 welcome to this episode of Fort Worth Forward. We're here at the Fort Worth Zoo where we're getting a behind-the-scenes tour of the new Predators exhibit and we're gonna be joined by Ramona Bass and Mike Foraker with the zoo. We also have some other great guests including Mike Brown of the YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth and Josie B. Singleton who has eat this Fort Worth. I'm excited that you're here with me today. Let's go. Now I'm honored to be joined by Ramona Bass who's chair of the Fort Worth Zoological Association, Michael Foraker who's the executive director here at the Fort Worth Zoo. Welcome y'all. Thank you. We're glad to have you. Thank you. This is fun for me. The zoo is always a fun place to go bring my children. I came as a child. Everybody has a special memory I think of the zoo and Ramona you've been involved with the zoo for a long period of time. Long time. Tell us that story of when you first came to the zoo and what you thought about the Fort Worth Zoo. Well I've always been an animal lover. I grew up in San Antonio and on a ranch in South Texas so wildlife's always been part of my life. My husband, my new husband, brought me to the zoo and it was very depressing. What year was that? 1984. Okay. Very depressing, cages, concrete. I was horrified and not knowing me as well as he does 40 years later. My husband Lee said well then why don't you do something about it. I'm not sure he knew what he was getting into but it's been that long. Been that long. 40 years I would say love affair with the zoo. It's a love affair. With animals and everything else. Well I know I speak for the community appreciative of all the things that you've done because you did do something about it and kind of tell us like over the last 40 years like your involvement what's what that's meant for the for the Fort Worth Zoo? Well for me it's been it's been a life's work. It's been a joy. I love every minute of it. I have some incredible people working for me. My four acre best zoo director in the world in my opinion. Yes. And I think we just sort of took it one step at a time and started cleaning up, cleaning up, cleaning up. The most important thing that happened was of course the privatization and the public private partnership that we ended up with in 91. Yes, which was a battle. Let's talk about that. Not the battle part but we can talk about the battle part. But I think the model that you have here that y'all done with the zoo is what makes things work here in Fort Worth. And this is sort of the first model out of it. There was a partnership that was done. Tell us a little bit about how that came together and why it's been so important to the city. Well, Mayor Bob Olin was a great supporter of ours and this lovely Bert Williams who was on the and I know he's sick. So I send him out of prayer. But they were my biggest supporters. And then I got Kit Moncrief involved and Whitney Moore and we sort of decided, let's do this. Right. And the city itself, most people were like, who are these girls that think they know what they're doing? Right. But it was a time in our world where cities needed to take care of what cities ought to be doing. Yes. And the city of Fort Worth knew that and they knew that if we privatized the zoo that we would be able to do what needed to be done for the zoo. We'd raise the money. Right. And the city still owns the zoo but we manage the zoo. That's right. And so it's easier for a private organization to manage day to day. And the fundraising. The fundraising is a huge part of it and we've raised a lot of money. But it's been, to me, it's been a wonderful journey. And when Mike came along, it really did actually, it really changed everything because we went through three or four directors. Right. Okay. Which you may not remember. I don't remember. Maybe a little bit. Yes. What year did you come here, Michael? I started in January of 1993. Okay. And what, what existed at that point in time and then what's been built out since then? Well, I was a interim director of Small Zoo in Tennessee and interested in conservation. It's my passion. Yes. And they wanted to add to conservation programs here. So when I got here, there was a, had been a major change because I had worked with the Fort Worth Zoo over the years and had really wasn't that interested in coming until I come down and saw the changes they were making. And we got involved in conservation and built our programs and that brought in new and different animals and it just, it all came together. Yes. And how, how does that conservation from that perspective? What are some of the major sort of wins that you see from the conservation efforts? Oh, we have, we have done so much. We're, we're probably working at about 17 different countries now, but one of the, one of the key things we have done, Fort Worth Zoo can't save elephants in Africa by itself. So we've had four nonprofits, the International Elephant Foundation being one that's brought together people with the same interest and they pull their money together and we are making a difference in Africa. And I can go on with the rhinos and iguanas and the Caribbean and many different species and a lot of Texas species that we're breeding and putting back in the wild now. Well, I think what you've hit on is that we're making a bigger difference than just Fort Worth Texas. This is, this zoo is making a difference around the world because we are involved in so many conservation efforts and I know that's leadership across the board making it happen and that gives us a wider voice. Right. In the world and what we're doing and I know you're involved. We've also had a big fundraising campaign over the last number of