Hi everybody.

I'm Ed Leon.

Welcome to the 260, where we cover life and community in Northeast Indiana.

On this episode, the inside story of Fort Wayne's newest landmark, Ruoff Mortgage Stadium.

How Fort Wayne brings residents into the city planning process with neighborhood labs and a local feng shui master shares how to create harmony and balance in your surroundings.

It's all right now on the 260.

The Fort Wayne Football Club competes in the soccer league called USL one, which is Division three of the US professional soccer pyramid designed for emerging and mid-sized soccer markets.

And they're doing so in a brand new $60 million plus Ruoff Mortgage stadium, which represents a huge bet on the team and on the future of the sport in Fort Wayne.

Here to talk to us about the path to building this new infrastructure investment in Fort Wayne is sportswriter Dylan Sinn from the Journal Gazette.

Welcome to the 260.

Thanks for having me Ed.

I'm really excited to be here.

So you got to spend a nice, long conversation with owner Mark Music.

Talk about the long and winding road to building this stadium.

Yeah.

So this stadium, they've wanted to build a soccer stadium here in Fort Wayne since.

Since about 2021 or even earlier than that.

Right.

And so for a while, Mark Music and John Bellio and Drew Little, three of the owners of Fort Wayne FC, they tried to get a stadium built downtown.

They tried maybe use some public money.

It wasn't really getting off the ground.

And so in August of 2024, they made a decision.

They basically said, we don't want to get caught in the situation where the three of us are all trying to reach consensus.

No one's really taking the ball and moving it forward.

So they all made a decision.

Mark, this is going to be your thing.

And so basically what Mark told me is from that day forward, from August 2024 onward, no one has put a penny into the stadium other than him.

Right.

So there's no public money in this stadium.

At all.

And that's pretty rare in USL one, which is one of the things I found out while reporting my story.

And he's also he became very hands on, very involved in every detail of building the stadium.

Dylann: Yes, absolutely.

I mean, that's I talked to the president.

The president of the club, Scott Sproat, and he basically told me that it's one of those things where when you talk to Mark music, he knows more about this than the people who are actually building the things sometimes.

Ed: So the vision for the stadium changed along the way.

Right?

Dylan: Yes Ed: It was first designed to be built.

A certain kind of modular.

Dylan: Modular is what they call.

Or basically you take the, the, the pieces of the building and you assemble them offsite, you bring them and then you kind of assemble them almost like oversize Legos, basically.

And that's kind of a cheaper way to do it.

It's more sometimes more efficient way to do it.

But what Mark decided was he did a lot of research into this, visited a lot of stadiums in USL and MLS and NWSL.

And what he decided was sometimes basically you have to spend money to make money, right?

You want to have a more ambitious project, something that is going to stand the test of time, and that's going to put your club in a better situation going forward.

And so they originally wanted this modular stadium.

It ended up being a much bigger project, a much more involved project to build what they call a permanent stadium.

All right.

Talk to me a little bit about the specs of the stadium.

What's what what is involved in the stadium?

Dylan: Yeah, so it's 9200 seats, which is the third most in the in USL one.

It features a 225ft canopy roof covering three sides of the stadium, which is more roof coverage than any other stadium in USL one.

And what that does is it basically not only protects the fans from weather during the summer because this is a summer summer team, wind and rain and sun, but it also traps in sound, so it creates a really nice.

Nice loud for the fan fans.

What are some of the other cities in USL one?

Yeah, so there's Charlotte and Boise and Portland Maine, Port Saint Lucie, Florida They're kind of it's kind of spans the the United States.

But it's cities like Fort Wayne where they're passionate markets, but they're not the biggest ones that you think of.

Right.

Are there other amenities that the stadium has besides just the basics of seating and the roof?

Absolutely, yeah.

One of the things that they are very proud of is they have 120ft wide video board.

Ed: Oh, yeah.

The Megatron.

Dylan: Megatron is what they call it.

It's the second widest video board in all of Indiana, behind only the the Purdue football stadium in West Lafayette that has 150ft wide.

But they have what they also call the mini tron, which is a smaller video board.

They have a futsal court where you can take your kids.

And so if your kids are playing.

By the way, I had to look up what futsal was.

It's a kind of a mini version of soccer, basically.

F-U-T-S-A-L Exactly I never even heard of futsal.

