Property tax again-the primaries are a coming

This article by the Journal Gazette on over and under assessing of property value.

In terms of assessments, we found almost a systematic inconsistency,” said Mark Brown, the institute’s research director and author of the equalization report. “There were some homeowners with assessed valuations as little as 65 to 75 percent of market value, others with 130 to 135 percent of market value.”

Tremendous inconsistencies were found between the state and counties. Within counties, assessors and auditors often used different data procedures and systems, resulting in the flawed values. Because a property owner’s tax levy is determined by the total of a taxing district’s assessed valuation, under-assessed or over-assessed properties skew the base figure and, in turn, the tax rate. Under-assessed properties result in a higher tax rate and higher tax bills.

Even more troubling, the inconsistencies occurred within and across townships, even those townships in the same county!

Sounds like some more suing needs to be taking place and some appealing of the property assessment of some property. Hint: especially in the downtown area. Hat tip to Indiana Law blog for the links to the study.

Downtown Stadium

Psst, I got some swamp land in Florida. That is if you monied people haven't purchased up all the land and buildings ,in downtown Fort Wayne, in anticipation of a baseball stadium.

Update Friday, December 22, 2006

What about all that money collected on the 2003 erroneous property tax assessment?

Your surplus assessed property tax money here.
Together let's say ho ho ho, or is that windfall.

And how about the surplus money that was taken from folks but now these folks have to apply to get it back. Wink Wink it will go into a general fund if the folks don't get their money before the end of three years. Just cut them the check, you accounting wizards~~~~ I guess if the city is not able, any more, to gouge the taxpayers with fake housing program, the city will go all out with a big business money scheme pointing toward Jefferson Pointe for a revitalization of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I guess if Governor Mitch can sell Indiana's highway, local investors (local politicians) surely can sell Fort Wayne downtown dust bowl of dry land. Can we say Southtown Mall, right about here.

I'm guessing the plan or what's called Harrison Square is to play ball for the men while the little women go shopping. Together now, brain-drain~~~ Now what shall we call our new jacked up city...audacity of hope? Nope, that title is already taken. I know, Field of Dreams!?! Field of Dreams has a nice ring to it, just wondering, if it would be a better title for a movie or something?

Housing Development and Property Tax Collection in Fort Wayne, Indiana

The Southside is being redeveloped at the expense of those who already have businesses and homes on the southside. You would think Fort Wayne's City Leaders would do more to support homeowners and current businesses owner on the southside.

Of course there are a few and I do mean few businesses that the city can hold up as helping. But those businesses put little back into the community, they feel deserving because they are on the southside.

There are many businesses on the southside that should be celebrated and highlighted that many residents probably don't know even know these businesses exist. Instead, the city's leaders are holding up drafts of drawings of future field of dreams. Well I would like to know where in the H--- are the suckers!!!

In the meantime, here is the list of homes that have fallen into tax default, simply because the auditor office has sped up the process of taking homes. I say forget about eminent domain, when you have dopey looking smiling creatures give out wrong information that could cause a homeowner to lose their home by defaulting on taxes.

Let's see if the auditor office has the great Southtown Centre Mall, and all that great development listed as a TIF District, like it does the great downtown. What do you think the answer is?

Tax Incremental Financing or TIF Districts are created by the Redevlopment Commission to earmark a portion of the property taxes collected in that district for specific inprovement projects (such as sewers, road repair etc.). A TIF district can be as small as one parcel or as large as several miles.

In case you are wondering why wouldn't the city want the SouthTown Centre Mall to be a TIF?

Municipal bonds are then issued to finance the public improvements. The bonds payable from TIF may be used to finance the cost of redevelopment and the construction of public improvement in the redevelopment area or for projects that directly serve or benefit that area. Once the bonds have been paid off, the taxes collected from the allocated area are distributed to the remaining taxing districts.

If you improve the area than you can't call it a blighted area to take property for eminent domain for business development, can you spell SYNERGY. Or what about the residents spending dollars under CREeD-Community Revitalization Enhancement District, wouldn't you want to maximize shoppers spending with programs in order to
capture funds from the increase in sales and income taxes for improvement in the area?

And what about the developers who bring their own private dollars to invest in the area? Instead the city government tells the developers that their developments will promote more criminal activity. This totally defeats the state purpose in trying to encourage development or redevelopment of property in these districts with income tax credit.

I guess it's the small things that southsiders should appreciate.. like looking at the glass as half-full rather than half-empty. How many more days before the election?

