The INDYpendent

The 500 Days: A strategy to reinvigorate Indy's civil society and improve quality of life

2009-07-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

If there is one number that comes to mind when one thinks of Indianapolis, it is the number 500. The iconic race that takes place annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, IN is probably the strongest branding element our metro area has(though the Colts are making a push in that regard with their recent success). If you played a game of word association with someone not from Indiana and you said "Indy", the natural response might very well be "500". Needless to say, it is a number that resonates strongly for Indianapolis natives and people the world over alike.

With this in mind, I recently spent a lot of time thinking about how Indianapolis could take advantage of their biggest shot at exposure in the coming years: The 2012 Super Bowl. Now, the plan for Downtown Indianapolis, especially near Lucas Oil Stadium, looks like a major winner. It plays to the strength of our city, and works to address concerns that the types that attend this event may have with having this event hosted in the Midwest in February. Kudos to everyone involved with this, and I hope they are able to execute as well as they are able to imagine.

But, I believe, this falls short of what the city and its residents could accomplish by having this "Coming Out Party" on national TV. We will need to do everything we can to differentiate ourselves from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, which will host the previous year's Super Bowl. Having lived within eyesight of the New Cowboys Stadium in Arlington for almost its entire construction period, and having had worked all over the Metroplex, I feel that we have a great opportunity here.

In short, Arlington is the anti-Indianapolis. It is a city of almost 400,000 residents that resides in almost entirely apartment complexes and suburban style tract subdivisions. There are few to no distinct or historic neighborhoods. The city is struggling to build some sort of entertainment district around the New Cowboys Stadium and the extant Rangers Ballpark at Arlington. The area there now consists of some strip retail centers, a new Wal-Mart, a few apartment complexes, and some barren land surrounding a small creek(as well as a veritable Ocean of parking lots for the Rangers ballpark). To get to the major entertainment districts in the Metroplex, like Dallas, Ft. Worth, and the other major suburbs(Grapevine, Addison, Plano, Irving, Valley Ranch), is no shorter than a half hour drive, and typically trend towards an hour. During a major event like the Super Bowl, one can expect much worse. And there is no public transit at all in Arlington, that's right, not even a single bus. There is almost no capacity for pedestrian traffic. And East Arlington is anything but gentrified or cosmopolitan.

So what can Indianapolis do to make as much of a contrast as possible here? Many things we won't have to work much on. We already have a very strong entertainment district within walking distance of the stadium. We already have strong cultural attractions right there. We already have plenty of things for tourists to visit and remember(the Canal, the Mall, WRSP, etc). We already have varied and interesting neighborhoods and cultural districts. We have 6000 hotel rooms right downtown, and many more a half hour or less from downtown. We have some sort of public transit network in place. And we already have one of the most walkable, convenient, and safe urban cores in the country. But this is only the very tip of what is possible.

Many cities have a bus system, some cities have something much more engaging and practical.

Many cities have interesting neighborhoods to explore, few have those neighborhoods properly marketed. Few of those neighborhoods have an engaged populace that work to make it a place that someone from the major cities would want to live.

Many cities have shiny downtowns. Few cities have surrounding urban neighborhoods that visitors would like to get out of their cars and explore, let alone take pictures and video and tell stories about.

Many cities use large events like this to attract tourist dollars. Few have the vision to see this as an opportunity for long-term economic development and talent acquisition.

So, how does this all tie in with the number 500? I'm glad you asked. I'm proposing something that I have no knowledge of ever happening in any city for any event. I like to call it The 500 Days. From September 23, 2010 until February 4, 2012, the civil society of the entire Metropolitan area would take drastic and innovative steps to make Indianapolis the best city it could be for the Super Bowl. This project would take the form of a nearly completely private-sector affair. The best thing for government to do hear is have the leadership to step aside and let the residents of the city remake their city. I already have a series of posts plans to detail possible things that could be done, but I would love to hear what anyone who reads this blog thinks would be a great idea. Remember, we are looking for non-government solutions. We want a minimum in legislative changes or policy proposals. I would love for Mayor Ballard to champion this idea in speeches, but I believe this is an opportunity for Indianapolitans to show the country and the world their character and their zeal for the city.

If you believe this is a good idea, contribute any sort of ideas you have, or share this post with your friends and colleagues. This project is non-political, and I don't want to see or hear any party-line bickering. I want to hear what us citizens of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area can do to improve our hometown at this important time. And it is so important to impart that this is not about a one-week windfall for the city, but a permanent change in the culture of the populace, and the perception the city has around the world.

Is the Recession Time for Cities to Strike at their Infrastructure Needs?

2009-07-14T23:28:00.000-07:00

An interesting thought hit me tonight as I read this article at the Indy Star. It's amazing that Hamilton County will save their taxpayers almost $9 million over projected costs due to bid for construction that was much lower than anticipated. And this got me to thinking, is this recession making way for an opportunity for a City to take first mover advantage and cue up their most pressing infrastructure projects and get them done now at much lower costs than anticipated?

I am no expert on these matters, and I don't have the time to research the reality of the situation. But if we could save even 50% of expected costs on large infrastructure projects like the Olio Rd. Bridge(or much larger), why not act now and improve our competitiveness and lower the impact that these projects have on regional and municipal budgets in the future(which could hamper future competitiveness even more)?

If some enterprising reader would like to respond with more thorough research, or just a few pithy comments on this topic, I would appreciate it.

Metro Area Consolidation: Pros and Cons

2009-07-04T23:48:00.000-07:00

The topic of this post might be considered just a bit of daydreaming, but it is something that is being talked about seriously in many different areas of the country. Hell, in the 1960's no one would have though about Indianapolis consolidating with Marion County, and probably would have thought it would not have worked. Well, here we are, it's 2009, and after 39 years of UniGov, I would have to say that on balance, things have worked out alright for the city. We are one of the few metros in the Midwest that have seen appreciable growth in this millennium, and we vastly outperform the rest of the state. The strength of Marion County has also drawn significant interest in the surrounding counties and increased the fortune of the whole metro area as a result.

One negative result of this is that the city's core is often said to have been sacrificed for the outlying regions. And on the surface this would seem to be true. But on the other hand, there surely were other things that brought about the down fall of the central city - namely the subsidized mobility provided by the IHS highways(I-70, I-65) that cut through the city and FHA/VA loan guarantees that heavily favored single-family detached homes. That's not to mention urban renewal projects that wrecked the urban landscape.

The most negative aspect, in reality, of the consolidation seems to be what should be obvious: The lack of ability for planners to create workable plans for a whole city and city government's inability to look for ways to lower costs and therefore revenue needed to operate. Consolidation provided a chance for the city to dramatically lower the costs of operation, but little incentive to do so. It created a city council that rarely if ever properly represented the will of the electorate, and seemed to have little to no transparency. Therefore, many of the supposed benefits of consolidation were left untouched for many years. Twenty-five years after the fact, people started finally wanting to realize those benefits, and few thought about what might have been. The dynamics and efficiency of local government might have been dramatically altered - and more than likely for the better. But now we are tearing down the legacy of over two decades of ignoring the benefits of consolidation, and therefore the costs are higher and benefits lower.

But today we have a chance to alter the city's path and forge a legacy for the future of Indianapolis. I would like to propose that we become the first city(to my knowledge) to go out and preemptively create the metro-region as a unified political unit. This would create a City of Indianapolis that has 1.7 Million residents and covers(some would say sprawls over) some 3139 Sq. Miles(That's 541/Sq. Mile). So what be different in this new 5th largest city in America? Quite a bit.

