Fort Worth residents protest industrial development near their neighborhoods

Kamal Morgan
·2 min read
8

Over a dozen people came out to the State of the City address at the Fort Worth Convention Center to protest what they call environmental racism in their communities.

The protesters, part of the Fort Worth Environmental Coalition of Communities, came together with signs and posters displaying sick children and the pollution from 18-wheelers and industries.

They gathered outside as part of their “State of the Neighborhood” address to remove the “Industrial Growth Center” designation from the Echo Heights neighborhood and stop industrial encroachment on neighborhoods, which they consider environmental racism. Inside the Convention Center, Fort Worth Mattie Parker gave her State of the City address.

Richard Perez, a member of Fort Worth Environmental Coalition of Communities and Northside Fort Worth Air, says a lot of the commercial and industrial companies are next to Black and brown communities. He refuses to have those communities forgotten as environmental issues affect their lives.

“We matter just like anybody else,” Perez said. “We may not have the clout that some of these other neighborhoods have, but they matter too. Everybody’s health matters. We all eat, we all drink, we all breathe — it’s important for us to have the same.”

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Residents, though not confirmed by any study, have linked the growth of industry in Echo Heights to illnesses, miscarriages, respiratory problems and deaths in the area.

The Fort Worth Environmental Coalition of Communities was formed in August to fight environmental racism in Fort Worth neighborhoods. It was formed out of the Echo Heights & Stop Six Environmental Coalition, which has fought for years to prevent the expansion of the “Industrial Growth Center” in Echo Heights.

The city of Fort Worth designated Echo Heights as a “Industrial Growth Center” through its Comprehensive Plan & Future Land Use plan developed in 2000. The plan is a general guide for making decisions about the city’s growth and development.

The City Council has postponed updating the Southeast Sector of the Comprehensive Plan three times, after residents’ refusal to allow further industrial or commercial development in the area.

Letitia Wilbourn helped form the Echo Heights & Stop Six Environmental Coalition and Fort Worth Environmental Coalition of Communities because of the industrial growth’s effects on her community.

Wilbourn says high rates of adult asthma and low life expectancy in the 76119 ZIP code, which includes Echo Heights, means the city should stop pollution in the area.

“This doesn’t happen in white communities, only to Black and brown people,” Wilbourn said. “And I have a problem with that when I see my neighbors become sick, when I see my neighbors die, when I see my neighbors have to have kidney transplants, when I see my neighbors lose babies. That’s a problem.”