Fort Worth Mayor Says State of City is ‘Very Very Strong'

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said the city is “very, very strong,” but acknowledged some challenges in her State of the City speech Tuesday.

"Friends, we have so much to be thankful for,” she told about 1,300 business leaders and Chamber of Commerce officials during a luncheon at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

Fort Worth is booming, she said, describing it as a diverse city closing in on 900,000 with a strong economy and a unique identity.

"Funkytown,” she said. “That's Cowtown, y'all, for the younger crowd."

But weighing heavy on her speech was a 500-page report commissioned by the city last year that highlights the city’s shortcomings.

"It did take courage for us to look in the mirror and look at what this report revealed,” she said.

The report noted that in some ways, Fort Worth lives in Dallas' shadow, and is at risk of becoming a "bedroom community."

Price poked fun at Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, who was in the audience.

"We're partners, Mike, not communities,” she said.

But the fact remains, Fort Worth has a lower percentage of college graduates than Dallas, and 60 percent of the people in Fort Worth go to another city to work.

"That's a problem,” Price said. “We simply have to do better at attracting jobs and retaining the jobs we have."

On Tuesday, a business columnist for The Dallas Morning News asked whether Fort Worth was "draggin' down" Dallas in the bid for Amazon's massive new headquarters, suggesting Dallas has more of the educated white-collar workers Amazon may be looking for.

"I don't think we're ever dragging them down," Price said in an interview. "I'll have to respectfully disagree with the article."

Fort Worth spends half the sales tax revenue Dallas does on transit, and faces increased economic development competition from places like Collin County.

"Fort Worth will be in the tax arena just as competitive as Frisco and Plano when companies are looking to relocate to FWD,” Price said in her speech, reversing the order of the cities in “DFW” and prompting widespread laughter. “Mayor Rawlings knew I was going to say that at some point."

Her ribbing may be all in fun, but her comments underscore a serious concern -- that Fort Worth is lagging behind its bigger, better-known neighbor to the east.

"Fort Worth is not doomed,” she said. “We have work to do and we are honest about where we are going with it. But I can stand here today and confidently report to you that the state of our city is very, very strong."