Harrison Square Groundbreaking

I just returned from the groundbreaking ceremony but I decided to bypass the post-shovel celebration at the Grand Wayne Center. There's nothing quite like politicians and their aristocratic brethren backslapping each other and cheering the subversion of the people's wishes. But don't worry their day is coming - once the referendum is passed into law these major projects that line the pockets of a few while sucking money out of the masses will be a thing of the past.

On a lighter note, I expected to see John B Kalb picketing the grounds and shouting "Taxation without representation is tyranny!" James Otis would've been disappointed but I suppose this event officially marks Kalb's (and the rest of our) capitulation...

Liberty vs Security

Last issue of The Atlantic Monthly was its 150th anniversary issue and they asked several prominent writers, politicians, inventors, etc to provide an essay on “the American idea” in 300 words or less. There were a lot of good responses but this one from David Foster Wallace stood out above the rest. Wallace brilliantly points out that liberty is "the American idea" and if we allow fear to overtake America - well then it's not really America anymore is it?

Just Asking

Are some things still worth dying for? Is the American idea one such thing? Are you up for a thought experiment? What if we chose to regard the 2,973 innocents killed in the atrocities of 9/11 not as victims but as democratic martyrs, "sacrifices on the altar of freedom?" In other words, what if we decided that a certain baseline vulnerability to terrorism is part of the price of the American idea? And, thus, that ours is a generation of Americans called to make great sacrifices in order to preserve our democratic way of life - sacrifices not just of our soldiers and money but of our personal safety and comfort?

In still other words, what if we chose to accept the fact that every few years, despite all reasonable precautions, some hundreds or thousands of us may die in the sort of ghastly terrorist attack that a democratic republic cannot 100-percent protect itself from without subverting the very principles that make it worth protecting?

Is this thought experiment monstrous? Would it be monstrous to refer to the 40,000-plus domestic highway deaths we accept each year because the mobility and autonomy of the car are evidently worth that high price? Is monstrousness why no serious public figure now will speak of the delusory trade-off of liberty for safety that Ben Franklin warned about more than 200 years ago? What exactly has changed between Franklin's time and ours? Why now can we not have a serious national conversation about sacrifice, the inevitability of sacrifice - either of (a) some portion of safety or (b) some portion of the rights and protections that make the American idea so incalculably precious?

In the absence of such a conversation, can we trust our elected leaders to value and protect the American idea as they act to secure the homeland? What are the effects on the American idea of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, PATRIOT Acts I and II, warrantless surveillance, Executive Order 13233, corporate contractors performing military functions, the Military Commissions Act, NSPD 51, etc., etc.? Assume for a moment that some of these measures really have helped make our persons and property safer - are they worth it? Where and when was the public debate on whether they're worth it? Was there no such debate because we're not capable of having or demanding one? Why not? Have we actually become so selfish and scared that we don't even want to consider whether some things trump safety? What kind of future does that augur?

Harrison Square Walkway - $1.85 Million

The Redevelopment Commission unanimously approved the walkway plans that will connect the Courtyard by Marriott with the Grand Wayne Center. This walkway will be an indirect connection that will span from the new hotel to the Indiana hotel and then attach to the existing Embassy walkway.

The cost of this project will be $1.85 Million. The Goldstein Foundation will generously supply $550k of that amount, $1 million was already budgeted and the other $350k will come from either the interest on the HS bond or the proceeds from the land sold to Barry Real Estate for the condominium development - both these options were unallocated in the HS budget. The Redevelopment Commission will be responsible for the maintenance and utility cost for this walkway which Steve Brody estimated between $6-7k/year.

The commission has broken the project into two parts - the first benefits the hotel developer and the 2nd benefits the Embassy and the Indiana Hotel. The first part includes the walkway, pedestrian corridor, stairway connecting the corridor and existing walkway and a lift for accessibility (~$1 Million). The second part includes a storage area, new elevator shaft (on the west side of the embassy), constructing a stairwell and installation of an elevator (~$850k).

Greg Leatherman saw this as a "win-win" that would satisfy the hotel developer's needs and bring the Indiana Hotel that much closer to redevelopment. Leatherman said he wasn't sure if this would interest the hotel developers enough in the Indiana Hotel for them to redevelop the site but others were interested.

The agreement still needs the approval of the Historical Preservation Board which meets in the Omni Room tonight at 5:30pm but Brody expected the board to approve the plans and that they would be executed tomorrow.

As usual, readers should check out DFWB for the actual drawings and documentation which should be posted shortly...

Kevin Knuth Needs To Finish His Term For The Party's Sake

Allen County Democratic Party Chairman Kevin Knuth is strongly considering stepping down as chairman at the end of this year despite having one year left on his term. Knuth has been an excellent chairman and the party is starting to turn the corner here in Allen County. However, the Democrats still need Knuth's leadership and energy to continue the progress made over the last couple of election cycles.

In my opinion there is no organized structure in place to keep the party moving forward in the event Knuth steps down as the local Democratic party has been successful because of strong central leadership. The problem with that business model is that once the leadership is no longer in place things begin to crumble. Typically the way to handle this type of situation is to use a transition plan to ease the new leadership into place while they build experience and credibility.

A strong centralized leader must recognize this and plan accordingly. If Knuth decides to step down this quickly then that transition plan will not be in place and the party will surely suffer because of it. I can only imagine the time commitment being a party chairman must involve and the stress it must put on one's family. However, if at all possible, I would strongly urge Knuth to stick around one more year to ensure a smooth transition in the leadership. Knuth has done a great job and it would be a shame to see the party take a step backwards at this point in time...

OmniSource Gauntlet

Tracy Warner's column about Mayor Richard "sprinting to the finish" gives a little more insight into the mayor's plans regarding the OmniSource site.

The city's $25,000 for an option to buy the land for $4.3 million expires with Richard's term, and the mayor clearly would like to do more than renew the option.

“I think the public will be well served by the city owning it,” he said. Richard's administration came under fire during the recent city elections for refusing to release environmental studies of the property, but the mayor noted that the studies are not yet complete and said they belong to the property's owners, not the city.

I know that Mayor Richard has never had an extremely open administration but if he thinks he can buy that property without releasing the environmental data then he is vastly uninformed and he should be ready to go to court to defend his position. Any document used in the negotiation of that option is a public document and must be available for inspection. Right now he's using a loophole by saying the negotiations are still in progress to get around having to release the study.

But saying the studies aren't complete? Why the hell would the city go through the trouble of putting together a task force and public meetings that met for months on end before the environmental data was in? Of course the answer is the public meetings were a farce - window dressing to give the appearance of community input. Why would the environment study be the last thing done when it clearly should've been one of the first? I'm not sure but it could be a stall tactic while they try and lay the groundwork of excuses and misinformation before buying potentially polluted property.

