Thing Tarrant County Needs:

Readers' choice: Better roads

Staff choice: A commitment by Fort Worth city leaders not to waste the current burst of redevelopment going on all around downtown. How? In part, by making sure apartment zoning prevents developers from turning parts of stable neighborhoods into overly dense future ghettos. And generally by protecting stable neighborhoods from the effects of greed.

Thing to Happen Locally in Last 12 Months

Readers' choice: Trinity Railway Express

Staff choice: Actually, the best thing about the last year was something that didn't happen. It's been a year and 8 days since 9-11, and blessedly there hasn't been another terrorist attack here or elsewhere in the country (at least not by press time). Cowtown's twin towers, the glimmering City Center skyscrapers downtown, and their squat brothers on Summit Boulevard, remain intact. Long may they wave.

Place to Pretend You're Someone Important

Readers' choice: Del Frisco's, 812 Main St, FW

Staff choice: Central Market, 4651 W Freeway, FW

You can go in your casual attire, put on a studious expression, and spout some nonsense about organic vegetables or Gruy�re cheese or wolf fish and come off as an expert instead of an unbearable food snob.

Place to Meet Someone of the Opposite Sex

Readers' choice: 8.0, 111 E 3rd St, FW

Staff choice: The Library, 611 Houston St, FW

The interior of The Library is basically a square space with a square bar in the middle and the entrance in one corner. Walking into this establishment is akin to walking down the red carpet on Oscar night: All eyes are on you. Some of the best-dressed people in town make The Library their place for one-stop sexual healing. You probably won't run into any hunky, gloriously disheveled, frustrated poets or gals built like swimsuit models who pass their time deconstructing Foucault. What you will find is a gathering of body-image-crazed folks to whom the question, "What color's your daddy's Beamer?" actually functions as a pick-up line.

Place to Meet Someone of the Same Sex

Readers' choice: Magnolia Station, 600 W. Magnolia St, FW

Staff choice: Downtown YMCA

Some people don't even bother to work up a sweat in the gym before hitting the showers.

Place to Break Up

Readers' choice: No winner

Staff choice: District court

We liked this suggestion from a reader, for many reasons. Bailiffs are nearby to damp down really bad reactions on the part of the jilted. Wooden benches don't encourage endless "but why?" conversations. Loud sobbing is discouraged. Other people around you are probably just as miserable, for their own reasons. No one is playing love songs in the background. Saves money that would have been spent by breaking up over dinner. And no one has to avoid an otherwise great place in the future because of old breakup vibes.

Urban digs

Readers' choice: No winner

Staff choice: Hillside Apartments, 300 Crump St, FW

These beautiful duplexes and triplexes stay rented up most of the time, and for good reason. Built with the help of major downtown powers in a public-private venture, they receive tax credits that allow them to offer below-market rents to many moderate-income residents, and a few Section 8 renters who meet certain guidelines. The 172 units, built to resemble a neighborhood of 1950s homes, replaced most of the residences in the deteriorating Rock Island neighborhood, while the area's churches and some other significant buildings were saved. Old-fashioned lampposts, modern conveniences, trees, green space, a fitness room, and pool make this an attractive address, especially for downtown workers who can walk to the office. Another "quaint" feature -- the sounds of nearby trains -- is a plus for some, and a minus for others.

Example of Suburban Sprawl

Readers' choice: Mansfield

Staff choice: Bryant Irvin and Interstate 20

What's really funny about this strip of real estate near Cityview is that in front of the mall here there's actually a sidewalk next to the street. As if someone would, like, walk across this patch of concrete, and -- what? -- take his life in his hands? Speeding cars are zipping by across six lanes of asphalt a mere 10 feet away. No matter how restrictive Fort Worth's zoning ordinances may be, it appears there will always be a developer willing to bend the rules to suit his greed. But with no effective public transportation available to suburban residents and with so much terrain to cover, sprawl -- and the traffic and infrastructure problems it brings -- will remain the wave of the future.

Place To Take Someone from Dallas

Readers' choice: The Kimbell Art Museum, 3333 Camp Bowie Blvd, FW (Other entertaining nominees: the morgue and the bottom of the Trinity River)

Staff choice: Home.

