Men's Health Magazine - which nearly four years ago immortalized Fort Wayne as America's Dumbest City - has concluded that what we lack in brains we make up for in genuine noses, lips and breasts.

But despite the magazine's recent survey ranking Fort Wayne 99th among 100 cities in terms of the popularity of cosmetic surgery - only Lincoln, Neb., is more “natural,” apparently - another source suggests we have in fact undergone a far more difficult and meaningful makeover.

The proof? Fort Wayne's not dying.

When Forbes Magazine compared stagnant economies and shrinking populations to identify America's 10 fastest-dying cities earlier this month, two Midwestern states dominated the list: Ohio (Canton, Youngstown, Dayton and Cleveland) and Michigan (Flint and Detroit). Even with Gary, Indiana somehow escaped mention.

Fort Wayne's omission from such dubious company would hardly merit celebration, of course, but perhaps this does:

“The big difference between Fort Wayne and places like Canton and Dayton is that the political leaders saw what was coming and got out of the traditional mode of approaching economic development,” columnist Jim Carlini wrote for MidwestBusiness.com. “They were faced with some real challenges that included growth and the necessity to service more area without adding to the budget ... the 10 dying cities need to ... not think like it's the 1950s.”

Can it be true? Has steadfastly conservative Fort Wayne really avoided many of the problems facing its Midwestern peers by reacting progressively and - take note, Men's Health - even intelligently?

Carlini obviously thinks so, reserving special praise for Fort Wayne's ability to appreciate not just traditional infrastructure needs - roads, utilities, airports - but also the kind of technological infrastructure that will become increasingly important, as epitomized by Verizon's 2005 decision to invest $100 million in a fiber-optic network then-Mayor Graham Richard predicted would be as important to the future as the railroads and interstate highways had been to the past and present.

But when the man most responsible for promoting Allen County to prospective employers says “You always need to be careful” about getting too giddy about such praise, it's probably wise to ask: Why?

Well, for one thing, Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance's Rob Young acknowledged that few, if any, major economic development success can be attributed to the presence of Verizon's network - even though he agrees the potential is impressive. And I should note that it was the private sector, not government, most responsible for that potential.

“Not making the list of dying cities is not exactly the kind of thing economic development people dream about,” Young said. And he's right, of course. “Fort Wayne: We're Not Dead” isn't much of a marketing slogan.

And John Stafford, director of the Community Research Institute at IPFW, correctly pointed out that most of the population gain Carlini praised was the result not of economic dynamism but of annexation, including the addition of 25,000 Aboite Township residents in 2006. Annexation, of course, is hardly universally popular, raising taxes along with legitimate questions about free association and representation.

In fact, Stafford said, the income earned by Fort Wayne residents - 115 percent of the national average a few decades ago - is now below the state average and less than 90 percent of the national average.

Even so, Stafford agreed that annexation has helped protect and expand the city's tax base at a time when other cities are unable to grow because they have been surrounded by other municipalities. And the resulting increase in population - even if mostly the result of moving map lines - has tangible benefits, Young said, when dealing with potential employers seeking minimum numbers of residents or would-be employers.

The bottom line is perhaps this: Fort Wayne continues to struggle with the loss of the high-paying industrial jobs that once accounted for 40 percent of the market. But this city has done a better job of addressing those challenges, and reshaping itself for the future, than many others.

That's cause for some degree of satisfaction, Young knows, but not complacency.

“We can't afford to take our foot off the gas,” he said.

Memo to Young: In the future, please substitute reference to alternative fuels for all internal-combustion metaphors.

The future, you know.