Local changes upsetting
COMMENTARY
By Natalie Dow

I would think that anyone who has driven through the Cultural District in the past month would have noticed the drastic changes taking place. But I would have been wrong to make that assumption because, apparently, I am the only one that notices these things. What changes you ask? Here are some of them, and they aren’t necessarily all things Fort Worth can brag about.

Casa Manana has been under construction for quite some time now. The two-phase project is supposed to leave the geodesic dome intact, which is surprising considering how quickly Fort Worth is usually ready to change everything. An 11,400-square-foot lobby will be added facing the University Drive side of the building. The main traffic entrance that everyone is accustomed to will be closed and they are redirecting traffic to other entrances. So hopefully University Drive traffic won’t be as bad compared to before the construction. In phase two, the backstage area will be made larger and more accessible. Don’t worry, it’ll be more enjoyable to watch plays in the new facility because they are replacing the outdated seats with ones that allow more leg room.

As of Sept. 23, 2003, the newly reopened Modern Art Museum will be charging admission to get into the museum, for special exhibits, as well as to see their permanent collection. The pricing is as follows: $4 for students and seniors, and $6 for general adults. This still doesn’t include everything, such as some films and programming. This is very disappointing for the people of Fort Worth. As a college student, I know that most people my age have no interest in going to a museum unless it’s required for a class. If they have to pay also, then there is really a slim chance that they will ever set foot in a museum. The irony is that these are the people that need to be going to the museums to experience actually standing in front of a piece of work and not just looking at it in a textbook.

It’s been plastered all over Fort Worth. The September 11: Bearing Witness to History Exhibit is coming from the Smithsonian to our very own Museum of Science and History. So, as if in the past two years people haven’t been sucked into the commercialism of Sept.11, they get another chance. You’d think that all the shirts, hats, flags, books, etc. would have been enough to commemorate this event, but no, we need an exhibit of someone’s shoes or file case to do that for us. A friend of mine is required to go to the exhibit as a field trip and when I asked her if she thought anything was wrong with that her response was, “No. We get out of school, so who cares?” Well someone should care that people are making money off of something tragic. Some have told me that I am unpatriotic to have this opinion, but I see it as just the opposite. Why would you support someone making money off of an event that caused so much pain?

Lastly, don’t forget to check out the new parking garage in the 3400 block of Camp Bowie Blvd. Fort Worth definitely needed that over the one of a kind shops and restaurants that were there. If we still need parking we can always bulldoze the Botanic Gardens; it seems to be the only thing in the Cultural District that remains untouched.

Natalie Dow is a freshman radio-TV-film major from Fort Worth.