It was quite a show at council last night as some 65 residents of the near east side, neighbors to the recycling transfer site, vented their anger. And, they were angry.

The roar started almost as soon as Council President Tom Smith opened the mic last night to citizen comment. One after another minister and a few private citizens parade to the mic to chastise council members for approving the placement of a transfer site in their neighborhood, on the site of the old Pontiac Street Fruehauf/Fort Wayne Foundry campus. Only problem was that council had not approved it. That, however didn’t seem to matter. Nor did civility.

During the tirades the mostly Black audience cheered when one speaker asked the council members if they wanted to have the garbage coming into their neighborhoods. During the course of the comments people ranted that they had not been involved in the process, that the powers conspired to put the transfer station in a black neighborhood, that they already have enough cockroaches and rats. Hmmm, I would guess they were not trying to encourage investment on their street. Verbal hand grenades were hurled at Mayor Henry, all the members of city council, Jerry Henry, and specifically toward Tim Pape and Glynn Hines, the two council members representing that area.

Wayne Township Trustee Rick Stevenson, the organizer of the demonstration, spoke last and was less bombastic, but he was also critical of the mayor and others for allowing the rezoning. Problem is the mayor does not sit on the board of zoning appeals that heard the request about a year ago, and then, at the point where a difference could have been properly made, no one objected then. Stevenson, the ministers and the others were no where to be seen. No where.

I asked one man standing by a door who the neighborhood leaders in the closest neighborhoods are. He looked perplexed and said he didn’t know. I asked a couple others the same question, they did not know. My point: they were not blindsided nor left out of the loop, they simply failed to get in it. As a neighborhood president I am invited to a dozen meetings a month, receive regular mailings from city hall and follow up on all of them. If there is going to be a rezoning on my street I check it out. As far as I can tell there is no neighborhood organization near the transfer station. They chose, and I emphasize chose, to be left out of the loop.

Hines responded after the tumult subsided. He referred to the comments of various “brothers” and informed the sisters and brothers that he had worked with Stevenson and others, had meetings, planned strategy to bring the matter front and center in the community. Glynn had the mightier pulpit. He defended the neighborhood advocate, Cherise Dixie, who was also verbally tarred and feathered. John Shoaff, who said he stood with the neighborhood, politely stated that “this is not a black-white issue” and quieted most of the crowd. Liz Brown intelligently changed the subject and people began to stream out.

The crowd, if organized by Stevenson, may have made a point last night, but it was in the ineffectiveness of their leaders and representatives. Over a year ago signs were put out in their neighborhood concerning the public hearing at the BZA, no objection then. Did Glynn Hines object then? No, but why should he have, the neighbors did not. Cherise Dixie probably did her part, it was the neighborhood and their ministers and “leaders” who dropped the ball. Now they are playing catch up in the fourth quarter, the rezoning has been approved and is operating.

Notably, none of the council members defended charges, unfounded and obtuse, that Mayor Henry had done this to them. Under the bus. Not even Karen Goldner and Tim Pape offered a defense for their ally.

Notably, Glynn Hines started his rebuttal, and effective it was, by saying that every second and fourth Tuesday there is an open mic at council and invited the crowd, any and all, to come each second and fourth Tuesday. He repeated it enough times that the point was well taken, seldom do Black folk show up at council. Typically, Glynn Hines and Paul Morrison, a savvy and thoughtful, not to mention conservative, activist are the only two African-American faces in the house. Plenty of Euro-Americans show each Tuesday, seldom, however, is there a third, fourth or fifth face from the AA community. Glynn made that point in a very gentle, but clear way. Every second and fourth Tuesday.

Glynn also made another point, that Jerry Henry, the supposed villain in this matter, the one bringing vermin and garbage into their neighborhood, has done a great, great deal to help that same neighborhood by bringing in jobs, jobs, jobs when other businesses were, instead, abandoning that neighborhood. There is no question Jerry Henry has been a godsend to a deteriorating area.

So, let us see if a neighborhood president will be elected to work with Hines, Pape, Dixie and the mayor’s office to improve their neighborhood. Otherwise, apologies to the Bard, this was only a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.

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Tags: Earth First, Fort Wayne City Council, Glynn Hines, Karen Goldner, Rick Stevenson, Summit Recycling, Tim Pape, Tom Henry, Tom Smith

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 9:33 am and is filed under City & County Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.