Ouch!
I’m sure the location of these businesses may have alot to do with their closings.

But what does this say about security and police surveillance?
Or for that matter, what does this say about locally owned businesses?

Buy goods and services from locally owned businesses.

So a burglary is an armed robbery? I thought all burglaries occured when the place was unattended. How about the lady who was relieved of her purse in the parking garage in the downtown bank building last week? Was that also a burglary? I don’t think so.

John,
Anyway, it’s all robbery whether it’s an armed theft, theft by break-in,
or sell-out by not supporting local businesses to thrive. I would think
police & security surveillannce of know targets in certain markets should prevent crime.

However, how do we curtail the theivery by big box market chains putting
our local community out of business, up for lease and destroying our local
culture and charm?

Just for clarification, a burglary is roughly defined as a breaking and entering of a dwelling with the intent to commit a theft. A robbery is merely a burglary with the use of force.

Yeah…must be all this “diversity” we’re hearing about causing ALL those businesses to close up.
If Ft. Wayne wants to emulate cities like Chi-Town or the Motor City…they’re at least on the right track.

Personally, I can cite well over FIFTY businesses that have closed (and one mall) just in the past 10 years…and that’s ONLY on the SOUTH side of the city!

We also had quite a few stores in Glenbrook Mall close up and move, and Glenbrook Commons looks like a ghost town these days.

If there is ANY “silver lining” to this cloud, it will be that EVENTUALLY there won’t be anything LEFT to rob, burglarize or otherwise pillage (except robber on robber crimes).

See the “next” installment…
John Carpenter presents:

“EXCAPE FROM FORT WAYNE”
(cue that movie preview guy with the cool voice)

((…In the year 2015, Ft. Wayne has become THE maximum security prison for the state of Indiana, devoid of retail and basic services, completely surrounded by 50 ft. high walls, harboring the worst criminals this city has to offer. They say there is only ONE way in…and NO way out.))

Hey…it COULD happen.

B.G.

Burglary and robbery, both hard to investigate and require alot of time from both the police and our judicial system. Writing smoking citations, easy and it brings alot of easy money to the system. Wheres their priority? You do the math.

“EXCAPE FROM FORT WAYNE”
(cue that movie preview guy with the cool voice)

((…In the year 2015, Ft. Wayne has become THE maximum security prison for the state of Indiana, devoid of retail and basic services, completely surrounded by 50 ft. high walls, harboring the worst criminals this city has to offer. They say there is only ONE way in…and NO way out.))

Hey…it COULD happen.

As a substitute teacher for FWCS, I have sure babysat a number of Fort Wayne’s Future Most Wanted!!!!

Bob G. I’d really appreciate your taking the time to list the 50 businesses that have closed in the past 10 years on the south side of town. I would bet many of the business you really could mention were opened within the past ten years as well.

Glenbrook has been one of the most profitable shopping malls (by square footage) in the US for years. Hardly a problem there.

FWA:
Since I don’t have the “running” list for all the businesses that have left here at hand, I’ll attempt to recall as many of them as I can from memory:

SOUTHTOWN MALL:
Sears
Kohls
J C Penney
Paperback Booksmith
Orange Julius
The ice cream stand (old guy was the last to leave)
Service Merchandise
Paintball store (relocated uptown)
Hallmark cards
Roemans (womens clothes)
Sbarros
China Wok
Nathan’s hot dog stand
Subway
Clem’s Collectibles (relocated to GB)
Wonderly’s furniture on consignment
Turn One (relocated to GB)
Jewelry store (Kay?)
Toenges Shoes (moved uptown)
Kay-Bee Toys (left GB as well)
Sam Goody
Dollar Tree
McD’s (new one opened at the old Hardees)
GNC

Other businesses:
McDs - S Anthony (near the firehouse)
Long John Silver- S. Anthony
The entire strip mall at Wayne trace & Paulding
Franks Nursery - S. Anthony
VIP Video - K Mart Plaza
Cap’N Cork - S. Anthony
Target - S. Anthony
Fabric World - K-Mart Plaza
Pizza Hut -S. Anthony & Paulding
Hardees - S. Anthony

I did write down a list a few years ago (my wife probably can recall even more)….but here’s at least 25, and no…most of these stores were already opened and well established when I moved here ELEVEN in 1997.

@ Lynn: Priorities in the WRRONNNG place (and not on Goshen Rd…lol)
I meet w/ the quad Cpt regularly, and we’re just chasing crime between 3 sectors down here…back and forth it just keeps moving around. Time to rethink the whole “community-oriented” policing issue, and try PROBLEM-oriented policing instead.

