On
March 28, 2000 a Tornado struck a damaging blow to Fort Worth,
Texas, destroying homes, skyscrapers, churches and businesses. Five
and 1/2 years later, on September 24, 2005, Hurricane Rita struck
the Gulf Coast of Texas, homes were lost, much damage occurred, many
Texans left homeless refugees. In 2006, in the Dallas/Fort
Worth Metroplex city of Arlington, Hurricane/Tornado scale manmade
damage erupted, disrupting hundreds, if not thousands, of lives,
destroying 104 homes of an estimated 312 residents, forcing the
evacuation of an estimated 871 residents from several destroyed
apartment complexes, obliterating 32 businesses, everything from
restaurants to tire stores to banks to motels. This was an easily
preventable unnatural disaster, yet it was allowed to occur,
even sanctioned and paid for by the citizens of Arlington, some of
whom may have even voted to pay for their own destruction.
And for what has all
this destruction occurred? A school? A new highway? A hospital? An
airport? A military base? No, an untold number of lives have been
direly disrupted for a new football stadium for what the locals call
America's Team, that being the Dallas Cowboys of the
National Football League. Yes, a sports palace, a private for profit
business is being built on a graveyard of personal destruction the
likes of which, had Mother Nature wreaked such havoc, the President
would have declared it a Federal Disaster Area with FEMA
incompetently administering aid to all the victims. But, since this
is a manmade disaster, the aid to the victims has been meager, $5000
for apartment dwellers, fair market value plus a bit extra to cover
moving expenses for home owners. Businesses were left to
flounder, all the destruction scaring customers away while the
businesses struggled to stay open, trying to find out when the
bulldozers would be coming for them, with much frustration directed
at those in charge for their inept execution of the ill-conceived
project. Many will never be able
to recover. Unless some clever lawyer decides to make this
outrageous violation of basic rights and decency and eminent domain
abuse into some sort of cause celebre.*
Below is Photo
Documentation
of what is now considered to be
the most Outrageous Abuse of the Principle of Eminent Domain
to ever have occurred in America.
March 14, 2008 we got FEEDBACK from one
of Jerry Jones' victims, a victim who is among those
still seeking justice from the very legal system that
was abused to commit the crime that you will see
evidence of below.
The victim, Charlie S., begins his message saying,
"Due to ongoing litigation I am not able to 'spill all of the beans' that I would like to.
But the citizens of Arlington have been duped by the greediest, richest people in the land grab business."...click
to read the rest of what Charlie had so say.
Scroll down to see
the latest (April 11, 2008) State of the Stadium Construction Photos.
Be Warned: There are a lot of Photos and comments to scroll by
on your way to the new Photos.
When we saw the under construction Dallas Cowboy
Stadium today, April 11, 2008, we saw 4 Flags waving on top of
the new under construction roof. You'll have to scroll down to
find the enlargeable, clickable version of the flag photos, plus
the other photos from today. And our speculation as to who or
what the 4 flags represented.
We may have
mentioned before that we've been Blogging since the
first day of 2008. But it never occurred to us, til
now, to make links to the postings that may
have mentioned the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones or some
aspect of the Cowboy Stadium Construction Scandal.
Below
is list of some our Scandal related Bloggings,
listed,
Blogging style with the latest first....
January 15, 2008 we were driving in Fort
Worth when we looked up to see the new Dallas Cowboys
Stadium. Is it visible from Dallas? Click
here to go to our Durango Texas Blog to see a
photo of the new stadium, as seen from Fort Worth.
The Sunday October 14, 2007
edition of the Star-Telegram, in Section B, not the Front Page,
made reference to lingering bitterness of victims of the Dallas
Cowboys land grab. However, the Star-Telegram apparently did not
feel these stories were sufficiently newsworthy for their print
edition, one had to visit the Star-Telegram website to read the
sad stories, such as Bob Magnus who said, "We got shafted.
