Sunday, August 30, 2009

Put your boots on, it's getting deep - Part 1

Last week the Fort Worth Business Press did yet another article on the Trinity River boondoogle. (See what Durango had to say about that here.)

There were several things that stood out to us too - last month the Trinity River Vision was blurring the lines of reality with their new $880 million dollar price tag. This month it's at $909 million. Not to worry though that's in 2021 dollars. No one knows what a dollar will be worth this year, let alone then.

And why would a project that spends thousands upon thousands for promotional parties with slick shiny brochures, and travels to see and steal other city ideas, be increasing the cost of their project when they are downsizing the scope? The lake has shrunk, the designer bridges are gone and yet the price continues to rise.

Why? Well the following could be one reason:

The board was interested in adding in bypass channel improvements – trees, landscaping and other architectural enhancements – that would add about $29.4 million to the project cost.

These improvements would be the responsibility of local funding and would increase the costs of the project to $909.6 million in 2021 dollars. According to J.D. Granger, executive director of the project, TRVA board members have said they want to push forward with the improvements.

So the board wants to "push forward with the improvements" that cost nearly $30 million dollars and they want local funding to pay for it? What if those locally don't want to pay for it? Some things never change here.

We've also mentioned before that everything seems to be "in the way" of TRV (90 businesses and Carter Ave) . Now its Union Pacific Railroad. They got out of the way for $5 million. Hey, it's only your money.

We love how the "trained" journalists continue to call this project "flood control", when they know as well as the public, everything that floods now, will flood when the boondoogle is done. And then some.

The Biz Press article says in May 2008 the Corp of Engineers decided to combine the river project with Gateway Park (wait, the same Gateway Park Don Young just told us about becoming a gas field? Ah, the smell of revenue). However in a January 2008 article the Fort Worth Business Press stated that on January 4th of that year, the Corp of Engineers released its SEIS detailing the combination. Randle Harwood, Trinity River Vision Director for the city of Fort Worth (how much does he make and WHO pays it?) claimed he asked the Corp to look at combining. "Harwood said the new SEIS solves many problems, one of the largest being flood water storage". He goes on to say"...but in 2006 we realized the flood storage benefits of Gateway and asked the Corp of Engineers to look into it".

So WHO asked for WHAT, WHEN exactly? WHY? Because funding wasn't available without the word "flood"?

J.D. Granger goes on to say that the public wants it. What public? WHO? When did the public get a vote?

Of course Kay B. Hutchison is a key supporter, she is running for governor. She wants the downtown 7th Street crowds support. That's how things work in Cowtown, it's the Fort Worth Way.

Why do you think no reporters have cracked this wide open and told the truth yet?

Comparing Alliance to TRV was a stretch as well. Alliance didn't build anything in the middle of a river.

Bolen claims there are a few very vocal people against public money for private development. We can assure him, there are more than a few.

He then goes on to say “And the same is true for the Trinity River Vision. It will make that property at the north end of the city so valuable. You won’t believe how much that property will be worth when it’s finished".

Huh, and all this time we thought this project was about flood control?

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