For Those Who Missed It

WTHR Reports:

SPEEDWAY, Ind. (WTHR) — A former town executive of Speedway is taking a plea deal after being accused of misusing the town's money.

Kenneth Scott Harris served as a redevelopment contractor and stepped down in 2015 after the start of a state inquiry.

He was accused of owing the state of Indiana nearly $20,000.

In 2017, he told Eyewitness News he had made some mistakes and would be able to clear it up.

Now he's agreed to plead guilty to counterfeiting for submitting an altered invoice to the Speedway Redevelopment Commission. It was for a payment for a service at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The plea include no jail time according to court records obtained by Eyewitness News.

I have questions:

• Who put this guy in charge? I presume it was the Speedway Town Council; which of our current members were members when the decision to put him in charge was made? Who voted in favor of putting him in charge? I believe that an answer to these questions would allow me to make a determination as to the judgment of such Town Council members.
• He is only charged with wrongdoing from March - May of 2015; he is charged with forging invoices on behalf of the Redevelopment Commission. It was not until December of 2015 that he stepped down. Who on the Town Council knew of his actions and allowed him to remain in his position?
• What qualifications did Scott Harris present to the Speedway Town Council that would justify the trust they put in him?
• Were those qualifications ever vetted?
• To what degree was there any oversight exercised as to Mr. Harris' activities running the Redevelopment Commission?
• I have noticed that the Town of Speedway has an enormous environmental liability for land purchased from PraxAir during Mr. Harris' tenure; where was the oversight on that? Where was the Town Council?

It may seem as though I am being overly harsh on our Town Council. I certainly don't mean to be. I am a supporter of the Redevelopment Commission generally. However, actions like those of Scott Harris engender mistrust from the community and undermine the effort as a whole; officials who enabled such actions should be called to count for their acts and/or omissions. It is not lost on me that Town elections are coming up. These questions, and many more, should be presented to our incumbent Town Councilors who seek re-election. 

If they are worthy of our trust, then they owe it to us to answer these questions.

Economic Development Question

I hear often about "economic development" plans from localities that are essentially subsidizing private projects via tax dollars, either directly by backing bonds or indirectly by giving tax deferrals. Either way, these subsidies amount to millions of dollars spent by localities in furtherance of private industry.

Two examples of taxpayer-subsidized projects come to mind: Lucas Oil Stadium and the Wilshaw development. I have said before that if the Town of Speedway wants public parking, it should just build a parking garage instead of borrowing the money to build one, lending that money to a developer, then leasing the garage to the developer in exchange for revenue from the garage. It's a rube goldberg device.

I also hear justification for Lucas Oil Stadium in the form of "look at how many jobs it creates" with all of the hotel, restaurant, convention, etc., traffic created by the facility.

I suppose my big question is this: Why don't we just directly invest in those jobs by doing things like hiring teachers? Paying for their health insurance? Hiring construction workers to build better roads? (the NW corner of 465 comes to mind, but that's just because I commute past that area every day).

In a nutshell, it appears that there is a bipartisan consensus that government spending to create jobs is OK. In that instance, why settle for low-wage ALICE ("asset limited income constrained employed") jobs? Why not go for good middle-class jobs with benefits? It seems that we could do so if we cut out the middle man, i.e. Jim Irsay or Loftus/Robinson.

Just a thought.

Lives v. Livelihoods

I play in a few rock n' roll bands for charity. One of the bands has a part-time member who is a bona fide professional musician. Other than the varying talent levels, what is the difference between myself and the bona fide professional musician? I will only play music that I like. The pro will play whatever he gets paid to play.

I presume this is because music is my love (and possibly/probably his as well) but it is his livelihood. If he doesn't play what people pay him to play, people don't pay him; he doesn't earn his living. If I don't, I simply go back to practicing law, which I was going to do anyway.

When it comes to law, I take plenty of cases I don't particularly love, because it's my job.

I have noticed that a lot of people have made a sport of bashing the Speedway Animal House. Full disclosure, I am not an animal lover. However, I think that too many people are applying their own sense of morality, attributable to their own love of animals and pets, to the business practices of Speedway Animal House.

I don't like mushrooms, "eggs" that come in a milk carton "pre-scrambled," canned gravy, or paper-thin bacon. That's why I don't eat at Charlie Brown's anymore. I eat at Flap Jacks on 10th Street, which I find to be a much superior choice. I don't go out of my way to bash Charlie Browns for the type of food they sell. Maybe somebody likes it?

