Loading ...Take a Drive
I’ve come under a lot of criticism lately for my own criticism of the powers that be and the city’s rising crime problems. I’ve been called a carpetbagger, told to go back where I came from, and if it weren’t politically incorrect, some of my critics would gladly drop the n-word if they could get away with it. They’re upset that I relentlessly point out the major challenges facing this city. My response, “get out of your house and go take a drive around Indianapolis.”
Because of my jobs, I get to do something not a lot of people do, I get to see a lot of this city a lot of the time. On any given day I hit three to four of the townships. And it’s not to talk to elected officials. Today, I decided instead of taking the Interstate back to downtown from Ivy Tech’s Lawrence Campus I decided to use city streets. I went down Post Road and swung through the old neighborhood where we used to live when my Dad worked at Fort Ben. I took 38th over to Emerson, Emerson to 25th street, 25th to Keystone and then winded my way back downtown.
I saw neighborhoods that looked like they had been devastated. The scenery included abandoned homes, unkept lots and individuals who looked like they had given up on everything. As I drove through these neighborhoods all I could think of was that these are the people who have the smallest voices and are impacted the most by crime and neglect. The conditions they have to live in is as criminal as the people who break the law. And if one of them is a crime victim, they’ll be treated as another statistic.
It’s real easy to get outraged about the State Senator who is mugged or the woman who is attacked across the street from city hall, but I really wonder if any of my critics would ever take a drive through one of these neighborhoods if there weren’t some media attention involved or an opportunity to showboat.
Fundamentally, I don’t mind the criticism whether it shows up in e-mails or posts on this blog. To quote a line from one of my favorite stage plays, “Inherit the Wind”, my job is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted.” If no one’s getting upset, I’m not doing my job. I just wish my critics would get as upset about the conditions I write about as they do with what I write. All they have do is get in their vehicles and take a drive. But I guess it’s easier to come after me.
June 1st, 2007 at 5:49 am
Abdul, you are just a thorn in certain people’s side. Be it Republican, Democrat or Libertarian. I believe you would assail them all if they were doing the wrong thing. Keep digging and getting the truth out.
June 1st, 2007 at 6:57 am
Abdul, you are right to suggest that we drive through the broken down areas to see how bad it REALLY is. (And I did end up through there last year.) But I am afraid of being carjacked - those numbers are steadily on the increase. Maybe more importantly Bart, Frank and Monroe should WALK the streets to see the crime. I don’t wish ill on anyone, but I tell you this, if one of these guys wives or kids got mugged you would see a whole lot of things shaking.
June 1st, 2007 at 7:06 am
Abdul:
I don’t really care where you hang your hat. Between Illinois and Indianapolis, I’d choose Indianapolis (and have, despite an hour commute to my place of employment). But to each his own.
By the way, thanks for answering the question.
College Prof
June 1st, 2007 at 7:44 am
I drive by the pea shake gambling houses all the time. Even though the one at 37th and Keystone was recently raided, I noticed a couple times this week that the parking lot was fuller than ever.
I have a question for Bart Peterson. Where is city zoning? Why aren’t lawsuits being filed?
June 1st, 2007 at 8:20 am
Abdul,
Steve Campbell was on your show today. He isn’t a part of the crime problem, except for the fact that he parrots Peterson’s lies, spinning and other verbal BS. Ever notice how when he gets a question that puts the truth on failures of his boss, that he starts stuttering, stammering and rapid-talking?
A student of kiniseology he isnt. Otherwise, he’d be aware of deception clues and try and do something about it.
June 1st, 2007 at 8:40 am
Better yet, why don’t some of these “leaders” get out of their cars and take a walk? Maybe strike up a conversation or two with some folks who look like they’re on their last leg - and take notes.
FYI - the key to solving the problems isn’t more LEO’s. That’s only a bandage. The solution is jobs and education. The question is therefore “how can we bring jobs to these neighborhoods while simultaneously encouraging students to perform and stay in school?”
