Our town

Lots of interesting music comes to Fort Wayne that's below your radar if you just count on the newspapers, radio and TV to keep you informed. People show up and play, and the word, you know, just gets around. One of my favorite experiences was around 12 years or so ago when I heard, around, that Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was going to be at Columbia Street West on a Wednesday night. I don't know what the approved capacity of the place is, but it was exceeded by two or three times that night.

Tonight's lead editorial is about the need to be prepared to take care of yourself for three days if disaster strikes the area. In doing some research for the piece, I discovered that September is National . . . well, you won't believe it. See for yourself.

Now that insensitive Joel Silverman is talking about moving the Southgate license branch out by the airport, which will really inconvenience those of us on the south side of town. Silverman obviously doesn't care, and Gov. Daniels backs him, so he's not likely to do anything. The General Assembly? Please. That means only one person can give us relief. So why haven't we heard from President Bush? Is he out having a photo op, or what?

If you're at all interested in Fort Wayne history, you really need to check out this site, even bookmark it. It has several collections of old photos of Fort Wayne's past (and Indiana's, too, for that matter), digitized by the Allen County Public Library. I spent several hours looking at the pictures, even after I looked up Central High School, the old bus station and several other landmarks from my past.

If you doubt how nice Headwaters Park has become with the addition of the permanent pavilion, you should check out one of the many festivals that are held there. I went to Fiesta Fort Wayne over the weekend and had a great time.

Tonight's lead editorial is about last night's City Council discussion on whether or not Fort Wayne and Allen County should make use of a Capital Improvement Board.

City Council normally meets every Tuesday, except Tuesdays that are the fifth ones of the month. This year, Council President Tom Smith has decided to meet on the fifth Tuesdays, too (I think there are four or five of them this year), and dedicate the sessions to topics of broad community interest -- Big Ideas, in other words. Last night, the session was devoted to whether we could use a Capital Improvement Board to expedite the funding of huge capital projects, most especially those for downtown -- a Big Idea for how to do Big Things.

The Allen County Public Library has chosen Frankenstein as its third book in its One Community, One Story project. I liked the first two choices -- "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Diary of Anne Frank" -- and I like this one, too. Many of us who are science-fiction fans consider Mary Shelley's book the first true work of science fiction in the way it explores the clash between technology and morality.

This is just such an awesome idea on so many levels. For one thing, it taps into our early history as a continent-filling, westward-moving inevitability. Useful ideas don't go away; they just change. How would it be if the city of Fort Wayne just bought an empty building downtown and said, "Send us your ideas for using this space, your business plans, your financing proposals, and we'll give the building to the winner"?

I tend to agree with those who think this is a crime against nature. Here it is still the middle of summer, and already I have to watch out for the kiddies on the way to school. They should still be somewhere with their parents, sweating in the back seat and whining, "Are we there yet?" Labor day, start of school -- the sensible order of things.