Our town

"Statist" sometimes seems a more apt label than "liberal" or "progressive." Blind acceptance of whatever the government orders "for our own good" is the default position. Case in point, the forehead-smacking dumb editorial in this morning's Journal Gazette:

A good idea:

State Rep. Tom Saunders is re-introducing a bill that would prohibit employees of city, county and town government from serving as elected officials within their local government.

[. . .]

Mayoral candidate Liz Brown wants to debate other Republican contenders (only Paula Hughes so far), and IPFW politics watcher Andy Downs downplays the significance of the possibility:

Well, OK, I signed up for one of the new recycling carts, mostly because it would be a pain to deal with stacks of old newspapers without participating. And there's a bonus!

Residents may keep their current yellow and brown bins, reuse them for another purpose, or after receiving their new recycling cart, may leave their bins on the curb and crews will collect them within 72 hours.

Yeah, well:

In mid-December, the state Department of Education released graduation rates, and area school districts celebrated the success of their students. Fort Wayne Community Schools saw an increase in its graduation rate for the third consecutive year

What interesting timing. Just as Fort Wayne abandons its dumb proposal to create a city court to generate more revenue (at least for now), another Indiana municipality goes in the right direction:

Clarksville Town Council has scheduled two special meetings this week to discuss the possibility of eliminating the town's court.

Mayor Tom Henry is batting .500 this week. His hit: Originating the bid proposal that landed the 2012 Democratic State Convention for downtown Fort Wayne, marking the first time for the convention to be held outside Indianapolis:

It is expected to bring in 2,000-2,500 conventioneers and their families and friends. At the convention, the Democratic Party will elect its national delegates for the 2012 general election.

Collision course:

Local advocates for high-speed rail want state legislators and other state officials to press ahead with the resurrection of passenger rail service here.

[. . .]

The rail group emphasizes it's not asking for new money to be raised; it wants 2 percent of the state's transportation budget to be spent on rail planning.

Emma Downs has a fascinating feature in the Sunday Journal Gazette profiling IPFW theater chair John O'Connell. He is a self-described "loud, flamboyant gay," and he thrived in Manhattan with its energy and tempo and the opportunities it provided. He liked finding bohemian ethnic restaurants and taking terrified relatives on city tours on the back of his motorcycle. And yet:

Fort Wayne is often late in getting to the party when it comes to trends and movements, but this time we're in the vanguard as one of the few cities getting a heads-up about Posted in: Current Affairs, Hoosier lore, Our town, Religion