“Family Friendly” Necessarily Leaves Out Others
Single minded
City’s unmarrieds seek venues, events for getting acquainted
Link (JG)
“Many of us who are single in Fort Wayne have shared a common experience:
A friend and former Fort Wayne resident, now living in a bigger city, calls to check in. Talk turns to potential paramours, of whom the out-of-towner has many, and of whom we seem to have few.
“I miss Fort Wayne,” the out-of-towner says. “But I feel for you. I would never, ever want to live there and be single.”
Our hearts sink. We consider moving for the 200th time. There must be single people here, we reason. But where do they hide?”
[...]
“Fort Wayne may be an All-American City, but it still suffers from an image problem, at least among the young singles crowd. It’s great to have a family-friendly city, singles say, but they want their own scene, too.”
[...]
““My last goal was to lift the curse of Fort Wayne,” Swartz says, laughing. “I wanted to sort of make observations about how Fort Wayne could become a cooler city. My friends always joked that there was a curse on Fort Wayne – that no matter what happens, whether jobs come in or more business, it’s not going to get any better.””
[...]
““You can’t go to a lot of gallery openings here,” he says. “If you go to two in a night, it’s like the stars aligning and then you won’t have another open for eight months. But of course the arts would come after more bars and restaurants move downtown.” He also thinks the city should make more of its various colleges and universities.
“We are totally a college town, but we do not market (it) as one,” he says. “We have far over 20,000 students, but there isn’t a cool neighborhood around those campuses.”
[...]
““I think the predominant understanding is that it’s a place to raise a family,” she said. She looked for a loft downtown so she could walk to work, but finding a place proved difficult. As much as she wanted it to be, Fort Wayne just wasn’t Chicago. Eventually Tritch, who previously worked for the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce in Chicago, got a job as marketing and events coordinator for the Downtown Improvement District, where she works on ways to draw dynamic young people into downtown. “Singles thrive in a more urban city,” Tritch says. “If you’re single and you’re only in the suburbs it’s going to be really hard to meet someone.”
What would get more singles to come downtown? Tritch thinks the city needs to be more “walkable” and have more places to walk to, such as restaurants, retail shops and coffee houses that stay open during the weekend.
The opening of Parkview Field has been “huge” in terms of drawing people downtown, she says, but the city shouldn’t stop there. “You have to create that critical mass of things going on to keep people coming in,” Tritch says.”
I would totally agree with this sentiment. I am in the process of figuring out how to get back to Fort Wayne (I currently live in Atlanta), but one of the two reasons that keeps me from doing so is it isn’t a very single-friendly city. I always say I think there is no better place to raise a family than Fort Wayne – but I have to first find someone to have a family with :)
“Tritch thinks the city needs to be more “walkable” and have more places to walk to, such as restaurants, retail shops and coffee houses that stay open during the weekend.”
Hmm. Where have I heard of such plans?
I agree with this article as well. As a single Ft. Wayner in my 20′s, I’m thinking about moving to another city with more entertainment options/events to meet new people at. Our downtown still has a lot of work to do, all the bars in our downtown seem to be so spread out. We need some kind of “bar/restaurant row” so people can congregate easier. Similar to Broad Ripple in Indy, 4th Street in Louisville, Kirkwood Ave down at IU. Whenever I go somewhere here it’s just women with their boyfriend/husband all over the place.
Andy & Joe – Have you thought of trying to meet single ladies in a local church or synagogue rather than a row-of-bars?? You might find that more productive toward establishing a family-friendly relationship. (Such a relationship might even last a little longer than a one-night-stand). Just a thought from a 73 year old married man of 50 years in our fair city.
Most of these people talk about improvement of downtown. I would love to know where these people live, and I would almost bet whats left of my life’s savings that most of them live in the suburbs.
If Fort Wayne really wants to get serious about turning around downtown, it needs to be marketed as a place to live not as an occasional destination.
I can’t tell you how many times I have heard, “Oh I love downtown, I hope it can be turned around” and then you ask, where do you live – “Out by Carrol” or “SW.”
a congestion of restaurants and bars will never survive with people coming downtown on the weekends or when there is a festival or event. The amount of retail and entertainment is sparse because that is what the market can handle.
If downtown ever gets turned around, its going to start at the ground level with people taking chance and living downtown. We can cry as much as we want about the needs bars, shops, and restaurants – the old adage rings true, “Rooftops brings Retail”
As long as DID keeps using the same lame events, promoted by the same lame media outlets, nothing downtown will change. In the past week alone, they’ve suggested that Parkview Field is THE place to watch the TRF fireworks downtown (ignoring, among other venues, the Conservatory’s long-standing fireworks event, as well as the ACTUAL Three Rivers Festival, and their Headwaters Park locale); and they’ve instigated an attempt to get downtown folk to have lunch and listen to music, by promoting (and I’m assuming PAYING) musicians to play for something entitled “Lunch on the Square” at One Summit Square….ignoring the “Bear On The Square” event– on the same day, at the same time–that has been at Freimann for nearly twenty years–and the Bear event actually provides FOOD to be eaten, besides. Wouldn’t the Summit Square event have been better at 5pm….trying to get people to STAY downtown, and try local restaurants?
Oh, and Cole….most people here won’t pay more than a quarter of a million dollars for the privilege of living downtown. That’s why there are no condos at Harrison Square. AFFORDABLE housing, and events downtown that DON”T mirror similar events–that actually are a UNIQUE opportunity–are two keys to promoting, and building a successful downtown. But DID, apparently, doesn’t get that….
Tiny – I am with you on that. I have contacted the DID people about events that they have planned AT THE SAME TIME as long-standingly planned events – they just say “Why does our event interfere?”. My answer has always been, “because it’s at the same time in the same general area!”
DID doesn’t get a lot of things!
Cole, thanks for suggesting people simply “move downtown” but it is not real feasible at this point when there are only a handful of places to live downtown. Three Rivers apts and Midtowne crossing come to mind. To echo what Steve said, there needs to be more options, and more AFFORDABLE options on the table. Perhaps someday some construction on affordable condos, or lofts will be in downtown’s future with some ground level bar/restauraunt/retail as well. So we can cover both the living requirement and the entertainment requirement that young Ft. Wayners are craving.
John thanks for the suggestion. Church is definitely a good place to start. I attend a local Catholic church, unfortunately it is an older crowd and family crowd, not many young single ladies around that I’ve seen. But, I’ll keep looking!
There is plenty of housing in and around downtown in nice areas (West Central, Lakeside Park) that are well under 250k.
How much are the condos at Midtowne?
Steve and Joe,
There’s one thing the DID does do, lists all the rental opportunities downtown -
http://www.downtownfortwayne.com/blog_page.php?id=1&p=6&s=21
Mike, thank you, there are plenty of opportunities for affordable (ownership) living downtown, midtowne has condos listed for 50k, there are houses in West Central for 50k as well. You may have to do a little work, but that is what gentrification is all about. These ‘affordable’ places to live downtown, may not be a lavish luxury unit, but I think it is time people start thinking realistically what you are going to get for your money.
Cole and Mike,
Agreed that there are opportunities at Midtowne, and West Central (even Lakeside, although that would be stretching the ‘downtown’ moniker to live in FW’s first planned “suburb”. But an improved Downtown is predicated on MORE people living downtown. I don’t see dozens of vacancies in the areas you’ve named. THOSE people are already there. We need MORE people. Again, the key is AFFORDABLE housing–NEW housing– or a retrofit of existing space FOR housing. Harrison Square won’t KEEP people downtown, no matter how successful it is in BRINGING them. And without increased retail, restaurants, and other amenities, it’s tough to live downtown already. There’s more places to eat than there were five years ago, but the retail has trickled down to almost nothing. Stay at the Hilton, and try to find a bottle of aspirin for sale within walking distance, if you don’t believe me.
