Fort Wayne is not Detroit, and a baseball stadium downtown would not be the equivalent of the Super Bowl. But there's lesson to be learned here:
Yet with the exception of a few square miles in the center of town, many residents say they have not seen any improvement. And they don't expect the Super Bowl to have an effect on their lives.
"They spend all that money on the Super Bowl ... but they ain't doing nothing for here," said Arthur Lauderdale, 59, who lives about four miles from the heart of downtown on Detroit's east side.
People who attend sporting events, I suspect, come and go and don't spend a lot of time enjoying the amenities around the sports complex. Those who have high hopes of a baseball stadium transforming downtown are sure to be disappointed.
And sooner or later, soembody would try to assure all those frightened out-of-towners that our downtown is fine, in language like this:
City officials say Super Bowl visitors should not be intimidated by the statistics, saying downtown is relatively safe.