The council took our land, and I haven't seen a dime yet." You
can read the Bob Magnus story and those of other victims by
going here.For an interesting graphic showing
where the victims homes were located in relation to the new
stadium go
here and you will see a Texas Star marking the spot of 5
victim's homes, including the last holdout, Evelyn Wray,
one of the few who got justice. To the tune of $2.75 million
(about 20% of Tony Romo's signing bonus)..
It seems Arlington Mayor Cluck has come to
realize that Arlington's outrageous misuse of eminent domain
to acquire land for a football stadium may do harm to
Arlington's reputation in other parts of the nation. At a
Mayor's breakfast the issue of what to do with the closed Six
Flags Mall was discussed. An Arlington native suggested to
Mayor Cluck that eminent domain be used to condemn the mall.
Mayor Cluck looked a bit stricken by the suggestion and
declared something along the line of "No, we will not be
using eminent domain anymore".
Currently approximately 500 visitors a
day from all over the world are looking at our information
about what was done in Arlington to build a football stadium.
This webpage is currently our 4th most visited.
We chartered a plane for a bird's eye view of the
Dallas Cowboy Destruction. The Ballpark in Arlington is the circular
structure on the middle right. The tan area marks the area of
destruction that had been razed to ground level as of April 11, 2006.
Businesses on the upper and middle left had yet to be
obliterated.
Note the large expanse of usable, uninhabited land
surrounding the Ballpark in Arlington.
Let's get down on to ground level for a closer look.
The Ballpark in Arlington, formerly, Ameriquest Field,
surrounded by a wide expanse of open land. One might think a football
stadium could be built on that land, similar to how Seattle built the
new Seahawk stadium and the new Mariner ballpark next to each other,
with a huge exhibition hall between the two, all built without
destroying a single home or forcing the evacuation of a single
resident, in an area with far less open space than the Dallas/Fort
Worth metro area.
Dallas Cowboy
Quarterback Tony Romo has signed a $67.4 million contract with
a $11.5 million Signing Bonus, a total payoff believed to be
larger than the grand total paid so far to the business
owners, home owners and apartment dwellers who have been
victims of the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium.
click
below for an overhead view of the 2 Seattle stadiums to see an
example of how 2 ballparks can be built on a small track of
land without destroying residential neighborhoods.
The Cowboy Colosseum
On Thursday, September 20, 2007 at the North
Texas Commission's annual membership meeting, held in Dallas
at the Hilton Anatole, Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones opined
regarding his new stadium, "It
happens to be the biggest stadium on Planet Earth. This is the
Colosseum of Rome in sports. Size does have something to do
with it. This building, it does have the opportunity to be, I
guess, next to the White House or the Capitol."
Two days after Jerry Jones
grandiose remarks a couple people had opinions of their own
regarding the Dallas Cowboys Colosseum. Read
what they had to say here.
Satellite photo of the Destruction
zone and the Dallas Cowboy Stadium under Construction.
click a thumbnail to view a
photo
Let's take
a ground tour of the destruction and see how eminent domain works in
Texas.
One by one homes were flattened,
rubble removed, the area sealed off behind cyclone fencing, police
regularly patrolling in a partially successful attempt to stop looting
of abandoned homes awaiting destruction.
The following is an
excerpt from a very Insightful
Blog.....
"The City of Arlington took
the homes from their owners. No one had a choice. The homes
and apartments were bulldozed, and a new stadium is being
built for the Dallas Cowboys. Arlington technically took possession
of the land, but the land is now underneath concrete that
belongs to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Click here
for a great analysis of the stadium problem, as blogged by a
Houston lawyer. Click here
for a full blown beautifully illustrated rant, a diatribe that
should make our blood boil. It's a harangue that would cause
us all to drive over to Arlington with torches and pitchforks
if we weren't a nation of sheep."
The wise, insightful, brilliant Fort
Worth, Texas Blogger who described this page you are reading
right now as a full blown beautifully illustrated rant sent
us a very appropo illustration....if you don't feel like
clicking the image to see the bigger version, yet wonder
what the small print says, it says, under Eminent Domain, "It's The Government's Term for Giving Me Your
House."
