Is California ruining Fort Worth?
I regret that I have to answer this question.
Today I want to take a clear-eyed look at the following question: Is a massive influx of California residents changing the fundamental character of Fort Worth?
The answer is: no.
If you're a normal person who doesn’t care about questions like this, great! You now know everything you need to know and can stop reading right here. I'll see you next time.
Goodbye!
Okay, now that we’re down to the hardcore Lost in Panther City fans: Let’s dig into the very real and definitely not fake problem of out-of-state transplants getting their California in my Texas.
To be honest, I actually wanted to write about something else today. I had notes for a short post about the supposed “authenticity” of the Stockyards and why Fort Worth clings so tightly to its fantasy version of the Old West.
But yesterday evening, my plans were derailed by the publication of an extremely silly Fort Worth Magazine story that spent 4,800 words talking about how residents of the Golden State are “coming in by the truckloads to declare our city New Los Angeles” and how some Fort Worth residents kinda have a vague feeling that “the city’s overrun with ’em,” a choice of words that certainly doesn’t have uncomfortable connotations when it comes to migration.
There are a lot of bonkers moments in this thing, including an introduction written as “a Fable” (?) about a bear who adheres to a “glutton-free” diet (??) and whose migration to Fort Worth causes new “honey-only restaurants” to appear in town (???)
But rather than go through the story line by line and point out absurdities, I want to talk seriously about its core assumption: That mass migration from California to Fort Worth is having a demonstrable impact on city culture.
In a genuinely impressive act of journalistic persistence, the story defends this thesis despite data from the U.S. Census Bureau — data that is in fact cited in the story — that shows nothing like this is even remotely close to happening:
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 2017 and 2021, the most out-of-state relocations to Tarrant County came via California, with 7,097 Californians moving to the county in that five-year period. This outgains the next closest state, Florida, by over 4,500 people. Of course, to put this in perspective, over 109,000 people in total moved to Tarrant County in that same time frame — the vast majority of which came from within Texas itself (Dallas accounted for 5,120 new Tarrant County residents). So, our new Californians only accounted for 6.5% of new residents to the area.
I’m tempted to just let this paragraph speak for itself. But I also feel compelled to point out that Tarrant County’s total population is over 2 million, which means those newcomers are an absurdly minuscule drop in the county bucket. By my estimate, recent transplants from California now make up — checks notes — roughly 0.33% of Tarrant County’s population. Even if you want to be generous and assume all of those 7,100 Californians moved to Fort Worth, the data isn’t much kinder: By that measure, new Californians still account for less than 1% of total city residents.
Nevertheless, there are ways to get around a lack of hard evidence. Can’t find the data you need? No problem! Let’s use the vague-yet-suggestive anecdote instead:
Anecdotally, there’s a fear that out-of-state transplants bring with them more traffic, a higher cost of living, and cultural and political differences that don’t mesh with their vision of the city. They fear that big changes will come with little warning, and the city could become unrecognizable seemingly overnight.
What’s remarkable is that Fort Worth Magazine doesn’t identify anyone who actually says anything like this. I read this story six times: There is not one single Fort Worth or Tarrant County resident who is quoted, on-the-record, as being anxious about Californians moving in. The closest we get is a TCU student from California who talks about being stereotyped by city locals for being from Orange County.
What we have, instead, are fantasy Fort Worthians whose fictional quotes are the narrative glue that holds the story together, validating the dubious idea that there is actually a “Battle for Fort Worth” taking place:
Your traditional Fort Worthian with a mouthful of tobacco and ears full of hair would likely say that Austin, Dallas, and Houston are already gone — battles long ago lost in the great Cali-Tex War that continues to wage. “Those cities quickly ceded to those sunbaked yippies,” he might say. So, in a sense, Fort Worth represents Texas’ last stand — San Jacinto reincarnated.
Whatever you say, pardner!
What’s particularly interesting, to me anyway, is how this supposed struggle for the soul of Fort Worth is framed around the city’s heritage. In fact, the story touches, inadvertently, on the topic I’d originally planned to write about: The authenticity of Fort Worth’s western ethos. In Fort Worth Magazine’s telling, what the influx of Californians threatens to destabilize is not economic prosperity or conservative values, which is what far-right pundits like to claim, but our tradition of cattle drives and rodeos:
Fort Worth represents something that Texas, as a whole, holds near and dear to its heart. It’s a steadfast traditionalism and embrace of its roots that longtime state residents tend to romanticize. A yeehaw cowboyism.
To concede such a distinct identity — to concede an In-N-Out in the Stockyards or a Tommy Bahama in Mule Alley — is near blasphemy to traditional Texans.
After all, Fort Worth is where the West begins, not where the West Coast begins.
I have to wonder how steadfast and strong this yeehaw cowboyism actually is, if it can’t withstand an influx of new residents. Why wouldn’t the newcomers just adapt? It’s not like California wasn’t also part of the American frontier. But more importantly, Fort Worth’s supposedly distinct identity is already tarnished. Our version of the Old West, to the extent that it ever existed, surrendered to inauthentic corporate franchises long ago: There is a Shake Shack in the Stockyards, for god’s sake!
Ultimately, the question of whether migrating Californians will ruin — or even significantly change — Fort Worth is about perception, not reality. There’s a quote from assistant city manager Fernando Costa where he calls the whole idea of resident anxieties around Californian migration “a subjective assessment,” and to me that inadvertently sums up the actual takeaway from the Fort Worth Magazine piece. Perhaps some Fort Worth residents are uneasy about the possibility that other people might move here and change things about the city they love. It would’ve been nice to hear from some of those people, but I’ll grant that it’s not outlandish.
The problem is, this anxiety about the city’s future isn’t based on anything concrete. The idea that Fort Worth “has been invaded by a throng of people that hail from the west coast,” as a very unfortunately worded Fort Worth Magazine Facebook post put it, just isn’t true.
And one more thing: Maybe pandering to people’s fears about outsiders screwing up Texas at a time when our state’s xenophobic politicians are talking about an “invasion” of migrants at the southern border is not such a great idea?