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Fort Wayne, Indiana

Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is 18 mi west of the Ohio border and 50 mi south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 census, making it the second-most populous city in Indiana after Indianapolis, and the 83rd-most populous city in the United States. It is the principal city of the Fort Wayne metropolitan area, consisting of Allen and Whitley counties which had an estimated population of 423,038 as of 2021. Fort Wayne is the cultural and economic center of northeastern Indiana.

Fort Wayne was built in 1794 by the United States Army under the direction of American Revolutionary War general Anthony Wayne, the last in a series of forts built near the Miami village of Kekionga. Named in Wayne's honor, the European-American settlement developed at the confluence of the St. Joseph, St. Marys, and Maumee rivers, known originally as Fort Miami, a trading post constructed by Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes around 1706. The modern city was platted in 1823 following its revitalization after the War of 1812 and its siege. It underwent tremendous growth after completion of the Wabash and Erie Canal and advent of the railroad.

Once a booming manufacturing town located in what became known as the Rust Belt, Fort Wayne's economy in the 21st century is based upon distribution, transportation and logistics; healthcare, professional and business services; leisure and hospitality, and financial services. The city is a center for the defense industry which employs 1-2% of the population. Fort Wayne was an All-America City Award recipient in 1983, 1998, 2009, and 2021. The city also received an Outstanding Achievement City Livability Award by the U.S. Conference of Mayors in 1999.

Original settlement and French control (1706-1760)
This area here on the river confluence was occupied by successive cultures of indigenous peoples for as long as 10,000 years. The Miami tribe would eventually establish its settlement of Kekionga at this confluence of the Maumee, St. Joseph, and St. Marys rivers in the late stages of the Beaver Wars in the 1690s. It was the capital of the Miami nation and related Algonquian tribes.

In 1696, Comte de Frontenac appointed Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, who began visiting Kekionga in 1702, and would later build the original Fort Miami here in the wilderness and pays d'en Haut of New France around 1706; Initially, a small trading outpost. It was part of a group of forts and trading posts built between Quebec and St. Louis. The first census in 1744 recorded a population of approximately 40 Frenchmen and 1,000 Miamians.

From the British back to the Miami (1760-1776)
Increasing tension between France and Great Britain developed over control of the territory. In 1760, France ceded the area to Britain after its forces in North America surrendered during the Seven Years' War, known on the North American front as the French and Indian War. Managing to hold down the fort for only a mere couple of years, the British lost control of it in 1763 when various Native American nations rebelled against British rule and retook the fort as part of Pontiac's Rebellion. From this point forward in 1763, no active fort existed at Kekionga for the next three decades until American General Anthony Wayne established Fort Wayne in 1794, following the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The fort throughout this period was described as a, "Defiant mixture of Indian warriors and lawless renegades of the frontier, such as the Girties. It was also the home of a heterogeneous population of English and French traders and their families, French 'engages", and Miami, Delaware and Shawnee tribes."

In 1772, the British regained influence over the village after Sir William Johnson suggested to the government that the fort be reoccupied. The mixed population of the Kekionga area had moved past antipathy with the British by this point, and accepted their friendship. In 1776, Officer Jacques LaSalle moved into the village to conduct strict supervision on behalf of the British government, ensuring that the natives remained loyal to the British, and to check passports with travelers coming down from Fort Detroit.

American Revolution to the Old Northwest
The British continued to monitor Kekionga and Fort Miami throughout the American Revolutionary War. In 1780, French Canadian soldiers coming to assist the U.S. with the revolution were slaughtered in several nearby locations in what is known as La Balme's Defeat. At the end of the Revolutionary War, in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Britain ceded this area to the new United States, though they continued to maintain an influence on trading activity and the forts of Miami, with the primary objective being to slow American expansion into the Great Lakes region. The young United States formally organized the region in the Land Ordinance of 1785 and negotiated treaties allowing settlement, but the Western Confederacy of Native American nations were not party to these treaties and did not cede their ownership of those lands.

American land speculators and pioneers began flooding down the Ohio River into the area, leading to conflict with an alliance of native tribes known as the Western Confederacy. It was headquartered at Kekionga, where the Miami had permitted two refugee tribes dislodged by white homesteaders, the Delaware and the Shawnee, to resettle. The confederacy—which included other Great Lakes and Algonquin tribes as well—began sending war parties to raid settlers, hoping to drive them back across the Appalachian Mountains, and refused to meet for negotiations over a possible treaty to instead cede land for white settlement. The growing violence led to the Northwest Indian War.

In 1790, President George Washington ordered the U.S. Army to subdue and pacify the tribes. The first expedition, led by General Josiah Harmar reached Kekionga and exercised scorched earth tactics on the village and crops. Miami war chief Little Turtle, who had been long tracking the whereabouts of Harmar though the aid of various agents such as Simon Girty, would quickly drive Harmar and the US troops away. The confederacy warriors attacked the second invading force, led in 1791 by General Arthur St. Clair, before it could get that far and wiped it out, in a massacre known as St. Clair's Defeat at modern-day Fort Recovery, Ohio. It's known as the greatest defeat of the U.S. Army by Native Americans in history. This defeat left the US army crippled and borders open to attacks from the British and allied native tribes. General Anthony Wayne was recalled from civilian life to lead a third expedition, defeating the confederacy's warriors at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, near modern-day Toledo, Ohio on August 20, 1794. Wayne's men then marched up the Maumee River, systematically burning evacuated native towns, crops, and winter food stores, until they reached its headwaters, where Kekionga remained in ruins. Wayne then confronted the British at Fort Miami, where the British debated an attack. Later, Wayne selected the site for construction of Fort Wayne, he ordered a fort that could withstand heavy British artillery, especially a 24-pound cannon, along with attacks from their army or native allies.

The following year, Wayne negotiated a peace accord, the Treaty of Greenville with tribal leaders, in which they agreed to stop fighting, end support of the British, and ceded most of what is now Ohio along with certain tracts further west, including the area around Fort Wayne encompassing Kekionga and the land portage. Wayne promised the remainder would remain Indian lands, which is why the territory west of Ohio was named Indiana. Wayne would die one year later and a Spanish spy James Wilkinson would assume his role as General. In subsequent years, the government used Fort Wayne to hand out annual payments under the treaty. But in a recurring cycle, the tribes ran up debts to white traders who came there to sell them alcohol and manufactured goods, and the government pushed tribal leaders—including through bribes—to sell more reservation land to pay off those debts and, when the land was gone, then to agree to have the tribe removed to the Far West.

In 1802, a United States fur trade factory was established in Fort Wayne. It was burned by the local Indians at the beginning of the War of 1812.

Settlement permitted by Treaty of St. Mary's

The first settlement started in 1815. In 1819, the military garrison abandoned the fort and moved to Detroit. In 1822, a federal land office opened to sell land ceded by local Native Americans by the Treaty of St. Mary's in 1818. Platted in 1823 at the Ewing Tavern, the village became an important frontier outpost and was incorporated as the Town of Fort Wayne in 1829, with a population of 300. The Wabash and Erie Canal's opening improved travel conditions to the Great Lakes and Mississippi River, exposing Fort Wayne to expanded economic opportunities. The population topped 2,000 when the town was incorporated as the City of Fort Wayne on February 22, 1840.

Pioneer newspaperman George W. Wood was elected the city's first mayor. Fort Wayne's "Summit City" nickname dates from this period, referring to the city's position at the highest elevation along the canal's route. As influential as the canal was to the city's earliest development, it quickly became obsolete after briefly competing with the city's first railroad, the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, completed in 1854.

Modern history

At the turn of the 20th century, the population of Fort Wayne nearly reached 50,000, attributed to a large influx of German and Irish immigrants. Fort Wayne's "urban working class" thrived in industrial and railroad-related jobs. The city's economy was substantially based on manufacturing, ushering in an era of innovation with several notable inventions and developments coming out of the city over the years, such as gasoline pumps (1885), the refrigerator (1913), and in 1972, the first home video game console. The Great Flood of 1913 caused seven deaths, left 15,000 homeless, and damaged over 5,500 buildings in the worst natural disaster in the city's history.

As the automobile's prevalence grew, Fort Wayne became a fixture on the Lincoln Highway. Aviation arrived in 1919 with the opening of the city's first airport, Smith Field. The airport served as Fort Wayne's primary commercial airfield until Baer Field (now Fort Wayne International Airport) was transferred to the city in 1947 after serving as a military base during World War II.

Fort Wayne was hit by the Great Depression beginning in 1929, with most factories cutting their workforce. The stock market crash did not discourage plans to build the city's first skyscraper and Indiana's tallest building at the time, the Lincoln Bank Tower. By 1935, the New Deal's WPA put over 7,000 residents back to work through local infrastructure improvements, including the construction of new parks, bridges, viaducts, and a $5.2 million sewage treatment facility.

The post-World War II economic boom helped the city prosper once again. Between 1950 and 1955, more than 5,000 homes were built, many in large subdivisions in rural Allen County. In 1950, Fort Wayne's first bypass, Coliseum Boulevard, opened on the north side of the city, followed by the city's first arena, War Memorial Coliseum, bringing new opportunities for suburban expansion. The Coliseum was home to the NBA's Fort Wayne Pistons from 1952 to 1957. The opening of enclosed shopping malls and the construction of Interstate 69 through rural areas north and west of the city proper further drove the exodus of retail from downtown through the 1960s. According to the Fort Wayne Home Builders Association estimates, more than 80 percent of new home construction occurred outside the city proper in the 1970s.

