A Special Letter From My Good Friend Kay Granger Clearing Up The Trinity River Vision Lack Of Clarity

Ever since I became friends with J.D. Granger I've also become friends with J.D.'s mom, Kay.

Kay Granger is Fort Worth's Congresswoman, representing the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy in the House of Representatives.

Yesterday I got a letter from my good friend, Kay, clarifying some questions I had regarding funding issues regarding the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Below is Kay's letter. And below that I continue with my pithy comments. If I can think of any....

May 20, 2011

Dear Friend,

Since coming to Congress I have worked on a prominent urban waterfront project called Trinity River Vision.  Recently, I have been asked questions about a funding issue regarding this project.  Please pass this on should you hear of anyone who needs clarification.

“The TRV Project has increased my water bill.”

Six years ago, the City of Fort Worth added a “Storm Water Fee” to the City water bill.  Not a single cent of that fee goes to the TRV project.  The fee is to make improvements to the drainage system throughout the entire city.

“How much money does the City of Fort Worth pay for the TRV Project?”

The City of Fort Worth committed $26.6 million to the Trinity River Vision project.  This amount has not changed since the start of this project – and is not expected to increase.  Of the City of Fort Worth’s $26.6 million contribution, $16 million has already been acquired through two bond elections.  The remaining amount committed by the City of Fort Worth has been budgeted within the city’s revenue fund, and does not compete with any street repairs or other initiatives.

“Is the TRV project funding Trolley Cars?”

Like the majority of Fort Worth’s inner city, the Trinity River Vision Uptown Plan has been designed with future mass transit in mind.  However, not a single dollar of the project cost is allocated to funding a trolley or street car line.

Trinity River Vision will bring 16,000 jobs to our community and add $1.1 billion to our tax base when it is completed.  It is important that you have all the facts.  As always, please continue to ask questions and I will make sure you have all the information.

Sincerely,

Kay Granger

_______________________________________________

Well.

I found several things interesting in the letter from my friend, Kay.

Kay says, "Like the majority of Fort Worth’s inner city, the Trinity River Vision Uptown Plan has been designed with future mass transit in mind."

The majority of Fort Worth's inner city has been designed for something? Who knew? What a revelation. Who is it who designed Fort Worth's inner city with future mass transit in mind? And where can we see these things that have been designed?

Regarding funding for the TRV Boondoggle, Kay says, "Of the City of Fort Worth’s $26.6 million contribution, $16 million has already been acquired through two bond elections."

What?

There have been bond elections relating to the TRV Boondoggle? The people of Fort Worth got to vote on this pet project of the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy? How did I miss two votes? I thought I paid fairly close attention to what goes on in these parts. How did I miss 2 bond elections which related to the TRV Boondoggle?

So, went to the go to person for such questions, Clyde Picht.

Mr. Picht told me, "There was $4.5 million in the 2004 bond program and $22.2 million in the 2008 bond program. In 2008, $12 million was for 7th St bridge and $10.2 million was for TRV bridges. Total cost of TRV expected to be $86 million with remainder from Federal grants. The 2004 TRV proposition is the one that proponents said indicated public support for the whole TRV project."

So. These were not actually votes on the TRV Boondoggle. And, a vote in 2004, on a bond program worth only $4.5 million, is the vote that TRVB proponents cite as indicating the Fort Worth public's support for the almost $1 billion Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?

Apparently I missed the connection between these two bond votes and the TRVB. I suspect I was not the only one who missed the connection, even if I am more dense than most.

My good friend Kay says since coming to Congress she has worked on a prominent urban waterfront project called Trinity River Vision.

Kay came to Congress in 1997. The Trinity River Vision did not exist in 1997. When it was born it was called something like Trinity Uptown. The vision came along sometime in the following century.

Is it Kay who started the Trinity Uptown/Trinity River Vision Boondoggle project? Started the project as soon as she got to Congress in 1997? And then, a couple years later, the project she had been working on, gets introduced to the Fort Worth public?

Was this Kay's master plan from the start? A designed to grow ever-bigger, massive, federally funded public works project to build a little lake, take down some perfectly good levees, build an un-needed flood diversion channel plus a wakeboard lake so the people of Fort Worth can finally take up wakeboarding.

And, most importantly, to give her unqualified son, J.D., a job managing Kay's public works project.

At one point in time, the vision included some canals and real cool designer bridges, which are now pedestrian bridges (by pedestrian I mean ordinary, not foot traffic only)?

Among the many things about the TRVB that has perplexed me is this. How is it that as the TRVB project grows more expensive it loses more and more of what was originally sold to the public as the Trinity River Vision?

