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2006 — 16 April 2009
The project: Parkview Field, the $30.6 million downtown ballpark built as the anchor of the Harrison Square project, moved the city's minor-league club from Memorial Stadium to a downtown block and wrapped housing, offices and a hotel around it. The fight over it was the decade's development argument: public money for a ballpark, downtown, against the standing claim of the Coliseum district and the suburbs — argued through the Redevelopment Commission and the council while the team's owners negotiated with the city.
The records fight: The documented skirmish that survives in detail is a fight about paper. In September 2008 the city attorney declined a public-records request by the news site aroundfortwayne.com for the developer's financial presentation to the Redevelopment Commission, citing the deliberative-materials exception in the state's Access to Public Records Act. The requester filed a formal complaint with the Indiana Public Access Counselor, and the information's release was promised for 22 September 2008. The ballpark itself opened on 16 April 2009, the TinCaps winning 7–0 before 8,208. The fuller record of the subsidy fight — the votes and the opposition's case — was not reached in the record assembled for this section; the expand note names it rather than reconstructing it.
Sources:
- The sports record, Sports — Parkview Field's cost, the Harrison Square framing and the opening of 16 April 2009.
- aroundfortwayne.com, September 2008 — the records request, the city's stated ground of refusal, the Public Access Counselor complaint and the promised release date.