Hello World

 Hello there you big and scary world!  My name is George Machlan and I plan to share an

George Machlan

adventure in modern city life with this BLOG  I am 69 years old this year and would like to figure out a neighborhood in transition where I live.  We have a demographic which is transitioning from small single family homes which were built as factory worker housing during the hey days of the International Harvester Truck Plant (circa 1923 through closing in 1982) in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  After losing such a large an integral employer the neighborhood quickly slid into a depressed state until the early 2000's when I think the city basically gave up on this and other parts of the Southeast quadrant of town as a "lost cause".  But with the loss of property values there came an opportunity for immigrant first-time home buyers to try their hands at "The American Dream" of owning their own home  (but now there seems to be more renters than home buyers).

We are now seeing a strong influx of both Mexican-Americans and Burmese families moving into our neighborhood.  At first I reacted pretty much as a stereotypical ethnic stakeholder wondering if that meant there would be more problems coming our way.  Fortunately I happily surprised that while there is problems (primarily communication) there are benefits to both of these communities taking root here.  I am quickly learning that THEY are very much willing to embrace a community/neighborly attitude.  I am reminded of some of my earliest memories of growing up within my migrant community in Long Island, New York.  I promise to share more of my Normal Rockwell-esque ties to both  in future posts.  This post is just to get things started.  

I expect this blog to be the central hub for many neighborhood building activities such as our local church events,  our neighborhood association accomplishments and our neighborhood Cub Scouts and Scouting unit growth.  I guess it will be a diary like thing to share my world here in our little corner of  Indiana.