Foot traffic
What will it take to make Fort Wayne a “walkable” city?
Link (Fort Wayne Reader)

“Fort Wayne fears a lot of things. Flooding. Change. A Democrat in the White House. And walking.

Ask what the biggest impediments to downtown development are and on the shortlist will be “lack of convenient parking spaces.” By this we usually mean we might have to walk an entire city block or two to get where we want to go.

Yet if we really want that kind of vibrant, bustling downtown, we’re going to have to walk, and we’re going to have to make downtown Fort Wayne more walkable.”

“One of the biggest problems, according to Dan Burden, is there are no people. “The number one characteristic of a walkable city is you cannot stand anywhere and not see people in every direction all the time,” he says. “The first and most critical measure is how many other people are out there walking with you.””

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“Yet making Fort Wayne a walkable city is as complicated as anything else connected to downtown development. Most people recognize that sidewalk traffic is a huge part of what makes any downtown environment feel alive and vibrant. But in order to get people downtown, there has to be something to make them want to come downtown, and most developers want to know that there’ll be customers for their store/restaurant/business, etc. before investing loads of money and time…

The new baseball stadium, as we’ve been told, is a catalyst project, but it’ll be a failure if it doesn’t help spur some kind of development to the rest of downtown. Burden believes the stadium is a good start, and thinks Fort Wayne in general has a lot of potential to work with. “You’ve got what I refer to as the right bones,” he says. “You have a lot of great landmark buildings, more than your fair share for a town of your size. You’ve got some bad ones, but as the land values go up, they’ll come down. You also have a lot of good common space, public space, plaza parks, open spaces, a couple of good gateway entries and things like that. A lot of towns don’t have any of those things. You’ve got brand new investments in things like libraries. And your block form. That’s something… you can’t come into a town and give it to them.”

We’ve also lucked out by not putting a massive freeway right through the middle of downtown — an idea that goes against one nugget of local perceived wisdom. “The notion of flowing people out of town or across town as quickly as you can never really made good economic sense,” Burden says. He points out that communities get stuck with this massive amount of concrete that’s not supported by tax and showing signs of wear and tear from handling far more traffic than it was originally designed for. Many towns are stuck with the prospect of spending billions to fix these roads. Burden says Gattling Jackson recently worked on projects in Chattanouga, TN, and Trenton, NJ that involved tearing down the freeway and putting in grade streets. He says the areas are booming, and Glatting Jackson is now gearing up to take down the “great Alaska viaduct” in Seattle.”

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“Burden, along with many other people studying city environments, puts a big premium on how cities can connect people. You don’t go to, say, a baseball game to get a better view; you go for the experience of celebrating (or commiserating) with fellow fans. Similar things could be said about concerts or festivals or whatever”

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Another reason… well, have you filled up your car lately? “With us approaching this whole greater, much greater, issue of gasoline prices and the ability to afford to drive a car and what reduced mobility means as these costs go up — and they will continue to go up — then we need something to replace that with that’s affordable,” Burden says. “Turns out, it’s been right underneath us the whole time.”

What better way to practice your rediscovered walking skills than the upcoming Art Crawl!

The big picture(s)
D.I.D.’s 2nd annual Art Crawl promises big things
Link (Fort Wayne Reader)

“For the Downtown Improvement District’s Art Crawl, the art won’t just be big. In some cases, it’ll be huge. Literally.

Among the highlights of the 2nd annual art crawl on May 30 are the world’s largest single panel comic strip and a billboard-sized banner of award-winning photography.”

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“Centered on the corner of Wayne and Calhoun, the Art Crawl — a collaboration between the D.I.D. Art Link, Arts United, and downtown businesses — features over two dozen area artists working in a wide range of mediums, including photography, painting, jewelry and sculpture.

But that’s just the beginning. “One really cool thing about this event is that not only are we doing the hub event at Wayne and Calhoun, but we’ve added a free trolley that will be taking people to other downtown attractions that night that are going to be having special activities specifically related to the crawl,” explains the D.I.D.’s Courtney Tritch. A few of those other activities include a reception for a new show opening at Art Link that night, events at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, and a live ice sculpture demonstration.”

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“While strolling around the exhibits and checking out some of the activities and demonstrations, festival-goers can stop in at the Courtyard Pub right off Calhoun for food and specialty drinks. The festivities go way into the night with an after party at the Botanical Gardens geared more towards an adult crowd. The party starts at 8 pm, and DJ Josh Helton plays host. Helton has been DJ’ing for over 14 years and promises something different. Sure, there’ll be great dance music, but as he explains it… “It’ll be mostly electronic-based dance music. More dance club type stuff as opposed to what you’d hear on the radio.”

The Arts Crawl is free and begins at 5 pm on Friday, May 30, with the after party at the Botanical Gardens kicking off at 8 pm.”