A Thought For The Day. (Or, Wait Till I'm Mayor.)
From a comment on Fort Wayne Media Notes:
As Stacey Stumpf pointed out in her editorial Sunday, the time has come for private investment. Think of other great downtowns, and philanthropic private funds have been a significant factor. But has any foundation put money into a new project since the Lincoln Museum? We need people to get behind the Sports Corporation's idea for the recreation/competition water facility, which would bring a lot of folks downtown. I think that this type of facility would provide an impetus to for-profit developers since there would be more potential customers downtown for their businesses.
and my response...there AND here....BULLSHIT!
Just what we need to 'bring people downtown'...a pool. Put it with the parks, the parking lots and the vacant buildings, and you've added a lot to the vibrant downtown scene. What a joke.
What we need downtown is affordable housing for adults...a grocery store so you don't have to drive to the suburbs to live downtown...and for the City of Fort Wayne to leave the few remaining businesses the hell alone. Belmont Beverage... blighted? No, but the four lots surrounding it are. Build there. Cindy's Diner, blighted? No. But the Light and Breuning parking lot behind the old WOWO studios (and next to the firefighters museum, the library, and the Grand Wayne Center) IS blighted...put the hotel there. No parking? Build a garage NEXT to Cindy's...and make em walk the half block.
Neither the city or private development can make downtown viable without PEOPLE. And there's no reason for anyone to be downtown currently. Plans that concentrate on tourism, while interesting, won't solve the problem. All the businesses displaced for the Botanical Conservatory, the Grand Wayne Center, Headwaters Park, Courthouse Green....where did they go? OUT OF DOWNTOWN....and they took not only their employees, but their customers with them.
Fix what's broke, before you start displacing MORE of the few remaining people downtown to cater to the out of towner, or the once-a-year tourist. Get FORT WAYNE people downtown...then the private sector will be more than happy to cater to the tourists as extra business. Till then, you're just spitting in the wind (and lining 'consultants' pockets.)
To which I might add two things....
One: I understand the economic impact that tourism provides to our economy. I'm all for people visiting. But making them STAY should be the focus of downtown planning. Building a 'replica' canal? Sure! Great idea! Then you can push what's left of the 'replica' Old Fort into it, and pave it over for another Light and Breuning parking lot. Whose head was up their ass when they thought of that brilliant idea?
Two: Hey Mayor Richard...STOP trying to make Southtown viable. That's even stupider than the current downtown plans. Give anyone the land that wants to build there...and let em compete the old fashioned way. Walmart's fine...if they pull out, maybe even a new Super Target...or a Marsh store. But the police and fire academy? Isn't there SOME brownfield SOMEWHERE in town that would be better suited for that? Unless it's because the city secretly thinks we NEED an enhanced police presence in the area....in which case, market conditions would preclude other investment in the site. So which one is it? Totally safe, and ready for a rebirth? Or so unstable that we need to relocate officers onsite?
As Stacey Stumpf pointed out in her editorial Sunday, the time has come for private investment. Think of other great downtowns, and philanthropic private funds have been a significant factor. But has any foundation put money into a new project since the Lincoln Museum? We need people to get behind the Sports Corporation's idea for the recreation/competition water facility, which would bring a lot of folks downtown. I think that this type of facility would provide an impetus to for-profit developers since there would be more potential customers downtown for their businesses.
and my response...there AND here....BULLSHIT!
Just what we need to 'bring people downtown'...a pool. Put it with the parks, the parking lots and the vacant buildings, and you've added a lot to the vibrant downtown scene. What a joke.
What we need downtown is affordable housing for adults...a grocery store so you don't have to drive to the suburbs to live downtown...and for the City of Fort Wayne to leave the few remaining businesses the hell alone. Belmont Beverage... blighted? No, but the four lots surrounding it are. Build there. Cindy's Diner, blighted? No. But the Light and Breuning parking lot behind the old WOWO studios (and next to the firefighters museum, the library, and the Grand Wayne Center) IS blighted...put the hotel there. No parking? Build a garage NEXT to Cindy's...and make em walk the half block.
Neither the city or private development can make downtown viable without PEOPLE. And there's no reason for anyone to be downtown currently. Plans that concentrate on tourism, while interesting, won't solve the problem. All the businesses displaced for the Botanical Conservatory, the Grand Wayne Center, Headwaters Park, Courthouse Green....where did they go? OUT OF DOWNTOWN....and they took not only their employees, but their customers with them.
Fix what's broke, before you start displacing MORE of the few remaining people downtown to cater to the out of towner, or the once-a-year tourist. Get FORT WAYNE people downtown...then the private sector will be more than happy to cater to the tourists as extra business. Till then, you're just spitting in the wind (and lining 'consultants' pockets.)
To which I might add two things....
One: I understand the economic impact that tourism provides to our economy. I'm all for people visiting. But making them STAY should be the focus of downtown planning. Building a 'replica' canal? Sure! Great idea! Then you can push what's left of the 'replica' Old Fort into it, and pave it over for another Light and Breuning parking lot. Whose head was up their ass when they thought of that brilliant idea?
Two: Hey Mayor Richard...STOP trying to make Southtown viable. That's even stupider than the current downtown plans. Give anyone the land that wants to build there...and let em compete the old fashioned way. Walmart's fine...if they pull out, maybe even a new Super Target...or a Marsh store. But the police and fire academy? Isn't there SOME brownfield SOMEWHERE in town that would be better suited for that? Unless it's because the city secretly thinks we NEED an enhanced police presence in the area....in which case, market conditions would preclude other investment in the site. So which one is it? Totally safe, and ready for a rebirth? Or so unstable that we need to relocate officers onsite?
posted by Steve "Tiny" Michaels at 7:42 PM
2 Comments:
or we could build another Mall out Sw...
dont get me f'ing started
JQP
You want to get people downtown? The first solution is to merge the competition. And that competition is city verses county government. There should have NEVER been an expo center built onto the Coliseum. If any official that approved this didn't see this coming then they were very shortsighted. Now we (we being the taxpayers) have blown 50 million to raise a roof to add 3,000 seats and some luxury suites that all the contractors on the project occupy? Coincidence? I think not. That dinosaur should have never been remodeled at that location. But it sells out now you say? Yes, but the traffic problems are horrendous and it's not worthwhile to build parking garages at that location. Meanwhile, they all sit empty downtown at night. All because of the "war memorial" name. Lest you think I don't know what the veterans go through or what it means to them, that's my uncles old F4 sitting out front. That building should have been raised, the ground sold for a premiium, and the the arena attached to the "Grand Wayne Center" and everybody would be heading downtown for events. That would have spurred economic revival on its own.
Southtown Center? Don't even get me started. If a once thriving retail center failed before, what on God's green earth does the city of Fort Wayne think a WalMart and Menard's will revive that?
Have to stop now, your blog's giving me a skull cramp.
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