Since 2019, Andrew Piel has thought of himself as a servant to all the people of Arlington.
He said his passion is giving a voice to people who may not otherwise be heard. It’s why he became an attorney, and it was the same goal he had when he was first elected to represent the residents of District 4 in Arlington.
Piel’s third and final term ended in May, when Tom Ware was sworn in as his successor. Under the city’s term limits, Piel wasn’t able to run for reelection again.
And he said he’s thankful for the term limits.
“For the last three years, since I've been term limited out, I haven't had to raise money or ask people for money,” Piel said. “I was free to vote in the way I felt was best for the people of Arlington and to speak more candidly.”
He’s proud of the things he accomplished while in office, and also sees areas for continued growth.
Divisiveness is one area.
For instance, while he was in office Piel said he saw firsthand the way people talk to and about council members.
“You have to have a really thick skin,” he said. “I mean, people would post things, ‘I can't wait till I can punch Andrew Piel in the nose,” and my mom would see it.”
He said most conversations were respectful, looking for ways with his constituents to work together. And while criticism and confrontation are normal parts of the job, as an attorney, he said he’s used to it but there that personal attacks and insults aren’t productive.
For one thing, he wants to see the families of council members left out of conversations.
“When you sign up for council, you're not just signing up yourself,” Piel said. “You're signing up your wife, you're sending up your kids, you sign up your parents, you are signing up your friends and to me that's probably the hardest thing. You want to protect all those people because you're okay with taking the heat and the insults and the anger and the people who hate you, but they didn't want to sign up for that.”
Sitting in a conference room at his downtown Fort Worth law office, Piel said growth in economic development and progress in bringing broadband and fiber internet to the whole city are two of his proudest accomplishments while in office.
Piel said he wasn’t the only one who supported those — their success required the input, questions, suggestions and eventual approval from the whole council — but he did champion them.
Arlington’s Economic Development Corporation, which facilitates partnerships and incentives to attract businesses (and jobs) to the city. It was created in 2015 but was inactive until the council and voters both approved tax funding for the EDC.
Piel credits the organization with helping to bring both corporate headquarters and smaller businesses to the city. He said that has an impact on residents.
“Arlington had too much reliance upon residential taxes for its city budget. And we had to change the split to where business and commercial property carried more of the load,” he said.
Especially with Arlington’s aging population, Piel said getting younger professionals and families to move to the city is a big deal. Reducing the tax burden on residents is one way to make the city more attractive to younger potential residents, especially with high housing costs across the country.
The new commercial developments, along with efforts to revitalize and redevelop old shopping centers and eyesore businesses help, too.
Especially since he said the housing stock in Arlington is in many cases more than half a century old.
"Arlington's existential challenge is its aging '60s, '70s, '80s and early '90s homes that the City of Arlington must convince young families to buy and fix up with their own money," Piel said. "Arlington is at an inflection point because we're built out. We can't build acres of brand new houses. We have a set of residentials structures that are ours and we have to work with."
Younger home buyers are willing to do that, he said, but first they need to see that the city is investing in itself.
Expansion of modern internet access will also make that easier to accomplish.
District 4, which Piel represented, was the most impacted by the lack of broadband and fiber internet, he said. Now broadband and fiber access are available throughout the city, he said.
It only came after Arlington’s city government encouraged competition between internet companies, according to Piel. One company was supposed to have access expanded to the whole city but wasn’t moving quickly enough. That changed when Arlington brought competitors to do the same work.
“That made them realize that if they can get their act together and bring us broadband fiber optic that we were going to look elsewhere to make it happen,” Piel said. “We flexed a bit and we got it to happen.”
Plans with the first competitor they brough in didn't pan out, he said, but it did push the original company to pick up the pace and attracted others to start their own efforts, giving residents more options than originally planned.
“That was a place where government, city government got involved on an issue and actually did something that provoked the private market to get off their rears and do what needed to be done,” Piel told KERA. “I'm very proud of that.”
He said Arlington is on a good course for its future that its elected leaders should keep pursuing — from continuing the work council has been doing in the last decade with economic development and addressing aging commercial buildings.
Piel said his family and friends stood by him and supported his three election campaigns and his agenda while in office despite all the divisiveness and personal attacks, and they're a big reason he was able to accomplish what he did.
It’s one reason he’s actually excited about leaving his role on the council: it gives him the opportunity to support his wife, Anna Piel.
Anna Piel, also an attorney, walked door-to-door with him to campaign, endured negativity directed at both herself and Andrew Piel and was OK with him taking a pay cut (around $120,000) while working to proivde for the family.
Andrew Piel wants to do the same now, he said. Anna Piel is working to start a company that helps mothers who are lawyers find work where they can both continue their career and be active parents.
He hopes that in his absence the city will continue to work on revitalizing downtown and connecting it to other parts of the city, like UT Arlington and the entertainment district. He expects form-based code, which shuns traditional zoning in favor of development requirements that focus on aesthetics and how people interact with spaces, to make that happen faster and more easily.
That redevelopment will also help address the city’s build-out. Arlington has 99 square miles, and nearly all of it has already been developed.
He hopes Ware, his successor, will stay connected with the people he represents and finds time and ways to hear their thoughts and wants.
Ware was Piel’s soccer coach in elementary school and Piel grew up with Ware’s son. Piel believes Ware will find it easy to stay connected to the community.
For any council member, he warned against getting too involved with special interests in the city.
“Stay close to the actual people, you know? Don't [fall] in love with any interest group or anybody who wants to flatter you that has money or power,” Piel said. “Always remember it's about your neighbors. It's about the people in the neighborhoods.”
Got a tip? Email James Hartley at jhartley@kera.org. You can follow James on X @ByJamesHartley.
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