Fort Worth's Top 15 List

Read Durango's Top 15 list.  Sad, but true. 

Do something about it. 

We won't give you the whole list, because YOU should read the whole post, but here are a few of our favorites.

I don't know if I can come up with 15 reasons Fort Worth is a strange city, but I will try...

1. The downtown park that celebrates Fort Worth's Heritage, and beginnings, is a boarded up, cyclone fence surrounded eyesore.
2. A billion dollars is being spent on a public works project to build a little lake, some canals, an un-needed flood diversion channel and other nonsensical things, in a Boondoggle called the Trinity River Vision that the public has not voted on.
3. The freeway exits to Fort Worth's top tourist attraction, the Fort Worth Stockyards, are un-landscaped, littered, weed infested eyesores.
9. Fort Worth is the world's experimental test tube for urban natural gas shale drilling, with more holes poked than any other city in the world.
12. Fort Worth allows Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats in the Trinity River in which raw sewage is known to flow.

Instead the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has not devoted any ink to doing any investigative reporting of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, the nepotism that gave J.D. Granger the job of running the project, J.D.'s mother Kay's use of earmarks to get federal funds for the project that gave her son a job or any of the other questionable aspects of the TRV Boondoggle that would be questioned by the newspaper in a town with a real newspaper.

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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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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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Front page "news"?

By the time the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article about the Trinity River Tim Love Woodshed restaurant appeared on the front page, it already had 50+ comments online.

So what are THE PEOPLE saying about YOUR elected officials allowing their unelected friends and family to gamble with YOUR money?

We received a couple of questions such as, How do you agree "in principle" to make a building smaller than it is?  And how much did Granger and Love drink that neither of them know WHO asked WHO?  WHY did it take the paper till now to start asking questions? 

Landslide left a comment here.

And the comments keep pouring in on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, when it rains it pours.

So I suppose we have to assume this is a sweetheart deal courtesy of Kay Granger by way of Granger Junior? Business as usual for those two and for Fort Worth insiders.

I think the celebrity title may have been added by the S-T writers as window dressing- designed to put lip stick on a pig and sell it to us as a great idea.

It kind of shows who really pull the strings at the S-T.

Kay Granger decries crony capitalism and the evil and dangers of the government helping citizens with anything including healthcare for children (She has voted against it everytime). But then she appoints her son to a 6 figure job for which he has no qualifications and then her son decides to appropriate $1 million dollars of taxpayer dollars to a very wealthy businessman just because. If that isn't corporate welfare for the very rich and crony capitalism than somebody tell me what it is. Who elected Kay Granger's son JD to hand out my tax dollars to his buddies. (other than his mother)

This is just the beginning of the Trinity River flood control project turned private development boondoggle.  After the by-pass channel is cut and the people of Fort Worth are all assured of being flood-free, the leeves along the river are scheduled to be leveled.  What's the Tarrant Regional Water District going to do with all that nice new river edge real estate they own or control?!  Figure it out.

This is an outrage to every person that pays taxes. It is bad enough that Granger was given this job by his mother despite the fact that he had absolutely no experience. He makes a huge 6 figure salary, (your taxes) to transfer your hard earned tax payer money to his mothers political cronies. This whole "Vision" is nothing more than very rich people appropriating the working mans tax dollars for their own gain. They support corrupt politicians like Kay Granger that will do anything to keep her job and get one for her unqualified son. We have the highest taxes in Texas right here in Fort Worth and as long as every "chosen" one can dip their hand in for a scoop of tax payer money it is going to stay that way.

This is the first of many shady transactions involving the Trinity boondoogle.

Citizens have already seen that this sweetheart deal short changes the tax system that was supposed to help the city.

I, like an earlier commenter, smell a rat in the kitchen

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Mo Money

For the Trinity River Vision.  Check out the Fort Worth City council Agenda for the November 15, 10:00 a.m council meeting, lots of interesting stuff.  Several maps and lots of talk of expediting and increasing costs...

It is recommended that the City Council authorize the execution of Amendment No. 1 in the amount of $1,580,000.00 to City Secretary Contract No. 37013 with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., for water and sanitary sewer main relocations for the Trinity River Vision-Central City Project and the Trinity Uptown City Project and the Trinity Uptown Service Area, Phase 2A on Main Street, Commerce Street, Channel Segment B, White Settlement Road, Beach Street and Gateway Site E, thereby increasing the contract amount to $4,113,113.00.

In order to expedite design and construction of the water and sanitary sewer improvements ahead of the construction of the TRV projects, the proposed water and sanitary sewer relocation project was divided into the following phases,

There is also a partnership for a voluntary clean up at the Police and Fire Training Academy between the TCEQ and the Tarrant Regional Water District.  

That has to be relocated for the Trinity River Vision too.  What's that going to cost? And what will it increase to?  WHO pays?

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How much Love?

People just keep asking about the Woodshed.  In a recent Fort Worth, Texas Magazine article Tim Love says he's going to write an open letter to the state about the bureaucracy of opening restaurants.  He says it's more difficult now and "To open a restaurant now is a minimum half-million dollars, probably $1.5 million. In my opinion, that isn't fair."

Probably?  He's not sure?  Isn't he opening the Woodshed?  People keep asking about the price tag of it, since it sits on Tarrant Regional Water District property.

And if you were wondering, yes, he plugged the Trinity River Vision.

He notes Angelo's Bar-B-Que gets it right and isn't going anywhere.  Too bad all their neighbors are being acquired by eminent domain.  He also mentions Railhead, which happens to be Charlie Geren's restaurant.

In Texas, we keep it in the "family".

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More Dallas and Fort Worth

This time, it's the Trinity River.  If the boondoggle in Fort Worth doesn't work as it should (we're basing that assumption on other things in Fort Worth that don't work like they should) what happens downstream in Dallas?

Check out some comparisons on Durango.

The Dallas project began before the Fort Worth project. The Dallas project has been voted on by the Dallas voters. The Fort Worth project has not been voted on by the Fort Worth voters.

We really liked one of the comments....

Another difference in the project, Dallas media admitted they were misled by the politicians concerning their boondoggle, what?! Misled by a politician, say it ain't so...can you imagine that article in the ST?? Though it won't be the ST that outs it all, it will be a national outlet...how long will the ST stay afloat then?

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Dear Texas Attorney General

It seems some in Tarrant County might need to be taken out behind the Woodshed...

The citizens have taken a special interest in the new Tim Love restaurant on the banks of the Trinity River. They seem to have issue with WHERE all this public money for private profit is coming from.  THEM.

Check out the latest on Durango.  Then, sit tight, more to come.

Beale also told me that the Woodshed cost $1.2 million and that currently three entities, (Tim Love, Tarrant Regional Water District and Trinity River Vision Authority) are at odds over something, which is why the Woodshed sits on the bank of the Trinity River, unopened.

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When NEWS goes bad...

What happens when the newspaper of record in your town gets its marching orders from the downtown money crowd? They forget WHY they are there in the first place.

This is an exchange between a Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist and a local citizen. Other citizens copied in responded too. This is just one example of many, sit tight, more on the way.

What happens to YOUR city when YOUR news is run by your local "governments" and "the industry"?  What happens when people mistake columnists for reporters?  What happens when there is no difference?

Recently, someone wrote that when a news outlet gets all its "news" from politicians and industry, they make themselves irrelevant.  Poignant, isn't it?

Mitch Schnurman recently wrote a column concerning tax abatements, which prompted a letter from the citizen. Schnurman didn't respond. He then wrote one about the TCC boondoggle on the Trinity River which prompted the citizen to follow up. Below is the exchange.

Act 1 - Citizen to Newspaper
To: "mschnurman@star-telegram.com"
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 9:40 AM
Subject: Thoughts

Mitch,

I had a question concerning your recent tax abatement article - while I finally agree with something you say, I wonder why you are upset with the abatement's but not with the $95 million needed for a new fire/police training facility??  Since the council sold this land to the Tarrant Regional Water District, now the taxpayer has to foot the bill once again.  Would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks,
X

Act 2 - Citizen to Newspaper.  Again.

