(The Center Square) – Local business owners are speaking out against a media narrative that their neighborhood is “a cartel-infested area” full of crime, arguing the narrative was promoted for political reasons. They also argue the accusations disparaging their community in the Colony Ridge neighborhood north of Houston in Liberty County are false and hurtful.
Business owners with long-held ties in the community also champion legal immigration, arguing it’s helped make America the melting pot of the world that they’re proud to be a part of.
Amid Dukani, a legal immigrant from Pakistan who became a U.S. citizen, says he wouldn’t have opened his businesses in the area if it was crime-ridden.
He was the first business owner to open a retail center in the Colony Ridge neighborhood: Easy Lane Food Mart and El Faro Supermercado.
Dukani owns supermarkets and gas stations in Spring, Tomball and the Woodlands, all roughly an hour north of Houston. He expanded to Colony Ridge “because of the growing population, the clientele, and it’s a good place to expand business,” he told The Center Square.
He started by opening one gas station. Since then, he’s built two more, with plans for expansion. He said he’s had “no trouble or crime from customers in the supermarkets or gas stations. Everyone is nice and pays their bills,” he said.
Asked why he immigrated to America, he said, “Because this is the safest country in the world. This country gives you lot of opportunity. If you keep your head down and work hard, the sky’s the limit.”
Dukani said he also is proud that his children were born in America and graduated from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business in Austin.
“This is my home,” he said of living in Texas for decades. “This is a blessing. The USA is my country.” Referring to Trey Harris, who founded the Colony Ridge property development company in Liberty County, he said, “Mr. Harris is my brother. We have built a wonderful relationship over the years, and I’m looking forward to good relationship in the future.”
Dennis Kim, who owns and operates Let’s Go Market in Colony Ridge, expressed similar sentiments. Let’s Go Market is a convenience store that adjoins a Domino’s Pizza and also serves as a gas station. Kim’s family has been in the area since 1985 and owns stores in New Caney, Porter, Crosby, the Fifth Ward in Houston, and in Richmond, Texas.
“Of all the stores we’ve opened, we feel the safest at our store in Colony Ridge,” he told The Center Square. “The weird thing is what you hear in the news and what we feel as operators is completely different. Safety concerns are not an issue.”
The area is “attracting families, especially on the weekends. The front portion of our store caters to children, we have multiple kids coming in after school.”
He also said “negative news reports are off-putting. They aren’t reporting the full story. The vast majority of our customers are families, students, and young moms.
“This isn’t a cartel infested area. If it was a crime-infested place not only would I not open a business here I wouldn’t have built the largest investment here.”
Kim said his family businesses in other locations have a hard time finding workers, but in Colony Ridge, “it’s been easy here … “People enjoy coming to work here every day. Hopefully we can open more locations like this in the future.”
Kim, who grew up in the area and has lived there since he was 4, said, “I’ve heard about crime, but there is crime everywhere. Are the critics of Colony Ridge racist because the residents are predominantly Hispanic?”
His family members legally immigrated to the U.S. in 1979 and are American citizens. His uncle, he said, was a decorated Vietnam War veteran. When asked if he identified as a Korean American he bristled at the terminology and said, “I’m a proud Texan.”
In another part of the development The Center Square visited, a Pizza Hut, a First Liberty Bank branch, Subway, fitness center, health clinic, coffee shop, diner, nail salon and other businesses have plans to open in new strip centers Harris is building.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers and a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper affirmed Dukani’s and Kim’s perspective. After touring the area, a bipartisan group of lawmakers said, “There was nothing we saw that was alarming” and media reports weren’t showing “the full picture.”
The DPS trooper told The Center Square during an operation in the area that “The media narrative that this area is an illegal alien colony and everyone is working with the cartels is totally false.”
