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

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.

Coming soon to a sewer near YOU

If you didn't see the History Channel show, America's Crumbling Infrastructure, you should.

You should also read the article on Yahoo.com, US Cities struggle to control sewer overflows.  

And remember it next time appointed and elected officials want you to Tube the Trinity River.  Thousands of these overflows happen yearly.  When you neglect the infrastructure that is at least a century old and was built for the population of that time, WHAT did you think would happen?

At least some of the rubbish had drifted across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee, a vivid reminder that many cities still flush nasty stuff into streams and lakes during heavy storms, fouling the waters with bacteria and viruses that can make people seriously ill.

Costs are reaching hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars.

She was shocked to learn that federal law lets cities discharge untreated sewage when their plants and storage facilities are flooded.

"It was maddening that they had permission to do this and we had to live with the consequences," Rodwell said.

The ultimate goal is zero overflows, but officials don't expect to get there until about 2035 because it will require being able to handle the kind of flooding that previously happened rarely but is becoming more common.

One partial solution gaining popularity with cities is "green infrastructure" — natural and man-made features that enable more water to soak into the ground instead of washing into storm drains and creeks. Stoner and Giles of EPA instructed field staff last year to incorporate green features into storm water and sewer permits as much as possible.

"Cities have had decades to deal with this problem," Welch said. "We need firm deadlines and we need strong enforcement so it can finally be solved."

Fuzzy math...and water

The Fort Worth Business Press recently did an article on the recent meeting concerning the Texas water shortage.  Yes, "leaders" finally admit there is one.  (Remember back when the Biz Press was concerned about water?)

The article says Texas business could lose hundreds of billions of dollars due to having no water.  Don't worry, the Trinity River Vision will save us.  Or not.

Notice what they say about Proposition 2 and general obligation bonds.  Remember, you don't get to vote on those either.

State representatives and city officials convened for the Oct. 20 gathering, where a DFW Hyatt Regency ballroom echoed with urgency.

Officials hammered home some startling facts. Unless more water infrastructure is built, Texas businesses and their employees could lose $115.7 billion in income, according to figures released by the Texas Water Development Board.

If approved by voters, the constitutional amendment would allow the Texas Water Development Board to issue general obligation bonds for water infrastructure upgrades.

“Water is really about economics"

You can say that again.

What did he say??

Did a former city councilman just blame the residents for the streets not getting repaired??

This while in the Business Press another council member says "Hicks and other council members expressed frustration at gaining constituent support for past bond propositions only to see the fruits of those promises delayed or disappear."

Read the letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Then, write your own.

Mayor Price wants someone for a Transportation Project job.  Wonder WHO that will be?  Surely no one with ties to the 7th street gang...

Street improvements

The Star-Telegram's Sept. 1 editorial ("Street monster threatens to eat FW council alive") was interesting. Bemoaning the city's $1 billion need for street and road improvements, and blaming prior City Council inaction, the editorial proceeded with the opinion that today's economic climate should excuse residents from being subjected to taxes or fees necessary to solve the problem.

Road neglect is due in large part to residents' previous cries for other services and a lower tax rate. The council's responses were budgetary policy decisions that confirm that you can't have everything. Couple that history with the fact that city costs continue to increase each year, and it becomes obvious that even the same city services cannot be continued at the same tax rate forever.

Hence last year's proposal for a dedicated transportation utility fee (tax) in order to remove the risk that such funds could be diverted to satisfy nontransportation demands.

Hopefully, those complaining tomorrow over transportation needs will remember the council's recent decision to spare them from more taxes, a dodge that will cause the city to pay more in the future when an improving economy will push construction costs 15 percent to 20 percent higher. The "monster" will not get easier to slay.

-- Carter Burdette, Fort Worth

Texas is broke...

In more ways than one.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has an interesting column on our debt growing faster than Washington's.  Still think sending Perry to DC is a good idea?

Yet, we can't fund education...does anyone see the connection here?

Notice the creation in new government bodies (how much did that cost?) to oversee the transportation projects, rather the Tollways that foreign companies want.

While Texas lawmakers have refused to raise taxes -- and often criticize Washington for borrowing and spending -- the state has been paying for much of its expansion with borrowed money.

That increase was largely due to the North Texas Tollway Authority's issuance of $6.5 billion in debt.

Two government bodies, created to oversee transportation projects, sold $2.5 billion in bonds last year, including funds for the North Tarrant Express project.

"Maybe you're not paying for it now, but your children or grandchildren will."

Some would argue that long-term investments, such as highways and university buildings, will be serving future generations, too.

Let's hope so, because everyone is on the hook for them.

What was the plan again?

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram touts the new Trinity River plan in 2003.  Makes you miss Silcox, doesn't it?

You are invited

Yes, we know it's short notice.  And it's during the day.  And it's at the TCC sunken money pit fiasco and it's in the "Energy" Auditorium.  Go anyway.  It's sure to be entertaining. 

What does the Trinity River Vision have to do with computer classes?  Maybe they'll teach you how to turn the water blue and edit out the trash for photo ops.

Another Trinity River Vision Nightmare

No we aren't talking about the Fort Worth billion dollar boondoggle, we're talking downstream in Dallas.  However, the story is eerily similar.  Exchange the word, rafting for Wakeboarding. And Trinity Commons Foundation for Trinity River Vision Authority, or Streams and Valleys.
Just one more "disaster waiting to happen."  Read the Dallas Observer for the latest fiasco.  Will someone tell the politicians to please quit jacking with OUR river?  And quit wasting OUR money.
Kudos to Jim Schutze!

The "Standing Wave" is a $4 million-plus kayaking feature that the city recently installed in the Trinity River, and it's a failure. It's ugly. It's dangerous. It's an insult to the river.