I don't like "solid state" amps. I don't bash every guitar store on earth for carrying them. I just don't buy them.

My bottom line is that people need to leave the Speedway Animal House the hell alone if they don't like it. If you  don't like a business' practices, don't shop there. Don't expect a business owner to necessarily care as much about your passion as you do; a business exists to make money, not push anyone's moral crusade. Assuredly there are tons of better targets for our moral protests in the world of corporate America (oil and other chemical companies polluting our air, water, and ground; Big Pharma actively pushing and marketing opioids to the masses, to say nothing of Big Tobacco's track record; arms manufacturers selling their wares to dictators . . . just to name a few). Leave the local business alone; if people don't want to shop there, they won't. If they do, then the proprietors of Speedway Animal House are entitled to carry forth with their legal business.

If you have nothing better to do than drive a locally owned business underwater, you need to find a new hobby. Pardon my rant.

Never Overlook Progress

Speedway has come a long way in recent years. While it is very easy to point out shortcomings and lament imperfections, I was reading through some old case archives and came across this:

A man was sentenced Wednesday to 85 years in prison for killing and robbing a guest at a motel where he worked.

Joseph Pryor had been convicted of murder and robbery in the October 2005 death of James Santelli in the Super 8 Motel in Speedway.

Police said Pryor, a maintenance worker at the motel, used a wooden coat hanger to stab Santelli, 45, of Palatine, Ill. A wooden coat hanger was found sticking out of Santelli's neck, authorities said.

Pryor admitted to stealing cash and tools from Santelli, a construction worker, police said. Pryor tried to cover the crime by pouring Listerine over evidence and sold the tools to a pawnshop, police said.

I note this particular matter because the civil suit that followed this crime wound up setting a rather important precedent in Indiana law.

May Mr. Santelli rest in peace, and may Mr. Prior find forgiveness some day. However, may Speedway work diligently to ensure that it never again becomes a home to dodgy "hooker hotels" that wind up having these kinds of violent crimes therein.

Gambling & Motorsports

The Supreme Court recently ruled that the national ban on sports gambling, with the exception of Nevada, is unconstitutional.

OK.

I am not a gambler, so it really has little effect on me. I have heard the arguments that casinos and gambling outfits are deleterious to communities, but I am skeptical. As a general rule, when it comes to local activity, I prefer to let people do what they want to do. If they want to gamble, then they can gamble. I do hope that people bet with money they can afford to lose, but I say the same thing about people running up bar tabs, credit card debt, etc.

What I wonder about, though, is what effect that will have on motorsports, particularly the Indy 500. How much would it add to the fan experience if you could go and place bets, not only on the winner but also first to wreck, first to pit, most laps led, top-5 finishers, trifecta, slowest finisher, top speed, etc.

I don't have hard numbers to back it up, but I am given to understand that outside of the 500, IndyCar is having financial problems. I have also heard many rumors that the 500 itself is experiencing generally declining attendance. As I said, this is what I've heard, not what I've researched.

Anyway, perhaps auto racing will have somewhat of a renaissance because of this. What do you think?

Employee Theft

I know that there has been a lot of local consternation regarding some alleged thefts from the Town of Speedway over the past few years. The two stories I have heard, in particular, involve the Redevelopment Commission and the Fire Department. I make no present comment on the veracity of those stories. However, I do write today to hearten my fellow Sparkplugs and note that we're not alone:

Two former Indianapolis Local Public Improvement Bond Bank employees have been charged with theft and insurance fraud by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office after being accused of taking funds totaling nearly $400,000 from the bond bank.

Jacqueline Fitzgerald, 54, is charged with six counts of theft and two counts of insurance fraud, and Monica Durrett, 56, is charged with five counts of theft and one count of insurance fraud. While employed at the bond bank, the employees are believed to have claimed inappropriate benefit leave payouts and carried insurance on ineligible dependents. Fitzgerald also allegedly received unauthorized bonuses and incentive pay.

Fitzgerald and Durrett were fired from the bond bank in June 2017 after some of their alleged actions were discovered.

Both former employees had enrolled grandchildren in their employer-provided health insurance despite not being legal guardians of those children, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Fitzgerald was allegedly paid $170,000 during her last year of employment despite her annual salary being $57,523. She also arranged to be regularly paid for dozens of hours of benefit leave in addition to her normal paycheck.

Durrett also allegedly received inappropriate benefit leave pay. 

As tempting as it may be to blame Speedway's problem on something specific to Speedway, unfortunately, this problem appears to be rooted in human nature, not in Speedway.

