Horns Up, Horns Down for this week in Fort Worth, Vol. 1, No. 1
Horns Up, Horns Down is a local column on the best and worst news of the week. If you like what you see and want to support independent commentary on Fort Worth’s past and present, please subscribe and share Lost in Panther City with your friends and enemies.
Horns Up: Fascists go home
Community members who showed up to support a drag show and trivia night at Tulips vastly out-numbered the small, pathetic, rain-soaked contingent of far-right creeps who tried to protest it. While it sucks that the protest happened, it was heartening to see the community step up and be vocal in defense of the show. LGBTQ Saves also received 100 percent of proceeds.
The Lost in Panther City editorial board was in attendance but mostly sheltered inside while sipping a frozen marg in solidarity with counter-protestors.
Horns Up: The Observer lives
When news broke that the Texas Observer was being unceremoniously euthanized after 68 years of publication, the staff did what their board couldn’t and rallied to save the progressive magazine — at least for now. Their emergency crowdfunding effort raised an incredible $330,000 from over 4,500 donors in less than a week.
The Lost in Panther City editorial board sincerely hopes this is more than just a temporary lease on life for the magazine. As James Canup, a former fundraiser for the Observer, wrote in an exuberant update on their GoFundMe page:
Journalists matter. The Observer's legacy of nonprofit journalism matters—indeed, given the conditions in state of Texas and the catastrophe of the state legislature, it matters more than ever. And together we are making it crystal clear to everybody that it is worth paying for, not just today but forever.
Horns Down: This is what happens when the rent is too damn high
In July of 2021, Tarrant County was celebrating a 40 percent decline in the estimated number of homeless residents, which was down to 1,200 from 2,100 the year before.
But those gains were entirely obliterated over the past two years.
The Tarrant County Homeless Coalition counted over 2,700 unhoused people in January, including 1,000 who were living on the streets, according to reporting from the Fort Worth Report. Keep in mind, too, that the annual “point in time count” is an incomplete picture of local homelessness. It doesn’t capture people in precarious living situations; if you’re crashing on a friend’s couch, you probably don’t get counted, even if you’re just one bad argument away from ending up on the street.
Historically, the Fort Worth way of dealing with homelessness has been to raze encampments and push people elsewhere without giving them a place to live. Officials are saying the right things about the need to build more housing. But let’s hope the money to do that keeps flowing because the Las Vegas Trail project — with its 55 units of affordable housing — will barely make a dent.
Here’s some of Lost in Panther City’s previous writing on homelessness:
Horns Down: Arts funding? What arts funding?
It’s local election season once again. At a recent public forum, City Council candidates vying to represent District 7 were asked how they’d use their council positions to support Fort Worth’s arts community. (The district contains many of the city’s museums, as well as the troubled Fort Worth Community Arts Center.) In response, candidate Jason Ellis lambasted the very idea of publicly funded cultural institutions:
Anybody who comes to Fort Worth experiences the culture. They know the culture. I don't want to spend any money on the culture. You can come to Fort Worth and know that. I want cheaper property tax. Does anyone else out here want cheaper property tax? It's ridiculous. You know? Let's talk about responsible budget. You want to talk about culture, let’s talk about responsible budget and spending the money in the right places. I believe in our culture, it's here, that's great. I'm definitely all about that. But I want to save money. I don't want to spend any money on something like that.
As millennial renters with bleak prospects for home ownership in the next 30 years, the Lost in Panther City editorial board does not support cheaper property taxes at the expense of public art. For context, the city’s 2023 budget includes $1.9 million for Arts Fort Worth. That’s about two-tenths of one percent of the $915.3 million general fund. But sure, let’s axe that so homeowners can save like $10 on their property tax bill.
See Ellis’s response for yourself: