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Downtown Fort Worth clean, safe, say residents

Members of rodeo’s legendary Gay family lead the parade from the Tarrant County Courthouse, Megan and Summer Gay (l2r), followed by the Fort Worth Police Mounted Patrol. A annual tradition, the Fort Worth Stock Show All Western Parade was held in downtown Fort Worth, Saturday, January 16, 2016.
Members of rodeo’s legendary Gay family lead the parade from the Tarrant County Courthouse, Megan and Summer Gay (l2r), followed by the Fort Worth Police Mounted Patrol. A annual tradition, the Fort Worth Stock Show All Western Parade was held in downtown Fort Worth, Saturday, January 16, 2016. Star-Telegram

Even with all the construction headaches, downtown is proving to be the place to live.

Downtown Fort Worth Inc., a nonprofit organization, released its 2015 “State of Downtown” report, and it seems the 564 acres of clean, safe streets are appealing to potential residents.

The organization sent out a survey to the downtown residents and culled data from the returned responses.

The 64-page report combs through all facets of downtown, from the “office occupancy rate” to education status of apartment residents.

Younger, wealthier and more highly educated people are flocking to downtown, according to the report. That should make all those downtown businesses happy.

Surprisingly, it not mostly out-of-towners moving to the Historic Electric Building or The Depot, but Fort Worthians. About 32 percent of the downtown residents came from the city while another 28.9 percent came from surrounding cities.

Also, most of the residents spend their time and money downtown. The report says more than 99 percent go to restaurants in the area an average of about nine nights a month.

Locals seemed to enjoy downtown so much that they just moved there.

We can’t blame them.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 6:13 PM with the headline "Downtown Fort Worth clean, safe, say residents."

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