 

Taking the Ball and Running

I love Indianapolis as a whole nearly as much as I love Speedway. It constantly perplexes me, however, that there isn't much that's particularly memorable about Indianapolis, food wise. For a long time, I have believed that perhaps that is because Indianapolis is a test market for regional or national restaurant corporations; they test new concepts here and have sufficient budget to both be able to fail without financial catastrophe while simultaneously setting an artificially high bar for survival for local concepts.

Recently, I read a great piece in the Urbanophile that made me question whether I had thought this entirely through. The piece discusses the diverging fortunes of Nashville Hot Chicken and Hoosier Breaded Pork Tenderloin.  I highly encourage anyone to click through and read the entire article. A few snippets should you forego the opportunity to click through:

First, about Nashville "Hot" Chicken:

In other words, it’s possible that this dish has been around a while in some form in the local black community, but what we know today as the Nashville hot chicken is from the 70s or 80s. A Midwestern reader with longstanding family ties to Nashville told me a while back that at least through the 1990s he never heard hot chicken mentioned there. I read that Nashville hot chicken is now supposedly popular around the south, but having spent extensive time in Alabama 10-15 years ago, I never once came across it there.

I have no reason to doubt this analysis, but then again I'm not from the South. I don't recall ever hearing about Nashville Hot Chicken until just a few years ago, though.

Now, as to the Hoosier Tenderloin:

the pork tenderloin is fairly ubiquitous in Central Indiana, where it is on practically every bar and grill menu. 

I can attest to that. I don't know how long the pork tenderloin has been ubiquitous in Indianapolis, but it's been at least the entire time I've lived here (since 2003).

The question, of course, is:

Why was Indianapolis unable to do with the tenderloin what Nashville did with hot chicken?

His answer, essentially, is that Indianapolis doesn't even try.

I again and again see that Southern cities start with little to nothing, and yet what they do have they treat as the greatest things of all time. As illustrated by Nashville hot chicken, they’ve also looked at their often neglected black community as a source of local cultural identity.

The Midwestern cities not only fail at this consistently, they typically don’t even try. There are tons of regional food products in the Midwest – Chicago style dogs, St. Louis pizza, etc. – but other than Chicago’s deep dish pizza, they have been dramatically underexploited in the marketplace even as these cities say that they are very keen to raise their brand profiles.

Interesting.

Being a litigator (and thus having nothing whatsoever to do with tourism, or the friendlier side of humanity generally) I don't really know what to say about this. Nonetheless, it is worth considering. It also gets me a-thinking about what it is, aside from racing, that Speedway hangs its hat on. I get that the 500 is, in the immortal words of Joe Biden, "a big f**kin' deal." Nonetheless, what is the "thing" about Speedway during the other 350 or so days per year? Food? Festivals? Sport? Music?

Spirit of the Season

As a resident of the Home of the American Dream (i.e. Speedway, IN), I can't think of anything that better invokes the month of May. On a side note, wouldn't it be something if the Town and IMS could work together to have a huge sculpture of the Borg Warner Trophy erected in the middle of the roundabout at 16th/Crawfordsville/Main St.?

Happy May everyone!

On Golf Carts

A discussion erupted on Next Door regarding how people intend to get their guests to IMS on Race Day. Someone asked whether golf carts are allowed in Speedway, and the consensus appeared to be that they are not. I have reviewed the municipal code and see no reason to disagree with the consensus.

Of course, I can't help but question why it is that golf carts are outlawed in Speedway. I did a bit of research on golf carts a few years ago for a lawsuit I was defending, and I came across the following information: Indiana Code § 9-21-8-57 provides that "A golf cart or off-road vehicle may not be operated on a highway except in accordance with: (1) an ordinance adopted under IC 9-21-1-3(a)(14) and IC 9-21-1-3.3(a) authorizing the operation of a golf cart or an off-road vehicle on the highway; or (2) IC 14-16-1-20 authorizing an off-road vehicle to operate on a highway."

So, the fact that golf carts can't be driven in Speedway is a function of local choice. My question is, does this choice reflect the will of the community? I wonder whether this has ever been considered.

Of course, the Next Door forum focused on Race Day. Maybe Speedway would be wise to allow golf carts only on Race Day; maybe Speedway would be wise to allow golf carts on any day except Race Day. 

Frankly, I don't know.