Like many cities in the Rust Belt, deindustrialization in the 1980s brought urban blight, increased crime, and a decrease in blue-collar manufacturing jobs. Downtown and surrounding neighborhoods continued declining as residents and businesses sprawled further into rural Allen County. A 1982 flood forced an evacuation of 9,000 residents, damaging 2,000 buildings, and costing $56.1 million (1982 USD, $137 million 2015 USD), prompting a visit from then president of the United States, Ronald Reagan.

In the 1990s, the city began a turnaround. Local leaders focused on crime reduction, economic diversification, and downtown redevelopment. By 1999, Fort Wayne's crime rate decreased to the lowest levels since 1974, and the city's economy recovered, with the unemployment rate hovering at 2.4 percent in 1998. Clearing blighted buildings downtown resulted in new public greenspaces, including Headwaters Park, which has become the premier community gathering space and centerpiece in the city's $50 million flood control project. Fort Wayne celebrated its bicentennial in 1994.

The city continued to concentrate on downtown redevelopment and investment in the 2000s. The decade saw the beginnings of its transformation, with renovations and expansions of the Allen County Public Library, Grand Wayne Convention Center, and Fort Wayne Museum of Art. In 2007, the $130 million Harrison Square development was launched, creating Parkview Field. Suburban growth continued, with the opening of Fort Wayne's first lifestyle center, Jefferson Pointe, and the half-billion dollar Parkview Regional Medical Center in 2012.

Geography

Fort Wayne is in the East North Central region of the Midwestern United States, in northeastern Indiana, 18 mi west of Ohio and 50 mi south of Michigan. According to the 2010 census, Fort Wayne has a total area of 110.834 sqmi, of which 110.62 sqmi (or 99.81%) is land and 0.214 sqmi (or 0.19%) is water.

Topography

For a regional summit, the city is situated on flat land characterized by little topographical relief, a result of the Wisconsin glaciation episode. Receding glaciers eroded the land, depositing an evenly distributed layer of sediment during the last glacial period. The most distinguishable topographical feature is Cedar Creek Canyon, just north of the city proper near Huntertown. The Fort Wayne Moraine follows two of the city's three rivers: the St. Marys and St. Joseph. The two rivers converge to form the Maumee, which eventually empties into Lake Erie. Land east of the moraine includes the former Great Black Swamp, a lacustrine plain formed by Glacial Lake Maumee. The Little River flows southwest of Fort Wayne, a tributary of the Wabash River, and remnant of the Maumee Torrent.

Fort Wayne is situated on the Saint Lawrence River Divide, a continental divide separating the Great Lakes Basin from the Gulf of Mexico watershed.

The most important geographical feature of the area is the short distance over land between the Three Rivers system, which eventually flows to the Atlantic, and the Wabash system, which eventually flows to the Gulf of Mexico. This came to be the "portage" or carrying place, over which travelers could transport their cargoes from one system to the next. This natural crossroads attracted the Native Americans for thousands of years. It later attracted the European explorers and traders and the American pioneer settlers who continued to develop the area as a transportation and communications center. Chief Little Turtle of the Miami Nation expressed its importance eloquently at the treaty of Greenville in 1795 when he called it "that glorious gate...through which all the words of our chiefs had to pass through from north to south and from east to west".

Fort Wayne's urban tree canopy is 29 percent, double the state average of 14.5 percent and above the national average of 27.1 percent. The canopy is decreasing, notably from development and the emerald ash borer infestation. Fort Wayne has been designated a Tree City USA since 1990.

Cityscape

Historically, Fort Wayne has been divided into four unofficial quadrants: northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest. Calhoun Street divides the southwest and southeast, while the St. Joseph River divides the northwest and northeast quadrants. The Maumee River separates the northeast and southeast, while portions of the St. Marys River and Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad separate the northwest and southwest quadrants.

Fort Wayne's early 20th century development was influenced by the City Beautiful movement and centered on a park and boulevard plan conceived by urban planner Charles Mulford Robinson in 1909 and finalized by landscape architect George Kessler in 1912. The master plan proposed a network of parkways and boulevards connecting the city's three rivers and Spy Run Creek to dozens of neighborhoods and parks. Several parks were designed by noted landscape architect Arthur Asahel Shurcliff. Much of the original plan was implemented by 1955. In 2010, the Fort Wayne Park and Boulevard System was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, consisting of 11 public parks, four parkways, and ten boulevards, covering 1,883 acres.

Architecture

During the 19th century, Fort Wayne was dominated by Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, and Italianate architecture. Examples of Greek Revival architecture remain in the city, with one being the Richardville House (1827), a National Historic Landmark. Gothic and Gothic Revival architecture can be found in some of the city's most prominent churches, including Trinity English Lutheran Church (1846), Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (1860), Trinity Episcopal Church (1865), and Saint Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church (1889).

Popular early 20th century architectural styles found in the city include Queen Anne, Richardsonian Romanesque, Neoclassical, Colonial Revival, Dutch Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Prairie, American Craftsman, American Foursquare, and Art Deco. Richardsonian Romanesque buildings include Fort Wayne City Hall (1893) and John H. Bass Mansion (1902), each designed by Wing & Mahurin. Notable examples of Neoclassical architecture include the Masonic Temple (1926) and North Side High School (1927). Beaux-Arts, an architectural style closely related to Neoclassical, gained popularity during the City Beautiful movement of the 1890s and early 1900s, which is reflected in the Allen County Courthouse (1902).

The Pennsylvania Railroad Station, also known as Baker Street Station (1914), was designed in American Craftsman style. At 312 ft, the Art Deco-style Lincoln Bank Tower was Fort Wayne's first high-rise and Indiana's tallest building from 1930 to 1962. The E. Ross Adair Federal Building and United States Courthouse (1932) is another example of Art Deco architecture. Williams–Woodland Park Historic District includes examples of Queen Anne and Colonial Revival residential homes, while the Forest Park Boulevard Historic District includes Tudor Revival homes.

Modern and Postmodern architecture can be found in buildings constructed during the second half of the 20th century in Fort Wayne. The John D. Haynes House (1952) was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, while the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary (1953) was designed by Eero Saarinen. Postmodern architect Michael Graves' first commissions were built in the city, including Hanselmann House (1967) and Snyderman House (1972, now demolished). Louis Kahn's design for the Arts United Center (1973) was inspired by a violin and its case. Other notable buildings include Indiana Michigan Power Center (1982), the tallest building in the city and tallest building in Indiana outside of Indianapolis, at 442 ft.

The 1970s characterized an era in Fort Wayne that saw substantial changes to the downtown area in accommodation of increasing suburbanization and urban sprawl that began in the city during the early 1950s, of which resulted in the demolition of several prominent and historical buildings and homes around the downtown area. This included several hotels, such as the historic thirteen-floor Hotel Anthony. Most of which, were demolished for surface-level parking lots. One example was the Ewing Homestead, built by William Ewing in 1838, it once stood at the northwest corner of Berry Street:"This three-story brick mansion was one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in Fort Wayne until it was destroyed in 1970 to make way for a parking lot."

Rivers
Since at least the early 20th century, Fort Wayne has maintained a combined sewage overflow program, which has resulted in the city routinely discharging untreated human waste, raw sewage from businesses and homes, toxic waste from industrial sites, and agricultural runoff into all three rivers in a number of locations, particularly during heavy rainfall events. However, as of 2023, a several million dollar citywide sewage overflow tunnel project is set to be completed, among additional efforts, such as a $135 million investment from the city into rain gardens, to prevent further discharge into the rivers. There has been growing investment and development along the riverfront since at least 2019.

Climate
Fort Wayne lies in the humid continental climate zone (Köppen: Dfa), experiencing four distinct seasons. The city is located in USDA hardiness zones 5b and 6a. Typically, summers are hot, humid, and wet. Winters are generally cold with moderate snowfall. The average annual precipitation is 38.34 in, recorded at Fort Wayne International Airport. During the winter season, snowfall accumulation averages 33.5 in per year. Lake-effect snow is not uncommon to the region, but usually appears in the form of light snow flurries.

The National Weather Service reports the highest recorded temperature in the city at 106 °F, most recently on June 28, 2012, and the lowest recorded temperature at -24 °F on January 12, 1918. The wettest month on record was June 2015, with 11.98 in of precipitation. The greatest 24-hour rainfall was 4.93 in on August 1, 1926. The snowiest month on record was January 2014, with 30.3 in of snowfall. The greatest calendar-day snowfall was 18.0 in on February 28, 1900.

Severe weather is not uncommon, particularly in the spring and summer months; the city experiences an average of 39 thunderstorm days and about 10 severe weather days annually. An F2 tornado struck northern Fort Wayne on May 26, 2001, injuring three and causing damage along the Coliseum Boulevard corridor and a subdivision. Fort Wayne experienced 91 mph wind gusts in the June 2012 North American derecho, knocking out power to 78,000, uprooting approximately 500 trees, and costing $2.5 million.

