Thursday, several Fort Worth business owners and the Fort Worth Police Department gathered to discuss growing public safety concerns in the West 7th Entertainment District. 

Members of the Entertainment District Task Force, along with the Fort Worth Chamber, said crime some West 7th businesses are seeing at night is hurting daytime business.

Vacancies and mobility issues cited 

Moody Younger, co-managing partner of Younger Partners and a member of the Entertainment Task Force, said crime, mobility, and parking issues are also hurting retailers. Driving around the district, there are several building vacancies, which Younger said cannot be filled solely with bars.

“If you look at the empty places back behind here, you know, just filling them up with bars won’t really work, because it’s dilutive, so what else are you going to do?” Younger said. “We need to do something to make this a viable daytime destination for people.”

Negative headlines follow recent shooting 

The area has been plagued by negative headlines. Just a month ago, a shooting at Social Liv left one person dead and five injured.

The local bar owner, Brian Torres, said those isolated incidents hurt everyone.

“It’s one or two bars that are having the issue that is kind of causing the issue and giving a bad name to the area,” Torres said. “It’s not every bar, and it’s not multiple bars.”

Police say crime is trending down 

Fort Worth Police Lt. Paul Genualdo, who oversees the district, said despite the headlines, crime in the area is down 36 percent over the last three years, with aggravated assaults dropping from 21 in 2022 to three as of June 2025.

“We are working very hard down here to change the entire outlook of the area, and when those incidents occur, they just get a lot of headlines. It’s not that it’s a nightly occurrence; it’s an outlier,” Genualdo said.

Mobility changes proposed for daytime draw 

The decline in daytime business is prompting stakeholders to make changes to bring people back during the day. Proposed changes include reviewing bollards, converting some one-way streets to two-way, and upgrading lighting for visibility. Some of these mobility changes were originally implemented to deter crime by minimizing cruising and filtering traffic during peak times.

“I was actually the one who proposed that perhaps we can make the north-south streets into two ways again, and leave the east-west streets into one way. That seems to be a reasonable compromise,” Genualdo said.

Communication platform and safety programs 

The task force is also considering a new communication platform to better connect with business owners. The district already has violence reduction programs in place, including the Golden Lasso program and the ambassador program. Torres said he supports the proposed changes.

“It shows that we’re moving in the right direction, trying to make this area safe,” Torres said.

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