Inclusive Not Exclusive - Path To Downtown Development

Invent Tomorrow returned from their three day trip to Chattanooga where they hoped to pick up ideas on how this very unique city turned their downtown into a center of attraction. Various members of the local community have previously visited Greenville, South Carolina and Providence, Rhode Islands to which they claim have many similarities to Fort Wayne.

Invent Tomorrow Executive Director Cheri Becker said the travels are to see what lessons can be gleamed from these cities and then adopt them to Fort Wayne. One would hope the group would also have gleamed problematic issues that have come to these communities as a result of the downtown development. It is like picking beautiful roses, if you do not deal with the thorns, then you will not be picking roses for long.

It is nice to see Invent Tomorrow state that all three cities took some twenty years to reach the point they are at today. They did not do it in three or four years. The three cities developed rough plans, but ones the future administrations could buy into. They accomplished their goal with private investment, federal monies, state monies, foundation grants, and some city investment.

When anything is designed there many steps that any project must traverse before it is completed. Fort Wayne's overall final product will be the sum of many smaller projects, but each must be done in a orderly prudent financial method. They must be done with a solid master plan but with the flexibility for change.

No one can just brush off the unknown environmental issues facing the OmniSource property. By doing so, could doom the North River project for generations if the City of Fort Wayne is required to pay most or all the clean up costs. The four plus million dollar investment in securing the property could be only a small down payment in making the property usable.

While some would say that Fort Wayne is much like Chattanooga, Greenville, or Providence is a distortion in many many ways. Nevertheless, we can still learn things these cities have done that worked and what did not work that could apply to Fort Wane.

A person would be hard pressed to find many residents of Fort Wayne who say they are opposed to Fort Wayne improving itself. Where the difference is how we get there and how we pay for it. The people concerned about how we get there and how we pay for it should be part of the planing process. By being inclusive, over being exclusive may take a tad longer to develop the master plan but it will result in one endorsed by the vast majority.

Groups that want to step forward and act in the roll of leadership need to make sure the public knows who they are. Right or wrong, the deeds of other special interest groups has people questioning any new group. These groups must operate in total transparency if they wish for the public to buy into their ideas. Otherwise, they will be rightfully placed under a cloud of question!