First of all, a single political structure would allow for there to be a single tax structure. This reduces the moving of people and corporations within the area for tax advantages. And also, the tax burden would be spread evenly amongst all residents in the economic area. But, surely, there are disadvantages to this. And we will discuss and remedy those below. The one thing that is truly exciting about this is that allows for a whole region to experiment with new methods of taxation which would not be possible if confined to a smaller geographical area, namely a retail sales tax displaces more traditional forms of municipal taxation. This is something that could allow the region to really explode, as corporations could relocate operations or build new facilities in Indianapolis and owe no property or income tax to the city or county, it could give them a competitive advantage over others in their industry. This would in turn bring many more jobs, and maybe better paying jobs to the region. This could allow for a region-wide boom in many key economic areas. Such a proposal could do more for creating a life sciences sector than subsidies. The state of Missouri is looking into enacting such a reform state-wide right now - we might have already lost the opportunity to gain first mover advantage.*

The other advantage is that infrastructure could be planned regionally, and the City at large would have an interest in putting its assets into improving the outlying areas. Speedway has really been selling themselves short by trying to rely on the assets on their own tax base to market what should be a premier location for motorsport and craft automotive manufacturing businesses. Also, all benefactors of regional infrastructure will be stakeholders as well, since they will pay the taxes that will finance them.

Of course, municipal services could be combined and streamlined, and duplicated posts could be eliminated. This would bring about many cost savings, and could help bring down the total tax burden on the populace. But from past experience, we have to be realistic about the gains that can be had here. We must focus the main selling points on regional unity and revenue stabilization. If the suburban communities and the central city refuse to cooperate with each other as separate entities, then maybe the best option for the electorate would be to merge them into one entity.

One neutral point, or a point that could be negative or positive or of no consequence depending on how you look at it, is that bringing the collar county communities into the fold would also bring about a greater balance of power between the two major parties throughout the region. Currently, the Democrats hold a large amount of power in the region due to their influence in the central city, but Republicans are still popular in the outlying regions(but they hold sway over a large quantity of smaller municipalities). This means that in total, there really is a balance in terms of political sentiment in the region, and it could be argued that this should be reflected in the governance of said region.

Now, let's take a look at some of the cons of this approach, and how they might be addressed.

The most commonly heard reproach to this idea is that it would dilute the representation of the residents of the collar county communities. Since they would only be voting for a fraction of a larger executive and a couple seats in the legislative branches, their vote would affect policy much less directly. Plus, now people from other communities would have a say in some fashion as to what policies are enacted in their local communities.

The way in which I would go about resolving this issue could make it into a possible positive. Going along with the "City of 100 Monument Circles" idea, zoning power, local street treatment, local parks management, and other small locally-oriented elements of municipal policy would be devolved to local, elected, but volunteer Neighborhood councils. These elected councils would then select a City-County Councilman to represent their Neighborhood interest. City-County Councilmen would receive a non-career level of compensation strictly for attendance. This ensures that they a) Are still engaged in their Community; b) Will represent their community's interest; and c) Will actually be present at Council meetings. This method is hashed out of methods used in the Constitution of the United States of America, and also the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire. I believe the latter will work because at 1.7 Million people, Indianapolis will be of a similar size population wise to New Hampshire.

The second critique of consolidation is that it will make way simply for outlying communities tax burdens to be raised to cover the debts of the central city. It is imaginable that the burden will be raised somewhat. But the greater question is this, what have those communities gotten for virtually free for so long? The City has invested millions and millions of dollars in infrastructure to allow for commuters to come into Indianapolis to make a living. But this almost never gets done until it has to because the funding devices in place do not capture the needed revenue from outside Marion County to fund these projects. The result of the procrastination? Higher cost infrastructure that usually comes at a lower quality. It is my hope that innovative funding mechanisms will be experimented with in a New Indianapolis, and these will incite a fevered boom for the City and put downward pressure on per capita taxation.

There is simply too many other facets of this to cover, and I will try to spend some time on small subsets of policy related to this topic in posts in the future, but this post has grown quite long. Join the discussion in the comments section below and let me know what you think of this idea and what might be the fallout if it were to seriously come to pass, as well as any other solutions you can create to apparent issues with consolidation.

A proposal - You Supply the Means

2009-07-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

At the turn of the century, Clarian Health Partners went about a very unique and ambitious undertaking - building the first privately-operated public rail system that runs over public right-of-way. Called the People Mover, it's outward purpose was to create a convenient means for doctors, patients, and visitors to move effortlessly from Methodist on 16th St. to the rest of Clarian/IU's campus near IUPUI. But they made a curious move, they allowed the general public to use the system, free of charge. They also asked for no public assistance in building this system. I believe this project was a watershed moment for our City for a few reasons:

It showed that leaders in the City were capable of innovation
It showed that the public does not NEED government intervention to provide alternative transportation services
It showed that we can move quickly to embrace the option that best suits the needs of downtown transit users.

This makes me wonder, could a larger system be built downtown from private funds and operated for a small fare and be as successful? Or even more? And the larger question, what form would this system take, for-profit or not?

Why would a not-for-profit system come about? The same reason the Clarian system was built, it directly served the needs of those footing the bill. The system that I propose is 10.5 Miles of new track, which I believe would cost $90 Million dollars. Debt service would be roughly $18 Million a year I believe, which is really untenable. But I believe there is a number of users in Downtown Indy that could raise the money to create the system and pay for it upfront. This would save an enormous amount of cash.

Of course, there could be a case made for a private system operating for profit, but I might have to be convinced of this working without having lines that service the areas outside of Center Township, which of course increases the cost tremendously. I would love to see this.

So, below I will give a tentative route structure for the system, and you tell me in the comments, how this could happen without ANY transfer of money from the City, State, or Federal Governments. Also, feel free to discuss if you believe this coming to fruition would even be a boon for Downtown at all, or to bash my route structure. As feedback starts rolling in, I'll present more complete thoughts on how the system would operate with incredibly low operating costs.

2009-06-06T12:24:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, this is just a test of mobile blogging. I think this feature may allow me to publish a lot more content on this blog. Look forward to more!

Upcoming projects

2009-04-16T04:23:00.000-07:00

While I have a few moments to spare, I wanted to detail to anyone who still bothers to check this site out the projects that I hope to coordinate and host through The INDYpendent. I have realized that I have not the time or resources to complete many of my ambitious projects by myself. I hope to use collaborative technologies such as Facebook, YouTube, Google Docs, Google Earth, SketchUp, and others to allow the development community as a whole to lay the framework to guide private advocacy groups in accomplishing many objectives that I believe are very much worth the effort.

Senate Street Revamp Proposal
This first project is something that I myself have been trying to work on for the better part of a year now. No excuses, but I have not made nearly as much progress as I had hoped. I am looking for individuals who are interested in spending a small amount of time out of their week acquiring a little info. I'll beak down this important stretch of Senate - from Michgan to 11th St - into blocks and ask each person to provide the following for the lots on their respective block:

-Lot Size(Sq. ft. and frontage if available)
-Lot owner
-Current use/zone
-History of lot use(if available) and age of current structure
-Pictures
-Description of urban profile
-Description of architecture

This information will be compiled and presented as a post on The INDYpendent day by day. As this information is published, I will take feedback from the comments and the contributors and develop an "Opportunity Plan" for the local community association and other private development advocacy groups that operate in the area. I will also try my best to contact Realtors in the area and get their opinion on the potential for the area as a whole, as well as select parcels. I will maintain relevant documents for public contribution on Google Docs, and will post picture submissions to my personal Flickr account. As a last step, I may work with interested individuals to produce a PDF and video presentation for distribution, and in the case of the latter, sharing with the general public.

