|
DALLAS COWBOYS
STADIUM
|
HOME
TEXAS
REGIONS
|
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
Click
for a map showing the New Stadium's Location and other Arlington
Attractions
|
|
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. |
|
Did
you know Texas has an Official State Dinosaur?
No. It is not Jerry
Jones. Click to find out who it is.
|
click a thumbnail to view a
photo
|
|
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.
|
Click
for a map showing the New Stadium's Location and other Arlington
Attractions
|
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. |
|
Click
for a map showing the New Stadium's Location and other Arlington
Attractions
|
|
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.
D. S.
Fort Worth, Texas
click
to read more feedback |
|
AMERICA'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?
Rick (writing
in a NFL Blog) |
Read what we
found out about America's Team after reading ridiculous
articles about that subject in the Saturday, January 12, 2008
Fort Worth Star-Telegram. |
|
|
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?
|
Click
for a map showing the New Stadium's Location and other Arlington
Attractions
|
|
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? William
G.
Seattle, Washington
click
to read more feedback
|
|
|
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.
Peter B.
Schenectady, New York
click
to read more feedback |
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Visit our Eyes on Texas Blog
to make a
comment or share info about the Cowboy Stadium
|
|
HOME TEXAS TOWNS
PARADES
|
EVENTS
PARKS SCENERY
|
TEX MISC
SCANDAL EXIT TEXAS
|
|
BIG BEND COUNTRY
|
GULF
COAST PINEY WOODS
|
PRAIRIE
& LAKES HILL COUNTRY
|
SOUTH TEXAS PLAINS
|
PANHANDLE
PLAINS
|
|
Dallas Cowboy
Stadium Scandal
|
Dallas
Cowboy Stadium Scandal Comments
|
America's
Team
|
Ballpark
in Arlington
|
Six Flags
River Legacy Park
|
Dallas
Dealey Plaza
|
Dallas Farmers Market
|
World's Most Unique McDonald's
|
email feedback
© DurangoTexas.com All Rights Reserved
|