3/7/2006
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2006 State of the City Address
Mayor Bart Peterson
Garfield Park Arts Center, March 7, 2006 A city is a living, breathing organism. It has a physical appearance. Its state of health can be assessed. It has a pocketbook; like us, it has to live within its means. It has a mind. And, it has a soul.
In six years, we have changed the physical appearance of Indianapolis. A new airport terminal is poised to replace the existing terminal and completely alter the face Indianapolis shows to visitors.
A new stadium will replace the current dome, and the dome will in turn make way for a huge convention center expansion. The Conrad Hotel, the new Simon headquarters building and condominium construction galore mark a new skyline. The beautiful Fall Creek Place neighborhood stands where abandoned houses, vacant lots and urban decay once ruled.
Our city is on a health kick. Not just from our Fit City Initiative, but we're making its waters cleaner and its streets safer. We've embarked on a twenty-year program to virtually eliminate the discharge of raw sewage into our creeks and rivers after heavy rains. And we're converting failing, polluting septic systems over to the sewer system to protect all our neighborhoods. The merger of the Indianapolis Police Department and the Marion County Sheriff's Department - creating the new Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department - will allow us to put more officers on the street. And the scourge of releasing dangerous criminals early because of jail overcrowding is on its way to being eliminated.
The finances of Indianapolis are in far better shape. We've made the tough decisions to cut spending and fix the long-standing problems of debt to the state for incarcerating juveniles and shortfalls in our funding of the child welfare system. Most cities aren't willing to exercise that kind of discipline. Just take a look at what the Wall Street credit rating agencies have to say about our fiscal management as compared to other cities. And we're building a foundation for sustained prosperity with one economic development success after another. Indianapolis is hot when it comes to business growth and job creation!
We have not neglected matters of the mind these last six years. In fact, our city has witnessed a revolution in our approach to public education with the creation of charter schools that have improved student achievement at a pace far exceeding the state average as measured by ISTEP-plus scores.
And finally, the soul of our city. Who but the great people of Indianapolis would have demonstrated such concern and active compassion for the least fortunate of our neighbors by implementing the first three years of a ten-year Blueprint to End Homelessness? And the fullness of our personality and spirit has been on display with a cultural development initiative that has put us on the arts map nationally and internationally.
My friends, thank you for joining me for the 2006 State of the City speech. In this, my 7th address before our community, I am proud to say that the State of our city is strong!
It is strong because risk-taking entrepreneurs have found a welcoming environment for making investments and hiring the finest workforce anywhere!
It is strong because we refuse to ever turn our back or give up on a neighborhood. Like parents with many children, our neighborhoods are all unique, but we love them equally!
It is strong because we seek and welcome creative people who build schools, start theatres, perform on stage or in the studio, and believe that things can change for the better!
And it is strong because we have a heart as big as the vast Midwest, and we believe everyone here has the right to a fair shot at the American dream.
In an earlier, simpler time, we could pause to reflect with pride on all this city has achieved in the last six years and, indeed, in the last forty. But change moves at the speed of light today, and we don't want to fall behind as we gaze at our handiwork. And, for me, our successes appear only in peripheral vision. My eyes are focused ahead - on what we must still do to make a great city greater.
We've talked about neighborhoods. What a perfect place to begin our look ahead. If we are to be candid and honest with ourselves, we have to admit there is much we can do to strengthen most of our neighborhoods - to repair damaged social fabric, to upgrade physical infrastructure, to add beauty and character, to convince residents that they really can shape the destiny of their neighborhood.
That's where Great Indy Neighborhoods comes in. This initiative, announced last fall, is the product of many months of planning and study by those in our city with a passion for community development. It embraces the idea that neighborhoods are not houses, stores, streets, places of worship, or parks alone. Neighborhoods are people. People living together, working together and growing together to build places that each is proud to call home.