The format above is very similar to the format that I hope to use for all later projects. Public contributors will collaborate through online tools and help with valuable research and "leg work", while I will assemble, edit, and publish the body of work. All contributors will have their work credited in detail.

City-Owned Center Township Parcel Liquidation Advocacy Project
This project will echo that of the above in form, but will serve a much different purpose. Actually, the purpose is three fold: To inform taxpayers about the sheer amount of land that the City and State own in the heart of the City Center; To inform policy makers to the possible financial return on liquidating these real assets; And to advocate for said liquidation of all appropriate parcels within the City Center.

Contributors will be responsible for tackling a quadrant of the city and identifying the properties that are State and City owned but not currently developed, or well underdeveloped with an older, poorly performing asset. They will provide largely the same information as in the Senate project, if applicable. True urban parks, not green fields, will not be included unless they are obviously of a transient mature.

After the presentation of this data, which will happen one quadrant per day, I will attempt to use Realtor and internet resources to ascertain the approxiamate windfall to the governments and attempt to gauge the development potential of each parcel and guesstimate the long term effect on tax coffers of the projects I will publish this in a series of posts, and culminate the project with a PDF presentation of the findings, and as before, seek help in producing a video presentation to present to policy makers and the general public.

Indianapolis Alumni Network Project
This project is similar in structure to the above projects, but contributors will ideally be ex-pats themselves, or recently returned "boomerangers" from another City. Contribution will be taken on a as needed basis to study topic areas related to building a successful Alumni Network. Other contributions in the form of being lead points in other cities for the Network will also eventually be needed as the Network's strategy is ironed out.

For the initial part of the project, we must first look at what links are most likely to create a lasting impact on ex-pats. At the same time, we will look at successful Alumni networks of all sorts and see what model is best emulated by an Urban Alumni Network. When a strategy is in place, I will coordinate and attempt to raise funds for a marketing campaign as well as research that can help us find the sort of people that we are hoping to reach.

It is my sincere hope that this project gains a life of its own, and flourishes into an organization many other Tier 2 cities can be jealous of.

The Circle City Project
This is a project, which will be collaborative in the form listed above, that will start as a low-priority long-term undertaking. The basis for this project is an idea which I believe was started by The Urbanophile, Aaron Renn. In a post last year, Mr. Renn stated that a possible vision for success for Indianapolis is a model called something like "100 Monument Circles". I believe that this is a unique and powerful development strategy for the City of Indianapolis, and one that I think our City is particularly well suited for. But I believe that fleshing out that concept is selling ourselves short.

I believe that now is the time for Indianapolis to have its Burnham Plan. We have an opportunity to actively involve the entire private sector of our economy to craft a plan and brand strategy for our city for the next 100 years. This is a great chance for us to look at alternative means of doing all sorts of things, from local revenue collection, to revamping or replacing the single-use zoning regime, to decentralizing control of community schools. It would also allow us to set a bar for design in the city, as well as find ways that the private sector and general public can act voluntarily to improve public spaces and the "small details" of the urban experience.

Contributors will need to be many and of various talents, and would be given large swaths of time to finish research. Our initial stage will be a thorough planning of all things that would need to be included in the plan, followed by a information gathering stage where summaries of various similar plans throughout US history would be compiled and published. Then teams of contributors would begin work on developing various areas of the plan, while I worked on raising funds and hoping to attract mainstream attention(as well hopefully pro bono talent) to the undertaking.

After several months of this sort of work - with me posting the occassional progress reports and sharing all research with the general public through Google Docs - We would begin working to place the pieces together into a comprehensive plan with high quality renderings and artwork, as well as maps, charts, projections, and more. I would then host and distribute a copy of it online and, funds permitting, publish a printed copy for distribution to business and community leaders throughout the city.

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In conclusion, I hope that I have imparted the fact that I really am committed to making this not just a personal spot for me to bloviate about the topics of the day, but a place where the interested public can come to participate in something that very well may make a positive change to our city and region. Feel free to contact me at anytime with question, suggestions, or with a request to be a contributor to one or several of these projects.

Thank you for patronizing The INDYpendent.

A New Beginning for me, A New Beginning for The INDYpendent

2009-01-12T19:10:00.001-08:00

So, just like that, my personal battle is over. I have spent the past 6 months trying my hardest to reconcile my marriage and move forward, but in the end, there was no way for it turn out than like this. The two of us have decided that an amicable divorce is the best thing for both of us - two people who still love each other very much - and as such I've chosen to relocate back to Indianapolis. This city is home, and being here and going through what I have recently has done a lot to humble me and center me.

It is my hope that those same experiences will help center this blog, and allow me to exert exponentially more effort to make this the first blog you check for your Indy development/urban affairs fix. I have went back to April of last year and read the initial post stating the intent of this blog, and I had to deal with the disappointment of how far I had fallen short of my goals. I now have a singular purpose, to make this blog the absolute BEST in the Indy Development arena. And I hope that by pouring my heart into improving this blog, I will in turn be improving myself and the community.

For those who have stood by me and supported my writing, thank you. I hope I can pay back your loyalty and support with a product that you come to cherish. Tonight I will work to complete my first true AOO, the dreaded Senate Ave. project that I have procrastinated on for almost a year although I already all of the pictures I need. Look for it to be posted in the next 24 to 48 hours. Fellow Indy bloggers, I appreciate any link love you would like to give, and please know that it will be returned. And for all you readers, if you like what you read in the coming month, please tell people you know that are passionate about local governance, development, and the future of our great city.

Reprint: Comments on Urbanophile's review of "Retrofitting Suburbia"

2009-01-12T18:16:00.001-08:00

I have not read this book, and currently don't have the cash laying around to buy it. But I have to say that in this post you show a lot of what I enjoy about this blog.

When academic schools of thought come to the forefront in the past century or more, we have had a serious problem. The people who leave academia enthralled with (or maybe even indoctrinated with) said school of thought, many enter the political arena. Current political economy being what it is and has been since roughly the first World War, these people have been able to enact laws and policies that favor the outcomes they desire. That is why I believe that in terms of development and local public goods, we have transitioned into a soft command economy.

Towns and Cities that matured in the 1800's or before that often had much the same sort of built environment - most of that we would refer to as urban. This is a time when turnpike companies built inter-city and inter-state roads and local streets were built and maintained by the neighborhoods in which they existed. High quality transportation amenities greatly enhanced the value of property, and where such amenities were of a low quality, businesses and residents had incentives to live in a closer proximity to each other.

In short, people's abstract "ideal" preferences for their city was held greatly in check by the realities of economics and common sense. A number of changes in the political landscape caused a large shift here.

As you have stated many times, it was through the "vision" of politicians to bring their idealized forms to reality. Eisenhower wanted interstates bridging all major cities, Roosevelt wanted local governments to be able to plan communities from the top down. Later Presidents wanted to be able "re-develop" large swaths of towns and cities - and to provide transportation infrastructure at little to no direct cost to transportation users. After World War II, VA and FHA loans favored the type of development that the politicians of the moment saw as their "ideal" - the single family detached home. The large amount of homes bought with these loans by soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines after the war caused a landslide of tract home subdivisions.

