Harrison Square by the Numbers
54% of Residents in Recent Poll are Opposed, Nearly 76% Against the Ballpark and Public Financing of Project
Fort Wayne, IN., April 5, 2007 – Conservative Republican mayoral candidate Matt Kelty today released the results of a recent poll showing a majority of Fort Wayne residents are opposed to the Harrison Square project as proposed by City officials. Kelty supports a market-driven approach to downtown redevelopment, his opponent in the May primary, Nelson Peters, supports the city’s government-driven plan for Harrison Square.
"The results of the poll are consistent with, my position on the project, and with what I am hearing from voters at neighborhood association meetings, neighborhood walks, and meetings around the city", said Kelty. "Though I am for redeveloping the downtown, from the information provided so far, I just don’t think the ballpark and public financing parts of the project make economic sense for the citizens of Fort Wayne", remarked the candidate.
The random poll of likely Fort Wayne voters was conducted between 27-29 Mar 07 by Zogby International. The margin of error of the poll is +/-5%. Nearly 9,000 Fort Wayne residents were contacted and participants were asked the following questions:
Q: Do you support or oppose the Harrison Square downtown development as proposed by the City of Fort Wayne?
Q: Whether or not you support or oppose the project as a whole, which one of the following parts of the City’s proposed Harrison Square project are you most opposed to?
"The fate of this project is in the hands of City Council, as Mayor I, like everyone else, will have to live with any decision they make, and I won’t be able to undo it", said Kelty. "What I can do though, is make sure the people are heard on this issue, and hope the City Council is listening."
According to City administration officials, the City’s proposal for the Harrison Square project is scheduled to be presented to the Fort Wayne City Council for a vote this month. In the mayor’s own plan (Link), in the Hardball Capital aspect of the Harrison Square deal, the City will be putting up $54M of taxpayer funding to Hardball’s $23M for the Harrison Square development.
"Notwithstanding the fact we already have a publicly funded ballpark, I am having a difficult time understanding how paying Hardball Capital $2.35 of taxpayer dollars for every $1.00 of private investment is a good deal for the City of Fort Wayne", said Kelty. "Proponents of the project will ask me if not this, then what? If given the kind of time the administration and City Council has had to develop this project, I know I could come up with some better alternatives, but I’m not going to make a snap decision now, that’s what’s got us into this mess to begin with. It’s not about taking a risk or making a decision; it’s about taking a manageable risk and making a correct decision. The two choices are not the same; the second choice takes into account the public interest, and requires good judgment."
My own comments on this in a later post
Fort Wayne, IN., April 5, 2007 – Conservative Republican mayoral candidate Matt Kelty today released the results of a recent poll showing a majority of Fort Wayne residents are opposed to the Harrison Square project as proposed by City officials. Kelty supports a market-driven approach to downtown redevelopment, his opponent in the May primary, Nelson Peters, supports the city’s government-driven plan for Harrison Square.
"The results of the poll are consistent with, my position on the project, and with what I am hearing from voters at neighborhood association meetings, neighborhood walks, and meetings around the city", said Kelty. "Though I am for redeveloping the downtown, from the information provided so far, I just don’t think the ballpark and public financing parts of the project make economic sense for the citizens of Fort Wayne", remarked the candidate.
The random poll of likely Fort Wayne voters was conducted between 27-29 Mar 07 by Zogby International. The margin of error of the poll is +/-5%. Nearly 9,000 Fort Wayne residents were contacted and participants were asked the following questions:
Q: Do you support or oppose the Harrison Square downtown development as proposed by the City of Fort Wayne?
Support | Oppose | Not Sure | |
| All | 31.6% | 54.0% | 14.5% |
| Men | 29.8% | 56.9% | 13.3% |
| Women | 33.2% | 51.3% | 15.5% |
| Democrats | 49.3% | 36.7% | 13.9% |
| Rebublicans | 31.3% | 53.1% | 15.5% |
| Independents | 18.8% | 69.4% | 11.7% |
Q: Whether or not you support or oppose the project as a whole, which one of the following parts of the City’s proposed Harrison Square project are you most opposed to?
Ballpark | Condos | Hotel | Parking Garage | Public Financing | Retail Space | Not Sure | ||
All | 57.3% | 4.5% | 1.4% | 1.5% | 18.4% | 2.5% | 14.4% | |
Men | 53.2% | 3.1% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 22.6% | 2.3% | 17.6% | |
Women | 61.0% | 5.8% | 2.1% | 2.3% | 14.6% | 2.7% | 11.5% | |
Democrats | 58.9% | 6.1% | 0.0% | 1.4% | 13.4% | 5.2% | 15.0% | |
Rebublicans | 55.2% | 5.0% | 1.7% | 1.3% | 20.4% | 2.3% | 14.1% | |
Independents | 62.9% | 1.7% | 1.7% | 2.0% | 15.2% | 1.2% | 15.3% |
"The fate of this project is in the hands of City Council, as Mayor I, like everyone else, will have to live with any decision they make, and I won’t be able to undo it", said Kelty. "What I can do though, is make sure the people are heard on this issue, and hope the City Council is listening."