Like those canals? And those cool designer bridges. Somehow, we went from something possibly unique, to the world's premiere wakeboard lake and 80,000 magic trees in Gateway Park designed to save Arlington from flooding. According to J.D.

It is all perplexing. Including this perplexing letter from my good friend, Kay.

Betsy Price & Kay Granger In Louis Tussaud's Palace Of Wax In Grand Prairie

Someone Anonymous sent me the picture of the two wax figures you see in the photo.

Anonymous claimed this is a new installation at Louis Tussaud’s Palace of Wax in the Ripley's Believe It or Not complex in Grand Prairie.

The wax figure on the left, holding what appears to be an adult beverage, is Fort Worth's soon to be new mayor, Betsy Price.

The wax figure standing next to Betsy is the Queen of the Fort Worth Ruling Oligarchy, Kay Granger.

Kay Granger is Fort Worth's Congresswoman.

It was Kay Granger who asked Betsy Price to be Fort Worth's next mayor. Betsy Price supports one of Kay Granger's pet pork barrell projects, the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. It is important to Kay Granger to continue to have a mayor of Fort Worth who supports her pet pork barrell projects.

The TRVB project is particularly important to Kay Granger because she had her ne'er do well son, J.D., installed as the manager of the project, even though J.D. had no experience overseeing a giant public works project that involved building the world's premiere wakeboarding lake, taking down perfectly good levees, buidling bridges, laying streetcar lines, abusing eminent domain, digging an un-needed flood diversion channel and building a little pond, affectionately known locally as the Kay Granger Puddle.

Does the Louis Tussaud Palace of Wax have a wax figure of Fort Worth's current mayor, Mike Moncrief? Are all these wax figures in a room called "Scary Looking Local Politicians?"

I've not been to Louis Tussaud's Palace of Wax or the Grand Prairie Ripley's Believe it or Not. I don't know if seeing Betsy Price and Kay Granger, rendered in wax form, is enough of a draw to cause me to make my first visit.

The Tandy Hills Sprouts A New Wildflower With Me Pondering Fort Worth's Various Scandals

A couple wildflowers made their first appearance of the year on the Tandy Hills today. With one of the two being the pink wildflower you see on the left.

It was very cloudy and windy when I hiked the hills around noon. There was no Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man today.

But now, 3 hours later, shadows have returned, with the removal of most of the clouds.

Change of subject.

The Paradise Center Scandal is wearing me down. I thought when I made a blog, just for the Paradise Center Scandal, that the comments would go there. Instead there are a lot of nasty con and nice pro comments still coming to this blog. As well as the new one.

Yesterday someone called Jessie Girl commented on the the Paradise Center Scandal blog, to a blogging titled "Scandal Madness Fan is Appalled at the Lack of Civility and Decency of the MHMR Cons," asking "Just one quick question. What is the scandal? I'm confused."

I thought way back on March 4 County Commission Gal did a pretty good job of breaking down the MHMR-Gate/Paradise Center Scandal.

In many ways the Paradise Center Scandal is a worse scandal than Watergate. No one was actually hurt in Watergate, except for the perpetrators of the break-in and those who tried to cover up the crime. In the Paradise Center Scandal you have actual victims who have suffered damage due to the perpetrator's bad, likely illegal, behavior.

Unlike Watergate, the city where the Paradise Center Scandal took place has no real newspaper of the Washington Post sort.

And Fort Worth definitely has no Woodward and Bernstein in town doing any sort of investigative reporting regarding the wanton wrongdoing perpetrated by MHMR of Tarrant County.

Maybe the Washington Post could send a reporter or two to Fort Worth. In addition to learning about the Paradise Center Scandal the rest of America would likely find it interesting that Fort Worth has a mayor who has made millions of dollars from the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers poking holes all over the town of which he is mayor.

Maybe the Washington Post could find a way to explain to the people of Fort Worth what a conflict of interest is.

After telling the story of Fort Worth's corrupt mayor the Washington Post might want to tell the rest of America about Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision and explain what nepotism is to the people of Fort Worth.

I would think the rest of America would be a bit surprised to learn that their tax dollars are helping fund a huge, unneeded public works project.

And that Fort Worth's Congresswoman Kay Granger's son, J.D., was given the job of running this huge public works project, a job for which he had no qualifications.

But those who practice what is known as 'The Fort Worth Way" figured it would make the congresswoman beholden to them if they gave her son a job, with Ms. Granger getting behind sending some earmark money to help fund Fort Worth's unfunded Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.

Unfortunately for the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, that earmark funding method is not working out too well.

Meanwhile, J.D. Granger has been having himself a real fine time on the public's dime, with fine dining, junkets, parties, expensive hotel rooms, a steady supply of liquor and all sorts of other perks.

I wish my mom was a congresswoman so she could get me a cool job with lots of booze and broads.

