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, when its city sidewalks, or lack of, are something one might expect to see in a town in a Third World country?

Where is the vision for the rest of Fort Worth? The part not seen by the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

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What's in the Trinity River?

Toxins, PCB's, amoebas, fecal matter, contaminated run off, and pig blood.

How did the pig blood get into the Trinity River?  By way of a sewer pipe and a creek.  One of the many tributaries of the river.

If you think the Columbia Pig people are the only corporation dumping in the river, think again. Think they are the only corporation with illegal pipes running to the river?  Think again. 

If you think you want to tube the Trinity River with the Tarrant Regional Water District and the Trinity River Vision, think again.  Don't be sheep.  Think.

Notice this story started with THE PEOPLE.  Thanks to those eyes in the sky another problem with the Trinity River was brought to THE PEOPLE.  Seems some had been complaining about the dumping for years.  Too bad no one was listening.  Kudos to the air team.  We need more up there.  Any volunteers?

See the video on WFAA.com.

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Water Boarding

Word on the street is, the Tarrant Regional Water District has decided to extend their terms on the board until 2013.

What's that going to cost YOU?

We're betting they'll say it's about saving money on the election, NOW their worried about saving money?

Maybe they need it for future restaurant endeavors.

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Tarrant County Crumbling

Texas bridges are falling apart.  But don't you worry your pretty little head, they "found" money for the Trinity River Vision bridges.  It was in your pocket all along.

Read the Fort Worth Star Telegram article on the state of the bridges in our state.  How long will they last? WHY are most of them in Fort Worth?  WHY are we spending almost as much on new bridges?  Shouldn't we fix the ones that are broke instead of building new unneeded ones over unneeded nonexistent river channels?  Is anyone awake out there?

A prime example is the West Seventh Street bridge near downtown Fort Worth, where signs of decay are plain as day. On the underbelly of the 99-year-old structure, metal rods that were once protected by concrete are now poking through the eroded surface -- a problem that, if not addressed, will eventually make the bridge unsafe for motorists. It is scheduled to be demolished and replaced in 2013.

Meanwhile, more than 12,000 vehicles per day cross it despite a poor score on its most recent inspection.

Of the 29 poorly scoring bridges in Tarrant County, 21 are considered structurally deficient, meaning they have problems with the deck, superstructure or substructure.

In Fort Worth, where 16 of the substandard Tarrant County bridges are located, city officials say that they're three years into an aggressive renovation and replacement program and that residents will soon begin to see results. The city plans to spend $25.7 million on bridges through 2015 -- $15.5 million on capital improvements to older bridges and $10.2 million for new bridges along the Trinity River Vision development north of downtown -- said George Behmanesh, assistant director of transportation and public works.

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HE has a way with words

THEY have a way with your money.

A Letter to the Editor of the Fort Worth Business Press....

The Woodshed

News flash! Earmarks are back! Alive and well! No matter that our country is in financial rigor mortis with Chinese undertakers feeling our pulse while tenderly asking what more can we do for their country.

According to the winter propaganda screed put out by the Trinity River Vision Authority, the boast is made that Congresswoman Kay Granger has secured another $23 million of Federal funds for two Trinity Uptown bridges. Bulletin! Neither of the bridges is Uptown. Both are bridges to nowhere to be built over a yet to be dug channel. Which comes first? The chicken or the egg?

In addition, the screed bragged that the North Central Texas Council of Governments, led by Michael Morris and the Regional Transportation Commission chaired by Jungus Jordan, was able to secure an additional $15 million through “another Federal source.”

When it comes to picking Federal pockets, these three deft-fingered artists make Dickens’ Artful Dodger look like a ham-handed bumbling amateur. After the bridges are built, will they then find another obscure Federal pocket to pick in order to dig the ditch underneath the bridges to nowhere?

Step by stealthy step the beat goes on. Now comes to light another soft-shoe step made under cover of darkness – $970,000 of local taxpayer money has been spent by J.D. Granger, executive director of the Trinity River Vision, on a sweetheart deal with a restaurateur to build a hamburger eatery called The Woodshed on the north bank of the Clear Fork near Colonial Country Club. What has this surreptitious money laundering to do with flood control and water supply, the primary duties of the Tarrant Regional Water District?

Looks like the taxpayers have been taken to the woodshed. Again. Saints preserve us!

Don Woodard, 

Fort Worth

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