years. Yes. Called A Wilder Vision. Yes. A Wilder Vision. And we're filming this before a big announcement or opening, I guess not now, but opening in a couple of weeks. Yes. Predators of Africa and Asia. In Asia, right? What is that going to do for the zoo? Well, it's the third phase. Okay. We raised $130 million. Well, and remind what was the first phase? First phase was the African Savannah. Right. Right. Second phase. Where everybody can come and feed your apps and do all that, right? So much fun. Yes. And the second phase was the elephant springs. Yes. Which as you know, our elephant herd is growing. Third generation imitates the wild. It's really quite, quite special. It's great. And this is third and then next comes forests and jungles of the world. Okay. And that will be in the center of the zoo where we do have so many trees and so much shade. Okay. Okay. Which is important about this zoo. I think it's one of the things that makes us special is the amount of shade and greenery that we have here. Because we've got some hot summers. We do have some hot summers. But you want your bring everybody out and see it. But tell us about predators and what that's going to look like. Okay. It gives a sneak peek. Yes. Well, we're bringing in some species that either haven't ever been in the zoo or were here many, many years ago. Primarily being cheetah, wild dog, clouded leopard has never been in the four oars zoo. Beautiful animal. African leopards. We actually have a young spotted and black. Yes. We have a melanistic female. A melanistic. Is that a melanistic and their brother and sister. Okay. She's the black one. Okay. And he's a normal color leopard. Okay. Really fun. Which you don't see very often. No, you do not. So that's exciting. Yeah. And all of that is on top of our we're bringing, we brought our lion pride back that was loaned out. Our striped hyenas are coming back. Our tigers are coming back and then throughout the exhibit we've got African cranes and storks that are all actually predators as well. Okay. Yeah. So a variety of things. What is something that you I'm very excited about that what's coming and what's you know what's next and and very excited about what what's something when you the passion behind what you do you want people to walk away with when they visit the zoo. I want people to walk away happy. I don't want them to walk away depressed like most zoos. I think we can empower people. I think we can incentivize people through introducing them and giving them a love of animals. Right. And incentivize them to be part of the solution. There are solutions out there. There are and we just have to work together to make things happen. Not the crazy lunatic ideas of you know people are going away and that's how we're going to solve the problem. No we're here. We're here. And we've got to work with what we have and find ways to have animals and people coexist. And that requires science-based solutions. It requires creativity. I think if you introduce children to animals then they fall in love with animals and then perhaps they'll want to do something in the future. Yeah. And plus it gets them outside you know the disconnect between children in nature now is really scary. Yeah. Definitely. Really scary. And what I love about this is for many people you know I've been privileged to go on Africans Farry to see them in the wild. Exactly. For many people will never get to do that. This is as close they'll get to a wild animal in a setting. And it's fun to see the faces of the kids and the adults and everything else that come here. Mike you might tell about how important zoos are and why we feel that we are not only important in conservation but the future of many species. And I'll start with how important our visitors are because they let us make enable us to be able to do the research in conservation and population of animals in zoos which are disappearing in the wild we're able to do research and develop drugs vaccines that benefit the wild. You can't do that research in a wild population. It's just not possible. Right. But in zoos throughout many species we're discovering things that are actually benefiting the wild populations because they get many of the same diseases humans do and and they have no treatment unless we find it in a zoo. Find it then. That's wonderful. Well thank y'all for sharing a little back and behind the scenes with us here and allowing us to tape out here today and listen I know for generations to come because of y'all stewardship more people will get to more kids and grandchildren will get to spend time here and I know I'm thankful for it so thank y'all very much. And we're thankful for your support and the City Council and the City of Fort Worth. It's a great partnership. It's a great partnership and and for years to come I hope I hope we can continue to build on that success. That's why I keep telling him years to come. Years to come. We have great support from from not only the city government but our community. Community for sure. That's why we've been able to do this. I agree. And it sounds like worldwide too from a lot of different organizations and other things. Yeah but the community is behind us and that really counts. That does for sure. Well congratulations thank y'all for letting us be here today. Thanks so much. Thank you. And now I'm with Mike Brown who's President and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth. Welcome Mike. Thank you. Thanks for being here today. Yeah it's been good. You are somewhat a newbie to Fort Worth. I am. Two and a half years. Two and a half years. But we'll talk about all the good things that have happened because of that but where did you come from? So I always