Demographics
Fort Wayne is the principal city of the Fort Wayne metropolitan area, consisting of Allen and Whitley counties in Indiana. It had an estimated population of 423,038 as of 2021. In addition to the two core counties, the greater Fort Wayne combined statistical area includes Adams, DeKalb, Huntington, Noble, Steuben, and Wells counties, with an estimated population of 649,105 in 2021.

2010 census
According to the 2010 census, there were 253,691 people and 113,541 households. The racial makeup of the city is 73.62% White, 15.41% Black or African American, 0.37% Native American or Alaska Native, 3.3% Asian (1.4% Burmese, 0.4% Indian, 0.3% Vietnamese, 0.2% Chinese, 0.2% Filipino, 0.1% Korean, 0.1% Laotian, 0.1% Thai), 0.06% Pacific Islander, 3.72% from other races, and 3.52% from two or more races. 7.96% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. Among the Hispanic population, 6.1% are Mexican, 0.4% Puerto Rican, and 0.3% Guatemalan. Non-Hispanic Whites were 70.3% of the population in 2010, down from 87.7% in 1970.

There were 101,585 households, of which 30.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.3% were married couples living together, 14.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.9% had a male householder with no wife present, and 38.0% were non-families. 31.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.09.

The median age in the city was 34.5 years. 26.4% of residents were under the age of 18; 10.2% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 26.5% were from 25 to 44; 24.9% were from 45 to 64; and 12% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.4% male and 51.6% female.

Fort Wayne has one of the largest Burmese American population in the U.S., estimated at 8,000. Burmese refugee settlement and "secondary migrants" doubled the city's Asian population between 2000 and 2010.

Religion
Fort Wayne is sometimes referred to as the "City of Churches", an unofficial moniker dating to the late-19th century when the city was the regional hub of Catholic, Lutheran, and Episcopal faiths. Today, there are 360 churches in the city. 54 percent of Fort Wayne residents identify as religious, where 16 percent are Catholic, 9 percent are Lutheran, 6.5 percent are Baptist, 5 percent are Methodist, and 0.14 percent are Jewish, with 16.5 percent adhering to other Christian faiths. Increasing religious minorities are found among the city's immigrant communities, including Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam.

Major churches include the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Saint Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church and Trinity Episcopal Church. Fort Wayne's Reform Judaism population is served by Congregation Achduth Vesholom, the oldest Jewish congregation in Indiana, founded in 1848. In 2013, construction began on the first Burmese Muslim mosque to be built worldwide since the mid-1970s.

As of December 2012, four national Christian denominations were headquartered in the city: the American Association of Lutheran Churches, the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship Association, the Missionary Church and the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches. Fort Wayne is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend, covering 14 counties in Northern Indiana, and the Indiana District of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, encompassing all of Indiana and north central Kentucky.

Economy
In 2017, the Fort Wayne metropolitan area had a gross domestic product (GDP) of $25.7 billion. The top four industries were manufacturing ($8.1B), health care ($2.54B), retail trade ($1.4B), and finance and insurance ($1.3B) Government, if it had been a private industry, would have tied for third, generating $1.4 billion.

Manufacturing is deeply rooted in Fort Wayne's economic history, dating to the earliest days of the city's growth as an important trade stop along the Wabash and Erie Canal. Railroads, introduced shortly after the canal's arrival, eased travel from Fort Wayne to other booming industrial centers along the Great Lakes, such as Chicago, Detroit, Toledo, and Cleveland. Throughout the early and mid-20th century, manufacturing dominated the city's economic landscape. From 1900 to 1930, Fort Wayne's industrial output expanded by 747 percent, with total production valued at $95 million in 1929, up from $11 million in 1899. The total workforce also increased from 18,000 in 1900 to nearly 50,000 in 1930.

Companies that had a significant presence in the city include Dana Holding Corporation, Falstaff Brewing Corporation, Fruehauf Corporation, General Electric, International Harvester, Magnavox, Old Crown Brewing Corporation, and Tokheim, among several others, producing goods such as refrigerators, washing machines, automatic phonographs, meat packing products, televisions, garbage disposals, automotive parts and motors, trailers, gasoline pumps, trucks, beer, tents and awnings. Magnet wire production became an especially vital component to the city's economy. In 1960, Fort Wayne was at the center of the United States magnet wire industry, home to New Haven Wire and Cable Company, Phelps Dodge, Rea Magnet Wire, Superior Essex, and an operation at General Electric, producing nearly 90 percent of North America's magnet wire.

The 1970s and 1980s were times of economic depression in Fort Wayne, when much of the city's manufacturing foundation eroded and the blue-collar workforce shrank. Fort Wayne joined several other cities reeling economically within the Rust Belt. At the same time, General Electric also downsized much of its more than 10,000-person workforce. Amid other area plant closures and downsizing, coupled with the early 1980s recession, the city lost 30,000 jobs and reached a 12.1 percent unemployment rate. The arrival of General Motors in 1987 helped fill the void from shuttered manufacturers and aided in the area's recovery, employing 3,000 at its Fort Wayne Assembly. In 2017, General Motors was the largest manufacturer in the city, employing 4,100 assembling Chevrolet Silverado regular and double cab light- and heavy-duty pickup trucks.

Through the 1990s and into the 2000s, the city diversified its economy; manufacturing now employs 16.9 percent of Allen County's workforce. Other sectors include distribution, transportation, and logistics (23.1 percent), health care (17.9 percent), professional and business services (12.1 percent), leisure and hospitality (11.1 percent), and financial services (6.3 percent). The leisure and hospitality sector has especially grown, with 5.8 million visitors spending $545 million in 2013, a 4.3 percent increase over the previous year. The city is a center for the defense industry, employing thousands at such companies as BAE Systems (1,150), L3Harris (888), Raytheon Technologies (950), and the Fort Wayne Air National Guard Station (423).

Despite economic diversification, the city was significantly impacted by the Great Recession. According to a report from Pew Research Center, the city lost nearly a quarter of its manufacturing jobs and 11% of its economic status between 2000 and 2014. Economic Innovation Group's 2016 Distressed Communities Index Report ranked Fort Wayne among the most unequal large cities in the U.S. in terms of linking economic opportunities to its distressed ZIP codes. , Allen County's labor force was 180,637 with an unemployment rate of 2.5 percent. Companies based in Fort Wayne include Brotherhood Mutual, Do it Best, Franklin Electric, Frontier Communications – Central Region, Genteq, Global Van Lines, Home Reserve, Indiana Michigan Power, K&K Insurance, MedPro Group, North American Van Lines, Rea Magnet Wire, Steel Dynamics, Sweetwater Sound, and Vera Bradley. Steel Dynamics is the only Fortune 500 company headquartered in the city, ranking 354th. Founded in 1905, Lincoln Financial Group was based in Fort Wayne until its move to suburban Philadelphia in 1999. The company maintains a large presence in the city, employing nearly 2,000.

In 2024, Google announced plans to build a data center in Fort Wayne.

Performing arts

The Embassy Theatre is a 2,471-seat performing arts theater, which hosts over 200,000 patrons annually. Since its founding in 1944, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra has often been hosted at the Embassy. The University of Saint Francis Robert Goldstine Performing Arts Center, located on its Downtown Campus, contains a 2,086-seat auditorium.

Since its establishment in 2010, Arts Campus Fort Wayne has been home to several of the city's cultural institutions, including the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Auer Center for Arts and Culture, Arts United Center, and Hall Community Arts Center. Arts United Center houses the Fort Wayne Civic Theater, Fort Wayne Dance Collective, and Fort Wayne Youtheatre. Auer Center for Arts and Culture houses Fort Wayne Ballet. Hall Community Arts Center houses Cinema Center, an independent film venue.

Though used mainly for exhibitions and conventions, the Grand Wayne Convention Center hosts dance and choir productions, such as the annual Foundation for Art and Music in Education (FAME) Northeast Festival. Foellinger Theatre, a 2,500-seat amphitheater in Franke Park, hosts seasonal acts and outdoor concerts during warmer months. Located west of downtown, Arena Dinner Theatre is a nonprofit community arts corporation with a focus on live theater production, annually hosting seven full-length theatrical productions.

Attractions

The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo has been lauded as one of the nation's foremost zoos. Covering 40 acres and containing 1,000 animals of 200 different species, the zoo is the largest regional attraction, regularly drawing over 500,000 visitors annually. The Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory gardens cover 24500 sqft, displaying over 1,200 plants of 502 different species and 72 types of cacti. Science Central, an interactive science center, contains permanent displays and temporary exhibits, drawing 130,000 visitors annually.

Established in 1921, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art (FWMoA) is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, specializing in the collection and exhibition of American art. The FWMoA annually receives 100,000 visitors.

The History Center, located in Fort Wayne's Old City Hall, manages a collection of more than 23,000 artifacts recalling the region's history. The center is overseen by the Allen County–Fort Wayne Historical Society, which maintains the Richardville House, one of two National Historic Landmarks in the city. Historic Fort Wayne, a replica of the 1815 fortification, hosts scheduled tours and historical reenactments throughout the year. Other cultural museums include the African/African–American Historical Museum, Fort Wayne Firefighters Museum, Greater Fort Wayne Aviation Museum, and Baer Field Heritage Air Park.