On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 1:49 PM, X wrote:

Although I didn't expect an answer, I would have appreciated one.

Now I just have more questions...

How is the sunken plaza a boondoggle but the Trinity River Vision is not?  The only good thing about TCC is they should walk away with an education, then maybe the next generation will be smarter than selling/sailing our checkbooks down the river.

Also, TCC is leasing space in Haltom City, for I believe - a $1 a year.  Is there not a way they could look for the same deal for an arts center in a nearby city?  With all the vacant space in Tarrant County, there has to be a more affordable choice.

Again, would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks,
X

Act 3 - Another citizen to newspaper.

An excellent point. Why would the city council sell the training academy without first having the funding secured for a new facility?

Will they build it with Certificate of Obligations like the Will Rogers parking garage and without public approval?

Another chapter in the TRV folly that should provoke public outrage.

Act 4 - Another citizen responds

How is the TCC a boondoggle and the TRV is not?
GOOD question. Excellent question!

Answer:  Not a dime’s worth of difference.

We made our maiden voyage to the completed TCC boondoggle yesterday.  Pity bad weather and the poor co-ed and 58 steps from Belknap down to her classroom.

Perhaps as a hotel, with a path all the way to the river, it might have been a fine tourist attraction.  But the college as I and others envisioned when we campaigned for its birth circa 1968 was to be a place where people could be trained in local class rooms to enable them to earn a living.

X can’t get over the fact that all the buildings are what on the farm we used to call lean-tos.  An architect friend called me this morning and asked me when they’re going to straighten them up.

In the words of General MacArthur:  I could not answer.

Act 5 - Finally...a response?  (We have to give him credit for the last line, but do YOU buy it?)

I don't know about the police training center, so I didn't have much to contribute to your thoughts on the subject.

I try to weigh in on issues that I have examined. I am not the beat reporter for TCC, so there is much that I do not follow. As for Haltom City having cheap rent, I don't see that as the issue in North Richland Hills.

The money has already been collected for that project; the question is whether TCC will stick to the original budget (or at least close).

I have written many times about the TRV, and I continue to support it. To rehash all that now is a waste of my time and yours.

I expect to revisit it again, in light of the cuts that are coming in federal spending. Perhaps my view will change then.

Thank you for writing,
Mitchell Schnurman
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Business columnist

Act 6 - Citizen responds to news paper.

Mitch,

I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

My point on TCC may not have been clear, my thoughts were we could use the money and look at other options that would provide what is needed while staying within the budget.  The Haltom City campus was just an example of that.

Concerning TRV, while I realize I am just an average citizen, I am somewhat confused by your response.  If you aren't aware of the police/fire training center, which was another known ripple of the TRV, how can you be in full support of the project?

I realize your employer is a large advocate of the project, however the taxpayers and your customers need advocates too.

Thanks,
X

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Fort Worth Bailed?

Trinity River Improvement Partnership has put together another event for the citizens.  A group of citizens putting together an event for the citizens.  There's a concept.

Seems TRIP figured out a safe and educational way for THE PEOPLE to be able to ask questions of people on both sides of the Trinity River Vision.  The Society of Professional Journalists will be moderating the forum.  Yes, that says PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS.  We can't wait to meet them!

And now the city Representative who confirmed his attendance will not be meeting with the citizens?  His customers.  Some might even say his employers...

WHY???

WHAT does that say to YOU??

WHERE will you be October 12th? ( 6:30 Botanic Garden Lecture Hall )

WHO broke the news?

Durango, WHO else?

This would seem to be a City of Fort Worth attitude holdover from the repressive, non-communicative, un-open, un-democratic Moncrief crony capitalist regime.

Because, as we all know, participating in an open public forum by Fort Worth City Officials is not the Fort Worth Way.

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FINALLY - A reporter in the house?

Lots of them.

Join the Trinity River Improvement Partnership and the Society of Professional Journalists to ask questions from those on both sides of the Trinity River Vision.

YOU aren't going to want to miss this.  YOU can't afford to.  After all, it's YOUR money and YOUR river. 