We've already heard the administration discuss the idea of using state and federal dollars to clean up the property. But let me go on record - any plan to use taxpayer dollars to clean up the land polluted by one of the richest families in Allen County is economically unjust and downright un-American. Any such plan should be a non-starter with city council and the residents of this community. Of course this is exactly the type of elitist proposal I expect to see from the Richard administration...

Supreme Court Finally Takes Up the 2nd Amendment

I was glad to see the Supreme Court finally decide to take up a 2nd amendment case. I found this passage, from today's AP story on the Washington DC handgun ban, particularly amusing:

City officials said the law is designed to reduce gun violence, noting that four out of every five homicides this year were committed with a gun.

Let me offer up a little elementary analysis here. If you've had a ban on handguns for 31 years and you still have high levels of gun violence then obviously your ban is not working - this is simply not debatable. So why do these bans not work? Call it the theory of legislative physics:

Laws are only good at controlling the behavior of law-abiding citizens

Those that choose to murder people with handguns are not law-abiding citizens and thus they could care less that the city has a ban on handguns. It's like a Pink Floyd concert venue telling people that marijuana is banned - it just doesn't matter.

The debate hinges on whether or not the 2nd amendment is an individual or collective right. The Department of Justice has put together a thorough legal memo in response to this question and those that are interested can read it here. However, I took out one passage that I think effectively argues against the ridiculous notion of "collective rights" and is worth reading if you want to understand the DOJ position:

The Second Amendment’s recognition of a “right” that belongs to “the people” indicates a right of individuals. The word “right,” standing by itself in the Constitution, is clear. Although in some contexts entities other than individuals are said to have “rights,”37 the Constitution itself does not use the word “right” in this manner. Setting aside the Second Amendment, not once does the Constitution confer a “right” on any governmental entity, state or federal. Nor does it confer any “right” restricted to persons in governmental service, such as members of an organized military unit. In addition to its various references to a “right of the people” discussed below, the Constitution in the Sixth Amendment secures “right[s]” to an accused person, and in the Seventh secures a person’s “right” to a jury trial in civil cases.38 By contrast, governments, whether state or federal, have in the Constitution only “powers” or “authority.”39 It would be a marked anomaly if “right” in the Second Amendment departed from such uniform usage throughout the Constitution.

In any event, any possible doubt vanishes when “right” is conjoined with “the people,” as it is in the Second Amendment. Such a right belongs to individuals: The “people” are not a “State,” nor are they identical with the “Militia.” Indeed, the Second Amendment distinctly uses all three of these terms, yet it secures a “right” only to the “people.” The phrase “the right of the people” appears two other times in the Bill of Rights, and both times refers to a personal right, which belongs to individuals. The First Amendment secures “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” and the Fourth safeguards “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” In addition, the Ninth Amendment refers to “rights . . . retained by the people.” We see no reason to read the phrase in the Second Amendment to mean something other than what it plainly means in these neighboring and contemporaneous amendments.

City Council Recap

Tonight's session was excruciatingly long and boring. The meeting started with a discussion about the possibilities of high speed rail in the state of Indiana and specifically in Fort Wayne. In summary, the numbers don't add up and it isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Next, there was a discussion about combining the city and county plan commissions into a joint operation that would be under the county umbrella. In this scenario the city employees would have to reapply for positions with the county inside the new joint department. There were some legal issues that needed to be ironed out in the agreement and the council agreed to postpone any action for two weeks. However, the reception from the council was positive and I expect it to pass unanimously. From there it has to be approved by other groups including the county commissioners and the county council.

Finally, there was a presentation by Aqua Indiana in an attempt to rebut the city's presentations given last week and this week. It really was a lackluster presentation that was all over the map and had two competing themes. The first is that the city shouldn't take them over at all because their service is improving, and the other is that the city should wait to take them over until the courts decide on a final valuation. They were pressed on several issues by various councilmembers and had no response. In the end they admitted that they had water quality problems and their product didn't match the city's quality.

The council voted unanimously to proceed except for councilman Pape who abstained because his law firm is currently involved with the city on this issue. I will also say that councilman Didier stood up for his constituents and took Aqua Indiana to task for their lousy water quality. If I get a chance, I'll put video of his comments up on the blog. Considering the meeting lasted about 3.5 hours, this is a very concise summary and if you managed to watch the whole thing from home then you should get some sort of mayoral citation...

John Shoaff Moves Into 1st Place

On election night it appeared that Marty Bender finished in first place in the city council at large race. However, councilman Shoaff informed me tonight that the election board is going to report that he won the most votes and not Bender as was previously reported.

Congrats to councilman Shoaff, Kirk Moriarty, Susan Mol and everyone else involved in the re-election effort...

Tracy Warner on 2nd District Recount

Tracy Warner has an excellent column in today's JG that explains a little history behind recent recounts. He also uses the historical data to hypothesize that the 2nd District Council results will probably stay the same. I can't blame Don Schmidt for requesting the recount - 13 votes is an extremely small margin of victory. However, I look forward to officially celebrating Goldner's victory...

Fort Wayne Left On NPR

Northeast Indiana Public Radio will be running a series on local bloggers and I am lucky enough to be kicking it off tomorrow at 4:30PM. I'm not sure if it's going to be a live interview or part of a story that will air at a later date. I know that the Spaulding Brothers of Downtown Fort Wayne Baseball will be Wednesday's interview and Mitch Harper of Fort Wayne Observed will be on sometime next week as well.

I think it's great that some traditional media sources are taking notice of the local blogosphere and are willing to help promote it. The more people we get involved, the more will be involved in local government - and that is really the point in my opinion...

UPDATE: Sounds like this is going to be part of a larger story on local blogs that will air at a later date. That sounds like a much better idea than a series of live interviews

Montagano Challenger

A previous post mentioned that there would likely be a challenger for Mike Montagano in the 3rd District Congressional race. However, I was contacted and asked to hold off before making the challenger's name public - which I did. But the speculation can now end as I spoke with the likely challenger today and he gave me permission to post his information. The likely challenger is:

Herb Summers

For those that might not remember, Herb Summers recently ran for Allen County Recorder in 2006 but lost to John McGauley.

First off, I want to say that Herb would only go as far as saying he is "strongly considering" running and that no official decision has been made. Now what do I think? I think this is good for the Democratic party and especially for Montagano. As most of you know I'm a firm believer in voters determining their representation and not DC elites, county chairmen or anyone else. Also, Herb will challenge Montagano and toughen him up for a potentially nasty battle with a seasoned incumbent like Mark Souder.

