Have the current Wizards fans been asked whether they would continue their support and attend games downtown? Is this a serious question? If a true Wizard fan would stop going to games because they disagree with the city has spending money on an excellent new facility, then they are not a fan. Who would be upset about 'their' team getting a new stadium? Location - Thats a crap answer, the distance is about 5 minutes away. Safety? Here's a new CFW made up fact - The police ratio downtown is higher than anywhere in the city. You are a fair weather fan and very immature if you would stop going to baseball games because you disagree with HS.
•Have any companies or individuals indicated they would invest in the proposed luxury stadium suites? Ever been in the suites at the current ball diamond or coliseum? I'm willing to bet that you didn't have the suite for the entire season. Only a few companies actually have the suites for the entire season. The current suites at Memorial Stadium are pretty bare bones right now- love seat, chair, tv. Thats it, If I were a company I probably wouldn't buy into one of those suites, but rent them a couple of games of the year.
•Have any high schools indicated a willingness to play football games in a redesigned ballpark downtown? Honestly, who cares? It would be great to have neutral sites for the playoff games. How about the teams that don't have stadiums and have to share?
•Does the City Council intend to ignore the opinion of the 70 percent of the respondents to the recent poll that are opposed to the downtown stadium? So which 'scientific' poll are we getting our 70% from? How about the latest one, where 30% of 400 people surveyed were of the 70+ age group? If anything FW should be scared that people consider that an accurate description of our town. I will continue to discredit land line polls, land lines are obsolete and web polls are bogus. We need to do this Nielson style, one survey per home. The people that actually care will respond.
•Has the City Council been provided with any alternate plan, with or without the stadium? Sure, its called do nothing. Name another sport we have an affiliation with and another company that is willing to invest in its success.
•Has the City Council considered what would happen if the proposed condominium part of the Harrison Square Project meets the same fate as Midtown Crossing? There are currently 3 Midtown condos on the market right now. I don't know how many condos there are in Midtown, but that is an extremely low vacancy rate. Where Midtown failed was that all the condos look the same - they are what FW does all the time - the condos are adequate. Also, $73 a month for a parking space? While purchasing a condo, you do not get a space? Even condos in Chicago have spaces associated with them. It was a terrible mistake to have the parking garage and the condos as two different entities.
•Has there been any consideration for the businesses that would suffer if fans left Memorial Stadium for the downtown stadium? This question is downright laughable. Go look Broadripple Place. Its right across Coliseum. There are vacancies all over that strip mall. It begs the question - has putting a stadium in the middle of a asphalt-sea sparked any business? I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly looking to dodge traffic like frogger to get from the businesses around the Coliseum. I'm sure Hooters, Showgirl 3, Long John Silvers, Scott's and Best Buy are going to be fine. But of course we do not want to upset the people buying groceries and electronics before the game.
•Has anyone contacted Realtors to see if there whether a market for the 800- to 1,200-square foot condominiums proposed for downtown? Yes, and yes. There is a market. See above. Hardball capital - Please contact me when you get the designs done.
•Has the City Council heard anything from IPFW about how it will support the abandoned Memorial Stadium? Yes, there was an article last week. Unfortunately it looks like wrecking ball city. c'est la vie. Sam T. - drop me a line, I've got a couple of choices for sledgehammers we can pick from.
•Do the City Council members have the support of the people in their own district? See polling above. Why ask this question if you have drawn the conclusion that 70% of the people do not want this?
•Why is the city buying property without the Harrison Square Project being approved? For future projects if HS does not go through. It will be easier if we own all the properties ahead of time, instead of buying them one at a time at the time we find an 'acceptable' project.
•Why won’t the City Council request a referendum on the Harrison Square project as it is currently proposed without a choice of an alternate plan? Why do we need a referendum if we are going by your poll numbers?
•Have local corporations been questioned about how they attract young professionals? Yea, its called throwing money at the problem.
