William Larsen

WPTA-21 New Show "Reporters"

WPTA-21's Melissa Long hosted a new show dealing with Allen County. It aired at 7:00 and I found it for the most part a good show. They had three pannalists answering and making comments on three different topics, Three Rivers Festavel, Downtown Stadium and Consolidation.

Downtown Stadium
Melissa Long came to the wrong conclusion concerning Matt Sprea’s report on a stadium in terms of another town’s down town success with a stadium. Matt stated downtown appeared to be improving but “it remains to be seen how influential the stadium has actually been in that process.” Melissa Long said “They are considering their downtown stadium some what of a success, at least preliminarily speaking.” Both my wife and I stated at the same time “he did not say that.” Melissa needs to look at the footage a few more times. Reporters need to keep an unbiased view when reporting and need to stay focused on reporting.

I found this particular show to be biased towards a stadium. For the allotted amount of time, they did not get into costs and payback. I am tired of hearing fuzzy feel good things. What I want to see is SHOW ME THE NUMBERS!

Consolidation
The consensus seemed to be that many people were ignorant of the process and did not trust the City of Fort Wayne after the past fifteen years worth of annexation. They seemed to feel that there was no harm in at least investigating the option. I disagree; there is harm in investigating the option of consolidation. The harm is that a vote will have to be taken as to proceed with investigating how any consolidation might work. Allen County includes both city and county residents.

City residents outnumber the county. Sure the majority rules, but in this particular case those inside the City of Fort Wayne have additional costs that those outside the city limits do not have. Annexation has been nothing more than about adding revenues to the City of Fort Wayne. Take me for example, my property taxes increased by over 40% and what did I get? I got recycle bins that are too small and a garbage container that is three times too big. My street does not get plowed, no increase in fire protection, but I do see more police in my area, which I did not need to begin with and now they want a stadium down town. Fort Wayne is a cash strapped city and is hungry for more revenue.

So is it so difficult to understand why those living outside the city limits do not want to even consider consolidation? The problem is trust and we do not trust the mayor or city representatives. They want to nip the problem in the bud before it even has a chance!

posted by William Larsen @ 8:30 PM