The Marx-ist Struggle
Phil Marx, of the blog My HUD House, has been featured in the most recent edition of Fort Wayne Reader:
Inner city blues
Blogger Phil Marx of My H.U.D. House chronicles his day-to-day struggles with drug dealers and his frustrations with the F.W.P.D.
Link (Fort Wayne Reader)
“Late one October night in 2006, a Molotov cocktail exploded on the back porch of Phil Marx’s house. Another burst in the back yard, while a third smoldered in the front.
Marx doesn’t live in Baghdad or Mogadishu or Kabul. He lives in Fort Wayne, in a house on East Suttenfield just a few blocks from the headquarters of the Fort Wayne Police Department. For almost 13 years, Marx has been waging a war with the drug dealers in his neighborhood who use his corner — and sometimes his front yard — as a place to do business”
Be sure to check out the full article!
Related FWP posts:
Marx Is Still The Best (2008-05-09)
Are You Reading The Best Blog In Town? (2008-03-11)
An Open Suggestion For YLNI
Over the past year or so I’ve had the opportunity to meet several people involved with the Young Leaders Of Northeast Indiana (YLNI) organization and I’ve attended a few of their events and meetings as well. The people I’ve interacted with are an impressive lot that truly care about the future of our community.
They have hosted influential speakers, held roundtable discussions/debates and, in general, they’ve encouraged their members to become involved in the community. For brevity, I really am shortchanging the good work they’ve done but you can check out their website for more information if you’re so inclined.
What I would like to see from the organization now is a push towards policy involvement. I’m not suggesting the group has to cut back on anything they are doing now - far from it. I just think this community needs an organization willing to put forth leaders to guide the future of the community and end, to quote county councilman Paul Moss, the “incestuous relationships” that are abound in our local government.
In my opinion, the most effective means to change local government is by applying a ground-up approach and that means a wholesale change on the various boards and commissions that make up our government. YLNI has a plethora of members that would be great additions to these boards and I would suggest they start by lobbying for one of their members to fill the empty spot on the Plan Commission.
It’s one thing to lobby for change and try to steer the ship from the outside but it’s quite another challenge to try and take the wheel yourself. YLNI has shown to be an effective and impressive community-building organization and now they should consider taking the next step which is to influence public policy by getting more involved in local government organizations…
Is GiaQuinta The FWCS Board Spokesman?
Yesterday the NS had an article about the board’s refusal to release the superintendent’s evaluation and FWCS board president Mark GiaQuinta was quoted in a way that makes it sound like he’s the official board spokesman:
The Fort Wayne Community Schools board will not release the results of its evaluation of Superintendent Wendy Robinson, which was completed this week.
“The board believes (this) is a confidential matter, but we also acknowledge the completion of our duty to the public to review the progress of our chief administrator,” board President Mark GiaQuinta said in a statement Wednesday.
“While we won’t discuss the details, we can say that overall we are pleased with the direction Dr. Robinson is taking the district, and we are looking forward to continuing to work with her in educating all students to high standards.”
Did I miss the meeting where the board gave the president the role of spokesman for the entire body? I don’t recall hearing city council president Tom Didier speaking on behalf of all city councilmembers. GiaQuinta should speak for himself and stop using the word “we” unless he has express permission from the other board members. Another odd statement from the story:
GiaQuinta called the evaluation “constructive and positive” but further denied The News-Sentinel any request for the actual document, adding he was not afraid of any public backlash.
“I’m not afraid of anything,” he said.
Except turnips - sorry that was just too easy…
If Nobody Reports It, Is It News?
As Mitch Harper of FWoB would say - “Blogs have sped up the news cycle”. WANE and the JG “blogged” the Plan Commission vote on Canyon Cliffs today but as of now (8:45pm), Indiana News Center doesn’t have a story up on their website at all…
Sewer Restrictive Covenant Will Remain In Place
The restrictive covenants will not be removed as the Plan Comission voted 4-3 against it. Ken Neumeister, Paul Moss and Harold Kleine were the only votes for lifting the covenant.
The head of the Sewer District is livid. Speaking to people in the room:
You can go thank them for killing Holmestead. Unbelievable - they killed our opportunity. It makes absolutely no sense. I’m not going to sit through this listen to Bill Brown ask “Why aren’t you doing this?” I don’t know why the hell we didn’t do it. We had a different director of City Utilities, the environment was different…
My final thought on the matter - Holy crap the people still can win in this community…
Sewer Restictive Covenant Discussion - Liveblogging
3:15 PM - Any time sewer service is provided outside the incorporated boundary of the city then those recipients are required by the city to sign a waiver of remonstrance in regards to annexation. The commission asked if Holmestead Acres would be required to to sign that waiver and the answer from the city was “Yes”.