But I'm certainly not suggesting that a Montagano victory would somehow be inevitable. The guy has very little experience and thus will have to convince people that he's a viable candidate and alternative to Souder. Also a lot of voters in the 3rd District are located right here in Fort Wayne and Allen County where Herb is from. I wouldn't expect Herb to be able to raise the kind of money Montagano can so I don't see this primary as one that would drain the Montagano coffers if he were to win.

Considering Montagano's age, lack of experience, and residence outside the county district (until after he announced his run), it would be a shame if the Democratic Party couldn't field another candidate for a primary run against him...

The Rest of the FWCS-Teamsters Negotiation Story

Friday's JG had a one-sided story describing the current feud between Fort Wayne Community Schools and the Teamsters which represent the bus drivers. Here's a brief recap:

Teamsters Local 414, the union that represents about 220 bus drivers, sued Wendy Robinson in her capacity as FWCS superintendent in Allen Superior Court on Nov. 7.

The bus drivers’ contract expired in December 2005, and negotiations have stalled over switching the health insurance package to one the Teamsters prefer.

Union representatives say their insurance would save the district and the drivers money and offer better coverage, but district officials disagree.

The two sides tentatively agreed to a contract this spring, but Robinson said the drivers changed some of the language afterward and ratified it without conferring with school officials. The Teamsters believe the contract is virtually the same and that Robinson entered into an oral agreement and should honor it by taking the contract to the FWCS board for its approval.

The story doesn't provide enough details to give the reader a real understanding of what the issues are. Therefore, I contacted FWCS board member Jon Olinger for more information and I'll attempt to summarize his statement with my own commentary:

1. The board allows the administration to handle these negotiations because most of the members have no experience in contract negotiation and because it's not the board's job to get involved in the operational management of the district.


2. One of the major sticking points of the contract was that the Teamsters wanted a closed shop which would mean every driver would be forced to be a union member. Let me just say that this is wrong - I believe workers should have the right to collectively bargain as well as the right NOT to collectively bargain.


3. The second issue, which the JG story did cover, is that the Teamsters want to remove their drivers from the FWCS insurance and put them on the Teamsters insurance. There has been debate over whether or not this will provide a cost savings or not


4. Now comes the most important part, in May Superintendent Wendy Robinson made a tentative agreement with the Teamsters that would allow them to move the employees to their own insurance if they dropped the demand for the closed shop. After this agreement Robinson simply changed her mind and tried to say there was no tentative agreement in the first place. However memos from Robinson started appearing that referenced a tentative agreement


5. Despite these issues the Teamsters went forward and voted on the contract and are no longer willing to negotiate because they felt they already had an agreement in place.

I think it's clear that the administration has not bargained in good faith. Unfortunately the board (minus Olinger) has become a rubberstamp for Robinson and her administration and there's no way they would vote to bring the contract before the board until she says so. This entire fiasco sounds like it could've been avoided - much like the facilities petition drive...

Progressive & Proud - II

Another entry from CAP's "Progressive and Proud" campaign:

Progressive and Proud of it!

What are YOU for?

Montagano Likely to Get Primary Challenger

Mike Montagano, Democratic candidate for the 3rd Congressional District, will likely have to win a primary before moving on to challenge Republican incumbent Mark Souder. While I was in the middle of writing this post to tell everybody who Montagano's challenger was going be, I received a phone call from the likely challenger asking me to withhold their name until they've had time to "tie up some loose ends".

So I will hold off until I get formal confirmation, but I thought readers of this blog would like to know that we may once again have a Democratic primary. I'll also add that the likely challenger is a Fort Wayne resident...

Supreme Court Reprimands Steve Shine

Local Republican chairman Steve Shine was in the news today as the JG reports that the state Supreme Court has issued him a reprimand for the way his wife handled funds at his law firm.

The Indiana Supreme Court issued a private reprimand to local attorney Steve Shine for misconduct related to financial oversight at his law firm.

The reprimand was issued because for five months beginning in May 2005, Beth Shine, Steve Shine’s wife, wrote approximately 11 checks to herself or to accounts to which she had access from the law firm’s trust account, according to the court documents. This amounted to misappropriating $22,257 in client money without the knowledge of anyone at the firm, Shine & Hardin

However, the paper reports that all the money was paid back in late 2005...

City of Fort Wayne Presentation on Aqua Indiana

Here's the presentation I promised. I wish you could hear Ted Nitza's commentary that went with it but the discussion simply lasted too long. However, the presentation by itself presents a compelling case for why the city should take over Aqua Indiana services...

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Thanking the Current City Council

At last night's city council meeting I took the time to publicly thank the all the current city councilmembers for their service and dedication to supporting this city. I thought I'd share those comments with readers of FWL...

Aqua Indiana Doesn't Want Facts to Get in the Way of Television Time

In an earlier post I mentioned that the Aqua Indiana lawyer embarrassed himself by saying that he could rebut the city's points but that he didn't want to take away from everyone's television time. Well here's the video...

An Encounter with Jeff Krull and the Future of Purple Cow

While walking into the downtown public library this evening I noticed Jeff Krull, director of the Allen County Public Library, was leaving. I stopped him for a moment and asked him why he stopped posting on his blog - Purple Cow. He said that it was an experiment for him to see if he could figure out how to start a blog. I mentioned to him that myself and others hope he continues posting at The Purple Cow and doesn't just let it die. He said that he really should try to keep it going and maybe he'll start posting again in the future.

If you'd like to keep Krull in the blogosphere then stop by Purple Cow and leave him an encouraging comment.

Herb Summers Show

Tonight I was a guest on the Herb Summers show. Herb Summers is a member of the local Democratic party and hosts his own weekly show on public access television where he discusses politics, history and religion. It's an interesting show as Herb is quite outspoken and even directs some of his anger against members of his own political party.

Tonight's show started with two citizens that are Ron Paul supporters and they discussed his ideology and campaign. In my segment we discussed free trade, the recent fast food tax abatements and Fort Wayne Left. We didn't get a lot of time but it was a neat experience to see how hard all the volunteers work to put one of these shows together.

For those that are interested the Herb Summers show airs every Saturday at 4pm on cable channel 57 (for those with Comcast). I believe the show I did will air Nov 24 and I'll post it here at FWL as well.

Aqua Indiana Takeover

At tonight's city council meeting Ted Nitza, engineer and program manager for City Utilities, gave a devastating presentation on why the city of Fort Wayne must take over Aqua Indiana North. I assure you there wasn't a single person in the room that left there thinking the city was making a mistake.

After Nitza's presentation, the attorney for Aqua Indiana spoke before council and essentially made a fool out of himself when he said that he could rebut all of Nitza's points but he figured people would want to get home and watch television instead. I'm not joking. Then when pressed on the simplest details that anyone involved with Aqua Indiana should know, he had no answers. All in all, an extraordinarily professional display from Nitza (something we don't always get from the city) and a woeful performance from Aqua Indiana.

