WANTED: Unbiased view of Fort Wayne (Indianapolis, Lafayette: neighborhood, to buy, new construction)

[cdr18]

Originally Posted by king1234

This city is boring, racist, and filled with losers. simple as that. I will be moving back to NYC in a year for music opportunities.

Your opinion of Fort Wayne is clearly biased. To call an entire city racist shows much ignorance and arrogance on your part. Please go if that is all you were able to see.

[king1234]

I'm sure no one thought that I was speaking about everyone in the city, but if I said that I hadn't encountered it I would be lying. Sorry, Deal with it

[citylink]

I know this thread is old but king 1234 sounds like a guy who sits in his basement and makes his beats and tries to rap to them. Probably failed in NYC.

[flclempire]

Crime: Some areas are worse than others. Like day and night different. Simply find a "day" area and you won't experience crime. Don't risk the "night". Drugs are about as normal as any other town, I'd suppose. Lots of smokeable's abuse in black neighborhoods, lots of booze abuse in the hispanic areas. Who knows what the whites do, but they can keep it in their own homes. I think there is plenty to do out-doors-wise, as far as walking/biking through parks and such. Lots of places to walk your dog for long walks. Lots of places to play frisbee, ect. Dunno about hiking.

[Decidedandgoing]

Well here's the deal. I've lived in this city for 10 years now, prior to that, I lived of a few years each in several different states. This is definitely not a destination city. There are things to do, but people don't travel here to spend a week relaxing.

The people here are rude, but not an in-your-face kind of way, unless you run with that kind of crowd. It's more of a passive-aggressive type of rudeness. In the other places I've lived, people will smile at you, let you in in traffic, and just be generous in a non-defining sense of the word. It is much easier to live around and be happy with those kinds of people.

I have very good friends here, but even they don't know to be nice the way people from other places do. So if you come, and you haven't lived here before and therefore don't know what you're getting yourself into, you will be like the frog sitting in the pot - you won't notice how unhappy you are until it's too late. Yes, of course, that was me.

Fort Wayne has, however done a decent job with it's parks. It's a great interconnected system with developed walkways/bike paths all around the city. You can get to a lot of the parks just riding your bike along the path. There are great festivals here in the summer and early fall, definitely some things to do! There are a lot of churches, so worship is easy to find, and yes, there is a seedier side to life here, so if you're into strip clubs, well... Anyway, the parks are great but you have to travel to have real fun out-of-doors unless you know someone close with a huge chunk of land for hunting, camping, hiking, snowboarding, etc.

There are parts of the city you shouldn't set foot in if you are white (Casper-colored, Caucasian, whatever...), like Eden Greene apartments. And of course there are areas of the city that aren't good in general, but you'll have that anywhere.

It's a decent city if you are looking for the mundane. It's no Mayberry though.

[Decidedandgoing]

Oh, and yes, the school system is HORRIBLE. However, there are private alternatives which are excellent. And for those of you would claim it is the responsibility of the gov't to educate your child, shame on you.

[wh15395]

Originally Posted by Decidedandgoing

Oh, and yes, the school system is HORRIBLE.

Uh...no it's not.

[markjohnsonfw]

This site provides a lot of information on Fort Wayne. It's mostly pertaining to the downtown areas, not so much the suburban areas but there is a lot of information and pictures in the articles http://www.developfortwayne.com Downtown Fort Wayne Development Blog . I lived in Fort Wayne for many years, as far as the previous comments, I absolutely disagree with the people being rude. Quite the opposite, I think on average people from Fort Wayne are MUCH MUCH MUCH nicer and more hospitable than any other place I've lived....Chicago, Cleveland, Las Vegas, etc...

[cdcdguy]

Originally Posted by Decidedandgoing

Oh, and yes, the school system is HORRIBLE. However, there are private alternatives which are excellent. And for those of you would claim it is the responsibility of the gov't to educate your child, shame on you.

FWCS may not be the best out there, but they are FAR from horrible. Also, I find the people really friendly here.

