By Jim Sack
Karl Bandemer is one of my favorite guys in Fort Wayne. He is shrewd, tough, experienced, traveled and, tough, if I may repeat myself. He will need to be. He is the new leader of a new operation to redevelop downtown.
I worked with Karl when he was a leader in the Moses Administration in the 1983s, but had little working contact with him, except during Germanfest when he would meet his even tougher, better traveled and shrewder father, Irv, at the tent for rounds of merry making. Irv was as good a guy as you will ever meet. I have no idea what his politics were, Irv is waiting in Valhalla, but he was not one to buy a pig in a poke or to condone wastefulness, foolishness or laziness. Irv led a board I was on years ago and questioned every expenditure, every project, every theory until he was sold. Irv could be a pain. So can Karl and that is just what we need to be to run this new project putting together the money and parcels to redevelop the downtown.
There are quite a few reasons to develop the center. That is one of them. It is the center, the most efficient place to meet, should be the most valuable property in the area, should be where the greatest attractions are. More people go to the zoo than shop downtown, or just about anything else downtown. It has been nearly abandoned since the 60s and hasn’t gotten much better over the years. In fact, it seems down right empty these days.
So, Karl gets the job of creating a vision for the center, and leading the effort to realize that vision. Seems the mayor has given up, the DID has a unaspiring leader, no one knows who runs the Chamber, Greg Leatherman is discredited; Andy Udris at the Alliance is about the only sign of life between Creighton and the River, Swinney Park and Clay Street. So Udris and Richard Davis, the gray ghost at DID, will partner with Karl Bandemer to run this new effort to put some pizzazz and glitz in the downtown. I have my vision. I will push it toward Karl. He will give me a sharp look and focus on his tough job. Downtown is still a sea of parking lots punctuated by lonely buildings. There is not much continuity, except where the ball park, the Grand Wayne and the Embassy meet.
Yup, I have my vision, but so do a few dozen others who have more clout than I and there is the rub. Each will push and pull with their own special interests at the fore. It will take strong leadership, which Karl has exhibited and which his tough old father had in abundance. Let us hope the apple has fallen not far from the tree.
Two questions confront Karl: money and creating/executing a vision. Without a vision the effort is doomed. As the line goes, if you don’t know where you’re going any road will take you there. So, Karl Bandemer has to envision a city center and make it happen, otherwise they are shooting in the dark, subject to haphazard and wasteful efforts. That brings to mind another old saw: “don’t confuse motion with progress.” We have seen lots of announcements and news releases of what might be, lots of dust has been raised, good people appointed only to fade from sight over time. Progress, Karl, progress! Let us see a night life in the downtown, new construction, the completion of Harrison Square, a couple more restaurants, shops and fewer parking lots, in short, a downtown young people will flock to, where business thrives and is visually exciting.
The other question is of money. Mr. Bandemer sits on the new Capital Improvements Board which was recently created and funded by the food and beverage tax previously funneled to the Coliseum. He also knows everyone in town, including old office buddies from the Moses years who run some big operations, including one major foundation, and who are placed all over the city; not to mention Win himself who should be able to offer help in a variety of ways, including from his chair in the legislature.
I like this development a lot. I hope the turfism that has undermined so many other good people and sunk so many excellent ideas does not drag Karl down.
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To get anything done, strong leadership is a must. I can’t think of a stronger person to handle this job. It will be interesting to see how he uses his skills to build a coalition of those diverse and, sometimes, warring factions that will have a say in this matter. I know, too, that Karl will also look outside of the experts and seek input from the most likely users of city center.
This is the first encouraging news about downtown in a long time. Glad to say that….
Someone … anyone, please answer the question: Why do we need to “redevelop” Downtown Fort Wayne, especially if we have to do it with taxpayer money? Downtown is our government center, our legal center, our cultural center, our convention center and our banking center. Isn’t that enough?
Dear Gadfly. All good questions, or one good question. I will find Karl next week and arrange an interview to ask your question over and over again in various ways.
I have lived in other cities and their downtowns are vibrant. That is my standard. I expect a center that is active, creative, fun, industrious, profitable, etc. I do not see that here. I remember W&Ds from the 50s. I remember a lot of other nifty places and buildings that progress eat. Perhaps a hollow center would be just find and a model for the nation, but I don’t think so. So, my question follows yours: why with a great court house, swarms (or packs) of lawyers, government, the library, the history and art museum and the Grand Wayne has the center continued to be mostly parking lots and riddled with vacancies? What are the underlying problems that befall our center. In most other communities it is the place to be, to dine, to live and to work. Not here. I wonder why? Perhaps Doug, AWB and I can triple team Karl. He is a straight shooter.
