It has been at least several years since Bedford branded itself with the “Discover the Center” slogan.  Since then, the City has struggled to determine what the “Center” means.  

Until a few years ago, Bedford had developed a reputation for its Labor Day Blues and BBQ Festival, but abandoned that tradition.  Instead, the City replaced the event with the Beats and Eats theme.  For a while, the City even flirted with building a performing arts center toward establishing a cultural draw, but that concept collapsed about a year ago.

Since then, City Council approved a new Comprehensive Plan last September, which highlights three new cultural districts and “development patterns” that are anticipated to create a unique theme to attract business and tourist dollars.  Yet even with the extensive plan in place, there is still no central identity that defines the “Center.”

Discovering this elusive identity, however, may be around the corner after Council met Tuesday of last week.  In what was billed on the agenda as a “strategic planning session” the Council discussed their “visions and goals” toward developing a plan to move the City forward.  Mayor Dan Cogan phrased it as a “fine tuning” of the Comprehensive Plan with much of the two-and-half-hour discussion focused on semantics and categorizing the City’s needs.

Facilitated by Hilary Shine of Strategic Government Resources (SGR), City Council targeted several main areas for improvement, including economic development, redevelopment, maintaining infrastructure, apartment revitalization, improving the City’s profile and enforcing city codes toward keeping the City clean and orderly.  Shine is a senior vice president of leadership and development at SGR, according to her Linkedin profile, which is a consulting firm for local governments and is based in Keller.

The discussion began by considering what the Council labeled as the City’s “strengths” and accomplishments, such as a “family-friendly” environment, Generations Park (Boys Ranch), an “engaged citizenry,” a “safe community,” proximity to DFW Airport, diversity and a “great road system.”

Weaknesses identified by the Council included aging neighborhoods and infrastructure, a high degree of aging apartment complexes, commercial vacancies, a “limited tax base,” code enforcement issues and the City’s “lack of identity.”

Council Member Amy Sabol added her desire to enhance the “economic quality” by “upgrading” or “tearing down” apartments and “improving the beatification of the medians and entrances” to the City.

Mayor Cogan agreed, stating that as “your first introduction to the City,” the appearance needs to be “eye-catching and it can’t just blend in.”  He added, “You’re in Bedford, so it needs to be nice!”

“Community engagement” and “communications” were objectives Council members believe have been achieved.  “We now have multiple platforms, multiple avenues,” Cogan stated, and “we are reaching out to the residents in an effort to get them “informed” and “involved.”

Council Member Donovan Brandon agreed, saying that “if people don’t know what’s going on, they’re not trying, because we communicate in more than one way.”

Also in agreement, Council Member Amy Sabol stated that Bedford has “achieved” a solid level of “communication and engagement with citizens,” that “we can’t go back” and that we just need to “maintain it.”

With a focus on categorizing the concepts of “transformation,” “revitalization” and “redevelopment,” Council Member Joy Donovan Brandon commented she would like Bedford “to be seen as more than just a place where people come because the schools are good.”  More specifically, she said she wants people to come if we make Bedford “beautiful.”

Donovan Brandon elaborated, though, that people should be attracted to Bedford “for more than just the looks.”  She wants them to “buy their hamburgers and bring their little kids to come play on a playground” without having to “pay a babysitter.”  However, she added the challenge is “more than just tourism.”  The issue she bluntly stated is “we don’t offer our residents things that we are driving to other cities to get.”  This result, she said, is that Bedford is losing sales “tax dollars.”  She pointed to the Conference Center in neighboring Hurst as a prime example.