Of course, many say that technology changed the game. But remember this, once politicians had the ability and authority to build roads, industries that benefited from road building and "free" infrastructure prospered. Do you think if not for zoning ordinances(large lot size, deep setbacks, commercial/residential seperation), IHS, Urban Renewal, FHA, VA, and a myriad of other governmental programs that the built environment of today would not much more mirror that of the cities of the 1800's? Do you think this would really be the "nation of the automobile"? Maybe, maybe not.

What is troubling to me is that we seem to want to go down a similar path to revert to an urban pattern of development. This is not just or fair. If there is someone who wants to live on a 1 acre lot should be able to - but he should bear the costs for infrastructure directly. By breaking down governmental policies that subsidize any particular development pattern, the pattern that makes the most sense for the actual residents of the city would prevail. And it would be fluid - though not painless - unlike the current glacial change we see today. Many here will have contentions with this - but the free market(properly understood and implemented) is the best solution - for the long and short term - to our current woes in suburbia.

Some policies that may help
- Turning zoning power over to local NAs with more direct and accountable leadership, not to mention the ability to "sell" zoning variances that are in the best interest of the neighborhood. Also, allowing local public goods to be controlled by these NAs.
- Turning the IHS over to the states for them to lease to private operators that would either charge tolls or use some other fare mechanism to have cost born directly by IHS users. The gas tax could be repealed, favoring those who choose to drive on locally maintained roads and therefore those who chose to live in more dense neighborhoods.
- Removing restrictions on VA and FHA loans that give unfair disadvantages to ownership of condos and co-operative property - or do away with the loan guarantees period.
- Allow utilities to adjust their charges to customers that choose to live in lower density, lower ROI areas.
- End the tax preferences for freehold property, and allow leasehold properties to compete on a level playing field.

Not all of these are bulletproof, and many might take exception to some of them. But I could guarantee that once the costs are born and the decisions are made locally - or individually - you would see that the real preference for most people would be an urban lifestyle. And we would also see areas come to life as people with similar aesthetic preferences would come together into communities and we would see truly diverse neighborhoods and an increased sense of neighborhood and civic pride.

Sorry for the length.

Hey look, a new post

2008-08-10T19:06:00.000-07:00

I have to apologize to anyone who read this site before the beginning of June. I have been just about as unproductive on this blog as possible. This is because my freelance web design business kind of blew up, and I was not expecting it. But anyway I figured I'd stop in today and at least tell you what I have been doing related to this blog.

The biggest thing that I have been doing is reading. Most of the stuff that I have been reading is on-line, including many of the insightful blogs you'll see to the right, especially The Urbanophile. But I have to take a minute to talk about the one book I've been weaving through in fits and spurts through the last few weeks. The title of the book is The Voluntary City, it comes from the Independent Institute(printed and distributed by University of Michigan Press). It was compiled by David T. Beito, Peter Gordon, and Alexander Tabarrok, and it includes several noteworthy contributors such as Donald J. Boudreaux, Randall G. Holcombe, Paul Johnson, and Robert H. Nelson.

The premise behind the book, which is actually a collection of essays, is how prior to the mid 1800's various cultural institutions, operating on a voluntary basis provided civic services and public goods in efficient and responsive ways. The goal here is to give historical examples of how we can hand over key aspects of local government back to civil society, and how it might become more civil in the process; while also showing the evidence that these solutions did indeed work, and work much better than has been admitted by modern scholars(and even various commentators at the time). The topics are varied, but I'd like to key in on some that are important and highlight the most novel concepts.

Contract Based Planning
They describe this as "laissez-faire" or "entrepreneurial" planning. They use the examples such as the development of the many London estates during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Chicago's Central Manufacturing District, the "Private Places" of St. Louis, and modern Home Owner's Associations.

In the relevant essays they speak about the power of covenants(restrictive and not), developer interest, and community ownership(in the literal sense, not that of "we all own the government") of local public goods. They not that developers that have the ability and incentives to plan long-range consistently do, providing for public goods and services in ways that government can not and should not.

Neighborhood and condo associations are numerous nowadays and have lead to most new suburban developments having high-quality infrastructure and stable-to-rising home values. When membership and payment of dues to such associations are taken on through a voluntary contract(by purchasing the home), the free-rider problem is largely solved and the small and dynamic structure of such associations allow for problems to be fixed quickly and for the neighborhood to react to changing conditions.

In the book, one of the books contributors goes as far as saying that the best way forward to increase the quality and quantity of public services would be to privatize infrastructure and planning to the neighborhoods through voluntary agreements while allowing for the cities to get much current and future debt off of the books. A tax reduction would take place for those properties that joined such an association, and the city departments would be pared down. Private companies would be free to purchase unneeded equipment and hire scuttled employees to compete for business from the various associations. Areas where the residents are in near unanimous agreement about needed changes could get the funding almost immediately and get the project done. The "planning" would also be amendable. In the context of local government, zoning can not be bought, and if the planning officials are not in agreement about a proposal, it will not get done - despite the effects it may have. Just the prospect of terms being arrangeable should impact artificial spikes in land values due to constriction of supply.

I think this is something that would work well in Indianapolis' developed areas. But I will cover this in another post.

"The Hotel Model"
Not all of the contributors are high on Associations though. Spencer Heath MacCallum argues that long-term land lease versus fee simple ownership maybe more useful in solving future problems. In the essay he makes some great points, noting how tyrannical some HOA's can be and how CID(common interest developments) may have achieved predominance in development more due to government favor in terms of loan guarantees.

MacCallum proposes that developments be built on the "hotel model", where a tenant leases a space within, and also expects various services to be provided as part of the cost of the lease. Developments of this sort abound in the commercial realm, but are relatively absent from the residential(minus apartment complexes). He focuses on the land lease, where the land would be leased for term like 99 years. The tenants could then build to suit their needs, and the developer would maintain the common areas and provide for services and other public goods. Something along the lines of the current industrial park setup(like IntechPark in Plainfield).

There is a lot to be said for this model, but leasehold tenancy is looked down upon in contemporary America, especially for people who want "their own home"(never minding the fact that even with no mortgage, the local government is first leinholder in case of default on tax payment). I believe the best way to foster such developments is to allow developers a tax break for building these developments and providing for the attendant public goods. These savings could then be passed along to tenants, and result in a near cost-neutral option for those who want to live such communities. The benefits could be more responsive service and much higher quality infrastructure within the development.

This could be the mold for redeveloping old industrial sites(like the old Olin Brass plant) in or near the city's core. Whether strictly residential(townhouses let's say) or a mix of uses(MUD), these developments could turn old large parcels of land - that are already outside of the normal grid - and turn them into veritable cash cows for the government. All the city would have to provide for is education and city-level infrastructure(policing and fire protection ideally being handled more or less by the developer).

Other topics, which I could go on for hours about, include the actual history of such things as the private provisioning of Police; private education before the Education Act of 1870(in England) and in 19th Century America, and modern day India; Medical care through mutual association, fraternal orders, societies, and their ability to provide mutual aid, insurance, unemployment, and career assistance; and how markets have challenges while it is governments that truly have failures.

If you have read my work here, or in the comments of other blogs, or on SSC, you know that I am pro-voluntary. I understand that the current system of compulsory taxation, regulation, and control is well entrenched in Indianapolis and throughout the nation, but I believe that it is very important when someone can write a book detailing exactly how we can transition back to a true "civil society" where actions that benefit the many are provided on a voluntary basis through cooperation and goodwill - not coercion. Competition is actually the greatest form of cooperation, and truly fosters goodwill. Men are friends when they know they have a chance to succeed to the extent of their talents, they are enemies when they are fighting for possession of the regulated piece-of-pie.