Dear NAACP and Corporate office of Wal-Mart and fellow bloggers

NAACP National Headquarters or NAACP Legal Department
4805 Mt. Hope Drive
Baltimore MD 21215
Bruce S. Gordon, CEO
Andrea Brown
410-580-5116

and

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 Southwest Eighth Street
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611.
Lee Scott. CEO
amy.wyatt@wal-mart.com
or click here.

If you're a customer, call 1-800-WAL-MART (1-800-925-6278).
If you're an investor or analyst, call 479-273-8446.
If you're a journalist, call 479-273-4314.

Attention: Lee Scott

Dear NAACP and Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart:


Today, I read in Frost Illustrated issue dated September 20, 2006 some serious issues about the Wal-Mart store opening in Fort Wayne, Indiana at Southtown Centre Mall. This Wal-Mart on the southside has a dress code, but no U scan lanes, and no layaway. This store and will not be opened 24 hours nor accept the WIC vouchers of women and children. This is totally unacceptable. We know Wal-Mart's history of discrimination against women.

From the story in the newspaper, John Wolf, the marketing manager has decided that this disparate treatment is okay in discriminating against clients who live on the southside. However, I find it troubling, even rising to a level of a class action suit in the federal court. How deplorable it is that Wal-Mart does not support a program that support women and children without health care.

Our local representative of the NAACP and Mr. Wolf appears to believe that somehow the majority of the folks will view this as a slight inconvenience rather than blatant discriminatary actions by your marketing manager who represents your stores in Indiana.

We ask that Mr. Gordon and Mr. Scott immediately demand that all policies that apply at any Wal-Mart stores should apply at all stores as a matter of fairness included this one that is located in the heart of the largest African-American and Latino population. Let this letter serve as notice that Mr. Wolf is discriminating against the southside with arbitrary policies that are not consistent with Wal-Mart policies at other stores in the city. We know that the "NAACP is dedicated to accelerating economic growth in our communities and eliminating existing racial and ethnic economic disparities." But we know that Wal-Mart is reneging on it's promise, "...on fostering and deepening these community partnerships because we know they're critical to our future. Good working relationships will ensure that we grow responsibly and intelligently, and help us build stronger communities together." Remedying this problem will be a start for Wal-Mart in building a stronger southside.


Sincerely,


Your Name

Ohio eminent domain and Why Southtown Mall Owners should have gotten more money from Mayor Dick

Ohio does not go along with the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Kelo. Hat tip to Indianalawblog and Cincinnati.com.


Southtown mall SOUTHTOWN PROPERTIES, INC.,MEREDITH SUITES, LLC, B.V. BELK, J.R., EASTGATE MALL, LLC (as ) Successor in Interest to B.V. Belk, Jr),did not get the deal directly from Mayor Dick but from the city's crooks, and $20,660,000 received by the city.

$20,660,000 INDIANA BOND BANK Special Program Bonds, Series 2006 C
(Fort Wayne Regional Public Safety Academy Project)INDIANA BOND BANK)

The Special Program Bonds, Series 2006 C (Fort Wayne Regional Public Safety Academy Project) (the “Series 2006 C Bonds”), are
to be issued by the Indiana Bond Bank (the “Bond Bank”) pursuant to a Trust Indenture dated as of June 1, 2006, (the “Indenture”), between the
Bond Bank and U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee (the “Trustee”), will initially be dated as of the date of delivery and will bear interest
from that date at the rates per annum and mature on the dates and in the principal amounts set forth on the inside front cover. The Series 2006 C
Bonds are issuable only as fully registered bonds and, when issued, will be registered in the name of Cede & Co., as nominee for The Depository
Trust Company, New York, New York (“DTC”). Purchases of beneficial interests in the Series 2006 C Bonds will be made in book-entry-only form, in the denomination of $5,000 or any integral multiple thereof. Purchasers of beneficial interests in the Series 2006 C Bonds (the “Beneficial Owners”) will not receive physical delivery of certificates representing their interests in the Series 2006 C Bonds. Interest on the
Series 2006 C Bonds is payable on February 1 and August 1 of each year, commencing February 1, 2007. The principal of and interest on the Series 2006 C Bonds will be paid directly to DTC by the Trustee under the Indenture so long as DTC or its nominee is the registered owner of the Series 2006 C Bonds. The final disbursement of such payments to the Beneficial Owners of the Series 2006 C Bonds will be the responsibility of DTC’s Participants, all as defined and more fully described herein under the caption “THE SERIES 2006 C BONDS-Book-Entry-Only System.”

