A couple of dispatches from the economic-development front. The city could get a new hotel near Glenbrook:
Despite the challenging economy, a 6-million dollar hotel could be coming to the Glenbrook Mall area in Fort Wayne.
A Valparaiso-based company wants to situate an 89-room Towneplace Suites hotel next to an ice rink facility that's slated to be constructed over the summer months.
Do you understand what's going on here? A company believes an ice rink will draw people and decides to take a chance that it can capitalize on that traffic and make a profit, too. That's called private enterprise, for those who have forgotten how it used to work.
Not that there isn't a role for government in economic planning, you understand:
But the Commission denied Balbir and Amrik LLC's proposal for a gas station/convenience store at Hanna and Pontiac streets - one of eight stations proposed so far this year - agreeing with some area residents that the intersection is already too congested. But developers have also questioned whether planners objected because of the city's development plan for the southeast-side, which stresses the attraction of other businesses, including groceries and pharmacies. In fact, planners opposed Bluffton-based National Oil Co.'s proposed station at South Anthony Boulevard and Antoinette Street for that very reason, and the proposal is on hold.
Planners have also said some southeast-side gas stations have attracted crime and other undesirable activity.
Sorry, you filthy capitalist swine -- the city has its own plans for that part of town.
An intersection that's too congested -- isn't that bad planning and a failure by the city? And gas stations attract "crime and other undesirable activity"? Isn't that admitting to future failure -- the city's inability to do anything about the crime and other undesirable activity? Sorry, no gas station for you!
The commission, by the way, "routinely approved" a gas station for Lima and Dupont roads and one on Maplecrest Road. No pesky traffic there, no sir! And they have so darn few gas stations on the north side -- better approve some more quick so the south side doesn't get even further ahead.