The Voluntary City does an excellent job of not only providing the means, but for providing the historical precedent and record(based on the facts, not accounts of ideologically-biased commentators). I recommend reading it to any and all interested in development or local politics.

Lazy Bloggers Like Me

2008-06-07T18:21:00.001-07:00

I would like to apologize to everyone who had started to frequent the INDYpendent. Some might like to think that I am lazy or that I do not care about this blog. Both are quite untrue, as I care deeply about the original mission of the INDYpendent, and I tend to think of myself as hard-working. But I have had a lot of personal circumstances in my life that have diverted my attentions away full time from development in Indy. I have tried my best to poke my nose in to the various blogs, news sites, and forums around the interwebs to keep up on the subject matter, and I have been poring over studies, reports, and technical information so that I can post some really in-depth posts. But this is during my free-time, which since I am in the process of transitioning between to disparate career fields while working in both at the same time, is very hard to come by.

But since you are reading this now, probably on a RSS feed, I thought I would give you a little preview of what I will put out in the near future:

My full series on the status of Senate Ave. as requested by corrND.
A look into the fantasy and reality of Indy transit options in the future.
Ways to improve density and fairly distribute costs for infrastructure to those who incur them.
A call to arms to develop/take advantage of Indy's few downtown assets: The Canal, The White River and Fall Creek.
A look at market versus command options to increase urbanity and livability in downtown Indy as well as the entire city.

So please keep a lookout for these posts, and I hope to be interacting with you, my readers(however few you may be at the moment), very soon.

Editorial: My reply to The Urbanophile's "Urban Aphorisms" Pecha Kucha presentation

2008-05-06T18:49:00.000-07:00

First off, I'd like to ask a question to the Urbanophile: Are most of these aphorisms of your own creation? Not degrading them, I just haven't heard many of them though I agree with a good number. Below I am just going frame by frame and show where my opinion differs with yours and where I agree with your viewpoint. I enjoyed reading this presentation, available by clicking here or clicking on the Urbanophile link on the side.

The only real general issue I could take with this presentation is that you address these issues like some omniscient master will come solve them, or even a wise panel of planners. I think it is important to note that the improvement of a city comes from individual citizens making a decision that they want to live in a first-class urban area. Much of the problem is that most people don't care.

To follow along, just open a window or tab with the presentation in one window, each paragraph here will coincide with a slide in the presentation.

For instance, when the Arby's/Subway deal went in, my mom, who works at the downtown Post Office, said "I love that I can walk to someplace besides White Castle for lunch now." While she thought it was odd to have full on parking lots so close to "downtown downtown" as she says, she thought that it was a worthy and positive development because it increased her convenience and choice. She, and most other residents, don't see what could have been - like a mixed-use development with said restaurants on the street level or just a street-fronting building that prefers the foot traffic to people driving the .5 mile to get there from their downtown workplace.

(As a side note, while me and my family(my wife and parents) love to frequent small, new restaurants and businesses, we are like most people in America in that we actual like many chain restaurants. The attempts by pro-development types to disparage that personal choice is read as elitism and causes the typical resident to label pro-development types as "yuppies".)

Moving on to your point about cities growing from their strengths, I take issue with some points of your stance. First, your statement that it is neither possible nor desirable to recreate the "19th century urban form." What is it exactly that makes these cities so endlessly attractive, despite the increasingly high cost of level in these cities? i believe that is because that urban form you refer to as being impossible to recreate is the one that is best suited for human habitation in the modern economy(by modern, meaning post-industrial revolution). This is due in large part to the large part that specialization plays in free market economies creates larger benefits the more people are near to each other. The more people that have easy and convenient access to your product, the more likely a market for your specific skill or product will exist.

I agree with you about Indianapolis being a world-class version of itself, if you mean that Indianapolis should find its strengths and positives and grow around that instead of pandering to nationwide trends. But for Indianapolis to ignore truly beneficial changes taking place across the country just because it is different than how it's been done in Indianapolis in the past.

I agree with the point about people fully. But jobs don't really follow anyone, companies do. And companies do business and place headquarters in states and municipalities where there are tax or regulatory benefits as well as infrastructure and workforce advantages. Despite a not very flashy infrastructure and only slightly above average workforce characteristics, New Hampshire has been able to grow comfortably, retain jobs, maintain a very high quality of life, and compete successfully for New Economy jobs by having a low tax and regulatory burden. It might be a model Indiana and its capitol might want to take a glance at.

I do believe that a city, with the approval of its stakeholders(taxpayers) should look to get the most of its money by purchasing distinctive signage, lighting, etc. The cost should be slight over the lights they replace, as many highway scaled lights could be replaced with considerably less expensive street-scaled and human-scaled lighting. It is appropriate that city officials get the most out of the taxpayers money, and giving infrastructure that is iconic could be characterized as such.

The idea that people with ambition look for a place that matches their ambition is well grounded. You see this in the motivated young girl who moves to New York where all the movers and shakers are. I do not believe that has anything to do with some sort of civic mission. I believe it has more to do with reputation, opportunity, and values. For some people, the weather is a deal breaker or maker. For some, they want to live in a city affiliated with certain political views. But most want to live in a city where they feel they have a chance to succeed and enjoy life. Creating some kind of identity apart from the city's actual character is very artificial and I believe turns off the most ambitious and talented people.

While I don't understand if you are taking a swipe at "trickle down economics" or not, I at least agree that gentrification is not the only process through which a city can grow. But then again it almost is. Any new development either involves greenfield building and the related infrastructure improvements, or replacing existing development. This increases the cost of the project over what had existed. The newer project will attract more buyers to the market, therefore increasing values, rents, and prices in the area(i.e., gentrification). Of course, this doesn't mean that developers couldn't and shouldn't aim projects at mid and low income residents. By all means they should, and they may succeed. But let us not degrade the positive effects that the process of gentrification has on the total built environment and civil society. It is through such high-value development that much future housing and job opportunities for lower income people will come in the future, to say nothing of the fact that the proportionally higher tax revenues from these developments allow infrastructure that the lower income people use but can not afford to build to be built. Also, many of the high-income people are high productivity individuals who are capable and usually inclined to create jobs, reinvest in the community, and patronize the services and goods produced by lower-income peoples.

I do believe that the suburbs can be quite an asset to the central city, but in quite a different way than you explain. It is sort of the "republic effect" where a large number of geographically related governmental bodies are able to manipulate small details of legislation, regulation, and taxation to create very different communities. This allows best practices to show their appeal, and to grow to other communities in the metropolitan area. In the interim, it allows companies that would thrive in a certain environment to grow in the smaller community, allowing the metro area to capture said company in the local economy where in a monolithic city, it may have lost the company to a city not directly connected to our economy.

We can only bring Indiana with us if the other communities and the individuals within them want to follow our path. The City of Indianapolis and its residents, as well as residents of the rest of our metro area, must be leaders looking to innovate in terms not only of commerce, but also governance.

I agree, or course with the small disclaimers I made above on the relevant points. This is our time, but we must not let the opportunity to not only lead our metro area, our state, or our region, but the whole nation. It is through such innovation and ambition that Indianapolis will make its way to a World-Class city.

