the good city

I must take a break from the day-to-day effort of posting here every day. Other projects — such as by own family — must take precedence. Please check out these other blogs for other city-related Fort Wayne information: What’s Going Down(town) Around Fort Wayne Fort Wayne Observed Thanks!

Cities do not consist of freeways, buildings, transit systems, houses, malls, sidewalks, hydro wires, sewers, water mains, snowplows, corporations or government. Good cities consist of good people. Like a vibrant company, they tap their best people — those with intelligence, energy, integrity, goodwill and a large well of experience — to do the best things. [...]

Where have I been? Well, I’ve been the same place you have been: Looking at this blog, wondering where the next post will come from. I’ve spent most of the past week thinking about the focus of this blog, and I’ve decided to follow what readers have been most interested in — local commentary and [...]

Be sure to read the column Kevin Leininger wrote after his interview with the new president of the Downtown Improvement District. Lots of good sense coming from Richard Davis: “I’m alert to the ‘Big Project’ syndrome, where the ‘titans’ decide what should be the thing to change the face of downtown. But success never depends [...]

Chris Pummer on MarketWatch gives us a contrarian notion — more expensive gasoline might be just what we need. And no, not because we’re an evil American people, but simply because we have suffered an economic drag because of our dependency on oil: Americans should be celebrating rather than shuddering over the arrival of $4-a-gallon [...]

This is the repaved block of Calhoun Street between Jefferson and Washington boulevards. Instead of a turn lane that directs you into the breakfast buffet at the Hilton, perhaps the city could consider a center-of-the-road refuge island for hotel-goers crossing the street? Such an island would typically be used on wider streets, but visitors would [...]

Quotes from Lewis Mumford (1895-1990), American historian of technology and science: Architecture, like government, is about as good as a community deserves. – Sticks and Stones, 1924 Mind takes form in the city; and in turn, urban forms condition mind. – The Culture of Cities, 1938 Forget the damned motor car and build the cities [...]