The Allen County Public Library's Fred J. Reynolds Historical Genealogy Department is the second-largest genealogy collection in North America. The collection contains 350,000 printed volumes and 513,000 items of microfilm and microfiche.

Festivals and events

The city hosts a variety of cultural festivals and events annually. Festivals commemorating ethnic food, dance, music, and art include Germanfest, Greek Festival, and Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival. Initiated in 1997, Fort Wayne Pride celebrates northeast Indiana's LGBTQ community. BBQ RibFest showcases barbecue rib cooks and live entertainment, attracting 40,000 visitors annually.

Fort4Fitness is a certified half marathon, 4 mi run/walk, and health fair. Over 9,000 participated in the 2011 half marathon. In 2012, Fort4Fitness debuted a spring cycle, Bike-the-Fort, which included three bicycling tours with over 1,000 participants. HolidayFest begins with the Night of Lights on Thanksgiving eve, with the lighting of the PNC Santa and Reindeer, Wells Fargo Holiday Display, and Indiana Michigan Power Christmas Wreath, ending with a fireworks finale at Parkview Field.

The largest annual events in the city are the Johnny Appleseed Festival, Taste of the Arts, Middlewaves and the Three Rivers Festival. The Johnny Appleseed Festival draws 300,000 visitors. The festival is held at Johnny Appleseed Park, where American folklore legend John Chapman is believed to be buried. Apple-themed cuisine, crafts, and historical demonstrations recalling 19th century American pioneering are among some of the festival's events. Three Rivers Festival, a celebration of Fort Wayne, spans nine days each July, attracting 400,000 visitors. Three Rivers features over 200 events, including a parade, midway, hot dog eating contest, bed race, raft race, arts fair, and fireworks spectacular. Other annual events include the Allen County Fair, BAALS Music Festival, National Soccer Festival, and the Vera Bradley Outlet Sale.

Sports
Fort Wayne is home to two minor league professional sports franchises: the Fort Wayne Komets of the ECHL and the Fort Wayne TinCaps of the High-A Central. Other teams based in the city include Fort Wayne FC, a pre-professional soccer club which competes in the USL2, and the Fort Wayne Derby Girls of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association Division 2. Fort Wayne's primary sports venues include the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum and Parkview Field.

The city has been home to other professional sports franchises, including the National Basketball Association's Fort Wayne Pistons (which moved to Detroit in 1957), the Fort Wayne Daisies of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and the Fort Wayne Kekiongas of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (precursor to Major League Baseball).

Intercollegiate sports in the city include the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons, representing Purdue University Fort Wayne (PFW) in the NCAA's Division I Horizon League, and NAIA schools Indiana Tech (Wolverine–Hoosier Athletic Conference) and University of Saint Francis (Crossroads League and Mid-States Football Association). The Mastodons had represented Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) prior to its 2018 split into two separate institutions (see below), and from 2016 to 2018 were branded as the Fort Wayne Mastodons, but the athletic brand was changed to "Purdue Fort Wayne" shortly before the split took effect.

Some notable events in sports history occurred in Fort Wayne. On June 2, 1883, Fort Wayne hosted the Quincy Professionals for one of the first lighted evening baseball games ever recorded. Fort Wayne is also credited as the birthplace of the NBA, as Pistons' coach Carl Bennett brokered the merger of the BAA and the NBL in 1948 from his Alexander Street home. On March 10, 1961, Wilt Chamberlain became the first player in the NBA to reach 3,000 points in a single season while competing at the War Memorial Coliseum.

Parks and recreation

Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation maintains 86 public parks totaling 2,805 acre. Three public and 20 private golf courses are located in Allen County. Several notable parks include Johnny Appleseed Park (home to a campground and John Chapman's grave), McCulloch Park (home to Samuel Bigger's grave), and the Old Fort Park (The first and oldest park in Fort Wayne, site of the original well used in this fort). Downtown, there are a number of parks including Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory, Headwaters Park, Promenade Park, Swinney Park, and Lawton Park (named for Major-General Henry Lawton), which includes a skate park. Franke Park is the most extensive city park, covering 339.24 acre. Franke is home to the Foellinger Theatre, Shoaff Lake, and the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo.

Starting in the 1970s, the city developed a system of recreational trails along the riverbanks, known as the Rivergreenway, with the aim of beautifying the riverfronts and promoting active lifestyles for residents. The Rivergreenway was designated a National Recreation Trail in 2009. As of 2018, the Rivergreenway had expanded with additional trails to encompass nearly 180 mi throughout the city and county, with about 550,000 annual users. With the expansion of trails in recent years, cycling has become an emerging mode of transportation for residents. In 2009, the city's first bicycle lanes were established with the installation of 250 bike parking places. In 2016, Fort Wayne was designated a Bronze Level bicycle friendly community by the League of American Bicyclists.

Hurshtown Reservoir, near Grabill, is the largest body of water in Allen County and is popular with watersports enthusiasts for sailing and fishing. Some 300 lakes are located within 50 mi of the city. Located downtown along the St. Marys River, Fort Wayne Outfitters offers canoe, kayak, stand-up paddle board, and pontoon boat rentals for recreation along the three rivers.

According to the Trust for Public Land's 2017 ParkScore Index, some 56% of Fort Wayne residents are underserved.

Government

Fort Wayne has a mayor–council government. The mayor, city clerk, and city council members serve four-year terms. Citizens Square houses the executive and legislative branches of city government. As the county seat of Allen County, Fort Wayne serves as the administrative center for county-level elected offices and government functions.

Fort Wayne's current mayor is Sharon Tucker, a Democrat. Tucker – a former county and city councilwoman – succeeded Tom Henry, a record four-term mayor who passed away from stomach cancer in March 2024. On April 20, 2024, Tucker won a county party caucus to finish Henry's term, making her the city's first Black mayor. Fort Wayne City Council has nine elected members, one representative from each of the city's six council districts and three at-large members, serving four-year terms.

The city is represented in the Indiana General Assembly by three Senate Districts and seven House Districts. Fort Wayne's state senators include Dennis Kruse (14th District), Liz Brown (15th), and David Long (16th). Representatives include Dan Leonard (50th District), Ben Smaltz (52nd), Phil GiaQuinta (80th), Martin Carbaugh (81st), Christopher Judy (83rd), Bob Morris (84th), and Dave Heine (85th). Federally, Fort Wayne is part of Indiana's 3rd congressional district, represented by Republican Jim Banks, who was first elected in 2016.

Under the Unigov provision of Indiana Law, Fort Wayne would have automatically consolidated with Allen County when its population exceeded 250,000, previously the minimum population for a first class city in Indiana. Fort Wayne nearly met the state requirements for first class city designation on January 1, 2006, when 12.8 sqmi of neighboring Aboite Township (and a small section of Wayne Township) including 25,094 people were annexed. However, a 2004 legislative change raised the population threshold for first-class status from 250,000 to 600,000, which ensured Indianapolis' status as the only first class city in Indiana.

Fort Wayne's E. Ross Adair Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse houses the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, which was authorized by Congress in 1928.

Public safety
Municipal and state laws are enforced by the Fort Wayne Police Department, an organization of 460 officers. In 2006, Fort Wayne's crime rate was 5104.1 per 100,000 people, slightly above the national average of 4479.3. There were 18 murders, 404 robberies, and 2,128 burglaries in 2006. Steve Reed was appointed to the position of police chief in 2016. In 2014, former police chief Rusty York was appointed to the position of director of public safety. York previously served as police chief from 2000 to 2014.

The city is currently served by the Allen County Jail in downtown Fort Wayne, controlled by the Allen County Sheriff's department. In January 2020, a class action lawsuit was filed by Vincent Morris, an inmate at the jail, and the ACLU of Indiana against the Sheriff of Allen County. The lawsuit alleges understaffing of the jail, as well as overpopulation, among other complaints resulting in dangerous housing conditions. In March 2022, Judge Damon Leichty of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana ruled that conditions in the jail were in violation of the 8th Amendment and 14th Amendment. In his injunction, Judge Leichty ruled that there needed to be substantial progress in the construction of a new jail with expanding capacity. Since this injunction there have been 8 proposed sites for the new jail to be constructed, with the most prominent being at the Allen County Sheriffs department training facility land off of Paulding and Adams Center Roads, which the county already owns. However, this location is being heavily contested for being on the Southeast side of Fort Wayne, as another negative for an already disadvantaged area. At its current location, the jail also sits on what is very valuable land given the city's recent riverfront development, right in between some hallmark developments for the revitalization of the downtown area.

As of 2010, the Fort Wayne Fire Department included 375 uniformed firefighters and 18 fire stations. Eric Lahey was appointed fire chief in 2014.

Primary and secondary education
Four K–12 public school districts serve portions of the city. Fort Wayne Community Schools (FWCS) is the largest public school district in Indiana, enrolling nearly 31,000 students in the 2013–2014 academic year. FWCS operate 51 facilities, including 31 elementary schools, ten middle schools, and five high schools. The student body is diverse, with 75 spoken languages in the district. East Allen County Schools (EACS) operate 14 schools, with a total enrollment of 10,010. Northwest Allen County Schools (NACS) operate seven elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school, with a total enrollment of 6,853. Southwest Allen County Schools (SACS) operate six elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school, with a total enrollment of 6,995. Private primary and secondary education is offered largely through Lutheran Schools of Indiana and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend. Amish Parochial Schools of Indiana oversees schooling through the eighth grade in rural eastern Allen County.