Not really.

The Trinity River Vision's Slick Propaganda Brochure Raises A Lot Of Questions About The Cost Of Signs, Junkets, Websites, Parties & Booze

Speaking of wasteful government spending. Here in Fort Worth, it being the city that is the Envy of the Nation, we have the biggest public works project in the history of the planet, underway, known as the Trinity River Vision. Sometimes referred to as TRV. Or simply The Boondoggle.

The Boondoggle is currently about a Billion Dollar Boondoggle. Some of that billion is federal money. Which means you who don't live in the Best City in America are helping pay for The Boondoggle. The TRV Boondoggle has all sorts of amazing things going on.

To help inform the Citizens of Fort Worth as to the current amazing status of the TRV Boondoggle, apparently, it was decided a mass mailing would get that job done.

Because today in my mailbox I found a very slick, full color, 4 page brochure titled TRINITY RIVER VISION UPDATE. The 4 page brochure was folded into the 3-fold mailer you see at the top. With my address on it. Please do not use that information to make an uninvited visit.

The brochure, when opened, was too big to be able to scan the entire thing in my scanner. So, I scanned pieces of the brochure for your reading pleasure.

Above is the top part of the front page of the TRV Update brochure. I thought it was real interesting that there was an article on this page titled, "CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT IS PARAMOUNT TO THE PROJECT."

You who live in cities which are not the Envy of the Nation may be surprised to learn that the biggest public works project in the History of the World came about without the good Citizens of the City of Fort Worth getting to vote on the project.

Getting to vote on something seems to me to be sort of key to CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT, particularly if that involvement is paramount to the project.

The above is from the 2nd page of the brochure. Part of the Trinity River Vision's vision has been to see Fort Worth having the premier wakeboarding facility in the world.

About the Wakepark, the esteemed visionary, J.D. Granger has said,  “Cowtown Wakepark will be one of the shining stars of the dynamic improvements happening on the Trinity River right now. We are very excited to have teamed up with the best people in the field of wakeboarding and we are working diligently to help make Cowtown Wakepark the premiere wakeboarding facility in the world. We want everybody in Fort Worth to be able to experience the fun of Wakeboarding, and Cowtown makes it affordable for everyone in Fort Worth to take up the sport.”

How lucky is Fort Worth that the town's Congresswoman, Kay Granger, had a son who wasn't doing anything, who was willing to run the TRV Boondoggle. In Fort Worth we don't know anything about nepotism because of the city law against words with more than 3 syllables. I have lost track of the number of Excess Syllables Tickets I've gotten from the City of Fort Worth Word Police.

The above piece of the TRV Brochure is from the top part of page 3. It shows a Natural Stone Outfall and Boat Launch. The picture shows a lot of people with inner tubes and no boats. I believe last summer we learned that part of the TRV Boondoggle's vision was classifying inner tubes as boats. J.D. Granger has promised many more Trinity River Inner Tube Happy Hour Boating Parties, next summer.

The above is from the top of the back page of the brochure, showing TRV Out on the Town, including a picture of a few of the over 2,500 people who toured a Portland streetcar when it sat on one of the Sundance Square parking lots.

I don't know why no pictures are shown of any of the many TRV out of town junkets and drinking parties.

I can't help but wonder how much this 4 page, full color 14" by 8.5" brochure cost to produce and mail.

How much is the TRV Boondoggle spending on its very well done website?

I've wondered previously how much the TRV signage I've seen in Gateway Park cost. Which is also the question I asked when I was appalled at the incredible amount of TRV signage I saw along the Trinity Trail when I checked out the Cowtown Wakepark.

Does another of Kay Granger's kids have the TRV Boondoggle sign concession?

What is the total Granger family take from the TRV Boondoggle, I can't help but wonder?

How much have all those junkets to other cities cost? Junkets, the purported purpose of which, was to look at other town's river projects. You know, information likely gleaned easily via the Internet, but with the TRV Boondoggle, it involves junkets with multiple TRV employees taken along for the fun, which involved a lot of expensive restaurant eating and booze consumption.

I've received a couple emails in recent days, very cryptically suggesting that there is some dissension in the TRV Boondoggle ranks, which has upset J.D. Granger. My guess is that someone privy to the inner workings of the TRV Boondoggle objected to some objectionable things. With J.D. Granger unable to explain whatever he was hoping to explain. Like maybe his latest expense account submission? Or not being able to adequately explain exactly what it was he was doing over in Dallas on some very specific days. Tied to credit card charges.

Shouldn't  the amount of money the TRV is spending on brochures, signage, junkets, restaurants, parties and booze be part of the public record? Why is this entity getting away with acting as if it is not a public agency open to public scrutiny?

It is all very very perplexing.