Take some of the Light and Breuning parking lots, and give THEM to Wal-Mart, or Walgreen’s, or CVS–like we did at Southtown. Build a row -or two, or three– of two-story retail, with apartments above. (Sort of like Harrison Square, but without the absured price tag.) Watch as people start to infiltrate downtown, slowly. It’s not going to happen just because we built a ballpark, or celebrated “Buskerfest.” But if you build it, they WILL come….eventually. I say we start the funding with the penalties extracted from Barry Realty for NOT finishing the Harrison on time. Ah, one can dream……
“Without the absurd pricetag.” That’s the key! I agree that there are relatively few openings currently downtown for living. More people living downtown requires more housing to be available, and it needs to be priced right. Not a lot of people can afford a $300,000+ condo downtown. That’s an especially huge investment, especially when you’re asking someone to take a leap of faith, hoping that retail conveniences may follow. Build some condos/lofts/apartments in the 1000 sq.ft range that are $80k-100k or $600/month and you’ll probable see more interest, especially in the young professional already saddled with debt that everyone so desperately wants to revitalize downtown! Get enough people drawn in with realistic financial numbers and retail will follow naturally.
Steve,
REALLY? “Take some of the Light and Breuning parking lots, and give THEM to Wal-Mart, or Walgreen’s, or CVS–like we did at Southtown. Build a row -or two, or three– of two-story retail, with apartments above.”
I’ll skip over the absurdity of you saying we give downtown land to walmart, and go straight for a question. How much do you think you can buy a parking lot from Light and Breuning for? Downtown parking lots are huge money makers. They are all profit. Light and Breuning isn’t just going to put them up for sale at the fair market price. An expensive piece of land is going to drive up your cost per unit.
It really isnt that Downtown needs MORE people, at the risk of sounding arrogant, I’ll say that downtown needs BETTER people. Revitalization or gentrification in a neighborhood isn’t necessarily hinged on the influx of people, it is more dependent on the residents having expendable cash to keep their properties up and be patrons at the retail that could eventually be in their neighborhood.
This transformation does not come from a corporation that is going to come in a throw up a few condo complexes, it comes from individuals that are willing to take a risk on something. If people want downtown to thrive, people need to take a risk on it. Look at any neighborhood that has been turned around – Tons of new housing has not been created, but the owners have came in and improved their properties.
Again, affordable housing in the downtown area is available. It may not be exactly the pinpoint area that you want, but it is still available. The best locations dictate a higher price, so if you want affordable, then you need to be more flexible on location.
Steve and John,
I would tend to disagree with you on the argument concerning the DID’s so called “lame” events. I’ve attended plenty of their events with my family over the past couple of years and have found them to be very nice and well organized events. Not only do they have events that appeal to all ages, they also have UNIQUE events that appeal to adults, such as last year’s IslandFest or Mardi Gras. IslandFest and Mardi Gras both were very well attended events last year and had plenty of unique entertainment options.
Sure, Lunch on the Square is on the same day as Bear on the Square. But what about the folks who don’t want to head down to Freimann Square because they don’t like they band for that day? This gives them another option. If you’ve been to it yet this month, you can see that its turned out to be a pretty popular event.
As far as the same “lame media outlets” they use – the DID uses everything from newspapers to news channels, radio stations to blogs, and everything in between. What more do you want them to use?
I live southwest, and I love it. I have no reason to venture downtown, nor any desire. The last time I was there was to attend a concert back in the late 70′s at the Embassy Theater. Okay, maybe in 1980 I was at the 3 Rivers Festival, which now sucks big time.
I have all of the shopping I need. I have all the restaurants I need. A wonderful hospital, Lutheran. Plenty of doctors, dentists, pharmacies, etc. And to top it off, very little crime. I live in a 3 square mile area of paradise, and quite frankly, I don’t like see my tax dollars go towards building crap downtown I will never use.
One of the reasons that Barry hasn’t been able to get either the condo project or the retail off the ground is NO ONE wants to live downtown. Hell, I don’t blame them. For what they want for a condo, you can get 3 times the square footage out in the burbs, with a BACKYARD! And what are they asking for the retail property, something like $30 a square foot? Come on out to Illinois and Scott Roads, you can get it for $18 a square, and people out here have disposable income.
Mr. Kalb is right about one thing. We don’t need more bars. There’s over 150 of them in Ft Wayne/Allen County already.