The Series 2006 C Qualified Obligations are being issued principally to provide funds to pay the costs of the acquisition, construction and equipping of a 125,000 square foot government facility in the southeastern portion of the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana (the “City”), to be used as (i) a fire, police and emergency medical training center, (ii) an academic institution for public safety degrees and training programs, and (iii) a backup emergency operations center for the City and surrounding region (collectively, the “Project”).
Rental payments for such use of the Project by the City, as lessee, pursuant to the Lease (the “Lease”) dated as of February 1, 2006, between the Fort
Wayne Municipal Building Corp., as lessor (the “Series 2006 C Qualified Entity”), and the City, as lessee, which will constitute the principal source of repayment of the Series 2006 C Qualified Obligations, will be made by the City primarily from (i) tax increment revenues pledged from the portion of the City’s Tillman Anthony Urban
Renewal Area constituting an allocation area (the “Allocation Area”) for purposes of collecting such tax increment revenues (the “TIF Revenues”);

(ii) sublease payments from Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana (“Ivy Tech”),
subject to biennial appropriation by the State General Assembly, for its use of a portion of the Project (the “Sublease Revenues”);

(iii) if necessary, a pledge of the City’s distributive share of Allen County’s Economic Development Income Tax revenues but only up to the maximum annual amount of $1,065,000 (the “Pledged CEDIT Revenues”);


and (iv) certain other miscellaneous funds pledged by the City.

Sources of Lease Rental Payments and Risks

(a) Sublease Revenues. Sublease payments from Ivy Tech will come exclusively from appropriations made by the State General Assembly. A special one-time appropriation of $1,000,000 was made by the State General Assembly to be applied to the construction of the Project. Thereafter, beginning upon the later of July 15,
2007, or substantial completion of the Project, sublease payments will be made on a semiannual basis in the amount of $500,000. The sublease expires on June 30, 2022.

(i) Non-Appropriation of Funds; Termination of Sublease; Vacation of Premises. The sublease provides that in the event the State General Assembly fails to appropriate sufficient funding, or required budget items are not approved, such that Ivy Tech cannot meet any rental obligation under the sublease, the sublease shall terminate and Ivy Tech must vacate the subleased premises prior to the date of such termination. Ivy Tech is obligated to pay rental under the sublease for any
period (i) during which the subleased premises are available for use and occupancy by Ivy Tech, and (ii) funds have been appropriated and available to Ivy Tech to pay rental under the sublease.

TIF Revenues. Tax increment consists of the tax proceeds attributable to all real property assessed value within the Allocation Area, as of the assessment date in excess of the base assessed value as defined in Indiana Code § 36-7-14-39(a). The base assessed value means the net assessed value of all the property in the Allocation Area as finally determined for the assessment date immediately preceding the effective date of a declaratory resolution pursuant to Indiana Code § 36-7-14-39 establishing the Allocation Area (“Tax Increment”). The base assessment date of the Allocation Area is March 1, 2002.

The TIF Revenues is much higher than the tax proceeds or overflow is much higher than what Southtown group was paying in 2002.

Pledged CEDIT Revenues. The Pledged CEDIT Revenues are limited to an annual maximum amount of $1,065,000. The City has previously pledged its distributive share of Allen County Economic Development Income Tax (“CEDIT”) revenues for other obligations and leases. In addition, if the City can demonstrate, either historically using the prior fiscal year’s CEDIT revenues; or prospectively using projected CEDIT revenues in the immediately succeeding fiscal year, that CEDIT revenues for such year are at least equal to one hundred thirty-five percent (135%) of all debt service and lease rental obligations, and certain other conditions are met, the City may in the future pledge such revenues for additional obligations and leases. For a more detailed explanation of the Pledged CEDIT Revenues, the City’s CEDIT revenues generally and associated risks, see “Study of County Economic Development Income Tax Revenues Available for Debt Service” included in Appendix B.

Mayor's Office press release

City Breaks Ground on Regional Public Safety Academy
Mayor Graham Richard today led a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction on the new Regional Public Safety Academy at Southtown Centre. Mayor Richard was joined by state and local elected officials, Public Safety Foundation members, education partners, and neighborhood leaders.



The 132,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility will provide police, fire, emergency medical services, and homeland security training and education for professionals and students from northeast Indiana and across the Midwest. The academy will also play a prominent role in the newly developing mandated state fire training for the 3rd district in northeast Indiana.

Education partners include Ivy Tech, IPFW, Indiana Tech, Taylor University, the University of St. Francis, Tri-State University, and Fort Wayne Community Schools (Anthis Career Center). The educational institutions will use classroom space at the academy to teach and train students to become public safety professionals.


“This new regional asset serves as a model for public safety training and preparedness, said Mayor Richard. “We are building high trust, high performance partnerships with agencies across northeast Indiana and the Midwest region. Residents will benefit from trained professionals that will have the skills to work together in an emergency. We are a leader in providing excellent services.”