And so if your kids are playing on the futsal court, the game is streaming on what they call the mini Tron.

It's a smaller and smaller board.

You can watch the game as a parent, watch your kids playing over here.

Ed: And there's the fan zone, right?

There's also like a lounge and a VIP club.

Dylan: Picnic suite and all and all of that.

So it's basically what they tried to do is what Mark said is create.

When the fans walk in and create this experience for the fans, what can the fans see?

And that's what they really tried to emphasize with the stadium.

Ed: Will this stadium be adaptable to uses Beyond soccer?

Yes, and they plan for it to be.

They have they want to have weddings and events and festivals.

Yeah.

90, 200 people at your wedding.

Exactly right.

And so that's one of the reasons they built the permanent stadium in that way, rather than doing the modular, it creates a bigger venue for events.

They're going to have high school soccer there this season.

The first game is going to be Bishop Lures versus Bishop Dwyer.

Very excited about that as well.

Ed: What has the attendance been for the stadium?

Dylan: Yeah.

So their first match was held there on May 4th.

And since then they've had ten matches.

They've averaged about 3500 more than 3500.

And that would have ranked in the top third of the league last year.

What's impressive about that is that for the first couple of matches there, there were significant restrictions on seating because they were still doing construction.

Yeah, it's worth noting this.

The stadium is still under construction, right.

Even as you and I speak.

Yes, they're putting the the finishing touches on it these last couple of couple of weeks and months.

But basically every time you go to the stadium, that's something they've been excited about this year is every time you go there's a new amenity, there's something new that you can you can see that wasn't there before.

And in the story you quote him as saying he can see the finish line.

Any idea when the finish line is?

Yeah.

You don't really know exactly when it's going to be.

They're hoping it's soon, but it's it's one of those things that's just that's that's for Mark Music to know basically.

Okay.

All right.

You can read Dylan's reporting on the sports pages of the Journal Gazette at JournalGazette.net/260 We have our own special URL with the journal now.

Thank you so much for being on the show.

Absolutely.

Thanks for having me on.

Great neighborhoods dont just happen.

They're built by people willing to step forward and make a difference.

That's the idea behind Fort Wayne's new Neighborhood Power Lab, a series of free workshops helping residents learn everything from fundraising and public speaking to working with city government to transform their neighborhoods.

Joining us now is Réna Bradley, one of the city's leading neighborhood planners and someone who spent years helping transform neighborhoods across Fort Wayne.

Réna.

Welcome to the 260.

Thank you so much.

So what is the idea about these workshops behind it?

What's the idea behind it?

Right on.

I mean, it can be very easy to feel isolated and alone when people are doing neighborhood work.

Fort Wayne has over 450 neighborhoods that are unique and distinct, and oftentimes they're each working in their own little silos or in their own communities.

So the whole idea of the neighborhood power labs was to give them a space to come together, to feel safe, to share their ideas and to learn from each other.

Go ahead.

No.

In city planning.

How do you how do you consider a neighborhood?

What makes a neighborhood to stink?

Oh my goodness.

So in the city of Fort Wayne, each neighborhood.

And forgive me, these definitions are ancient.

They go away before my time.

But they were each established more or less, I believe, by where they were developed and when they were developed.

So some neighborhoods are platted, some have covenants, some have HOA some are volunteer associations.

But as each development popped up, most of them were considered unique neighborhoods within our city.

So that's how we got up to 450.

Whereas in some other cities where there was a little more planning and intention that went in before that, they might have a smaller group of neighborhoods.

So like Chicago and Detroit each have about 200 to 250 each.

By the way, does that do the new neighborhoods that are being built out now?

Do they count as neighborhoods for the city?

Everybody counts.

Everybody counts.

But depending on on their structure, it will determine if they fold into an existing neighborhood or what they become a new, distinct neighborhood.

Within the city.

So what happens at these workshops?

Talk about the the workshops.

Right on.

So the workshops happen roughly once a month.

We had a spring series earlier this year.

We'll have a fall one coming up so folks can stay tuned for that.

But there are about 90 minutes each.

We feed you and we feed you well.

So there'll be a great dinner provided, and then we'll have a subject matter expert come up and talk about the topic at hand.

So this year that's been anything from expressing support and dissent for public projects to public speaking fundraising.

A lot of people want to get more funds into their neighborhood to do great work.

