After months of discussions and meetings, the Fort Worth City Council approved Tuesday its new district map which outlines where each member represents.
“It was not easy. It was painful. A lot of us gave up a lot of things we didn’t want to, to make it and get it done,” District 3 council member Michael Crain said.
In 2016, Fort Worth voters approved an amendment to the City Charter to increase the number of City Council members from nine to 11 following the completion of the 2020 Census. Two years later, the Task Force on Race and Culture recommended the goal of ensuring the council reflects the diverse communities that it represents.
On Tuesday, city council members unanimously approved the new map which adds Districts 10 and 11. Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said it increases representation in the area north of 820, along with the potential for more Hispanic representation on the city council.
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“When you look on our dais right now, Carlos Flores is our only Hispanic representative council despite the growing number of the demographics of our Hispanic community. I’m excited about that opportunity. The most important thing now is for the recruitment of good candidates in that election process and getting people out to vote,” Mayor Parker said. “We can’t guarantee any result. All we can do is create the opportunity for residents across the city to feel like they’ve got the right representation on the council.”
Before voting, council members heard from several residents. Most speakers were in support of the map, including Fort Worth resident Rick Herring. He lives in the Riverside community which has been represented by three different district members for decades. The new map would place Riverside under the new District 11.
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Herring is a moderator for the Riverside Alliance, which is a coalition of seven neighborhoods.
“We have difficulty because we’ve been represented by three different council members, who have all been good to us, but we’ve always been in a corner of one of their districts,” he said. “We just feel like being unified within one district, we feel like we could have a bigger voice in the district and work towards the resources and needs of our own community.”
There was pushback from some residents who spoke Tuesday, including Jennifer Crossland. She moved to Fort Worth about ten years ago and now lives in the Ridglea Hills community, but she frequents Como. Crossland said she didn’t like the idea of Como “being an island”.
“A lot of people have invested interest in Como. I know Como wants to be by itself, but I’m here to tell you right now, I love Como. I love going to Como every day. I support the small businesses. I’m here to speak on behalf of those small businesses, many of which are owned by minorities or women,” she said. “And I also want to say, I don’t think it not okay to make districts based on race. That is patently, patently wrong to me. I don’t like it. We don’t see color.”
Fernando Peralta spoke in favor of the map and responded to the criticism of the districts mapped by race.
“Our community never said anybody that wasn’t Hispanic couldn’t represent our community, but we wanted an opportunity to have more representation on this council,” Peralta said.
The proposed map passed by a 9 to 0 vote Tuesday with some councilmembers addressing their constituents directly.
“I hear that you’re a little upset,” District 9 councilwoman Elizabeth Beck said. "Maybe I don’t have your same political views, but I work really hard on this council to represent every single person.”
The map, once approved, will first be implemented in conjunction with the May 2023 municipal elections.