Higher education
Fort Wayne hosts regional campuses affiliated with both of Indiana's major state university systems. Indiana University Fort Wayne (IU Fort Wayne) and Purdue University Fort Wayne (PFW) were established in 2018 following the dissolution of their predecessor institution, Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW). IPFW's degree programs in health sciences were transferred to IU Fort Wayne; as such, that institution is now home to the Fort Wayne Center for Medical Education, a branch of the Indiana University School of Medicine. All remaining IPFW degree programs were taken over by PFW. Indiana's community college system, Ivy Tech, manages two campuses and several learning sites throughout the city.

Three private universities are based in Fort Wayne. Concordia Theological Seminary is a seminary affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Established in 1846, it is the oldest higher education institution in the city. Indiana Tech, founded in 1930, is a secular institution with a full-time enrollment of about 3,900 students. In 1890, the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration established the University of Saint Francis, later relocating the Catholic institution to Fort Wayne in 1944. In 2023, it had a full-time enrollment of about 1,700 students. Several private institutions operate branch campuses in the city, including the College of Biblical Studies, Huntington University, Indiana Wesleyan University, Manchester University, and Trine University.

Libraries
Fort Wayne is home to the main library and nine branches of the Allen County Public Library. It is among the 20 largest public library systems in the U.S., and ranks 89th factoring in academic libraries, with 3.4 million volumes. The library's foundation is also among the nation's largest, with $14 million in assets. The entire library system underwent an $84.1 million overhaul from 2002 to 2007. In 2009, over 7.4 million materials were borrowed by patrons, with over 3 million visits made throughout the library system. The Main Library in downtown Fort Wayne houses the second largest genealogical research collection in the U.S.

Media
Major broadcasting network affiliates include WANE-TV (CBS), WPTA-TV (ABC/NBC), WISE-TV (CW), WFFT-TV (Fox), and WFWA-TV (PBS), Northeast Indiana's PBS member station. Religious broadcasters include WINM. Access Fort Wayne maintains Fort Wayne and Allen County's Public Access capabilities serving from the Allen County Public Library. One National Public Radio station is based in the city, WBOI, with the new WELT Community Radio Station transmitting from the Allen County Public Library.

Fort Wayne is served by two primary newspapers, the Journal Gazette and Pulitzer Prize-winning News-Sentinel. The two dailies have separate editorial departments, but under a joint operating agreement, printing, advertising, and circulation are handled by Fort Wayne Newspapers, Inc. The News-Sentinel announced that it would cease printing operations in favor of digital publishing in August 2017.

Transportation
Fort Wayne includes two municipal airports, both managed by the Fort Wayne–Allen County Airport Authority. Fort Wayne International Airport (FWA) is the city's primary commercial airport, with five airlines offering direct service to 13 domestic connections. The airport is Indiana's second busiest, with over 350,000 passenger enplanements in 2015. Fort Wayne International is also home to the 122nd Fighter Wing's Fort Wayne Air National Guard Station. Smith Field, in northern Fort Wayne, is used primarily for general aviation.

Fort Wayne is served by a single Interstate, (Interstate 69), along with an auxiliary beltway (Interstate 469). Once the State Road 37 expressway between Bloomington and Martinsville is completed in 2018, filling a gap in I-69 that exists south of Indianapolis, the road will run south to Evansville; it currently runs north to the Canada–United States border at Port Huron, Michigan. In the coming years, I-69 will extend to the US–Mexico border in Texas, with branches ending in Laredo, Pharr, and Brownsville. Four U.S. Routes bisect the city, including US 24, US 27, US 30, and US 33.

Five Indiana State Roads also meet in the city, including State Road 1, State Road 3, State Road 14, State Road 37, and State Road 930. Airport Expressway, a four-lane divided highway, links Fort Wayne International Airport directly to I-69. About 85 percent of residents commute alone by personal vehicle, while another eight percent carpool.

Unlike most cities comparable to its size, Fort Wayne does not have an urban freeway system. In 1946, planners proposed a $27 million federally funded freeway, crossing east–west and north–south through downtown. Opponents successfully campaigned against the proposal, objecting to the demolition of nearly 1,500 homes at the time of the post-World War II housing shortage, while playing on fears that the project would force displaced minorities into white neighborhoods. In 1947, Fort Wayne residents voted down the referendum that would have allowed for its construction, dubbed the 'Anthony Wayne Parkway.' Beginning in 1962, construction commenced for I-69 in suburban Fort Wayne.

The I-469 beltway around the southern and eastern fringes of Fort Wayne and New Haven was constructed between 1988 and 1995 as the largest public works project in Allen County history, at $207 million.

Amtrak's Capitol Limited (Chicago—Toledo—Cleveland—Pittsburgh—Washington, D.C.) and Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited (Chicago—Toledo—Cleveland—Buffalo—Albany—split to Boston and to New York City) are the closest passenger rail services to Fort Wayne, located 25 mi north at Waterloo Station. Service by Amtrak ended in 1990 when the Broadway Limited was rerouted away from Fort Wayne's Pennsylvania Station. Until 1961 the Pennsylvania Railroad operated the north–south Northern Arrow through the station. Other stations in Fort Wayne served the passenger trains of the Chicago, Indianapolis, and Louisville Railway ('Monon Railroad') and the Wabash Railroad (hosting the east–west Wabash Cannon Ball).

There has been a movement to bring direct passenger rail service back in the form of Amtrak or high-speed rail service. In 2013, a feasibility study was published outlining the impacts of a proposed Columbus—Fort Wayne—Chicago high-speed rail corridor. At 300 mi, the route would cost $1.29 billion and generate some $7.1 billion in economic benefits to the region. Freight service is provided by a class I railroad (Norfolk Southern) and two class III railroads. Fort Wayne is headquarters and main operations hub of Norfolk Southern's Triple Crown Services subsidiary, the largest truckload shipper in the U.S.

Citilink operates and manages the city's public bus system, including paratransit and fixed-route service in the cities of Fort Wayne and New Haven via downtown's Central Station. CampusLink debuted in 2009 as a free shuttle service for students, faculty, and general public traveling between Ivy Tech's Coliseum and North campuses, IPFW and its student housing on the Waterfield Campus, and shopping and residential areas. MedLink debuted in 2013, connecting Parkview Regional Medical Center with Parkview Health's Randallia campus. Despite annual ridership of 2.2 million, less than one percent of residents commute by public transportation. Fort Wayne is served by two intercity bus providers: Greyhound Lines (Indianapolis—Toledo—Detroit) and Lakefront Lines (Chicago—Columbus—Akron).

In 2016, the city introduced its first bike-sharing program, including five stations and 25 bicycles.

Healthcare
Healthcare in the Fort Wayne area is primarily provided by two nonprofit healthcare systems headquartered in the city: Parkview Health and Lutheran Health Network. Notable hospitals include Dupont Hospital, Lutheran Hospital of Indiana, Parkview Hospital Randallia, and Parkview Regional Medical Center. Over 1,600 patient beds are available throughout the city's healthcare system. , both healthcare systems were Fort Wayne's first and second largest employers, respectively, contributing to a total healthcare workforce in Allen County of 34,000. In 2018, Indiana University Health opened its first facility in the city with plans for future growth. VA Northern Indiana Health Care System's Fort Wayne Campus provides medical services through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Utilities
City Utilities is the largest municipally owned water utility in Indiana, supplying residents with 72 e6USgal of water per day from the St. Joseph River via the Three Rivers Water Filtration Plant. Sanitary sewer treatment is also managed by City Utilities. The city of Fort Wayne offers full curbside recycling and solid waste collection services for residents, currently contracted through GFL Environmental. Electricity is provided by Indiana Michigan Power, a subsidiary of American Electric Power, while natural gas is supplied by Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), a subsidiary of NiSource. All tier 1 networks and several additional telecommunication service providers cover the Fort Wayne rate area.

Sister cities
Fort Wayne has four sister cities as designated by Sister Cities International:
 * 🇯🇵 Takaoka, Toyama, Japan (1977)
 * 🇵🇱 Płock, Masovian, Poland (1990)
 * 🇩🇪 Gera, Thuringia, Germany (1992)
 * Taizhou, Zhejiang, China (2012)

Friendship city
 * Mawlamyine, Mon State, Burma (Myanmar) (2015)

title: Fort Wayne, Indiana


text:
Talk:Fort Wayne, Indiana/Archive 2

Good article?