Instead it's another sickening example of how the multibillion dollar Trinity River project is being handled—top-down, with no community involvement or consultation, driven entirely by people whose idea of a river experience is rafting down the Colorado with a guide, a chef and a guitarist.

If the kids didn't have life jackets on, they might drown. If they did have life jackets on, they would still get pushed underwater in one of the most toxic rivers in the state.

 All they know is that the Trinity Commons Foundation—the private socialite club promoting the overall Trinity River Project—has been flouncing around strewing rose petals and singing the praises of the Standing Wave, which they say is the first evidence of progress on the overall 20-year-old multibillion dollar Trinity River project.

We have been blessed with a beautiful river. We need to stop trying to tell the river what to do, be quiet, and listen to the river's real voice.

Roundabout alright...

The Trinity River Vision is still going in circles...

Read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article about the bridge delay and the roundabout.  We'll share Howie's comments with you below.  They might just make your day. 

And we have a question, WHY is the wakeboard park the first part of this project?  How many lives will be protected from flooding by a wakeboard park?  WHO asked for a wakeboard park?  THE PEOPLE?  THE VOTERS?  Yeah, that's what we thought.  Talk about going in circles...

Here's a good quote from the article, what's wrong with this picture?

The new Henderson Street bridge will not replace the one over the Trinity River. It will span a bypass channel that will be completed after the bridges are built.

"Howie's comment" -
From a future Startle-Gram newspaper:

"TRINITY RIVER VISION OPEN TO PUBLIC"

Fort Worth, TX --- The long awaited Trinity River Vision development was unveiled at a ceremony on Tuesday, April 5th, 2057, at the Kay Granger Memorial Roundabout, Mayor Mikey Moncrief, great grandson of former mayor Mike Moncrief, presented a key to the city to Granger's own great grandson, Grady Granger, Jr., who is president of the TRV project's board of directors. The project's final cost was $536 billion dollars. Cost to taxpayers was $500 billion. "It was well spent tax payer money," Granger gushed as he used a big fake pair of scissors to cut the ceremonial ribbon that stretched from one side of the roundabout to the other. Protesters, who were kept inside a pig pen one mile away as required by state law, demanded transparency and a federal investigation into waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money. "We're positive the taxpayers are getting their money's worth," Granger quipped while getting a high five from Moncrief III.

Trinity River Vision Funding

There ain't any.

Oh, besides YOU, dear taxpayers.

Read about it in the Fort Worth Business Press.  YOU can't afford to miss it.  Neither can your kids.

Meanwhile the costs mount and the availability of funds is more in question than ever. The total environmental remediation cost was estimated at $22 million back in 2004. Now the cost of cleaning up a single parcel is estimated to cost $42 million. That will make any developer think twice about digging a canal through known contaminated ground.

While flood control is a mechanism for obtaining federal funding, the reality is that the project substantially increases the potential of flooding downstream. That’s the reason for increasing valley storage area in Tarrant County. The flood potential for the 800 acre development area has always been close to zero.

 How long will this project take? Is the expected $1 billion tax base worth a $3 billion investment? Be assured that the $1 billion cost now will escalate to at least $3 billion over the next thirty to forty years of construction and development. This whole project rests on political manipulation of taxpayer dollars.

Remember a few of the Star-Telegram editorials and other articles? “Taking the long view – will North Central Texas have enough water for 13 million – that’s 13 million – people?” (7/10/05), Army Corps of Engineers – A flood of bad projects (5/28/06), “Earmarks crackdown puts squeeze on Trinity Uptown” (4/14/07), “Tax money flows to the river” (7/19/09), “Trinity Uptown plan is flawed” (8/02/09),

Is there a major company or political entity in this world (barring Fort Worth and Tarrant Regional Water District) that would hire [a] lawyer from the district Attorney’s office to head up a major development project of this magnitude and scope? Of course not. So why do we, as a community of generally visionary and accomplished business and political entities, support such a boondoggle?

Money and Education

Good letters to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this week. 

Our guess is the politicians think if we spend less on education, it will be easier to take the citizens for a ride, while picking their pockets.  Educate yourself.  Someone has to protect our kids. Otherwise they are going to grow up broke, uneducated with no air to breathe and no water to drink.

We the people have disappointed God and our children. We build billion-dollar stadiums, and now we cannot pay for our schools. We worship rock stars and athletes and allow politicians and the media to demonize our educators.

We give tax breaks to the wealthy, and yet we begrudge our educators wanting an income level decent enough to house our families and provide a college education for our children.

Republicans promised us jobs, but they never told us they were going to do away with our jobs. Instead of talking cuts and what we are going to do without, can't we figure out a way to save our jobs, our education system and our middle class?

-- Joyce A. Powell, Bedford

A fee is a tax

I would like to see a law that says whenever anyone in government announces that the government is "investing" in anything, they will be subject to a $1,000 fine.

The government never invests our money; it spends it. Investing requires a return above the investment. The government never has a return on money spent.

Same goes with fees. When the government requires you to pay a fee, it's a tax, plain and simple.

I wonder if people would finally realize how much they actually pay in taxes if they saw the word "tax" instead of "fee." Same thing, but "fee" sounds so much nicer.

-- Brent Beal, Keller

Way with words

We don't know him, but he made us all laugh.

Read it in the Letters to the Editor, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Bedside manner

In the Jan. 12 Star-Telegram, Gov. Rick Perry said he doesn't see a fiscal catastrophe striking Texas anytime soon. That's good news, because I had thought the state's multibillion-dollar shortfall might be a problem.

Have you seen the Sprint commercial where the smarmy, it's-all-about-me doctor is more concerned with his cellphone bill than with his patient, a terrified football player with a shattered knee?

Perry is that doctor.

You're the jock on the table.

-- John Dycus, Arlington