Please join us -
October 12th @ 6:30 p.m. Botanic Garden, Fort Worth  - Lecture Hall

Panelists include:

Jim Lane - Tarrant Regional Water District Board member and former Fort Worth City Council member.

J.D. Granger - Trinity River Vision Authority Executive Director.

City of Fort Worth Representative - to be announced.

TRIP Board Members and guests  - to be announced.

TRIP would like to thank the SPJFW for cosponsoring this important community event for the citizens.

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What is a Vision?

Blurry Vision

Well, that depends on what dictionary you use.

Guess Trinity River Hallucination doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

Dictionary.com has several to choose from.  

a vivid, imaginative conception or anticipation: visions of wealth and glory.

As for synonyms...

2.  perception, discernment. 4.  apparition, phantasm, chimera. See dream.

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One boondoggle after another...

It's the Fort Worth Way.

This very same writer once told you - "Don't be afraid of the rising cost of Trinity River Vision".  Now he's pissed about the rising cost of TCC?

Really?  Didn't see that coming?

Nothing costs what the "leaders" of the projects say they will.  WHO pays the price?  All of us.

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

TCC's psyche and credibility are still recovering from the fiasco on the bluffs, the downtown construction project whose soaring costs gave the district a black eye. That project, the Trinity River East Campus, finally opened to students last week.

TCC is running away from that number as fast as it can. The figure was a placeholder, not a true estimate, spokesman Frank Griffis said. Indeed, a footnote in the CFO's slide show states that the "construction amounts are only for discussion purposes."

Then how about discussing the original budget number while they were at it?

The three public anchors were supposed to be finished by 2005. But the project hasn't delivered as expected, not with the economic shocks of the past decade. The city extended the time frame, waiting for more development and tax revenue.

But there's no guarantee. And it's more important, politically and economically, that TCC live within its means. If it can't build a nice hall for $8.3 million, it could ask North Richland Hills to throw in a little more.

Maybe, but the problem here isn't the idea of a performing arts center. It's the rising price.

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The Weekly tells you where to go

For the Labor Day Weekend. Take a TRIP out to Glen Rose.

Start Watching - from the Fort Worth Weekly

The Glen Rose Neo-Relix Film Festival has chosen Layla Caraway’s Up A Creek as one of the featured documentaries to be shown on Labor Day weekend.

Production of Up A Creek was sponsored by the Trinity River Improvement Partnership, a collection of local folks with varied political backgrounds who think the Trinity River Vision is just an enormously wasteful economic development project masquerading as flood control — and sucking up all the available local flood-control money along the way. (The price tag is now just over $900 million.)

The experiences that led Caraway to produce the film began in the summer of 2007, when weeks of rain and flooding caused her backyard to fall into Big Fossil Creek. In the same storm, a 4-year-old girl drowned when floodwaters ripped her from her mother’s arms.

Caraway wanted to know why the U.S Army Corps of Engineers couldn’t find money for well-documented flood problems along Big Fossil Creek in Haltom City but had hundreds of millions for the downtown Fort Worth project. Local filmmaker and photographer Bob Lukemon helped make the documentary, which will be screened twice during the Glen Rose festival —on Saturday, Sept. 3, at 2 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 4, at noon. For more information go to http://www.savethetrinityriver.org/.

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Trinity River Irony

The Fort Worth Star Telegram has two articles - one titled, "TCC raises property taxes, tutition".  The other, "Classes begin at TCC Trinity River East Campus".  YOU do the math...

Tarrant County College trustees on Monday adopted an estimated $348.9 million budget for fiscal 2011-12 that raises next year's property taxes for the college district by 8 percent and tuition by 4 percent.

The 4-2 vote came after a public hearing at which five people urged the board to vote against the tax and tuition increases.

"Stop increasing your charges," said Randy Kressler, a Westworth Village councilman.

Several speakers criticized plans for a performing arts center at TCC's Northeast Campus.

"You should abandon it," taxpayer Bill Wright said. "You should lower the tax rate, not increase it."

Students started classes Monday at the Trinity River East Campus, Tarrant County College's new $185 million downtown facility for health professionals.