@ IWTL: A “sub”, huh? Try being married to a FULL-TIME educator and hearing the horror stories first-hand (and from the FWPD officers assigned to the school) Makes dinnertime conversation a lot more “fun”.
Welcome to the FTA:
(Future Thugs of America)

It ain’t Detroit…yet.
(but we’re workin’ on it)

B.G.

Part 2 of “the list”
(thanks go to my wife)

ATA Airlines
Kitty Hawk Cargo
Phil’s Market
Didier’s Market (murdered)
Blimpie (Bluffton Rd)
Southtown Cinema
Little Turtle Lanes
Putt-Putt (near Rollerdome)
Helig Meyers (Southgate Plaza)
JD Byrider (Decatur Rd)
Wonder Bread Outlet store (S. Calhoun)
Lutheran Hospital
Richards restaurant (Decatur & Paulding)
Baskin Robbins (Calhoun & Rudisill)
Marco’s Pizza (Waynedale)
Korte Paper & party supplies (S Fairfield)
Mickey & Billy’s (southtown mall area)
southtown Flea Market (rt 27 & decatur rd)

And at Southtown Mall:
N.W. Ayres
Reader’s World (not paperback booksmith)
DEB shop
Lane Bryant (not Roamans)
MCL cafeteria
Spencers (moved to GB)

That total comes to about fifty-EIGHT stores with many we still might have missed (like the 7-11 that USED to be at the corner of Rudisill and Hanna that is NOW a printing shop).

OOPS…make that fifty-NINE.

B.G.

sorry for the double post…
(Dan will know what to do…he always does)

B.G.

Bob,

Thanks for the list.

Five of the stores you list simply changed locations. That doesn’t mean they closed. That means they moved somewhere else.

KB Toys closed many of their stores nationally because the company nearly went bankrupt.

I would bet the city has far more fast food establishments now than it did ten years ago.

Southtown Mall closed because the Mall Owners closed it. Many of the stores had no choice but to move or leave. I applaud you for thinking to list all of them in order to make you point, but many of those smaller stores only opened at Southtown because the rent was cheap and their business were more appropriate for a flea market than a shopping mall.

Having grown up on the South Side and having lost my first job (in one of the Southtown stores you mention) because the mall closed, I am aware of the issues facing that part of town. The area is rebounding - the land formerly known as Southtown is once again home to quite a few stores, as are other spots you mention.

It’s one thing if you can legitimately list 50 businesses that have closed and not been replaced. That isn’t the case here.

Also, had VIP Video gone out of business under other circumstances, conservatives in Fort Wayne would have rejoiced. No one has pointed out that the store was an adult video store. I wish the owner hadn’t been forced to protect himself with deadly force, but, at the end of the day, it’s one less adult establishment, right?

@FWA:
Southtown mall management simply gave up the ghost aka they stopped giving a s**t. That became evident before 2000, when basic maintenance went down the crapper.

Many stores I DID NOT list were in fact smaller gift shops, arts & craft shops that were “mom n pops”, so I felt no need to add them, but we could say close to 20 of them bit the dust between 1996 and 2002.

(I knew VIP was XXX…just by driving by. One less adult store…one owner ALIVE to tell the tale & one perp DEAD…works for me. Wish we could say the same for Tasty Pizza on Fairfield)

Case in point…the stores that MOVED elsewhere moved for a REASON…and the reason was CRIME.
THAT is what ultimately did in SouthTown mall, as well as Mickey & Billys (you must have never seen the parking lot AFTER a Friday night there)

Also, consider the fact that close by, you have one of THE MOST problematic apartment complexes in the whole of Ft. Wayne…along the 7900 blk of Serenity Drive.
And who EXACTLY lives there?
Southbridge Apts aren’t the jewel in any housing crown, either…same with Willow Creek Crossing (they’ve run the SAME ad for over 8 years). More and more crime at THOSE places every year. Check the police reports.

As far as a “renaissance” down here…the 2 big boxes are fine for a start, but will it be sustainable in the long haul?
I’m not banking the farm on it yet…not on a dare.

Chase the CRIMINAL ELEMENT out first…THEN watch business return in force! We’ve got SO much space that COULD be used…but isn’t.
Instead the city nurtures HUD and kisses the ass of section 8…and those of us left here have to deal with the fallout and the flotsam.

Fair?
Not so much.

B.G.