I hope to have the presentation available for download tomorrow as I think many of you will want to look at it but for now here are a few highlights:

1. Aqua Indiana sends 50% more sewage/household than the IDEM design standard; this is the equivalent of 328 households of waste


2. Aqua Indiana has a 90 day 610,000 gal limit and they've exceeded it 77% of the time
   
3. Despite budgeting $400k/year for improvements they have actually only spent $34k, $38k and $150k in 2004-2006


4. Aqua Indiana owes the city $2.1 Million and 75% of their payments were late and no late fees have been paid


5. 83% of the $30 Million investment they are using to justify their 100% rate increase for their North residents was actually made in Southwest Fort Wayne


6. There will be no rate increase to existing city customers

Really, this just doesn't do it justice - wait until you see the whole presentation...

Move Over McDonalds, Here Comes Subway

Many of us ridiculed the council's decision to provide a $250k tax abatement for McDonalds as this was the epitome of council group think and it became a community laughingstock right before the election. But tonight we had part 2 with the city council voting to give Subway a $450k tax abatement for creating 2 full time jobs.

Yes you read that correctly.

After listening to Elissa McGauley, Fort Wayne Dept of Economic Development, sell the McDonald's abatement as some sort of "special circumstance" she now decided to back an even more lucrative abatement to Subway Systems who owns 24 stores. This is flat out ridiculous. $450k for 2 damn jobs!?! Economic Development Fort Wayne style I suppose. It's important to point out that this is the Subway that was bought as part of the Harrison Square development. So they are moving the store 3 blocks down the road and we're supposed to give them a half-million dollars for gracing our downtown with their presence?

They also tried to bamboozle the council by saying they were creating 12 jobs when councilman Shoaff rightly pointed out that they were only creating 2 new full time jobs and 7 part time jobs. The rest of the jobs were simply being transferred from the old location. Crawford was also very outspoken against this nonsense asking if there was some kind of minimum amount of job creation necessary for an abatement.

In the end the council approved the abatement 5-3 with Crawford, Shoaff and Schmidt voting against this colossal waste of money. What's next? $10 Million for an In-and-Out burger? At least it would be original. Welcome to Fort Wayne - we've never seen a major fast food franchise we wouldn't subsidize...

UPDATE: I didn't see this story covered in either of today's newspapers. Just another example of why blogs are an important news outlet for every community...

Edwards Threatens Congress

Love him or hate him (I'm somewhere in the middle), what a great jab at congressional perks that we should all be so lucky to have:

The commercial reflects a theme that Edwards sounded at a Democratic fundraising dinner last weekend. He has called for a plan for universal health care by requiring all U.S. residents to obtain health insurance. Edwards would require employers to cover their workers or help pay for their insurance; he would expand Medicaid and a federal health insurance program for children and would create regional insurance markets to broaden purchasing power.

But in stating that he would use his power as president to do away with the health coverage enjoyed by members of Congress, Edwards leaves out one major step. "Offhand, I don't have a clue as to where he would get the power to do that," said Christopher Schroeder, a law professor and expert on constitutional separation of powers at the Duke University School of Law. "Perhaps it would be his bully pulpit power." Indeed, a president has no power to unilaterally cut off congressional benefits.

The Edwards campaign's Web site makes his intentions clearer: "On the first day of Edwards' administration," a Web posting says, "he will submit legislation that ends health care coverage for the president, all members of Congress and all senior political appointees in the legislative and executive branches of government on July 20, 2009 - unless Congress has enacted universal health care reform."

"Mod" Squad

Seen outside of Cindy's Diner today. . .Maybe Bill Brown was just a little bit bored and had some extra time on his hands?

Indiana House Democrats Take the Right Approach on Property Tax Vote

The JG front-paged a piece about the upcoming vote on Governor Daniels' property tax package. Democrats, who control the house, have rightly decided that the Governor's plan should be treated as a package and voted on as a package:

But he said Thursday that House Ways and Means Chairman William Crawford, D-Indianapolis, would author Daniels’ bill as one piece of legislation and that early hearings were in order.

“I took the time and deliberation to determine how you do a major, complicated bill,” said Bauer, who has often sparred with Daniels. “I believe when the governor proposes a package you treat it as a package, and the governor concurred.”

This is the right approach to take. Any plan will begin to fall apart if they treat it in a piecemeal fashion and begin removing bits and pieces. Unfortunately, that's the way Republicans that control the Senate have decided to tackle the problem:

Senate Republican leaders said earlier that they planned to introduce at least 10 bills incorporating parts of Daniels’ plan Nov. 20 and have hearings on them in December, when lawmakers usually are not in session.

That is simply a terrible idea. If the Senate wants to use the Governor's plan as a framework to develop their own plan - fine. But carving a plan up into individual bills is surely asking for disaster...

Henry Administration - Recommendation for Public Information Officer

I don't think it's any big secret that there has been some frustration between citizens of this community and the current administration's public information office. While I believe Mayor Richard has done a fine job overall in running this city I definitely see this as one area that needs improvement. In order to realize this improvement the city needs a public information officer that understands marketing, traditional media and new media. I think this is an easy choice and I'd like to throw my recommendation out there.

Rachel Blakeman

Rachel was a reporter for the JG, currently works in marketing in sales and also runs a great new blog entitled Be Part of the Solution. Now Rachel has absolutely no idea that I'm writing this so I don't know what her reaction will be. However, I would encourage Rachel to send her resume to the Henry transition team and I'll definitely send my letter of recommendation as well (for what that's worth).

Great News for SE Fort Wayne

The Casselwood Shopping Center will be remodeled and reopened next year with the help of $65,000 in CEDIT funds. This is GREAT news to local neighborhood residents!

I spent most of my life in Southwick Village, which nearly backs into this shopping center. The only thing between my former addition and this center was an apartment complex created and developed by the father of my childhood schoolmate, Ron Bunt. After it closed back in 1998, we were forced to drive an extra mile and a half to Mark's City Market on South Anthony or a 4-5 mile trek to New Haven when we needed groceries. In our current home, we are no further than 10 minutes from at least six grocers.

I recall this center as being anchored by a Marsh store when we first moved to the area in 1970. It went through several reincarnations including Maloley's and Super Value. I'd spent alot of time in other businesses in the plaza and others nearby as well. There was a Dan Purvis Rexall drugstore next door to the grocery store that also evolved through several name and ownership changes; yet the same smiling faces were there to greet me through the years. There was the coin-laundry with the friendly manager who was always trying to hook me up with her daughter, the Coney Station that never matched Coney Island but was still worth the occasional perusal, and Jimmie's Pizza Inn nearby.

