 We all it is fall and we're here with another episode of Fort Worth Ford at Ace Hardware on Camp Buoy Boulevard. My guests today include Lydia Rickard, who is Executive Director of the Camp Buoy PID, as well as Alex Misner, owner of the Sour Bull Bakery and Cafe, and Laurie Burko, who is the owner of this Ace Hardware. Let's get it going. My buddy Ace is ready to get it going, so let's go. Now I'm joined by Lydia Rickard, who is Executive Director of Camp Buoy District, which is a PID, Public Improvement District. Yes, it is. PID 19, I think. Right? Originally PID number eight. PID number eight. Now we're PID 19. You shuffle around and I don't know all the bureaucracy behind it, but for the people that don't know what a PID is, Public Improvement District, explain. Absolutely. So a Public Improvement District is when a group of property owners, and in our case it's commercial property owners, who came together 22 years ago and said we want to increase and raise the level of services and infrastructure improvements in a corridor. So our corridor. Above and beyond what the city can do. Above and beyond. Above and beyond. Yes. Okay. And so we are six miles long. Okay. We start at Montgomery and travel west to almost Altamere 183. Okay. So through the bricks under 30 and then all the way to Altamere 183. All the way through Ridgely and a lot of places in between, because we also capture side streets and a portion of 7th Street on the west side of University. So within that structure, we use that money to pump back into the district just to provide additional services. Our additional services include anything from beautification, green maintenance, some partnership with the parks department on park improvement and safety and security of course is a big one right now for us. Yes. We want to talk a little bit about that. Very exciting all the things that are happening on the pit and this is, I just want to clarify, it's a voluntary tax that these businesses have said we want a higher level of services than what can be provided. So we're willing to tax ourselves and come into this entity. So then it gives more resources. You talked about security. We've done a lot of things on homelessness in the area and panhandlers. Do you want to talk a little bit about that? I do. How are you servicing? I do. We started it all off with your town hall meeting that we worked together on at Ridgley Theater over the summer. Great turnout, great response. It was just kind of the tip of the iceberg. We were able to really start the education process of what it is and not every person out on the street is homeless and not every person on the street is a vagrant and so that education process is really important. The other thing is making sure that our constituency understands that it's going to take a village and it's not going to be solved overnight or eradicated at any given time. So that's really important to understand in terms of how we're dealing with things. So we started with that meeting, which was great. We've followed up since. We've started a series of meetings with our business and property owners and our PD. Those are part of it and they come out and have real dialogue on how to really make this a team effort to move safety forward. One business is doing something that supports them coming or doesn't support them getting the services then they'll continue. So that's what I want people to understand as part of what you're talking about is one business can say follow all the rules and another business doesn't and then it hurts everybody. So there's a point in all of that and that is that there is a human being on the other side. And there's a compassionate way at which we're dealing with it and our city is fortunate to have some really good services that they can or cannot take a part of. So it's making sure that we open those pathways and channels to get them into those proper streamlines of services and not the quick fix, which is a quick meal out the back door or a $20 bill out the window at a major intersection or whatever that might be. And so that's part of that education process and it is being compassionate about it. So all that to say that we've also had a little bit of an uptick in opportunity theft and so how are we dealing with that? And it's bringing the business community together to share ideas, to share experiences and then for the NPO's and our privatized security, which we have now increased, all collaborating and all eyes. And one of the messages that one of our NPO's delivered in our first meeting was that it is up to us to take care of our brethren, which there is no better line than that because if we're only going to look out for what's inside of our four walls and out our front doors straight and not look to the sides, then what kind of community are we building? So I think if you- It's really not a community. It's not. And if you bring that full circle, that's what Camp B. District is really here to do is to build and strengthen our business community so that we're creating a thriving and sustainable environment for a commercial corridor that quite honestly is 150 years old. Yeah. I mean that's amazing. Glad you brought the compassion part because that's really what it is about when you realize someone is homeless and there are a lot of city services, there are non-profit private services that we're engaged with to help. So that's one of the issues of safety because people aren't going to go to businesses that they don't feel safe getting out of their car and going to. What are some of the other initiatives that you're proud of? So I mentioned the privatized security. So in October we