According to City administration officials, the City’s proposal for the Harrison Square project is scheduled to be presented to the Fort Wayne City Council for a vote this month. In the mayor’s own plan (Link), in the Hardball Capital aspect of the Harrison Square deal, the City will be putting up $54M of taxpayer funding to Hardball’s $23M for the Harrison Square development.
"Notwithstanding the fact we already have a publicly funded ballpark, I am having a difficult time understanding how paying Hardball Capital $2.35 of taxpayer dollars for every $1.00 of private investment is a good deal for the City of Fort Wayne", said Kelty. "Proponents of the project will ask me if not this, then what? If given the kind of time the administration and City Council has had to develop this project, I know I could come up with some better alternatives, but I’m not going to make a snap decision now, that’s what’s got us into this mess to begin with. It’s not about taking a risk or making a decision; it’s about taking a manageable risk and making a correct decision. The two choices are not the same; the second choice takes into account the public interest, and requires good judgment."
My own comments on this in a later post
Labels: Harrison Square, Kelty, Polls
posted by Indiana Pundit at 6:06 AM
16 Comments:
Where did you get 76% from?
A combination of percentages?
That press release is wrong. Hardball is not putting in 23 million. It's 19.5 (14.5 condo/retail, 5 stadium), if you don't discount the stadium contribution for payment over 20 years. Kelty needs to correct his press release.
Pundit, the following is an excerpt from Matt Kelty's platform that he posted on the Fort Wayne Libertarian site:
"I will not rely on trial balloons or opinion polls. I will not seek some elusive state of consensus. For many years this artificial form of leadership has hamstrung Fort Wayne. Great leadership seeks wise counsel. It listens carefully. It asks for help. And then, without pause, it projects the vision of the new course and it moves decisively forward."
Its amazing that Mr. Kelty is making comments like the above, while at the same time taking a poll to figure out where he should stand.
Sam T.
Hmmmm......
Kelty failes to mention the $48 Million for the hotel.
A poll of 9000? That would be expensive- VERY expensive- unless it was a web poll.
That's crap Sam. Kelty took a stand on the stadium (against) long before that poll was conducted. You should know that since you were criticizing him for his position long before the poll was conducted.
You are correct, Kevin. In making a comparison of the City investment in the ballpark and condo/retail projects to the Hardball investment in the ballpark and condo/retail prjects, Kelty did not include somebody else's investment in a different project. Come to think of it, he didn't include Fort Wayne Newspapers investment in their new facility or the city's planned investment in new sewers, either. How can we compare the investment of Hardball and the City if we don't include unrelated projects?
Kevin,
The hotel is and always has been independent of Harrison Square
You need to reread Kelty's words Sam. He mentions something about listening. Its advice you need to heed since you do have a decision in this project.
How do you expect an economic development project to work if its something that the majority of people don't want? Economic development cannot be done in a vaccuum of public participation. People who dont want it are less likely to patronage it.
Just because this works in your mind doesn't mean it will work in the real world.
I have been to events that the Sir Richard, now Sir Becker.. they have not mentioned The Fort Wayne Newspapers new building in downtown either. .in fact they have quoted.. last deveopment in downtown was SAlin Bank.
mmmmmmm
I talked to Zogby this morning. They CALLED 8713 people. They only INTERVIEWED 401 people.
I did not ask if they were city residents only, or if they included ALLEN COUNTY folks as well.
Rough day for Sam and Kevin. Kinda funny.
Did you notice that ALL groups said that the baseball stadium was the biggest problem. Is anybody for this boondoggle listening? John K.
John K:
They are NOT listening.
Mike Sylvester
Rough day? not really. Kelty had to release a correction.
He also skewed the numbers in his spin-
"Nearly 76% against the ballpark and public financing"
You cannot add numbers. It would be accurate to say-
"57% are against the ballpark, 18% are against public financing"
Let me spin it the other way for sake of illustration-
"If you look at the margin of error- (+/-5%) you will note that APPROVAL of the ballpark could be as high as 48%. A huge increase from previous polls."
If you argue that THIS poll is flawed then certainly you must admit the other one was flawed as well. I don't think either poll captured public opinion all that well.
I will say that I haven't heard anyone (including the mayor) argue that the majority of the city supports Harrison Square...
The thing with polls is that you can intrepret the numbers to mean what you want.
Overall, I would agree that most people I speak with are concerned, if not against, a ballpark being part of the project.
However, from my understanding, without the ballpark, Hardball will not invest their $23 Million into downtown development.
If we do not do SOMETHING by the end of the year we miss out on,$10 million in CRED funding. That is montey that is GONE forever.
Don Schmidt says that the Hotel can stand on its own. That may or may not be the case. Certainly more activities downtown will help the hotel as well. There is another $48 Million.
Those three things are what make Harrison Square work, and if we walk away we are taking a LOT off the table.
Find other investors willing to pony up $81 million.
When I explain that to folks, they generally see the value in this project and seem to be swayed to supporting it.
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