Tyler embraces a families-first approach as it grows faster than any other East Texas city

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TYLER — It was 5 p.m. on a Tuesday, and dozens of children had flocked to Bergfeld Park with their parents to get their wiggles out on the jungle gym and swings.

Kingston Gallegos, 5, dropped his mom’s hand to start a game of tag with a few other boys. They chased each other around the playgrounds, up the stairs and down the slides. The sounds of cheerful screams resounded through the trees.

The preschooler moved back to Tyler with his mom, Amy Gallegos, over the summer. Gallegos, who had lived in the city for nearly a decade before moving to the coast, missed the feeling of community and safety in Tyler. Since their return, they’ve spent countless hours at the library, playing at parks and meeting other local families.

It was the right move, she said.

“I feel like there’s a community of people looking out for the kids,” Gallegos said. “There’s always little meet-ups or something going on. No matter what side of town you live on, you can find what you need.”

Bergfeld Park, which reopened in 2022, is one of many examples of how this East Texas city is working to ingrain a culture that supports families in its bones. Between 2014 and 2024, Tyler ranked second for the largest percentage increase in people moving to the area, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau by the Texas Tribune. Midland, which is in the West Texas oil fields, ranked first.

Tyler’s population grew from 101,494 to 112,219 in that time – a little more than 1,000 people per year. And there is no evidence that the city’s growth will slow. In fact, Smith County, of which Tyler is the county seat, is projected to grow faster than most other counties in East Texas over the next decade. Only Wood and Polk counties, which are north and south of Smith, have higher projected population growth by percentages. They are much smaller counties compared to Smith, however.

Civic and business leaders say an intentional effort to make Tyler more family-friendly has proven successful. The city invested in physical infrastructure like sidewalks, parks and entertainment venues. At the same time, a flurry of organizations have sprung up to help families succeed, including a program for single moms — SHINE — and the Peer Dads Network for new dads.

In 2024, about 70% of Tyler’s households were families, slightly outpacing the state average, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Tyler Mayor Don Warren, who is set to retire this year, said the city’s goal has always been to improve the quality of life for its residents. And in the last decade, they learned that prioritizing the needs of families helped all residents.

This is a shift from how the city used to approach economic growth. Henry Bell, the president of the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce, said for a long time the city prioritized attracting people near retirement.

“There’s been an effort — an intentional effort, and some of it is sort of unintentional — rebuilding that infrastructure that will help develop better quality of life options for really all citizens,” Bell said. “But a lot of it is so family-oriented. Because family is important to the area.”

Communities that want economic and social stability realize they need families, said Elliot Haspel, an author and family policy expert at Capita, a family policy think tank founded in South Carolina.

“Families with young children are going to be invested in communities for a long time,” Haspel said. “They’re often the ones advocating for things like safer streets, more public amenities and more community events.”

Despite all the efforts, some residents say finding support — especially child care — remains a challenge, and there are not yet enough good-paying jobs.

Tyler has become an employment hub for much of the region, drawing employees from surrounding counties. This, coupled with a large demographic of college students regularly graduating from the University of Texas-Tyler or other higher education programs, produces an outsized amount of competition for good paying jobs that already exist.

The diversity of the workforce can put parents — especially mothers — who need more flexibility than a childless person at a disadvantage for landing a good paying job.

Bell said economic development is a constant balancing act to find enough employers to meet the needs of the community, and to have enough employees to meet the needs of prospective employers.

Additionally, parts of Tyler are considered a child care desert. This means that there are not enough spots in classrooms for the kids that live in the area. A lack of child care options can make finding a job difficult as well.

Parks and sidewalks

The morning Bergfeld Park was set to reopen, Warren, who was nearing his second term as Mayor, snuck out of his house and sprayed a coat of PAM on each brand-new slide. He wanted the grand opening of the park to be memorable.

And, indeed, it was for the children who flew off the slides and landed in the mulch.

“So we realized that putting PAM on the slides was not a good idea,” he said.

