Humpday Happenings...
Seemed like YESTERDAY was "humpday", didn't it? Rest assured that we ARE at midweek.
I would have posted SOONER, but our local electric company saw fit to give us an "outage-fart"...enough to cause the system to reboot and I had to recover the data...whatta city, eh?
First off, a sad note...Tom Bosley, "Mr. C" of Happy Days fame has passed away at the age of 83 from heart failure.
He had made the #9 spot on TV's top 50 dads.
Here's the link to the story:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/actor-tom-bosley-dies-31465
He's gone on to that Arnold's in the sky, and will be greatly missed by many.
*** Meanwhile, back on the SE side of town...
I mentioned yesterday about what YOUR (Fort Wayne) tax dollar is buying these days, and I have to preface this with borrowing a comment from Leo Morris's blog (OPENING ARGUMENTS) from William Larsen (also a blogger in this city):
"--Fort Wayne Airport had millions spent to make it an international airport. To pay for this landing fees based on gross weight were raised. Jets weigh more than commuters and so the thought was there would be higher revenues to pay for the millions. In reality airlines discontinued jet service with commuter planes saving them money and costing Fort Wayne Taxpayers millions due to stupidity of city council and Mayor Helmke.
--City of Fort Wayne condemns the Southtown Mall which was paying property taxes. Buys it for a few million, tears it down, gives the land to Wal-Mart and others, provide tax abatement to these companies and uses some of the land to build a multimillion police academy that now is not self funding. Again costing the tax payer millions.
--City of Fort Wayne lends money to Hawk to come to Fort Wayne International Airport. Hawk leaves leaving Fort Wayne Taxpayers with millions in debt.
--City of Fort Wayne buys farm land off I-69 for GM plant. Provides millions in tax abatements with the hope of hiring laid off International Harvester workers. Instead GM transfers workers from other plants. The cost to taxpayers has still to be recouped. Then recently we went through the same repeat with GM where we give millions to help them out again.
--Baseball has been very, very bad to Fort Wayne. We spent millions to build a baseball stadum and after it was paid for tear it down costing millions and build a replacement costing four times the original ball park price. Will the new stadium fund itself?
I think not.
--Jefferson Point is built and given tax abatements (TIFF). This becomes the petty cash of the Mayor to use as he sees fit or city council. This area receives police, fire and road work at taxpayers expense but do not pay." a single penny to pay for until the TIFF expires. Again the taxpayers get stuck with the cost for decade."
I think Bill has HIS finger pretty firmly ON THE PULSE of Fort Wayne, and I couldn't agree more.
And all of those items he mentioned in his comment AFFIRM that the city has gross spending issues.
But this is JUST the "big sh*t".
What about all that "little sh*t" that is emcompassed by that big sh*t, anyway?
The city's development "cadre" just APPROVED a 12,000 sq ft "retail" establishment (6 tenants) at the corner of Hanna St. and E. Paulding Rd, (used to be a RICHARD'S restaurant there before the CRIME closed it down) which will include a gas station. Funny thing, there already IS a gas station (CITGO) right ACROSS the damn street from the proposed station.
Seems we have more gas stations per capita per mile than ANYWHERE ELSE in the freaking city...ditto for LIQUOR STORES, which also had gotten the green light in the past from the development capos.
And while many black ministers mentioned about the potential for more crime (like we don't have enough down here), they managed (read were bought off) to SIGN ON TO THIS.
This WILL become another hotbed after it's built...make no mistake about it. I LIVE down here, and I SEE this thing recreate itself every year.
They put up a Marathon station along Lafayette (at McKinnie St,) less than 2 years ago, and we've already got crime there (and fairly regularly).
But, let's back up to Bill's comment regarding SOUTHTOWN MALL...
The city DID condemn it, and then sold it to a developer from Michigan that had a bad track record and allowed it to sit VACANT for years, before the city took them to court (at the taxpayer's expense) to get the property back....more waste.
Didn't see anyone try to SAVE the mall (which would have been fine, had the CRIME situation been dealt with as it should have been).
