Broad Ripple Random Ripplings

Brought to you by:

Everything Broad Ripple Home

Random Ripplings Home

2007 11 16

Column

Converted from paper version of the Broad Ripple Gazette (v04n23)

Tammy's Take - By Tammy Leiber

posted: Nov. 16, 2007

Yeah, I completely called the mayoral election wrong in my last column. So did a lot of people, regardless of whom they voted for, judging by the level of wide-eyed amazement I witnessed in the days after Election Day.

At least they didn't publish their prediction.

Anyway, moving on. Like a lot of people, I have many questions about what the next city administration is going to look like. More questions, in fact, than I can fit into one column. Tune in next issue for more-in the meantime, send me your questions and concerns.

Mayor-Elect Greg Ballard hasn't given any indication he plans to clean house, but regardless, scores of people who've helped shape our city in the last eight years will move on when the new boss takes over.

Such is the nature of politics. When you spend months worth of nights and weekends campaigning to keep your current boss in his position, chances are you're not going to stick around after he gets fired, whether by your choice or the new boss. Come January, the Peterson diaspora will begin.

While there are certainly many qualified, dedicated people on the GOP side to be tapped for the 2,000 or so appointed and staff positions that will need to be filled, there are more balls in the air than can realistically be kept aloft by an entirely new crew.

Rightly so, Ballard has said he intends to focus on public safety and fiscal responsibility. By just about anybody's measurement, public safety could use improvement and I haven't met a government yet that didn't have some fiscal fat to be trimmed.

But those are ongoing issues that any mayor, at any time, would have to deal with. The biggest questions I've heard concern some of the mayoral initiatives that have been started or greatly expanded in the last eight years. It would be a huge loss for the city if these balls got dropped.

Market Square Arena redevelopment

This hasn't exactly been one of Bart Peterson's great success stories, what with the failed efforts of the first development team selected for the site. Regardless of who's in charge of it, though, it's a challenging effort with enormous implications for the future of downtown.

Two development proposals are on the table, both mixed-use, both from qualified development teams. Both call for city incentives and condos to make the projects work financially and the climate for both of those has changed dramatically since the proposals were submitted in April.

Peterson, not surprisingly, delayed picking a new development team until after the election. It remains to be seen whether he'll defer the decision for the new administration to make and how Ballard will react to the millions in subsidies requested from the developers.

It's been more than seven years since the arena was torn down. It'd be a shame if this 4-acre chunk of prime downtown real estate stayed a parking lot for another four years.

Cultural Development Commission

Peterson created the Cultural Development Commission in 2001 to focus on using the city's cultural assets to economic advantage. At the time, it was difficult to see the connection. Six years later, the commission's work has changed the way residents and visitors think of Indianapolis.

The commission does few things single-handedly. Rather, it has fostered cooperation among existing cultural groups, and between those groups and the city. Although the commission started with 10 million dollars to hand out, much of what its done has required little to no city money.

A prime example is the downtown initiative that has picked local artists to paint murals on the plywood covering vacant buildings and to install art into otherwise unoccupied window spaces. This program has turned blighted eyesores into a sort of public art gallery.

If you have a hard time seeing how this relates to economic development, spend a lunch hour walking down Meridian, Washington and Pennsylvania streets. Imagine you're one of the millions of tourists or convention-goers who fill our hotels and clog our restaurants and think about what perception of our city you'd leave with, and how that would affect your decision to come back again.

Tammy Lieber is a freelance writer who lives in Meridian Kessler, otherwise known as SoBro. A former reporter at the Indianapolis Business Journal, she now writes journalism and marketing pieces when she's not fixing up her house or enjoying the company of friends over a pint of Guinness. Her favorite spectator sport is politics, except on Sundays during football season. Email her at tammy@broadripplegazette.com

tammy@broadripplegazette.com

Brought to you by:

Brought to you by: