Fort Wayne Observed

Feedback Loop

Yesterday's post on the city's new Downtown Improvement District president prompted a discussion among FWOb readers about different philosphies of economic development, particularly "smart development."

COMMENTS

Wondering

Curious about what North Side High School now looks like on the inside?

North Side High School, 475 E. State Blvd., will have an open house Saturday to show off the new $49 million renovation.

Doors open at 12:30 p.m. with a short ceremony featuring Fort Wayne Community Schools Superintendent Wendy Robinson and Mayor Graham Richard at 1 p.m. Tours of the building will be given from 1:30 to 4 p.m.

Wait a Minute...

A FWOb reader wonders:

Here's a question for FW Observed, journalist or not: Don't you think that the J-G's editorial this morning about the parks director begs the question, WHY HAS IT BEEN SO HARD TO FIND SOMEONE? Or perhaps, is there ANYONE who is qualified for the job who would want it? Or even, shouldn't anyone who is willing to take the job receive some sort of immediate mental health counseling?

Here's an excerpt from that editorial:

A nationwide search that took eight months and cost about $38,000 has produced nothing. Fort Wayne still does not have a new parks department director to succeed Dianne Hoover, who left in January. And while it’s important that the Fort Wayne Board of Parks Commissioners find the right person for the job, it is equally important that the board gets it done soon. The department should not be allowed to languish without stable leadership.

The director’s salary is nearly $100,000 and should be more than adequate to attract capable candidates. But contrary to what you might think, being the director of the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department is not a walk in the park. The parks department director has to keep park employees, board members, the mayor, financial donors, business leaders and the general public happy. And, the director has to make it look like fun.

I think the reader raises a good question.  Why has it been so hard to find a new parks director?

The State of Education

Some bad news about some old news:

About one in four Indiana students won’t graduate from high school, according to a new estimate by state education officials that tells a radically different story than previous dropout rates.

A flawed formula in recent years showed the state graduation rate at 90 percent or better. But criticism of that number has prompted a new, more accurate system using student tracking numbers.

[...]For instance, FWCS reported a graduation rate of 88.3 percent in 2002 using a state formula, but a Journal Gazette analysis registered about 61 percent using formulas independent of subjective reporting.

Perhaps those compiling the inaccurate numbers dropped out of school themselves...

Academic News

Taylor University has a new president, Eugene Habecker.

For the Fort Wayne campus, Habecker said it is important to get the right vision in place. The campus has already started working to distinguish itself from the Upland campus through the programs it offers and the types of students it serves. While Upland is a more traditional, liberal arts university, Fort Wayne has many non-traditional and older students and offers more classes through non-traditional means, such as the Internet.

Habecker said the campuses will continue to focus on their strengths and expand in those areas.

“The programs will be different and unique, even more so than they are now,” he said.

Over the next decade, Habecker said he also wants to see enrollment increase at both campuses and wants to create more graduate programs at the Fort Wayne campus. And he wants to work with other universities to find areas where institutions can work together to offer programs.

“Indiana University and Purdue University have figured out how to collaborate,” Habecker said. “Certainly, some of the other campuses can do it, too.”

Habecker attended Taylor as a student and later served as president of Huntington College for ten years.

Taking the Law Into Your Own Hands

The 2nd Amendment in action:

A homeowner called the Allen County Sheriff’s Department about 10:34 a.m. Wednesday after he arrived at his home in the 16000 block of Aboite Road and discovered a dark-colored van parked in his driveway and a stack of electronic equipment, said Steve Stone, sheriff’s department spokesman.

The homeowner grabbed a shotgun from his home and shot out one of the tires on the van, then went to a neighbor’s home and called police, Stone said.

Except the bad guys got away...

Where Do Politicians Go?

Former Governor Joe Kernan has a new job, if only for a few weeks:

Former Gov. Joe Kernan was introduced Wednesday as the interim director of the St. Joseph County chapter of the Red Cross.

The previous executive director was fired a couple of weeks ago. Kernan said he is donating his time as temporary director.

