Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Jerry Jones' Bad Karma Raising An Arlington Super Bowl Stench

7th Haven is a bar on 7th Avenue in Fort Worth, located near Montgomery Plaza. 7th Haven is known for putting clever messages on its sign.

The clever message currently is..

"HOW DID YOU NOT INSTALL
PRE SOLD SEATS ON TIME
BAD WEATHER     LAWSUITS
SMELL THE BAD KARMA JERRY"

I believe the BAD KARMA being referred to, regarding Jerry Jones, is the bad karma generated by the way Jerry Jones came to have his new stadium in Arlington where the Super Bowl was recently played.

To very bad reviews for a lot of reasons.

The Bad Karma arose when Jerry Jones, in collusion with the City of Arlington, colluded to bring about what many believe to be the Worst Case of Eminent Domain Abuse in American history. Dozens of homes and apartment complexes and businesses were taken, for a private business. Thousands of Americans were displaced, forced to move.

Back in 2007, when it was announced that the Dallas Cowboy Stadium had won Super Bowl XLV I opined that despite all the breathless local puffery about this supposed coup, that it was likely not going to turn out the way some of the locals dreamed it would. I said it would not be pretty when the national media gets a look at that giant futuristic spaceship of a stadium, plopped down in a rundown American neighborhood with industrial/urban blight on 2 sides.

As it turned out, the national media was even less pretty than I thought it would be.

Way back when I saw the level of destruction going on in Arlington, with giant piles of rubble, I started webpaging the ongoing Dallas Cowboy Stadium project. I think I started doing this in 2004. I recollect flying to Seattle in 2004 and the flight path taking me directly above the destruction zone, affording me a good picture of the moonscape where previously homes had been.

Over the years the webpage that I came to call The Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal, has generated a lot of comments.

Reading those comments is a good example of the Bad Karma Jerry Jones generated,
with some who believe in such things, thinking that Bad Karma is what caused Super Bowl XLV to be so Blunderful, with Arlington about as likely to get another Super Bowl as Atlanta is likely to get another Olympics.

Below is a small sampling of the comments I've gotten about the Dallas Cowboy Stadium Scandal that give you an idea of the Smell of Jerry Jones' Bad Karma.

I am one of the victims of the Cowboy greed and insensitivity. Thank you so much for putting such a clear voice to the pain so many of us have suffered. Many of us felt so abandoned by the community, there seemed to be no one speaking up for us and what was being done to us. I am still not back to feeling settled and secure. I feel like I'm the victim of a crime, like I have been burglarized, vandalized and raped, with everyone ignoring the crime with the criminals using the corrupt Texas legal system to declare WAR on people's lives and homes. What if it were the homes of the football players and owners that were destroyed? How would they feel about that? The law is supposed to protect the weakest among us, that is what it is supposed to do, not allow the strongest and richest among us to bring destruction to those with no resources to fight back.

Anonymous out of Fear, Mansfield, Texas

So. I read in the NY Times this morning that Dallas is going to make a bid for the 2011 Super Bowl. To atone for this most despicable abuse of eminent domain I've ever read about will the Cowboys be giving free game tickets to the victims of this atrocity? Will former homeowners be able to park for free on the site of their former driveways? Will there be a historical marker on the spot where the home was located of the elderly lady who died of a broken heart in her condemned home?

Seth M., Jersey City, New Jersey

This destruction in Texas is the worst abuse of eminent domain I have ever read about. Such a thing could never happen in my state.

Del S., Portland, Oregon

It shocks me that this can happen in America. It reminds me of the type of disregard for human rights that my former nation of East Germany practiced.

Gunther H., Berlin, Germany

There you have it. The Smell of Jerry Jones' Bad Karma.

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