Tales From The South Side...
Yes, friends...another soiree' into the realm of the surreal.
An exercise in futility, tinged with a hint of mint.
It's the playground of the absurd, the unusual, the forsaken and the ignored.
But, it's not ALL bad...just MOST of it.
And it's the stuff that term papers in abnormal psychology are all about.
So, without any further ado, let's plow forward, feet planted on the ground, ear to the rail, shoulder to the wheel, nose to the grindstone, head up and smiling (now, try actually WORKING in THAT position).
** ((Air board hires firm to promote vacant hub - Officials hope to find tenant to take over ex-Kitty Hawk site
Amanda Iacone-The Journal Gazette
The airport authority has hired a professional site-selector firm to help market the cargo hub vacated by Kitty Hawk.
The Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority board voted Monday to hire Pollina to help find a new tenant for the air cargo facility, which includes a 240,000-square-foot warehouse.
Kitty Hawk Inc. filed for bankruptcy in 2007 and quickly closed its operation at Fort Wayne International, leaving the airport and taxpayers on the hook for repaying a $24 million bond used to build the hub and lure Kitty Hawk. This was the first year taxpayers were asked to make those bond payments.
The airport spent an additional $10 million to build a ramp for the cargo hub.
Pollina, of Park Ridge, Ill., is a company hired by large corporations to find properties, and it aggressively looks for properties that fit its clients’ needs, board member Jerry Henry said.
The cargo hub is a building only a few companies could use, Henry said.
However, several of Pollina’s clients would be a good fit for the hub, said Tory Richardson, the authority’s executive director.
The site selector will also give the hub national and even international exposure that local brokers can’t offer, Richardson said.
The firm won’t be paid unless a tenant signs a lease, he said.
In the meantime, the authority has tentative plans to mothball part of the facility until a new tenant is found. The board transferred money into the facility construction budget line to ensure enough money is available for the project.
Richardson also announced that the authority received $298,000 toward the claim the airport filed as part of Kitty Hawk’s bankruptcy.
As of May 2008, Kitty Hawk owed an estimated $8.5 million to the authority.
In other business, the authority said Wednesday it will celebrate the reopening of both runways at Smith Field, the general aviation airport on Fort Wayne’s north side. The shorter runway opened about two weeks ago after new asphalt was laid. Since then, the longer runway
has reopened after airfield lights were installed, giving pilots more flexibility.
Without the lights, pilots were limited to daylight trips, Richardson said.
A mix of stimulus funds, federal and state grants and local dollars paid for the $1.7 million project, which was the first major work to the field’s runways in 30 years.
The board also agreed to buy a one-acre property on the northwest edge of Fort Wayne International’s airfield from the Harlow family.
A storage building sits on the Indianapolis Road property and will likely be demolished, Richardson said.
The authority agreed to pay the owners $40,000, and the owners agreed to not take legal action against the airport. The owners alleged that the airport flooded their property when the airport built a large drainage basin nearby, he said.))
Okay, just so we're clear about this, Fort Wayne International Airport DOES NOT FLY OVERSEAS or to ANY other country. It's a "feeder" facility that will shuttle you TO an airport that DOES fly out of country,...got it?
And this is STILL one of OVER THIRTY "entities" that CAN (and usually DOES) levy PROPERTY TAX INCREASES to homeowners.
THAT is where they get most of their money for "capital projects".
Feds pay for upgraded equipment and repairs to current equipment.
** ((Panel to promote Southtown area
Benjamin Lanka-The Journal Gazette
In an effort to better lure business and other development to Fort Wayne’s southeast quadrant, Mayor Tom Henry on Monday announced the creation of committee of community stakeholders.
Henry signed an executive order creating the Southtown Area Advisory Committee, which consists of 13 business owners, community leaders and pastors. The group is intended to promote the area around the former Southtown Mall to potential investors and gather input from the community on what it wants in the area.
"We have a number of people on this committee who are very successful doing business in southeast Fort Wayne," Henry said. "By promoting this area to potential investors and sharing their stories, these entrepreneurs can help us attract new businesses and ultimately additional jobs to the Southtown area."
Ted Williams, local McDonald’s restaurant owner, said business owners can talk to developers in different ways than the city and try to promote the area. He is serving as co-chair of the group with John Dortch, of The Preston Joan Group. Mike Landram, president of the
Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, will serve as interim president.
Henry added the group’s goal is to help the sustainability of the Regional Public Safety Academy, which has seen financial losses since opening. Henry said while the building should focus on public safety, he also wants to see it used as a community center for
different groups and offer educational opportunities."It is a community building," he said.
The group met initially Thursday and plans to meet weekly. Henry said he will review its results after two years and decide then whether to extend its charter or let it expire.