Great Indy Neighborhoods has been inspired by success stories right here in our city. On the southeast side, members of the community worked in partnership with Southeast Neighborhood Development Corporation to create a neighborhood plan that led to the development of the expanded Fountain Square Community Center, Fountain Square Main Street, and the Southeast Neighborhood School of Excellence - a new charter school.
On the northwest side, the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis has led a remarkable initiative to help seniors continue living independently in the community, called a "naturally occurring retirement community".
And on the northeast side, the Binford Redevelopment and Growth organization has taken the bull by the horns and started planning to restore their area to commercial and residential greatness.
These bright success stories, and many others in Indianapolis, are lighting the way to a more holistic way of thinking about neighborhoods and the city's investment in them. Today, I am announcing a new covenant between our city government and the neighborhoods of Indianapolis: If neighbors, businesses and other community members are willing to work together to create a comprehensive quality of life plan, the city will do all within its power to make the neighborhood's vision a reality.
This will be aided by a finance plan that first proved successful in Fall Creek Place. The cost of sidewalk repair, street repaving, street lights, drainage, new building facades, boosting commercial development, rehabilitation of decaying homes, and other improvements will be paid for by additional tax revenues generated by redevelopment.
Combining the quality of life planning process that is at the core of Great Indy Neighborhoods with a realistic funding mechanism for fixing up streets and sidewalks and priming new development will mean new hope for neighborhoods all across our city!
An exciting complement to Great Indy Neighborhoods is also on the horizon thanks to a partnership with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. We will announce on Arbor Day, April 28th, the details of a plan to plant 100,000 trees in our city over the next ten years! Keep Indianapolis Beautiful is a terrific organization that already does great things to improve our neighborhoods. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful mobilizes volunteer labor and connects residents to improvement projects such as building pocket parks, painting houses, and forming neighborhood clean-up patrols through Operation My Town.
Keep Indianapolis Beautiful's idea, and our new shared vision, is to improve neighborhood quality of life by planting trees for good health, for natural beauty, and for neighborhood pride and prosperity. A leafy canopy across our city will raise everyone's spirits. It will help replenish us, body and soul.
But we don't need to wait for investments from Great Indy Neighborhoods or trees from Keep Indianapolis Beautiful to make our neighborhoods better and safer places to live. I want to challenge each and every one of us to commit to making our own homes, our own streets and our own neighborhoods look better. I'll start by pledging to have my crummy-looking driveway sealed in the next couple months, as Amy and I have been talking about for at least ten years! But, you don't have to spend money. Pick up litter, even if it's on public property. Fix the broken screen door. Plant flowers. Mow the grass before June, for heaven's sake. You'll be amazed at how contagious beautification is!
We will do our part - continuing the city's war against abandoned houses - by:
- partnering with private developers to redevelop abandoned homes in communities like Martindale on the Monon;
- recovering tax dollars spent on enforcement and boarding abandoned homes; and
- tailoring code compliance enforcement and redevelopment activity to meet the unique needs of each neighborhood.
We are making progress, but we are also encountering legal barriers to returning unsightly and unsafe houses to productive use.
In this legislative session, Senate Bill 341, which would have helped Indianapolis and other cities do just that, failed in the House of Representatives. In spite of being supported by community groups across the state, and passing the Senate fifty to nothing, politics intervened unexpectedly. There is still time - seven more days - for the legislature to resurrect and pass this important legislation.
Of course, it is fruitless to aspire to being a city of strong neighborhoods and engaged residents without a strong economic base. Our efforts to diversify and strengthen Indianapolis's economy have been paying off, and you can rest assured nothing will gain more of my personal attention in 2006.
Already this year we have witnessed the creation of CoLucid, a new Indianapolis-headquartered pharmaceutical company. CoLucid's more than $16 million in start-up capital was provided through the Indiana Future Fund, a child of our BioCrossroads life sciences initiative, and the foundation for CoLucid's research and development work was licensed from Eli Lilly.
