At Tuesday’s meeting, the Fort Worth City Council passed a resolution designating the North Side Neighborhood as the Fiscal Year 2019 Neighborhood Improvement Target Area, along with supporting the use of $3 million in capital funds for the program.
“When you make improvements good things happen, such as crime gets reduced, people take more pride in their surroundings,” District 7 Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Dennis Shingleton said. “When you have company coming you straighten up. That’s all we’re doing.”
Improvements will include repairing or replacing sidewalks and streetlights, along with cleaning up dump sites, and more, Shingleton said.
In December 2016 the council implemented a pilot program for Cavile Place and Stop Six using $2.56 million in capital funds aimed at increasing public safety, improving the physical characteristics of the targeted area, promoting economic revitalization, providing supportive services to reduce poverty, and improving the quality of life. In January of 2018 they passed a resolution supporting the continuation and expansion of the program for the Ash Cresent Neighborhood, using $2.77 million.
Several residents of North Side spoke to the council on behalf of the project.
“I see this as an amazing opportunity. We really need this money,” Cassie Warren said.
“The North Side is a very special place. I know. I grew up there,” said former District 2 Councilman Sal Espino, who served the area in that capacity from 2005-17. “My heart, my mind, my soul are always with the North Side.”
Current District 2 Councilman Carlos Flores, also a lifelong resident of North Side, addressed the concerns of some who have said such projects bring about gentrification and displacing people from their homes.
“It has been languishing and in need for decades. That is a fact,” he said, adding about the work, “How can that force anyone out. It will keep them there.”
Based on the evaluation of the lessons learned from the first two projects, city officials have decided to annually designate a targeted neighborhood for the Neighborhood Improvement Program. Such neighborhoods demonstrate indicators of distress, such as significant blight, inadequate public infrastructure, persistent public safety issues and low educational attainment combined with high concentration of low and moderate income residents, and opportunity to leverage other economic and social investments.
As part of the recently opened TEXRail line to the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, a Northside rail station opened at 2829 Decatur Ave., near the Samuels Avenue and NE 28th Street area. The station comes online just as Fort Worth is looking to invest in that area to make improvements and promote economic growth.
“If we just invest $3 million in this this neighborhood, this will be the cornerstone as transit oriented development comes around it,” said Mayor Betsy Price during a grand opening on Dec. 31.
In 2017, the city similarly provided $2.56 million to implement capital projects aimed specifically at improving the Stop Six neighborhood. The next year, the Ash Crescent neighborhood in southeast Fort Worth received $2.77 million for improvements.
The targeted Northside area is bounded on the south by Jacksboro Highway, on the west by Roosevelt Avenue, on the east by Ellis Avenue and on the north by Northeast 25th Street.
The city’s Neighborhood Improvement Program is a comprehensive community initiative led by its Neighborhood Services Department to improve the quality of life and overall health and well-being of residents in targeted neighborhoods utilizing data obtained through Neighborhood Profile Area (NPA) Vitality Measures, prepared by the city’s planning and development department. Neighborhood vitality includes decent affordable housing, strong performing schools, attainable health care and social services, accessible jobs, connective transportation systems, active retail/commercial hubs, safe streets, and sustainable infrastructure.