started a four day a week, six hours a shift, privatized security. Right now we're concentrated on early morning kind of the dark hours of the morning into mid-morning. And what we're doing is kind of sweeping the area and patrolling and looking for some of these overnight sleepers, homeless camps that might pop up, and trying to just kind of do a sweep of the area to move them either into service providers or move them out of the corridor so that as business starts to open up. We also have made available and worked with our security company to make it affordable for our commercial entities to be able to afford security on their dime as well. Since we can't provide that to the extent of like our downtown has in the past, we want to make that affordable and available to them. And it's consistent when we use the same group over and over. And outside that too, your last annual meeting, we're able to give Hawkeye, who, you know, DJ from the radio, a big award because 25 years ago he started the initiative Trees Down, Can't Move Boulevard. What other sort of beautification other things is the district doing to just enhance and keep it more inviting for people to visit? So one of the things that has really happened is we've really increased our visibility and advocacy. So we put together a strong marketing initiative on how we're raising the level with Dickies literally right around the corner. And now we have this introduction of almost 300 hotel rooms to the district. The house, Crescent, yes. So now we're, what is the reason for people to come westward? Well, we have all kinds of brands to celebrate on a very local level. You have restaurants that are 90 years old and Kincaid's and Roy Pope and Blue Bonnet bakery that have been on the Boulevard historically for a very long time. And family owned and operated. So when people, when you travel, you want to see the flavors and the sites that are local to that market. Well, we want to share that as well. So we put together a very strong marketing initiative. We're really hitting some very big targets with who we're trying to reach and who's coming to Fort Worth to feel the flavors and the localness of Fort Worth. And Can't Move exemplifies that. You know, we're uniquely Fort Worth. That's our tagline. And it's for a reason. We have, you know, a lot of our shops are generational. They're individually owned. And you'll meet the shop owner when you actually walk in and shop there or dine there. So that's one of the big things we're doing. The other thing we're doing is looking at how we can enhance our green spaces in the future. So what the big picture looks like. How are we bringing that into the fold? And right now we're right on the cusp of holidays. So we're entering year two of our big holiday initiative. Where we have four full weekends of events. Most of them are free and for families. And really invite that shop local kind of message. So we get a lot going on. I love it. I love it. Because we've done a lot of spotlights on small businesses. And really Can't Move Boulevard is just full of small businesses. You're obviously very passionate about this. What's your connection to the Boulevard? So I grew up on the Boulevard. I grew up a block off the Boulevard until I was 11. And then a few more blocks after that, we made it a little deeper into one of the neighborhoods. But the Bricks has really been my home since I was two. And so affectionately I look at it. And I can see where the old Blue Bonnet Bakery was when it was Harper's Blue Bonnet Bakery. And I can see the convenience store where we schooled each other on Pac-Man in the day. So all those things. And now today the iterations are Curly's and my 15-year-old congregating there with his friends to have ice cream and hot dogs and share and fellowship there. And then Winslow's, of course. I mean, that's our corner hangout kind of thing. And so as the years have evolved, Campberry becomes a part of my fabric. But it becomes a part of your fabric. And it becomes a part of somebody else's. And how are we setting that tone? So the passion for me is like, what does that next iteration look like for the next few generations? And how are we continuing to give longevity to the Boulevard? Yeah, you talk about the history. And it's the 100th anniversary of Station 18. Yes. That's this week. So it's the oldest operating station in the city of Fort Worth. This bungalow style. Bungalow-style cute little station. And the neighborhoods have embraced it. Our businesses have embraced it. And so they'll be celebrating that this weekend or next week. And I just, it's a part of that community. And that's really good. While we know that we need modernized services to really service today's communities, it's nice to know that you have a station house that A looks like it does, has been preserved the way it has been, and has personnel. Quite honestly, the chief told me, he's like, nobody ever wants to leave this station. Why would they, right? It's a great area. So that's exciting. But you know, we have other exciting things coming too in the district where public services are related to you. So yeah. Anything you wanna share? Well, I mean, we're gonna move a fire station, right? That's right. Can we say that yet? Yeah, yeah. You can. So Station 16, which has been on the periphery of Como, is actually moving to the gateway of Como. I'm excited about this. And it's gonna be a catalyst really for how we envision Camp Booy and Como really blending together. And as other economic development opportunities have opened up with the JPI Apartments happening and all of that, how are we putting city services at the center of community