Their home. Take 'em to the Amtrak station, buy 'em a ticket on the TRE, and send 'em packing. Who wants a bunch of snoots eating our BBQ, gawking at our paintings, or clicking their heels down Main Street, and then bitching about blisters in their barely-worn ropers? Screw 'em.

Coffeehouse

Readers' choice: Coffee Haus, by a landslide

Staff choice: Coffee Haus, 404 Houston St, FW

One of the challenges of more urban living is finding new ways to fulfill the old needs and urges. We like the adaptation at the Coffee Haus, which folks from the surrounding condos, lofts, and apartments seem to use as their own personal living room. Stop in any evening, and folks are playing chess, reading the paper, schmoozing with friends, working on laptops -- and enjoying the coffee and pastries. Lines can be a little long, and they put too much danged whipped cream on everything, but the staff is friendly, the cups huge, and the place stays open late -- until 1am Fridays and Saturdays, 11pm other nights.

Day Trip

Readers' choice: Granbury

Staff choice: Glen Rose

Actually, you can lose yourself in Glen Rose and its surrounding countryside for a lot longer, but one day will do for starters. Get on the road early enough to stake out a shady table at Dinosaur Valley State Park. Wade around in the Paluxy River and look at Dino's tracks. Climb the trail on the bluff on the other side, taking time midway to stretch out on a big flat rock and pretend for a moment that you're the only human in the county. Head back to town in time to hit the Inn on the River. Pull out that thermos full of cocktails you made before you left the house (no liquor license here), claim an Adirondack chair or just a piece of the grassy bank, and watch another piece of the Paluxy flow by until it's time to claim your reserved-in-advance table at the Inn's knock-your-socks-off restaurant.

Green Space

Readers' choice: Botanic Gardens

Staff choice: Oakland Lake Park, 1645 Lakeshore Dr in Meadowbrook

This small, hilly park on Fort Worth's East Side is an under-appreciated gem. Its centerpiece is a peaceful lake rimmed with a mile of concrete walking/jogging/biking trails that wind under oak and elm trees. It's a birdwatcher's delight. A gaggle of honking Canadian geese will all but stop you in your tracks begging for food (regulars know to bring a bag of bread crumbs). Flocks of mallards and other ducks live here year-round, and cranes regularly fish for meals. A sprawling rock shelter shading two big picnic tables is a popular place for birthday parties. But the small baseball field, tennis courts, and a playground are underused. Maybe if Fort Worth's parks department did a better job of maintaining the place (like they do with parks on the West Side) more people would discover it.

Place To Enjoy The Water

Readers' choice: Eagle Mountain Lake

Staff choice: NRH2O, 9001 Grapevine Hwy, North Richland Hills

A major problem with enjoying the water is that, for so much of the year, you also have to "enjoy" the sun. So make your outdoor excursions as Vitamin-D-free as possible at NRH2O, a quaint and thankfully stress-free water park with lots of shaded areas in North Richland Hills. Featuring a lazy river, kid's area, and water slides of all sizes -- including North Texas' only uphill water coaster, The Green Extreme -- NRH2O offers areas where you can wade in the pool or chill beneath a canopy as the brave and energetic horse around.

Place to Take First Date

Readers' choice: Tie between Italian Inn Ridglea, 6323 Camp Bowie Blvd, and Sardines Ristorante Italiano, 509 University Dr, both FW

Staff choice: Fort Worth Botanic Garden, 3220 Botanic Garden Blvd, FW

It's bucolic, it's non-threatening, it's free (unless you absolutely can't stand to pass up the rainforest exhibit or the Japanese Gardens, and then it's merely inexpensive), it's the best place in the city to spend an afternoon having a quiet talk and getting acquainted with that new person. You can stroll around the grounds, huddle on a bench, or sprawl on a blanket in the grass, and watch all the other couples. Although you might want to avoid that fountain where brides-to-be are always having their pictures made.