Editorial: I Hate Fake

2008-04-30T15:02:00.000-07:00

This post is completely spontaneous. I get an RSS feed from the Star that updates every hour, and I just got sent a story about the new Hamilton Town Center. In the story, which you can read here, Carol Ann Schweikert(president of the Noblesville Preservation Alliance) take us on a architectural tour of a plethora of styles from the mid 1800's to the early 1900's. She talks up second floor windows for residences, cornices, pilasters, arched windows, molding, pediment, and courthouse-style towers. There is only one problem: This development was not built 150-100 years ago. It actually isn't even completed yet. Oh, and a few more: There are no residences behind those second-floor windows; The cornices, pilasters, molding, etc. are all none structural and probably made of a modern material coated in a modern finish to replicate a "rustic" Italian feel; And the tower is not for a courthouse, and in fact serves no purpose.

THIS is not preservation. This is not a museum, and these are not historic structures saved for future generations. These are not even a school project to construct realistic replicas of older styles of architecture for student learning. These are shops built for a mall, set to open on Friday, May 2nd, 2008. My question to my readers is this: What is the point?

I have for a long time hated fake. This goes from people who smile in your face and stab you in your back to convenience stores that look like banks and skyscrapers that look like Greek temples. Or steel-built houses that look like a 17th century Spanish Villa. Or cars that have spoilers or hood scoops, but couldn't possibly use them to any advantage. Or a cabinet made of MDF, but looks like cherry or oak. You get the point, so don't let me rant.

Why can't a skyscraper be a skyscraper, or mid-rise be mid-rise? Why can't a mall shop be a mall shop? Why can't a 21st century building look like one? Why do we use antiquated architectural styles when it requires holding back our knowledge of construction and engineering? Or making things the right way, and then adding all sorts of silly adornments that contribute not to the structural properties of the building, or hold any innate artistic quality themselves? Do we paint landscapes on a sculpture? Or do we take a sculpture and tape it onto a painting?

When we take a pen and put a huge feather plume on the back, it is laughed at and recognized as a gag. When we put a faux palister on a mall shop, it's called architecture or "stately".

I believe the view of the world that allows this to happen corrupts the modern architecture of urbanity. New Urbanism clamors for harmony in the built environment, and holding on to architectural precedent. I believe this is flawed, and causes certain expectations in development that balloon the cost of building. Should a building be beautiful? Yes. Should it have character? Yes. But character is a trait of an individual entity, and a stolen character is not possessed by the one who steals. A building's character is determined by how its form flows from its function, and how it stays true to its vision. That's why much of Indianapolis' architecture is flawed and drab. But things may be looking up. While the examples are far from ideal, new developments are cropping up downtown that are seeming to embrace the times in which we live. We have a true chance to establish our own, genuine school of architecture that may speak not only of our city, but our age.

Many may not agree with my point of view, but I welcome your arguments and discussions in the comments section. My short study of architecture in an academic setting disturbed me deeply, as I saw the philosophy of fake architecture deeply rooted in the minds of the faculty. So I do yearn to at least glimpse an understanding at why these feelings are so widespread. I would also of course appreciate a "cheery-o" from someone, as well as pictures posted of what you view as exceptional architecture. I would start with Wright's Fallingwater, and follow it up with the majority of the work of John Lautner(a student of Wright's), who made beautiful architecture that was true to the spirit of the buildings and did not pander to classicist formalities.

Editorial: Restoring Downtown, Part I: Fixing IPS

2008-04-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

It's been years since some national commentator could mention Indianapolis Public Schools and the people of this city could feel proud. For longer than my short 26 years of life, IPS had been a disgrace to the city and has further fueled the flames of urban flight. Aging infrastructure, failing test scores, low graduation rates, corruption, and bureaucracy are the symptoms, but what are their causes? In this editorial, I will take look at the problems with the legacy IPS system, and a way forward to improve the schools that serve the central city. I will also examine the impact that
a reversal of fortunes in IPS could have on development downtown, urbanity, and increased investment in infrastructure and institutions that will help Indiana move foward in the future.

A Troubled Past, An Uncertain Future
Up until the 1960's, IPS had achieved a respectable level of academic success. Center Township still was the true center of the city and metropolitan area. IPS had over 100,000 students and nearly 200 schools. The students were doing well. The city and its schools looked poised for long-term growth and sustained prosperity. But already, it was clear that some things were just not right. Their was seen to be a huge division based on race, and many members of the school board were thought to be engaging in segregation, even after this was ruled unconstitutional. This coupled with destructive federal programs such as the International Highway System, the Federal Housing Administration, public housing, and urban renewal all lead to a specific reaction: flight.

Whites, that had been used to having schools segregated from blacks, were now being shuffled around and put into schools and situations that they were uncomfortable with. There was quite a bit of bigotry involved, on both sides, and it looked to be an untenable situation. With the central city being used as a testbed for the aforementioned federal and local governmental projects, and with the attendant poverty, devaluation, uncertainty, and destitution coming forth, whites moved in droves to the outer townships and outside of the county. In effect, many programs put forth on a national and local level subsidized white families attempts to flee a tenuous racial situation. A chance for a meeting of the minds and true understanding and growth were thrown out the window in return for the usual politic promises of "equality" and "opportunity".

And with the demise of the center city, came the demise of the city's public schools. The school boards were realigned to reflect the constituency, which was predominantly black now. These new types of leaders knew that their race would allow them to hold onto positions of power that they may or may not have qualified for, and they followed the policy through its logical conclusion. They abused their power, engaged in practices that would normally result in a firestorm of public anger and retribution. But none was to be found. There was no meaningful opposition, especially not in city leadership. Just an empty promise of change at each election. From 1971 on, IPS has lost 70,000 students and closed over 100 schools. Test scores for students in IPS schools are consistently the lowest in the state and amongst the lowest in the nation.

In the 90's and early 2000's, people started to say that enough was enough, and things started to change. First came "select schools" which allowed students to choose their school within the IPS system. Then came a number of reforms, alliances, changes, and more reforms. These led to mixed results. In 2005, Superintendent Pat Pritchett retired and handed the reigns to then-Washington Township Superintendent Dr. Eugene White. Dr. White has lead the system on a plan of, of course, reform. He set up charters and magnets. He instituted a school uniform policy. Saw a plan to renovate IPS facilities to its completion. And while the academic results have taken a slight up tick, there are still several worse problems.

At the beginning of the year, it came to light that IPS's financial situation is and has been horrendous. School staff using student fees for teacher dinners, locker deposits slipping through various cracks while locker remain unrepaired. Large, unaccounted uses of petty cash and expense accounts. And much more. An audit also recently showed that the district, which has been hamstring by a lack of teaching talent, has not processed 10,000 job applications that are just sitting in their computer-based system. The transportation department is rogue menace, repairing buses on their own schedule(despite manufacturer's warnings), a lack of financial transparency, and wasteful capital expenses. This includes buses large enough to hold over 30 to 40 more students than will ever be on the bus, despite the fact that smaller buses are available and were offered to the district. This is a mess, and it will take bold steps to fix this system, and therefore, return value to the city center.

Our Chance to Innovate in Education
IPS has one thing going for it, and that is its charter school program. The mayor loves it, the governor loves it, the students love it, the parents love it. The only player that seems not to love it is the media, which is apparently upset that a privately managed educational program is getting results. There are many cities in the Midwest that are trying anything and everything to tackle the inner city school program. The programs that get the most media attention are old and worn, such as "whole child" learning. But Indianapolis has experience in trying something new in education, and that idea should be taken the next step.

