Mayor Pro Tem Gina Bivens honored; cites Stop 6 revitalization and $36 million HUD grant

Mayor Pro Tem Gina Bivens received ceremonial remarks and a plaque at a special called Fort Worth City Council meeting, using her farewell presentation to summarize more than a decade of work on East Fort Worth revitalization and Stop 6 redevelopment.

Gina Bivens said that when she took office in 2013, “we had fewer than 300 homes built in Stop 6 in more than a decade,” and outlined measures she credited with changing development patterns: removing a restrictive historic-district overlay that had limited new construction, reopening a police substation, and strengthening the city’s partnership with the local housing authority, now referred to in the meeting as Fort Worth Housing Solutions.

Bivens described hosting then–U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson for a tour and credited a HUD Choice Neighborhoods grant of $36,000,000 that she said was “a major turnaround” for the area. She cited partnerships with local leaders and agencies, and highlighted projects she said followed from that work, including a redevelopment ground‑breaking called Babers Manor named for Don Babers, and work to attract retail including a neighborhood grocery store she referred to as “Attorney And Rosedale.”

Speakers representing community organizations paid tribute. Annie Taylor Curtis, president of the Beta Mu Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, presented remarks praising Bivens’s focus on youth development and community service. A representative of the Fort Worth chapter of the Links Incorporated credited Bivens’s leadership with a 24% reduction in crime and a 74% increase in building permits in the Stop 6 area following “significant capital improvements,” as stated in the meeting record.

Bivens thanked staff and community members who supported projects in Stop 6 and other neighborhoods and closed her remarks noting she was “packing my stuff” after 12 years of service. The mayor and other council members joined in presenting tributes and the meeting proceeded to oath-of-office ceremonies for newly elected members.

Notes: Project and program names, grant amounts and percentage figures are reported as stated in the meeting record. The transcript uses the name Fort Worth Housing Solutions for the housing authority and identifies a $36,000,000 HUD choice grant; the grocery location was cited in the transcript as “Attorney And Rosedale.”