76104 council candidates differ on how to fix the area’s food problem. Here’s how
The residents of Historic Southside are tired of feeling ignored. They hope after the June 5 runoff election that feeling will change no matter who is elected.
Historic Southside is in District 8, which runs from Riverside to an area of just south of Everman. It includes the Meadowbrook, Riverside, Glencrest, Hillside and Morningside neighborhoods along with the Texas Wesleyan University campus.
District 8 also takes in the 76104 ZIP code, where residents have the lowest life expectancy in Texas, according to a 2019 study by UT Southwestern. A Star-Telegram series explored the factors that drive this inequality, including the high cost and limited access to quality health care. There are also few grocery stores nearby, but plenty of convenience stores and fast-food restaurants.
Chris Nettles and council member Kelly Allen Gray advanced to the June 5 runoff after Nettles received 45.87% of the vote in the May 1 election and Gray 43.5%.
Both candidates agree that development is a priority. Gray highlighted achievements she’s already made in the neighborhood, including setting up a pop-up health clinic in March with another scheduled for June 5. Nettles argued that development has taken too long and because of that, the area isn’t bringing in the kind of tax revenue it could.
Resident Jherre Williams, who is secretary of the Historic Southside Neighborhood Association, which hosted a candidate forum on Saturday, said that no matter who wins, she and her neighbors want to see self-accountability with their representation.
“People make promises and we know things can’t be done overnight, but we want people to be held accountable for the things they say,” she said.
Williams and Ethan Weber, an advocate of the neighborhood who has been involved with the association for about eight years, both said they want someone who will be active in the communities within 76104.
“It would be nice to have a little more of a proactive approach to coming to meetings, bringing issues to us that we can work together on and facilitate more collaboration,” Weber said, “One thing we’ve worked on is getting various neighborhoods together to work on some similar issues that we’re all having. If that collaboration started at the top, it would be easier to make some of those connections and make things happen.”
Gray said if she’s reelected, she will continue to be a voice for the community and listen to constituent’s needs. Nettles said he wants to set up a communications program where he will know about every 911 call or complaint received by the district so he can be more hands on.
Asked about community development and bringing in grocery stores, Gray said she will continue to handle development the way she always has: With a lot of community input.
“We have to be thoughtful and methodical about the development we bring to the district,” she said. “I want to make sure we have things other districts have, but they come with a price, I’m not going to gentrify this area.”
Nettles said he has been discouraged with the slow process in some projects around 76104.
“We cannot continue to allow projects to take six years to come about,” he said. “District 8 has to be as comfortable to grow a family just as any place else. I want a place where my children can go bowling and skating. I want to make sure there are more grocery stores.”
And as far as bringing in a major grocery retailer, Gray said she doesn’t know if that is the right answer to fix 76104’s food problem.
She took a trip a few months ago to Waco to visit a Jubilee Market, which is a donation-based grocery store created to help bring healthy eating options to a food desert.
“Instead of trying to attract a grocery store, it’s the communities, it’s nonprofits, foundations coming together to create our own grocery store,” Gray said.
Nettles said one of his priorities will be trying to attract a major grocery store and specifically mentioned HEB.
“I live in District 8 and that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have a great grocery store because I don’t live on the west side,” he said.
Williams mimicked what a lot of residents have said in the past: They hope their voices are heard.
“We’ve been overlooked for years and I know this because I live here,” she said. “We need somebody that’s going to communicate and instead of telling us what we need, coming in and finding out what we think needs to be done.”
Her No. 1 concern is bringing in better food options.
“The stores are so far away we have a lot of elderly people in the neighborhood,” she said.
According to census data, 1,118 households in the ZIP code without cars, this can mean an hour-long walk (across a highway to Walmart) or an hour-long round trip on the bus.
