If you missed Wednesday night’s debate between Republican incumbent Greg Ballard and Democratic challenger Melina Kennedy, that’s okay. I was there and recorded the whole thing. It’s embedded in our sister blog IndyPolitics.Org.
The debate runs about an hour.
It was organized by the Binford Redevelopment and Growth, Broad Ripple Village Association, Butler-Tarkington Neighborhood Association, Harmoni, Meridian-Kessler Neighborhood Association, and Butler University. It was sponsored by AARP Indiana and moderated by John Ketzenberger, president of the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute.
The topics included the usual areas: crime, economic development, infrastructure and there was even a question about a street car.
Overall, Kennedy won on style, Ballard on substance.
As much as I really love this city, there are days when its citizens disappoint me as much as its football team. Usually it’s the people who defend Indianapolis Public Schools, township government, or latch on to the race hustlers when they come to town to stir things up while lining their own pockets. This time my disappointment goes to two issues taken up at Monday night’s City-County Council meeting; the resolution opposing the renaming of Georgia Street and the city’s $1 billion budget.
The renaming of Georgia Street has been one of the most ridiculous controversies I’ve ever witnessed in this city. In the wake of redevelopment the city looked at the possibility of renaming the street, which you think someone would have told a bunch of pre-schoolers that there was no such thing as Santa Claus. Hundreds of people signed up on Facebook, the news media got excited and even a resolution was passed. The problem is I doubt most people could name three businesses on Georgia Street, Hooters doesn’t count.
Fast forward to the city budget, the nice little $1 billion spending document that impacts every man , woman and child in the Indianapolis. How many people showed up Monday night to offer public testimony? None. How many people showed up to express their concerns to make sure public safety is adequately funded? None. How many people showed up to make sure that the public works budget stays on track even though there are hundreds of millions of new Rebuild Indy dollars? None. Parks? None. Metropolitan Development? None. The list goes on and on.
Now to be fair this was the second public budget hearing so you could argue that everyone who needed to show up and express an opinion actually did. You could argue that, the problem is at the last public hearing less than 10 people showed up to testify and half of them were hotel workers union supporters talking about an issue that had nothing to do with the budget.
So let’s recap. Renaming a street that 95% of the people in this town have never visited draws out the torches and pitchforks. Discussion over spending $1 billion that impacts not only 100% of the people in this town, but a good chunk of the ones who live right outside its borders; not a peep. What really is the most ironic about all this is that opponents of renaming Georgia Street argued there wasn’t enough public comment and input. I guess those same people decided showing for a budget hearing was too much work.
It’s not everyday that a mysterious, clandestine group makes plans to occupy Indianapolis, so when they do, it tends to get your attention. According to the website “Occupy Indianapolis” plans are being drawn up to “occupy” the city come Saturday, October 8.
This isn’t occupation in the German-Poland-Czechoslovakia kind of way as it is more like a Brooklyn Bridge sort of way, as what happened in New York City over the weekend where 700 people were arrested.
According to the website the plans are to create a “Human People Mover” where “a line of volunteers will target a building or group of buildings in which the 1% operate their businesses which have caused the current damage to our society.” The website goes on to say…
A single file line of as many people as possible will begin walking around the targeted building or buildings on the public sidewalks in as close proximity as possible to each other to form a moving barricade of constantly walking people. As long as we remain moving on the sidewalks we cannot be arrested. Remain standing in a group of 5 or more and they can take us to jail, but if we are each in motion and still together in a single file line it will disrupt regular foot traffic in the target area, making it difficult for the 1% and their minions to conduct their business.
The group also has a map and plans to start at Veteran’s Memorial Plaza and hit several buildings in the downtown area. The only thing that is somewhat unclear is that group plans to do this on a Saturday when most downtown offices are closed. I did put in a call to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. A spokeswoman was unfamiliar with the organization at first mention, but the department is looking into the matter.
I will be speaking with their organizer later today and will have the audio posted.
I sat down and spoke Thursday with Pastor Ron Covington of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church on the Indianapolis Mayor’s race. Democrat Melina Kennedy had just met with Covington and about a dozen other ministers.
He commented on her visit as well as the state of the Mayor’s race from the perspective of the Black Church. Covington has the unique position of being a member of the Ten-Point Coalition and the Baptist Ministers Alliance of Indianapolis. Two groups who are at odds at times in the Mayor’s race.
You can hear his interview in the Audio Vault section of our sister blog, IndyPolitics.Org. It is also worth noting that Mayor Greg Ballard was a guest at Friendship this past Sunday as well.
I have never been a fan of identity politics. If you are not sure what that term means, identity politics is when an individual’s political philosophy is shaped by their identity to a race, gender, sexual orientation or some other immutable trait. In college I was very skeptical of the people who ran around screaming about black power. Usually they were lighter-skinned blacks who grew up in the Chicago suburbs and felt they had something to prove. However there was nothing funnier that catching them in a bar with a white woman.
I bring this up because of the recent Indianapolis Star article about three openly gay candidates for the Indianapolis City-County Council: Zach Adamson, Jackie Butler and Todd Woodmanse. I’ve known Adamson for a while and I have met Woodmanse once. I don’t know Butler, but I have no reason to think that they would not make for good public servants even though my disagreements with them would be over policy.