The forced evacuation of these houses has taken place.
These Texas homes now await the incoming storm of bulldozers.
No one employed by the Dallas Cowboys, neither
administrative staff or players, lived in the condemned destruction
zone.
From
the Official Dallas Cowboys website (without a hint of
irony)... For the past 18 years,
Jerry Jones and his family have owned and operated the Dallas
Cowboys with a management style that places just as much of an
emphasis on community leadership as it does on the goal of
winning the Super Bowl. The dominant theme which underscores
the Cowboys role in the community is to maximize the
visibility, energy and celebrity of the world's most
recognizable sports franchise and use those dynamic forces as
a powerful means to help others. The
results on the field have brought championships to Dallas. The
results away from the field have touched the lives of
thousands.
For a short while after the houses were removed the area
looked like a
park. That look did not last long.
The start of destruction of an apartment complex.
These photos were taken on a Sunday when no active
destruction was taking place. We were not allowed to take photos or
video when the destruction was actively under way. Does this not look
like the aftermath of a hurricane, tornado or earthquake? But this is
a man made unnatural disaster, so that's okay. Even though it could
have been prevented, an option not available when it's Mother Nature
making life hard.
America's Team? When the
Cowboy's owner demanded a new stadium to replace the existing
one, that being a stadium that also is not in Dallas, but in
Irving, Dallas could not come up with a plan to build a new
stadium, even with a badly run-down Cotton Bowl blighting an
other wise beautiful Fair
Park, providing the perfect location and a potential huge
boost to downtown Dallas. So with Dallas not wanting the
Cowboys, the small town of Arlington voted to build the new
stadium. So, when it comes to paying for and building a house
for the Cowboys they are not only not America's Team,
they are not North Texas's team, they are not
the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplexes' team, they are not
Dallas's team, they are Arlington's team.
"An untold number of lives have been direly disrupted for a new football stadium for what the
locals call America's Team, that being the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football
League." (source: the
webpage you are reading right now)
The previous statement cut and pasted from a
paragraph in the link Henry provided, the phrase "what the locals call" is so true. Spent 3 years in Los Angeles and I had to constantly tell people I
was introduced to that I am from Houston, not Dallas because they would incessantly remind me
that the Cowboys damn sure weren't their team. Spent 2 years in Norfolk, Va. with the exact same
thing. Spent time in Waco and nobody I met there watched the Cowboys, they either followed Baylor
or one of the "popular" teams of that time, if I remember right it was the 49er's or the Raiders,
one of the Cal. teams. In fact in all my 52 years on this earth I have never actually met anyone
who called them that personally, the media perpetuates that fantasy and Cowboy here does as well
but no person I know does. Where did that come from anyway?
Yet one more view of rubble. And a couple dead trees.
City
has right to seize land, Judge Rules
The City of Arlington legally has the right to take residents'
land for the Cowboy's Stadium, a county court judge ruled
Friday (August 4, 2006). The summary judgment, which affects
17 cases represented by attorney Bob Cohen, was the first step
in several lawsuits filed against the city regarding the
condemnation of land for the project. Cohen said the cases
will now go to trial to determine whether the city should have
paid the landowners more.
from the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram (August 7, 2006)
Another apartment building, gutted, awaiting destruction. It is not
known how much attention was paid to asbestos contamination during the
rush of destruction.
Across from what may be the world's nicest Super Wal-Mart, formerly
sat the Waterford. The most expensive of the resident complexes
destroyed in the Dallas Cowboy onslaught. Wouldn't you love to be
forced to move under these type circumstances?
THIS JUST IN: May
22, 2007, the NFL owners have decided to play the 2011
Super Bowl at the Dallas Cowboy's new stadium. Oddly,
the local paper's headline announced this with this
headline "NORTH TEXAS WINS SUPER BOWL BID".