The key element is hope. Bring the jobs and the kids will see a future.
If I were Bart, I’d be talking to the next set of US companies that are considering going offshore to cut costs. Rather than providing incentives to hotel barons, Bart could give incentives to industry that would open shop in Indy. Re-grow the neighborhoods by bringing in jobs. Use that to generate hope and local self sufficiency, thereby reducing crime.
Obviously easier said than done, but no difficult challenge has a simple solution. It takes leg work, guts, and commitment. Increased law enforcement is obviously a requirement but it’s only a band-aid. Real progress won’t arrive until someone gets out and brings in the jobs. Provide hope and you’ll build a community. Maintain status quo and the continued decline is inevitable.
June 1st, 2007 at 8:42 am
Abdul,
We live in an age where the truth no longer matters to many people. Instead, everything is discussed with an eye toward the end result of a political agenda. As a result, our leaders don’t try to address problems, they just fuel the rhetoric that keeps them in power and take the free ride.
With time, things will deteriorate to a degree that that rhetoric will not surrfice and people will expect results.
Keep telling the truth. Eventually, a critical mass of the population will abandon the political gamesmanship and start to listen.
June 1st, 2007 at 9:46 am
Shorebreak, I agree the key is to generate jobs that would revitalize, but as you said, it would take leg work, guts and commitment and that isn’t going to happen with this group.
I think of the line in the Paul Simon song that says, “I want a photo opportunity” when I see Bart and Frank and the gang appear on TV.
Whether you are a fan of Magic Johnson or not, the man steps up and tries to revitalize poor areas around the country, which also happen to be African American communities, to make a difference.
We need more individuals like Magic and less rhetoric from politicians.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:27 pm
You really think some of our public leaders will get out of their cars? I can’t even get my councilperson (Monroe Gray) to return an email or a phone call.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Shorebreak: Even better, lets get some of the IMPD out of their cars and walking in the neighborhoods.
June 1st, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Abdul,
What you are seeing is what’s left of a city that has lost 156,000 residents since 1969. These people moved out of the old, pre-unigov, city limits of Indianapolis and took the life blood of the city with them. The old city limits are now the current boundaries for IPS. Do you think that 156,000 people moved out for the hell of it? Do you not realize what happened to these neighborhoods once the money, jobs and businesses left? Look no further than Detroit Abdul for an answer as to where the “old city of Indianapolis” has been heading for the last 40 years. It IS NOT going to get fixed. The small Mile Square area that the city has pumped $5 billion into may survive but even that is doubtful. The neighborhoods you drove thru which our leaders won’t, will be urban prairies in sight of 15 to 20 years. Those houses will be gone, replaced by nothing but wasteland and staggering crime levels.
Do you have any conception of just how many 156,000 people leaving the central core of a city is? It’s like every man, woman and child leaving the present Indiana cities of South Bend, Columbus and Connersville all in one day like they never existed. That’s what has happened to Indianapolis. What you drove thru is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s left in the old city limits of this city and it’s not going to get better. It can’t. It’s not possible. THERE ARE NO LONGER ANY LIVING WAGE JOBS LEFT FOR THESE PEOPLE IN THESE NEIGHBORHOODS TO GO TO, THEY’RE GONE AND THEY AREN’T COMING BACK! EVER!
The Indianapolis Public School District boundaries are the old city limits of Indianapolis, the REAL city of Indianapolis, not the Unigov Indianapolis. In IPS today there are 68% blacks enrolled, 12% hispanic and the rest are white and other. Tell me, are they going to get good jobs like their grandfathers or great-grandfathers had? Why should they graduate from high school when a high school diploma is not going to get them any better job than the drop out gets. Hell, where are all the college grads going to get work? And who are the white employers going to hire when they have a choice beween a black, hispanic or a white? They are going to hire the white of the hispanic. Considering that nearly 70% of current students in IPS are black then just what kind of a future do they have in this city? The have the same future or worse than their mother or fathers had.
