On the road again

Now that Durango has a new set of wheels, he's been checking out the Trinity River Vision flood control project.

We'll let him tell you.  Sometimes you gotta see it to believe it. 

Well before the Woodshed opened, the visionary J.D. Granger foresaw the need for the more than 700,000 citizens of Fort Worth to have the opportunity to participate in the water sport of wakeboarding in dirty, polluted water.

This coming summer the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle will see the opening of the first new drive-in movie theater in America in decades.

Truly visionary.

Cowtown Wakepark's landscaping appeared to be designed to look totally natural, like most of Fort Worth's freeway exits. Tall grass and weeds. A smattering of litter, for color. A general unkemptness to the look.

It is this weird mentality, in my opinion, that gives rise, in this town, to strange aberrations from the way a normal town operates, giving rise to abominations like the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. A plan hatched by the Good Ol' Boy Network, in cahoots with the local corrupt congresswoman, who got her ne-er do well, unqualified son, the job of running the almost billion dollar project.

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

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.

Wanna Wakeboard?

The Cowtown Wakeboard park, part of the Trinity River Vision "flood" control project in Fort Worth, failed to save anyone from flooding today.  Apparently, it couldn't even save itself.

The Trinity River took back the wakeboard park.  And left a sign of just how clean the river is.  Remember that when they invite you to Tube the Trinity during the Rockin' the River events brought to you by the Trinity River Vision Authority and the Tarrant Regional Water District.

With all the flooding footage today, WHY did you not see any of the wakeboard park?  Ask.

While you're at it, ask what it cost YOU and what it's going to cost YOU to repair it.  After all, it's YOUR money.

Turkey's Ready

Fort Worth Weekly serves up another round of Turkey's.  While Chesapeake takes the cake, there were others we couldn't help but applaud.  Check out the list of WHO made the cut here. 

Virtual Turkey

Last month, the Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP) sponsored a forum at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden to discuss the merits of the $900 million Trinity River Vision project and ask questions about where that money will come from, what the justification for the project is, and what it has to do with flooding and water quality issues. About 125 people showed up, but it was one person missing that stirred the ire of the citizens. J. D. Granger, executive director of TRV, had promised to sit on the panel and give direct answers to those important questions. But at the last minute, he cancelled. The only one to show up on the “pro-TRV” side was a gutsy Jim Lane, a board member of the Tarrant Regional Water District. Lane did his best to answer some of the questions, but the water district is handling only part of the project. The reason given for Granger’s backpedaling was that he realized the event would involve discussing policy, and, shucks, he’s just the hired hand (although he’d known about the format of the event for weeks). But the fact is that Granger is in charge and is one of the few people who can sort out where this multi-agency project is going. Canceling at the last minute just doesn’t cut it. Maybe voters should drop him from their holiday invitation list. Oh, wait. That’s right. He’s not an elected official.

Eww, Don’t Talk About That at Dinner

This past summer, the Trinity River Vision produced several concerts on the river, with the audience floating on inner tubes while listening to the music. TRV also promoted a wakeboard park, where boarders would be pulled around a retention pond on the river by a whirling cable. It was all part of an effort to get Cowtowners more comfortable using the river, which many thought of as a big ditch full of debris and bacteria. But did TRV test the water to see if it was safe? No, they said they were relying on state-provided data. Journalists at WFAA-TV/Channel 8 decided to do the testing themselves. They found that several sections of the river –– including the concert area for the tubers –– had double to triple the amount of harmful bacteria that the EPA considered a safe level.

Most notable was the presence of E. coli, which comes from, um, human waste.

TRV officials never really explained why they didn’t test before they urged people to jump in but indicated they would get to it at a later date. Warning: Don’t eat any turkey served up by these folks.

Trinity River Vision Unraveling

First, in Dallas.

And a man being threatened with his livelihood for telling the truth and saving lives.  Hey Fort Worth, any of this sound familiar yet?  Wait till they start asking questions on this end of the Trinity River.

Read, Drowning the Whistleblower on the Doomed Trinity River Wave in the Dallas Observer. 

Again, you can't make this stuff up.

For two weeks I have been trying to get someone at City Hall to tell me who is responsible for the unbelievably screwed-up man-made kayaking rapids in the river.

And then the money. The thing started out at a planned cost of $1.5 million. The city now has invested more than $4 million. The park board voted last week to spend another $76,000 to pay an engineering firm to find out what's wrong with it. Then I assume we'll have to pay some more to fix it.

 "The design was a team approach with various civil, structural, and hydraulic designers as well as planners and landscape architects, local and out of state."

Now what we have is a mess that can't be used, from which the public is barred, at a cost already four times the original estimate, with the cost of litigation about to be added to the tab.

The week before the wave was to be opened to the public, I wrote a column quoting Allen. I suspect the appearance of that column had a lot to do with the city's very belated decision to close the wave to the public the same day they held the dedication ceremony.

Since then, Allen, who earns his living renting out canoes and guiding, has been the target of what I can only describe as a City Hall vendetta. The city attorney recently notified Allen by letter that he will be arrested if he enters the park area around the Dallas Wave in order to launch canoeing parties downriver from a place below the wave.

TRV aka - Kay's Swamp

That is the title of the email we received.  Read along and remember, it could happen to YOU.

TRV HAS WON! After being near downtown for 58 years...

ALLIED FENCE IS MOVING ON JUNE 17, 18, 19th.

I have served my country, worked for my dad, Bill, all my life in the fence business.  The pressure and loss of sleep has taken its toll on me.  TRV will pay for one move, not two!  They will not give me time to build a new place.  TRV says, "Go, Go, Get out now".  So now I will be out about $50,000 to move, they don't care - get out!!  This is what you don't see in the paper or on the news.  Why not??

Good question.  WHY doesn't the "news" report on the existing businesses being railroaded by the Trinity River Vision?  Ask them.  NOW.

If your friends jumped off a bridge...

Would you?

With the Trinity River Vision Authority tube the Trinity Happy Hour float kicking off today, we thought it was appropriate to remind you WHY you don't want in the Trinity River.
Next time the Tarrant Regional Water District or the Trinity River Vision Authority tells you to "jump on in" or Tube the Trinity River, remember this...and this...and this.

Don't buy the BS.  YOU can't afford it.

We like the new Tarrant Regional Water District logo.  (Wonder what that rebranding cost YOU?)  Looks a lot like the Trinity River Improvement Partnership logo.  We're sure it's just a coiencidence.

Double take

Check out the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and the Fort Worth Mayor Boondoggle on Durango.

The picture alone is worth it.

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.