really is how I viewed this. So it's gonna have a piece of public art wrapped around it. Horn Street's gonna go through a transformation in a few years. And so this really is the catalyst for all of that to happen. And it's a center of community. And that's, if you looked 100 years ago, 50 years ago, firemen and fire fighters and police, first responders were the heart of our community. And this kind of returns them to that. I love that you bring it up. We've worked hard to make sure that the fire station happens. And we've worked hard on where it goes. And the Horn Street initiative, $6.8 million, it's gonna be spent on revitalizing Horn Street and what that will bring back to that community is something very exciting, and how it bleeds into can't do it. I think we've made infrastructure sexy. Ha ha ha ha. Yes, yes, for sure. People are excited and sexy, yes. Good way to put it. You kind of caught me off guard with that statement. I didn't know what to do with it. But you're right as we put it, but it's basic city services. That's what you bring it back to. And we've talked about Ace Hardware where we're sitting right now, community hub that people find whatever their community is and the fire station is one of those that people look and they they have some nostalgia for it especially 18 down on the bricks and people have nostalgia just for the bricks right as part of that which is exciting. So how can residents or how can people get involved with Kent Boogie District? So our first order of business is is engaging as many businesses as possible right and that's really important. So we do have memberships we have a quote-unquote inkside to us okay this kind of like a chamber of commerce we serve as a many chamber of commerce we advocate for our businesses and we do that through the resources of our membership dollars. So anybody but specifically our businesses our targets as members and you can visit Kent Boogie District dot com our membership page there and see we have what does the PID do what is our what are our PID boundaries so that information is there. We also use some of our resources because we're trying to build traction with our brokers and our real estate developers and we have businessonboogie.com which is our business side of us and you can see demographic breakdown and market research that really supports you know the opportunity here. So those are some ways from a business side residents and we have we are beginning you know we ask residents to just support our local business and our community initiatives. I mentioned the holiday events come out and support that because you're supporting small businesses at the same time. Also we have some things coming up in the spring we're going to have our first CalTown cleanup participation we're going to pick about three three to five different sites and we'll engage some of our civic and student groups to come out and and help support that initiative. So there's going to be lots of opportunities but sign up for our newsletter at campbelliedistrict.com follow us on facebook and instagram follow us on linkedin for a business profile and we have a very engaging social media platform where we're just trying to spread the word of campbellied. That's that's wonderful well you heard it here folks city and campbellied district making infrastructure sexy again so I think that's going to be a banner and a new tagline but Lydia thanks for being here thanks for all the work that you do to highlight small businesses and support them and to keep what is a real treasure for the city campbellied boulevard thriving it's it's important for me for my children your children etc it really is I have great memories growing up and and visiting some of the the businesses there and I just want to see it for generations come so thanks for being here today thanks for having me thanks and now I'm joined by Alexis Meisner who owns the sour boule welcome thank you tell us a little bit about the sour boule where it's located etc yeah so uh the sour boule is a bakery and cafe we also have a coffee shop um we're right up the street from the ace hardware here at 3701 southwest boulevard in the old busy bees building okay um so tell us about some of your what what's some favorites there oh our favorite obviously it's the sourdough right it's gotta be the sourdough yeah um and every day we'll have our plain and our rosemary garlic but then the next the next hot item is our bagels okay um we're taping this right for lunch just so I want everybody to know so it's you're making me hungry perfect yeah so the bagels I mean my husband spent a lot of time to really perfect those it started out as I want to make bagels and he was like okay you can make bagels and then he was like wait a second I want to do that and so he really focused on that recipe and now it's perfect it's perfect perfect business is good yeah and our bagels are bigger than the standard okay well what what inspired you to start the sourdough so when I was little I baked a lot with my grandma okay so baking growing up in Utah yeah growing up in Utah small little town okay um so baking just takes me back to home and so just getting to feel that and then to be able to do it with my kids um to have my daughter and they're baking with us and making bread and cookies and all the things it's just so fun um and then when when I married my husband he was like I want sourdough and I told him no because he told me that I had to do it in a trash bag and I was like not a traditional way to make sourdough I don't know I don't know how I've made it but okay I've never seen anything that said a trash bag but he says it's not really