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COPYRIGHT 2005 The Institute Inc.
Introduction
For most of the 20th century Polytechnic Heights was a respectable and prosperous middle class neighborhood. But in the 1980s it developed a reputation as an area of high crime, high poverty, racial tensions and general decay and decline (cf. Cummings 1998). Today most people still think of the community in Southeast Fort Worth as an especially dangerous place at night, although it is no longer a high crime area. Even people associated with the local university have this idea, despite the fact that there is less serious crime on the Texas Wesleyan campus today than there is on other campuses in Tarrant County. This article examines the situation in Polytechnic Heights today in light of changes during the last 25 years.
Brief History
To understand the dynamics at work in Polytechnic Heights, a brief look at its history is in order. The area, located not far from a U.S. Army post (Fort Worth),was originally farmland homesteaded by three siblings and their families in the 1850s. Interest in education led the brothers to donate land for a vocational and academic institution after a chance meeting with a Methodist bishop in 1890. Development of the surrounding neighborhood, which took the name of the college, supported the newly established Polytechnic College. A mule-drawn streetcar connected the residents to the growing settlement of Fort Worth. By 1910, there were 2500 people in Polytechnic Heights, four grocery stores, a drugstore and numerous other businesses. The residents were largely persons associated with the college. They incorporated as an independent city and elected a mayor and city commissioners. The upstairs room of the fire station built in 1914 (donated by resident S. S. Dillow) was the first city hall (McGown 2002).
Twelve years later, with double the population, Polytechnic Heights became a part of the city of Fort Worth. Utilities were extended, streets were renamed, and Rosedale became a main thoroughfare for the whole city. Threatened with closure during the depression, Polytechnic College merged with Texas Wesleyan College and Academy in Austin, and changed its name. Following the Depression, the College and the neighborhood thrived. Polytechnic Heights in the 1940s and 1950s was a prosperous and desirable community in which to live (McGown 2002).
Racial tensions developed in the 1950s with an influx of prosperous Blacks. The Greater Poly Civic League, aimed at keeping Poly White, was formed in 1956. But civil rights legislation mandated changes, including school integration. This, combined with the exit of important commercial enterprises, fueled an era of White flight. In 20 years, the community went from being 98% White to more than 60% African-American. By the mid 1980s, the Blacks that first came to Poly had also moved on, leaving the area to low income renters. According to the U.S. census, in 1990 between 30 and 40% of the residents had incomes below poverty level. As values of the houses plummeted, so did house repairs and upkeep by absentee landlords. Abandoned houses, drugs, gangs and other crime were endemic. This was the point at which the community earned its reputation as being one of the worst inner city areas of the country (Bright et al. 1995; McGown 2002).
Poly Today
A drive through Polytechnic Heights today reveals the same small wooden houses of the mid-20th century. Most of the homes were built in the 1940s and 1950s, and 18% were built before that, which means that only a quarter of the homes are less than 50 years old. Many are run down, but some are freshly painted, with bars on the windows and well-tended gardens. There are many trees, narrow streets, and porches (and cars), all of which give it a comfortable neighborhood feeling. The occasional abandoned house reminds the observer how much the area has changed since its better days.
There are only a few restaurants and no fast food places in this area of Fort Worth. There is no real commercialized "strip" (except the area east of the Carnival grocery store, as discussed below). There is no place to stop for coffee, no quaint stores to browse, no place to get a quick bite to eat, or to get anything else one might want. Rosedale, once a main thoroughfare, has few new or renovated buildings and many run-down and empty buildings. What business establishments are there obviously cater to the locals who know where to find them. The Carnival grocery store is the only one of its kind in the area. It is dingy and slum-like (and caters to Mexican tastes), located next to several sleazy looking businesses and a junk collector in the corner of the parking lot. But across the street from the store is a very active car wash. The few well-marked and relatively well-kept businesses in Poly are gas stations/convenience stores that do a thriving business.
Going east on Rosedale from the Carnival grocery store, a Hispanic shopping village is developing. There several new, Hispanic-run businesses have opened that cater to Hispanic customers, including a bakery, a laundromat, a restaurant, a taco shop and other establishments. The bakery opened three years ago in a former Dairy Queen building. It sold only baked goods, and the cashiers spoke no English. In 2005, they built an extension in the front of the store (it no longer looks like a drive in), and they sell meats, candied sweet potatoes, and pinatas. Next door, the restaurant also started modestly at about the same time, with a sparsely furnished interior. On the other side of the bakery, the first fast food establishment in the area opened within the last year, in a building that had been empty for more than a decade. The laundromat across the street has signs in Spanish and next to it is a store with a huge, hanging banner advertising in Spanish.
As to the houses, the area no longer is composed primarily of renters. There has been a shift to home ownership. The area near Wesleyan used to be primarily rental property, but today is mostly (63%) owner-occupied. (1) The homes are worth more today than they were a few years ago, when the residential market bottomed out. Still, they are not expensive houses. Most (81%) are worth less than $50,000. Half the owners have a mortgage, with a median payment of $562. The new homeowners are Hispanic, who not uncommonly have multiple families in a single home. After a short time, the second family will have saved enough to buy their own home. Homes in this area are used for small businesses as well, including at least one restaurant. (2)
As is obvious, racial composition is one of the recent, important changes in Poly. The Hispanic influx is replacing the African-Americans who previously had replaced the Whites who first settled the area. Many of the new residents are in the United States illegally. The racial/ethnic makeup of the 12,800 people who live within a mile radius of Texas Wesleyan is: 60% Hispanic, 25% African-American, 2% Asian, 1% Native American, and 12% White...
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