Also this year, we will see the launch of a major new business venture that will use clinical data and tissue to further groundbreaking scientific research and lead to real advances in treating heart disease and cancer - right here in Indianapolis! The economic development and job-growth implications are staggering. It can't be taken away from us, because this research treasure-trove derives its value from decades-old, continuously updated information from central Indiana residents and the hospitals that treat them.
Our focused successes in such other industry clusters as transportation, distribution and logistics; information technology; and motorsports will continue to be complemented by seizing economic development opportunities that present themselves every year. A great example is our partnership with the State and the City of Lawrence to not only save the 3,000 finance and accounting jobs at the DFAS facility, but gain at least 800 more jobs in the process.
We will continue to face challenges in the traditional automotive sector, as will every community across America with a large number of Big 3 auto jobs. But look at what our home-based companies are doing. Wellpoint, the nation's largest health insurance company just acquired New York's largest health insurer, WellChoice. Simon Property Group, the nation's largest shopping mall owner, acquired New Jersey-based Chelsea Property Group. We still think of ourselves as the victims of corporate consolidation. Others around the country see us as the beneficiaries.
We promote economic development and job growth in a number of ways. Among the most important is making our city an exciting, forward-thinking and unique place to live. A place with amenities found nowhere else. One of those is the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. The Cultural Trail, a pedestrian and bicycle path that will connect the cultural districts around downtown and serve as the hub for our amazing greenways system, will showcase landscaping, art, historical and architectural markers, and other amenities, while promoting fitness and outdoor recreation. I am pleased to tell you the Trail is moving forward! This year, design will begin and you will start to see signs that will show you the Trail's path.
Leadership in the private sector for the Indianapolis Cultural Trail comes from the Central Indiana Community Foundation, The Indianapolis Foundation and Brian Payne. Brian's vision and enthusiasm has propelled the development of the Cultural Trail thus far, and he will spearhead the fundraising for the Trail in the community. We are fortunate to have such an advocate for making Indianapolis an exciting and compelling place to live, work and play.
A strong and diverse economy must be accompanied by successful public schools if our city is to realize its full potential. This fall we will see more high-quality charter schools open. The state's first recovery high school will open at Fairbanks Hospital. This school is a desperately needed option for students recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. Seventy-seven percent of students who successfully complete drug and alcohol addiction treatment relapse when they return to their regular high schools.
As a parent, I cannot imagine what it must be like to watch your child undergo the wrenching process of addiction treatment, only to have to return to where those behaviors began. Families will now have another option through Recovery High School at Fairbanks.
Our existing charter schools are already transforming lives. I recently met Desmond Williams, a seventh grader at Andrew J. Brown Academy. As Desmond tells it, before he started at Andrew J. Brown, he had a lot of problems at school. Academically he was way behind and he was often in trouble. Today Desmond is a model student. And after just 2 and a half years, his test scores show that he is on grade level in both reading and math. Overall, the progress at Andrew J. Brown is extraordinary - the average two year increase in ISTEP scores among Andrew J. Brown Academy fifth graders was 48 percent!
The percentage of students in all mayor-sponsored charter schools passing the ISTEP test from 2003 to 2005 increased, on average, by 25 percent! By contrast, statewide scores increased by about 1 percent.
A key to the success of Indianapolis' charter schools is the rigorous review all schools that apply undergo, and our accountability system that is regarded as among the nation's very best. Decatur Township Superintendent Don Stinson, who partnered with my office to launch a mayor-sponsored charter school, described the expert site team review his school recently went through as the most useful, results-focused school review he's been a part of.
Each time I go into one of Indianapolis' eleven school districts I see the innovative work they are doing. No place is this more true than in the Indianapolis Public Schools. Under the extraordinary leadership of Dr. Eugene White, IPS is refocusing the district on student achievement, graduation rates, and school reform. One example is the new Health and Medical Magnet that will open at Crispus Attucks this fall. This new school, in partnership with the IU School of Medicine and Wishard Hospital, will prepare students for careers in heath care. Dr. White has boldly pledged to make IPS one of the nation's best urban school systems by 2010. All of us must do our part to make that happen.