say everybody doesn't want to hear that I'm from California. Yeah well. I am from Central California in the Valley. Okay. So I was trying to tell people the part that I'm from is horses, dairy cattle, cotton fields and oranges. There you are. So that's where I grew up. Not far off from Texas a little bit. No not at all. People think automatically that I came out of San Diego or LA but I recently came here from New York. Okay New York. Yeah. So what were you doing up in New York? So I've been with the Y 32 years. Okay. Since I was 18 years old. Yeah wow. And had a position in Syracuse that I was was there about two and a half years. My wife got sick and when she passed away the kids and I said 25 inches of snow. Right. Not gonna do it and they all wanted to move back. They were born in Georgia. Okay. I was in Houston at one time and so I said I want to go back to Texas. Okay. Believe it or not the two CEOs retiring in Texas was Austin and Fort Worth. And? And I did not apply to Austin and came through the process here. So it's been great. That's great. Well we're happy to have you here in Fort Worth. What are some of the changes you've seen or what's happened in the last two years since you got here? Yeah well I you know honestly it's not just changed for the Y. It's been changed for the whole region. Sure. Okay. Even when I came on there's so many new leaders. Whether it's council, school boards, non-profit leaders, myself. This is seem to be around that time. There was. Yeah right after kind of that 2020. Yes. You know got out of COVID or get out of COVID. Yes. Yeah. So I came in I feel like it a really good time to really allow the Y to kind of move ahead past the COVID closings and loss and revenues. But you know for the Y I walked off an elevator on the fourth floor of the downtown Y with mauve fabric wallpaper and an old purple couch and a bunch of old furniture and I realized I just stepped back into the 80s. Yes. And so for us it's all been about kind of saying okay this is a symbol that it's time for us to make improvement, time for us to challenge the status quo, time for us to do our jobs differently and so we've been really working hard to modernize who the YMCA is today. Okay. And I think Fort Worth's been doing the same thing. I yes across the board just looking at systems processes. Right. What we're you know coming from New York to here outside the physical building. Yeah. Well what are some of the other things that maybe needed updating, changing the model to make it work here or work for the Y as it is in 2023 and beyond? Beyond buildings. Yes. Yeah. So I think people always ask me what's the hardest part of the job and I would say it's people because you can change a building with paint. I can't change you with paint. Right. I can't just walk in and say we're gonna do it this way and so you have to get buy in, you have to get people that are willing to look at things differently, make the changes, have the positive attitude about where we're going and that took time. Right. But I think we we did it well. We really realigned our culture and really tried to be a part of the community in a much deeper way and people have in the Y have just become so much more supportive, understanding staff have gotten more excited about their jobs and the difference that they make in the community and I think a lot of it just had to do. We were stagnant. The Y was kind of re-identifying itself as to what it was because so many people thought of it as a gym and swim. Right. And so you see that coming from other places there might have been really the same thing and in every Y I've been in it's just been an opportunity to teach people that there's so much more out there that we can be doing. Right and so tell us about that because I think there is a big somewhat misnomer that it's still a gym and swim. Yeah. But y'all have a lot of programming. Tell us about some of that program. Yeah so I always try to tell people our focus areas are youth development, healthy living, social responsibility. Okay. So I get asked when I first got here why you wrapped up in homelessness or foster care or adoption. We have 160,000 people associated with us every day. Wow. If I can help other organizations get jackets, blankets, food. If I can help parents be educated and opening their home to a foster kid that doesn't have a place to live. That there in itself lets you know that it's not just a gym and a swim. Right. We want to do fitness well. We want to build healthy spirit, mind and body. But we also want to make sure that families have access and places to gather that dads have time to spend with their sons or daughters in a society that we're all rushed and challenged. Financial literacy, budgeting. You know the Y doesn't want to just give a scholarship away. We want you to also learn how to develop yourself and your family so that you can move forward and build resources for yourself so that we can use those funds to help other people. And a lot of people don't realize that. They don't realize that. You know thousands of people are coming through our our facilities and our programs and our services that are beyond just going to the Y to work out or jumping in a pool to take a swim lesson. Right. Right. And I think as you sort of point it's all ages too, right? It is. We say cradle to grade. Cradle to grade. Cradle to grade. I know the silver sneakers is that one of the programs? That's right. Yes, for over 55 that come in. Yeah, so we have thousands of seniors in our silver sneakers program that are 100% paid for by the insurance company. Oh wow. Okay. So we just opened up the 100,000 square foot Y in Bedford. Okay. Which they built through one of their bonds. Great