Dear Gadfly. All good questions, or one good question. I will find Karl next week and arrange an interview to ask your question over and over again in various ways.
I have lived in other cities and their downtowns are vibrant. That is my standard. I expect a center that is active, creative, fun, industrious, profitable, etc. I do not see that here. I remember W&Ds from the 50s. I remember a lot of other nifty places and buildings that progress ate. Perhaps a hollow center would be just fine and a model for the nation, but I don’t think so. So, my question follows yours: why with a great court house, swarms (or packs) of lawyers, government buildings galore, the library, the history and art museum and the Grand Wayne has the center continued to be mostly parking lots and riddled with vacancies? What are the underlying problems that befall our center. In most other communities it is the place to be, to dine, to live and to work. Not here. I wonder why? Perhaps Doug, AWB and I can triple team Karl. He is a straight shooter.
Lets see.
Calhoun Street,New City County building,Safety Academy,Harrison Square, tear down bulid new libraries,Spend $70 million for South Side, $50 million on North Side, {guess which Schools are in most trouble}, Grand Wayne Center and on and on.
Government could care less about spending your money, after all they keep getting re-elected. And until we throw them out it won’t change. And now that the wolfs are at the door our illustrious mayor’s solution to the financial crunch about to hit is find new ways to tax us.
Instead of reducing government. He could also finish the north annexation as all the developers out there signed sewer waivers which would rule out any remonstrance. But, the problem there is with all that new tax money the first thing they do is find a way to spend it. We need new leaders that get it. There seems to be a nation wide fungus affecting the ones we have now.
Perhaps Gadfly (may I call you Fly?) is correct. It would all be so much easier to simply turn the rest of the downtown area over to the parking lot operators and let them pave and stripe what remains downtown. The genius of Gad’s plan (my I call you GAD?) is it’s simplicity. And while we’re at it, to increase security downtown, we could build I giant chain-link fence around the entire area and, as Fly, or Gad, points out, only allow the government workers, lawyers, annoying high-brow “arts” people, and those pesky out-of-town conventioneers access to this restricted area. The parking lot operators could then be taxed at confiscatory rates and then the whole downtown would be self sufficient. That would not require any of Gad’s, or Fly’s, or my taxes to be wasted on such a folly as making downtown a destination for anything but government wonks, shyster lawyers, annoying high-brow “arts” people, and those crazy party-animal conventioneers.
As the beer commercial says “BRILLIANT!”
Dear Gadfly.
Doug is a very creative guy and one of the treats of using this site. I would like a real downtown. As it is developer find it easier to buy a farm, sub-divide it and move even farther out. We, in established neighborhoods, subsidize their profits through taxes which pay for the roads, sewers and other utilities that they will offer their clients. That continual drift outward, where the land is cheap, stretches the community and our ability to provide services. We become less efficient in travel and myriad other things. Instead of a center we have satellite communities and the traffic congestion that they spawn.
There is another cost: indifference to existing housing stock, that would be existing neighborhoods. The traffic engineers want to widen every road right up to your front door to move traffic faster. There is no pressure to repair and restore in the older neighborhoods because it is easier to discard the house and move out to the burbs. So, tax dollars are plowed into older neighborhoods to contain blight. With one hand we giveth, with the other we taketh away.
If we want a more efficient and livable community we will focus on our center. We will do that by making developers pay the full price of their projects, not just for the ground and hook ups.
Jim
A good example of poor planning on road widening can be see on Aboite Center Road, between Jefferson and Dicky Roads. In this image (see link below) all of the trees you see are now gone, and once Aboite is widened to 4 lanes, it will come within 12′ of the house behind the trees.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=aboite+center+road+road+fort+wayne&sll=37.996163,-95.712891&sspn=45.192182,59.326172&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Aboite+Center+Rd,+Fort+Wayne,+Allen,+Indiana+46814&ll=41.045284,-85.245307&spn=0.001386,0.00181&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=41.045223,-85.245837&panoid=2E5ZTkRs-0LDB-INW9v3GA&cbp=12,358.53,,0,17.27
Who are we to tell people were to live.If someone wants to live in the burbs that is their deal.As for paying their share of the city infrastructure that they use they should be annexed when possible.If Henry would finish the north end annexation it would mean as much new revenue as Abboit did.The trick is not creating more government with the new taxes.
