Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard tells me that he is not running for a third term. In his office Wednesday afternoon Ballard said after eight years it was time to move on. He says he was not phased by Tuesday’s Democratic victories in Marion County. He cited polling that had his approval ratings in the 70s. […]
Whenever I am asked whether Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard will run for a third term, my answer is pretty simple. It depends on the day you catch him; some days he is gung ho, other days he’s ready to call it a day. Ballard ignited a lot of speculation about his future this past week […]
I have always argued that when dealing with crime, more cops doesn’t equal less crime unless you do some other things, like keep the bad guys behind bars and mitigate the conditions that make new ones. The plan Mayor Greg Ballard announced today does just that. It adds nearly 280 more police officers over the […]
I’ve gotten quite a bit of response to my column this week in the Indianapolis Star on my “reverse panhandling” experiment. You can read it here, but in a nutshell, a few weeks ago I got tired of the panhandlers downtown asking me for money so I decided to turn the tables on them and […]
In an effort to assist Indianapolis residents figure out how the Ballard administration’s proposed elimination of the local Homestead property tax credit would impact their pocketbooks, Indiana Barrister is providing a link to the city’s webpage that can show you how your tax bill would change. Just click on the link and enter your parcel number. I did […]
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard will introduce a budget Monday night that closes the city’s $55 million shortfall without raising income taxes, but it does expand the city’s tax base while holding the line on spending and adding new police officers. Due to the national economy and declining income tax revenues Indianapolis was facing a $55 […]
I am sure somewhere deep down inside, my Democratic friends on the Indianapolis City-County Council have the same hopes for the city as I do, they want one that is safe, vibrant and has a high quality of life. And we all realize those goals are complicated when money is tight. However, one of the […]
One of my favorite films is Casablanca. And while you would think my favorite character would be Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine (totally understandable), it is actually Claude Raine’s character Capt. Louis Renault, particularly the scene above when he tells Rick he is closing down the Club because he is “shocked to find that there is […]
by Douglas Stephenson Even though “hanging out” has been a rite of passage for U.S. teens for decades, the practice has become an over-populated (and recently violent) problem in downtown Indianapolis. After a 16-year-old fired a gun outside Circle Centre Mall last Friday, there has been a lot of hand-wringing, finger-pointing, and blame-avoidance in the […]
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on Jan 29 at NUVO.net. You can get an update by clicking over to IndyPolitics.Org. Here we go again, another story about a mall shooting and young people getting out of control. I hate to be the bad guy here but when it comes to shootings and silliness, someone […]