What I do know, however, is that Speedway has the right to pass an ordinance allowing residents to travel around on golf carts. The fact that it has not reflects on the priorities of our elected town council. My question is whether that reflects the priorities of the town council's constituents (i.e. the residents of Speedway). I, for one, would fully support an ordinance allowing residents to use golf carts on public streets within the town, particularly if such ordinances only allowed for golf carts to traverse, but not drive on, the main roads such as Lynhurst, Crawfordsville, etc. 

Anyway, those are my thoughts on golf carts. I don't own one, but I probably would buy one if I had the opportunity to drive it to my kids' local events, high school events, main street events, etc. Taking people to the race? I guess . . . but it's not even close to my primary concern.

Speedway Permitting

I had an interesting discussion recently regarding the issue of getting permits to do home improvement in Speedway. A few thoughts:

• With respect to contractors, I am not too worked up about the idea that Speedway's permitting process may be a bit antiquated. After all, it is a contractor's job to ensure that all permits are properly obtained. While it may add a bit in cost to remodeling projects, I don't see that the public necessarily owes it to professionals to make their jobs easier. After all, as much as I would like the courts to be a bit less antiquated, I hold myself out as someone who knows how to navigate them. It's not up to the public to pay to make my job easier.
• That said, I think that when certain "public" systems (i.e. courts, permitting, etc.) become too cumbersome, they then impose costs on the public writ large. For example, if the courts are so inefficient that it takes 5 years for your civil complaint to be heard, that is a significant cost to the litigants; this without even considering the fact that attorney fees tend to escalate as litigation drags on, litigants may be entitled to pre-judgment interest (or in the alternative, inflation erodes the value of the relief obtained in court), etc. As to permits, if it becomes unwieldy to get a building permit in Speedway, the cost of household improvements will escalate relative to greater Indianapolis, the housing stock in Speedway will be depleted, and the value of all of our homes will depreciate.
• Clearly, there ought to be a balancing of interests in this regard.

With respect to "DIYers" or "Weekend Warrior" home improvement types, however:

• We (and I use that term very loosely) are NOT experts in obtaining proper permits.
• We are doing it ourselves, probably, because we are looking to save a few bucks.
• The last thing we want is to be told during the late stages of a project that we need to start over because, for example, a doorway is 3" too narrow. Not being a contractor, I don't know the specifics of building code.

I have always found the public officials in Speedway to be very conscientious of the burdens they are placing on the citizenry, and I applaud these officials for addressing this issue before it becomes too cumbersome, as referenced above. I believe that they are earnestly attempting to strike a proper balance between, on the one hand having an efficient and easy to understand permitting process, and on the other hand making sure that structures built in Speedway are safe, code compliant, etc.

Too often I find myself being critical of things on this blog. As the old saw goes, the news never reports when the plane lands safely, right? Only when it crashes. This is a welcome opportunity for me to write affirmatively about the efforts undertaken on our behalf by our public officials.

Bravo!

On Teachers - A Challenge

Dear Speedway:

We already live in a very unique and wonderful place. Speedway is unique for so many reasons that this post will only scratch the surface, but one aspect in particular comes to mind: Speedway Public Schools.

If you want to know why a house at 25th and Moeller is worth considerably more than a house a mile north of there, you need only look at the quality of schools.

In the summer of 2014, I was in the market to buy a house after I got a new job in Indianapolis. My family is a one-income family, and my income was modest. Moving to Carmel or Broad Ripple wasn't in the cards, even if that was what we wanted. However, Speedway was certainly an option, and why wouldn't it be?

After all, Speedway has excellent schools and low crime.

We should double down on what is positive and unique about our community. So here is the challenge: to keep Speedway schools the envy of the region, Speedway Public Schools should pay its teachers more than any other district in Central Indiana. Full Stop.

I would like to see Speedway Public Schools ("SPS") be the desired destination for the best teachers in Central Indiana.

Having worked as a teacher, I understand the dynamics of hiring to a degree. In areas such as Carmel, the schools tend to hire their own alumni. In areas such as Decatur Township, where I formerly taught, they also try to hire their alumni, but there isn't a large supply of graduates who proceeded to become licensed teachers, so they have to hire "outsiders." Many of these "outsiders," myself included, considered themselves to be professional, mercenary teachers.

I want the best of the best mercenary teachers to want to teach in Speedway Public Schools. If they are successful at IPS, Decatur, Wayne Township, etc., I want them to be applying for positions in Speedway en mass.

