Fort Wayne Projects
In the last five years Fort Wayne has seen many changes including (but not limited to):
- Coliseum expansion
- Grand Wayne Center
- downtown library expansion
- courthouse greenway
Now there is talk of relocating the baseball stadium and building a new hotel downtown to be added to the list. Fort Wayne needs upgrades to make it attractible to visitors and residents. But these things come at a cost.
I am posting this question to my readers. Is the city (and county) making the right decisions by embark on these endeavors? Can we afford them? Do we need them? What are they missing?
posted by Indiana Pundit at 6:04 PM
8 Comments:
Mike Sylvester left a comment on this topic. I've edited it on the basis of length. Sorry Mike.
I will address the art of the soundbite sometime this week.
This is what Mike had to say:
What we need is a plan and some accountability; we have neither.
1. The Food and Beverage Tax used for the expasion of the Coliseum was supposed to be temporary, yet we still pay it
2. The economic potential for the Grand Wayne Center Expansion is questionable and anyone that understand economics knows it.
3.The Belmont Beverages property was stolen from its owner with Eminent Domain. After spending millions and incurring a long legal battle Fort Wayne decided that they would build a third hotel downtown THAT WE IN NO WAY NEED. This hotel will be sudsidized because no hotel owner thinks a hotel will make money downtown. In fact, in 2005 the hotel occupancy rate in Fort Wayne WAS BELOW 50%...
The City has a hard enough time delivering services like sewer, water, and trash; who on Earth thinks they can get into the hotel business?
4.Finally, the last thing we need is a baseball stadium downtown, the idea is absurd. Memorial Stadium is a fine stadium and this battle was fought long ago. The people who wanted it located near The Coliseum won so GET OVER IT.
There are several words that can be applied to the ability of Fort Wayne to plan:
INEPT
BUMBLING
CLUELESS
LOST
Good grief...
Communities, like people, that care about themselves, invest in themselves. I don't want to live in a city where we would rather milk the things our grandparents and greatgrandparents did instead of making improvements for our kids. Downtowns do NOT improve because the private sector jumps in first. The private sector follows, it doesn't lead - and if you can find an example of downtown redevelopment LED by a private for-profit entity, I'd like to know it. Having said that, what IS missing is more significant private PHILANTHROPIC investment. For years everyone seemed happy to "let Lincoln do it" which wasn't a fair strategy then and isn't a realistic strategy now. Yes, there have been a few philanthropic projects but they haven't been particularly coordinated or focused or in line with any other plans. AND there now does need to be more private for-profit investment - I agree (I guess) with Mike's opinion that the city hasn't been able to leverage private investment with its public projects. But I think that his "assessment" (if that is the correct word) of the city's efforts is unfair and unhelpful. Mike, what are you doing to help make Fort Wayne better?
My comment was going to be too long and for fear of being edited, I've posted it on my Blog
I am doing what I can to make Fort Wayne better partner:
I am running for public office.
I attend Fort Wayne City Council meetings and I helped re-district Fort Wayne. I drew a map and I attended several meetings. The northern tip of the City is actually now to be districted the way I recommended.
I am the President of my Neighborhood Association. I have been for three years.
I work for a local Public Accouting Firm. We help about 80 local small businesses comply with the local, state, and Federal tax codes. We also help them deal with all of the regulations they need to deal with. The Public Accounting Firm is run by my wife.
I write letters to the editor, editorials, and I run a blog. By using these avenues I help alert voters to the issues in this area.
I helped affiliate the Allen County Libertarian Party. I am the Chairman of that Party. We hope to give the voters a third choice.
I was personally asked by Representative Wolkins to tesify about Eminent Domain abuse this year down in Indianapolis. I drove down to Indianapolis and testified in front of The Indiana Assembly. I was the only private citizen invited to testify about this bill. I testified because I bleive that property rights are important to all citizens.
What have you done "anonymou said?"
Mike Sylvester
Why is it that every community goes through the phase of "we need a downtown stadium"? We don't, this can be done w/o it. The city of Fort Wayne is going through the same process that every mid-size city goes through as suburban sprawl sets in.
What we do need is a little creativity and imagination. Building a new stadium would be a collosal waste of money that the majority of tax payers would not support. We're already in the red - how would we fund this project? A tax increase - let's see how well that goes over w/ the republican majority...
What is wrong with being a small, quiet, friendly, relatively safe, cheap, midwestern fly-over town?
That is a red state? Get over it....we will not be Indianapolis, Cleveland, Cincinnati, or Chicago. Do any of you remember "The Landing?" When I hear talk of "little shops" and individualistic stores, I remember those kind of places that did not succeed. We shop at WalMart.....that's why there are so many of them planned. The Grand Wayne is never in the black, and this phantom hotel will not be either.
The library expansion should have been paid for by setting aside all those additional taxes collected over the years from new property owners. By this I mean when we built the original library, it was funded based on a particular tax base. As that tax base increased due to new properties, the amount of revenues collected for the library increased, but the bond used to build it was a fixed cost. What happened to the additional taxes? My guess is they spent it on new things like internet, computers and other nice items.
Schools do the same thing. The say we need a new school due to increased enrollment, but what did they do with all that extra money collected when they reached 85% utilization? Carroll high school was built with a cost based on 85% utilization. Today Carroll is I hear at 113% which means they are now collecting about 28% more each year than the original cost. Did the school board set this money aside to build or add on, no?
Any expansion should be paid for by tax dollars. If there is a good justification, then it should be able to support itself. We do not need to subsidize losers.
They could start by cleaning up the graffiti.
Also, don't spread the development out over the entire downtown area. Focus on a two block region at first and then use the growth from that to brach out. The current plan is too broad...
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