[Coogles]

A little background - I graduated from Homestead going on 10 years ago and was born/raised in Fort Wayne. My wife and I settled in Indianapolis and bought a home near the Broad Ripple area after we graduated from college, but we both still have family there and visit often. I really only have Indianapolis to compare to Fort Wayne, but for what it's worth -

Crime isn't bad, especially not compared to some of the areas around Indy. Everyone will tell you to avoid the SE side of town; it's an area that really started going into decline in the 80's when Harvester shut its plant and moved over 10,000 jobs to Springfield, OH. In terms of pure statistics yes, it does have a disproportionate share of the crime problems, but it isn't as if you need an armored car to drive down the street. My grandparents used to live over near Hessen Cassel and McKinnie and were never bothered. I used to go over to McMillen Park at all hours of the day for hockey from the time I was 5 years old until I graduated HS and never had an issue. My dad an I still go skating at Resevoir Park on Creighton when we get the chance. The main reason I would avoid the area is because so much of it is 50's carboard housing that doesn't have much lasting value. The housing stock is awful and it's going to take a major effort from Fort Wayne leadership to make a dent in clearing those residences so that homes people actually want to live in can take their place. Everything east of Lafayette and south of Rudisill is junk.

Drugs, like anywhere else, are there if you look for them. I can tell you that if I would have wanted drugs in high school they would have been easier for me to get than beer. Moving to suburbia doesn't change that; in fact, I think many of those kids just have more money to buy drugs. If you're worried about drug trade and the violence that can bring, gang-related or not, then no, I don't believe that to be among Fort Wayne's major problems.

As for things to do, you certainly won't mistake Fort Wayne for the big city. If you like amateur sports, especially hockey and baseball, that's a great place to start. The Komets are a great entertainment value and the new baseball stadium downtown beautiful. It supposedly takes some design cues from Victory Field here in Indy, but in my opionion it blows VF out of the water. There's enough of an arts scene to keep you interested if you dig for it. Local restaurants are around too. Again, you'll have to ask around and do your homework, but they are there and some are fantastic. Joseph Decuis in Roanoke and the Oyster Bar on Calhoun are two of the best.

Neighborhoods - If you're raising kids and want suburban paradise, Fort Wayne certainly has that in spades. Much of Allen County is very rural (it's HUGE!!!), so you can go buy a few acres, build your dream home, and hear nothing but the rustling of the wind if that's what you want. High-end subdivisions dot the southwest and northern parts of the city if that's what you prefer, many still with open lots for new construction. My personal favorite neighborhood, though, is the Southwood Park area. The best part is that it's close to Foster Park, which is the gem of Fort Wayne's public park offerings, in my opinion. Foster has a great trail running all the way down to Tillman and also connects now to the Aboite trails, so you can ride/run all over the city. I grew up just north of Rudisill near Indiana Ave and love that part of town. The 20's & 30's homes are beautiful and in the vast majority of cases well cared for, plus the people who live in the area just seem much more friendly and outgoing to me. If you're in the area pop in to the Friendly Fox on South Wayne to get some quiche and coffee. The Lakeside/Forest Park area is similar, but despite its amazing garden, Lakeside doesn't hold a candle to Foster. The one thing Fort Wayne does not have is the dense, urban, walkable neighborhood that I want. I love being in Broad Ripple and walking to the grocery/eateries/shops instead of having to get in a car for every little thing. The closest you'll find to that is West Central, which is sandwiched between the river and Washington Blvd. Beautiful old homes and you'll be able to walk right into downtown.

Fort Wayne schools in most cases are excellent. Homestead and Corroll rival Fishers/Carmel/Zionsville offerings in Indy. Both have high demands for students and prepare a willing person well for college. FWCS may not be perfect, but it sure beats the heck out of IPS. As far as the high schools go, the only one to absolutely avoid is Wayne. North Side and South Side get a bad reputation from some, but both have some really solid honors-type programs that will do an excellent job preparing a student for college. Standard course offerings, on the other hand, are a joke and dumbed down to serve the masses. I have friends from both schools who went on to do really well in college. Northrop and Snider are both fine. They may not get the test scores across the board that Homestead & Carroll do, but I wouldn't hesitate to send my hypothetical child to either one. There are Catholic (Dwenger, Luers) and Luthern (Concordia) offerings if FWCS or public school in general isn't appealing. Canterbury is a high-dollar snooty pk-12 private school that's an option as well; think Park Tudor.

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but overall I really like Fort Wayne. I like Indy better and that's why I'm here, but I wouldn't rule out returning to Fort Wayne when my wife and I have kids (to be near family) or if the right employment opportunities present themselves.