a trash bag it's a baking bag I don't but he said trash bag at the time okay so it put a bad bad image in my head and I was like nope not doing it not even gonna play with it and so after about a couple years I was like all right I think I can play with it but I'm doing it my way okay okay so in a big plastic container yep just yeah that's how I've made it yes okay yeah yeah I didn't do it in a trash bag okay that's good um so in April of 22 we started our starter from scratch 100% okay and so we just kind of started rolling there and people that don't know what sourdough he's talking about starter you start one and use part of that to make the next one to make the next one is that what you mean yes that's correct so our sourdough is just made with flour salt and water okay and then if there's extra ingredients like rosemary or garlic that's literally what's in it um there's no extra commercialized yeast or anything we use the natural yeast from the flour right our starter is organic our bread is not but we do offer an organic option okay tell us about your journey from you know just baking to opening a storefront uh so that's an all day okay okay I could short version all day yeah um so starting is just we started in our home and we actually did our first farmers market in July of 22 we did the benberg farmers market okay and we sold out and we were like man maybe we're on to something and then we got feedback from our customers and they were just like this is phenomenal bread and we want more of it and they're like you're coming back right and so we just kept going back to the benberg market and then I was like okay it's time to expand yeah and so we before we opened we were going to three different markets every single weekend wow did you have jobs on top of this and you're doing yes so I did have a full-time job at the time as well okay um which I no longer do okay you're fully full time yes yep solely focused on the journey of every entrepreneur so yes it took yes that's right yeah yes it's a dream so I'm I'm just blessed to be able to do that dream honestly yeah um but yeah so we there was one weekend we sold a hundred loaves of bread in one day wow so that was the weekend that I was like it hit and it said I can make this a business yes we were just like we cannot we can't keep doing this in our house right okay we don't have the oven space we don't have the kitchen space we don't have the space okay so you started looking for a space and you landed on the traffic circle so funny enough I was actually just scrolling Facebook and I noticed that the previous tenant had posted that they were no longer gonna be there okay and I was like hey this might be the place okay so that's where you are off the job what I call the traffic most people call the traffic circle right there yeah what um what what connected you to that part of the city did you have a connection I really didn't okay so um you just seen that it was I saw that it was available and I knew that that had been a bakery for so many years I mean it's just been a bakery it's been a part of the community for so long has a bakery that it almost didn't feel right letting it be anything else okay and our landlord actually was like yeah absolutely this needs to be a bakery still so so it seems to be working I love you talked about your journey we do a lot of spotlighting of small businesses I have a passion for it owning a small business understanding all the the trials and tribulations to get businesses open when you have a dream that you're just trying to realize at that point do you have any advice for people that are I want to start a business you know for entrepreneurs small business owners definitely consistency is key okay without consistency you're not gonna go deeper on that what does that mean when you say be consistent always offer the same like the same quality always just make sure you have that that quality that you want and don't cut those corners okay as soon as you start cutting those corners people are going to notice they notice very quickly and they they're sure to let you know and they're not they're not going to be returned customer and so then your business is going to go down so you just can't cut cut corners cut corners yeah consistency and just quality okay that's great what what about from the opening the business perspective were there any heart was there any heartburn during the process always yeah elaborate on that so opening the business was quite a lot more different than I was expecting to be honest what did you expect and what was the reality I expected it to not be so many hoops okay okay I learned that there's a lot more hoops to opening a business like a brick and mortar business as there was to just open in my house right there was so many more permits to pull and so my advice is to just call the city that you're wanting to open in and say hey this is my plan and what do I have to do to do this to get that checklist you know you get the checklist yeah get your checklist one of the things we've done and I've heard this a lot from small businesses we just don't know what to expect right we we have this dream we'd like to figure out how to make it a reality yeah one of the things that has happened is our permanent department has hired a small business partner that just focuses on small businesses of that and I'm hopeful I don't know if that you took part took of any of those services but I'm hopeful it helps future small businesses that want to get open to realize that so any feedback you have really would appreciate it but what could people expect when they come in to the bakery so what I wanted when you