Olaf Growald
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price’s plate is proverbially full. Still. COVID-19 has racked the city and jeopardized its way of life. Tensions over the police flared again this spring, this time triggered by the death of George Floyd in Minnesota police custody nearly 1,000 miles away. Price sat down in mid-August for a virtual chat with the magazine. We saved the best question for last: Are you running for mayor again? Her response: “Right now, I’m running to improve this economy. And get us coming back.”
Putting Fort Worth on the Comeback Trail
COVID-19 has shut down businesses and forced readjustments, even among ones such as logistics that are doing well amid the pandemic. City and business leaders are at work, trying to get the economy reopened, support struggling businesses, and find new opportunity.
Opportunity’s Calling
FW: Mayor Price and the chairs of the strike force have said they believe there’s opportunity to build on Fort Worth’s strengths in several industries, such as logistics and distribution. Hillwood’s Alliance Airport is a major global distribution hub, and the company is experimenting with next-generation transportation technologies such as autonomous trucking. It’s teamed with Bell, which is developing future flight technologies — manned and unmanned — for passenger and freight. DFW Airport is one of the world’s busiest airports. Fort Worth sits at Tower 55, one of the nation’s busiest railroad intersections, and is home to the BNSF headquarters and operations hub and a major Union Pacific Railroad hub. Fort Worth is developing a medical innovation district, anchored on the Near Southside, that will explore expansion of the city’s medical and biotech segments. Fort Worth has already been enjoying relocations of businesses drawn by the state’s low-cost, low-regulatory environment, and the city sees opportunity beneath COVID-19’s cloud to draw more relos, including companies that want to bring operations into the U.S. from other countries, to make themselves more nimble in any future supply chain disruptions.
Mayor Betsy Price: “I do think there’s golden opportunity for us to recruit some new businesses. There are just a lot of businesses calling and saying we need to get out of New York, out of California, we need to get out of these dense areas and into high-growth areas that are less regulatory.
“Aviation is big for us. We have a really nice start in Alliance. We’re getting some more traction down [in the Interstate 35 corridor] toward Alcon and Coors. I think mobility is a big deal for us. Hillwood has the mobility innovation zone. We sit at the crossroads of Tower 55, and we have the BNSF hub. We’re on what used to be the NAFTA Highway [The North American Free Trade Agreement was updated and signed by President Trump and is now the U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement].
“We have pockets of technology all over the city. Internet-based technology, chip, I think there’s ample room for that. Clearly, we have a very nice start with our medical innovation zone.
“All of those are areas we really can build on. There’s going to be a lot of reshoring [of business from other countries].
“Fort Worth has a very strong tourism and convention business. And our arts — our music and film … Our film industry was really beginning to take off.”
Preserving the Fort
FW: Fort Worth received $158 million from the federal CARES Act and partnered with United Way of Tarrant County to distribute $10 million of the money to Fort Worth businesses through grants in the Preserve the Fort program. Fort Worth’s Business Assistance Center helped businesses apply for federal Payroll Protection Program loans. The city, using part of its CARES money, has purchased and distributed masks. Of the $10 million in Preserve the Fort grants, $2.5 million were dedicated to minority-owned businesses, and $2.5 million for businesses in Fort Worth’s Neighborhood Empowerment Zones and Designated Investment Zones. These are areas that are predominantly low-to-moderate income, which the city had already identified for revitalization efforts. Grant applications were processed with the help of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce.
BP: “We started with our CARES dollars, with getting out the package [for] grants, helping small businesses with their loans, getting PPE out to them. We’re still doing that; we got the masks out at a PPE event yesterday.”
Reopening
FW: The strike force co-chaired by Mayor Price, Chase Bank executive Elaine Agather, and Crescent Real Estate CEO John Goff has been meeting virtually, under the direction of Jarratt Watkins, a former Kelly Hart & Hallman lawyer hired to be the full-time director. The strike force has a one-year, two-fold mission: to help Fort Worth business reopen and recover amid COVID-19 and identify opportunities for new business, including onshoring. Fort Worth Now helped distribute masks to businesses under the city’s CARES Act PPE program. Two Fort Worth City Council members assembled a handbook on reopening. Price also is coordinating with Visit Fort Worth executives Bob Jameson and Mitch Whitten to try and boost the city’s tourism industry, socked this summer by COVID-19. Occupancy at Fort Worth’s hotels has sagged, and traffic at major attractions such as the F ort Worth Stockyards and Sundance Square is substantially off.