My solution is what many may call radical, and many in the dev-blog community might call nutty. I'm ready for it, but please come with facts and not ad hominem if you want to attack this plan. Since my jaded days at Warren Central High School, I have been studying education reform, and this is the best concept I can concoct given our city's circumstances.

Step 1: Devolve the management of the schools
Deconstruct the school system bureaucracy and move the management of individual schools to private organizations. This would involve allowing these organizations to bid to manage one or more schools for a set period of time. The organization would receive payment for enrolled student-hours at the end of each semester, and would receive financial incentives for improvements, and the possible annulment of the contract for backsteps. Allow some schools to charge an added tuition for magnet services. The organization could either lease the building from the city, or purchase it through private financing. The organizations would be free to expand their operations as they see fit, and would set their own curriculum and hiring practices. The obvious exception would be where practices would fall outside of state and federal law.

The organizations could contract with the system to leverage the same economies of scale for food service, paper products, and office supplies as IPS currently receives.

Step 2: Free the students of their "zones"
Follow through on the promise of "Select Schools" and let the money follow the student. Credits would transfer between the schools, and a child could be free to attend a school wherever his/her needs were met, irregardless of geography. This would give the management of the schools an incentive to provide the best product to their students, and hold teachers accountable.

Step 3: Make Academics first, Athletics a non-government funded second
Athletics can be very important, and many alumni or local sponsors are happy to help fund it. A combination of volunteers, donations, fundraising, and fees could provide the rest of the needed money. Academics are what Indianapolis students attend school for, and that is what the government should be paying for. Not stadiums and boys and girls teams in every sport imaginable.

Step 4: Let IndyGo or private contractors provide transportation
IndyGo recently said that it could save IPS over 60% on the transportation of its students over the system's own rogue transportation department. And private contractors often run set routes at even lower costs(as evidenced by contractors operating IndyGo's two express lines, and turning a profit).

Step 5: Let kids stay home or attend recognized programs in the city
This would be the last option for parents sick of failing schools. It allows communities within the city to develop their own programs for kids in their neighborhood as well. As with the contracted schools, funding would be contingent on academic success and financial transparency. Again, the money would follow the student - even if schooled at home. But if a child fails academic standards, or the parent is found guilty of any non-traffic related crime, the money is taken back and the child will have to attend a traditional school(not that I like the police power being used here, but state law says that a child must attend a school at a certain age range).

The Future
So what happens, at least in my view? The best schools thrive, the mediocre schools improve, and the truly flawed schools are acquired by the flourishing organizations. Home schooling and community schools help those that need it. But best of all, educational innovation will be allowed to happen for the first time in a long time. That will make the City of Indianapolis a hot spot for young families that are looking for a school that can give their child a real education.

Indianapolis would probably get national attention, and would return to healthy population and economic growth. As many of these young families are headed by young professionals, many companies would come calling on the city for their next facility or new headquarters. Communities with young families are traditional hot beds of entrepreneurship and new capital, as young people with families look for new opportunities to improve their families situation, and save and invest towards their families future. Especially the types that move to a new city for their kid's education. It would also more than likely lead to a exurban collapse as couples that moved recently to areas like Avon, Greenwood, and Carmel might be attracted to shorter commute times, differentiated educational opportunities, and possibly higher quality of life near downtown.

And of course, what does this mean for downtown development? More than likely a large amount of infill development, bolstering of city tax rolls, increase in street life and night life, and increased attraction of entertainment options as well as new job opportunities for residents. While this would not necessarily be a panacea for the city center's problems, it would definitely be one step towards Restoring Downtown.

Please post your opinions in the comments section, and keep in mind that this is part one in a several part series that will look opportunities for the City of Indianapolis, as well as the investors, developers, and entrepreneurs within it, to grow downtown into a thriving, urban community.

Unfiled: My brain doesn't work right sometimes...

2008-04-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

Not to be self-deprecating, but sometimes my brain is in a different world. Apparently the Air Force and military jargon has high-jacked all of the acronyms in my mind. I have mistakenly been referring to "Areas of Opportunity" as "AOR" acronymally(that's probably not a real word, but hey, I supposedly write this in my PJs, so who cares?). Of course, the proper acronym would be just "AO", but my blue suiter days engrained the term "AOR" in my head pretty deep, so I guess I just need to purge it(AOR, for those not of a military bent, means Area of Responsibility. We military heads use it to describe the area covered in US Military operations during war or conflict). I apologize to anyone confused or mystified by my mistake. I'll try to update posts and labels to correct this.

News: West Merrill Tower Win Variance

2008-04-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

My time to browse the interwebs has been kind of short lately, with me going to a ton of interviews and working diligently on materials for my first AO post. But I just picked up that West Merrill Tower got the variance they needed to build. They did a slight redesign so that they did not have a need to vacate a nearby alley. So it looks like we will get a 24-story tower with first floor retail and integrated parking right inside Lucasville. I can't wait to see the final renderings of project(for those wondering, yes I do hope they found a way to better integrate the parking garage on the south facade).

UPDATE: I will have try my hardest to have the first AO post, on the 500-1100 block of North Senate Avenue, this weekend. I am preparing a large amount of materials for the project so it is taking more time than I thought necessary. Hopefully the end product(which will come in three or four parts) will be worth the effort on my end and wait on yours. Thanks again for reading.

Areas of Opportunity: What do you see?

2008-04-14T11:55:00.000-07:00

I have been studying the makeup of downtown Indianapolis for years, but unfortunately most of it has been from afar. First, I signed up and served in the United States Air Force, being stationed in various cities throughout the US(no OCONUS duty however). While serving, I married a fellow service member, and we both left the service in mid-to-late 2005. I was able to convince her to try out the Hoosier life for at least a year(she's a native Texan), but it didn't exactly work out well. Turns out that 50 is cold to a Texan, and anything under 30 is just wrong. Besides, she gets a free state education in Texas, so we moved down to the Lone Star State and are here until she finishes her degree. I know what you are thinking: Two posts, two anecdotes. Don't worry, I won't make it a habit, but I figure my readers should know some basic information about me.

The anecdotal information is actually useful here, though. I have memories, maps, Street View, webcams, and correspondence, but you all have everyday experiences dealing with city center dynamics and development. So while I could rattle off a hundred or so sites in the traditional downtown boundaries that have good prospects, I know that you, my reader, walk by these places everyday and deeply care about some more than others.

Therefore I am giving you the opportunity to help me decide the course AO will take at the outset. Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments section, and give me your reasons and any uses that you think might be practical/appropriate. Just remember that by downtown I mean the area bounded roughly by 16th Street to the north, I-70/I-65 to the east, I-70 to the south, and the White River to the west. So please stick to this area or sites adjacent to it. Some time down the road we will get into the old city Uptown areas, old suburbs, other annexed areas, as well as other cities in the region, right now and for the foreseeable future our focus is and will be the city center. So let me know.

Cheers!

Editorial: Consolidation

2008-04-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

Those of you who choose to read this blog on a regular basis may come to find that I have a certain distaste(and distrust) of government. My mom was apolitical and she raised me herself, so I wasn't raised this way. But I have always felt that way. Starting in High School, I came across a number of writers (mostly economists) who echoed in large part my sentiments on government. I've been working to promote an understanding of limited government amongst people around me for the past 10 years now.

I bring that story up because there is now a trend in government that has a possibility to reduce the amount of government we are subjected to, and hopefully along with it, the amount of taxation we are subjected to. Put an emphasis on the subject. This trend is one that we have known for 30 years in Indy, and that is consolidation. Our friend over at The Urbanophile has recently posted a well-written piece on the consequences of poorly written consolidation legislation. I plan to take a step through it and add my own thoughts.