Imagine if for every teaching opening, for years on end, Speedway had a who's who list of top-quality teachers applying. Imagine what that would do:

• Improve the prospects for our children;
• Improve our home values;
• Improve the prestige and quality of our community;
• Differentiate our community

Let's bear in mind that public school teachers don't make that much. Paying $2,000/year more is a big deal when we're talking about a salary of $40,000.

So there it is; my latest challenge to our town council. The pocket book was wide open when it was time to subsidize Wilshaw's parking garage. Can we open the wallet for our children as well, or is that move preserved for well-funded developers and their expensive lobbyists/lawyers?

Unlicensed Teachers

So, I was on a plane the other day and got really annoyed with that know-it-all elitist pilot, telling everyone what to do and insisting that the plane had to be flown his way. I mean, COME ON, I've flown on planes for years!

Interestingly, after I got off the plane, I went to go see my doctor; once again, some know-it-all elitist insisting that his way was the only way to care for the human body. Again, this is my body; nobody knows it better than me!

Amazingly, later in that day, I had a client who absolutely ignored my legal advice and found himself in legal trouble; utterly avoidable legal trouble. I guess he determined that he has lived under laws for his entire life and doesn't need some fancy pants, overpaid, elitist lawyer telling him "what's what." After all, the guy made a bunch of money by doing something utterly unrelated to law, so he must be qualified on legal matters too, right?

Perhaps my sarcasm is shining through?

It is in light of such sarcasm that I present you the latest and greatest from America's Worst Legislature:

A new bill aims to remedy Indiana’s teaching shortage

Well, reading this, I was relieved. It's about time! What are they going to do? Restore collective bargaining rights? Raise wages? Limit workloads? Do something, anything, to entice people to devote their lives to this noble profession?

by allowing public schools to fill up to 10 percent of their teaching staff with unlicensed teachers.

Look at me in my naivete!

I can't help but notice that our legislature believes that financial incentives work to entice wealthy people to work or invest more, yet this logic is wholly absent when it comes to teachers.

Leave it to the smartest man in the legislature to put his finger on the issue here:

“We don’t have enough qualified teachers and we don’t want to pay to have enough qualified teachers, so we create a teacher facsimile,” said Democratic Rep. Ed Delaney of Indianapolis. “This is a very big problem and we’re not addressing it.”

The article continues:

The bill also targets hard-to-staff positions by allowing teachers specializing in special education, science, technology, engineering or math to receive additional pay.

So, to be clear, this bill allows for superintendents to arbitrarily staff schools, up to 10% of the faculty, with "teachers" who aren't licensed to, you know, "teach." Then, to add insult to injury, it allows the superintendents to decide to pay some teachers more.

Well, I see no way that this could go bad (there's that sarcasm again). My only hope is that here in Speedway, the Town Council insists that (a) every teacher in Speedway public schools is licensed; and (b) Speedway Public Schools pays more than any other school corporation in Central Indiana. Perhaps we can make this a concrete demand of our elected representatives?

 

 

Georgetown Rd. Closure

I don't really care. There, I said it. I don't care . . . largely because it does not affect me.

Perhaps I should clarify the above statement. I don't have any problem with the closure of Georgetown Rd. In fact, I am happy that it happened, not so much because Georgetown Rd. is now closed to thru-traffic, but because it has enabled the development of the roundabout at 16th/Main/Crawfordsville and the entryway to to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

For the Russian trolls reading this site (f*** you for messing with our election and saddling us with Donald Trump), Georgetown Rd. is a north/south road in Indianapolis that used to run from 16th Street on the south end to Lafayette Rd. on the north end; it ran right next to the west end of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and enabled traffic to go from 30th Street to 16th Street. It is now a dead end just north of 16th Street.

Here is a map as Georgetown Rd. used to be, with a big red arrow showing the part that is now a roundabout:

Please note that the picture is not perfectly oriented. Where the arrow points is now a roundabout and is actually at the southwest corner of the track. Note also that the road running parallel with the north end of the track is 25th Street. For a map (which I had problems embedding today for some reason), see here. That intersection, which used to rank as one of the worst and most dangerous intersections in Indianapolis, is now a roundabout (which, if the research in Carmel is to be believed, renders the intersection considerably safer than it once was.

