November 5, 2005
IPFW's Walb Ballroom
8 a.m.-3 p.m.
Shop for the holidays! You'll find many unique, one-of-a-kind gifts created by local artisans! Submited by jbzr@earthlink.net
Fort Wayne Mayor Graham Richard today led a dedication ceremony to mark the official completion of the Camp Scott wetlands project.
Camp Scott is a $20 million project to reduce the risk of basement backups during wet weather conditions in neighborhoods around McMillen Park.
Camp Scott complements the City's combined sewer overflow compliance program by managing the number of combined sewer overflows being sent to the Maumee River. The project helps the City's stormwater quality program by treating stormwater through engineered wetlands. The new facility will provide residents and students a place for walking and learning, and fishing may be possible in the future.
"This award winning project is the result of a unique partnership. Federal, state, city, and neighborhood leaders have worked together for a positive result to help meet environmental challenges," said Mayor Richard. "This innovative project benefits the entire community and improves the quality of life for residents."
A series of neighborhood sewer separation projects, as part of the overall Camp Scott initiative, will continue through 2006.
The Indiana Association of Cities and Towns (IACT) selected the Camp Scott project for the IACT Community Achievement Award. IACT will recognize Fort Wayne later today at its annual conference being held in Fort Wayne today through Wednesday.
Congressman Mark Souder and Senators Evan Bayh and Richard Lugar helped the City receive $2 million in federal grants to help finance the project. Camp Scott was a military training facility and prisoner of war camp during World War II.
New DID director wants to put plans into practice
By Ryan Lengerich
rlengerich@news-sentinel.com
Growing up in west Chicago, Dan Carmody knew from a young age he wanted to be involved in architecture and city planning.
He earned his urban regional planning degree from the University of Illinois, and landed in Rock Island, Ill., in 1977 as a city planner. Two years later, he left his job and founded a brewery, which thrived through the 1980s even as a major plant closing devastated the local economy.
He sold the brewery and returned to a leadership position with the city in 1988 as president of Renaissance Rock Island, a nonprofit group charged with reinvigorating a slumping downtown.
Now, 17 years later, with Carmody's help, Rock Island is a thriving city of 38,800 in the Quad Cities region along the western border of Illinois.
Last week, Fort Wayne leaders announced Carmody was selected as new director of the Downtown Improvement District.
An advocate for downtown
Carmody's first visit to Fort Wayne came on a Saturday during the Three Rivers Festival. Fort Wayne's most popular event reaffirmed his mind-set that downtowns are "everybody's neighborhood," even in times when suburban sprawl threatens midsize cities nationwide.
"There is only one place that (festival) can happen, and that is downtown," he said.
Carmody fills a position vacant nearly a year, a time when the board for the 10-year-old Downtown Improvement District revamped its direction and searched for a suitable leader. Once geared toward beautification projects, promotion and event hosting, the organization's new focus is economic development.
"The first positive reaction was the huge amount of community investment that has gone on there in the past few years. You can see the strong civic commitment to the big catalyst projects," Carmody said, citing the newly opened Grand Wayne Convention Center, library expansion project and Allen County Courthouse renovation.
"Now
how do we work with the private sector to see those market-based investments? You got to show them there is a market where they don't see a market."
That's a lesson Fort Wayne's 24-person delegation to Greenville, S.C., to study its downtown revitalization learned. Greenville has become a national model for merging public and private dollars in the interest of major development.
Filling in the gaps
Carmody, armed with his small-business knowledge, saw something lacking when he visited Fort Wayne.
"The first challenges I noticed were a limited amount of retail, limited amount of housing, and a limited amount of food and beverage for a town its size," he said.
"I think there are some great restaurants in Fort Wayne already, but there is not a great concentration of them, that I know."
John Freistroffer, owner of Columbia Street West, said he supports the Downtown Improvement District's new focus and looks for Carmody to reinvigorate the organization.
"He's a businessman and a city developer, so maybe he will have two different angles," Freistroffer said.
Though downtown's economic impact may fall short of expectations, Carmody said that does not mean its importance is waning.
"One huge aspect is the number of large churches that still remain in the downtown area," he said.
"That represented to me that downtown may have lost some of its economic hold on the region, but certainly had retained its spiritual heart of the community."
Not alone
The Downtown Improvement District represents only a small portion of the engine driving downtown revitalization.