I ran a Journal-Gazette route in the area around and including Casselwood when I was a teenager; my Dad later started a motor-route nearby and we teamed up to serve the entire area. The local Texaco station on Hessen Cassel Road was purchased by Jon Lassus in the mid-eighties, and I worked my way up into mgnt there before moving on to higher pursuits. I never lost my sense of pride in MY part of town. I'm tickled to death to see Casselwood follow in the steps of Menards and Wal-Mart at the former Southtown Mall site.

Here's the article By Kathleen Quilligan of The News-Sentinel:

If there was a makeover show for shopping centers, Casselwood Shopping Center at the corner of Hessen Cassel and Paulding Road would make a good candidate.

“Right now it's a big dump,” admitted the center's owner, local real estate developer Barry Sturges.

But that could soon change. At its meeting Wednesday morning, the Board of Public Works approved allowing $65,000 in Community Economic Development Income Tax (CEDIT) to go to the center. Forty-thousand from the three at-large members of City Council will pay for lighting in the parking lot; another $25,000 from Councilman Glynn Hines, D-6th District, will go toward overall improvements.

Each council district receives $450,000 a year in CEDIT money for improvement projects, and the three at-large council members share another $450,000, which is also available for improvement projects.

Julie Sanchez, a redevelopment specialist with the city, said the center could be the new home of a discount grocery and a dollar store, but Sturges said nothing has been confirmed yet. He hopes to have details finalized within the next 10 days.

Sanchez said construction at Casselwood is scheduled to begin before the end of the year, in time for a February 2008 opening. She said a total overhaul of the center will total almost $2.5 million.

Zoning restrictions would prohibit new tenants from selling tobacco or liquor, as well as guns unless a sporting goods store moves in. No pawn shops, massage parlors or check-cashing establishments would be allowed, either.

The center's former anchor store, Tom's SuperValu, closed in 1998 after its fifth armed robbery in two years.

The Bilerico Project needs your help

The Bilerico Project (http://www.bilerico.com), is up for the Academy Awards of blogging - in the category of Best LGBT Blog. I'd like to ask you to vote for them, please. The contest ends today at 5pm EST and they're within 200 votes of winning!

They are in the home stretch in the battle for 2007 Best LGBT Blog. Bilerico Project is in second place and they need your vote to help them move into first. You can Cast your vote here. Even if you have voted previously, you can vote again. Today is the last day, so cast your vote now.

Bilerico is where Bill Richardson went to explain his support for LGBT civil rights. Its where Representative Barney Frank went to explain his strategy for separating ENDA into two bills. Its where Lambda Legal went to counter Barney. And yesterday Representative Tammy Baldwin went to the site to talk about ENDA's passage and the fate of her amendment to include gender identity.

If it matters to the LGBT community, its being discussed on Bilerico. Winning the award for 2007 Best LGBT Blog will be huge in helping them to build the site and bring the community more debate about LGBT politics, culture, faith and finance.

Cast your vote for Bilerico now!

http://2007.weblogawards.org/polls/best-lgbt-blog-1.php

Election Night Interview with Dan Turkette

We met up with Dan and a few other Republicans at Columbia Street West. In the interview he talks about the Kelty loss, Steve Shine and the future of the Republican party, John Crawford and a possible Matt Kelty challenge of Mark Souder.


Dan Turkette from FWL on Vimeo.

Mayor Richard & Mayor Elect Henry Share a Moment Together

We got this short video right after Tom Henry's victory speech.


Mayor Richard & Mayor Elect Tom Henry from FWL on Vimeo.

Election Night Interview with Kirk Moriarty

Readers of this blog may not know who Kirk Moriarty is but they should. Kirk was John Shoaff's campaign manager and as such deserves a lot of credit for John's re-election and 2nd place finish (I know he was hoping for 1st but I'm sure he'll take it). Kirk was well organized and worked nonstop to get Shoaff's message out to the voters. Any of you future candidates would be wise to try and get Kirk to run your campaign.

As an aside I also want to mention Susan Mol. Susan played a critical role in Shoaff's campaign as well, and she utilized her organizational experience from the Code Blue Schools petition drive to help get Shoaff re-elected. Readers will get to hear more about Susan's skills when I post the interview I did with Evert Mol in the near future. I put that interview on the back-burner during the election but I think readers will really enjoy it.

Also, I am very proud to say that I walked multiple neighborhoods for John and worked the polls for him on election morning. However, my role was insignificant compared to the work Susan and Kirk did...


Kirk Moriarty from FWL on Vimeo.

Election Night Interview with Kevin Knuth

Allen County Democratic Chairman Kevin Knuth had a lot to celebrate last night and we snagged him for a couple of minutes to do an interview. We asked him about the performance of Karen Goldner, Joe Fox and himself...


Kevin Knuth from FWL on Vimeo.

Election Night Interview with Karen Goldner

We spoke with Karen shortly after hearing the news that she ousted 36 year incumbent Don Schmidt. Karen was obviously excited and ready to take on her new challenge as a Fort Wayne city councilmember...


Karen Goldner from FWL on Vimeo.

Election Night Interview with John Shoaff

Four years ago John Shoaff received the 3rd highest vote total in the at large race and this year he finished 2nd just behind Marty Bender. John has done an excellent job on council and I'm thrilled the voters of Fort Wayne have chosen to re-elect him. In this interview he talks a little bit about his campaign and how he approaches his responsibility on council.


John Shoaff from FWL on Vimeo.

Election Night Interview with Joe Fox

Joe Fox was the Henry for Mayor campaign manager. In my opinion Joe did an outstanding and professional job. I think he did exactly what the Henry campaign needed to do every step of the way. Joe and everyone else involved with the campaign deserve a lot credit for last night's victory. We caught up with Joe just seconds after Henry's victory speech and asked him to tell us how he felt


Joe Fox - Tom Henry's Campaign Manager from FWL on Vimeo.

Election Night Inverview with Mayor Elect Tom Henry

As you can imagine there were a lot of people wanting to talk to Tom and congratulate him. We managed to snag him for just a moment and he was gracious enough to do an interview for us.


Mayor Elect Tom Henry from FWL on Vimeo.

Interview List

As I mentioned in the previous post, Brian Spaulding and I conducted a number of video interviews at last night's party. Here's a list of the interviews we'll be posting later today

Tom Henry
Joe Fox - Henry Campaign Manager
Karen Goldner
Kevin Knuth
John Shoaff
Kirk Moriarty - Shoaff Campaign Manager
Dan Turkette

Election Party Photos

I attended the election party with Brian and Scott Spaulding who are the creators of the Downtown Fort Wayne Baseball blog. Scott took over a hundred photos and I want to share some of them with everyone. Brian did the camera and editing work for a number of interviews we did throughout the night and I should have those up later today. So a big thank you to the Spaulding brothers for their efforts in capturing the best moments of last night's victory party.