BP: “We’ve been meeting virtually. It’s a public-private partnership. But all the money we’ve raised for advertising, supplies, have all been privately funded. Phase 1 has been PPE, grants, getting them out in front of financers, mentors, help with profit and loss. We’re running that through the Business Assistance Center. Jarratt is coordinating with [Fort Worth economic development director] Robert Sturns and his staff and [Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce president] Brandom Gengelbach and his staff. Hayden Blackburn from Tech Fort Worth is helping us. We’re using all of our available resources and trying to get them as coordinated as we can. We’re helping the Black and Hispanic chambers with small businesses and [helping] get them resources. We need them to stay on their feet. The chambers are helping us identify those folks.
“Phase 2 is recruiting businesses. We’ve already got two or three things [relocation prospects] we’ve been working on. In normal [economic development] work, you’d get to do a site visit. But this isn’t normal, and this is being done virtually. We’ve got a couple, potentially, maybe three, we’re hoping to do successful relocations on. If we find something we need done, [we ask] who knows who. I would say two-thirds of it we’re doing ourselves, with a third being supplemented [by help from] Austin and Washington. Mitch Whitten and Bob Jameson have come with Y’all Stay Safe, Y’all Stay Home. I’m going to do a Facebook Live with them on music tonight. I’m very impressed with the fact that so many people stepped up to do so much.”
Success Stories
FW: Business at Fort Worth’s major logistics and distribution concerns, such as Amazon, has surged, as COVID-19 drove more sales online. But it’s hard to find similar stories among small businesses, Price says. She cites the popular restaurateur Jon Bonnell, who switched to $40 prix fixe, family-style meals at his flagship southwest Fort Worth fine dining restaurant, and in late spring, reopened his Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine and Waters Restaurant downtown to dine-in business. Bonnell moved his catering business largely to his Buffalo Bros wings, pizza, and sandwich restaurants. He’s continued the curbside business at Bonnell’s, alongside the fine dining. Bonnell dropped from 265 employees to 31 overnight when COVID-19 shut business down and, by mid-August, was back up to 180. Fort Worth Now is at work, with the help of Brandom Gengelbach at the Fort Worth Chamber and Robert Sturns in economic development, trying to help bars pivot to a greater food mix so they can reopen as restaurants that serve alcohol under Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s orders.
BP: “I think first and foremost, they’re all struggling. No doubt, nearly every business is struggling. They’re innovating and adapting. They’ve looked at the business and seen how do I reshape the business. Jon pivoted almost immediately when they closed and went to family-style takeout meals. He would have cars waiting two hours. He did a limited number, knew what his breakeven was. He just got very creative with it. Michael Thomson [of Michael’s Cuisine], Mary Perez of Enchiladas Ole, Mike [Micallef] at Reata [have reconfigured their models]. Even the big steakhouses. It took them longer to pivot, but they’ve come on with it. Hot Box Biscuit Club, people place their orders, and they go into the neighborhoods with their food truck. There’s been some really interesting partnership. Kari [Crowe of Melt Ice Creams] is partnering with a bunch of the restaurants. Those are great examples of how they’ve pivoted. I think you’re going to see that in the bar industry. Brandom and Robert are talking to bars, [asking] let’s see how we can get you open. How do you expand your food to 50% of your businesses. Clearly, our big businesses have more resources. [But] we’re beginning to see some layoffs in some of those big businesses that’s a bit concerning. I think that’s going to be the case for a while, until the economy stabilizes. Change is hard, I know that, particularly if you’re a small business, to sit back and be really creative.”
Economic Outlook
FW: The City of Fort Worth is expecting significant declines in tax revenues in coming years as the economy recovers, but some industries are surging.
BP: “Every business is going to see some setback and a refocus, and I think it’ll take us two to five years to recover. I think certain industries — the online retailers, the landscaping, the home repairs — sales tax in those areas are coming on strong. Liquor — our package sales are great. Delivery services of all kinds. Outdoor recreation — bicycles, motorcycles — all of those are strong. A lot of service industries, not necessarily restaurants and bars, are doing well. Construction and real estate are doing really well. Residential is really hot right now. And when we get a vaccine, I think you’ll begin to see a bigger recovery. What can we do to support the ones that are hurting? Part of what we need to do is get our economy reopened. Part of that is we all need to keep wearing our masks. We were such a robust economy, and I know we’re going to get out of this. We’re going to find a way to [not only] pivot and survive but thrive. The economy really does have to readjust.”
“How does COVID-19 change the need for office space? How does that change child care; how does that change education? The Strike Force is working with that, working with [the community’s] Best Place for Kids [initiative] and Read Fort Worth. I’ve been talking to a lot of medical professionals, saying this community has to do a better job working with community health. We’ll work with our medical partners to really look at the health of the community. One good thing that’s come out of this is you see so many more families all over the city who are out and about and in the community. They’re spending more time in the park and with their families.”
Fort Worth Moves Toward Community Oversight of Police
Fort Worth Police have been under the microscope. The city is implementing recommendations from a Race and Culture Task Force that was formed to look into inequity in areas ranging from criminal justice to economic development, education, governance, health, housing, and transportation. In criminal justice, the city has established a new police oversight monitor, hiring a monitor and assistant monitor.
Since then, the city has conducted initial meetings with community organizations, city leaders and police; created a complaint form and begun receiving and reviewing complaints, inquiries, recommendations for commendations, reports on use of force incidents, and Fort Worth Police policies and procedures. The city is working to expand and diversify its pool of prospective candidates for police officers, working, for one, with school districts and Tarrant County College.
In the fall, tensions flared again when a police officer shot and killed a woman, Atatiana Jefferson, inside her home, mistaking her for an intruder. The officer was later indicted for murder. This spring, after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minnesota triggered nationwide protests, including ones in Fort Worth, recently named Police Chief Ed Kraus and other officers defused confrontation by kneeling with protestors.
This summer, Kraus, a Fort Worth Police veteran who earned high marks during his career before he was named chief, announced he would retire, putting the city back in job search for a new chief. Fort Worth voters also overwhelmingly renewed the city’s sales tax-funded Crime Control Prevention District, whose monies primarily fund police capital expenditures such as vehicles and related equipment, facility expenses, safety equipment for officers, and technology infrastructure. The renewal was for 10 years. The vote came over some calls in the community to vote down the CCPD and force the city into considering a shorter term and reallocate some resources to social needs, a push known as “defunding the police.”
FW: What shape will police oversight take in Fort Worth?
BP: “The City Council is awaiting a proposal from the Office of the Police Monitor, which will take into account the recommendations from the Race and Culture Task Force. A recommendation from the Office of the Police Monitor is expected by the end of October.”
FW: What can the Fort Worth PD do to improve its relationship with the community?
BP: “As a whole, the Fort Worth Police Department has a great relationship with our community and has built strong rapport through programs such as the Cadet Program, Ministers Against Crime, Code Blue, and more. Another top priority for the newly created Office of the Police Monitor is to identify opportunities to foster stronger relationships and increase positive community-police interactions. The independent panel of experts that reviewed FWPD policies also provided some recommendations on ways to better improve relationships.”
FW: What answers in the city’s ongoing questionnaire about police are you most interested in reading the responses to?
BP: “I look forward to reviewing the responses of both the community and officer questionnaires, as I see it as an opportunity to improve. The results are anticipated to be released publicly by Aug. 31.”
FW: Regarding the recent protests in Fort Worth that were triggered by George Floyd’s death, how would you assess our police department’s response? Our community’s response?
BP: “Overall, I was pleased by the response from both the community and the police department. I am grateful that the demonstrations were largely peaceful and respectful.”
FW: Do you believe the Fort Worth protestors had a reason to be upset specifically with the Fort Worth Police?
BP: “I recognize there are members of our community that are still experiencing pain and need time to heal following the tragic death of Ms. Jefferson. And, thankfully, we live in a free country where the right to express your opinion is protected.”
FW: Regarding the renewal of the CCPD, what was your perspective on why we should have renewed that over 10 years, as opposed to a shorter period?
BP: “Prior elections were overwhelmingly supportive of continuing the Crime Control and Prevention District, and it was a more responsible use of taxpayer dollars as there is a significant cost associated with holding the election.”
FW: What aspects of “defund the police” — reallocating resources — are we interested in looking at in Fort Worth? Is any of this study underway currently?
BP: “I am not interested in any aspect of defunding the Fort Worth Police Department. There are resources that can be reallocated to better serve our community, and we are currently evaluating opportunities to bolster those programs. However, we will not defund, nor will we dramatically reduce the budget of the Fort Worth Police Department.”
FW: How would you grade/assess Chief Kraus’ short time as police chief?
BP: “Chief Kraus is an incredible leader with a servant heart, and Fort Worth has been incredibly blessed to have him at the helm of our Police Department. He has done a yeoman’s job during an exceedingly difficult and unprecedented time. Chief Kraus has laid the groundwork for a more accountable and transparent department through various initiatives, from working with the Police Monitor to establishing the third-party panel review, and I am confident these efforts will continue for the remainder of his tenure and beyond.”
FW: Is there anything you can say about why he’s leaving?
BP: “That is Chief Kraus’ story to tell, but I support his decision to retire, and I wish him all the best. We are grateful for his service and leadership.”
