My Downtown

The question that has been brought up several times is, "Why is downtown revitalization important?"

First, I'm really getting sick of the word revitalization. The word means to bring back, and lets face it, our downtown has always been there and what are we trying to bring it back to? The 60's style? With the creation of big box stores, strip malls, malls, and shopping centers - thats not going to happen. What we should start calling it is Downtown Utilization. In Fort Wayne we've got a fortunate opportunity from unfortunate decades of bulldozing our historical downtown to bring about a downtown fit for modern life, while providing just a bit of the nostalgia of the previous downtown.

Alright, now that I've got that out of the way- The reason why our downtown is important specifically to Fort Wayne - forget those other cities that we've been touring around to. We are Fort Wayne, we're all Wayners. You're probably asking, "What does that mean?" I'd say, exactly. Fort Wayne lacks identity. There is a reason I believe Piere's is a perfect analogy for FW. You can't classify it - it is a couple of dance rooms, a sports room, a karaoke room, a couple of pool tables, a giant room where a cover band is playing, and the dolla dolla dolla drink specials on a cheap beer.

What comes synonymous with Fort Wayne when you talk to someone from out of town? Unfortunately, its probably some ranking that we received from the prestigious ranking system of Men's Health. Side note - I spoke to Coach Krzyzewski a long while ago, and the first thing that popped into his mind was WOWO - fascinating. But, what about the actual city? Currently, we are a sprawl of roads, subdivisions, strip malls, and seemingly questionable placements of development.

Please do not confuse this with the so called Indy envy, its only an example. When you talk so someone from Indianapolis and ask them, "Where are you heading?" You more than likely get landmarks instead of places. They'll probably say, Broadripple, downtown, or Fountain Square. While Fort Wayne has one kinda-sorta landmark, downtown, in which at this point, you can probably guess where they are heading and what they are doing.

Fort Wayne hasn't developed any districts or sects where there is a common theme amongst the development. For a city that seemingly loves food, we haven't developed restaurant district or a cultural area of a certain ethnic background. Fort Wayne loves to tout its German sister city, but has done nothing to promote German heritage beyond a week in the beginning of the Summer.

Downtown Fort Wayne gives us an opportunity to develop an identity or at the very least something that we can all rally around. Something that Wayners can be proud of.