Warren began working on the Bergfeld Park project as a retiree looking for something interesting to fill his time. So he ran for office and won. He served as the councilmember representing district 4 for three terms and then was elected mayor in 2020. The park was the first in a cascade of infrastructural investments launched in his tenure to create a sense of community in the city. He even liked the challenge of finding new ways to pay for it.

Tyler, thanks in part to Warren’s prodding, has now invested $15 million to rebuild every city park and started the Legacy Trail Project that will eventually span the city. In 2023, the Tyler city council approved a $25.5 million downtown revitalization project to create a safe place for residents and visitors to meander. The city is also contemplating a new light rail system to help residents move through the city.

Furthermore, the city’s traffic engineer, Cameron Williams, a father of two, said the city has expanded Tyler’s sidewalk system and installed safety rails to improve walkability. He also conducted studies and made small changes to improve the flow of vehicle traffic, which reduced commute times for residents by more than 30%.

“People get up in the morning, and they’re going to school, they’re going to work, or they’re going to appointments — they’re traveling,” Williams said. “They have to get there somehow. If that’s a two-hour trip of waiting and frustration, or they’re five minutes late to their kids’ party, or they get to work late and lose a job, those things matter to people.”

In 2024, the Hibbs Institute for Business & Economic Research, part of the University of Texas, ranked Tyler the best city to raise a family in Texas.

Researchers used 18 factors grouped into five categories: health and safety, economic performance, quality education, amenities and recreation and social environment.

Tyler ranked high in health and safety thanks to multiple hospitals and the University of Texas medical school in Tyler, which operates as a fully functional hospital as well. It also excelled in economic performance, including income.

But the city’s success wasn’t universal. Tyler had middle-of-the-road ratings for factors such as unemployment rates, crime and the share of uninsured children. It ranked near the bottom for the number of people graduating with high school diplomas and affordable housing.

Leaders across the city said they are working to address those areas that need improvement.

Tyler’s economic development plan has focused on diversifying industries, which would create a variety of job opportunities and economic stability. More opportunities would translate into a lower unemployment rate and maintaining healthy wages, which are vital issues for adults raising children.

Job opportunities with good benefits are also one way in which the community can address the rate of uninsured children. There are also public health entities, such as the Northeast Texas Public Health District, that can provide real-time support to families who are struggling to maintain health benefits through employers.

In a 2025 city survey, Tyler residents demanded improvements to traffic congestion, public safety and water and sewer availability. They also wanted the city to expand sidewalks, to guarantee a future rich with water, and a low tax rate.

The survey serves as the backbone to the city’s long-term planning document, which the city council approved in mid-March.

The city also said it will prioritize a mixture of land-use programs that support different types of housing for various levels of affordability over the next 30 years. It will create neighborhood centers where residents can reach almost all of their needs within blocks of their homes, instead of having to cross town.

Support networks help new families

Parks and walkable neighborhoods can attract families to a city. High-paying jobs lay the foundation for financial stability. However, many families need more to thrive.

Social connectivity and support are vital for family success. As Tyler has grown, nonprofit organizations have created programs that enabled that connection. A loose constellation of social groups have formed communities that pull together parents from all walks of life.

Two examples of this are the Peer Dads Network, through WIC, and the Harbor of Hope which has created SHINE Nights.

Kala Cameron, a regular at SHINE Nights, lived in a rural community north of Tyler most of her life. Her father was her support system as she raised three children. He helped her to keep her boys on the right path, she said.

He died in 2022.

“That’s when I had to build my own village,” she said.

On a Monday night in February, she was walking back and forth on the second floor of the Marvin Methodist Church, trying to soothe Zhylo, her 3-month-old son and fourth child. Her three older children were watched over by volunteers who offered child care during the monthly SHINE Night series for single mothers.

On a SHINE Night, moms take their kids to a church where licensed child care providers have meals and activities planned for them. Those moms then go up to a separate room to enjoy a dinner with friends and listen to a lecture on spirituality, family or finances. They’re given resources to connect with experts who can help them navigate motherhood as well as a group of women who have similar experiences.