Bryan Stewart, vice president of teaching and learning services for the entire complex, said about 7,115 students are enrolled at both facilities, with 700 at Trinity River East.

Stewart said there were no traffic issues. College officials began greeting students as they arrived at about 6:30 a.m. to the parking lot off Belknap Street, which has 148 student spaces.

Stewart said that lot filled up at about 9 a.m. so students parked at a garage at the Trinity River Campus and a lot on Henderson Street. He said the nearby parking cycles out about noon, when a different group of students arrives.

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What's more important?

Flooding or recreation?

A program sponspored by the COG and TCEQ.  WHAT could possibly go wrong with that?

A public meeting to discuss the preliminary results of the Recreation Use-Attainability Analysis (RUAA) Study for numerous streams in North Central Texas will be held August 16, 2011. The meeting starts at 1:00 p.m. at the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), Centerpoint II (Tom Vandergriff Conference Center) Regional Forum Room, First Floor. The NCTCOG offices are located at 616 Six Flags Drive, Arlington, Texas 76011.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will be soliciting public comment on a Recreational Use Attainability Analysis Report for a project conducted on streams in the Trinity River basin in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. If you would like to comment on the report or have information on current or past recreation activities occurring on the water body, comments will be accepted until September 9, 2011. The report is located on the TCEQ website at http://www.tceq.texas.gov/waterquality/standards/ruaas/ multitrinity08. Comments can be submitted via email to Joe Martin at Joe.Martin@tceq.texas.gov or mailed to Joe Martin, MC-234, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, TX 78711.

Please share this information with other interested parties.

List of Streams
Sycamore Creek, 0806E
Cottonwood Branch, 0822A
Grapevine Creek, 0822B
Walnut Creek, 0838C
Copart Branch Mountain Creek, 0841E
Cottonwood Creek, 0841F
Dalworth Creek, 0841G
Delaware Creek, 0841H
Estelle Creek, 0841J
Fish Creek, 0841K
Kirby Creek, 0841N
West Irving Creek, 0841U

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Unacceptable

No, not just the new rating on the Trinity River levees in Fort Worth by the Corp of Engineers, but the relationship between the Corp of Engineers and the Tarrant Regional Water District.  You know, those that have partnered with the Trinity River Vision Authority and stand to make a billion or two.  Of YOUR money.

In 2003, the same Corp reported the levees were good, needing only $10 million dollars to fix those that weren't.  WHAT happened in the past 8 years?  Not much, except the cost of the Trinity River Vision skyrocketed.

Yet another ploy in the boondoggle to try and grab more federal money.  Hey project "leaders", the feds don't have any money.  Neither do the citizens that you want to pay for the rest.

As for THE PEOPLE, it's time to get YOUR head out of the sand, and their hand out of YOUR wallet.

Read the latest fluff piece in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Don't miss the comments from THE PEOPLE.  They speak volumes.

The Army Corps of Engineers rated most of the levees along Fort Worth's Trinity River floodways unacceptable Tuesday but said the levee system is among the best-maintained in the country.

Water district board member Marty Leonard expressed confidence in the partnership between the district and the corps.

"I think we've worked so closely with them through the years and still are continuing to do that that we will not have a problem resolving any issues," Leonard said.

Leonard said she believes that many issues brought up in the inspection may be directly addressed by the Trinity River Vision, the flood-control and economic-development project that will run along the Trinity from the near north side to Gateway Park.

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Again, WHO owns the roads?

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram article speaks volumes - HOV lanes in DFW being converted to tollways

"HOV lanes were a stupid idea to begin with, and in practice they have been a disaster," said Coughlin, a real estate broker who lives in downtown Dallas. He said he has never heard an argument in favor of HOV lanes, other than from "the bureaucrats, consultants and blow-up-doll manufacturers who defend it."

And there they are again...
 
"We have recognized over the years that HOV lanes have transitioned beyond their initial purpose," said Dan Lamers, senior program manager for the North Central Texas Council of Governments. 

"The economic advantage of HOV lanes has changed," he said.

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