More "so-called" Visions

For Downtown Fort Worth.  Does downtown know there is an entire city out there?  How does a non-profit "oversee" downtown?

We can't wait to hear WHO will be donating their time to head the committee, receiving nothing in return.

Read the article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, be sure and read the comments from THE PEOPLE.  Some made us laugh, this being one of them:

The "vision" is the continued looting of the taxpayers for the financial benefit of a few fat cats and politicians.  How about a vision of I-35W that doesn't look like a two lane parking lot?

In January, hundreds of "visionaries" will begin the yearlong process of designing the fourth, 10-year master plan for downtown Fort Worth.

Downtown residents, business and property owners, civic and government leaders and representatives from surrounding neighborhoods will be asked to participate in so-called visioning sessions conducted by Downtown Fort Worth Inc.

The process has worked well in the past, so Andy Taft, president of Downtown Fort Worth Inc., a nonprofit advocacy group that oversees downtown, decided to continue it.

Right on the Money

A letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram speaks volumes.  There's no abundance of water but while the city goes broke, the Tarrant Regional Water District and the Trinity River Vision Authority seem to have an abundance of money.  Someone should ask the gas drillers and the politicians where they got it? 

Trinity travails

Tubing on the Trinity, skiing on the Trinity, wakeboarding on the Trinity, kayaking on the Trinity -- we have all this while area lake levels are dropping at what should be an alarming rate.

Please tell me I'm not the only lifelong resident of Fort Worth who remembers when crossing the Trinity most summers meant not getting your feet wet.

The Trinity River Vision in conjunction with the Tarrant Regional Water District is wasting our most precious resource by creating the illusion of an abundance of water in downtown Fort Worth.

By now, economic development by the water district should be considered a clear conflict of interest. How do you draw new business into a region where lake levels are at double-digit lows, where they will be soon, and where future water resources are a question mark?

Tubing on the Trinity is not the answer.

-- Keith Charles, Fort Worth

Downtown Fort Worth Inc. Speaks out

Read their Letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  While we don't always agree with them, we enjoyed their letter to Mitch.

Being responsible

Downtown Fort Worth Inc. was characterized in Mitch Schnurmann's Sunday column as throwing "roadblocks" in front of the streetcar initiative. (See: "City should trust its vision on streetcars.")

If the definition of "roadblock" is asking questions, bothering to actually look at the numbers behind the conclusions, pointing out shortcomings and sharing with advocates and policymakers that not everyone is ready to jump on board and roll down the tracks just yet, then that characterization was correct. DFWI representatives and members shared concerns with advocates clearly and openly. We supported moving to study phase three.

But we also were representing downtown property owners who had the streetcar plan in hand for all of two weeks and only last week received the recently minted update. The facts were still wet on the printed page.

If asking questions and speaking out are defined as raising roadblocks, then we need another definition for the word "responsible."

-- Andy Taft, president,
Downtown Fort Worth Inc.

Maybe

The Trinity River Vision will fix this flooding on the Trinity River by Bell Helicopter, where it floods frequently.  Oh wait, that's not downtown.

Thanks to our readers for some great pics!

Another view

Check out the Whited Sepulchre for some good Fort Worth 9-12 rally pics.

He gets it. It's not about him, Glenn Beck or any political party. It's all about the greater good.

Save a River, Save a Billion

We were sent some great pictures from the 9-12 rally in downtown Fort Worth today. Lots of creative signs and T-shirts out there.

They had a huge turnout. People as far as you could see. We wonder how much bigger it might have been if it hadn't rained all day?

Though even with the rains, they came. Not as Republicans or Democrats, as Americans. Concerned citizens. People banding together to have a voice.

Where were YOU?

Below is I-35 South earlier today, under water. We wonder if Trinity Uptown will fix that? (Notice the gas drill directly in front of the car.)

Highways are shut down all over the county due to flooding. We are currently under a Flood Warning. We are sure it's part of the Trinity River Vision to "fix flooding".

How can it not be?

Rain or Shine

We'll see you downtown Saturday.

Where will YOU be?

Some of us here are Republicans. Some, Democrats.
Some wouldn't claim either party...

All of us will be downtown Saturday.

Will you?