My take on a Letter to the Editor

’Ive seen city lose young people

City Council approval of Harrison Square would be a strong and convincing statement that our city wants downtown to be open later than 5:01 p.m. for people who seek cultural complexity and a stimulating urban environment. Until that occurs, however, we will continue to lose part of our future. My experience is very personal.

My wife and I have three Fort Wayne-raised sons. Each is highly educated and has a lifetime of good income before him. All are involved and caring individuals. Unfortunately, Fort Wayne has lost them. They live elsewhere because our city has little to offer them. I think the fence-sitters on the Harrison Square project need to have the message repeated again and again that the city will losemany of its future leaders and growing businesses unless it thinks and acts boldly, creatively and with long-term vision. The stakes are too high to do otherwise.

Harrison Square itself won’t carry the load to accomplish this, but as one of several overlapping and complementary projects, it will greatly enhance the quality of life in our city and area. Most importantly, it will help forge a bond with our future generations who otherwise will find their way to Atlanta, Seattle or another city of vitality.

Who needs theses fancy people anyways? They won't let us smoke and they are taking away parking spaces. They can stay at their fancy jobs out West.

And who would want to be Downtown past 5:00pm? Are you serious? Do you want to be mugged?

There are plenty of things for young residents here in Fort Wayne. We have hundreds of strip malls with great restaurants. I wonder if the writer has ever dined at Applebees on Lima Road. Lots of parking and great food. I walked, I mean drove, around for hours in Chicago looking for an Applebees. I never found one. You can find at least seven in Fort Wayne.

These are the same people who wanted to expand the library system. Who needs more books? Our library was fine before.