Bishop Arts District is arguably one of the hottest real estate markets in the city of Dallas, with thousands of square feet of new commercial space under construction, and thousands of apartments being built within a mile of the district. Rents are increased at unproportioned rates, and new shops and restaurants opening at a dizzying pace.

We’ve seen this firsthand, as both of our families have operated small businesses in the Bishop Arts area for more than a decade. And we’ve both been forced to relocate or displaced due to increased rent or developers repurposing the building. But through hard work and continued investment in the Oak Cliff neighborhood we love, both El Padrino and CocoAndre Chocolatier continue to employ local workers, serve our community, provide sales and property taxes to the city of Dallas, and support our families.

Despite the real estate gold rush happening around us, the realities of our neighborhood are hiding in plain sight. The median income for white residents living in the ZIP code where Bishop Arts is located (75208) is $83,700. The median income for Hispanic residents living in the same ZIP code is $40,900. And there are thousands of households a short walk from these high-end shops and restaurants at or below the federal poverty line.

This inequity is not just a Bishop Arts issue. As has been widely reported, nearly 1 out of every 3 children in Dallas live in poverty, and more than 80% of people in poverty in Dallas are black or Hispanic. When ranked against other cities for economic and racial inclusion, Dallas is dead last.

In response, the city created the Office of Equity and Human Rights last year to support the “identification and elimination of systemic barriers to fair and just distribution of resources, access to services and opportunity.”

And so a proposal from the city’s Office of Economic Development to give a grant and low-interest loan adding up to $700,000 to a high-end convenience store seemed a shocking contradiction.

We aren’t against the Royal Blue grocery store coming to Oak Cliff, but we have an issue with investing tax dollars in a manner likely to amplify gentrification, and in a concept that won’t provide goods or services that aren’t already available in the neighborhood.

If we want to change the statistics listed earlier in this article and fulfill the mission of the Office of Equity and Human Rights, then we have to change the way we do business. We can no longer simply hope for a city that works for all residents while we continue to maintain practices that created the inequities in the first place.

We would like to see the Office of Economic Development proposals go through an equity analysis to ensure they lead to a fair distribution of resources. We would like the process of economic development investment to be transparent and open to all. We would like the city to use factors beyond increased property value, a metric that also contributes significantly to displacement of working families, as the measure of return on investment. We would like to see a policy that includes explicit goals for the deployment of economic development funds to business owners of color in a manner proportional to their percentage of the Dallas population.

We know the results of the way we’ve always done business. The data that documents the inequity has made headlines for long enough. Now that we know better, we have to do better, and the actions of the city and City Council will speak louder than any words.

Juan Contreras and his family own El Padrino restaurant.

Cindy Puente and her family own CocoAndre Chocolate.

They wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.