City Screws Over Local Business, Media Looks The Other Way

Imagine driving to your place of business, only to find the City has closed the street allowing no access in or out while they pave, blocking vendors, customers, and preventing orders from leaving the facility. That was the situation an a acquaintance faced on St. Joe Boulevard this morning. 

That's how things are done here....in a city which purports itself to be "business-friendly".

But this post is not about the ineptitude of the City, no, it's about the ineptitude of our lazy local media.

You know....the "coverage you can count on" folks. The "when you need to know" people. The "depend on it" people. All too busy to speak to an average viewer/listener/reader calling in a story about a local business that can't do business because the City seems to close streets when they damn well feel like it. 

The Maven called five media outlets before noon today, which included three TV stations, a radio station and a newspaper. No one would bite on the idea. Not a single one thought the story might be important. So, you won't see, or hear, or read about this foolishness today, tonight, tomorrow. 

But, that's how things work in the media in our town. If you're a governmental unit (politically powerful), a big hospital (buys lots of commercials), the local school system (politically-connected), an influential non-profit (doing it for the children), or a loud-mouth car dealer (Fred for the people), you can get nearly immediate access to and through the Fort Wayne media. 

However,  if you are a successful small business getting screwed over by a City department that works when they want to, where they want to ..... lottsa luck.