It has often been said, correctly, that public safety must be the first priority of local government. 2006 will be the most significant year for public safety in the history of our city. Police officers and Sheriff's deputies are leading the creation of what will be the finest law enforcement agency in the United States - the new Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Community and neighborhood leaders, elected officials and the public have the chance to weigh in on this historic process and help ensure a smooth merger. You can participate by logging onto the Indygov.org web site and clicking on "public safety."
The structure we have lived with - a separate urban police department and a county Sheriff's patrol - is both inefficient and unsustainable. The new department will be a crucial tool in the battle against the threat of rising crime across our county.
Another vital tool is the bipartisan effort to eliminate jail overcrowding in our county. Already this year we have applied new, dedicated revenues to adding prosecutors, court personnel and others to move people through the criminal justice system quicker. Unnecessary delays in the past have led to the early release of dangerous criminals onto our streets - with predictable consequences. And we must add jail beds. We have the funding and the plan to do so.
We must also apply new techniques and available technologies to make our streets safer. A new technology we will seek funding for this year is gunshot detection equipment. Such equipment will enable law enforcement to immediately identify, within a few feet, the location where a person discharged a firearm. The availability of instantaneous gunshot information deters crime and makes it more likely criminals will be caught.
I am proud of the improvements in the Marion County Crime Lab, including its ability to dramatically reduce the DNA analysis backlog. If they keep this up, it will only be a matter of time before we're watching "CSI - Indy" in prime time! In all seriousness, a top tier crime lab is essential to bringing criminals to justice.
The police merger is the first major step of our Indianapolis Works plan to complete Unigov and bring smaller, smarter government to the people of Indianapolis. The second is the merger of ten separate fire departments into one, saving taxpayers over $20 million each and every year.
The leadership of the Indiana General Assembly has before them a compromise we proposed in order to meet them more than half way. They have seven days to make the decision - do they care more about protecting inefficient township government than they do about the taxpayers of Marion County? We'll know soon.
Their plan allows the very people who most vehemently oppose the merger to run the new department, by committee, for four and a half years. Nothing good can come of this! Their plan would protect the political structure of years past and virtually assure that we would not see the tax savings that Indianapolis Works would provide.
Our property taxpayers need relief! That's why I proposed Indianapolis Works, and that's why I support The Indiana Association of Cities and Towns plan, Hometown Matters - a plan that would allow property taxes to go down without harming police and fire services, cutting parks services, or reducing trash pickup, pothole filling and the other things we do in city government.
I also support the plan to have the state pay for all growth in spending in the state-run child welfare system that would save us from additional property tax increases which are already cued-up and ready to go in most counties across the state. We've been seeing 25 percent annual growth in the spending for this state-run program! Governor Daniels supports both of these measures, as well. I am hopeful that bi-partisan support of good government measures like these will allow them to succeed.
Bottom line - we need property tax relief from our state legislature. And, when one city stands up and says, "Let us cut our expenses and make our government smaller, smarter and more efficient," that effort should be met with bi-partisan cooperation, not political haggling.
To those who feel our government reform efforts - our tireless advocacy for the taxpayers of Marion County - have involved too much conflict, I refer you to a quote from Frederick Douglass, who saw much greater conflict over much more profound issues, but spoke an eternal truth: "Without a struggle, there can be no progress.
To my partners in the City-County Council, I say thank you for a remarkable 2005, and for your commitment to doing what it takes to make our city even greater. To the people of Indianapolis, in all their wonderful diversity, I say thank you for the privilege of serving you and for your support of our efforts to shake things up and keep our great city on an ever-upward trajectory.
May God bless you all and continue to bless our beloved city.
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