Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Harrison Square Vote Passes 6 to 3

BREAKING

The Fort Wayne Common Council has passed with a vote of 6 to 3 resolution R-07-04-09:

A RESOLUTION of the Common Council of the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana, pledging certain Cumulative Capital Improvements Fund proceeds and certain County Economic Development Income Tax Proceeds available to the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana, to the Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission as a source of revenue for financing the development of Harrison Square

The vote breakdown of the Councilmen is as follows:

FOR
John Crawford
Tom Didier
Tom Hayhurst
Glynn Hines
Tim Pape
Sam Talarico Jr.

AGAINST
John Shoaff
Tom Smith
Don Schmidt

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you guys at the Blog for being such a positive force and resource for this project. I also personally salute John Crawford and hope he gets re-elected for listening to the people on this project and also standing up and doing the right think on the smoking ban.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to the city councilmen for doing what is right for Fort Wayne. One can't succeed until they try!

Anonymous said...

Kudos to all the councilmen who showed what it means to be a true leader. The generation gap among the council was clear, but Councilmen Pape and Talarico put their arguments to rest. Also, I second what the previous post has said about this blog....a job well done.

Congrats to everyone who has put hard work into making this project a success. There is still a ways to go, but tonight was the hump that needed to be crossed.

Adam W

Anonymous said...

Dido's on the good job. You guys made
it easy to follow the details of the
project. Making it easy to form opposition or support for H.S.

Ken

Anonymous said...

Way to go Fort Wayne and our city councilmen! I am very excited about the atmosphere that this will give our downtown. A big thank you to Scott and Brian once again for creating this blog! Maybe we should keep it going thru '09, just so we can continue to see the naysayers' reactions when they are proven horribly wrong about this project.

Carbo said...

This blog, our council's vote and the proposed development provide inspiration. Resourceful as a blog, hearing the community was the vote and the development invests in all of our futures. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Now, please get out in force and vote against Matt Kelty in the GOP Primary. A Matt Kelty election will be as bad for the community as a H. Square is good

Ed

Anonymous said...

I was at the hearing. The numbers were overwhelming for the supporters. To be kind, the sampling of opponents was not a very impressive group.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to everbody who worked so hard. With a single A baseball stadium, we can achieve all our hopes and dreams.

Anonymous said...

Nice try Anon, you fool, leave out the other 75% of the development. You would have fit in nicely with the opponents last night.

Anonymous said...

Spaulding Brothers, your blog had a tremendous impact on this issue. Thank you for stepping forward to get involved.

I am glad that I can now officially Sign Off and get back to work.

Nice job.

Sam T.

Anonymous said...

The genie is out of the bottle. Nice to see the people of FW rise to the occasion.

Old Fort 83 said...

Great job here, Downtown Fort Wayne Baseball. Thanks for keeping me up to date on the latest happenings with HS.

Anonymous said...

It's a sad day for Fort Wayne and city council has decided to vote on behalf of their real estate developer pals instead of the people of Fort Wayne.

Emmett Greider said...

Great job, Spaulding Brothers! I agree with Sam, your efforts truly impacted this debate. Something to be proud of, no doubt.

See you next month in NYC!

Anonymous said...

I hope that the project works for this city in the long run, however I still think that the baseball stadium is the wrong way to go about it.

I was at the meeting last night and I noticed that most of the supporters of the project wanted something done downtown to boost development, however baseball was never specifically mentioned as being a great idea. Most people want something done, anything really, but the people who opposed the project often did so because most don't beleive a new baseball stadium is the right way to startup a revitalized downtown. There are other options.

I think the planning and decisions are being rushed too much and are not based on common sense. Supporters of the project have nice, big dreams for what this city could be, but those thoughts aren't always realistic.

Hopefully I am wrong in thinking that the new baseball stadium will become a failure after a few years.

Anonymous said...

Kody, you appear to a very bright young kid, but you are indeed just a young kid. I saw your comments on TV last night and you are a good public speaker. Look at the business leaders and CEOs in the room last night that supported this. You have been hanging around Sylvester too much.

Anonymous said...

Kody, I appreciated you speaking last night. I was among those who spoke, including many of my peers.

Speaking for myself, I deliberately did not speak directly to the ballpark because I feel it has gotten the most attention in the public. However, just because I did not speak to it, does not mean I don't believe in it.

My husband and I will be season ticket holders at the new stadium. (I attend games currently, but am not a season ticket holder.) I wish the project great success, and look forward to the many afternoons and evening my family will enjoy at the new venue.

Independent Voter said...

Kody, your comments are very logical and I believe that they are justified. It's funny how Anonymous criticized you for being a "just a young kid" and dismissed your opinion, as if you had no business contributing.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the greatest acheivement of the Harrison Square debate has been the overwhelming consensus in support of downtown redevelopment. We all must keep the momentum going for downtown. We must keep pressing for creative, working solutions. We must make sure the focus stays on downtown and does not creep away to other issues. This blog and its contributors need to stay active here and in all other avenues of the continuing decision-making about what we want to become in Fort Wayne.

Tim Pape

Anonymous said...

Kody-

I also heard you speak last night and appreciated your thoughts. When people engage you based upon your ideas, they invite a dialogue from which all might benefit. When people (like the anonymous poster above) seek to discount your ideas based upon your age or your associates, it is best to ignore them. They are not interested in learning from your ideas and they offer nothing from which you might learn.

Thanks again to the hosts of this blog for all their hard work.

Mark Garvin

Nick said...

Scott and Brian,
Thanks for all you do. This blog, along with other things you've done, has had a tremendous impact on this community. I can't wait to see what great things you guys will do in the coming years for this great city of ours.

-Nick Arnett

Anonymous said...

Thanks to all who appreciated my comments. I didn't actually plan on speaking which is why my comments may have seemed a little shakey.

Obviously I am not an expert on urban planning or economic development, but I think just about anyone despite their age or experience can for the most part sense if an idea seems logical or not.

I may only be 18 but I still pay taxes and have done so for the past three and a half years. I like to see everyone's tax money go to something logical and beneficial to all.

And like I said, now that the project is moving forward I hope it works very well and I hope that my reservations on the subject will be proven invalid.

Anonymous said...

It was a good idea to state the views of the councilmen--whether or not they were FOR or AGAINST Harrison Square. The city needs to know who is behind these decisions. Most of the time Fort Wayne does not let the public know.

Anonymous said...

I was watching the proceedings on TV. Was anybody else stunned by Tom Smith when he said he always votes the way his constituents want? Tom apparently likes to lead from behind. What if Smith believes something is a bad decision, would he still support it if 51% of the constiutents were for it? This was a ridiculous statement.

Anonymous said...

Yikes...well, at least he listens to the people and what they want.