Where I do take issue though is the local chapter of the Indiana Stonewall Democrats. A group of Democrats that predominantly focus on gay issues. For months the group has been promoting on its Facebook page events for Adamson; encouraging members to come out (no pun intended) and support an openly gay candidate. That’s fine, but you can’t have it both ways. If you don’t want the fact a candidate is gay to be a big deal, then don’t make it a big deal. It is bad enough that some people will vote against Adamson simply because of his sexual orientation and not because they know where he stands on the issues, but it is just as bad to vote for someone because of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation without knowing their positions on issues.
If you want to be judged on your own merit, I agree with you wholeheartedly. However, if you are going to support someone simply because of an immutable trait, then you can’t get upset if someone opposes you because of an immutable trait. Luckily, the bulk of the political class publicly says this is no big issue. Now it’s time for the players of identity politics to get the message as well.
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I attended the Wednesday morning news conference over on the east side of town where local leaders were joined by Billionaire Warren Buffet in announcing a new development project in the area where the Meadows used to be.
The $27 million East Village in Avondale is supposed to help revitalize the area near 38th and Keystone. Also scheduled to go up in the area are three new charter schools and a new grocery store. As I sat watching the news conference, I couldn’t help but notice that the primary beneficiaries of all this would be low-income citizens. However the primary builders of all this would be those who create wealth and generate tax revenue.
Yes the project does get tax credits from the federal government and the City of Indianapolis, thus the people who help create tax revenue. I think it’s a worthy deal and long-term will be great for a portion of the city that has been in perpetual neglect for years.
What I thought was ironic was the project would have never gotten off the ground had it not been for millionaires and billionaires who lately have been the targets of the progressive left because they don’t “pay their fair share”. I still have no idea what that means.
When we debate tax policy and increasing taxes, some of my friends say the Bush tax cuts were more responsible for our growing deficit than the stimulus package. No offense, but I don’t believe tax cuts cause deficits, spending money you don’t have causes deficits. And you could confiscate all the wealth in the United States and still have a deficit.
The true way to get the economy going is to grow it, plain and simple. I tend to agree with Governor Mitch Daniels when he wrote in his book “Keeping the Republic” that arguing over programs is pointless when you don’t have the money to pay for them. That is why when I look at the concept of raising taxes as the sole measure of tackling our national debt and deficit problem I cringe. I have never had a problem with tax increases as long as they walked hand in hand with spending cuts. My personal preference has always been $5 of spending cuts for every $1 of tax increases. I see no reason to take more of someone else’s money while not asking the people who are the beneficiaries of their productivity to share in the sacrifice as well.
Now I think this is the part where “crony capitalism” and “corporate bailouts” come in. I’m going to make your lives easy and tell you I am not a big fan of either. You can’t have capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way to bankruptcy court.
But it would probably make life easier for a lot of people if they would stop hating the rich but instead go out and create their own wealth and see how they feel about someone else taking it.
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and Democratic challenger Melina Kennedy went head to head Tuesday afternoon at the Downtown Rotary Club of Indianapolis. The full audio of the debate will be embedded over our sister blog IndyPolitics.Org. It runs about 50 minutes.
Both candidates stuck to their scripts. Kennedy came across as relaxed, but short on specifics. The Mayor came across as good on specifics, however he could have relaxed a little more with his delivery. So I don’t think anyone changed anyone’s mind overall.
The Mayor did take several opportunities to rebut some of the allegations made by Kennedy, which led some to believe he was playing defense, however the Ballard people say he was making sure Kennedy kept the record straight.
The only real bit of drama occurred before the debate when the Kennedy campaign tried to bring in their supporters with t-shirts and signs, however they were not allowed in since it was against the agreed to rules.
This debate was actually good for both candidates to get the measure of themselves and each other. The debate to watch will be the second one at Butler University on October 5.
You might recall a couple months ago I asked Stephen Clay, the head of the Baptist Ministers Alliance of Indianapolis if he had ever been the subject of an investigation by the Department of Child Services for inappropriate contact with a male minor.
At the time Clay refused to answer my question and give me a straight “yes” or “no” reply. Instead he told me “my non-response is my response.” Well, it turns out Clay was the subject of an investigation a few years ago and apparently someone believed there was enough merit to the claim to forward it to the proper authorities. However, it’s unclear whatever became of the investigation. I do know my inquiry into whether there was an investigation has unnerved Clay.
I am told after the news conference where I asked my original question, Clay used several profane words to describe his feelings towards me. In addition, Clay also told his congregation at Messiah Baptist Church in late June that there was some news coming out about him that may not be flattering, but that he had made arrangements for the Church to continue to function if he was ever forced to leave.
What makes this interesting is that Clay considers himself a political ally of Democratic Mayoral candidate Melina Kennedy. He even reportedly did the private invocation the day she announced she was running for Mayor. When I approached Kennedy campaign manager Nick Buis about this story he replied to me via text “so does this mean Goldsmith is fair game?”
Clay has interjected himself into a number of controversial issues such as the Brandon Johnson case and has been heavily critical of IMPD and the media when it came to the police presence at Indiana Black Expo. He was also instrumental in bringing Al Sharpton to Indianapolis and paying him to speak at a rally.
Stay tuned. Somehow I get the odd feeling this isn’t over by a longshot.
