100 People Who are Messing Up Fort Wayne and Allen County?

Columnist Matt Tully of the Indianapolis Star has a weblog "Political Junkie."  Last week, he had a slow news day. So, he decided to ask his readers the question: "Who is messing up Indiana?"  He got a lot of responses.  A few days ago, he tallied the responses.  Leading the pack was Indiana House Democratic Leader Pat Bauer, followed by House Speaker Brian Bosma and Governor Mitch Daniels.

Bernard Goldberg's book, "100 People Who Are Screwing Up America" was Mr. Tully's jumping-off point.

I’m not too interested in the book, as it appears to be a simple ideologically driven exercise. But the title raises a good question: Which Hoosiers would be on a list of people who are messing up Indiana? (Yes, unlike the book, I'll say "messing up.")

So, Fort Wayne Observed has a question for you: "Who is messing up Fort Wayne and Allen County"?

As Mr. Tully wrote:

Feel free to include the names of politicians, celebrities, lobbyists and, gulp, columnists. Or anyone else.

Any thoughts?

Comments

[FTM]

I'll write the book- "100 people that are screwing up Allen County (And Mitch Harper is #37)"

[Andrew Kaduk]

Serv-all (not a person, but I've got pictures to prove they're messing up the joint)

[Anonymous]

All of them. They all seem too enamored with their own legacies and in creating power for themselves then they do listening to the people they are supposed to serve. Vote them all out.

[Little Miss Pigyy]

If I had more time to think about it, I could come up with 100
Not in any particular order:

Tom Hayhurst
Jeff Fraser
Marla Irving
Barney Niezer
Tom Niezer
Barry Sturgis
David Roach
Bill Bean
Melissa Long
Randy Brown
Kevin Knuth
Kim Bowman
Phil Laux
Sandy Kennedy
Tom Wyss
Pat White
Queen Diane
Graham Richard
Dan Carmody
Paula Hughs
Rich (Dick) R. Reynolds
Greg Meszaros
Joe Ruffalo
Charlie Butcher

[Zachary McConnell]

Congressman Mark Souder (broke his promise, out of touch with what Fort Wayne citizens want)
Fort Wayne Airport head Tory Richardson (dragging his feet on bringing in low-cost air service back to Fort Wayne...I could do a better job than him)
The nutcases at Granite Broadcasting and WPTA/WISE-TV (proof that 1 + 1 doesn't always equal 2)
Anyone who STILL has a Marvin Scott for US Senate bumper sticker on their car (he lost, it's over, he's not running in the '06 primaries, get over it)
The zoning gurus who allowed two more Wal-Mart Supercenters in Fort Wayne (do we really need more Wal-Marts?)

That's about it for now.

[Anonymous]

Little Miss Piggy forgot to mention who the biggest offender is David Long. He's forgotten who voted for him. It was his friends not MITCH. Who's gonna vote for him at his next election? I'm NOT. He's caused current disruption within the Republican Party. What are going about it, folks? I know I'm not alone.

[Andrew Kaduk]

My personal #1:

Jon A. Boscia

Here's my pics in no particular order-

Mark Souder (I should not have to justify this)
David Long
Ken Fries (arrogant)
Steve Shine (too tan)
Linda Buskirk (Mudslinger extraordinare)
Marla Irving (Thank you for another wal mart)
Mike Sylvester (A LIBERTARIAN running for school board in NACS on a "Jeff Fraser" only platform)
Jeff Fraser

and, just for good measure, George Bush - because he is quite frankly messing up the entire country and Allen County is a part of the country

[Lynn Wegmann]

Messing up Allen County are:

Leo Moris
David Long
Chamber of Commerce types advocating consolidation of City County Government.
County Commissioners and commissoner candidates who do not live out in the county.

[Grizzly]

So, apparently the "no personal attacks" rule is suspended for the purposes of this thread?

I nominate all the wannabes in a second class-if that-market who try to make Fort Wayne into something it is not and never will be.

[Andrew Kaduk]

I am rather familiar with Mike Sylvester's platform, and I can honestly say that I have never even SEEN the word "Fraser" in any of his campaign materials...