Mayor Elect Tom Henry

Henry Campaign Manager Joe Fox

Tim Pape

Glynn Hines

Karen Goldner

Karen Goldner and Democratic Party Chairman Kevin Knuth

Sandy Kennedy

FWL Interviews John Shoaff

John Shoaff

FWL Interviews Tom Henry

Libertarians

Kudos to Jennifer Jeffrey and the entire Libertarian Party of Allen County as they actually did much better than I thought they would. They were the deciding factor in the 2nd district council race as well as the at large council race. I'm sure none of them truly expected a victory this cycle so the goal should've been to affect the outcome of the races and they did that in a major way.

After hearing the anouncement that Goldner had won by 13 votes I went over to the Thirsty Camel to seek out John Bartels who was the Libertarian candidate in that district in order to thank him. Unfortunately he had just left but if you're reading this Mr Bartels I just want to say congratulations and that you should be very proud of your campaign effort and your party. The same thing goes to the at large candidates. If Jennifer can find a way to build on this success then the LPAC may become a major player in Allen County politics...

Election Day 2007

John Crawford

In the midst of celebrating last night's victories I didn't get a chance to post my thoughts on Councilman John Crawford's loss. While the poor showing from mayoral candidate Matt Kelty probably didn't help, I don't see that as the deciding factor. Afterall the city did elect 2 Republicans in the at large race so the question must become - why them and not Crawford? The easiest answer would be the smoking ban but that's probably a little too simplistic. I think it was a general anti-incumbancy feeling that did him in. If you were to ask the average citizen to name one member on city council the first name out of their mouth would likely be John Crawford. Typically this type of name recognition would be a positive but not in this election cycle.

I supported Crawford's re-election and I was genuinely saddened to see him defeated. Crawford should be proud of the fact that he helped move this city forward by championing the smoking ban and hopefully he'll join the rest of us to ensure it doesn't get rolled back. On the other hand voters sent a message last night that no matter how much money you spend, how popular you think your stance on issues might be, you can and will be defeated if the people perceive you are not listening to them.

The Biggest Upset In Fort Wayne History

Karen Goldner Wins!

Un-f'in-believable. What a night! Congratulations to Karen. That is how you run a campaign! She beat the streets, she knocked on every door, she talked to every single person that wanted to talk. Karen Goldner will make a great city councilmember. Karen has shown that Democrats can win anywhere in this state. What a night to be a Democrat in Fort Wayne!

Kelty Concedes!

Meet the new boss

DEMOCRAT Tom Henry

Karen Goldner Up by 13 Votes!

95% precincts in - We're on the verge of the greatest upset in Fort Wayne History

Henry Projected As Winner

Indiana News Center has projected Tom Henry as the winner of the Fort Wayne mayoral race!

Outgoing President of the Downtown Improvement District

I asked Dan Carmody his thoughts about the latest mayoral results. His response:

It looks like cooler heads are prevailing

7:45pm

Henry 61%
Kelty 39%

Goldner 46%
Schmidt 48%

Democratic Party Setup at the Grand Wayne Center

Absentee Ballot Results

Henry - 63%
Kelty - 37%

At large city council top 3 after absentee

Shoaff
Bender
Crawford

Can Karen?

All eyes will undoubtedly be on the mayoral results. But I want to point readers to the 2nd district council race where Karen Goldner will be attempting to pull off the biggest upset in the history of Fort Wayne politics. She's attempting to unseat
Don Schmidt, a 9 term incumbant in heavy, heavy Republican district. The word is recent polling data showed her within striking distance so we shall see.

No matter what happens Karen has run the best campaign of any candidate this cycle and probably in recent memory. Win or lose Karen Goldner should be proud of her service to this city including the effort she put into her campaign...

Election Day - Working the Phones

I was at the phone banks at HQ for a couple of hours and they were fully staffed the whole time. In fact while I was there we actually had more people than we had phones - and there were a lot of phones. I will be surprised if voter turnout is low as it definitely won't be from lack of effort.

After that I did some other GOTV work for about two hours and then I spoke with Tom one-on-one for a couple of minutes. He has been working tirelessly and he's still energized. He told me there's going to be a live at 5 television interview at the Grand Wane Center for those that are interested.

If you haven't voted then get going and I'll see you all at the GWC...

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that I drove by Republican HQ and looked inside. The place looked empty and nothing like Democratic HQ where people were everywhere...

Election Day - Working the Polls

I just returned from working a poll on the North side of town for Councilman Shoaff. We had a steady stream of people from 6-9am and the weather wasn't terribly bad although the wind didn't help. I couldn't get a read on the number of Henry vs Kelty supporters - of course the guy working the poll for Kelty was sure that there were more Kelty voters. Nothing out of the ordinary to report; a pretty uneventful morning.

Now I'm off to work the phone banks for Tom Henry - see everyone tonight at the Grand Wayne Center...

UPDATE: I almost forgot. The guy working the poll for Kelty wouldn't say anything to any African Americans. He told me "most blacks are Democrats because they like the government handouts" - unbelievable. Vote Tom Henry, a mayor for ALL the people...

Horror stories (after Halloween)

My wife Sheri just returned home from picking up our two youngest children from Day Care. On the way, she happened to stop at the light on the corner of Spy Run and State St. She saw a small group of Kelty supporters chanting away on the corner near the old Kroger store. Once they noticed the Henry sticker on the back of the car, they became belligerent and started screaming at Sheri, sticking their signs in front of the car and Sheri actually felt threatened. Not only that, they scared our special needs son, Dustin with their actions. Sheri recognized Glenna Jehl, because they attend church together and rolled down the window and screamed Glenna's name. Once she was sure Glenna was looking, Sheri told Glenna she should be ashamed of herself for the way she and the others were acting.

Another woman who works with Sheri is the wife of a youth pastor at a local church. After speaking with some Henry supporters, he agreed to allow a "Henry for Mayor" sign in the front yard. Right after the sign was put in, the pastor's neighbor came over, yanked the sign out of the ground and threw it into the street. The pastor looked at his neighbor and asked what gave him the right to come into his yard and do such a thing. The neighbor's sole answer was that the man was a pastor and he didn't believe a Christian should be voting for "that man".

What in the hell is wrong with these people? What makes them think they are above the law? The only thing I can think of is that they are emulating the actions of their figurehead. If Kelty can lie about campaign contributions, then they can obstruct traffic on Spy Run. If Kelty can put up an illegal sign, then they can act threatening toward Henry supporters. If Kelty can lie and claim to know nothing about a cake he was already photographed with, then they have the right to take stuff from someone else's property.

Are these the kind of people you want to be associated with? Is their figurehead the kind of man we want to run our city?

Nah! I didn't think so.

