Final Post From Fort Wayne Left

To All,

I wanted to let all the readers of this site know that this will be my final post at Fort Wayne Left. I want to publicly thank John Good and Robert Rouse for allowing me to post here as well as helping me out with technical difficulties from time to time. Over the last year or so I have tried to do my part to make this a site that readers would enjoy knowing that they will be getting a unique perspective on local news and politics.

While I am stepping away from Fort Wayne Left, I am not leaving the local blogosphere. I am in the process of finalizing the design of a new site - Fort Wayne Politics. FWP will continue to provide my coverage of local politics but I want the site to be bigger than just me - thus the site will have additional authors that will be contributing as well.

I don't want to give any details about the new site right now but suffice to say we're going to try and expand our coverage and do even more than we've done in the past. I'm not sure what John has in store for this site but if he chooses to continue it then I will continue to visit and I would encourage others to as well.

Also, I want to thank all of the people that took the time to read, comment or e-mail me here at FWL. Blogging has been a blast and I have sincerely enjoy the interaction with all of you. I hope you'll consider making the move with me over to Fort Wayne Politics.

Permanently signing off from Fort Wayne Left,

Jeff

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

Henry-Stewart Open House Recap

On Sunday we held an open house for Democratic mayoral candidate Tom Henry and 4th district city council candidate Chris Stewart. A nice mix of neighbors and local bloggers were in attendance for the event, which ran from 2-4:30 PM. Tom and Chris gave a very nice presentation to the group and answered questions ranging from the Harrison Square project downtown to issues with the local water utility, Aqua Indiana, here in Aboite. All questions were thoroughly answered, and participants in our "mini town hall meeting" left satisfied and more fully informed than when they arrived.

The information on TIF Districts and how they apply to Harrison Square were most enlightening to myself and several others. One often hears how the mainstream media doesn't really provide enough information to the public due to schedules and time constraints - I can now vouch for that personally! I learned more about this project in a 30 minute Q&A session with knowledgeable persons than I have from months of local media coverage.

I was so wrapped up in the discussion that I even failed to take any pictures. Fortunately enough, Stan the Man Ham had his trusty digital camera ready and waiting:

Left to Right: Chris Stewart, Stan Matuska, Tom Henry


Tom Henry fields questions from participants


I'd like to thank Tom Henry and Chris Stewart for sharing an afternoon with us during their busy campaign schedule! In addition, I must acknowledge the local bloggers who were in attendance as well, in no particular order:

Rachel, Parson, Robert, Sheri, Roger, and Stan.

Today's papparazi shot

A loyal reader of Fort Wayne Left forwarded us this photo of Steve Shine this evening. We don't know where this photo was taken or where he was in such a hurry to get to. One can only assume that he realized he'd forgotten his shirt and was rushing to retrieve it before someone saw him like that and snapped a pic. . .oops! I hate it when that happens.

Paul Helmke discusses DC handgun ban on The Ed Schultz Show

Former Fort Wayne Mayor and President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Paul Helmke, appeared yesterday on The Ed Schultz Show on The Air America Radio Network. Ed was discussing the longtime ban on handguns in DC and a recent challenge to that legislation, and contacted Mr.Helmke to discuss his views on the subject. You can listen to the audio of that interview here: Helmke on the Ed Schultz Show

3rd Party Perspective

John Good, editor of Fort Wayne Left, read the following story on Fort Wayne Observed this evening:

Tax Adjustment Board is back

The Allen County Council voted 6 to 1 yesterday to restore the Allen County Tax Adjustment Board. The Board will have the power to review the operating levies of all Allen County units of local government which can impose property taxes.

Mitch Harper, editor of Fort Wayne Observed, has been a long-time advocate of the restoration of the Tax Adjustment Board. He has written about the Tax Adjustment Board as well as initiated discussion over the years with members of the County Council.

Last month, the County Council asked Mr. Harper and Bill Fishering, the County Attorney, to address the board regarding the history and statutory basis of the Tax Adjustment Board.
Council leadership on the issue was provided by Council President Paul Moss and Council member Darren Vogt.

Mr. Good, a local progressive activist, was amused by the third-party perspective of the author of the above post, Mitch Harper. Fort Wayne Left notes that Mr. Good's perspectives are also available on the weblogs "Left in Aboite", "The Katrinacrat", and "U-Blog Press". Mr. Good's work has also been recently featured on the national progressive blog "Crooks and Liars".