partnership. Okay. But all the seniors have access now. To health programs, working out, classes, swimming, cooking. They're taking all kinds of playing games, having family nights, potlucks, all those things are happening and it's all 100% paid for. And they just will bring their insurance. They'll bring their insurance card. It scans in once they're signed up and we get paid. The only downfall is we get paid by the visit. Okay. So we really try to make sure that we have enough to do. Right. So that our seniors are coming in because that's what helps support all the everything else. You mentioned the Bedford. Yes. Location. Are there any other sort of locations on the horizon or things you want to talk about there? Yeah. We are relocating the Northwest Y in Saginaw. Okay. And so we're about five or six million dollars lacking on the funding, but it's a 30 million dollar project, the school district, Eagle Mountain Saginaw, Fort Worth has been involved, local municipality and donors. And we're almost there. We are designing right now. We've already hired the architects. And then the one I'm most passionate about is getting Eastside open. Okay. The Eastside Y shut down in 2020. Okay. And it was targeted to never open again. Wow. And our Y did have a history of shutting down facilities that weren't making a profit in a non-profit. Okay. And that is... Where is that one? Okay. Where's the Eastside? Eastside is on Sandy Lane. Okay. And it is... And then also the McDonald Y, which was built in partnership with our community a couple years ago. Eastside's another one of those. Okay. And so we actually are getting ready to start construction this summer. Okay. And have big plans to serve the Eastside community. That's one. And people are wanting it. They haven't had a Y in three years. Yeah. And there's not really a recreation place for them. So I'm excited to provide that. Well, I'm excited you'll have it too. You know, we have city community centers in lots of locations. And you all do programming inside the community centers. We partner well with everyone. Yeah. Yeah. But we can't build a community center everywhere. Correct. So that's where I think the Y comes in to fill that void where it can be. And we bring city services to the Y. Right. I mean, so it is a great partnership from there. Someday, I keep telling people like, when I think out of the box, I just think, why can't we have these buildings? And it just has all of our names on it. Because our purpose is to serve and make people's lives better. Right. So it doesn't really matter to me who as long as I get the opportunity to see the people that are in those communities just have a better life. That's great. And I'm excited. We're working with Tarrant Area Food Bank, many of our cities, school districts, local nonprofits, and we're starting to really see partnerships take off. I think that's a wonderful way to end this. I will say that you moved to Texas. I will throw this out, throw this out because you also it changed lives in a lot of different ways, right? Your children moved here and you found a new wife. When my wife passed away, she told me, you're too young to sit and mourn for too long. And we had this conversation before it happened in 2020. She passed away to brain cancer. And my kid said, dad, we're moving. And this is the last place you're going. And so find somewhere you're going to stay. So you found a Texan that's not letting you leave Texas. And now I am getting married in August. Our families are combined. And she is a native and is not leaving. So I am here and have sealed that with the board and the community. Well, we're glad to have you here in this community. I met her. She's some very nice and wonderful and wish you the best of luck. Thanks for being here today. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Now I'm joined by Josie Via Singleton, who is the founder of Eat This Fort Worth. Welcome, Josie. Hi, thank you for having me. Thanks for being here. We've been friends for a long period of time. We have. And I've watched all the great things that you've done over the years. Very proud of you. Thank you. And you kind of got your fingers in a lot of different things here in Fort Worth. Why Eat This Fort Worth? Why did you want to start that? I started that over 10 years ago as just a fun outlet for myself to talk about all the great restaurants I was going to in Fort Worth at the time. And it just seemed like a fun little hobby. And it's kind of grown over the years to a full-fledged blog and my social media presence. And now all that has evolved into me starting the food tours in 2018. That's great. We'll talk about that. So Eat This Fort Worth. It's a blog. It's a website. You've got Instagram. You've got everything that you're talking about what's going on in Fort Worth. So what are some exciting things that are happening here in Fort Worth and in the restaurant scene that you see? Everything is so exciting. I feel like everything's always evolving. There's always the new restaurant to go to. Is there a favorite that you have right now? Are there favorites? There's so many right now. Honestly, just Australia 61 has been a really beautiful experience to check out. Adam Jones plays for sure. Yes. And then, you know, I've got my old favorites. You know, I love tacos. So, you know, I've got my salsal alone, my taco heads, all places like that. But new wise, I haven't been to Quincey, but I heard great things about it. Just around the corner from the zoo. Just around the corner, I've been to the one in San Miguel de Allende, which was lovely. So I'm really interested to see how they translate that for us here in Fort Worth. That's wonderful. What gets you excited