Charlie Mason 3-8-2007 on Vimeo
Mike Sylvester 3-8-2007 on Vimeo
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Opposing Viewpoints X - Yet Even More Partnership Video
Posted by scott spaulding at 3/13/2007 05:17:00 PM
Labels: Harrison Square, video
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11 comments:
After watching Mark Sylvester's video, I am now convinced 100% that this project is the right thing to do. If you want to know what is best for the community, watch Mr. Corcoran's video and watch Mr. Sylvester's comments. They both lead you to the same conclusion (although one is unintended). Harrison Square is vital to the community and vital to curbing the community's brain drain.
Ed
Ed:
What?
Are we watching the same videos?
Mike Sylvester
Yes Mike. After reading your comments the last month, I feel very comfortable and relieved that our community is going the opposite direction of your comments. That is why both videos are equally persuasive.
Ed
Ed:
Do you have any intelligent reasons for these comments?
What do you do for a living Ed? Are you a business owner? College student?
Mike Sylvester
Mike,
I am sorry Mike. No offense, but If I have to hitch my wagon to you or Charlie Mason and Mike Corcoran, I am hitching it to the latter two.
I want to know that Fort Wayne is going to step up for once and break away from the status quo.
I just feel most comfortable that I want to be on the opposite side of you on this issue. While I am sure you are a fine and competent accountant, accountants are not exactly known for bold leadership. There is a reason that you can count our Accounting Mayors, Governors and Presidents on zero fingers
No, I am not a business owner. Do I need to be to have an opinion? I am a local grad student and I want a reason to stay.
Ed.
Ed, take it easy on the accountants. I am an accountant!
Mike, I think what Ed must be trying to say is that you, as a young professional (are we still young enough to be called that?) are on the wrong side of this issue because it may the catalyst project that results in our kids wanting to come back to the Fort some day.
Mayor Richard said today: There is Risk in the project, but the real risk is not acting on this opportunity. I thought the Mayor was phenomenal at IPFW today.
Sam T.
Ed and Sam:
I actually think Sam put it rather well in illustrating the differences between our points of view...
I am NOT against Downtown development, I am against putting a baseball Stadium Downtown...
This project IS ABOUT a baseball stadium...
Ed:
Heck no you do not need to own a business to have an opinion. I just wanted to see what your frame of reference was.
You are a college student. You have a very different frame of reference then someone like me who operates a small business and is raising two children here...
I value your opinion, I am just trying to understand it and you have made that difficult...
Dave Corcoran and I discuss this project FREQUENTLY. We actually agree on about 80% of it... We do NOT agree on the Baseball Stadium.
Mike Sylvester
Okay, I'm coming late to the party and I don't live in Ft. Wayne anymore, so what I have to say may be of little use to any of you.
That being said, I think the baseball stadium is a horrible waste of money, a poor use of land repurposement and an all-around boondoggle.
Ed mentions the presumed vitality and break-away from the status quo represented by the presence of the stadium in this community (**cue "Trouble" from "The Music Man.")
I live in Nashville, a city at least three times the size of Ft. Wayne. We've been through our own baseball stadium relocation recently. It's a mess that will cost the taxpayers millions of dollars. I'm beginning to think that there is some convention of city planners where they all cook up new ideas designed to part citizens from their money. This year that new idea seems to be downtown baseball.
And frankly, if downtown baseball is a bad idea for southern cities like Nashville, how is it going to play for a Northern Indiana town of much smaller size?
With the stadium sitting vacant in the Harrison Square development area for so many days a year it will most likely devalue the properties around it, driving down tax revenue from all sectors.
As for Sam's remarks that a stadium will draw kids back to the Fort, I think I can soundly say "no."
What will draw your kids back to the Fort are good jobs. In Fort Wayne you either teach school, work in an engineering firm, sell insurance or provide support systems to the people who do those jobs. There isn't a great variety of work in the city, especially creative work.
My job is one of the two main reasons I no longer live in Ft. Wayne. The other reason is that it is COLD for long months of the year. Which, now that you mention it, means that investing prime downtown real estate in a park for an outdoor sport is ludicrous.
Kat,
Thanks for summing it all up for us Kat. You left because you obviously are smarter than all of us morons back in Fort Wayne. Thank God you weighed in before we did something stupid. Clearly you are not part of our brain drain problem.
Ed
Kat-
You can be forgiven for your concerns about this project; a lot of us had similar concerns until our public officials explained things to us. First and foremost, this is not about a baseball stadium, it is about a mixed-use development. Actually, as of today, the preferred verbiage for deflecting any and all criticism of the stadium is "this is not about a 'ballpark'- it is about a mixed use development. Repeat daily until City Council passage is obtained.
Second, we are going to spend about $40 million for the 'ballpark' for our single A team. You in Nashville are only spending about $45 million for your triple A team, and you are foolishly making your stadium twice as large. Obviously, you are not spending enough on 'soft' costs, and for in-park meeting spaces, restaurants and bars for the benefit of the team owners.
Third, You in Nashville are making your team owners pay $23 million of the $45 million stadium cost. Here in the Fort, we only need $5 million out of $40 million. Obviously, your team owners will have less money available for "free bat night" and bobble-head promotions, which are precisely the kind of hip events that cause young professionals to move to a Fort Wayne suburb.
Fourth, your team owners have been operating a team for a long time. Ours are brand new and unencumbered by experience.
Fifth, we will actually have two minor league ballparks. Not many places have that going for them.
So, I assume you will be moving back soon, right?
Thanks for summing it all up for us Kat. You left because you obviously are smarter than all of us morons back in Fort Wayne.
Keep it up, Ed. You'll soon lose the Fort that "nicest city" reputation...
You seriously want to curb brain drain with a ballpark? Not a few technology and creative firms? Yeah, I guess that's one way to go...
If people lived in places solely for their amusement, fully one third of the country would live in Orlando, with the other two-thirds split between Vegas and Vail. Unfortunately people don't migrate for ball parks, monorails or old municiple buildings converted into shopping plazas.
They migrate for JOBS.
Sadly, I would rather continue to work in publishing than at NAVL , Dana-Weatherhead or Lincoln Life.
Yes, I would much rather live in Ft. Wayne. I'm from there. I was born at Lutheran Hospital, had my birthdays at Shoaff Park and learned to drive on SR37 between the Fort and Woodburn. My whole family is in Ft. Wayne. But I cannot live there and continue my work. Regardless of whether or not the city builds this misbegotten ball field across the street from my dad's law office.
Now if they were to build a mid-range publishing house on the other hand....
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