Bit by bit, over the last few decades, the SE part of Fort Wayne has been carefully, and purposely "managed" to include most of the undesirables....to "corral them all in one spot" to better take care of the REST of the city, and while that seems a noble venture, it has all but FORCED all the decent folks AWAY into areas of town they were barely able to afford (when they had a job here, that is).
This was not a case of "white flight"...it was designed to oust most everyone BUT the dubiously-behaved and those with criminal intent.
Don't believe me?
Check any felony report in the local papers...always, it's the majority arrested that live...(you guessed it)...DOWN HERE.
And then the development godfathers swoop in with MORE "plans" to "revitalize" the blighted areas (for the umpteenth time) with housing and programs that have to reaching deeper into YOUR pockets, because all that sh*t don't come along for free, or fall from the frigging sky.
And it's not just the local government who's guilty of rewarding bad behavior...the FEDS are equally to blame.
They ALONE created programs that basically "reward bad behavior"....that's called Section 8 and sundry other things that do nothing but foster a sense of dependency (on the government) in certain ethnic groups.
What an insidious form of modern-day slavery, isn't it?
Being too busy spending OTHER people's money will tend to blind one to such things...that's why "they" don't give a damn.
When you allow irresponsible people to move into neighborhoods that for DECADES were held by people who worked hard, and kept up the nice appearance of those neighborhoods, you WILL wind up with a SLUM DISTRICT. When people who don't want to take care of anything or anyone (as is evidenced by the child abuse rates and intervention by Child Protective Services down here), it's little wonder that all the associated crimes follow in their wake.
And it's little wonder you have the dry-humpers on the streets, clandestine vehicular movements in our alleys in the very early mornings, scrappers targeting houses, roaming animals and children, and the like, when conditions are permitted to decline and are perpetuated by government "give-aways".
YOU, the taxpayer are FUNDING all of this...and so much more.
You are paying for the dry-humpers, the gun-toting thugs, and the sex offenders (housed in motels across the city).
You are paying for every single boomcar you hear thumping alongside you at a traffic light.
You are paying the rent and utilities on every slum hovel that has less property value than a brand new Hyundai Accent. (and that's UNDER $10K!!!)
You are paying for every lazy-ass on generational public assistance.
You are buying their drugs, their booze, and their bling.
You are paying for every flawed "plan" the city (or any government for that matter) has shoved under the peoples' noses, and to what end?
Maybe you're fortunate enough to live in a NICE part of town, with a lower crime rate, more shopping, and everything that is NOT located on the SOUTH side of Fort Wayne...good for you.
Hope it's not costing YOU more than you can afford.
But by the look of the foreclosure rate in this city, it HAS to be costing a lot of people...a whole lotta something.
What this city seems to want to do, is forget about MY part of town...and maybe it will all just go away.
I mean, they DO have 3 other quadrants of the city that are more "profitable", and THAT was by design from several former mayors.
THEY did nothing (really) to turn the SE part of the city around...and we can all see the result of their INACTIONS, can't we?
Hell, just tune into this blog, and you'll get the truth...as plain as the noses on those politicians' primate faces.
Many think that because they DON'T live down here, they don't have a dog in this hunt...they're WRONG.
Everything that occurs down here is costing EVERY citizen in this city, and the sooner they all wake the hell up and smell the coffee burning, the better off the whole city will be.
Fort Wayne is NOT alone when it comes to things such as these...I'm sure YOUR city has it's own share of problems.
What you need to figure out is whether or not your city is properly addressing the issues, or just sweeping them under the carpet (that you are ALSO probably paying for).
What I feel is warranted is having a lot more of the city official's feet being held to a lot more fires, unless we would prefer the OTHER types of fires they've had in say...GREECE, or FRANCE.
It could very well happen here, and I pray to God I'm wrong.
But YOU have to decide for yourselves if YOUR hard-earned money is being spent in the best possible manner to ensure that "quality-of-life" that is so very often DENIED the few remaining decent people in MY part of the ghettohood.
Or, we can all bury our heads in the sand, hope for the best and trust that things "just go away"...
Our choice is simple, as always, but we do have to do our homework here.
We have to demand better of ourselves, and especially of those we entrust to run our cities, in whatever capacity they find themselves.
We need to challenge ourselves, AND THEM...and we need to do it every single day.
That is what is known as REAL progress.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.