3:20 PM - Paul Moss was very concerned about the city annexing that portion of the county in the future and with history as his guide I’d say he should be. He said he wants to see septic relief for the area but that his concern of annexation outweighs that benefit. “It’s going to be awfully hard for the city not to look at that (Canyon Cliffs) area.”
3:25 PM - Ted Nitza admits that future septic relief is being considered for the area but that is a long-term solution and would require completely different piping. The current pipes as part of this project would not be sufficient to add more than maybe a dozen more homes. I think the important point here is that the city does have plans to expand sewage to the area and that means more development.
3:31 PM - Discussion of a letter asking that if the restrictive covenants are listed then all residents be allowed to get relief and not just those that sign up the quickets. A representative of the sewer district said that only the 64 Holmestead Acres homes will get the septic relief.
Canyon Cliffs Vote - 4 of 5 Minor Plats Not Approved (Update 2x)
Minor plat 1 was approved by a 5-2 vote.
Minor plats 2-5 failed by not getting 5 votes - the vote was 4-3.
Since the majority vote wasn’t actually against the applications they will remain open indefinitely.
It was hard to tell who voted against the plats - Gonzalee Martin was one of them and I believe Susan Hoot and Bill Brown Harold Kleine (plats 2-5) were the other two but I’ll have to confirm that.
Frankly I’m a little shocked…
Update: The JG reports that Harold Kleine was the vote for plat 1 and against plats 2-5. They had a closer seat than me so they’re probably right. Also as the JG reports Kleine didn’t say anything during the debate so that one kind of came out of left field.
I believe this means the developer can still build on the property but they will do so under a different set of rules and they will be limited to how many (14?) they can develop at a time.
Update 2x: I had an opportunity to briefly speak with Bill Brown during the break and he said that the developers can only develop 6 lots under the first minor plat ordinance that passed although they will likely challenge the commission’s vote in court. However, he said they could develop the rest under metes and bounds although that wouldn’t allow them pursue as quality of a development due to certain restrictions.
ACRES Still In The Running For Canyon Cliffs Property
Mike Thomas says any media report that suggested there were no current discussions between him and ACRES is incorrect. He has been in discussion with ACRES and they’ve been given an estimate of what the purchase price would be. He says the door is still open to ACRES and if they make a proposal then he will consider it.
The plan commission then asked to speak with a representative from ACRES but the attorney seemed to have left a few minutes ago. Some people went off to find him but I think he’s gone so the commission is moving forward.
Canyon Cliffs Plan Commission Vote - Liveblogging
Just got here and things have been underway for about half an hour.
2:04 PM - Susan Hoot says she voted for the minor plat ordinance but doesn’t remember anyone discussing the “stacking” of properties like is happening now.
2:06 PM - Bill Brown says the minor plat ordinance needs to be revisited so that its purpose statement is actually in the ordinance (no kidding).
2:08 PM - Hoot says the minor plat being discussed goes against Plan-it Allen; nobody challenges that assertion
2:13 PM - A bunch of gobbly-gook about whether or not this specific piece of property is prohibited under the minor plat ordinance. If the minor plat ordinance is not approved the developer could still develop 28 lots over 2 years.
2:18 PM - Hoot says “I’m in disagreement with all of this. I don’t think we’ve done a good job for Allen County and I’m sorry I’ve been a part of that. I don’t think we can stop Mr Bodenhafer from developing the 28 lots but I want to go on record as saying I’m against what’s happening out there.”
2:20 PM - Commissioner Bill Brown states that just the fact that this type of approval could happen in executive committee means the ordinance should be revisited. Also says some people would’ve liked to have seen this donated to ACRES but the property owner can do what he wants.
A Historical View Of The County’s Bridge Financing Failure
The county council and commissioners would have you believe that the current financial crisis involving bridges was somehow unforeseen or unavoidable. The truth is everyone knew it was a poor decision to eliminate the county’s cumulative bridge fund - the county’s own highway director Mike Fitch even told them as much.
So just keep in mind that when commissioner Nelson Peters tells the public that the county has enough cash reserves to maintain bridges in the county it’s because they created that reserve on the back of bridge maintenance.
$750k per year used to go to maintenance but in 2002 they decided to send it to the general fund instead. They simply started playing a shell game hoping the problem would go away. So let’s a take a brief historical tour into what actually happened and shed some light on the current problem:
