Becky Haskin Gets City Sued

City of Fort Worth Council-Lady Becky Haskin has succeeded in getting the City of Fort Worth sued over her fanatical campaign against apartments in Woodhaven. The owners of Cherry Hills, Oak Hills and Villa Del Rio apartment complexes have sued Cowtown claiming that the city is using "extraordinary aggressive" tactics to run them out of business and tear down their complexes. In an unusual move, they have sued the east-side crusader and full-time meddler, Ms. Haskin personally, as well as Woodhaven Community Development, a nonprofit community organization. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the apartment owners say a proposed plan being considered by the city for Woodhaven is part of a "broad conspiracy" to gentrify the area and "nudge less affluent neighbors" out. Apparently working on the premise that the problem with Woodhaven is that the "wrong" kind of people live there, the proposed Woodhaven Neighborhood Redevelopment Plan, envisions a private developer buying and tearing down five apartment complexes and converting the land to single-family use.

Ms. Haskin has been on a crusade for years to drive the apartments out of business. The effort has taken on racial overtone as well. Ms. Haskin, who is white, lives in a Woodhaven home valued at more than $360,000.00. Many of the apartment dwellers are minority and not nearly as well off as their representative on the council, who seeks to force them to move. Ms. Haskin claims the real motive behind the lawsuit is to deflect attention from what she describes as problem apartment complexes. "If they would spend the money they used to file these lawsuits for improving their properties, they wouldn't have any problems," she told the S-T. But she fails to mention what type of good things Cowtown could have done with the $376,000.00 she demanded be wasted on iron railings on bridges over Interstate 30.