Place to Eavesdrop

Readers' choice: D/FW International Airport

Staff choice: Coffee Haus, 404 Houston St, FW

On any weekend night, you can park yourself at one of the sidewalk tables at the Coffee Haus and watch the Sundance Square parade of life flow by, listen in on passing strangers' conversations, or catch part of an animated philosophical discussion between your fellow patrons. While it seems as though the obnoxious-asshole quotient downtown has been higher lately than in days gone by, we can hope that the Coffee Haus will remain a haven for the rest of us.

Place to Shoot Pool

Readers' choice: Fox & Hound, two locations

Sign of the Apocalypse

Readers' choice: American Idol hype

Staff choice: Replacing Matisse's ethereal and lovely female "Backs" with the leaning tower of "Man with a Briefcase"

Can Judgment Day be far behind when a city weeps not a tear over the loss of its choicest piece of public art -- those four graceful Henri Matisse copper bas reliefs of nude female backs? They floated delicately in a shaded corner of Burk Burnett Park until Fort Worth's philanthropist from hell decided to move them to the Kimbell Museum in November 2000. In their corner now stands a 50-foot shaft of aluminum with a cutout of a 1950s-era businessman. This deification of commerce could be more complete only if the Briefcase Man had been made of solid gold. But give him wide berth, he's already leaning. The goddess of us all may yet topple this graven image.

Underrated Pro Athlete

Readers' choice: Tie, golfer Mark Brooks and cyclist Lance Armstrong

Staff choice: Jason Arnott, Dallas Stars

The hockey fans around here only know him as the guy who came here toward the end of last season in trade for Joe Nieuwendyk and Jamie Langenbrunner. Once Arnott gets a full season with the team, however, Stars fans will learn what New York hockey fans already know: The big Ontario-born center can be a dominating, point-per-game player. Caveat: First, the team must settle its line combinations, where they have three centers for two top lines. Arnott may be moved to winger, where he's less effective, or traded.

Athlete (Almost) Worth His/Her Salary

Readers' choice: Alex Rodriguez, Texas Rangers

Staff choice: Russell Maryland, Dallas Cowboys

The NFL's top draft pick in 1991, defensive tackle Russell Maryland helped the Cowboys win three Super Bowls in five years. Then, of course, he chased free-agent dollars to Oakland and Green Bay and never came close to reliving the successes he had in Dallas. Maryland wanted to end his career as a Cowboy, so Dallas re-signed him and placed him on the reserve/retired list -- a common ploy to allow old players to retire as members of their favorite former teams. His salary is $0, which is what he is worth in our minds after joining the mass exodus of players who turned their backs on the Cowboys after the team's mid-1990s successes. Free agency is part of the business, but that doesn't mean we have to like the system or the players who focus solely on money and show no loyalty to teams, teammates, or fans.

Public Golf Course

Readers' choice: Pecan Valley, 6400 Pecan Valley Dr, FW

Volunteer Organization

Readers' choice: Big Brothers and Big Sisters

Staff choice: American Civil Liberties Union, Fort Worth Chapter

This local troop of pro-bono legal eagles and cheerleaders for the First Amendment are the Constitutional protectors of us all -- from marching Ku Klux Klanners to gun-totin' New Black Panthers; from the Jewish kid forced to listen to Jesus prayers at his school's football game to the Jehovah's Witness first-grader who won't pledge allegiance to the flag; from the crazy neighbor with butt-ugly protest signs in her yard to the Muslim prisoner force-fed Christian fundamentalism at the county jail. With George II running roughshod over the Constitution in these dark and dangerous days, this group's telephone number ought to be kept handy -- and they could probably use a check, too.

Bargain Sporting Event

Readers' choice: Fort Worth Cats

Staff choice: Texas Tornado

The Fort Worth Brahmas and the Fort Worth Cats deserve their loyal followings, but it's the junior hockey team in North Richland Hills that not only contends for league championships every year, but also shows its fans what a great time non-major-league sports can be.

Freeway To Avoid

Readers' choice: Interstate 35, by a large margin

Staff choice:Interstate 35 West

Residents who left Fort Worth in the early 1990s for Haslet, Roanoke, Justin and other rural areas have grown to hate I-35 West in recent years. Urban sprawl and development around Alliance Airport have jammed the major north-south highway with automobiles and made daily commutes about as pleasant as a being run over by a tractor-trailer hauling a load of nuclear waste.

