When the city of Fort Worth closed Heritage Park about two and a half years ago, it was done quickly and quietly and without much explanation. Council and park board members were told that the issue was about “public safety.” City staffers implied, without offering much evidence, that homeless vagrants were bathing and peeing in the water fountains, that the public was in danger of drowning in water that was no more than two feet deep, and that people might fall from the catwalks and careen down the embankment to the Trinity River.
Perhaps worse than the initial action was the city’s lack of response to historic preservationists’ requests for a better explanation of the closing of the historic and nationally acclaimed park. But all that is likely to change in the next few weeks. The city will hold two public workshops on the future of Heritage Park on Friday and Saturday, May 8 and 9, at the Norris Conference Center downtown. This time, the local folks interested in history will not only get answers but will be big players. A steering committee has been appointed, with some preservationists who want to get the park re-opened, including Ruth Carter Stevenson of the Amon G. Carter Foundation, historic preservation activist Marty Craddock, Historic Fort Worth Inc.’s Jerre Tracy and Lisa Lowry, and Louise Appleman, board chair of the Tarrant County College District. Maybe these folks can press the city to provide some real answers based on facts, not bureaucratic B.S. Of course, Appleman, to date, hasn’t done much to prevent her own agency from running roughshod over preservationists’ concerns (see this week’s cover story), so maybe that’s just Static being optimistic.
Going Postal
Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night keeps postal carriers from the swift completion of their rounds. The Cultural District’s newly built post office, however, has been anxiously awaiting a delivery for months. Late last year, Fort Worth Weekly wrote about a large mural being installed on the post office’s south exterior wall (“God’s Art,” Nov. 24, 2008), a work of art that was expected to provide a fitting backdrop for what is considered one of the city’s most unique “sculptures”: four steel beams that were bent and twisted during the 2000 tornado.
The mural — a striking photo of a Texas horizon — was emblazoned on large porcelain panels that were soon installed by workers on the wall. However, at least a dozen panels were left off, exposing sheets of insulation underneath. For months the post office has looked the equivalent of a rundown doublewide trailer smack dab in one of Fort Worth’s most illustrious destinations — or maybe the victim of another windstorm.
Seems the post office’s roof was redesigned during construction, but nobody thought to tell the manufacturer who was building the custom panels. So after they were delivered, it became obvious that the panels along the top row next to the roof were the wrong size. Museum district bigwigs such as Ruth Carter Stevenson and Ed Bass have reportedly been grumbling, but the developers say the replacement panels are still being redone. They’re expected to arrive for installation in the next few weeks. In other words, the check’s in the mail.