Kernan said his relationship with the Red Cross dates to the Vietnam War. He and other prisoners of war received a Red Cross package containing deodorant and toothpaste.

Feedback is Fun!

A lot of intersting comments on whether people think I'm a journalist.

• Don't take this wrong, because I think what you do is valuable, but no, I don't think you're a journalist. I think "journalist" implies a level of training and discipline which is associated with a professional...

• I agree with the previous comment. Plus, you aren't as accountable. You can use anonymous sources at your own discretion. If you get something wrong, sure, it's embarrassing, but you don't have to worry about getting reprimanded or fired.

• If Nathan begins to outright lie or be in some way dishonest, sure, he won't be fired. But he will certain earn the ire of his readers, and don't think he wouldn't be called on it.
  
  He's not a "professional" journalist. He's not a "trained" journalist. Hey, he may not even be a "good" journalist. But if he's writin' about what he's seein', he is in some way a journalist.
  
  So, let's call him an amateur journalist. Good grief, we need some terminology that confirms he must be held to some standard, yet realizes that he's doing it on his own time in his own way. If Mencken's reports were journalism, heck, about anything will fly under the term. (I say that respectfully of ol' H.K., of course.)

• How about this: call bloggers who are quoted in print and on the air media as "bloggists." Kinda combines the two. "Journalist" should be reserved for those who hone their craft within the confines of a traditional college education. (Keith Edwards being the exception here..."talking heads" are just talking heads.)

   

    

• Hell, Peter Jennings didn't hone his craft within the confines of even a high school education...

   Some of the comments seem to have been made under the assumption that I've never been paid to work as a journalist before.

In fact, last year, I wrote an article on the brawl between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit fans for a national magazine called Venues Today. (Earlier this year, the Journal Gazette described Venues Today as "a leading industry publication" in an item about it naming the Memorial Coliseum a "top stop.")

The story I wrote focused on the impact the fracas could have on sports venues in the future. Because of the timeliness of my report, it was published not in the monthly magazine but the weekly news supplement that all subscribers receive via email.

I was paid somewhere in the range of three figures for my work.  You can read the article here.

It just might qualify me as a professional freelance journalist.

A New Blog

In today's N-S, Ryan Lengerich reports that a new director of the Downtown Improvement District has been hired: Dan Carmody. He comes to Fort Wayne from Rock Island, IL, and some there are questioning why he would want to leave them from the Summit City, according to a new Blog Challenge blog, Indiana Parley.

In an article headlined "Carmody Leaves for Browner Pastures" the Quad-Cities Times gives its take on Rock Island Economic Growth head Dan Carmody leaving to take overthe Downtown Development District (DID) in Fort Wayne. The article is very positive on Mr. Carmody but is puzzled by the choice of Fort Wayne.

Pardon our surprise when Dan Carmody announced he'll leave the Quad-Cities to oversee downtown development in Indiana's No. 2 city.

No disrespect intended. Fort Wayne is us: About 220,000 people clustered around a river in a midwest industrial town that was stepped on in the 1980s by International Harvester.

So why swap rust-belt towns?

“I do like these second-tier, mid-sized industrial towns trying to figure out what they want to be,” said Carmody.

You can read the rest of the story in the Quad-Cities Times here.

I like the idea of someone recruited from the Quad-Cities. It's part of my family heritage so I'm familiar with it. But more important is the fact that the demographics are very similar. I've been impressed with the sense of renewal exhibited there. I also suspect that Mr. Carmody, coming from a place similar in size to Fort Wayne but which has multiple municipal entities having to work across two states, will be able to assure folks here that consolidated government is not the only avenue toward renewal.

And the other thought is that his experience as a brewer, and having worked the other side of a bar, will hold him in good stead here.

Indiana Parley, by the way, is hosted by Mitch Harper and pledges to be a "place for public policy, politics, the history, and the future of Indiana."

http://indianaparley.blogspot.com/

Inside Saint Francis Football

The latest issue of Overtime hits newstands tomorrow.

(Click the image for a larger version of the cover.)