Activist Group

Readers' choice: Amnesty International

Staff choice:Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, 2501 Parkview Drive, FW

For 16 years, APP has been helping young folks deal with their emerging sexuality and providing the knowledge needed to keep children from having children. The nonprofit group encourages abstinence but doesn't have its head in the sand about youth and sex. Its reproduction education programs cover it all, from "just say no" to the importance of protected sex. With leadership from an activist board made up of some of Fort Worth's most prominent citizens, APP has survived the political storms that have swirled around sex education for decades. It hasn't yet edited "condom" out of its teaching vocabulary.

Country Drive

Readers' choice: Road to Granbury

Staff choice:FM 203

Tooling along this lightly traveled ribbon of asphalt in Sumervell and Bosque counties is the closest thing to Hill Country heaven you can get within a few hours of the Metroplex. The low-water crossing, winding blacktop and view of cedar and oak covered hills will make you think you're several hundred miles to the south. The right-of-way explodes with wildflower color each spring. To get there, take Highway 67 through Glen Rose then turn left on 203. When you get to Walnut Springs, you can do a little antiquing before heading back to Glen Rose some for some killer BBQ and spicy potato salad (it's not on the menu:you have to ask for it) at the Ranch House.

Outdoor Advertising

Readers' choice: Chick-Fil-A

Staff choice: Fort Worth Star-Telegram's analog campaign.

We must admit, their bus-mounted signs advertising the advantages of paper vs. digital media are pretty clever -- a picture of a newspaper accompanied by a slogan like, "We invented the whole laptop thing." Granted, most readers already know what the advantages of paper are, so the campaign does have a faintly desperate air, as though the Startlegram's trying to convince people that it's still relevant. However, their signs still catch the jaded eyes of people accustomed to tuning out all forms of advertising.

Recovery from Tornado

Readers' choice: Cash America

Staff choice: Color Wheel

This little paint and coatings business on West 7th took a licking (half its building blown away) and kept on ticking. Brothers Dennis and Don Wicks and their dad, Ron, kept the business going from the still-standing warehouse. They lost most of their retail trade, but professional customers kept the faith. With their records destroyed, finding a lender to finance rebuilding was tough. Nine banks later, Arlington National Bank took the plunge. With their building whole again, the Wicks invited those loyal designer and decorator customers to display their talents on walls and ceiling of the new showroom, with fascinating results. Finishing touch:a new mural outside, tipping a hat to both the business's cultural district locale (God and Adam, a la the Sistine Chapel) and downtown's continuing tradition of trick-of-the-eye touches -- the painter and his scaffold are part of the art.

Improvement to Downtown Skyline

Readers' choice: The newly reclad Bank One

Staff choice:Intermodal Transportation Center clock tower, 9th and Jones Sts, FW

We started to give this to the new Fort Worth Convention Center construction, until we realized that that generally handsome re-do has left in place the part of the convention center we call The Spaceship, with its frieze of alien critters outside and its bad sight lines inside. So the nod goes, instead, to the Intermodal Transportation Center right down the street. True, its modest clock tower only nicks the skyline from a few angles, but it's part of a larger change in the city's look that we like a lot:trains, trolleys and other forms of public transportation coming alive again.

Example of Neglect

Readers' choice: The still-standing Bank One

Staff choice:The demise of Shakespeare in the Park

"Say it ain't so" moment of the year:the decision by Allied Theater Group to discontinue the annual Shakespeare performances in Trinity Park. The cost of mounting productions was becoming prohibitive, and attendance wasn't covering expenses. A fond summer memory:kids sliding down the hill behind the amphitheater on sheets of corrugated cardboard. Another:the players circulating among the picnickers during intermission, cadging scraps of dinner. Still another:the old Master of Revels (R.I.P.), the fella who dressed kinda like the guy on the Beefeater Gin bottle and used to begin the festivities by ringing that bell. Not to mention some genuinely interesting and novel treatments of the Bard's classic work. A plan to move SITP to the TCU campus didn't eventuate. A lesson for lovers of the arts:support �em or lose �em.