Hagerman Construction is the general contractor for the project. The total cost of the project is $27 million. The project is financed through a City Council approved $24 million bond. Additional sources include $15 million from the Indiana General Assembly through Ivy Tech. Property taxes are not being used to finance the academy. The academy is scheduled to open in November 2007.

Racialists' policies impact the Market Needs of Lower Income Consumers

The stalker moved through the backyard and into the yard of another to retrieve a ladder. Down the alley, he now travels with the ladder searching for homes to collect merchandise to sell on the streets to his new brown neighbors. A thief knows how to study the supply and demands of low-income consumers by taking advantage of certain opportunities in poor neighborhoods.

The Brookings Institution has a report on poverty, opportunity: Putting the Market to Work for Lower Income Families by Matt Fellowes.

The report focus on ways to reduce the inflated prices low income families pay for products, from cashing checks, food, housing and more. My interest was what is Fort Wayne doing to remedy such inequalities in our city, and the answer was documenting and publicizing lower income market potential according to the Brookings Institution.

"Document and Publicize Lower Income Market Demand,
Fort Wayne’s Southtown Mall Initiative"


Our fearless leader Mayor Dick condemned Southtown Mall and commissioned a study of the needs of the "poorer neighborhoods" surrounding Southtown Mall..hmmm, poorer neighborhoods???


"Leaders with less access to capital might consider an alternative path
taken by Mayor Graham Richard of Fort Wayne, Indiana. During Richard’s
mayoralty, the Southtown Mall was abandoned by its owner. Located in
one of the city’s poorer neighborhoods, this decaying infrastructure was
condemned by the city after no retailers expressed interest in taking over
this retail space.

Convinced that there was unmet demand in the neighborhood, the
mayor commissioned a study of local buying power, similar to studies
undertaken by Social Compact, ICIC, and Metro Edge."

"[The Mayor] found that demand was indeed present, but various costs made redevelopment of the property unattractive to retailers. To overcome these difficulties, the mayor worked with private retailers, and invested in new water and sewer lines, among other infrastructure improvements and resource investments."

How are the taxpayers being paid back, by the businesses operating in the new South Centre, one of the new business is a new supercenter with a large grocery store!!!

"The city’s investment is being paid back through profits generated
from selling property to the businesses that located at the site, along with
money generated from leasing its old electric utility, and from taxes generated
by the special taxing district at the site. The site is now home to a
number of new, major retail establishments, including a new supercenter
with a large grocery store."

This is why the poor stay poor, they never do what they say, they only write lies to share with others that they can imagine what the poor would need, but we're not going to give it to them.

The debate continues as to which of the poor does government support without helping those the individual taxpayers doesn't like amongst the poor.

Mayor Graham Richards-Mayor or Businessman

I love it when the newspaper praise other men for the greatness they don't do, but can because it's the newspaper. Here the journal-Gazette praises the demolition by the city of Phil's Market. Suggesting that the destruction signals change and improvement for the neighbors. I disagree, believing that it will benefit business friends of the mayor. What is my evidence? Lets look at southtown mall destruction, who are some of the benefactors. Now, if I read that correctly, that is $1.3 million dollars for $53,000 investment not bad.

The southtown mall trial in Fort Wayne, was interesting, in itself. The most interesting part was to see the Mayor Richard, position himself by the jurors and was introduced as the mayor of the city, but did not take the witness stand, to give testimony. What was the purpose of standing so close to the jurors could it had been an act of intimidation? I still don't understanding the Indiana Supreme Court ruling to uphold the court of appeal decision.

The Mayor says Chief Justice is a good friend of his, they went to school together, ate Mcdonald sandwiches together, good friends.

A specialized school at the old southtown mall

Okay, how many time can you push dirt around and fool the folks that you are building something? It only took months to build dorms for almost every college and university in the city, but the southside...time. Yes, let's give Mayor Richards credit for land stolen and given to Ivy Tech to build a specialized school for training police and fire fighters. It sure would have been nice for the school to offer more subjects, for those residents who live close to the "Centre."

But no, the city brags, folks are going to be coming in from 12 different counties to attend "coercion force training", that means the majority attending with be raced white men singing this land was made for you and me. And raced others will be singing, they trying to wash us away. If you think homeland security training include us...think Katrina, N.O.

Excuse me, but you have a huge number of young folks and returning adults that would love to attend a learning institution closer to their neighborhood. OOPs, I forgot the majority of African-Americans and Latinos live in the area, and the city does not want to include them in higher learning. Especially when they are struggling with the "brain drain" of raced whites in the city.

1937- less than 70 years and still Fort Wayne refuse to build housing for the poor

MORE ON RENAISSANCE POINTE

Click on Cindy Larson to read more about Renaissance Pointe in the News-Sentinel

Now, starting here's, some background on the failure of folks to do the right thing in the Hanna-Creighton neighborhood long before the 1960's.

In the 1930’s, Fort Wayne poors lived in cardboard boxes and abandoned vehicles, this area was called Shantytown. In 1937, the Wagner-Steagall Act established the United States Housing Authority. The government began to provide funding to build decent housing for the poor under this act.
Fort Wayne was just one of many cities short of decent housing back in the 1937, and formed the Fort Wayne housing authority.

The FWHA refused to take the federal dollars because of the requirement by the federal government that the city had to build 500 housings and some of those housing would have go to African-Americans.

The original members of housing authority came up with ways to circumvent the mandate and at the same time how to build a limited number of housings. They were successful in building cheap and durable houses for the poor. Except for one thing, FWHA found that building houses for the poor was not profitable, and offered little return on their money. So, they went back to the federal government to get housing dollars, this time because the government wanted military housing. With military housing fewer African-Americans would qualify when compared to the poor African-Americans.

The practice of using federal dollars and the city's refusal to built housing for the poor continues to this day. In you ever ride past Bluffton road the old military housings( Miami) were replaced with senior housing rather than housing for the families who were displayed after they were torn down.


FORT WAYNE HOUSING AUTHORITY in 1938

Miami Village was selected as a site for the 1st public housing for defense workers.
In 1953, FWHA no longer served as just the landlord but retained control of Miami Village.

1960, FWHA saw a way to continue their opposition to building low income housing for the working poor, by shifting its attention to build public housing for the elderly.

Enacted in 1993 as a result of recommendation by the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing. 1993 was the end of the 40 years contract with cities to encourage building more modern homes for the poor, HOPE VI.

In 1995, FWHA applied for demolition of Miami Village under the HOPE VI program demolition of Miami Village on September 1995.

Demolition did not occurred until 2001
Funding for replacing public housing ended September 2002

Mixed housing was authorited by Hud, and what we got was senior housing under the current Fort Wayne Housing Authority

Hanna-Creighton

The Hanna-Creighton was about Churches wanting to save their institutions and not the people who remain in the neighborhoods. One apartment complex remain in the neighborhood that was built by a church group, under urban renewal during the 1960, but has had several new owners as well as several name changes, Greenfield Square, Oakland Court, and is still standing but is now called Chapel Oaks,


Read Rev. Matthew C. Harrison Executive Director ofLCMS World Relief and Human Care

eyewitness account as newcomer to the Hanna-Creighton Neighborhood through Zion Lutheran Church. His views on the lives of residents who remain behind in an area ignored by the city for years, and what Daniel Moynihan calls simply benign neglect. The solution becomes not to help the people, but become instrumental in tearing down homes to rid the eyesores of lost souls who are left behind. Here is a sample of his comments:


Isn't housing a civil issue?
Two institutions remained in the Hanna/Creighton
neighborhood: A liquor store and the church(es). All others
(groceries, drug stores, furniture store, hardware store, etc.)
were gone. So it is in the chaos. The devil is not happy until
he has successfully destroyed all institutions and all order and
replaced them with chaos. Meanwhile institutions of chaos
thrive. I heartily defend, with full Lutheran gusto, the freedom
of the Christian to make sanctified use of alcohol.

However,the liquor store, which remains in the neighborhood, is of
duplicitous ethical value. Its clientele is made up of an
intolerably high number of addicts. When government checks
are delivered on the first of the month, business booms. When
a bootleg house (selling alcohol illegally and on weekends
to addicts) was finally condemned and demolished, the store
took a financial hit.
The home (a constant focal point of drugs
I witnessed cocaine sold openly at this residence) was the
perennial hangout for the most severely mentally ill and
addicted (often one and the same). I regularly met and
conversed with individuals who could do little more than
ramble in disconnected syllables of gibberish. The home was
of course also a focal point of crime, theft, sexual misconduct,
etc. Most crime in the neighborhood occurred in route to or
from the burn barrel constantly alight in the rear of the home.

I spent nearly six years trying to get rid of this home and
its negative activity. The owner did not live at the address
and was making money from the nefarious activity. The
police were disinclined to deal with the property (the
elimination of vagrancy laws, and the closing of state
institutions has left police with little ammunition for dealing
with such venues). When I informed the police (stationed
only a few blocks away) of the illegal nature of the weekend
business at this residence, I was directed to the State Excise
Agency. Why?

The Fort Wayne Vice Squad did not maintain
weekend hours. The State Excise Agency had jurisdiction
over illegal alcohol matters, but their office was in
Indianapolis, and they would have to get a black agent to do
overtime on the weekend to go undercover on location in
order to document and prosecute the activity. Dead end. All
the while I was stopping by the barrel at regular intervals,
offering assistance to anyone who might be ready to go a
different direction in life. When you want to get serious
about your alcoholism and go a different direction, you come
up the hill to that church up there and see me. I'll help you.

Jesus has something better in store for your life than this.
That comment was often met by the angriest derision I
experienced at any time of my ministry.

I went back to my friend Gary at Fort Wayne City Code
Enforcement. By the time I had left the parish I knew Gary,
his shoe size, the name of his wife and children, grandkids
names, etc. (not really, but nearly so!). Gary a gem of a
human being was one of those innumerable mid-level, nonpolitical
city bureaucrats who actually got things done, and
on a shoestring, while being yanked around by the politicos.
Pastor Harrison, just tell me what buildings you want down
and I"ll do my best to get them on the next bid package. He
would hire contractors to take down five or 10 or 20 derelict
homes at a time.

After six years of incessant negative activity,
finally the home was condemned, and demolished but only
after my work there was done. The burn barrel as I
disaffectionally called the residence, was theologia crucis, my
thorn in the flesh to keep me from becoming elated
Imagine what having that residence and liquor store
within a block or two did to property values, neighborhood
morale, confidence, quality, etc. Imagine the harm to all those
lives, those children who grew up in proximity. Had Zion
Lutheran any role in dealing with that particular problem, or
for that matter the broader neighborhood ills?. Obviously,
my answer was and is, yes. But how does this fit with the
doctrine of the two kingdoms?


What happened to the land? And who are some of the developers..keep reading.

Finalist

The Saint Peters Zion Project (SPZP) is a 10-block revitalization project in the La Rez and Hanna Creighton neighborhoods in Fort Wayne, IN. Together approximately 95% of the residents are minorities and the average median income is $19,120.00.

The once vibrant German Immigrant neighborhoods, slowly transitioned into
extrememly blighted and distressed areas. This project was born when two churches, St. Peter Catholic and Zion Lutheran Church, decided to address the continuing decline. NeighborWorks®Home & Community Development,
formally Project Renew, was invited as a partner to develop a plan.
NeighborWorks® and the churches worked with the residents to create a development plan.

As the developer,NeighborWorks® roles included, fiscal agent, land assembly, project management for the housing projects, mortgageloan provider, provider of homebuyer education and the entity to coordinate & pursue funding opportunities.

The project partners raised in excess of $600,000 to implement the plan.
This is a neighborhood revitalization of unprecedented scope. In two phases, the project addresses the physical needs (improved infrastructure, new and rehabilitated housing stock, job retention and creation) and the social/cultural needs (daycare, youth center, Urban League, Library, green space, recreation, transit hub and
rehabilitation of places of worship.) This project has a sweeping fundamental change on the way the neighborhood looks and feels.

Phase I (Residential Development)

The majority of the properties has been acquired through various acquisition strategies. Those with structures have been demolished, paving the way for the completion of single-family new construction. Seventeen (17) new homes,for an investment of $1,556,810.17, are completed and sold. We have plans to build 11 more over the next two years. NeighborWorks® secured $95,000 from the Federal Home Loan Bank and the City of Fort Wayne and provided rehab grants to 15 existing homeowners.

Phase II is well underway as well
A vista view and parking area has been created for St. Peter's Church. Zion has added a $2,000,000 addition to serve as a fellowship hall, offices and meeting space. Finley Properties based in Florida has purchased St. Peters
Catholic School and renovated the space into 42 units of Senior Housing. NeighborWorks® acquired a city block for
the building of a new Urban League, Library and CANI Head Start campus. This campus block alone is a $10,000,000 investment. All of the entities are open and providing services to our community. Overlooking the campus, on the southwest corner, a new pocket park was designed and installed.

In addition to all of these wonderful structural improvements and developments, NeighborWorks® has been instrumental in coordinating with the City of Fort Wayne over $350,000 of infrastructure improvements such as new curbs, alleys and sidewalks. Funding secured from City Council enabled us to install upgraded street lighting around the campus block.
The key to the success of this project is the partnerships with residents, government and the public and private sector that have been formed. Not one entity on their own could have been instrumental in breathing life back into these neighborhoods.

As you can read the majority of this revitalization has been about land grabs, and developers' interest, not unlike the lenghty takeover of Southtown mall, but the poor battle without deep pockets. See Southtown below.


Overhead photo of the Pontiac-Anthony area that is part of the 36 block development.

Pictures of the old mall. The property will bring in the investors...not the homes. More

Renaissance Pointe--

Mayor Graham Richard today announced plans for Renaissance Pointe. According to the City of Fort Wayne Website an urban revitalization initiative will be coming to the Hanna-Creighton neighborhood. This area would be zoned for mix use. Mixed use generally would mean low to middle income, but more than likely, the local elected officials use the term mix use to mean businesses and residential housing.

According to the website

"The Renaissance Pointe development would include plans for nearly 400 new homes, the rehabilitation of more than 100 existing homes, a greenway trail, and improved infrastructure. The Renaissance Pointe area is bounded by Creighton Avenue on the north, Pontiac Street on the south, Hanna Street on the west, and South Anthony Boulevard on the east. An internet address for those wanting additional information is under construction."

I talked with 6th District Councilperson Glynn Hines, about the layout of the Renaissance Pointe Development in the Hanna-Creighton area.

Councilperson Glynn Hines, pointed out existing houses, new homes, townhouses and retail/commercial districts. Also, Hines pointed out the green space around the Phoenix area.

I asked who would be building the housing. Three developers, Lancia Homes, Delagrange and Ideal were named.

The website:

"The City of Fort Wayne is partnering with Mansur Real Estate Services, Inc. on the new development. Lancia Homes, Delagrange Homes and Ideal Builders have agreed to build homes at Renaissance Pointe. In addition, NeighborWorks will administer a homeowner rehabilitation program for existing residents in Phase I of Renaissance Pointe. The City and its partners have worked closely with the Hanna-Creighton neighborhood in the planning of the new development."

The curbs appeal from the website:

"Amenities would include a greenway trail, new street lighting, alley upgrades, curb and sidewalk improvements, traffic calming, stormwater upgrades, and streetscape enhancements."

I asked what would be the price of the new homes. I was told the prices would be based on the specifications of the homeowners, which cost between $80,000 to $175, 000. I asked when would these new homes be built and I was referred to Maye Johnson. I was told that around September, 1 model home would be built. The ground breaking for the home would be during the fall.

I asked about the funding for rehabilitation for the those homeowners remaining in the area and was directed to Heather Presley. I was told that grants were not being given, but loans to cover Phase 1 of the project that would cover an area between Hanna-alley and Gay and Smith. The loans would be handled by NeighborWorks, and I was referred to talk to Nicole Turner-Abrahams-Ridley, former Executive Director - Project Renew, current Executive Director of Neighborworks. I was told that the loans for homeowners could be up to $20, 000 for a period of 20 years with 3% interest and homeowners would have to have insurance, the repairs code related or involving health issues.

From the website:

"The targeted housing market includes existing neighborhood residents, first
time homebuyers, young professionals, and newcomers to the region. Homebuyers will be offered incentives including:
Households below 80% of area median income will receive up to $15,000 in downpayment assistance grants
30-year fixed mortgages with lower interest rates
Flexibility with private mortgage insurance
Real property tax abatementszzzzzz'

The same old stuff, with the same schemes, with some of the same players with a few new ones. The folks buying in the schemes are hoping that the outcomes are not coming to be the same. In other words a whole lot of money, over $70 millions dollars, to built one home does not sound like a project is on the right track. Folks like me, want a row of housing completed in 2 months, to be convinced that elected officials are doing right by the African-American community. What's the name of the those guys on extreme makeover, call them in because it's obvious, that the folks running this project are bend over with their heads between their legs. One model house with $70, 000,000?

When I read about the Phil Market taking part in the demolition, it sounds more like an interest in a land grab by investors. Still sounds like a land grab, with a nice drawing of what could be accomplished if these folks were about the right things. This appears to be strategy to avoid the Southtown Mall and Belmont eminien domain headache.

I thought I would check it myself. My instinct was telling me something was up, but sometimes, I don't follow my instincts. But, this time, I tracked back, when I saw little droppings that was leading me to someplace that of course I was not invited. But one has to understand that when something is held in the public arena, that it meant for the public. I am public and it sad to see warmed up hash all over again, with potical puppets in attention to speak in behalf of the taxpayers!!!

When you enter the room, you are able to eyeball the players. What I saw was the same old players. Remember Hanna -Creighton rising from the ashes under Rev. Ternae Jordan, that worked closely with the former Mayor Helmke. Up from ashes was the theme at the time, and out of the deal was nine houses and a senior citizen apartment complex. The meeting was held in the basement of the church about new housings and businesses...let the Mayor Graham Richard tell the story in an excerpt from his A Wired and Inspired City speech:

..Let me talk about another challenge. Things happen in
a city and you just feel terrible about them. In 1998,
tires that were illegally stored behind our police
station, that tall building on the left is our police
station, went up in flames. Burned for over 10 days.
Evacuate 2,000 people. This is the census tract that has
the concentration of many of the most poor families in
our community. What did we do? How did we respond? We
put together a plan, and today, Phoenix Manor rising from
the ashes, a senior complex by a community-based, faithbased
not for profit. Phoenix Place, Project Renew,
built these homes, new, owner occupied at market rates
for suburban homes.

These are the data. It's not pretty. This is one of
the poorest census tracts in the State of Indiana. Look
at that home ownership and renter occupied, 68 percent
rental units versus the city as a whole with 38.
Vacancies, abandoned properties, just the list goes on
and on. A lot of female heads of households, poverty
rate over 50 percent.
What did we try to do here? A partnership with all of
these faith-based organizations came together, and
sometimes people forget the convening power of the mayor.
We didn't really put a lot of money into this. Bruce, we
didn't just throw the Community Development Block Grant
money in there. We said, what can we do to leverage?
It's steering, not rowing. It's trying to figure a way
to make things happen. And we knew that the library
wanted to build a new branch there. We knew that the
Urban League needed a new headquarters. We knew that the
Headstart Program which had moved out of the area needed
a new location. And we obviously needed a better citylinked
transportation facility.
So there one block, and I'm sorry I don't have more
current photos, and I'm getting these, but one block
which had a liquor store and it was really in bad shape,

and we worked with the local project development company
there, Project Renew, and now today we have open all of
those buildings that you see there. And there are
hundreds of families and kids every day learning at the
After- School Learning Program, and that library, one of
my friends went by and he said, mayor, I don't think you
should have built that library, that big, special
library, in that area. He said, there's no cars in the
parking lot. It's never being used. I looked at my
friend and I said, come some night. It's a walk-in
place, buddy. The place is packed, tons of families.
It's a virtual microcosm of those 74 languages being
spoken in our community. Their numbers went from 4,000
to 16,000 a week of utilization.
We've got goals, very specific. New housing units to
be built, condos. We want this to be the most wired,
inspired, central city new development anywhere in the
country. Town houses being proposed. There are empty
vacant lots. We've got a comprehensive project called
Synergy that we're going to develop, 340 new homes,
102 attached town houses, 36 new live/work town houses,
100 owner rehab, 95,000 square feet of new retail space
in that project. All of our partners, twenty-five signed

agreements to partner with us to have educational
accomplishment and achievement, not just space and place,
Bruce, it's about the kinds of things Brookings has been
writing about. Sustainable families, taking the
toughest, most difficult community from that tire fire in
less than 10 years to a place that people want to live,
where there's hope and safety in the neighborhoods and
they feel good about it.
Did I talk about our one-hundredth anniversary? Onehundred
miles of trails and greenways we're building. So
when you come to Fort Wayne we'd love to show you those.
And, yes, it doesn't always snow, and you can enjoy those
great greenways.

You got to attract investment, real quickly here. We
put into place the Billion Dollar Urban Investment
Strategy. With tax incentives that we got from the
state, the Community Revitalization Enhancement District,
the Urban Investment Strategy that we had put in place,
to date, this is going to be a 3-year goal, we've
attracted to the urban core $450,000 of that billion of
private investment. We don't include any of the public sector
investments in those dollars. The tax credit
that's helped us the most for those of you interested in

the Community Revitalization Enhancement District tax
credit, two of them, one at Southtown where there was 100
acres of abandoned shopping mall, and then the urban
downtown core. That 25 percent--carry forward against
your Indiana income tax is one that's driving a lot of
relooking at our downtown and our distressed areas for
investment.

The old Devilbiss and Knoche addition created in 1904 in the Pontiac Anthony area has the right name...it seems like in the words of Jerry Lee Lewis "there's a whole lot of devilment going on". I am going to go with my gut and suggest a take over of property is on the horizon without just compensation for the property owners.

With downtown development to bring back the wealthy baby boomers who left the city and building lofts to bring in young wealthy, artist type individuals from Grabill and other suburbs, one has to question is the city really going to build unaffordable housings for folks living in the poorest neighborhood in the country? I heard that description at another meeting that I attended.

If you think about it Fort Wayne was not platted until 1794, this neighborhood has been around for a long time, but used as a ghetto, to sustain and keep African-Americans in a specific area. So who is Renaissance Pointe being created for?


Here is one more thing to chew on. Downtown Development, South Anthony Pointe and Renaissance Pointe have a few things in common, what are they? I have to get back to you on this one.