Southtown committee - Here are the members of the newly created group:
-Ted Williams, McDonald’s Restaurant
-John Dortch, The Preston Joan Group
-Rick Bender, Walmart south store manager
-Mike Bynum, southeast strategy advisory committee
-Pastor Wayne Feay, Fellowship Missionary Church
-City Councilman Glynn Hines, D-6th
-Charlie Hire, Hires Automotive Center, vp of Southside Business Group
-Lewis King, King’s Barbershop and southeast strategy advisory committee
-Mike Landram, Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce president
-Michael Olson, Belmont Beverage
-Pastor Anthony Payton, Come As You Are Community Church
-Marge Wulliman, Southside Business Group president
-Fernando Zapari, El Mexicano newspaper
Source: City of Fort Wayne ))
First off, we wouldn't be having this conversation of creating this "group" if the city would have taken care of the CRIME that festers in the SE part of town (where I happen to live).
That ONE thing is what caused OVER SIXTY stores and restaurants to close down here over the last 12 years, along with the Southtown Mall and cinema.
The few stores that are still "stand alones" (Menards, K-Mart and Wal Mart excluded) are STILL the target of robbers (Belmont Beverage shooting earlier this year where the ROBBER was shot for a change).
One person that I don't see on this board is someone who represents a group of REALTORS or the real-estate market in general.
It is damn hard to promote ANY business when you're being targeted by thugs (daily).
I've said SO many times that the way to affect real change for the better down here is to chase the crime AWAY...period.
You go into a fast food place down here, and you "might" wind up in the middle of a brawl between staff and would-be criminals who demand some free take out. Or, your car might get broken into WHILE you're eating (or shopping).
Frequenting what few retailers we still DO have down here becomes a crapshoot. Hell, just living among these ghetto flies IS a crapshoot. You "hope" no one breaks into your house while you're off somewhere ELSE shopping (as anyone down here will tell you we have to do).
If I were a business owner or CEO of a big box chain, I'd be hard-pressed to blindly build some stores in an area I KNEW was going to cost me a sizable chunk of change. I have employee safety to be concerned about, "shrink" from the inventory (we called it Loss Prevention, and I was damn good at that job), the safety of the shoppers both IN the store and in the parking areas...lots to consider.
Logistically, it can become a nightmare...and that's why you weigh the good against the bad when deciding WHERE to build another store. It's just good business sense. No one climbs out on a limb, in a stiff wind...with a chainsaw, bent of sawing that branch off while still clinging to it...that's nonsense.
** Lastly, even though this didn't occur in Indiana, I found it "interesting"...
Welfare Workers On Edge - As Michigan Ails, Clients Get Unruly.
Here's the link to the story:
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091117/NEWS03/311179939
Leave it to Michigan to have themselves offices full of upstarts, wanting to incite some sort of quasi-riot.
I suppose this will soon be mirrored across most all inner cities.
Can't get your "something for nothing" SOON ENOUGH? Burn the damn place down, and punch out a few federal workers along the way...make you feel like a REAL man (or woman) again, right?.
By the way, you LOSERS are making it DIFFICULT for those that honestly NEED some assistance...just so ya know.
And in a related story...or sorts:
** IPFW lecturer faces WELFARE FRAUD charges.
Here's the link to the brief story:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091117/LOCAL07/311179934
Now WHO KNEW that being a college lecturer (even a part-time one) was wrought with such things as lying about one's income to receive FOOD STAMPS...(horrors)?
I mean investigators seem to have spotted THIS GUY soon enough...but what about all the ones that are STILL flying under the radar, as it were? Don't see or hear much about THEM now, do we?
I mean just because this guy made about $100,000 in 2008 and has 4 kids, shouldn't be a reason to DENY assistance, right?
What's that you say? He makes ENOUGH money?
Well, perhaps he does, and therein lies the FRAUD.
I would be remiss to not state that others (in my area) receive "other income" and yet STILL do the "food stamp two-step", but since dealing drugs is not (yet) a recognized "act of employment" by the government, THEY get a "free pass".
And that explains being able to OWN a new Cadillac Escalade, while living in a hovel worth less than HALF the price of that Caddy.
Remember...it's ALL about being "entertained"...and if you can defraud the government...it's entertainment.
Forget conventionality and working for a living...that's "old school" down here.
Better to "pillage the village" than to be productive to the community.
It's no wonder businesses up and LEAVE...
It's a vicious cycle, with little chance of being broken at this point.
This could all turn back around and get right again...
But until CRIME is forced to go on extended "holiday", not much will change.
This sure isn't how I thought life would evolve.
It was supposed to be getting BETTER.
Maybe tomorrow?
Stay safe out there, America.