Issues for the Candidates - by Pat Andrews

.....
click here to return to July index

The opinions expressed in these articles and features are those of their author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of McANA or the opinion of its Directors or Officers.

Issues for the Candidates
by Pat Andrews
[Vice-President of McANA]]

I got a call from John Strauss, of Indy Star fame, to represent McANA on his new talk radio program. [BTW, help support good radio by tuning in to his show on Sundays, 10:00 – 11:30 am, on WIBC, 1070 AM] He was seeking a conversation about what issues neighborhoods want the Mayoral candidates to address during the campaign. This was an excellent opportunity and we certainly valued the generous offer. But, what to say?

Well, first off, and rightly so, each neighborhood will have topics that are vitally important to them. Some unique, some not. But, from a McANA perspective, we try to represent the broader, countywide issues for which we are in a good position to advocate. With that caveat in mind, I set about gathering the opinions of McANA supporters on which issues they thought ought to be raised on the radio. What follows are the issues that were put on my list. They are not laid out in order of importance; for they are all important. And, they are not laid out in order of passion; for they all have their advocates who are passionate about them. They are laid out in an order I hope paints an adequate, coherent, and telling picture of the overall complexity of the issues and their impact on the life of the people and neighborhoods of Indianapolis.

Many of us have gingerly opened our property tax bills in the last few weeks. I’m hearing that something like half of the bills went up, half down. No matter which, we are more than a bit sensitive to the topic of taxes right now. We worry about those who will lose their homes because of the increases. Meanwhile we applaud the efforts of both Greg Jordan and Bart Peterson to do something, anything, to tide those at greatest risk over to the next bill.

This reassessment couldn’t have come at a worse time. Lost jobs, lost homes and lost hope for some has been the chorus from a sour economy and large employers pulling out of Indianapolis. The City Council just created an Economic Development committee. Hopefully all of our elected officials will seek to formulate a much-needed vision for economic opportunity and vitality – not short-term hype and knee-jerk responses.

To add to the pressures, there are some things that still need attention and still need money spent – and lots of it. The greatest of these is arguable the Combined Sewer Overflow problem. This is as severe as it gets. It is not the open sewers of a third world nation, but, on a really rainy day one might be splitting hairs. The sewer system Indianapolis has is antiquated in its design and hugely expensive to overhaul. The health risks are just too great to ignore. The sewage is spilling into rivers and streams that run through neighborhoods where folks ought to be able to enjoy the beauty and recreation value of the water that flows. Instead they need to heed the warnings to avoid what should be an asset, or they and their children could become ill with life threatening diseases. It is going to cost Indianapolis one billion dollars, or more, to fix this problem. What is being debated is how much money should be spent on how good a fix. The fewer overflows each year, the more expensive the solution. The more overflows each year, the greater the health, social and economic development impact consequences.

And while we are talking about, well, poop… The health risk from septic systems that fail is tied to the CSO problem. Forced conversion to public sanitary sewers through the Barrett law causes some folks to lose their home over the burden of paying that bill. Sewers are expensive. That option just wasn’t available to many of the County’s homeowners when their house was built. Rectifying the problem one homeowner at a time is placing a burden on individuals that other cities have seen as their infrastructure responsibility.

It is not just the pollution of our water with sanitary waste at issue. Air quality is a growing problem. Ozone action days abound. We face EPA fines possibly next year.

Pollution hits us not only in the pocketbook because of the cost of solving the problems, it also reduces the attractiveness of our City to the industries that we need for economic development. Businesses with a choice will think twice about locating in Indy. Polluting industries won’t be able to pollute and will go where they can. High-tech, biomedical or computer, will go where the quality of life is perceived as high. If Indy becomes known as a polluted city, these folks won’t come.

If we have these looming bills to pay to clean up Indianapolis’ water and air, why on earth are we even talking about spending $2 billion on a road that will reduce our air quality, expose our drinking water to contamination, harm existing neighborhoods in its path, and do nothing but reduce our ability to bring economic vitality to Indianapolis? I-69 is and will always be, a bad, bad, bad idea for Indianapolis.

Another quality of life issue that needs a good leader in office includes stopping the proliferation of billboards cold in its tracks. An outright ban on new construction would put us in a favorable position to attract not only the ‘new economy’ industries, but also tourist dollars. 720 cities across the nation have already taken that step. San Francisco, Dallas, and Houston just to name a couple.

The acquisition of new parkland has to be on our list. That, and the protection of existing linear parks so they remain pleasant diversions from the pressures of life. Other cities of our size have the political will to allocate more of the budget to Parks & Recreation. What about us?

What about saving the woods we still have? Indy is far below other cities in the amount of tree canopy we have. For a city that was once virtually covered by trees, that’s saying something.

And, last but certainly not least, what are we going to do about mining in Marion County? A world class city that has little or no regulation of an industry that coughs up dust, can contaminate drinking water supplies, tears up small neighborhood streets, and generates small earthquakes nearly every day doesn’t really sound like a world class city.

This is, of course, not an exhaustive list. But, even these can leave one exhausted about what to do.

From Misters Peterson and Jordan we would like to hear what their vision is to solve these problems, how they suggest we balance the needs with the pocket books, and how we can improve the quality of life for the citizens of Indianapolis and attract new jobs and brighter prospects.