Texas Wesleyan details progress on Polytechnic Heights revitalization to Fort Worth City Council
Fort Worth’s efforts to revitalize the Historic Northside and Polytechnic Heights neighborhoods will continue with two more years of city funding, officials detailed.
The two districts are entering their fourth year in Main Street America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation supporting unified revitalization efforts, businesses and beautification aimed to counter years of disinvestment in specified areas.
However, Northside will get slightly more funding from the city than the eastside area, where efforts have lagged, prompting changes in oversight of the Poly Main Street initiative.
Coordinators of the local revitalization efforts updated City Council members on progress during a work session March 3.
The city launched the Main Street effort in 2022 for a three-year pilot, initially giving the two neighborhoods $120,000 for administrative and operational funding as well as $150,000 in grant funding to enact neighborhood reenergizing efforts over the pilot, according to a work session presentation.
In June, the pilot was extended for another two years. The city will give Northside — which encompasses the Historic Stockyards and is adjacent to the future Panther Island development — an additional $60,000 for administrative funding and $70,000 for implementation funding, Phillip Michael Smart, Fort Worth economic development coordinator, told council members.
Polytechnic Heights’ Poly Main Street initiative — which covers the Vaughn Street corridor — will receive a new $60,000 for administrative costs as that district’s managers didn’t spend its initial $150,000.
“They basically just carried that over,” Smart said. “Instead of them losing the $150,000 for the first three years, we feel like it was more of a due process to allow them to have that.”
Last June, after the Poly Main Street pilot saw revitalization efforts stall, council members tapped Texas Wesleyan University — an anchor of the district — as the new overseer.
Before that, the efforts were overseen by Southeast Fort Worth Inc., which was undergoing leadership changes at the time. Polytechnic business owners expressed optimism that Texas Wesleyan’s leadership would fuel substantive changes.
Polytechnic Heights is a historic, majority-Hispanic neighborhood sharing much of its identity with the adjacent, predominantly Black Stop Six neighborhood. About 3 miles from downtown, the neighborhood was once its own as an incorporated city hosting a stop on the Fort Worth Interurban. After decades of divestment, many historic storefronts are shuttered and graffitied.
At the March 3 work session, Dwala Chandler, Texas Wesleyan’s director for service learning and the coordinator for Poly Main Street, said the efforts to bring new life to the area now have moved “firmly into the implementation phase.”
Chandler said they’ve gotten students involved in planning out the neighborhood’s makeover by teaching a “community-based project management” college course, and they are creating a nonprofit to lead fundraising. The Main Street team held a logo design contest to help create the community’s visual identity and are creating bylaws for the efforts.
The university is advancing a proposal for an “outdoor fitness court” that will double as a community hub, as well as helping renovate two commercial buildings in the neighborhood.
“Polytechnic Heights is not waiting for transformation. We are actively building the structure, the partnerships and the momentum to sustain it,” Chandler told council members.
The districts can spend the city’s implementation funding in any way that aligns with Main Street America’s four points, explained Dee Lara O’Neal, the coordinator for the Northside improvements.
Those include:
- Organization — building leadership and capacity in the district.
- Promotion — telling the district’s story.
- Economic vitality — supporting business growth.
- Design — enhancing the visual character of the district.
O’Neal told the Report that the city’s funding is dispersed through grants, which the districts must individually apply for as they want to spend it.
Over the past three years, Northside Main Street — led by the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce — used its $150,000 for event hosting and projects including landscaping, branding and public murals, O’Neal said.
The Northside team also plans to use the money for street banners that advertise Northside’s identity, as well as communication projects to coordinate and support small businesses in the area.
As Stockyards redevelopment has brought newer hotels and entertainment venues in recent years, Northside has maintained its identity as a Hispanic cultural hub with small, family-owned restaurants, colorful houses and community festivals and art events.
However, that nearby development has raised housing costs in the area, casting fears of displacement and lost culture among many longtime residents.
O’Neal told council members that the Main Street America pilot refined their vision for Northside to reflect a “shared identity for the corridor.”
She said the Main Street America pilot has led to more than $535,000 raised for Northside’s revitalization, as well as a recently awarded $250,000 grant from the North Texas Community Foundation, which will be dispersed over several years.
“What we’re working toward is a Northside known for celebrating its vibrant culture, its history of entrepreneurship and small businesses and truly, truly shared stewardship of the community,” O’Neal said.
Over the next two years, city officials will focus on strategically helping both district revitalization efforts become sustainable.
New agreements with the districts include set metrics to measure the progress of the Main Street initiatives. These include private funds raised, jobs created and vacant buildings activated, Smart said.
Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.orgor @shawlings601.
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