Thursday, February 7, 2013

Taking A Fort Worth Risk Walking In A Town With A Sidewalk Shortage

Sidewalk Free Bridgewood Drive
 A couple days ago I found myself freshly annoyed regarding the town of Fort Worth's disgraceful neglect regarding installing sidewalks along side way too few of Fort Worth's streets.

I can, maybe, understand not worrying about sidewalks on side streets. But no sidewalks on main roads? Like 4 lane roads which lead to commercial enterprises that people feel the need to walk to?

The thing that freshly annoyed me a couple days ago, regarding Fort Worth's apparent collective disregard for a modern amenity, like sidewalks, was seeing 6 kids on skateboards rolling along sidewalk-free John T. White Road.

John T. White Road is a 4 lane boulevard with a wide grass covered median separating the lanes. I drive John T. White Road to get to my neighborhood Walmart. John T. White Elementary School opened on John T. White Road last year.

It seems only common sense, to me, that you have sidewalks on a road that leads to a school and to a shopping district. And it seems borderline criminally negligent for a city to lack sidewalks on such roads.

Now, the City of Fort Worth can not claim lack of funds as the reason why Fort Worth can not have sidewalks to the level of most modern cities. Fort Worth has so many excess funds that it is spending around $1 billion to build an un-needed flood control economic development project called the Trinity River Vision.

A Little Bit Of Sidewalk Does Not Go A Long Ways
It would seem that any town that can waste money on a goofy boondoggle, like the Trinity River Vision, can surely have itself a Fort Worth Sidewalk Vision.

I was freshly aggravated by Fort Worth's 3rd World-like sidewalk situation when I took a walk through my neighborhood this morning.

The two photos are looking south on Bridgewood Drive. As you can see in the photo at the top, locals have worn a dirt path along the sidewalk-less road.

In the second photo you are looking at a short section of sidewalk, which was installed when one of those ubiquitous dollar stores showed up a few years ago. Across the driveway there is no sidewalk in front of the Firestone store, or the Chevron station next to the Firestone stone.

Sidewalk-less Bridgewood Drive leads to dozens of businesses and restaurants, such as a Home Depot, several fast food joints, and a Luby's.

Would not one think that any city with pretensions of wanting to grow up and wear big city pants, let alone a town which regularly is the Envy of the Nation for various insipid things, would somehow manage to install sidewalks in its densely populated zones?

This subject is very perplexing to me, both the lack of sidewalks subject, and the fact that this lack does not seem to be an issue with anyone but me.

Very perplexing.

1 comment:

Mikey said...

You don't need sidewalks to beautify the city or to provide some sort of pedestrian traffic flow. That's what all the natural gas pipeline signages are placed all around you for. Beauty and function. The FW Way , pardner.