And I am missing whose face in my mind there was a fourth.

It was great resilience.

Resilience, which was a topic our neighborhoods really wanted.

So you come in, you hear from that subject matter expert.

But then we also like to feature either the stories or folks from our neighborhood association, so they can share their stories on the ground, having experience in that topic.

It's one thing we think to hear someone like me or someone like our subject matter experts, just kind of, you know.

Be pedagogical and talk.

About, you know, the ins and outs of something as but it's a little bit different to hear from someone on the ground who either has 20 years of experience or something, or just tried it for the first time and to learn directly from them.

So you bring up stories.

Talk.

Give me a couple of stories that have filtered out of these workshops in these neighborhoods.

Right on.

So Tiffany, for example, in the East Central neighborhood, she shared at our sponsorship raising session and she talked about how this was her first time seeking sponsorships.

And she was like, are you guys scared to do it?

Fine.

I was too, you know?

But I did it anyway.

I got out there, I talked to these people.

I was nerve wracking and I still was successful in doing that.

You know, so that story of triumph for tiara from the Mount Vernon Park neighborhood, she shared about how she didn't see herself as an extrovert person, you know, but she did have a story to tell.

She's a cancer survivor, someone who's gotten new ramps built on homes for people who are differently abled in our community, you know?

ET cetera, etc., etc.

and all of that was her pushing herself outside of her comfort zone.

So for people to hear that story, they felt I felt, you know, a bit emboldened and inspired.

That was great.

It's very empowering.

So what are the projects that people are trying to create?

Oh my goodness.

People are doing so many things and we're just here to help them do what it is that they want to do.

I kind of say we're like the Home Depot.

You can do it and we can help, but we try to get you plugged into those connections or folks to help get that work done.

So people, we've seen our youth tutor one another help raise.

IREAD scores of younger people in the neighborhood.

We've seen neighborhood residents do anything from building out their own community signs to distributing produce from their community gardens to launching smore nights, movie nights, art projects, et cetera, etc.

there's so many things that are happening in our neighborhoods, in the neighborhood I used to live in.

We had an abundance of vacant lots and young people who said they wanted more creative opportunities.

So we pulled those two things together with the help from some very generous funders and hosted summer camps to teach the kids architecture.

And so they learned about the design process, built full scale working prototypes of their own work, went to the Board of Zoning Appeals, got them approved and created outdoor performing arts spaces in our neighborhood, or created playgrounds for younger kids in our neighborhood.

So it runs the gamut.

You know, it could be anything from we want a community potluck to we want a new forming art space.

That's crazy.

That's such a that's such a diverse, you know, variety of projects.

Who can who can attend the workshops.

Anybody?

Anyone in the city of Fort Wayne is encouraged to attend them.

We welcome outsiders as well, but these are primarily intended for City of Fort Wayne residents.

I have to say residents and presidents.

So you don't you can be a president, but you don't have to be.

You don't have to be a block captain.

You can be any person within our community who just wants to do good in your community.

We just ask that you sign up because we want to make sure we have a seat for you, and we want to make sure we have enough food for you.

How does this initiative fit into the entirety of Fort Wayne's planning for itself as a city?

Sure.

So I am the neighborhood planner who heads up our leadership development initiatives.

So we have a full leadership development suite that includes the Inspire conference.

It includes Fortify which is kind of a leadership development academy for neighborhood associations.

And I will give credit to Councilwoman Raleigh Booker.

She was the one who said, you know, you have this great one day event, you have this great leadership development academy, but how do we make these resources available throughout the year for more of our residents.

So with a bit of her encouragement, we were able to create the Neighborhood Power Lab series.

And when are the next one's coming up.

We'll have one in October.

November will definitely be a behind the scenes look at what it takes to get grants and fundraising.

So somebody who's been on the administrative side of grants, we'll talk to associations about what it looks to get their funding.

Oh, and October is kind of a special reveal.

We're going to have an assessment of sorts done for folks who sign up for that one so they can learn their leadership style and how they can strengthen their neighborhood teams.

What do you want to say to people who've who've thought about it?

It's like, I'd love to be more involved in my neighborhood.

I don't know exactly what I can do, but I feel like I want to give.

I want to contribute because I want to make my neighborhood a better place to live.

What do you want to say to those folks?

One is that they have the power to do so.

