Fort Worth Las Vegas Trail Task Force Meets With Public on Revitalization

Fort Worth city leaders focused on improving and restoring the Las Vegas Trail community were set to host a town hall meeting Tuesday morning.

The movement to revitalize the community, which stretches one mile along Las Vegas Trail south of Interstate 30, is lead by council member Brian Byrd (District 3).

Byrd put together a revitalization committee after he learned about the extreme lack in Las Vegas Trail. According to Byrd, children and parents in the area endure extreme pressures and obstacles on a daily basis.

“When they wake up in the morning they hear sirens until they go to bed at night,” said Byrd. “Their kids have to cross a busy street, and they have a hard time doing it because they have to go by themselves because mom is working. They have a hard time getting to work because they don’t have transportation. The area has concentrated crime, prostitution, and human trafficking. We’ve got to do something about it."

Las Vegas Trail is lined with rundown apartments and motels. Apartment gates are broken, leaving families inside vulnerable to criminal activity.

In June of 2017,  inside of a motel a 12-year-old girl was being trafficked and sold for sex. Byrd said he was changed by the tragic news.

“I don’t see how any human can look at what’s going on in the Las Vegas Trail area, where you have a 12-year-old being trafficked sold for sex, and say ‘we don’t need to do anything about that, it will take care of itself,’" said Byrd.

"No, we have to jump in. We have a saying ‘we like to run into places of pain’ that’s where we get meaning in life and that’s how we’re going to help our fellow human being," Byrd said.

Each committee member will be focused on six areas: education, housing, health and wellness, economic development, public safety and social services.

Dozens of teachers and parents were among the 400 people passionately voicing problems and solutions at the first town hall.

The city of Fort Worth will model its revitalization project after the “Jubilee Park Neighborhood Project, in Dallas’ Fair Park area.

The meeting was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Oct. 24 at Birchman Baptist Church, 9100 N. Normandale St.

If you cannot attend, there is another meeting scheduled during the evening of Nov. 3.

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