 * We're getting there, but there are WAY too many red links. I've been turning a few of 'em blue, but the red links seem to be gaining on us. Is it all that valuable to itemize the name of an athlete who is so insignificant that he doesn't justify an article? We have a bunch of pennysavers listed as if they were more significant than the flyer that Home Depot sends out, all of them referencing a publisher that's not listed in Wikipedia. I keep expecting someone to list all the shoe stores in town, and all the parking meters.... ClairSamoht 13:23, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I was thinking we should have some input from an impartial eye or two since this article has become rather robust. An the rules for Good Article (What is a good article) are a lot less stringent than Peer Review and Featured Article. Someone who doesn't know Fort Wayne from Adam, to point out things we who are too familiar with the topic fail to notice. It might help us focus more on making this article encyclopedic in tone and content. Davodd 16:15, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm failing it, the article is mostly lists and rather sloppy overall, break off a few sections, create a List of famous people from Fort Wayne for example, footnotes and a bigger lead per WP:LEAD will help also. Thanks --Jaranda wat's sup 20:28, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Festivals
Fort Wayne has some really rich festivals. Yet, they are not mensioned. 3 Rivers, German Fest, Rib Fest... I don't even know all of the festivals. This is a must add. Cssgeek 19:59, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

External links trimming
As per WP:NOT (WP is not a travel guide or directory of links) - I will be clipping the external links section to be more in line with the examples of featured article cities such as San Jose, California and Cleveland, Ohio. - Davodd 17:01, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

City of Churches
Removing "City of Churches" from the infobox since it is not unique to Fort Wayne. Davodd 17:09, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Since it is used often in Fort Wayne, even if it is not unique, I think it should stay. --CTSWyneken 17:26, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I think your attachment to the nickname is more motivated by an emotional point of view than an accurate, cited inclusion. The nickname does appear in the main article - just not in the infobox. The infobox is for items that are uniquely Fort Wayne at-a-glance. For instance, a Google search for "City of Churches" does not show many Fort Wayne links, whereas a search of "Summit City" shows mostly Fort Wayne links. Davodd 18:08, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Well, I won't go to the mat for it; It's not worth a full literature search just to make that point. We are, however, known as the "city of churches" and it would be good for visitors to our article to know this. --CTSWyneken 18:51, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
 * It's in the article - along with the other nicknames Fort Wayne has had over the years. The use of "City of Churches" peaked in the late 1800s, when the tallest structures downtown were the huge church spires (that are now dwarfed by the skyscrapers). The evolving nicknames of the city and their stories may be fodder for its own article (such as Fort Wayne, Indiana nicknames). Davodd 19:08, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

GA Nom comments
I've done a fair bit of reviewing for GA listing, but must recuse myself from reviewing this article, since I've edited it from time to time. I did a bit of a face lift, removing red links, moving see also references to the standard head of section position and cleaned up the language a bit.

We should be in good shape for review, but I would recommend we provide more inline references, read the whole article for flow and ask what, if anything, goes beyond summary or news styles. --CTS Wyneken (talk) 20:22, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

1871 baseball

 * The Kekionga [franchise or club] was sold midway through the first season, and they moved to Brooklyn, where they eventually became the Trolley Dodgers and eventually today's Los Angeles Dodgers professional baseball team.

Tweaking the NAPBBP wiki-link, I noticed and deleted the historical link to the Brooklyn Dodgers. What was sold? and moved? For starters, there were no NAPBBP franchises and no persistent rights to player services (such as reserve lists or longterm contracts). --P64 06:04, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

 * It was rained out in the top of the 9th inning ... (on the first NAPBBP game)

But Retrosheet has published a play-by-play account of this First Game and it shows nine full innings. The weather report from one mile outside Fr Wayne is included: "Temp: 56; Wind: from the southeast (12 MPH); Sky: cloudy". (I added that it was the lowest scoring game of the entire season.) --P64 06:12, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

Failed GA nomination with invitation to renominate
The principal reason I'm failing this GA nomination is that too many of the article sections have no line citations. While I see no redlinks (an improvement over the previous nomination) there are also many one- and two-line paragraphs and perhaps an excess of lists. I could forgive the lists if the prose sections were better constructed and better referenced. On the whole I'd say that this represents some very good effort and I hope to see it become a GA perhaps early next year. Keep up the good work. Durova 20:07, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Media
Who edited the media portion of the article. This is not an advertisement for Indiana's News Center. Good God they already have billboards all over the city do they need free advertising here? The information posted here is against WIKI policy as well. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 74.93.44.78 (talk) 13:51, 8 February 2007 (UTC).

Comments on Proposed Deletion of List of churches in Fort Wayne, Indiana Requested
Someone has proposed deleting this spin off from the Fort Wayne page. Please drop by and comment. --CTS Wyneken (talk) 10:48, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Fort Wayne Flyers logo.png
Image:Fort Wayne Flyers logo.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 09:19, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Demographics
The section listing the various percentages of ethnic backgrounds for Ft. Wayne is inaccurate and contradicts with Census data. Please revise. 75.46.94.11 09:24, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Fort Wayne, Indiana/Archive 2


text:
Talk:Free

Not regulated, restircted or controlled.

Costing nothing.

Not containing something. (Free of additives).

"Think 'free speech'%5000000, not 'free beer.'" – Richard Stallman ''This idea needs elaboration, but it's here as a seed for development of this article. <>< tbc''

I visited this article on Wikipedia specifically because I had recently seen the phrases "free (as in beer)" and "free (as in beer and speech)" online. I started to wonder what the origin of these distinctions were and came to this article. Sadly, the information I was looking for was only here, on the discussion page. If these phrases are coming anywhere close to the common (internet) parlance, then IMO there should definitely be a Wikipedia page (this one or another) briefly explaning the origin and meaning behind them. Also: what's with the "free to write for TLove" part about? -IQpierce

 * See Gratis versus Libre. —Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley talk contrib 20:39, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

"Free as in speech" means unrestricted, "free as in beer" means without cost.

Is this whole article not something that belongs on the wiktionary ? I would propose to delete it.

 * It is currently a dismbiguation page. Intro looks like a dicdef, so needs to go. The rest maybe should be moved to Freedom if not deleted.  Is anyone going to genuinely search for free expecting any of these and why shouldn't this disambig be merged with Freedom? —Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley talk contrib 20:39, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

 * I'd also like to see 'free like speech, not like beer' on here somehow. I'm not sure how best to do it, but like many others here agree it needs presence. ThuranX 02:06, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Software
Wouldn't free software make more sense under CS than economics? —Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley talk contrib 20:41, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Price
I was looking for information of what constitutes free products. Free has long been a marketing or sales tactic, but I don't see anything pertinent on this page. -- Esoteric Rogue  Talk  03:50, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

 * I can't see anything on the above either. Unless it’s there and I've missed it. Otherwise, it seems something that's worth making a page for. Helper201 (talk) 00:17, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Free


text:
Talk:Political freedom

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Smetcheverry.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 06:51, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Freedom (disambiguation)
Why does the wikipedia disambiguation page for freedom define freedom as being able to do whatnone wants but then takes you to a polital freedom page? They are quite unrelated as doing what one wants 'as in freedom' has nothing to do with politics other than the powers that be seem to have made everyone modern day prisoners. Perhaps a 'freedom' article should be created or restored... Zhulien 08:07, 4 Jul 2016 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.21.157.201 (talk)

Untitled
I know you will grant me freedom to apologise for the three "e" article! I had followed a wrong link without noting it, of course Wikipedia had an article on Freedom :-) --Gianfranco

Freedom from vs. Freedom to
It seems to me that this paragraph at the top of the section on Forms of Freedom... missing content Another common distinction made between kinds of freedom is the difference between "freedom from" social and political ills (which, some argue, is really more accurately described as safety or security), and "freedom to" do what one wants (for which some consider the term "liberty" more precise).

... have either inverted the common conceptual meaning of "freedom from" and "freedom to", or is just unclear. When I think of "freedom from" (liberty) I think of a lack of restraint allowing one to pursue what one wishes, while "freedom to" means having one's way regardless of circumstances. It's the difference between no one physically stopping you from trying to obtain a Ferarri vs. transcending or overturning all-natural limitations on obtaining one. I think the original paragraph could be rewritten for clarity because as it stands it seems to say the reverse. What does anyone else think? Ubernetizen 21:42, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC)

(The concepts "freedom from" and "freedom to" were first articulated by Isaiah Berlin (Two Concepts of Liberty: Inaugural Lecture Oxford University 1958 & Clarendon Press 1958))

 * On the basis as articulated above, I have added a description to the introduction that articulates the differences between positive liberty and negative liberty. This follows Berlin (1958) articulation and supports both sides of the liberty argument. Edunoramus (talk) 01:09, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Freedom and the West
The article says: "In most Western democratic societies, key freedoms legally protected by the government include:" With the only list of freedoms directly under this sentence and no notion of liberties in the rest of the world, it is implied that the right of freedom is something typicly western, and that things are different in the rest of the world. This is politicly highly incorrect, and should certainly be changed.

 * Although "politically highly incorrect" appears to be a value judgement – and thus intrinsically non-neutral – I believe
 * you have a point here. As a matter of pure fact, things relating to freedom may or may not be thought of and acted
 * upon differently at different points in time and space. This seems to suggest that one should attempt a description
 * of the topic via a historical approach, starting from known beginnings. This should help to keep things in perspective,
 * showing actual differences and changes without falling into ideological traps.