I like to say people.

Are like, so neighborhood power lab, you're empowering people, right?

And the truth is that I think everybody has power.

Everybody has gifts and skills that we can hopefully help them develop and use and mobilize.

But, you know, we can't give you the power.

You already have it.

So one is that two, you can start small and make a big difference.

And again, in the neighborhood I used to live in, they started with community cleanups and prayer walks and things of that nature, and that ballooned out into seeing our crime rates fall 63% over the course of 5 to 6 years, just because that was a way that we were able to get eyes on the street and neighbors to know one another.

So small differences can small changes can make huge differences.

And, you know, we're here.

There's this I just came from a conference.

So forgive me for this terminology, but there's this thing called collective efficacy where people who feel like they are plugged into a larger group of people who share their mission and their vision and their goals tend to think that they can have greater impact and they're more likely to get engaged.

So I'm just here to say, you know, if you don't have a contingent yet, I'll be your contingent.

All right.

We're here to help you and help you find your people.

So come on out.

Be a part of Power Lab again.

We'll feed you.

Well.

Hopefully you'll feel encouraged afterward.

And whatever resources you need or you feel you're lacking, we will do our very best to plug you.

Into it.

That's terrific.

You're making a big, big difference.

To find out more about the neighborhood power labs, call 311 or the website Engage.CityofFortWayne.org Thank you so much.

We've all walked into a room that immediately felt peaceful.

Or maybe it felt off.

Is it the lighting or the furniture?

Maybe it's the clutter.

Or is there something more subtle at work?

Today we're exploring the ancient practice of Feng Shui and how our personal spaces impact everything from our stress levels to our creativity and relationships.

Joining me is Fort Wayne Feng Shui master and interior designer Lisa Morton, who has spent more than 20 years helping people design spaces that are healthier and happier.

And welcome to the 260.

Thank you so much for having me.

Absolutely.

It's great that we have a Fort Wayne sanctuary master.

I was surprised to have that.

Is it a philosophy?

Is it a design principle?

Is it both?

What is Feng shui?

It's really both.

It's an ancient practice, over 4000 years old, that focuses on alignment in your home to promote a better lifestyle, a better life, and to promote flow in your home.

Okay, so let's talk about flow and alignment.

How does a how does a room have flow?

How we want it to be, We want to reduce clutter.

That's the first the most important thing is to reduce clutter and then have open spaces so it can feel like we can breathe in our home.

We want it to be filled with ease and comfort.

Not clutter, not stress, not items that don't fill us with joy.

Okay.

Does the color matter or it does?

Color definitely matters.

We use a five element system wood, fire, earth, metal, and water.

And for example, water is a wonderful element that brings in fluidity and flow and ease and peace.

And that's the color blue.

Okay.

So you don't have to necessarily have a water feature in your in.

Your room.

No.

We can work with color.

We can work with designs.

We can work with patterns on a fabric on a for a pillow even.

And how did you train for this work?

Oh gosh.

So I initially went to design school, was an interior designer for quite some time, 15 years.

And then I went through some of my own health and wellbeing struggles.

And from that I decided I want to.

I wanted to look into a holistic approach, holistic design and feng shui.

I dove in, I studied for over a decade for different certifications, kept training and training, and also implementing it with my clients.

And I learned probably the most doing.

That right.

When you walk into a client's home, do you typically find some big no nos?

Or what are the common things that you find in people's in people's homes?

The number one thing is people stop using their front door.

What do you mean.

They use the garage or a side door?

They they avoid that beautiful the architectural front door.

And it's so important that we use that.

We get that opening and moving.

So come up with some sort of of reason to use that.

That could be walking the dog every day through the front door.

That could be getting the mail every day.

When we get that front door moving, it promotes more flow in our entire home and brings a new opportunities to our lives.

And we've always kind of heard that layout of a room is very important for feng shui.

Am I saying it right?

Yes.

Right?

Yes.

Talk about layout.

Why?

Because there's so many.

I mean, you sometimes it's it's personal taste for some people, but personal taste, you know, I walk, I'll walk into a room, I go, you know, that should have been over there.

What is there?

Are there rules of thumb for people to follow, or is it just kind of a an instinctual thing that you can see?

I mean, we know that furniture arrangement impacts how we connect with one another, right?