Fred Rost Helped Destroy the Kelty Campaign

I couldn't help but laugh at Fred Rost's guest column at FortWayneNews. The man passes blame around to everybody except himself. The "differences" he lists between Kelty and Henry are full of half-truths and outright lies, and it's not even worth my time to rebut them as they are that ridiculous. However, I will say that from day one Fred Rost has unintentionally undermined the Kelty campaign. At the end of the day Rost's insistence on secrecy will be the undoing of Matt Kelty.

First he didn't want to admit he commissioned the Harrison Square poll, then he didn't mention anything about Willis, then the loan he gives shows up as coming from Kelty instead of from him. So Matt Kelty should ask himself - "Where would I be if not for Fred Rost?" I'm not sure he would've won the primary but he wouldn't be facing 22 years in jail and he wouldn't have the tarnished reputation he has now.

Kelty is ultimately responsible for the decisions he made but Rost certainly didn't make it easy. It's easy to use people, to let others do your work while hiding in the shadows, but that's not what a friend does. A friend stands beside you as march into the fire. A friend stands beside you when you get burned. A friend never passes the buck when he deserves his fair share of the blame.

With friends like Rost, Kelty doesn't need enemies...

I posted a response

I was just over at Dan Turkette's place and left a comment on Fred Rost's guest post that read:

1. Robert Rouse Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
   November 5th, 2007 at 3:19 pm

   Dan, I realize this may never see the light of day, but …

   Will someone point me to a web site where Tom Henry can actually be quoted as saying he promotes a “City of Strip Clubs”? I’m just curious, because I’ve read a lot of quotes and I think I missed that one. Come on, someone throw me a bone - tell me where you got that “quote”. However, if this is just a holier than thou issue, I can understand, although I do have to say that if Matt was mayor and he attempted to shut down strip clubs - and it wouldn’t affect me at all since I don’t even go in them - wouldn’t that run counter to his pro-business stance?

I don't know if that post will ever show up at Dan's place - Sheri and I both have posted over there only to never see the comments posted. Shouldn't surprise anyone with the rampant redaction and secrecy Republicans are wont to do.

The Matt Kelty Timeline

I put together this chronology of the Kelty campaign as a service to the readers of this site. If any of you are still undecided on who to vote for then please just read this timeline. Also, I'm sure there's a few items I've missed so if you notice something then post it in the comments and I'll add it...

October 10, 2006 - Matt Kelty declares he will run for mayor

January 18 - Kelty outraises Nelson Peters in the first campaign finance reporting period. The majority of his $171k raised comes from a "personal" $148k loan. When asked about this Kelty responds "How can I ask others to support me if I haven’t invested in myself?"

February 7 - Kelty runs a newspaper ad using the Indianapolis Colts trademark without permission

February 22 - Election board chastises Kelty campaign for sending out illegal absentee ballot forms

April 7 - Matt Kelty says 9000 residents were polled in Harrison Square poll - turns out it was only 401.

April 13 - Kelty says he doesn't know who all is involved in the commissioning of the Harrison Square poll but says they aren't directly involved in any campaigns. Of course we later learn that Fred Rost commissioned the poll and then we learn that he also loaned Kelty $148k for his campaign. Most would call that direct involvement.

April 16 - Kelty campaign places illegal sign on downtown building with some in the campaign claiming it was a "banner" and not a sign

April 17 - Kelty unleashes his grand vision for Fort Wayne - the Kelty Dome. He wants to put a glass enclosure over downtown and claims he's producing renderings. No word of who in the private sector will fund such a venture

April 20 - Fred Rost admits he commissioned the Harrison Square poll but doesn't mention Don Willis' role

May 8 - Kelty wins Republican primary

May 14 - Kelty is asked by party members how he could afford to loan his campaign $148k. He attempts to bamboozle them saying "my wife and I live a very frugal lifestyle"

May 24 - Kelty files addendum to campaign finance report to show Rost as the source for the $148k loan

May 31 - Kelty hires Jim Bopp to save the day after receiving heavy scrutiny for his campaign finance report

June 19 - Election board holds a hearing to rule on Kelty's campaign finance reports where they rule in Kelty's favor on a 2-1 party line vote. The hearing is a complete whitewash as the Republicans on the board only ask a single softball question between the two of them.

July 3 - Allen County prosecutor Karen Richards appoints special prosecutor Dan Sigler to take over the Kelty campaign finance investigation. Sigler appoints a grand jury

July 9 - In a Fort Wayne Left exclusive, councilman Sam Talarico becomes the first elected official to bash Kelty

July 13 - Kelty reneges on his plan to cut property taxes by 10%

July 21 - Congressman Mark Souder becomes the only elected official to public endorse Kelty

August 14 - Kelty Indicted on 9 counts including 7 felonies. Two of the seven felony indictments are for perjury related to his grand jury testimony

August 21 - GOP executive committee holds an informal vote and the majority are against Kelty's candidacy

August 23 - Ken Neumeister, president of the executive committee,resigns because he can't support Kelty

August 23 - Shine disbands executive committee

August 23 - Kelty lies to Mark Mellinger when asked whether or not anyone in the GOP asked him to step down. This is such a blatant lie that Mellinger repeats the question 4 times but Kelty doesn't budge.

August 23 - Kelty claims he's just a poor kid from the old Catholic Ghetto. Of course he actually lived in Forest Park which is synonymous with money.

August 23 - Kelty lies about whether or not he knew who was involved in the HS poll in an interview with Mark Mellinger

August 24 - Former GOP Vice Chair Cathy Hawks publicly endorses Tom Henry

September 16 - Kelty bashes mayor Richard for not doing enough to support the FWCS facilities petition drive. Of course Kelty never signed either petition and stayed silent during the entire process; to this day it's unclear where he stands on the issue

September 19 - Kelty hires criminal attorneys to defend him against the 9 charges against him including 7 felonies.

September 27 - Tom Henry holds a Republicans for Henry rally. Kelty says he could've had one 4 times that size with Democrats despite no prominent Democrat voicing support for him.

October 7 - Matt Kelty's birthday cake attacks several local Republicans and shows the divisiveness of the campaign. The pictures only become public after the Kelty campaign posts them on their campaign website.

October 9 - Kelty tells Peters he doesn't know what he's talking about when asked about the cake

October 11 - Congressman Mark Souder bashes Kelty

October 15 - Congressman Souder says he hasn't made up his mind whether or not he'll vote for Kelty

October 16 - Congressman Souder publicly withdraws endorsement of Kelty citing his divisive campaign and points to Dan Turkette's blog, FortWayneNews.com, as an example

October 17 - Tom Henry releases campaign finance report early showing he has raised $730k and has over $300k cash on hand. FWL alerts readers to watch for Kelty's inevitable turn to negative campaigning in light of Henry's strong fundraising

October 18 - AFA runs negative ad against Tom Henry.