“If they feel like they’re on their own, that really exposes them to a lot of the critical factors, like poverty, abuse and depression — all of those things come into play when there’s isolation,” said Suzy Walker, the founder of Harbor of Hope and SHINE. “People need community. Families need a community that can support them relationally. And what we’ve learned is that relational support almost inevitably turns into tangible support.”

Walker was a single mom of three boys when the idea of the Harbor came to her. She realized that she couldn’t do it alone and hosted a spaghetti dinner at her home one night. And then it became a regular meet-up for other local moms who just needed a friend.

Five years later, SHINE Nights had become a place for Cameron to do the same.

Jason Rhodes, the father’s engagement specialist for the Peer Dads Coalition through WIC, has seen this firsthand with local fathers. His program, which started in 2016, is the last remaining rendition of Peer Dads through WIC in Texas; although similar groups not associated with WIC do exist elsewhere, Rhodes said.

The program teaches men how to support their partners during pregnancy. It teaches them how to help a breastfeeding partner and what role they play in those early months after the baby is born. And it opens the door for fathers to ask questions and seek support.

“Just having that mentorship or that other man — who is a father themselves, or a grandfather — that you can call makes the difference,” Rhodes said.

Since Rhodes took over Peer Dads around 2020, the program has grown to more than 300 men, he said. He especially wants Tyler to serve as an example of how Texas can promote fatherhood and protect family values.

More growth is coming

Smith County is projected to grow by 32% in the next 34 years. This is in stark contrast to much of the rest of East Texas, which is projected to shrink.

The county was home to 252,549 people in 2025, 112,219 live within city limits. Growing 32% means there will be about 308,500 people — about as many people who live in Corpus Christi — people in the area by 2060.

City leaders are making decisions about what Tyler needs to do today to integrate those new residents into the city’s fabric.

In 2025, the city began debating a light rail system, which would pull cars off the street. It also began searching for ways to pull people off of Broadway, the city’s main thoroughfare, and onto other streets to mitigate congestion during key commute times.

And Tyler will build out on infrastructure that connects people to the natural resources in the region, said Williams, the city traffic engineer.

Leaders are confident that they’ve secured the water needed to provide for population growth over the next 100 years. And they’ve been fixing major infrastructure related to water and sewage.

Likewise, community organizations are looking to the future and trying to assess where they can step in.

The Harbor of Hope will continue to provide a community for families that don’t fit traditional paradigms. And the group is expanding. It began bringing together men in the area for breakfast meetings with hopes to start fireside chats soon. It is working to create a sort of halfway house for newly single parents to land safely in a time of transition. And the nonprofit has partnered with Legacy Foundations to provide a safe group home for children in foster care that will begin hosting children any day now. 

The next steps for Rhodes, of Peer Dads, is to take an existing coalition of nonprofit leaders and expand it. By bringing those leaders together, the community can identify gaps in coverage and build out infrastructure through the community organizations so no families in Tyler feel left out.

Andrea Tucker, a mom of three, is the type of parent wants to connect with. She did feel left out as she struggled to navigate the city as a mom over the last few years.

“I don’t really feel like there’s a lot of safety nets here in Tyler,” she said.

It has been a tough few years for Tucker. The city has been her home since she was a teen. But she has felt her share of struggles. It took months to get her twin girls into child care, and when she found a place for them, it was at different centers across the county. When she was between jobs, she struggled not only to access that social safety net to help keep her lights on, she had to compete with a heavily saturated job market. She relied on family and friends to see her through the hard time, not the community organizations.

Things finally eased up when Tucker got all three girls into the same child care center and found a job at the county jail.

On a pleasant afternoon in January, the mom sat on a bench with her daughter, Marciella, watching her two-year-old twins, Jhene and Javeya climb the steps of a Bergfelt Park playground. They were enjoying an hour or so at the park after a full day at school and work.

Now, she feels she can enjoy the perks of living in Tyler. It’s quiet, if a little boring sometimes. She feels safe.

“It’s nice to raise a family here, because it doesn’t really give city life,” she said. “It gives more like family life.”