When funding to build a new stadium was sought North
Texas wanted no part of it, Dallas wanted no part of
it. The small city of Arlington built it. Seems like
the headline should have been "ARLINGTON WINS
SUPER BOWL BID".
We are sure the hundreds of people
who lost their homes will be given game tickets, free
parking and a hot dog or two for the 2011 Super Bowl
being played on their former backyards.
The building formerly known as Ameriquest Field, now, again, the
Ballpark in Arlington, viewed in the
background through a pile of rubble.
The multiple square miles of destruction seem endless
while driving through the desolation zone. Where did all this rubble
go?
Regarding the person from Texas
who made the point that when paying for a new stadium the
Cowboys are pretty much a team without a town and seeing you've
pointed out how Seattle built two stadiums, adjacent, without
displacing any Seattleites from their homes, I thought you might
be interested in how the new Seattle stadium was funded, as
compared to the Cowboy stadium. First off, in a referendum
the entire state voted on the stadium proposal. The principle
behind the funding method was that the cost should be primarily
born by those who benefited, i.e. football fans and the team
owner. With owner Paul Allen responsible for 1/3 (plus any
overruns) and the public covered 2/3's of the estimated cost.
The public portion was funded via a special sports lottery game,
parking and admissions taxes at the facility, a portion of the
state sales tax collected in King County (where Seattle is) and
a hotel/motel tax in King County.
It
is baffling to me that the funding for the Cowboy Stadium fell
on one municipality. I've been to the Dallas-Fort Worth
Metroplex. The population of that urban area is about the same
as the entire state of Washington. You'd think that since a
new stadium benefited the entire region that the entire region
would have been involved in the process. How in the world were
those people convinced to vote for such a proposal?
Rubble in front of us, rubble to the right, rubble to
the left, rubble behind, rubble everywhere.
And some more rubble. This view is from the parking lot
of a new Super Wal-Mart. The land for the Super Wal-Mart was acquired
the old-fashioned way, paying fair market value.
The pile of rubble looks like it could explode onto the road.
How many lives were once part of what is
now this huge pile of
rubble? Was this caused by a tsunami? A tornado? A hurricane? A Cowboy? Is there asbestos in this mess?
Yes, this does look like Beirut. But it is in the United States. In
Arlington. Texas.
I have attended more
than a dozen Super Bowls. I will never attend a football game in
this stadium in Arlington. What a shameful way to go about
building a new stadium.
As of April, 2006, the owners of this house continued to successfully
stall the bulldozers, while all around them everything had already
been destroyed. Eventually they agreed to leave. For a few million
dollars.
August 27. 2007, a year and 4 months after the above
photo was taken of the last house standing, the structure on the left
has risen. The house was due south of the east end of the Stadium
Super Wal-Mart, the same view we are looking at here, well not exactly
the same view. The house is gone and something very big has grown in
its place.
Read the sad story of one of those who fell victim to the Dallas
Cowboy Hurricane. One of the few victims who have fought their
destruction in court. This article came from the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram.
VICTIMS START TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST EMINENT
DOMAIN ABUSE Billy Mitchell Ford was so angered by what
he believed to be eminent domain abuse, with the abuse being
private businesses evoking eminent domain for their private
gain, that during the month of August, 2007, he placed a
billboard along I-30 in west Fort Worth. The billboard said
"Eminent Domain---Stealing what others work for."
It was reported in local media that Mr. Ford objected to the
Dallas Cowboy Stadium land grab, the Fort Worth Trinity Uptown
land grab and most personally, and what set him off, the abuse
of the principal of eminent domain by natural gas drilling
companies tapping Barnett Shale Gas in north Texas and running
roughshod over people's perceptions of their property rights,
especially his own. Mr. Ford leased his property to drillers
and currently has 2 revenue generating wells. But the first
drillers then leased the mineral rights to another driller,
Empire. Empire decided it needed to lay a pipeline down the
middle of Ford's property. They offered him only $17,000. He
decided to fight them in court, but that soon grew too
expensive. Ford settled his suit with Empire. Empire built the
pipeline. And then refused to let Ford build a road across the
pipeline, effectively cutting him off from half his property.