Eyesore (other than Bank One tower)

Readers' choice: 7th Street Theater

Staff choice:Montgomery Ward building, West 7th St, FW

The front of the old Monkey Ward's building is just kind of forlorn and hulking. The huge back section, with its abandoned garages and never-repaired tornado destruction, is awful. A Dallas company is trying to figure out what it can do with the building, but nothing's worked yet. The city has a loan and federal grant money for whoever puts together the title and the right proposal, but this one's a toughie -- residential, office and retail uses have all been considered. City officials and plenty of other folks are hoping someone will step up to the plate and save a historic building that survived not only the tornado but, many years ago, one of the last great Fort Worth floods. Like they say in the ads, it's a great fixer-upper.

Area To Avoid

Readers' choice: Stop Six

Staff choice:Parking lot, Festival Forum Marketplace, 2900 E Pioneer Pkwy, Arlington.

Ever see a late movie there and try to find your car? Deserted. Run-down. Pitch black. Leaves you craving the relative safety of a nighttime parking garage.

Walking Trail

Readers' choice: Along the Trinity

Staff choice:River Legacy Park, 701 NW Green Oaks Blvd, Arlington

Few places are better for walking than this 400-acre park, with wide paved trails and vast green spaces that allow for cool breezes. The trail is long enough to avoid becoming repetitious, and along the way there are restrooms, water fountains and shaded picnic tables for respite. Walkers on paved trails -- striped for safety -- must vie for space with skaters and bikers, but everyone seems to get along. Those who dislike crowds can veer off on the unpaved trails, which are banned to bikers. The gorgeous trees, ponds and Trinity River, along with park rules banning unleashed dogs and motorized vehicles on trails, all add to the ideal walking atmosphere.

Place to Host A Wedding Reception

Readers' choice: Botanic Gardens

Staff choice:Thistle Hill, 1509 Pennsylvania Ave, FW

Romance knows no boundaries, and neither should a memorable wedding. Thus, Thistle Hill is ideal. You can wine and dine up to 125 guests inside the mansion's lavish interior or outside on the illustrious grounds. But the showstopper is the grand staircase, serving as a dramatic entrance for the newlyweds or the stage for the ceremony itself. Built as a honeymoon cottage nearly 100 years ago, Thistle Hill makes for a lovely way to treasure Fort Worth's past and anticipate a couple's future.

Staff Only:

Place to Take a Blind Date

The Torch, FW

Let's say you're meeting your blind date somewhere. The place you're gonna wanna rendezvous is The Torch -- for a couple reasons. Guys, if her face could stop a clock, you can pass the time eyeing all the hotties who sling the drinks or frequent the bar; On the other hand, if she's Liz Hurley's long-lost twin, you can treat her to a romantic evening in a quaint faux-tropical setting, surrounded by Sinatra tunes. Now, ladies, if the guy you're meeting is a freak show, you can flirt with the macho men nearby who, remember, are there for the express purpose of running into a hot commodity like you. If your date is "sponge-worthy," you could probably sit on his lap and tongue his ear and no one in the bar would dare call you "cheesy." "Classy" is more like it.

Place for a Family Portrait

The Japanese Gardens, 3220 Botanic Garden Blvd, FW

Gaze at the lush landscape of the Japanese Gardens and it's easy to lose your place. Showcasing 7.5 acres of breathtaking trees and sweeping architecture (replete with a meditation garden), the gardens' prolific character constitutes a charming utopia and ideal portrait paradise. And while Jacques sets up the camera, you can keep the kids from killing each other by feeding the koi populating the locale's many ponds. Just drop a pellet of food into the water and watch thousands of fish flop to the surface in a dynamic display of Darwinism. It's a sight to behold, and one of many to treasure.

Altruistic Group

AIDS Interfaith, 200 W. Magnolia, FW

This nonprofit faith-based group has been providing care, comfort and "the kindness of strangers" to victims of HIV/AIDS here since modest beginnings in 1989. Today, 80 volunteers and a staff of eight care for more than 200 clients, providing services that range from delivering prescriptions to homebound patients to a "buddy program" that matches volunteers to less-ill clients who are far from home or whose families have abandoned them. At the group's core, however, are the dedicated "care teams" who tend to the day-to-day needs of the severely debilitated or dying patients. With the public's skewed perception that people are no longer dying from AIDS, the group's biggest problem is recruiting new volunteers.

