Kevin over at Fortworthology writes that Fort Worth South Inc, a nonprofit working to revitalize south Fort Worth, sought to increase and improve bicycle parking in their area. They collaborated on a bicycle parking plan, just received approval from city council, and are now cleared to fund the plan with TIF (Tax Increment Financing) district money.
What does this have to do with Denton, you ask?
One, they’re smartly installing staple racks, which cyclists love, and are VASTLY superior to the “cost-efficient” serpentine/wave racks you commonly see in Denton. While wave racks are often touted as holding X number of bikes, you’ll never actually see that number of bikes on one because they all get stuck together. Anyone who’s parked a bike at crowded UNT wave racks knows that all too well.
Two, they’re using TIF district money to, well, improve the district. That’s how it works. You improve an area, and the improvement hopefully brings gains that offset the cost of the improvements. I bring this up because as the Dinerstein Corp just received approval to develop a $30,000,000 project on Fry St, which is said to bring in $600,000 in yearly tax revenue. Think that could do amazing positive things to transform the neighborhood? Yeah, me too. I’m not saying it has to necessarily be a TIF, but we need to find ways to encourage and capture specific tax income and use it wisely, instead of the money flowing into centralized coffers and out to projects on the sprawling fringes of town. Western Blvd by the airport = $10 million. Planned S. Bonnie Brae expansion = $50 million (10 of which the city will pay). Let’s focus a mere tiny, tiny, tiny amount in comparison towards the center of town where people already live. Bike racks are cheap, y’all.
What’s great about our project is that, since quality bike racks are really almost absurdly cheap compared to nearly anything else you can do with TIF money, we’re going to be able to do a ton of them (still not ready for final numbers, but I can say it’s dozens and dozens of them) for a tidy sum. We got, I want to say, $24,000 from the TIF for this project. That’s pocket change in terms of the TIF, but it’s going to make a massive difference for cyclists in the Near Southside.
Hot damn, thanks very much for this detail. $24K buys a LOT of bike racks. Keep up the good work, and I can’t wait to see the new racks in person.
With all the new condo development in central Denton, there has to be a way to capture some of the tax income.
Will do! We’re talking to two contractors now, both of whom are Near Southside local, who are interested in doing the project. It won’t be much longer now.
I should also mention another part of this that’s outside of our official project. There’s a park in the Near Southside, Magnolia Green, that’s privately owned (developer of a mixed-use project that surrounds it owns it). It plays host to a monthly free concert series and other goings-on. We’re working with them to install around 10 racks (still working those numbers as well) for the park. Since it’s privately owned, we’re not using TIF dollars, but it’s sort of peripherally related to the project.
We also got about five racks put into a new (public) park elsewhere in the district.