1. John MacFarlane

   The Barnett Shale aside, FW gets a C+. The upside: recycling carts, yard watering regulations, starting to think about street cars and light rail. The cons: no enforcement of yard watering regulations (I see plenty of people in Ryan Place along watering their yards outside of the watering timeframe), just now thinking about streetcars and light rail, thinking about putting a major thoroughfare through Forest Park, non synced street lights (thus producing more emissions from idling cars).

   D/FW has some of the worst air in the nation, if not for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, I don’t think our leadership would be doing anything about reducing emissions.

   Apr 22nd, 2009

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2. Pete Wann

   The non-synced lights really burns my biscuits… It makes even a short drive an exercise in frustration, and long drives to the other side of town become stop and go nightmares. It’s SO FRUSTRATING to stop at the light at Park Place, then watch as the light in front of you at Allen turns yellow just as yours turns green. Serious waste of gas and contributor to air pollution.

   I’ve also noticed and been frustrated by the lack of enforcement of perfectly sensible watering restrictions.

   Thanks for giving us both positives and negatives, John.

   Apr 22nd, 2009

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3. charlie

   A couple very quick thoughts:

   FW could at least think about banning disposable grocery bags. Not just for pollution reduction but also for the amount of petrochems they consume for their production. I admire cities who have taken this brave step.

   Discussion of light rail is good. FW is a city divided in quadrants. That is something that needs to be considered in this discussion.

   Oh and wouldn’t it be great if the Trinity were a clean place that humans could enjoy without the fear of catching hepatitis? If our river could become a major outdoor attraction, we would be making some big strides. Keep in mind I think the Trinity Uptown development is a step in the wroooong direction.

   We need a political sea change to truly get the ball rolling. I frankly don’t see that with all the old money hanging around this town.

   Apr 22nd, 2009

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4. Marcy Galle

   Banning disposable grocery bags??? Noooooooooo…I use those for “dirty” diaper disposal. Please don’t push this ban until say…another year has passed? Thanks!

   The Trinity and Hepatitis?? Eeewwww…I had no idea. Where do you hear about this stuff?

   Synched lights – good idea / More trees throughout the neighborhoods and city would help alleviate emissions though. The benefits of our Fort Worth Forestry dept. isn’t as widely known as it should be – just my opinion. The city is more than willing to give people free 5 gal. trees – for neighborhoods, along streets and within esplanades. People need to take advantage of this benefit!

   Because I have children, I would like to see the city offer “water parks,” like the ones located in NRH and Keller. Also, it doesn’t seem like the city has enough community pools for it’s size. Sorry to get off topic….

   Apr 22nd, 2009

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5. Pete Wann

   If a water park would make Fort Worth more liveable for you, then it’s not off-topic.

   Water parks in North Texas, however, are hardly sustainable considering the amount of water they use and our long-running drought. How about instead we focus on cleaning up our natural water resources and turning those into water recreation facilities?

   I second the call for banning plastic bags. Poop (human and dog) is gross, but it’s biodegradable, and when you put it in a plastic bag, you’re ensuring that it will NEVER have the opportunity to biodegrade. Interesting fact: EVERY SINGLE bit of plastic ever made (that wasn’t made more toxic by burning it) is still floating around somewhere in our biosphere, and it’s all still plastic. It doesn’t biodegrade, it just breaks down into infinitesimally smaller bits of plastic which eventually wind up in you and me and the critters we eat. I know all too well how difficult it is to avoid it, so I’m not judging anyone on the fact that they use it, I just hope that they’re conscious of the impacts it has on us as people.

   Apr 22nd, 2009

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6. Ginny

   Fort Worth gets a C- in my opinion, mostly because of the attitudes of the people who run this city. Look how far behind Dallas we are in light rail (Dallas!!). For that matter, we seem to be behind every city of approximately the same size in almost everything measurable–air pollution, water pollution and almost complete lack of acceptable public transportation. Have you seen those people at the corner of Camp Bowie and (I think) Lackland waiting for a bus? They’re sitting on the sidewalk because there’s not even a bench. And in the few stops with benches, almost none have a covering to keep out sun and rain. So who would take a bus unless that was the absolute last option?

   Apr 22nd, 2009

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7. CoachDad

   I heard FW is getting a new water park – down south west – a natatorium and indoor outdoor water splash park. Something along the lines of Keller Pointe. Indoor workout facility, child care, sport courts. There’s a sign on the side of the road down by McPherson – west of Hulen and the new middle school. There will also be 70 plus acres for a park. I think that will be a draw for folks from miles around. I hope they put in a dog park.

   Apr 22nd, 2009

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8. John MacFarlane

   @ Marcy, instead of putting diapers in a plastic bag, why not use re-usable diapers. I say re-usable because cloth diapers is misleading. I have a 3 month old and we use “sustainable” diapers made by Bum Genius. They are great, and just take a little more effort, but they reduce the amount of diapers in the landfill and they look cool too.

   Regarding the free city trees, I have coordinated the planting of over 120 trees in the last two years in Ryan Place. They are beneficial, but we need a complete overhaul of our regional transportation system for significant reduction in air pollution. Plus, the people in Joe Barton’s district need to vote him out of office so someone can fight the big polluters in Midlothian. The prevailing southerly winds in north Texas bring in a lot of polluted air from the big cement kilns and power plants in the Midlothian area.

   The city also needs to create more greenspace. Build more parks!!

   As far as water parks go, I agree with Pete. They are soooo unsustainable, not only in our region, but globally. Kids need to learn about conserving our water, not playing in it.

   Apr 22nd, 2009

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