Our town

The News-Sentinel's Ryan Lengerich did a good analysis of the 3rd District congressional race between Mark Souder and Tom Hayhurst race showing that Souder lost Fort Wayne, squeaked by in Allen County because of his good showing outside the city, and beat Hayhurst comfortably in the other 3rd District counties.

How much of a private life should a public figure be allowed to have? I ask not because I think I have a better answer than everybody else but because it's an important question that's more urgent to discuss than it ever was. By now, most of you probably know the story of Allen County Republican Chairman Steve Shine (here are The News-Sentinel version and The Journal Gazette one).

The City Council proposes two ordinances -- one that would "opt out" of the county's tough new anti-smoking ordinance. That would give council members time to discuss the possibility of introducing the second ordinance, which would be even tougher than the county's ban, which was tougher than the city's current ban. The proposal does not require a public hearing, we are told, but there will probably be one as a "courtesy." How kind our public servants are to us.

I guess if the police chief is happy, we should be happy:

Mixed in with the many white male faces that seem to dominate the applicant pool every year, the number of Hispanic and Asian faces jumped out at York.

Nothing will get you called a relgious-zealot prude out to impose your moral standards through censorship faster than asking whether public libraries have some responsibility to shield children from vile crap and its effects. The latest battle is over graphic novels, which have the look of comic books but have, to put it mildly, adult themes and treatments:

Is the mayor of Fort Wayne worth $135,000? Short answer: No. An employee's worth depends not on what he wants but on what his employers are willing to pay him. No City Council member in his right mind and planning to seek re-election next year would vote for it, because he knows how the employer -- the voting public -- would react.

If the election didn't come out the way you wanted, despite the fact that you prayed long and hard for God to do the right thing, it might have been because God was busy elsewhere:

During the fourth quarter of the UCLA game, some were leaving through Gate B, where I work as a ticket-taker. An elderly man approached me and said, “Notre Dame can't even play marbles.” My reply was, “I'm still feverishly praying for a miracle, and we can win!”

Autumn comes around every year, does it not? And we pretty well know what happens in autumn, correct? But:

The city's Board of Public Works has approved buying a new machine to dispose of 50,000 tons of excess leaves next year.

Beginning next year, either Fox Contractors of Fort Wayne, which has a had city contract for leaf disposal for the past five years, or another company will be responsible for processing and disposing of 25,000 to 30,000 tons of leaves annually.

So, the city of Fort Wayne and the United Way, having successfully eliminated manufacturing decline, downtown stagnation, teen pregnancy, moral decay and all the other problems that plague us, have now committed to wiping out homelessness in 10 years:

“This is not just a plan to sit on the shelf and get dusty,” Richard said. “This is not a strategic plan. This is an action plan.”

Never mind that Brick, N.J., and Amherst, N.Y., have been rated the safest two cities in the country and that St.  Louis and Detroit the two most dangerous (the two World Series cities; go figure). Fort Wayne is No. 169 on the list (which goes from No. 1 as the safest to 371 as the most dangerous). That could lead to an interesting mayoral debate, depending on who wants to downplay crime and who wants to highlight it.