It is not known if Mr. Ford plans on any more billboards or if
he has any other plans to fight eminent domain abuse.
We are fairly certain this 'Future Resident Parking' sign does not refer to
future football fans.
The State of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium as
of April 11, 2008
Looking west, from the east side of the new
stadium, standing on a Texas Ranger's Ballpark parking lot. For
free. Both roof support arches have been complete for quite
sometime. The roof is going on the south side roof. The trusses
are still being put in place on the north side.
Four Flags wave on top of the north roof support
arch. We could make out the U.S. Flag. The Lone Star Flag of
Texas was the easiest to discern. We decided the third flag was
the Dallas Cowboy's flag. That left us speculating that the 4th
Flag must be Jerry Jones's Official flag. Likely the Skull &
Crossbones and maybe some artistically rendered semblance of the
state symbol of some long bygone fascist regime that also ran
roughshod over the rights and lives of others would be part of
the Jerry Jones flag.
Looking north from a closed off street. Behind us
are rundown, still lived in apartments that survived the Jerry
Jones Tornado Bulldozers. We do not know if surviving Jerry
Jones and his Gang of Pirates will remain their fate.
The State of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium as
of January 20, 2008
Looking north from the south side of the stadium.
This photo shows some of the industrial wasteland the new
stadium will look down on, probably in more ways than one,
unless still more Dallas Cowboy/Jerry Jones eminent domain abuse
occurs and cleans this area up. It will likely be the most
unique view Super Bowl attendees will ever have experienced in
any Super Bowl city.
This view is from the east side of the stadium on
Randoll Mill Road, You can see the second roof support arch is
almost halfway done.
The State of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium as
of January 6, 2008
A new banner has been added to the Cowboy Stadium
saying "HOME OF SUPER BOWL XLV".
Where is the banner mentioning all those other
people who used to call this area home? Like "FORMER HOME
OF 1,894 DALLAS COWBOY VICTIMS".
Sadly, these surviving apartments are of a much
lesser quality than most of those that the Cowboys destroyed.
But they were safe from the wrecking ball, for now, located on
the west side of Collin Street. The Cowboy Stadium rises on the
east side of Collins Street.
These are the Plantation Apartments. They are at
the intersection of Collins and Randol Mill Streets, directly
across from the Dallas Cowboys Preview Center.
Here we are looking at the aforementioned Dallas
Cowboys Preview Center with the stadium behind it. The Preview
Center used to be a bank before the Dallas Cowboys took it over.
We are looking east here, on Randol Mill Road,
looking at a Super Wal-Mart on the left, the Ballpark in
Arlington in the center and the new Cowboy stadium on the right.
The red SUV is heading south on Collins Street.
The State of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium as
of November 11, 2007
These 3 photos were taken on a sunny Sunday in
November. A day off for the builders meant we could take photos
with no one there to tell us not to. In this photo we are at the
southwest end of the stadium.
The stadium's giant arch can be seen for miles.
We are at the west end of the stadium looking slightly southeast
in this photo.
That is the Ballpark in Arlington, where the
Texas Rangers play baseball, visible in the distance, behind
where goal posts will likely be located in the near future.
11/20/2007---Jerry
Jones and the Dallas Cowboys reveal part of how they are
going to pay for their share of the cost of their new
stadium. It will cost Dallas Cowboys season ticket holders from $16,000 to $50,000
for a Personal Seat License (PSL), which gives the PSL
owner the option to buy game tickets for $100s more per
game. That doesn't include parking, example, $750 for a premier season parking pass.
The Dallas Cowboy PSL fee breaks the NFL record,
previously held by the Carolina Panthers at $12,000. The
Seattle Seahawks charge $3,000, the Oakland Raiders
$4,900, the Pittsburgh Steelers $2,700.
The State of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium as
of October 16, 2007
On this gray drizzly Tuesday of October 16, 2007
the first of the new stadium's 2 roof supporting arches joined
in the middle.
Scroll down to see photos of the arch earlier
in the building process.
The State of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium as
of August 27, 2007
Looking west at the east end
of the new stadium.
Texans build things fast when they
want to. Scroll down to see a photo from May 4, 2007. Seems like
quite a bit of progress in just a bit over 3 months. At this
pace it would seem the new stadium will be completed ahead of
schedule.
In this photo we see banners have been placed
naming 4 of the concourses. The top one is imaginatively named
'Upper Concourse', under the Upper is 'Star', under Star is
'Ring of Honor' and beneath the Rig is 'Silver'. It looks like
there is a concourse below Silver. One might guess 'Gold'. Maybe
the Gold banner blew off in the last windstorm.
Here we see partly constructed one
of the 2 arches that will support the stadium's roof. The arch
in progress is supported by steel towers and cranes until it
meets its other half and can support itself.
The State of the Dallas Cowboy Stadium as of May 4, 2007
The new Dallas Cowboy
Stadium is starting to take shape. You can now definitely see
where the stadium sits on the former homeowner/apartment land.
It is very close to its nearest commercial establishment, a
Super Wal-Mart. The view we see here is from the Super Wal-Mart
parking lot.
There was talk of building this stadium in Dallas,
at Fair Park, where the Cotton Bowl is located. That would
have seemed to have been a great location, with views of the
Dallas skyline. Most pro sports stadiums seem to be in locations
with a view.
There is no big city skyline to view from
where the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium sits. We're not quite sure
where the openings to the stadium will orient, precisely, but it
appears that the Super Wal-Mart will be the scenic view for the
north side of the stadium. This Super Wal-Mart may be the
finest, most upscale Super Wal-Mart in the world, very view
worthy for the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium.
Currently the Super Wal-Mart's design reflects
its proximity to baseball's Ballpark
in Arlington, which is down the road a bit. There are large
baseballs adorning the Super Wal-Mart and the parking lot, one
which you can see by enlarging this photo. There are also
longhorns embossed on the building which you can also see in
this photo. A nod to Fort
Worth?
Perhaps by the time the new Dallas Cowboy
Stadium opens some footballs can be added to the Super Wal-Mart
building. That would seem appropriate, what with it being the
main view from the stadium.
The above
photo taken on a gray, drizzly Tuesday day of October 16, 2007.
With the two sides of the first arch meeting on this day one can
see the new stadium is going to hover high above these temporary
school buildings a short distance away.
A shameful
visual metaphor for misplaced priorities, here we see an
Arlington elementary school using a large number of dilapidated
"temporary" classrooms with the Dallas Cowboy
Stadium construction cranes hovering above. With Jerry Jones and
family being such renowned philanthropists (as noted above)
maybe the Cowboys could let the Arlington schools use the new
stadium's luxury suites as temporary classrooms on non-game
days.
That concludes our
look at the building of a football stadium in Texas. And the Dallas
Cowboys.
On
March 28, 2000 a Tornado struck a damaging blow to Fort Worth,
Texas, destroying homes, skyscrapers, churches and businesses. Five
and 1/2 years later, on September 24, 2005, Hurricane Rita struck
the Gulf Coast of Texas, homes were lost, much damage occurred, many
Texans left homeless refugees. In 2006, in the Dallas/Fort
Worth Metroplex city of Arlington, Hurricane/Tornado scale manmade
damage erupted, disrupting hundreds, if not thousands, of lives,
destroying 104 homes of an estimated 312 residents, forcing the
evacuation of an estimated 871 residents from several destroyed
apartment complexes, obliterating 32 businesses, everything from
restaurants to tire stores to banks to motels. This was an easily
preventable unnatural disaster, yet it was allowed to occur,
even sanctioned and paid for by the citizens of Arlington, some of
whom may have even voted to pay for their own destruction. 
