Dorsey Price is a colleague, and I like him, but I was disappointed that he bought into this tired, old canard about Fort Wayne:
You can believe me. I know what I'm talking about. I really do. It is hard looking for love in Fort Wayne.
I've been doing that for about eight years now. And I think about the only thing harder than looking for love in Fort Wayne, is looking for love in a rural setting just south of Fort Wayne.
[. . .]
The singles environment barely exists. The attitude of singles dating is, well, there doesn't even seem to be an attitude. It is defunct and missing in action.
My friends and I have a theory for this vacancy. We believe that the very family-friendly and charming “smallest-big city” mentality that makes Fort Wayne such a great Midwestern place to raise a family is also what creates this black hole void for its singles.
So it's either-or? A place has to be family-friendly or singles-friendly? We can't all co-exist? How does that work, exactly? Families throw singles into the basement and won't let them come out? Singles are so intimidated by families that they're afraid to come out of the house? There are no places for singles to meet, no activities they can engage in and find one another?
Dorsey goes on to say:
And it's not like there are no single people here. Indiana does not keep divorce statistics, but the National Center for Health Statistics estimates 43 percent of first marriages nationwide experience a divorce or separation.
And certainly some of those folks do live in Fort Wayne. So, we single people DO exist. I have met enough of us, to know that we are here. We just have to figure out a way to meet each other. And where.
So, there are plenty of single people to go around. And they know each other exist. They just can't figure out how to get together. OK, fine -- that's their problem. Don't use that as an excuse to bash Fort Wayne's "family friendliness."