October 19 - Kelty campaign reports woeful campaign finance numbers. Henry outraises Kelty 2-1

October 19 - Kelty says he hasn't heard the AFA ad and knows nothing about it

October 20 - GOP Chairman Steve Shine rejects AFA ad in a letter drafted to Kelty

October 21 - Kelty is in default on Rost loan as he has only paid back $30k and not the $100k required by the promissory note.

October 22 - Kelty violates campaign finance laws again by not reporting Turkette's $1000 contribution before the primary. Every single contribution was reported except Turkette's.

October 23 - Councilman John Crawford denounces negative AFA ad and asks Kelty to do the same

October 23 - Kelty says he is only vaguely familiar with the Metro ordinance targeted in the AFA ad despite the fact that a poll he commissioned specifically asked a question about the ordinance

October 24 - Kelty says he still hasn't heard the ad because he doesn't listen to that particular radio station and because nobody has e-mailed it to him. Of course that is a lie as I personally e-mailed him the ad and I know his campaign received it as they contacted me within a couple of hours of receiving my e-mail

October 27 - Senator Lugar endorses Liz Brown for city council but stays silent on Kelty despite their history. Kelty's website touts his political experience working with Lugar and even has a photo of him with Lugar.

November 1 - Kelty releases a poll with all the information execpt the head-to-head results with Tom Henry where he was likely getting creamed

The Great Billboard Controversy

Or "How Charles and Danny wasted our time over nothing":

The famous "missing billboard" has reappeared across the street from it's original location. A tip from Brother John - look for Chris Stewart's billboard at the corner of Covington and West Jefferson; when you see it, quickly look to your left and you MAY see Harper's board before you pass it or rear end the vehicle in front of you due to your careless gawking!

I won't bore you with a rehash of the details, but rest assured that I have it on good authority that the two-hour presence of the Harper board on the same pole as the Stewart board represented a violation of Burkhart company policy. Said policy has been posted on several local blogs, so I won't cover it here in great detail. Simply stated, "competing entities will NOT be placed on the same sign post and facing the same direction". Nuff said.

Chris Stewart would have been well within his rights to object to the placement of his opponent's ad next to his own; however, he was NOT the instrument of change on this one. Burkhart merely followed their own corporate policy on such matters, and moved the ad placement to a nearby location. With less traffic. Okay, I AM gloating a little here. But considering the "throw Stewart into the volcano" response by some local blogs, can you honestly blame me??

At least *I* am willing to post the new old billboard for you here:

Sen. Evan Bayh Endorses Tom Henry for Mayor

Video of Evan Bayh's endorsement of Tom Henry from our own Robert Rouse:

Pics from Tom Henry Rally

My girls up front and center


The crowd packed the courthouse green



Evan Bayh addresses the crowd


Tom Henry speaks in front of his new office


Senator Bayh with congressional candidate Michael Montagano


Yours truly with Chris Stewart


John Shoaff, Kevin Boyd, Tim Pape, Deb McBride, Tom Essex & Glynn Hines

No matter how you feel, VOTE

I have basically stayed out of the fray in local politics this year. My wife believes it is because I worked so hard in the last local election that I got burned out. And while I have to admit that I was disheartened by the results of the sheriff and congressional races, I was pleased by many of the other results - especially those in my precinct where I worked so hard.

The real reason I haven't been as involved is because my special needs son, Dustin is on a modified day at school, so I simply do not have the time to do the campaigning I did in the past.

I haven't written that much about the local race - there are more blogs covering the mayoral and city council races than ever before. This blog especially has done a bang up job.

I believe the vote for mayor is a no-brainer - it doesn't take any brains to know that Tom Henry will be the better mayor and anyone who would vote for Matt Kelty probably has no brain.

The city council races are interesting. Karen Goldner has run a text book campaign. She presses the flesh, gets her message out and has the resume to be the most effective member of the city council ever.

What concerns me are some of the other council races. I've noticed, to my chagrin that there are some bloggers - who shall remain unnamed - who have fallen for the well practiced schmooze ability of one of the candidates. I too was initially fooled by the schmoozing of this candidate, but quickly came to my senses when I discovered what a mixer he/she was. It makes you wonder if the Democrats who are backing this candidate are backing him/her on policy or personality.

I do not consider myself completely partisan - I think Crawford is an honorable candidate - but we need a council who will work with Mayor Henry. Yes, I realize I'm putting the cart before the horse, but I firmly believe the majority of voters in Fort Wayne know we need a man of integrity and not a man who thinks a few white lies are acceptable.

But no matter who you are backing, make sure you get out there and vote. Right now that is Matt Kelty's only hope - voter apathy. This is how he squeaked by Nelson Peters in the primary. All of Peters' supporters assumed he was a shoe-in and woke up on a Wednesday morning in May to discover just how wrong they were. Don't let Kelty steal another election through voter apathy. Take advantage of your right as a citizen and cast your vote this Tuesday so we don't awaken on November 7 to the nightmare of a Mayor Kelty.

Breaking - Major Fire Just North of Downtown Fort Wayne

Early reports say the fire looks like it's on Wells between State and Coliseum

Update - WOWO reports the fire is at the entrance of the zoo where all the construction is

Update2 - Nicole Pence reports on WOWO that the styrofoam rocks that are part of the new African exhibit caught on fire while they were being cut. I tried to make my way down there but I waited too long and the traffic was horrendous...

Update3 - Stephen over at AroundFortWayne.com has some good photos too

Matt Kelty on Parking

Once again Matt Kelty touts his grand idea to overhaul downtown parking.

Kelty, however, said parking fines should not be changed. Instead, he favored ripping out all the downtown meters and offering free parking for one hour. He said parking enforcement officers could chalk tires to ensure people don’t abuse the spots.

So let me get this straight. We're going to pay to rip out all the parking meters and then we're going to have people chalk every car's tire so they don't have to pay a quarter. Brilliant!

And what if they want to stay in their spot longer than one hour? Are they going to have move their car or will the city contract out some private company to sell "Kelty's magic parking chalk eraser"? Do we really need to roll back to pre-20th century parking technology? Parking meters do their job and it makes parking enforcement efficient. We don't need to completely overhaul parking so that people that come downtown for an hour don't have to pay 25 cents. Some ideas have pros and cons - this one is just a bad idea.

Speaking of bad ideas, will this new parking plan be rolled out in conjunction with the glass covered downtown that Kelty envisioned? You know, the Kelty Dome:

For example, I would love to see a development -- and I'm producing renderings to demonstrate this -- where you take Columbia Street and build a superstructure attached to the facades on both sides of Columbia Street and put the whole thing under a glass enclosure.

I'm sure private developers will be crawling out of the woodwork to fund the Kelty dome. Vote Tom Henry this Tuesday...