The legislation that is discussed was passed a few years back and was intended to facilitate city-county mergers. The Unigov scenario made lawmakers realize that such mergers had to be made simpler, and possible without the use of special legislation pertaining to a certain municipality(Urbanophile tells us that the Indiana Supreme Court curtailed the General Assembly's ability to craft such legislation).

This sounds great for areas like Ft. Worth/Allen County. A consolidation of the city and county governments would allow a more equitable pricing of governmental services(those of both the legitimate and illegitimate variety) in the area. Typically in a county dominated population wise by a sizable city but area wise by rural areas the city population subsidizes utility services as well as civil amenities(parks, cultural institutions, sports teams, etc.) for rural residents who do not share fully in the costs due to being outside of the taxing limits, but within close physical proximity. What is also more than likely to happen is inefficient overlaps and redundancies in services(whether fire, police, courts, or utilities). These combine to create two problems, uneconomic decisions and governmental inefficiency in both revenue collection and budgeting. Consolidation can solve that.

But guess what? The lawmakers didn't really consider the consequences of the specific language in the bill. The bill states that two government entities may create a merger plan and then put it up to their respective communities for a vote. That's more or less it. So, for whatever reasons they wanted, two or more villages, towns, cities, etc. could merge as long as they were geographically contiguous. Of course, someone figured a way to make this work for the anti-growth forces. It was only a matter of time. From The Urbanophile:

Eleven townships and the municipalities therein have proposed a merger to form something called East Allen Communities. The vast majority of this territory is rural. However, the consolidation is structured such that the entire area will be considered incorporated. This means none of the territory can be annexed by Fort Wayne. Keeping Fort Wayne out and making sure the area cannot be subject to a city-county merger, is no doubt the sole intent of the merger.

I would have never seen it coming. Now what does this mean? That there is a vast swath of rural Indiana that will stay rural through the means of our (non-)friend, zoning. Now, I know, there are other reasons they may not want to be annexed. A higher tax rate is always a bad thing, but there is something to understand: those tax dollars are money that pay for services that you have been mooching from city residents for years. If a rural community is annexed and the tax rates go up, it has a great side-effect: people will bitch and moan to get the tax rates lowered. This will force the consolidation of services and the increased efficiency of local government. Which will overtime allow the city to raise and spend money a lot better, and allow services to be expanding in the areas where there is a real economic reason to. Over time, this should lead to a lean local government that can afford to lower the tax burden across all residents of the expanded municipal area, and better infrastructure and services to lure private investment(which also bolsters the tax base and can lead to real population growth).

After he discusses a similar situation in Zionsville, he talks about what he views as a better way. From the same article:

Flexible merger powers are a good thing, but they should not enable to rural areas to incorporate themselves in a way that would never be allowed under the current incorporation statute. Any territory which is not urbanized and will not be urbanized within a reasonable timeframe should not be allowed to be included inside a municipal boundary.

I happen to agree with this to an extent. But the problem with it is that "a reasonable timeframe" is one of those vague terms that town lawyers like to interpret however it benefits them. How about this? If two government units that have a vertical relationship in governmental hierarchy(village/town/city-->township--->county), as well as have an established relationship in the provision of services may craft a merger that reduces redundancies in services, improves the quality of service in the affected area, allows for overall cost reduction in the governments, and meets the approval of representative bodies of all involved parties. Such a merger would be enacted according to a timeline established in the merger plan. Of course, there would also need to be a clause that would call for any other communities in the affected geographic area to also approve of the plan.

I believe that such a plan would allow only the mergers that make economic sense from going through, and not allowing rural communities to band together solely to slow the pace of development and to stonewall paying for services and amenities they take advantage of. Please note that in the right circumstances, I am very up on the powers of consolidation. I view townships as an unnecessary layer of government in the age of the automobile and the internet. I know that Texas has no townships(I live there currently), and it seems like a competitive advantage. Services are much less dependent, though there is some level of redundancy in my county(Tarrant) since there are so many distinct communities of a decent size(Ft. Worth, Arlington, Bedford, Euless, Grapevine, Southlake) and a separate county government. Also, the Independent School Districts operate somewhat like townships in Marion County, as they are for school purposes alone(but they receive much of their funding from the State).

Which brings me to my last point, and one which I will leave largely to you all to discuss. What are possibilities in largely urban counties for consolidation in the realm of education? I think Indianapolis and Marion County could benefit greatly through a complete dissolution of the townships and consolidation of the schools. I believe that this, paired with money-follows-the-student and open-enrollment policies, could lead to a renaissance in our schools, especially those in the city center.

I am not done on the topic of consolidation, as I plan to opine more fully on the above topic of education more fully, as well as the feasibility of a Indy Metro consolidation. But for now, I would like to thank everyone who has read this, the first real post to The INDYpendent, and especially everyone who joins in the discussion and can bring more thinking minds to the blog. Cheers!

[Insert cliche about starting something new here]

2008-04-10T18:52:00.000-07:00

I would like to welcome everyone to the INDYpendent, which will serve as a development-focused review and editorial journal about the Indianapolis Metro area. Be forewarned, I am very stern in my beliefs, but realize that I always look forward to rational discussion of all topics.

The format will revolve generally around four types of posts: Recent News, Areas of Opportunity, Interviews, and Editorials. Topics will cover the gamut, as long as it pertains to development in Indianapolis. So anything from transit to taxes, layouts to legislature, concrete to crime levels, developers to ditches, uhh, I guess I can stop now. I'm sure you get the picture. Let's go over some of the article types so you get an idea of what to expect.

Recent News
These will be mostly blurbs, with a possibility of editors notes included in brackets. This is mostly to collect information about development-related news and to understand the readerships feeling on it. This will help me with writing my editorials and picking out people to try to interview.

Areas of Opportunity
I like these posts the most. We will look at sites, mostly downtown, that have enormous potential but seem to be just sitting around. I'll try to include the following: Pictures of the site, a map of it's location, uses around it, the owner of the site, any current tenants, reason for/obstacle to redevelopment, and ideas for redevelopment. If I can talk to the owner or tenant, I will. I'll also try to contact neighbors and NA people to get their thoughts. If my SketchUp skills improve, or can find a SketchUp artist to do some work pro bono I will include mock-ups of my ideas. Nothing spectacular, but enough to give you a sense of the impact of redevelopment.

Interviews
I'm not going to lie to you, I'm not an industry insider. I plan to be one day, but right now I'm a nobody. But I have a good sense on how to get a hold of people, and my contacts usually leave an impression on people. Therefore, I can usually get a response from even more powerful people in large organizations. I will use this as much as I am able to focus on developers, city officials, Neighborhood Association chairs, investors, and property managers. I also plan on working with other Indy development bloggers to have a back-and-forth on local issues.

Editorials
I don't plan on having a ton of these, but they will come, maybe one every two weeks, maybe a little bit more often. I'm opinionated, what can I say? I have a plethora of ideas on how to foster a urban renaissance in our city - a thing which I pine for - and I want to share them with the world and have some lively debate about it. Politics will be covered here most extensively, but note that I am firmly a-political, so I won't be bashing on people of a certain party, but people of certain ideologies.

Podcasts and more could be a possibility. It all depends on the success of the written material. Content should start coming online in the next couple of days, but don't expect more than a post, maybe two, a day. This is a one man operation, and I don't like to spend all day in my pajama's you know.