 * As far as I know, the notion of political freedom became important for the first time among the Hellenes around the
 * time of the Persian wars (at the very beginning of the fifth century b.C.). It was then a development of the very simple
 * and practical idea of personal freedom, which was just the state (worth even fighting for) of those who were not the
 * slaves of some other person. I believe that all the subsequent relevant facts can be described as the long and varied
 * history of this basic Hellenic notion: how it periodically desappeared and was then rediscovered, changed and applied
 * to political institutions in various parts of the world.

 * The lack of such perspective – and the consequent paucity of references – is what makes me very unhappy about the
 * article. Although I am no specialist in the field, I might consider an attempt to start writing a new one along the lines
 * hinted above. Comments welcome. Mario 17:32, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Freedom and Christianity
Trying to get the ball rolling on this article. Here's one man's observation: "Christian liberty is not the freedom to do what we want, but the freedom to do what we ought." – Martin Luther (See for a citation.) <>< tbc

Why liberalism?
This article looks OK to me. My only concern is that it is listed under liberalism. There are other broad political trends that uphold freedom of one or another sort. Shorne 20:27, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Liberalism
I do not see any problem to list this article under other ideologies too, but one cannot deny that freedom is an essential element of liberal philosophy. --Gangulf 20:45, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * So are lots of other things that are not listed. The problem is that the list gives the impression that liberalism holds a special claim to freedom that other ideologies do not. Shorne 20:58, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * Good point, the fascists, for example, have always laid special claim to it. . . that and 'employment'. To be fair to them, we should link it to that ideology.  IIRC, the Communists did too. . .  That being the case, to be NPOV, we should just link it all around to every ideology so that everyone can be 'free' to share the joy (and dispute the neutrality of the article). . . Sigma-6 19:01, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Can anyone explain the difference between freedom and liberalism? That should be put on the article. --TakuyaMurata
 * This is a great point. While finding a clear definition for liberalism is fairly easy, a simple and neutral definition of freedom is quite difficult. Anyone have any ideas? I believe adding this may help to differentiate between the two ideologies, and keep the article neutral (which it is failing at). -- ALeigh602 (talk) 19:51, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

Not neutral (IMO)
''in particular, capitalists place a high value on freedom from government interference in the economy. This kind of freedom may be referred to as a kind of negative liberty.''

Hmm... Yeah... sounds POV. I'm not sure how to reword. --coblin 06:37, July 12, 2005 (UTC)

Agreed...
I have tried to make this a bit more neutral. I removed those external links on democracy as they make the implicit assumption that democracy = freedom, obviously not a neutral point of view. They belong on the democracy article. I changed "freedom from discrimination" to "freedom from government sanctioned discrimination"; the latter everyone can agree on while the former is very contentious, and many would agree it tramples the right of association. I removed the Lincoln external link because it was very controversial; at least some would agree that a president who suspended habeus corpus, closed hundreds of newspapers, warred on half the country and attempted to arrest the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is probably not a good example of political freedom. Also removed "right-wing" libertarianism because it's not NPOV; libertarians don't think of themselves that way or advertise themselves that way. Paul Bonneau 23:40, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

Brave new world predicted
Wikipedia is Big Brother, you sit there editing the past to conform to what is commonly assumed to be correct, you've started the end of human civilisation and freedom! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.31.9.88 (talk • contribs) 07:12, 22 April 2006 (UTC)
 * LOL. Exactly. Wikipedia is Big Brother. No kinda doubt! Dude Aronomy 18:09, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

thank you finally some truth here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.194.96.165 (talk) 01:04, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Positive and negative liberty???
Give me a break. The description of positive and negative liberty circles around to pose that capitalism is a negative liberty and then described as coercion in wiki under positive liberty as:

"Coercion is the practice of compelling a person to involuntarily behave in a certain way (whether through action or inaction) by use of threats, intimidation"

First of all capitalism is a function and mult-definable one at that. And as such, it cannot be labeled as a negative or a positive liberty. Nor can capitalism be considered coercion as capitalism occurs when any two people "willingly" sell or trade to each other "with or without" the interference of government; this is why capitalism is occurring in the US and in communist China.

Positive liberty is mislabeled here as by offering services like heath care and other mention services. This is as, by definition of Negative liberty defined on wiki, negative liberty as people are through government coercion, forced to pay other peoples benefits through unwilling taxation.

Neither can be defined correctly as the 17th Grievance of the Declaration of Independence defines any taxation without ones "willing consent" is "Tyranny". Tyranny in any form has nothing to do with any definition freedom or liberty. This needs to be rewritten by factual definitions as it is at present slanted and incorrectly defined. Contributed by Richard Taylor APP, American Patriot Party.

Libertarian definition of freedom
The article defines freedom from a libertarian point of view in the following way: "In libertarianism, freedom is defined in terms of lack of government interference in the individual pursuit of happiness, as long as others' freedom is not thereby harmed". I believe this definition is awfully wrong, since the word freedom is used again in the definition of word freedom itself. This is a kind of circular reference that does not explain the term properly. Can anybody find a way to improve it? I haven't found a valid definition similar to this one in the Internet either :(

>I think it might read better as " .... others' rights are not violated". But this is a misunderstanding of Libertarian political party stance as because the Libertarian party believes one has the right to do anything with his or her body; This is an incorrect statement in that accepting someone else's voluntary relinquishment of natural rights is in fact slavery.

John Adams presents that one cannot freely give up any essential natural right or else this is "willful (voluntary) slavery": "If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." John Adams, Rights of the Colonists, 1772.

Slavery not being part of freedom presents there are limits to freedom as defined, more particularly when another person and essential natural right are involved. Libertarian view: (http://www.lp.org/issues/platform_all.shtml#sexgend) American Patriot View: (http://www.pacificwestcom.com/morality) Hope this helps. User: Richard Taylor APP>

Insert: Also, it's silly to jump into the Libertarian definition of freedom in an article on freedom -- it's not an article on Libertarians.

Human Rights and Freedom
To my mind, the sentence about human rights and freedom does not sound quite right (even though that may be on account of my immersion in a German-language environment). Most elemtents of the expression "freedom", e.g. freedom of speach, freedom of thought and freedom of action (the latter with the restrictions named by John Stuart Mill) are indeed unremovable cornerstones of "human rights." The expression "human rights", includes, however, also some rights which have nothing do with freedom, e.g. the right to sufficient food, good healtcare, education etc. pp-- even though some of them may be indispensable, if a person wants to enjoy his freedom (as Rawls points out). The clash exists thus, as far as I understand it, not between freedom and human rights (as conservative politicians would have it), but between human rights and freedom on the one hand and economic, political and social lawlessness (e.g. by non- or pseudo-democratic organisations like the WTO or mulinational corporations who stand above any country's law) und enslavement on the other side. Maybe this should be included in the article. User:Josef Eichhorn

 * I can't help but notice the rights that are noted that have nothing to do with freedom are not the rights given by nature. Healthcare, sufficient food, and education are responsibilities according to nature. It is the responsible person who obtains these things while nature provides the ability to think, speak, and pursue these things that are merely called rights. Nature does not spoon-feed us, I would not have it any other way. 72.54.93.138 (talk) 21:51, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Navigation infobox
I added template to this page. When using the navigation boxes on Conservatism, Liberalism, Libertarianism, etc., they all have this page as one of the links. I found it inapprpriate to add the navigation box from every ideology that linked here, so I just put the main ideology box on here. Feel free to discuss.--207.230.48.22 01:30, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

thought and conscience
Freedom of thought is not synonmous with freedom of conscience. For instance I have freedom of thought as my thoughts are private and belong to me. I don't, however, have freedom of conscience. If I followed my conscience I would be fined or imprisoned as I don't agree with many of the laws of my country. Therefore I removed the word 'conscience'. Doctors without suspenders 22:10, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

RTKBA
Perhaps we need to discuss this, I argue that the global Wikipedia is not the forum to discuss the local, USA, gun political issue of a right to keep and bear arms (RTKBA). Arms are for many uses sufficiently covered in other types of freedom. Also, editor 70.57.84.156 appears to not make a distinction between freedom in Civil Law and freedom in Common Law or Religious Law  BruceHallman 16:36, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Categories
Nikodemos, can you provide some sources for claim that socialism and communism in general support political freedom? -- Vision Thing -- 22:06, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Certainly. "A socialist society that has been established from a capitalist society will strengthen 'negative freedoms', while ushering in real 'positive freedoms' across the board, ensuring equal and free access to social services by all." -- Nikodemos 22:14, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Are you proposing that we should guide ourselves by principle of self-identification in deciding what belongs in certain category? -- Vision Thing -- 18:57, 13 March 2007 (UTC)
 * No. I do see the problem with such a principle. However, by the same token, we cannot include links and categories related to libertarianism just because libertarians self-identify as supporters of political freedom. If a non-Marxist source is required for the assertion that Marxism supports political freedom, then a non-libertarian source should be required for the assertion that libertarianism supports political freedom. -- Nikodemos 21:22, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Anarchism, Classical liberalism, Liberalism and Libertarianism to me seem like obvious proponents of political freedom. Are you disputing such qualification? -- Vision Thing -- 21:30, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
 * One of my great obsessions is the application of universal standards, Vision Thing. I suppose you could say that I believe one's editing should follow the categorical imperative. So, yes, I dispute the qualification of those ideologies as advocates of political freedom because you said that self-identification is not enough and because I want to apply your principle universally and consistently. You will find that I will often accept any kind of principle as long as it is employed universally. -- Nikodemos 21:38, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