View of Downtown Skyline

Trinity River levee, between West 7th Street and White Settlement.

If you where the corner of Arthur and Dakota is, you either work at Steamatic or you're a very knowledgeable Cowtownian. To get there, take the very first left off West 7th west of the river. Ignore the industrial metal-scape around you. Every time a little road turns right towards the river, take it. Eventually you will see the levee directly ahead of you. There are a few parking places along the road. Get out, take off your shoes, climb the slope. Sit in the grass. Contemplate Trinity River floods, tornadic paths, future Radio Shack headquarters, the tranquility of live oaks, the City on the Hill, rising on the opposite bank. Ditch the office.

Rebirth/Relocation/Reopening

Reata, 310 Houston St, FW

All three words in the title of this category fit the Reata. You can't blame the restaurant owners if they couldn't reproduce the view they had at the top of the Bank One tower, but almost everything else is back. (Although the big dining room is noisier and less intimate than the more subdivided spaces in the old location.) The wonderful ranch cuisine is there, the Western memorabilia -- and they've added the huge carved doors from Bonanza's fictitious Ponderosa. If the Caravan of Dreams had to die, this is a worthy successor.

Place to Find a Paid Escort

Fort Worth Weekly

Hate to brag on ourselves, but viewing the ads in the back of the newsweekly you hold in your hand is a great way to find a paid escort for the evening. However, keep your expectations in check. Just because Richard Gere's paid escort in Pretty Woman was witty, charming, looked like Julia Roberts, and became the love of his life doesn't mean all dates with paid escorts will be so romantic. Some escorts are just as happy to provide a 10-minute "date" for $150, baddabing baddaboom. And be careful selecting your escort based on an ad's photo. The women pictured aren't usually the ones who come to your door.

Place to Think

Japanese Garden, 3220 Botanic Garden Blvd, in the Botanic Gardens, FW

Even if you've never stood barefoot in subfreezing weather sipping saki inside a Japanese monastery, you can appreciate this most unlikely and sublimely serene component of the Fort Worth cultural district. Where better to contemplate the mistakes of the day or the promise of tomorrow than beside a koi pond or a meticulously manicured rock garden? Makes for a most pleasant solitary stroll in the early mornings of summer. If you get right with the Buddha and empty your mind, you can almost transport yourself to the temple city of Kyoto, where the monks have tended similar rock gardens for centuries.

Sunset

Various westbound locations along Interstate 30

September is a perfect month to catch an applause-worthy Texas sunset -- and you can do it without picking up a big-dollar tab at some eatery with a view. The early evening view of the western sky is perhaps the only redeeming esthetic value of -30. For optimal results, go scouting after a thunderstorm or when the jet stream has left the atmosphere striated with fingerling cirrus clouds. Our vote for the best location is just past the western edge of Loop 820. Regardless of the exact spot, if you've had the misfortune of spending a long day in a certain city to the east, you can still capture an impossibly beautiful canvas, tangerine strokes slithered across the turquoise ether, with Dallas in your rear-view mirror, where it belongs.

Bovine

PK Rancho

Lead steer, Fort Worth Herd, 131 East Exchange Av, FW

This is one tolerant beast. Not only does he allow himself to be paraded down Exchange Avenue every day as part of the Fort Worth Herd's "cattle drive" in the Stockyards, but PK Rancho also has to wear a clanging bell. He moseys down the brick streets day after day with a dozen or so of his castrated brethren, letting tourists from Toledo or Dallas gawk at their handsome horns from a distance. Surely PK and his friends, including his sometimes-sidekick Sam Houston, a Longhorn donated by actor and local resident Barry Corbin, deserve some credit for putting the "cow" back in Cowtown, if only for show. Not to mention giving tourists a whiff of a fresh cow patty right before lunch or dinner -- payback time, folks, before you order the ribeye.