Culturally Relevant Development to Embrace All Fort Worth

Imagine sitting on an open patio, listening to Leon Bridges at a Puerto Rican-themed lounge. You pay your tab at the table using your smartphone and walk out to a vehicle-restricted plaza filled with musicians, vendors, street performers, and chess players. You meet your friends at an exhibit for African American art followed by a treat from a vegan ice cream shop. 
Sounds good, doesn’t it? 

Rendering courtesy of the City of Fort Worth

As a resident of the Historic Southside for two years, I’m in love with this city’s vibe and opportunities. Over just the last few years, Fort Worth’s growth has been amazing to watch. With the development of areas like Clearfork, Alliance, West 7th, and downtown, showing my out-of-town friends a great time is easy. Even my Dallas peers are impressed.  

Yet, the racial and economic disparity within that growth and development is striking. I’ve been “lucky” to experience various housing situations, like renting a condo downtown and buying a house in the Historic Southside, but many in our community cannot say the same.  

Cleo (not her real name) is a Fort Worth native and investor. A black woman, Cleo bought a property to develop but had a very difficult time maneuvering through the rules laid out by the Historic & Cultural Landmarks Commission. Development was stalled until she found an expert through Tanglewood Moms who walked her through the process. Other small developers typically don’t have that luxury. This begs the question: does Fort Worth really want home-grown minority development?  

Being a physician-entrepreneur, I’ve experienced board rooms and exam rooms, lead focus groups, plenaries and parties, wheelings and dealings. I have come to the conclusion that the racial-economic intersection necessary to improve minority neighborhoods doesn’t exist in Fort Worth.  

As a psychiatrist, I don’t like to eschew the obvious; I prefer a “head-on” approach to addressing uncomfortable issues. To ignite development, Fort Worth can and should invest in their black entrepreneurs and minority neighborhood associations. 

 In 2014, I wanted to start a private practice. I attempted to take out a small loan and was consistently denied by banks and small business funds throughout Fort Worth. This made me wonder: if a physician with a good credit history and solid earning potential can’t get a loan, how does anyone get one?  

Photo courtesy of the Historic Southside Neighborhood Association

Without access to capital, entrepreneurs cannot start their business and developers cannot develop properties. We must be willing to invest in black developers and entrepreneurs. Development of an idea or an area can require millions of dollars. There is a national gap in income and wealth between people of color and their white counterparts: a black man makes 72 cents to every dollar a white man makes, while black families have $5 of wealth for every $100 dollars of white family wealth. Given these differences, you can see just how difficult it is to be a black entrepreneur. 

How do we improve black entrepreneurship? Fort Worth can lead the nation in mindful investments for entrepreneurs of color by actively recruiting private developers of color to invest in Fort Worth. We also need to create easier pathways for those developers who already live in economically depressed neighborhoods to build/refurbish houses. Lending institutions could pioneer grants for developers and entrepreneurs of color to improve their financial competitiveness. Fort Worth ISD has high school internship programs which can supply much-needed personnel for black startups. The possibilities are almost endless.   

Neighborhood associations are miniature amalgamations of public entity and private business. Representing a diverse cast of residents using limited resources, neighborhood associations hope to make a maximum impact with a minimal amount of capital, a tall order for a group of volunteers. Relying on dues and donations, these people work hard to help their neighborhood.  

When I rented a house in Ryan Place, I saw what money and marketing could do. The Ryan Place Improvement Association (RPIA) has a beautiful website, sends out engaging and informative monthly newsletters, has a community directory, and hosts a calendar of events including the annual Candlelight Christmas in Ryan Place Tour of Homes. In fact, the Tour of Homes began as an initiative by the RPIA to bring back the iconic gates at Elizabeth Boulevard and Eighth Avenue. By partnering with businesses in the neighborhood, the RPIA has the capital to create a strong community feel in the Ryan Place neighborhood.  

This type of partnership is needed in other neighborhoods. When the City of Fort Worth chose Hoque Global as the master developer of the Evans-Rosedale Urban Village commercial concept, both the city and Hoque Global asked the neighborhood association for feedback and guidance from the neighborhood perspective. The Historic Southside Neighborhood Association, of which I am president, created a committee and after weeks of work, released a document of 25 recommendations on how to incorporate the new development into the neighborhood’s existing infrastructure.  

Since then, we’ve held meetings, hosted forums with politicians, increased membership in the neighborhood association, coordinated with TCU’s College of Fine Arts, provided feedback to newspapers and magazines, and more. Mimicking a visitors and conventions bureau model for this culturally significant area, our neighborhood association is uniquely positioned to facilitate thoughtful development while managing expectations from all interested parties. 

Photo courtesy of the Historic Southside Neighborhood Association

The City of Fort Worth has a great opportunity to support their minority neighborhood associations. Some ways that the City could help develop these historic neighborhoods and encourage minority developers and entrepreneurs include: 

1. Pooled Resources:Some physical deliverables (signs for meetings, text reminders, robocalls, and mailings) are cheapest in-bulk. Having a city-wide vendor account that neighborhood associations can leverage would help everyone’s costs. 
2. Blueprint Clearinghouse: Our neighborhood, like many minority neighborhoods, has a historic overlay designationfrom the Historic & Cultural Landmarks Commission. While protective and well-meaning, it has proved daunting to many home builders (small and large), as feedback is often contradictory and unclear. Allowing neighborhood associations to have a stronger voice in permits could be very helpful. 
3. Vetted Lenders:To progressively tackle decades of redlining, discrimination, and subprime mortgages, Fort Worth can help us by providing access to solid lenders with competitive and fair mortgage rates. 
4. Knowledge is Power:Having a direct and public line of communication between neighborhood associations and the City Council would hold all levels accountable to one another.  

Culturally relevant development in the Historic Southside and other minority neighborhoods requires strong black entrepreneurs and financially empowered neighborhood associations. Given Fort Worth’s renewed interest in improving race and culture disparities, we are ready to roll up our sleeves and turn Fort Worth into a premier cultural destination that embraces all our citizens… complete with vegan ice cream.  

Brian J. Dixon, MD, is a is a child psychiatrist, entrepreneur, writer, and public speaker in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.