29Apr
It’s absolutely unbelievable. The Fort Worth Independent School District will be closing all schools starting tomorrow (April 30th) through at least Monday, May 11th. Of course the closings are all related to Swine Flu concerns. This is absolutely going to set a precedent which will have to be followed by neighboring districts.
Melody Johnson, FWISD’s Superintendent made the announcement this evening. This is the first time the school district has ever had to close all facilities for a public health emergency. With over 80,000 students and 11,000 employees, questions still remain about using summer weeks to make up time. The decision for closure was made after four schools in the TCU area were closed due to potential Swine Flu infections.
29Apr
All top ten major US metropolitan area’s saw singificant reductions in traffic congestion from 2007 to 2008. The reduction in cars on the road arises from two sources, higher fuel costs and more lost jobs. Seattle saw the greatest reduction of any of the ten areas; -28%. Dallas Fort Worth had the lowest reduction at -13%. Houston faired a little bit better than DFW at -16%.
There are probably a few explanations for DFW having the lowest reduction of all areas, but there is certainly one major realization, lack of public transit. Driving is built into our culture in Texas, not because we have any particular love for cars, but because almost nothing is within walking distance. The spread-out nature of cities, and a century of Oil familiarity have left Texans exceptionally vehicle dependent. The obvious issue here is that there is a serious lack of infrastructure of mass transit systems. People really couldn’t stop driving or commuting if they wanted to. Outside of Amtrak it is exceptionally hard to move about the state without driving, and most cities really offer nothing in the way of local transport.
Here’s the real problem. People don’t think about these issues until gasoline costs begin to rise.
And if you need an even larger problem to think about: While people are complaining about gasoline costs increasing 50%, they havn’t even noticed that wheat and eggs are up %95.
I know Kevin always talks about a trolley system on FortWorthology. It would be useful and more attractive than busses, but the painstaking-decades-long-debate over high speed regional rail needs to become a reality also.
28Apr
Dallas Fort Worth is Number 10 in the World. At least, as far as being an awesomely competetive against 21 other major international metroplotitan areas.
Now if we could just clean up the D side of things.
27Apr
Noticed that the Pour House has a sign up in front of their future location on 7th street. Right next door to Backwoods, it should make for a convenient stop between Chimmy’s and Fin McCools Poag Mahones (Old Shamrock). Begs the question if this area isn’t becoming heavy on bars? I suppose the population should grow to support it, though. Almost begs for late night restaraunt.
This area may very well grow to be essentially an entertainment district to rival downtown’s. The city may need to anticipate a potential growth in heavy pedestrian (and drunken) traffic.
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