walk in the door is that you feel like you're walking into a Pinterest post okay and I really feel like I captured that it's very just Instagrammable it's grammable I guess. Grammable is that what the kids say these days okay okay okay it's grammable and you should just be comfortable and cozy I wanted it to be a safe place mostly for moms and I know it's like wait a second we can't say that but I really wanted moms to have that safe place where they can come bring their kids get a meal the kids can come and snack on fruit or whatever they get and play with the toys that are there and play with each other and it'd be okay and mom not have to stress about oh my gosh my kid is being loud and playing I want I wanted moms to have that space that's great that's great well thanks for being here really appreciate you being in Fort Worth Texas we're so happy to be here oh good good and and opening your your place here and I wish you the best of luck and um you know you're you're making me hungry already so thanks for being here today I can't wait to have you for lunch for the boar's head sandwiches boar's head so boar's head okay boar's head deli meats and cheeses okay that beautiful coming okay great we'll be over soon quality thank you thank you now I'm here with lori burko who's the owner of the ace hardware on camp boulevard welcome lori thank you for having me of course this is so fun all the products in here um glad to be here today as you've opened this when did you all open this so we opened our store in february of this year so we've been open now for about eight months that's great I was here and did a little ribbon cutting and everything which was awesome um how you've been I mean tell me your history with ace hardware how did you end up there and then end up here so that's there's a long that's a long story don't make that quick though so I think I'm gonna start with my husband so my husband and his family have been in the hardware business since 1960 wow his family started hardware stores in Ohio in 1960 and my husband actually grew up in the business okay I myself I started getting involved in the hardware in 1998 I graduated college and I started working with ace hardware on the vendor side okay and I did that for almost 30 years in various marketing and product development roles and really gave me a great experience to really understand what hardware customers need okay um and then my first experience with with fort worth was actually in 1993 okay so growing up I used to show horses competitively okay and my mom and I came down here from Ohio to show our horses at the um back then it was the american quarter horse association uh youth world show it was 1993 it was 1993 it was at the john j jason arena yes but that was my first taste of fort worth yeah what do you think about it then I wanted to be long to stay wow and so you think that was gosh how many years ago yeah 30 it was a long time ago um but I knew then that I wanted to long term I wanted to be down here in Texas I wanted to be in the fort worth area so it's funny every time I go down into town our banks down in town and I go by the arena and I think about that and even when I drive in in the morning I can I live a little bit out west but I can see downtown and I think of that often so it's pretty cool that's a good great memory um and so is your husband from here what how did you actually finally get here that's a great question so my husband and I are both from northern Ohio right we both grew up in small towns in northern different small towns in northern Ohio where the hardware store is the hub of the community and when we got married about 20 years ago um we it was interesting we both got married we both already had the passion for the hardware business and we knew early on that we wanted to have our own businesses at some point but we also shared a mutual love of taxes and a mutual love of this area so it took us a little while it took us about five years to finally find a location down here and and get the store up and running but um you know like I said it's been you know almost a 20 20-year journey for us because we both knew this is a place that we wanted to live that's amazing that's amazing yeah the ace people are probably familiar with ace as a brand is it a franchise or how does that how does that partnership work so that's a great question so ace stores are called co-op stores so what that means is that each ace store is individually owned so we have other stores in the area that have different owners and the reason that we do that is because we really want to be able to tailor the needs of the store to the needs of the area like one thing that's really unique about the area that we're here that we're in here on camp buoy is is around birding and by that I mean around bird feed and bird bird feeders this area is very richly hills richly north and this area is very passionate about birds okay and you'll see if you come into our store that we've actually doubled the size of our bird offering okay because of that see it on the aisle over there bird feed bird seed and everything it's so popular and you'll find other stores it may not be as popular but that's why the stores are locally owned or locally owned and operated is because we really do want to tailor to what the needs are of our very specific communities very community that's great yeah because you mentioned west cliff is also in my neighborhood but that's a separate owner right and other they're separate owners so you can really tailor to the community you mentioned you've been around for about a year February or so what what have you seen happen at this location