Monday, June 21

Durango, AKA Sundance Square Secret Agent?

Sundance Square, Showing Parking Lot, Historic Building at Left
and Less Historic DR Horton Tower in the Background
One of my favored blogs is "Durango Texas." It's about the adventures and misadventures of a Washington boy in Fort Worth. Being from Seattle and living in Tarrant County near Fort Worth, it is irresistable to me. One thing notable about Durango is he's a little suspicious of the officialdom of Fort Worth. While he thinks Fort Worth is corrupt, I think it's just a little more honest about its approach than a lot of other places that make pretences to honesty. Chicago, for example. Heck, Everett for another example.

Anyway, at 4:56PM, someone claiming to be affiliated with Sundance Square, with a name of "Tracy Gilmour," wrote:
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I stumble upon blogs that discuss Sundance Square and saw your post about Bass Hall and Sundance Square. I thought you might like to know Sundance Square is actually 35 blocks of Fort Worth, all privately owned. While there are two central parking lots, most of Sundance Square consists of turn of the century ( the last century) restored historic buildings. We have received numerous awards and recognitions regarding the architectural aspects of Sundance Square. We recently won the Urban Land Institute Award of Excellence. So, I hope on your next ride through town you will stop to admire some of our finer points such as the Knights of Pythias Hall (Haltom’s leases the ground floor now) or the Burk Burnett Building ( Worthington bank is on the first floor) Sundancesquaremanagement.com has short descriptions of all of the buildings in SSQ both new and old. Maybe that will provide some interest for your next visit.
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This would not be especially notable, except that exactly twelve minutes later, at 5:08PM, Durango made a comment on my blog about - you guessed it - Sundance Square. Said he:
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This is the first time I've seen someone, besides me, accurately describe what Sundance Square is.
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This combination of circumstances intrigued me a bit, so I went to Sundancesquaremanagement.com to see more about it. I always figured it was just those two parking lots. Imagine my surprise to find that Sundance Square actually has NINE different parking lots, and that doesn't include the ones contained within the highrise buildings. My apologies! In fairness, if you go to that website and click on the "retail" or "office" tab, there are brief synopses of the historic buildings, as well as some of the glass skyscraper boxes. How cool is that? Some of these buildings really ARE worth a look see, and I'm not just talking about the one that contains Starbucks.
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SO: WHO, OR WHAT, IS TRACY AND/OR DURANGO?
I have a number of hypotheses:
  • Durango MIGHT be secretly a double agent named Tracy, somehow mixed up with Sundance Square
  • Sundance Square might be getting psychic messages from Durango when he contemplates anything having to do with Sundance Square.
  • Maybe Durango's computer has been hacked by Sundance Square
  • BOTH might be alter egos of Doohickie, who is the only one I know that knew that the pretend bike cops with the yellow helmets that do not know how to ride on urban streets are Sundance guards, unlike the Fort Worth bike cops who clearly DO know how to operate safely on the road.
  • It MIGHT all be pure coincidence.
Exclusive: Get There by Bike!
HOW DO YOU GET THERE BY BIKE?
Well, there's nothing on the Sundance Square website to tell you how to get there other than by car, even though it is DIRT SIMPLE, so I'll pass along TWO secret routes there from Northeast Tarrant County. Perhaps the Sundance people are aware that cyclists are smarter than motorists, or maybe that's just what the yellow helmet guys tell them. Regardless, you read it here first!

Route 1 - For the lazy and those that like trains, take the TRE to the ITC. Ride NORTH until you see Bass Hall. You're there.
Route 2 - ALMOST as simple is just take Fort Worth Bike Route 340 across the Trinity River and into Fort Worth. You'll know you're there when you see parking lots, parking garages, and the Bike Route dead ends.
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By either route, bike parking is free, though limited. The bike racks are cleverly disguised as "Fort Worth Stars." They have "bike rack" stenciled on them so you will know what they are. Hmm, maybe those Sundance people DON'T think cyclists are very smart, though they clearly believe we are able to read.
Seriously, would I go to Sundance so often if it were like, for example, downtown Dallas? It's where the West begins! I've actually seen horses on those urban streets. Ask Chipseal or Chandra if you don't believe me.



Sundance Square Bike Rack - Note Lettering "BIKE RACK"
I Don't Think the Other Lettering if Official

5 comments:

Doohickie said...

BOTH might be alter egos of Doohickie, who is the only one I know that knew that the pretend bike cops with the yellow helmets that do not know how to ride on urban streets are Sundance guards, unlike the Fort Worth bike cops who clearly DO know how to operate safely on the road.

Okay, you got me! (You made me laugh, that is... neither one is an alter ego of mine.) The only reason I knew about the security is a friend of ours used to work for that company (although he didn't mess around downtown; he was Bass family personal security).

Also, know that both the Bass/Sundance security guys and the Fort Worth Police can be found trundling along on the sidewalk on their bikes.

At first I was WTF? But then it occurred to me that they are virtually invisible to traffic on the road and it makes it easier for the bike cops to catch offending motor vehicle operators. I actually got a ticket from one once. I also saw them give a ticket to a motorcylist on a crotch rocket who was being a general nuisance in front of 8.0.

So... both forces have their reasons for hanging out on the sidewalk.

Steve A said...

Hmm, it never occurred to me there are legit reasons to stay out of the attention zone of motorists while on a bike. Otherwise I'd have said, "Say it ain't so, Doo!"

RANTWICK said...

I would steal your obsolete wheel. You see, I've got this obsolete bike frame...

That "just for a minute" or whatever you call it lock is, in my opinion, the cat's baby, the cat's.

Justin said...

Awesome, I have a falcon just like that that I restored.

Durango said...

Okay, I'm confused. Maybe I am Tracy Gilmour and don't know it. I have been known to sleep walk.

For the Tracy Gilmour thing to be a coincidence, well that really stretches it when you realize that minutes after I posted a comment on your blog I got an email from Tracy Gilmour enlightening me about the wonders of Sundance Square.

It's all very perplexing.

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