After operating his business on White Settlement Road for 45 years, Joe Gauna knows well the name’s impact on Fort Worth. Westside Trim & Glass has directly felt it, he said.
His sales have dropped by 40%-50% since the completion of the White Settlement Road bridge in 2021 after six years of construction, Gauna said. The bridge crosses over Westside Trim & Glass, making it difficult for customers to find the business, he said.
Now that Fort Worth city officials are considering renaming a portion of the road near him, Gauna doesn’t know if his glass auto shop can survive more change. He’s considering shutting down.
“They came in and destroyed my business, the city of Fort Worth. Now they’re doing this,” Gauna said. “I guess I’ll be out all the money for new signs and paperwork and everything. It’s really going to hurt.”
Gauna and nine other business owners who operate along White Settlement Road told the Fort Worth Report on Monday they oppose a proposal to rename a roughly mile-long strip of the street, citing concerns about the financial burden the change would impose on their businesses.
Some said they fear having to close or relocate their businesses.
City Council members will vote Tuesday on changing the name to Westside Drive at the request of developers to mirror the name of their upcoming $1.7 billion Westside Village. The project along White Settlement Road is set to break ground next year and, upon completion, will include a mix of office and retail space, plus a luxury hotel and apartments.
Although hopeful the proposal gets voted down, Gauna said, he doubts city officials are concerned about how the name change would impact small businesses. He expects his shop to lose even more customers once its address loses the recognition that comes with the controversial yet well-known street name.
“The city’s just out to make money, whatever can bring in a dollar more than what they got — that’s what they want to do,” Gauna said.
City spokesperson Sana Syed did not return a request for comment on business owners’ financial concerns. Officials have said Westside Village’s developer will cover the approximately $26,000 expected in city costs for the name change.
White Settlement Road’s name is a nod to the area’s history when white settlers pushed Native Americans out of the region. The once prairie-lined road stretches west from downtown toward the city of White Settlement.
Some Native American advocates have long pushed for the name to be changed, saying it serves as a painful reminder of Tarrant County’s history and the trauma felt by local Indigenous communities. In 2021, then-newly elected Mayor Mattie Parker and other City Council members said they were open to the discussion of a new name but hadn’t brought the issue to a formal vote.
If approved, the name change would affect the strip of White Settlement Road that stretches from the roundabout intersection of North Henderson Street and Jacksboro Highway to University Drive.
Dancing Heart Iglesias is the CEO and co-founder of Flipstone Vintage and Thrift at the intersection of White Settlement Road and Carroll Street. A Native American woman, she said she recognized the “irony” of opening her business on a road named for the area’s exclusion of Indigenous people.
But she opposes changing the road’s name unless city officials find a way to honor and preserve the area’s history and impact on local Native American communities. As is, “White Settlement” is a conversation starter that may prompt people to learn the name’s origin, she said.
“To change that name, it would simply be erasing everything that even provokes somebody to ask questions,” Iglesias said. “To me, that’s a really big thing to erase.”
Other business owners along the road said a name change would force them to rebrand signs, advertisements and business cards, as well as amend state and federal licenses.
Angelo’s BBQ, for example, includes its address — with the road’s name — on its bright yellow sign towering alongside the longtime Fort Worth haunt.
“I’ve been here in business for 67 years with the same name, same street,” owner Jason George said. “All my advertising, all my logos, everything has White Settlement Road on it. It would cost me a ton of money and a lot of headaches to have everything rebranded.”
Angelo’s BBQ is one of many businesses along White Settlement Road that might need to be rebranded if City Council approves the road’s name change. (Drew Shaw | Fort Worth Report)
City staff told a business owner via email that the city would not provide financial assistance to businesses for rebranding efforts, according to a copy of the email reviewed by the Fort Worth Report.
“You should be able to update business cards and other marketing collateral at your convenience or when you need to re-stock them,” an email from the Transportation and Public Works Department read.
City staff will notify departments and agencies — including the fire department, U.S. Postal Service and Oncor — of the address change on the businesses’ behalf, the email added.
White Settlement Road at the intersection of Carroll Street pictured Oct. 14, 2025. (Cecilia Lenzen | Fort Worth Report)
Chris Mahon oversees Tarrant County operations for the glass repair company Binswanger Glass and is based at its Fort Worth store on White Settlement Road.
Company leaders estimate they’d have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to go through “all the necessary proceedings and processes” to accommodate an address change, he said.
That would include updating contracts with hundreds of vendors, contacting thousands of customers, filling out new credit applications and delaying the completion of labor invoices, he said.
“It’s going to cost me more than the $26,000 that the other guy’s going to put up to pay for the city to go and change all the signs,” Mahon said.
Westside Village’s developers, FW Westside RE Investors, did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Many of the business owners expressed frustration that the name change appears to be driven primarily by a developer rather than residents, businesses or community members.
Iglesias said city officials are intentionally attempting to drive small businesses out of the area to make way for developers with deep pockets. She’s worried that the planned upscale project will drive up the cost of renting her storefront and force her to relocate. If that happens, she’s not sure her small vintage thrift store would survive.
David Forbes, president of Forbes Rebuilt Automotive Parts, in business since 1942, is worried that a lesser-known, vague street address will affect his business’s visibility and make it harder for people to find.
Forbes Rebuilt Automotive Parts has been located on White Settlement Road since 1941. (Drew Shaw | Fort Worth Report)
Melody Roberts and her husband have operated Western Haulers on White Settlement since 1982. While she understands why some find the road’s name demeaning or degrading, she said frustrated that what’s prompting a potential name change is the luxury development, not the road’s controversial history.
“Fort Worth is going to get lots of tax dollars from this new development, and so they think, I guess, all of us that have been here forever are just gonna let it go right on through,” she said, also noting the logistical headache of updating her logos, licenses and tax documents.
While Westside Trim & Glass would be along a road bearing a similar name to his shop if the council adopts it, city officials have told Gauna that his business’s address would instead be the much smaller cross street of North Rupert Street, he said.
He worries that losing the name recognition of White Settlement Road for a street that’s shorter than a mile could make his business even harder to find.
“This city is just screwed up. I was born and raised here,” Gauna said. “I might as well be living in Dallas the way this place is going.”
Cecilia Lenzen and Drew Shaw are government accountability reporters for the Fort Worth Report. Contact them at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org and drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
Related
Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.
Republish This Story
Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details.