•Do the young professionals that local companies attract prefer downtown condominiums to living in a nice suburban home where they can visit neighbors, cut grass, grow gardens, etc.? WOW, can this question be any more loaded? Lets rephrase that question to help everyone have a better opinion of suburbia. Do the young professionals that local companies attract prefer crappy downtown holes in the wall, where there's crime, poverty, the the distinct possibility that you might get shot while living there and don't even have a yard? OR to living in a AWESOME SPACIOUS suburban home where they can visit neighbors, cut grass, grow gardens, and the sun always shines and nothing bad ever happens? Get a clue. Not everyone enjoys cutting a lawn. Especially a 24 year old. Or gardens, so many 22-29 year olds I know tends to a garden. I grew up in a subdivision, it was very nice. But I never 'visited with neighbors', nor did I really even know many of my neighbors. Everyone kept to themselves. All my friends lived in other subdivisions, so I needed my parents to drive me all over town. What sounds like more of a place where you would meet people - An large area with low population density (subdivision), or a small area with high population density? You share the hallways with people, you are bound to meet them. All I need is a little room outside, and as little maintenance as possible. How about a rooftop patio? Nice view of the skyline, a grill, and a nice place to enjoy a cocktail.
•Will the mayor and the two City Council members who are in favor of the Harrison Square Project and are not running again leave office before completion of this project and not have to face any problems that will be created? Ummmm, this is obviously a rhetorical question. Unless someone knows the world's fastest construction crew. But again, its a loaded question - you're assuming there will be problems created. But if we apply your same logic - How dare Henry Ford pass away before he dealt with Ford Motor company's problems today. I'm not saying it is just a coincidence of timing that this project is coming at the end of these three men's terms. But this question makes me think you think that the three men are trying to screw FW. Its almost like you expect these men to hightail it out of FW screaming, "Now you've got to deal with that." Richard has already said he will be focusing his efforts on pushing projects he likes after he is done being Mayor. I doubt the two councilmen who wrote an editorial about watching a baseball game while in the backdrop a new high rise is being built, will be trying to flee town after its built.
I am not going to proofread this. Feel free to criticize my grammar if you feel inclined. I was just writing thoughts down. I have met Mr. Heiny and am a little surprised that he is against this project. I am tired of writing and I'd like to hear other's thoughts.
20 comments:
Great post.
I agree. But what's up with Steve Winwood? Are you implying that it's Miller Time?
ZING!
16x Zing.
The question about the condos is one of the more ridiculous questions because the risk of the condos will be on the Condo Developer.... If the condos do not sell well, it is a far bigger problem for the developer than the city. Furthermore, can we afford to be paralyzed by the fear of failure?
I do love these people who insinuate that Mayor Richard is just looking to pass this boondoggle before he leaves office and leave "us" all stuck with it. Apparently the Mayor has a strong desire to completely tarnish the image that he has spent building over 36 years in public life. This makes a lot of sense.
Sam T.
Note that it should be land line, not LAN. I seriously doubt that pollsters are calling peole on a local area network.
Wow ... nice piece. Honestly, when I read the line about mowing lawn, gardening, and meeting neighbors I could only think about Bob and the Enzyte commercials for natural male enhancement.
duly noted and corrected. I do apologize, I was typing as quickly as my thoughts were coming out.
Sam T. -
Yea its amazing the lack of trust this community has towards politicians and money.
I honestly think that people are envisioning the three of you riding horseback into the sunset laughing to yourself with moneybags in each hand.
Good job. Thanks for saving me the time of answering the same questions on my blog. The answers would have been nearly identical.
I second the rooftop condo idea. It sounds much better than mowing the lawn and gardening in suburbia.
cosign
If there isn't any public money going into the condo project, then yes, maybe it doesn't matter if it fails. But it probably does matter, as a failed condo project, or failed retail project, or failed hotel, could potentially affect the ballpark. And if it doesn't matter, then why is the city linking the projects under one Harrison Square development? It was my understanding there would be some public funding support to the other projects besides just the ballpark.
Why don't people trust politicians? Let's see....Watergate, Iran-Contra, Iraq, Vietnam, Clinton, Clinton's cigar, Monica and Clinton's cigar, pork spending, deficits, illegal immigrants..............
Buy a condo! Does Midtowne have three condos listed for "sale" or for "lease"? Buy a condo! Lease some retail space!!! Go to all the Wizards games!!! Go out shopping downtown and out to dinner downtown after eating hotdogs and guzzling beer after a Wizards game! Everybody put your money where your mouths are!!!!!!!!
How many 24 years olds can afford to buy a $180,000 to $250,000 condo in downtown FW? What young person wants to be tied down owning real estate anyway? Will Harrison Square really help reduce the brain drain? Or will our college grads still want to go to a bigger city, a nicer climate, a big city with better job opportunities? Probably. But the new ballpark will be nice for the local blue collars. What we really need is an ocean, mountains, an NBA team, an NFL team, a major league team, more people, more smart people, more tech jobs, more white collar jobs, less rust belt weaknesses. Hey! How about putting the interstate through downtown? Ouch, oops, sorry.
If you want young professionals to live downtown you have to create a downtown where they’ll actually be able to LIVE. The benefit of living in a dense area like downtown is that you can walk to various amenities. But if you live in downtown Fort Wayne you still have to drive to everything (shopping, groceries, pharmacy, etc.) You need to make downtown a destination, the businesses will soon follow and so will the residential.
Everyone wants to compare downtown Indianapolis to Fort Wayne. Well, look at all the residential development that occurred AFTER Circle Centre mall and the development of the canal (White River State Park) .
Why don’t we build something that will be useful to families? The zoo is great but it would be nice to have something that can be used year round. What about an indoor water park?
An interstate through downtown? I hope that was sarcasm.
From reading up on some history about Ft. Wayne, seems the city was thinking of putting in an elevated highway straight up the middle of town over 30 years ago, but didn't want to "divide" the city in that manner.
(like we're not JUST as divided today?)
Anyone else have more info on this?
B.G.
It was called the Anthony Wayne Expressway.
It would have gone North/South through the city
I saw an episode of southpark that this reminds me of.
The school was going to select a team mascot. Eric Cartman passed around yellow and blue petitions for the 2 mascots- the choices were a giant douche and a sh..t sandwich. I think the final vote was a draw. but the genius of the show was that there were 2 equally undesirable outcomes, and the fact that the votes were manipulated by a small group of persons pointed out the sad reality of so many "economic development projects that people try to do to line each other pockets at our expense, and keep try to breathe life into the corpse of "Fort Wayne". Its like that woman in florida- the vegatable- that they fought over pull the plug, or waste more money. the only option that stands any chance here is either wide open land based casino gambling, calling off the police state(COPS), and building on our local/regional automotive heritage with a NASCAR capable superspeedway/downtown grand prix.
Or keep the old girl on life support until she bankrupts us all.
Albert Einstein defined Insanity as keeping on doing what your doing, the same way over and over, and expecting a diofferent result.
same with our local elections, while I'm at it.
Im hopeful, but extremely skeptical, bordering on cynical.
dcroach@yahoo.com
I might go on a limb and say this may be the worst post we've ever had. Not only does it lack coherency, but it begs the question - "Did you even watch the South Park episode?"
Your analogies are completely disjunct and after all what you have said, I'm not even sure what side you are on. Fence Sitter.
On the "visiting neighbors and gardening" issue, there is housing for families around the downtown area. Consider Renaissance Pointe just a couple of miles to the south. Also beautiful houses in West Central. Or is it the lack of a super ultra convenient Wal-Mart keeping you from considering living in-town? There is a lot of great housing in town. The sprawl is unnecessary!!!
I not suprised you are 'tired of writing'.
Dodging hard questions with manipulative answers takes a lot of energy.
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