John, we tell people where to live all the time. There is a land use plan for the county and some area, such as the flood planes, are off limits, There are other areas, as well, that the land use gods have restricted. Remember, also, we have zoning laws. So, we, as a community, do tell people where they can live. It will become and has increasingly become the norm. When we were a smaller community it was a lot easier, as we bump into each other more, as the costs of infrastructure increase and our ability to keep up repairs diminishes we will have increasing regulation and government control. I think of it as similar to my life. I have bought many things I didn’t need and can’t afford, they break down and I can afford to repair them, I expect to earn my way out of my predicament, but the increasing costs and injudicious application of my available funds puts me further and further behind. Same happens to a community. We think we can add new tax base and “grow” out of our financial problems, but in fact, we are creating more infrastructure that will soon enough need repairs, we are stretching our police to the point they give you a number on the phone and wish you luck, and we could go on. The center of town has acres of vacant land, county government has hundreds of lots and deteriorating buildings on their hands and off the tax rolls. This all comes from sprawl. Time to fill in the gaps before pushing toward the horizon.
Dan also hit it on the head. Eventually we all pay for poor planning. The nice houses along Dickey and Aboite Center will turn into poorly maintain rentals and then eye sores. I have seen it on State Street east of the Circum Urban (Coliseum Blvd.) that went from two lanes to five. The adjacent houses lost their nice front yards and went from being nice places to raise kids to Section 8 traps. Same on West State where you cand hand coffee to passing motorists from your front porch and not risk a law suit. I am sure we could all add a block or two where the sins of developers were paid for by the residents along the adjacent main road. So, look at Illinois Road. It is a trash heap of garish signage, and across the interstate the road gets wider and wider to accomodate those who wish to move further and further out and still be able to drive to work in a reasonable time on the east side…while doing their make up. Sprawl. We drive on average a half-hour each day to and from work. I changed that in my life. Last year I put only 5,500 on my car and less than 3,000 on my old truck. How do we build a city that is not choked by exhausts and traffic congestion, where people have more free time and less time in traffic, where it is easy to walk, bicycle and safe for kids and dogs to play? Sprawl is the enemy and government encourages it.
Jim,
I live right off Illinois Road near Hadley. Back in 2004 (I think), Inverness Pointe was being proposed by Barry Sturges at the former Klaehn Farm. It included three, 30,000 square foot big box style retail outlets, 3 story office buildings and a strip mall as well as apartments. We banded together and fought it, and we won, or so we thought.
We acquiesced on the apartments after getting some changes to exterior design, lighting, etc. What did we end up with? Section 8 housing. Crime has increased in the area, with regular break-ins at our addition. I had lived here for over 10 years at that point and rarely did we ever have a crime problem. Now it occurs on a fairly regular basis.
As you’re aware, developers are required to give notice to existing neighbors of changes in zoning for new developments. Sturges waited patiently and had the zoning changed a couple of years later after quietly acquiring most of the neighboring properties . Now, we’re getting a strip mall.
Illinois road needed some changes, and it did need to be widened. The disheartening part of the story is the developers moved in and are now throwing up retail developments and office complexes without regard for the surrounding residential neighborhoods.
One Realtor/developer, Santosh Ready, (a nice guy actually) has threatened to sue our addition to take out one home from the association so he call sell it as retail. I will be in that fight.
The problem is at the planning commission. That’s where we need some substantive changes in leadership.
The Plan Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals, not to mention the Northeast Indiana Regional Coordinating Council and a few other “super-governmental” organizations that make plans with very little public input.
You see, most of us don’t have the time to monitor their efforts and then to envision how a rule or a new law might effect our individual neighborhoods and back yards. Shoaff is highly critical of the way they make plans that gut neighborhoods. Pape is pretty good in my area, Glynn Hines protects “his people.” Mrs. Brown thinks what they do is just fine and neighborhoods should just butt out. Frau Braun uber Alles.
So, the trick is voting for reps who understand the regional planning concepts and will manage them, either through appointments (something the developers make a part of their business) or buy making sure neighborhoods have a place at the table, not something Mrs. Brown appreciates.
Jim if people wanted to live downtown they would.I believe less government is better government.I can agree to disagree.
Jim,
I served with Karl Bandemer on the State of Indiana Commission for Higher Education back in the 90′s. I was just an innocent college appointee and he was one of the wise men from my childhood home. Tell him I said hello and feel free to pass on this picture of the two of us that was taken way back then
. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristinafh/2860762809/.
Kristina, I will see Karl tomorrow for lunch. I will carry your message and the photo and be happy to share it with him. I know he will smile and have good memories. Karl is a great guy, one of the best locally, so I hope tht he has the tools and support to accomplish what I believe he can do.