Our town

Just a thought as a taxpayer on projects advanced by local officials. One way I judge such projects -- and I presume many others do this, too -- is a personal calculus: What is this likely to do for me, and what will it cost me?

A Fort Wayne coalition is going get some of the $575,000 in federal grants aimed at "fostering stronger connections between families and their fathers." I was struck by this:

"All of the applicants, including this new coalition in Fort Wayne, proposed engaging and practical strategies for helping dads become more involved with their children."

In pushing for Harrison Square, Mayor Graham Richard is right to stress that it is drawing private investment, a must for any such project to succeed:

“It's not about the baseball stadium, it's about the investors,” Richard said of Hardball Capital, the Atlanta-based company that owns Fort Wayne's minor league team and has committed $5 million to the proposed stadium. “If it were just a downtown stadium, I never would have proposed it.”

The story of how the city quietly acquired the property for Harrison Square:

It wasn't an easy task for Greg Leatherman and Bill Martin: track down 32 different owners of 50 properties and negotiate to buy their homes, businesses or empty lots.

They had little leverage

I can't quite seem to work up much outrage over the case of Paul Spoelhof, the city planner who heads the Yellow Ribbon task force that will advise the Fort Wayne Community Schools board on building-upgrade spending. Am I wrong?

Here's an idea. Since people hang around waiting to be executed for about 20 years, at great public expense, and we're getting so squeamish that even lethal injections are considered barbaric, why not change the method of execution to secondhand smoke? To hear some people tell it, that would clear them out of death row a lof quicker.

Nah. That really would be "cruel and unusual" punishment.

"Oh, look! I have metal fragments in my ground beef."

"Shut up, or everybody will want some!"

The poll published by The Journal Gazette yesterday pretty much confirms what most of us already had anecdotal evidence of: Not many people support a new baseball stadium downtown. According to the poll, about seven in 10 don't think the stadium is a good idea. They are also supportive of downtown in general and are more interested in seeing more parking and more shopping than they are in seeing more downtown housing or a third hotel.

The Mastodons were fun. But big shoes?

To fund Team Dreams, the Visitors Bureau is offering fiberglass and weatherproof shoes 7 feet by 4 feet by 3 feet to businesses purchasing a $7,500 tournament sponsorship package. To maximize visibility of the sponsors, each custom-designed shoe will spend time in various locales in the city, including Glenbrook Square, Jefferson Pointe and downtown.

The shoes will be moved to Spiece Fieldhouse for the tournaments.

Jefferson Pointe is a "lifestyle center," if you're being positive, a "fake downtown" if you are not. Just don't call it a mall: