What City Elections should be about

I am curious what issues are important to you in Fort Wayne.

I have been somewhat disappointed in the City election so far. I know it is early; however, I have seen little that motivates me...

In my mind these are the issues that should be discussed, I listed them from most to least important to me.

1. Jobs. We need to attract new jobs to Fort Wayne and we need to create an environment that allows wealth to be created.

2. CSO. The Federal Government is going to force Fort Wayne to resolve our CSO problem. Tonight I was told that it would cost us between 300 and 600 million dollars in bonds PLUS interest. (Note this would have a HUGE effect on property taxes)

3. Property Rights. We need to protect the property rights of citizens of Fort Wayne. We should limit the Cities use of Eminent Domain and we should repeal the Smoking Ban.

4. Urban Planning. Fort Wayne and Allen County do NOT have an effective plan. We need one and we need it badly. We really need to limit development at the edges of Fort Wayne and we need to ensure that we "infill." We need to stop building projects randomly wherever developers want to put something. We need to stop thinking that building new "strip malls"is economic development... It is economic re-arrangement.

5. City Pension shortfall. The last number I heard was that we would have to take out 244 million in bonds to fund the Fire and Police pension funds. (Note this would have a LARGE effect on property taxes)

I am sure I missed some...

What do you think?

Mike Sylvester