FORT WORTH (WBAP/KLIF)- Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price gives her 8th the State of the City to highlight important milestones and progress in the 15th largest city in the country.
Price says she’s committed to her promise of making sure the City’s Fiscal House is in order. She said a major accomplishment is that the city is on track to be the first big city in Texas to solve a pension solution locally, a solution to fix the 1.6 billion dollar shortfall for retired city employees. “Our goal was for the city to remain competitive, to continue to grow, to increase our growth and attract young families we had to get our financial house in order and that started with what we do with our pension,” Price said.
Another thing Price highlights is the effort to ensure no neighborhood is ignored with the revitalization program, fixing high need neighborhoods. “We started with identifying neighborhoods where poverty is high, crime is high, education issues, safety issues and where infrastructure was not where it needed to be,” Price said.
The city added security, lighting and fixed homes in the Stop Six community and is currently working on another program in Northside. She said overall, Fort Worth had the largest drop in violent crimes according to New York University Law crime study.
Price also discussed an incentive program to bring more businesses and promote creative work in the city. “We looked at what we did to encourage innovative businesses, to encourage economic prosperity for all,” she said.
She said companies like Amazon Air and Uber Elevate to come this year emphasizes Fort Worth’s emerging technology and innovation hubs.
Price discusses improvements and efforts that’ll continue to take the city even further like reading initiatives for students, mobility solutions and more.