 * I don't think "Anarchism" is a TYPE of freedom, is it? It doesn't feel like the other elements of the list. Just sayin'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.191.157.184 (talk) 23:56, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

POV image
I removed the propogandist image, the image representative of freedom should be be to do with USA, it makes the article look like propoganda and its offensive to just about the entire rest of the world. - Animagentile (talk) 10:57, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Wikiproject Prisons
If anyone's interested, I've proposed a new wikiproject for the creation of articles regarding specific prisons here. --Cdogsimmons (talk) 01:29, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

merge w/ Liberty?
Is there anything about this article which should exist separately from Liberty? Cretog8 (talk) 22:50, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Information on Joseph Garcia in Want
Whoever added the quote by Joseph Garcia and described him as just not the politician, or anyone else who knows which of the many Joseph Garcias the man mentioned here is, please link or post some kind of information for those who are interested in finding out more about the man. I have googled Joseph Garcia and have failed to find out more about the person, except that there are many people with the same name. Skybluepaisley (talk) 06:32, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Human Agency
I dont understand what 'human agency' means and why its only a feature of positive liberty. Maybe a reference or an explanation here would help. Does it mean positive liberty seeks to provide options to everyone equally? Mrdthree (talk) 07:06, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

Freedom index
Isn't there a Freedom Index published by Freedom House? Why isn't that included in this article? --Airborne84 (talk) 10:27, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

Milton Friedman
Friedman has a very interesting definition of freedom and places political and economic freedom as the two main forms. He explains the idea that one cannot happen without the other. In his book Capitalism and Freedom he cites Capitalism as a necessary, though imperfect, way to garner economic freedom and, therefore, political freedom.

--Smetcheverry (talk) 17:54, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

Hello,

I think more could be included in the history of political freedom. Instead of just citing Hannah Arendt, perhaps the ancient philosophers themselves could be cited. Additionally, looking at not just arguments for political freedom in the history, but arguments against political freedom, for example argument made by Plato could be explained here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aepetkovic (talk • contribs) 06:41, 23 February 2017 (UTC)

Peer Review (POL150C2)
I really enjoyed this page and found that the current sections are well written and complete. I like that the section, Views, covered all views and provided strong information. I would have liked to maybe see a section about influential people/thinkers of political freedom or section on specific movements, but it's not absolutely necessary because some of this was included in the history section. Overall, this page is strong and beneficial! Keep up the great work! Hoopesha (talk) 02:53, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Peer Review
The article is very well written and comprehensive. There was good use of in text citations and interesting information provided with evidence from articles that were incorporated. The structure is a little off and I think that the History section should be before the Views so that it will flow better providing the reader with contextual background for Political Freedom. I also felt that there could be more information and evidence provided for the History section as there must be more history on this term and more room for expansion. Overall, great article edits/improvements, it really corresponds with the course!Nlucassi (talk) 02:06, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Article is not good. It does not discuss Political Freedom in the manner it claims it would
I came to this article to help me understand what "political freedom" meant to help me understand a recent newspaper article that blithely stated, "advanced democratic countries that elected left-leaning governments would experience a simultaneous crushing of political freedom". I wondered what did that actually mean. So I turned to my faithful Wikipedia for some enlightenment.

The Lead showed promise but was so academically over-written it was not enlightening. It also violated the guidelines for writing a lead. What was in the lead was not actually explained in the article.

So seeking knowledge in the Wikipedia article only led to confusion. This article is "Views" and "History". Neither of which does justice to the topic of Political Freedom.

The first sentence of the "Views" section is "Various groups along the political spectrum hold different views about what they believe constitutes political freedom." What follows is a mishmash of "views". Some about "freedom" some about "liberty" and some about "whatever" seemed to might be applicable. Starting logically from the "left-wing" and preceding randomly to confusion. I had expected to see a presentation of a "spectrum of views", but instead received a lazy rendition of philosophical thought.

And the "History" section is just an afterthought. There's no true history of "political freedom" here, it is just an entry to create some section content to give the article some more words and Wikipedian verisimilitude.

This article is almost 20 years old and over the years there has been quite a bit of effort to improve it. Looking over the article's evolution, it has only been a patch here and a deletion there and so on and son. The initial article in 2001 was just one sentence, "Freedom is... (an insanely ambiguous term)". A good insight, and after 20 years, it appears to still be an insanely ambiguous term.

Perhaps the topic is too difficult for the average editor to understand and improve.

I poor pitty the unsuspecting reader comes along seeking truth and gets the result of a 20-year-old experimentation in random-walk Wikipedia editing.

Note to the "Peer Review" editors in the Talk Page sections above who think that this is a "good" article-- you are wrong, it is not a good article.

This article is not good at all and needs a major rewrite. Short of a rewrite, perhaps it would be best to recommend that this article be deleted so as to not edify future pitiful poor readers with nonsense over the next 20 years.

Osomite hablemos  21:12, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Political freedom


text:
Fart (word)

Fart is a word in the English language most commonly used in reference to flatulence that can be used as a noun or a verb. The immediate roots are in the Middle English words ferten, feortan and farten, kin of the Old High German word ferzan. Cognates are found in Old Norse, Slavic and also Greek and Sanskrit. The word fart has been incorporated into the colloquial and technical speech of a number of occupations, including computing. It is often considered unsuitable in formal situations as it may be considered vulgar or offensive.

Etymology
The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English lexicon. Its Indo-European origins are confirmed by the many cognate words in some other Indo-European languages: It is cognate with Greek verb πέρδομαι (perdomai), as well as the Latin pēdĕre, Sanskrit pardate, Ashkun pidiṅ, Avestan pərəδaiti, Italian fare un peto, French "péter", Russian пердеть (perdet') and Polish "pierd" << PIE *perd [break wind loudly] or *pezd [the same, softly], all of which mean the same thing. Like most Indo-European roots in the Germanic languages, it was altered under Grimm's law, so that Indo-European /p/ > /f/, and /d/ > /t/, as the German cognate furzen also manifests.

Vulgarity and offensiveness
In certain circles the word is considered merely a common profanity with an often humorous connotation. For example, a person may be referred to as a 'fart', or an 'old fart', not necessarily depending on the person's age. This may convey the sense that a person is boring or unduly fussy and be intended as an insult, mainly when used in the second or third person. For example, '"he's a boring old fart!" However the word may be used as a colloquial term of endearment or in an attempt at humorous self-deprecation (e.g., in such phrases as "I know I'm just an old fart" or "you do like to fart about!"). 'Fart' is often only used as a term of endearment when the subject is personally well known to the user.

In both cases though, it tends to refer to personal habits or traits that the user considers to be a negative feature of the subject, even when it is a self-reference. For example, when concerned that a person is being overly methodical they might say 'I know I'm being an old fart', potentially to forestall negative thoughts and opinions in others. When used in an attempt to be offensive, the word is still considered vulgar, but it remains a mild example of such an insult. This usage dates back to the Medieval period, where the phrase 'not worth a fart' would be applied to an item held to be worthless.

Historical examples
The word fart in Middle English occurs in "Sumer Is Icumen In", where one sign of summer is "bucke uerteþ" (the buck farts). It appears in several of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In "The Miller's Tale", Absolon has already been tricked into kissing Alison's buttocks when he is expecting to kiss her face. Her boyfriend Nicholas hangs his buttocks out of a window, hoping to trick Absolon into kissing his buttocks in turn and then farts in the face of his rival. In "The Summoner's Tale", the friars in the story are to receive the smell of a fart through a twelve-spoked wheel.

In the early modern period, the word fart was not considered especially vulgar; it even surfaced in literary works. For example, Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755, included the word. Johnson defined it with two poems, one by Jonathan Swift, the other by Sir John Suckling.

Benjamin Franklin prepared an essay on the topic for the Royal Academy of Brussels in 1781 urging scientific study. In 1607, a group of Members of Parliament had written a ribald poem entitled The Parliament Fart, as a symbolic protest against the conservatism of the House of Lords and the king, James I.

Modern usage
While not one of George Carlin's original seven dirty words, he noted in a later routine that the word fart ought to be added to "the list" of words that were not acceptable (for broadcast) in any context (which have non-offensive meanings), and described television as (then) a "fart-free zone". Thomas Wolfe had the phrase "a fizzing and sulphuric fart" cut out of his 1929 work Look Homeward, Angel by his publisher. Ernest Hemingway, who had the same publisher, accepted the principle that "fart" could be cut, on the grounds that words should not be used purely to shock. The hippie movement in the 1970s saw a new definition develop, with the use of "fart" as a personal noun, to describe a "detestable person, or someone of small stature or limited mental capacity", gaining wider and more open usage as a result.

Rhyming slang developed the alternative form "raspberry tart", later shortened to "raspberry", and occasionally abbreviated further to "razz". This was associated with the phrase "blowing a raspberry". The word has become more prevalent, and now features in children's literature, such as the Walter the Farting Dog series of children's books, Robert Munsch's Good Families Don't and The Gas We Pass by Shinta Cho.

title: Fart (word)