what are you looking forward to as part of this location well I think one of the most exciting things I've seen I mentioned you know my husband and I grew up in rural parts of the country where the hardware store was the hub of the community and that was always our vision for our own store is that we wanted it to to become that hub now it's a little bit different right Fort Worth is a it's a very large town but I think what excites us is that we still see that even though you know we have a vast geographical area it's amazing customers come in and they're talking to their neighbors that you'll live down the street from them or we'll even see people that come in and they see their relatives that you know they don't see very often the ones they want to see exactly exactly not the woods they were like I'm trying to avoid exactly or they come in and there's just have these long conversations and so for me that's that's what we wanted to have for the store the other thing is around just having the team that we have you know ACE is the helpful place right and when you come to ACE you you you want to have help with whatever you're here to look for or the problem that you're having within your home and we have an amazing team that is really also tailored to helping our customers you know solve solve their solve their issues that they may have and make sure that they can have the best home that they can that's in beautiful products you talked a little about the community that you're in how do you contribute to the community obviously this hub that you talk about where people can come and I think you had a a wine night did you say the other night here and doing some activities but how do you see yourself fitting into the community the store fitting into the community so it's really important that we we do we are authentically part of the community and so by that I mean that we are actively participating in the community so we make sure that we are participating in events with you know originally north neighborhood association with originally Hills neighborhood association you know and we're trying to get in with other neighborhoods as well that's a big thing we want we want these neighborhood associations to know that we truly want to help you we're not doing this just to advertise with you like it's a genuine we want it to be a genuine partnership an example of that last night we had our ladies night out and we were helping the originally a north neighborhood association put together packet their these care packages for homeowners that win their I believe it's called the lawn of the month oh yeah yeah so you know we very active program originally north and they're very passionate about it and you know we and we had fun we sat with them for about an hour wrapping up the gifts and and making sure that they were tailored to the homeowners another thing that we're doing for Halloween we're going to be in Ridgely Hills for their Halloween howling in the hills it's very very big deal so this be your first one this is our first one you'll see it's it's a it's a a very big deal they block off the streets it's one of my favorite events that I get to go to and attend so yes that's great and another one thing we this summer we were involved in the 4th of July parade with originally Hills and that was amazing we had amazing I love I love floats and the theme was Christmas in July and I love Christmas Christmas is my Super Bowl so we had a great time with that so those are the things that we want to continue to do so I you know I look forward to you know neighborhood associations reaching out to me I like to have those discussions with them even the Camp Bowie District they've been an amazing partner of they've done a great job of working on different events along the boulevard and we love to partner with them where we can that's that's great you talked a little bit about holidays etc we're sitting here with a lot of paraphernalia for Halloween and I had see your Christmas aisle you're already ready for Christmas any specific things that you want to talk about or highlight well I think the biggest thing with ace is you can truly come to ace for your one-stop holiday shopping needs you can get everything from a grill to power tools to you know beautiful gifts right so I would encourage you you know regardless of your budget I'm sure that we can help you find the right gift for what it is for your holiday I'd like someone to have a budget for me for the $3,500 egg that's sitting over there but that's beautiful we can maybe make a deal with you no you've got some great things thanks for being here I love that your idea you talk about because I growing up where I grew up grew up in Fort Worth but also around the Saginaw area we had our local you know it was Elkins hardware I remember spending some time in there just going up and down the aisles looking at all the interesting things and you know my family is actually from Gordon originally and my grandfather had the hardware store great great uncle great uncle had the hardware store there for a long period of time and it's a hub of activity so I'm glad you're bringing that to this community and love spotlighting you know this is a small business love spotlighting small business and small business only like you so thanks for being here today Laura thank you appreciate it thank you thank you for tuning in and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Fort Worth Ford I'm here at ace hardware again come check it out they've got all you need for any season any holiday all these goodies I have in my basket they're waiting for you check it out y'all have a great season