about things here in Fort Worth and maybe talk about from when you started the blog and to now, what do you see that's different and exciting? I think what's so exciting for me is since I'm always looking for the new chef or the new restaurant or the new cuisine, it's so interesting to me to see many of the people that I've followed from the beginning and interviewed or went to the restaurant, how they've grown over the years to see Sarah from taco heads go from her taco trailer to brick and mortar to now Tequila and a second taco heads location. That is just so exciting for me. And eventually the distillery or one of the ones that you're going to have to us. And so I see it now with people doing pop ups, Scotty Scott, Reginald Roberts Robinson and so many people that have taken their passion and been able to cultivate it, find an audience here in Fort Worth and continue to grow. And that's nothing to say of our amazing craft barbecue. Yes. People because that's the story all of them have. All of them have. But it is true. You see some great people may start off as a sous chef somewhere or maybe just in the kitchen who now are, you know, Juan Rodriguez comes to mind and he's now gone on to do these great things. Right. And that's it's actually very exciting for me to see people that I know and I've watched and you know supported and cheered for really succeeding in that part of the community. You're doing food tours as part of that. Tell us a little bit about that. What's the preparation and what do people see on these food tours and taste and everything? Yes. So these food tours I try to curate them by types of cuisine. So I've got a taco and margarita tour which is my first tour that I started which is so much fun because who doesn't love tacos and margaritas. So that's so much fun to do. I do a barbecue tour which is great to shine a light on all the wonderful craft barbecue places we have here in Fort Worth. We have several that have been nominated or named as best barbecue joints by Texas Monthly. So that's very exciting. And then some I do by neighborhood. So I do a stockyards walking tour which is a great way to highlight the historical significance of the stockyards and walk and see everything. But then also you know take a few take a few culinary breaks in between and have some barbecue have some tacos and really elevate the whole stockyards experience for people. That's great. You also are very involved in the art world. You want to talk about that art space 111 that you're involved in. Yes. So I've been working at art space 111 for about a year and a half and it's also so great. Like for many of the same reasons that I love promoting our restaurants and chefs here in Fort Worth it's a really great opportunity to highlight our wonderful Texas artists because at art space we represent over 30 artists all from the state of Texas. So it's very exciting. It's a small woman run business and I love talking about food, art, live music all the things that make Fort Worth great. Cultural. Very cultural. Just very cultural. So it's it's right in line with my values and what I like to do. For people that don't know where art space where is it located? So we are located on the edge of downtown at 111 Hampton street. Okay. It's a historical building from the 1920s. Okay. So it's a red warehouse. Looks like a red warehouse. Did used to be a furniture warehouse. And now it's a beautiful art gallery and wedding venue space. 30 artists. They rotate through or they're no we have over 30 that we represent. Okay. And then the founding artists of Art Swiss 111 are Dennis and Daniel Blag. Okay. And they're well known Texas artists. And Daniel Blag actually still keeps the studio upstairs. Okay. Okay. So very convenient. See him every day and you know he's just painting away. Painting away. Keep turning it up. Well I'll say this. We are sitting in a beautiful setting. We are. It doesn't go and notice to me about what you've worn today. That's a big zoo. Yes, yes. It's awesome that you coordinated as part of that. Where would it's summer. Right. That's what it's summer. Some great patios that people can go to to have a great meal or just a great scene. You have any suggestions for people? Oh yes. So I love the places that are by the Trinity River. I feel like it's you know it's a great beautiful natural resource here in Fort Worth. So the wood shed HG supply press cafe are some of my favorites. And I like seeing the people you know toiling way on their bikes or running by. Well I'm That's where I run. So yes. We're all kicking back with the cold beverage. And some other spots that I like are Panther City barbecue and Pine barbecue have a really great family friendly outdoor space. You feel like you're at a picnic. That means you can let your kids run around. Yeah yeah there's a lot of that. So I really love those spaces. It just you feel like you're at a picnic. You have great great food great atmosphere. And those those are a few of my favorite. That's great. Well thanks for being here today. Thanks for just shedding some light on some of the all the culture that we talked about that exists here in Fort Worth that I think often is overlooked sometimes. But it's it's you know we have a lot of culture here and a lot of great just amenities in a lot of different ways that I appreciate what you're doing sort of helping promote that. Sure. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Fort Worth 4 that we filmed here right at the Fort Worth Zoo. The zoo is a real treasure for our community. So I hope you get your friends, family, everybody out here this summer and tell my friends Walter, Brandon and Corey hello for me. Y'all have a great time. See you later.