I'll add another one to the list since I'm posting anyway:

Whoever instructs Driver's Training up in this place...they are obviously doing something terribly, terribly wrong.

[Juan Bodley]

I've got to name just one person: Jerry Geisler. What a jackass. Took 2 perfectly good stations and made one the parrot of antother (33 in case you don't follow me:) and turned both into video billboards on the weekends when the networks aren't airing anything. Jerry Geisler, grow a set of stones and do something creative, or get the hell out of town!!!

[Anonymous]

Council People:
Darin Vogt
Paula Hughes
Cal Miller

They are screwing up Fort Wayne so bad, the 97 others lost their significance.

[Anonymous]

Someone sure is right about the County Council.
Darin Vogt
Paula Hughes
Cal Miller and Paul Moss

They are really screwing up Fort Wayne.

[anonymous]

My list is not 100 long, but important

Indiana and Ft. Wayne Chambers of Commerce
David Long
Tom Wyss
Randy Borror
Paula Hughes
Darren Vogt
Cal Miller
Paul Moss
Sam Talarico
Ken Neumeister
Joe & Rick Zehr
Home Builders Assoc of Ft. Wayne
Nelson Peters
Kurt Kemmish
Tom Miller
NE Indiana Corporate Council
Paul Helmke
James Ridley
Leo Morris
Julie Inskeep
Tracy Warner

[bigandimportant]

Anyone who thinks we shouldn't revive downtown Fort Wayne.

[John Good]

How about the 100,000 people who blindly vote for the same elected officials over and over and expect different results? I tip my hat to all of you who, while still voting among party lines, "refreshed" the county council the last time around. I commend your vote for progress in a severely conservative county.

[Stealth]

Randy Brown, of the Memorial Coliseum. Not only did he get the city to reinvest in the Coliseum(that has no adjacent hotels) at the expense of rejuvinating Downtown.

He also continues to have a strangle hold on the City's sports teams by controlling all the major revenue streams (concessions, suite and signage revenue). Is it any wonder why FW only has the Komets & the Wizards, both of which play at the lowest professional level? Even though the Komets have always had good fan support.

Yes the MC does bring revenue to the community, but the return on investment is far lower than what should be expected of an Arena/convention center. Randy Brown, the head of the MC, has to have screwed up FW more than anyone.

[Jason Blosser]

Pat White
Queen Diane
Charley Butcher
Melissa Long
Leo Morris
Tracy Warner
Jon A. Boscia
The close proximity of DeKalb County
Fort Wayne City Council
Allen County Council
Sheila Jackson Lee
Win Moses
Cynthia McKinney
L&S Alignment
Teenagers working in retail
Kevin Knuth
Mayor Graham Richard for thinking that more retail will save this city.
Those who approved more Wal-marts in the mistaken hope that more retail will save this city.
Wendy Robinson
Linda Jackson
Greg Schoup
Taco Bell manager at Maplecrest
The eternally annoying Nancy Null
Paul Paino
Inner city black "ministers" with a political agenda against anything not black and inner city.
The Urinal Gazette
The moron who designed the set for Indiana's Newscenter.
The moron who thought people really want to see a news ticker at the bottom of the screen on Indiana's Newscenter.
Jeff Abbott
My wife's boss.
My mom's boss.
Soccer moms.
Kids driving to Northrop on I-469 during the morning rush.
INDOT
The guy who said Mitch Harper was #37.
Bruce Haines of WBOI/WBNI
The driver of license plate 2k5111.
My ex-wife.
Jerry Geisler for his arrogant response to several e-mails regarding NBC's now cancelled "The Book of Daniel."
Jerry Geisler (again) for ruining two perfectly mediocre TV stations.
Tecumseh
Everyone at Centennial Wireless...

OK. So when are we going to do the harder list? The 100 people making the best and greatest impact on FWA/Allen County? Let's keep this positive.

Editor's Note: On April 5, 2006, Mr. Blosser wrote back to take Greg Shoup off the list he submitted. He actually thinks Greg is a great guy and even regrets spelling his name incorrectly. FWOb will have more to say about the listings when this topic wraps up next week.