So if the sofa sitting on was all the way across the room and you're all the way over there, we wouldn't be having an intimate conversation.

How are we doing here with.

We're doing great.

I love the round Ottoman.

I love this.

Fantastic.

All right.

Good.

Now, the rest of the studio, folks, that's.

That is not feng shui.

That's.

It's clutter.

That's okay.

But in the magic of the television moment.

we have good feng shui, right?

Yes.

So what can people do?

Like, you know, practical reasons.

And I mean, you just mentioned one is use your front door.

That's that's the last thing I would have thought of.

Yeah, but to create better flow in their homes.

We go back to clutter.

Clearing clutter brings so many emotions.

And and I always say it's like pinging us kind of like our phone and cell phone is always pinging us.

And so we want to remove as much clutter as possible.

So we have free open space.

Also, another tip that I love to share is to love on the center most area of your home.

So in Feng Shui we have this ancient bagua map that I use that I overlaid over top of your home.

And here's the really special thing the center most area of your home.

If you are a bird up in the sky looking down, that area is very special and it connects to every other area of your home on this special map that I use.

So what's what's the map called?

It's called a Bagua map.

Map.

And so that center most area, if you just love on that, that energy will radiate throughout until all the other areas.

Of the home.

So it's not necessarily the living room or the den.

It could be.

Yes.

Correct.

But it's not.

It could be a closet.

Really.

Your Bagua map might land on a closet.

Wherever the center most area of your home is.

So that by center most.

Are you talking about physical?

If you're looking at the architectural drawings or if you're a bird in the sky looking down, where is that center area?

Center central.

Most room.

That could be a kitchen, right?

So tidier kitchen, clean out.

I would love on.

It means yes.

Yes.

Bring in some flowers.

Sweep it.

Make sure it's sparkling and beautiful.

Well, if it's a closet.

Well, then you have to get a little creative and make sure you're cleaning out clutter.

Make sure it's functioning.

Things aren't just tossed in the closet and the door is shoved closed.

Okay, you you know, some of your ideas are flow into your design business.

Is this a design concept that you use in your work?

You know, it really all just blends together into your design.

A holistic approach to interior design, Feng shui, color psychology.

I work a lot with nervous system nourishment to really create spaces, to support people, to feel good and calm.

How do you do that?

Oh my gosh.

A lot of the earth element I mentioned the five elements and the Earth element is all about grounding and connection and stability, and we need that more than anything with everything going on in our lives.

Sure.

Social media, cell phones, computers, everything.

We need that sense of grounding.

So when we can bring in that earth element through the colors of brown, tan, beige, chocolate, or any item from the earth, maybe you have a a piece of pottery, clay, pottery on display, right?

Right.

So those wonderful earth elements are just so grounding and nourishing to our body.

I know we have a picture of a quartz crystal.

That's important, right?

What are.

Why are crystals important?

Well, I'm just a rock and lover personally.

But these are natural items from the earth.

When we can put them around our bodies, we feel more comfortable.

Our bodies crave nature.

Whether that's rocks, crystals, plants, flowers, even images or artwork of these things make us feel so good.

All right.

What are some things to avoid?

Let's do the flip side.

I know we've talked about clutter, but things to avoid in a room.

So here's something kind of interesting.

The concept called poison arrows.

So in feng shui, a poison arrow is a sharp point coming at your body for a long period of time.

So you want to think about those spaces where you spend a lot of time in bed, maybe your office, where are you spending a lot of time, and do you have a lot of sharp point through corners of furniture pointing at your body?

We want to limit that.

Okay.

Round tables are good.

Yes.

You did.

Very well.

Fantastic.

All right.

Well, fascinating.

And?

And I want to learn more.

Well, maybe we'll have you back and do a room or something.

Yeah, maybe we'll redo our next set.

There we go.

You can do that.

Lisa hosts a podcast, runs an intuitive design business, and wrote the book Aligned at home how Feng shui and holistic design can restore your energy and well-being.

And you can find it all at PureLivingWithLisaMorton.com Thank you so much for.

Being on the 260.

The 260 is a PBS Fort Wayne production made possible by membership donations from viewers like you.

Thank you.

You can support the show by becoming a sustaining member at PBSFortWayne.org That's all the time we have for this episode.

Please take a moment to appreciate the folks who contributed to the making of this show, and I'll see you next time on the 260.