A slew of community development and redevelopment officials crowd the City-County Building. The Economic Development Alliance attracts and maintains jobs in the city and county, and the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce plays its role in business development.
"Nothing we are going to do can be done ourselves," Carmody said. "It has to be done with others who have a stake in downtown."
Carmody said there is no shortage of ideas within the city's five-year downtown revitalization plan, or blueprint, started in 2003 by Mayor Graham Richard. In June, planner Gianni Longo submitted a report updating the blueprint, creating another useful tool with which to work.
But for Carmody, the blueprint alone means little.
"If the plan itself were going to get the job done, it would have been done 20 years ago," he said.
"But the plan is only as good as its implementation. I think there is a good plan in place. The challenging part is to put it into practice."
Dan Carmody
Age: 50
Born: Oak Park, Ill.
Education: Bachelor's degree in Urban and Regional Planning, University of Illinois
Family: Wife Vivian and six daughters
Accomplishments: Board member, International Downtown Association; Citizen of the Year, Rock Island, professional category
Philosophy on downtown revitalization: "Successful downtowns combine density, diversity, and details to become compelling places that are sustainable, equitable, and viable. Successful downtown organizations are effective, incremental, entrepreneurial, inclusive and organic."
On the Web
- Downtown Improvement District - www.downtownfortwayne.com
- Downtown Rock Island Arts and Entertainment District -
Vendors, backers like results, have big plans for next summer.
By Ryan Lengerich
rlengerich@news-sentinel.com
David Doud, a Wabash County farmer, sells his apples and cider at fresh markets in Roanoke and North Manchester.
This year, he took a chance and set up shop at the newly revived Barr Street Market in downtown Fort Wayne. He said he plans to return next year.
"The worst thing that ever happens at a market is you sit there and be bored, and that absolutely didn't happen," Doud said.
Andrew Thomas, with Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana, said the experiment to attract people downtown was a success, and said Young Leaders will brainstorm how to improve the market when it returns, likely in the spring.
Young Leaders is a volunteer group that formed in the spring and took the lead in organizing four Saturday markets, concluding last weekend. The group also has talked about eventually holding it year-round in some fashion.
"People were just happy to have a place to go," Thomas said. "I got this quote a lot of times: 'We need more things like this in Fort Wayne.'"
Thomas estimated some 400 shoppers turned out each week to buy wares from farmers and artists. Vendors included an organic farmer and a woman who did quick paintings of scenes from the market. A different local band performing each week completed the experience.
Thomas said Young Leaders did not profit from the venture. There was no vendor fee either -- though one may be instituted next year, with the fee money to be used to help publicize the market.
Young Leaders' other ideas for the future include staging a major athletic event -- such as a running or bike race -- and a music festival. Group members also have a keen interest in promoting the river area.
"It is a goal of ours to start working with the waterways a little bit," Thomas said.
On the Web
Learn more about Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana at www.ylni.com.
Reviving a market
Barr Street Market, which dates to the 1830s, was a downtown staple until it closed in 1957. It reopened on a smaller scale in the 1970s but never enjoyed the same prominence before closing. The land at Barr and Wayne streets, where the market was held, is owned by the Allen County/Fort Wayne Historical Society, which allowed Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana to revive it.
A new research paper examines Florida's ideas, focusing on the evidence in British cities, and finds little evidence that 'creative' cities do better.Richard Florida's well-known 'creative class' theory suggests that diverse, tolerant and cool cities will outperform other places. Cities with more ethnic minorities, gay people and counter-culturalists will attract high-skilled professionals: the presence of this 'creative class' ensures cities get the best jobs and most dynamic companies. Much of Florida's research concentrates on American cities. Does it work in the UK?
This paper examines Florida's ideas, focusing on the evidence in British cities. It finds little evidence of a 'creative class', and little evidence that 'creative' cities do better. Businesses look for skilled workers when making location decisions, but skilled people also move to where the jobs are. Buzz attracts young people to city centres for a short time, after which most move out to suburbs.
The paper concludes that the creative class model is a poor predictor of UK city performance. There is other, stronger evidence that diversity and creativity are linked to economic growth in cities, not least through rebranding and boosting tourism. Decisionmakers should focus on the basics: creativity is the icing, not the cake.
[Editor's note: The link below is to a 2MB PDF document.] Source: Insitute for Public Policy Research, Oct 04, 2005 >Link (PDF).