Our town

Fort Wayne Observed wonders if this really is about doing what's best for students. I've wondered the same thing. No matter what we say we're doing "for the kids" at the high school level, we send them off to a college campus at which the athletic tail wags the academic dog. And we still let them believe the big lie that most of them can succeed at the pro level. Not much moral clarity there.

Mitch Harper of Indiana Parley attended the South West Area Partnership meeting and posted a report. The meeting was supposed to be primarily about the new Buckner Farm Park, but people attending wanted instead to talk about the rash of burglaries in neighborhoods around Foster Park . . .

There are a few issues I'm still willing to beat my head against the wall over. (See last night's post on "A billion here, a billion there," for example, or the numerous posts on eminent domain). One of them is downtown Fort Wayne. If there's only one building left standing, I'll probably be in front of it yelling about how we can turn things around if we really try. This is largely emotional rather than logical, I realize. I went to high school at Central, back when we had an hour of open lunch; I spent four years wandering through downtown.

Rob Kaiser, editor of the Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, has a couple of comments about my "Shoddy side of the street" post concerning the "digital News-Sentinel" flap:

This will be huge news in both papers tomorrow and all over TV: Jim Kelley has died at 87. Kelley is the type of person who is meant when the term "community leader" is bandied about. He was huge in Democratic political circles, a leading business owner for decades, someone who could make things happen just by getting involved. I heard a lot about him when I was on the board of Big Brothers & Big Sisters.

I have a cell phone with which I can talk to almost anybody, from almost anywhere. It has a 1.3-megapixel camera, with which I can take stills or very short videos and post them on the Web, again from just about anywhere. Apple just introduced a new iPod. It enables users not only to carry around thousands of songs and still photos, but also downloaded video; people can watch last night's episode of "Desperate Housewives" (or their own homemade videos, for that matter) while they're on the train or waiting in the doctor's office (OK, make that two episdoes).

Just so no one has any doubts whatsoever about where I'm coming from, I'd like to note that The News-Sentinel has a pretty strict profanity policy. Because this blog is affiliated with The News-Sentinel, I follow that policy here. However, if I were writing completely in my own style solely on my own terms, this post would be filled with language so foul it would make a drunken sailor cover his ears. I feel like cussin.' Got that?

Breaking news over at Indiana Parley:

Tonight's lead editorial reports that local charter-government supporters are moving up their timetable, planning to seek legislative permission for a voter referendum in this year's short session of the General Assembly instead of waiting till next year. They're doing that mostly because Evansville and Vanderburgh County are moving ahead with their plans this year.

The success of the Barr Street Market's limited run this year is important for two reasons:

1. It shows the truth of what a lot of people have been saying: If you put something interesting downtown, people will find it. The plan to expand the market's operation next year is very good news. Wouldn't it be nice if some enterprising sorts used the market as the springboard for other ideas?