Trash, potholes and no place to play: Fort Worth sends $3 million to this neighborhood
Ella Burton needs no prompting to give a peppy speech on the virtues of Fort Worth’s Como neighborhood.
She grew up in the neighborhood, tucked between Camp Bowie and Vickery boulevards west of Arlington Heights, and has no plans to leave. As Burton, 70, meandered her car down the neighborhood streets, she mixed vexations about potholes, jumbled sidewalks and dark avenues with memories of her childhood, excitement over a couple’s plan for an art studio and praise for an older woman’s well-kept yard.
“We’re a very, very prideful and strong community,” said Burton, the neighborhood advisory council president. “We want everyone coming in here to know what we’re all about.”
Como had a vibrant business district along Horne Street, and for decades was like its own small town within Fort Worth. But similar to the city’s other older urban core neighborhoods, Como has grown cracks in its 115 years. That’s why on Dec. 1 the City Council awarded the neighborhood $3.2 million for targeted investment. The money comes from a half-cent municipal property tax used for capital improvement projects. Stop Six, Ash Crescent, Northside and Rosemont were chosen in the past.
The money is meant to boost safety, aesthetics and private investment.
Burton said people are ready for a change in Como, but are unhappy about the criteria the neighborhood meets to receive the funds.
For the program, the city considers neighborhoods with high unemployment and poverty rates and few high school graduates. The neighborhoods typically have higher crime and code compliance violations as well as a significant number of blighted or substandard buildings.
Como has been on the list since the program started. The median household income is about $18,500 and more than 40% of the population lives below the poverty rate. Just over 20% of residents lack a high school diploma and 14% are unemployed, according to the city’s assessment.
The neighborhood has an elevated crime rate, but Burton said neighbors keep each other in check. That was clear when the Star-Telegram attempted to reach others in the neighborhood who instead relayed to Burton that a reporter wanted to write about Como.
“We try to band together, and be one voice to dispel any division,” she said.
Como’s leadership was one of the elements that drew the city to the neighborhood and made it easy to push for improvements there, said Councilman Brian Byrd, who represents the west side of Fort Worth. Byrd described Como as one of the most unique neighborhoods he’s ever worked with, recalling some of the locally owned businesses that lined Horne Street when he was growing up in the 1970s and ‘80s.
“I think it portends very good things for the neighborhood,” Byrd said of the $3.2 million. “The strength of it will be that we have input from the leadership of Como.”
Besides the advisory council, another neighborhood group known as LEGACY wants to promote a sense of community pride, especially among young people.
Fort Worth’s neglected neighborhoods
The city’s neighborhood improvement program has seen success since it began in Stop Six in 2017. It is designed to pump money into neighborhoods that haven’t received as much attention as other parts of town. The districts tend to have a high number of Black or Hispanic residents, many of whom are older.
In Stop Six, most of a $2.5 million allotment has been spent on a slew of improvements, which includes 7,500 linear feet of sidewalks and 309 new streetlights.
The neighborhood has seen some of the clearest signs of improvement, said Victor Turner, director of the city’s neighborhood services department.
Total property values have shot up from about $31.2 million in 2016 to nearly $86 million in 2020. New building permits more than doubled to 68 in the first three quarters of 2020 from 33 in 2016, according to city statistics. The crime rate has dropped 32% in that same time.
In Ash Crescent the city has spent $1.6 million of a nearly $2.8 million allotment. Illegal dumps and nearly 300 tons of trash have been removed, including 1,059 tires. Crime is down 18%.
Progress is being made in the Northside, which received a little more than $3 million in 2019, Turner said. About $1.2 million has been spent, largely on streetlights and litter abatement. Since 2019 crime has dropped 23%.
The city has spent $137,000 of $3.1 million in Rosemont, which the City Council approved in January. Work has been slower there because of the pandemic, Turner said, but it was the first to receive free Wi-Fi through the city’s network this month.
Dozens of cameras will be installed in all of the neighborhoods and several will get park upgrades.
Como Improvements
The wish list for Como is greater than the $3.2 million the city will provide, but it’s a start, Burton said. Among neighbors’ top priorities are street improvements, sidewalks, streetlights and a general beautification of the neighborhood. Burton also wants to see an end to illegal dumping on vacant property.
As she drove down Farnsworth Avenue she pointed out a rocky unnamed creek where children fished when she was a girl. Now it’s a flooding hazard, she said. At an intersection on Fernando Drive she slowed and weaved around a massive pothole that has existed for years.
“We are familiar with them so we know when to slow down and watch for those dips, but others would not and we have neighbors complaining about that,” she said.
Burton said most of the improvements are needed on the east side of the neighborhood. Throughout Como new and well maintained homes are often next to vacant lots or boarded up buildings. The hope is the city’s investment will spur property owners to clean up their land, she said, especially on Horne Street where the neighborhood wants to see small businesses return.
On Lake Como Drive, she stops the car near a heavily wooded lot that’s clearly become a de facto dump. Better street lighting and security cameras would help curb dumping, which she said is a stain on the community.
Down the street, a group of children crowd the driveway of a home before biking to a church parking lot. Playing in the street has been a rite of passage since she was a child, but Burton said the community would like the city to provide more outdoor recreation. The former site of the community center and a concrete pad where the neighborhood pool used to be would better serve Como children as some kind of field or track, she said. The new community center, 4660 Horne Street, which opened in February, also has space outside.
The target investment is not the only activity in Como.
Earlier this year the city approved $9 million for work on Horne Street. It’s not clear what that will look like, but Byrd said it will involve improving the streetscape and making the strip more pedestrian friendly. Because $7.3 million comes from a federal grant, he said it may take a few years before work is done.
“The idea is to build businesses down that corridor,” Burton said. “We’d like to see something like a Magnolia or a Rosedale.”
Horne Street once bustled with thriving Como-owned businesses, including laundromats, a hotel and a grocery. The storied Bluebird blues club, now in the midst of a remodel, hosted blues and jazz acts like the Juke Jumpers. Many of the artist’s names are still written on the walls of the joint.
Warren Mack, who has been working on the building, said he and the property owner hope to open it again.
“What I want to do is make it like the original, the old style,” Mack said. “There’s a couple guys who used play here who stop by periodically to see what’s going on.”
The shops sprang up as Como filled with predominantly Black Fort Worthians, many of whom worked for rich white families in Arlington Heights and Riglea Hills in the first half of the 20th Century. Businesses began to close as owners died or their families moved away, Burton said.
There’s now a sense that Como will thrive.
“We are still alive and well,” Burton said.
This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