I would like to see a glimmer of hope but it’s not going to happen. The neighborhoods are dying almost as if they were meant to die. Unfortunately, people dying on the streets in those neighborhoods too. It will not end, ever.
June 1st, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Abdul, Thanks for taking the time to simply drive around Indy neigborhoods. Unfortunately, our elected officials and policy makers have not other than the photo opt of a sidewalk repair, new lighting or the scene of a recent homicide. Unfortunately, this beautiful city of warmth has been slowly destroyed over the last 20 years and unfortunately, will take 40 years to repair the community fabric which many call home. Till then, there will be (and expect) denial in the face of truth and harm in the way of hope by those entrusted.
June 2nd, 2007 at 6:51 am
My mom lives in Center Twp, and has for 55 years. She cannot afford to move and I cannot afford to move her. Besides she will not move because this is HER home. She lives off of Washington and State street. She has been shot at and her neighbor sitting next to her was shot. I know the main problem is drugs and hookers. For every place the police shut down 2 open up. If the powers of this city would just “get it” and see that the drugs are eating up the life as we know it. The slum landlords who are usually Attys. doctors etc… would not rent to the trash maybe some parts of the city could survive. Also if the city would fine these landlords for trash, boarded up houses etc… there could be enough money to invest back into the neighborhood or fund more police. Also the judicial system needs to reinvent it’s self and come up with a solid plan to keep the criminals behind longer.
June 2nd, 2007 at 11:24 am
People are moving out of Indianapolis primarily because of crime. Crime is also an issue in discouraging companies to locate here — they want to go where they can attract workers. No one wants to move someplace where there is too much crime, and no one wants to move to Indiana even without the crime — Indiana hemorrhages college graduates regularly as it is because of the backwards culture.
But Indianpolis is no longer about high-paying jobs. It is about conventions. That is it. Everything this city does is to attract conventions. Everything outside the Mile Square can rot and fall down for all they care — none of the all-important convention visitors will see that.
And if you want to talk zoning with respect to pea shake houses, you also have to talk about it with respect to 42nd and Post, one of the worst neighborhoods in the city, but a man-made disaster in that someone thought it was OK to put approximately 200 apartment complexes around one intersection. The entire far-Eastside lives in fear of the wretched hive of scum and villainy that has arisen around 42nd and Post and infects the surrounding areas. You take out some of those apartment complexes and you might be able to start cleaning it up.
June 3rd, 2007 at 5:01 pm
The most recent homicide victim (Bryant Davis) at the Ritz Lounge (which is across the street from a pea shake house) was just convicted for FELONY handgun violations last April, 2006. Why was he out of prison????
June 3rd, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Ask Carl Brizzi! In this current “Crime-Gone-Wild” election year hysteria, the Republican County Prosecutor has been strangely silent…
June 3rd, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Don’t believe me about the victim Bryant Davis being convicted for felony handgun violatons???
Go to the Indiana Dept of Correction website. Select offender locator. Type in the name of the victim. That is how I know and can back it up with actual documentation.
June 3rd, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Wilson,
You can’t prosecute anyone if there are no cops to arrest them! Idiot!
June 3rd, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Abdul, Stumbled across this little 263 page document. Funny, if these strategies were sooo successful as it claims, then why just 2 short years after its publication did murder and gun crimes increase dramatically. Hmmm. FYI. Most everyone mentioned in this article have become very rich selling their snake oil. Little help it does for the 15yr old rape victim who was raped and badly beaten downtown Sat night Sunday morning.
The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S.
Department of Justice and prepared the following final report:
Document Title: Strategic Approaches to Reducing Firearms
Violence: Final Report on the Indianapolis
Violence Reduction Partnership
Author(s): Edmund F. McGarrell ; Steven Chermak
http://web.appa-net.org/PSN/pdfs/McGarrellChermakFinalIndyReport.pdf
June 3rd, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Great Idea Abdul, take a drive and check out the city.
I hear that is what Mike Hobbs was doing the other night. Look where he ended up.