(Gratuitous picture of Georgetown Rd. on race day):

Anyway, many people in Speedway seem upset about this closure of Georgetown Rd. I've noticed that the anger over this development is largely concentrated in two camps:

Camp 1: These people generally reside on Auburn Street, which is the next street to the west upon which traffic can get from 25th Street down to Crawfordsville Rd. This was previously (and still officially is) a "side street." Traffic that would otherwise have gone down Georgetown Rd. now goes down their street. I find Camp 1 to have a legitimate grievance that is eminently solvable. All one needs to do is have Auburn Street go one way north from 21st to 25th, and one way south from 21st to Crawfordsville Rd. Problem solved. Of course, this would require a little bit of change for the residents of Auburn St. I don't blame people for wanting things to not inconvenience them, but this is a very solvable problem.

Camp 2: I find Camp 2 to be considerably more difficult to stomach. Generally, Camp 2 is populated by people who seem, to me at least, to be contrarian by nature and believe that by being contrarian to and nitpicking at the Speedway Town Council and the Speedway Redevelopment Commission, they are somehow "sticking it to the man" or "looking out for the little guy." Newsflash Captain Contrarian - your constant complaining doesn't help anything. If you have such a problem with what the Speedway Redevelopment Commission has done in the past decade, go ahead and sell your house (in this white-hot housing market). Go ahead and pocket the tens of thousands of dollars in appreciated real estate from which you have benefitted, largely thanks to the forward-thinking members of the Town Council (reminder, not all of them are forward thinking) and the Speedway Redevelopment Commission (which is certainly fallible but not worthy of the derision heaped upon it).

Bottom line: change is hard. I'm certain that when the Meadowood Park neighborhood was built back in the mid 1960s, plenty of people had a problem with it. "It's gonna destroy the character of the Town!" However, if Speedway refuses to change, Speedway will only deteriorate.

Again, if Speedway refuses to change, Speedway will only deteriorate.

Self Dealing

As any reader of this blog knows, I am a supporter of the efforts by the Redevelopment Commission. Full stop.

I am also a fan of using government to make its citizens' lives better. Full stop.

However, as to both topics (really, the Redevelopment Commission is a sub-topic of the "use government to make peoples' lives better" topic), it is entirely destroyed if one uses such interventions for personal enrichment.

I do now know the veracity of this, but I have heard that a former member of the Redevelopment Commission has bought as many liquor licenses as possible in Speedway through his participation in the commission. As I said at the outset, I don't have an opinion on the veracity of this rumor, and I know that rumors can spread through this small town quicker than wildfire.

Nonetheless, my point is that we live in a time of such cynicism toward our own government that a significant plurality of the society sincerely believes that "government is the problem," and would rather turn our labor laws over to the roofing subcontractors of the world, our environmental laws over to the oil refiners of the world, and our financial laws over to the payday lenders of the world. Self dealing, as described above, only makes this cynicism worse.

If you know about public officials' self dealing, please let me know and I will do my best to publicize it insofar as I am able. I believe we are fortunate to have ethical leadership here in Speedway. However, I am troubled by this rumor and sincerely aim to be vigilant with respect to the government's fulfillment of duties toward the citizenry.

Air BnB

There has been an ongoing "discussion" of sorts regarding Air BnB on Nextdoor of late. Leaving aside the ad hominem attacks that are the hallmark of any discussions among neighbors, I believe that there is a genuine controversy within this discussion that could use some fleshing out.

The fact of the matter, as with so many other matters, is that any policy regarding Air BnB will require trade-offs. Always remember: no matter how it is couched or how good it sounds, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

On the one hand, the Town of Speedway could take a complete "hands off" approach*. The upsides to that include a community affirmation of property rights, i.e. you can do whatever the hell you want with your own property. Also included as an upside is the opportunity for residents of Speedway to turn their own homes into profit centers by renting same out to visitors; it would also provide new customers for the retail businesses on Main Street, most notably the restaurants. These are all good things.

Of course, with the good comes the bad. It's a package deal. While people would be free to use their property as they see fit, that "as they see fit" could (and likely would) entail some pretty annoying stuff. Today that "as they see fit" might be renting to Air B n B travellers; tomorrow that "as they see fit" might be a brothel or CAFO. I would sincerely prefer to keep either of those uses out of my neighborhood. Also, what is the impact on real estate values? It is certainly possible that owning Speedway houses as Air B n B properties would be very profitable, encouraging others to buy such houses in the community. I'm all for my own home increasing in value, but if we're talking about a quick run-up followed by a precipitous crash, thanks but no thanks. Another potential problem would be with the tenants of these homes. Everybody likes visitors until the stereotypical obnoxious tourist shows up, partying all night, parking on people's yards, littering, etc. (If you're thinking of coming to Speedway to trash the place, and there is no 500-mile race going on this weekend, please go elsewhere.)

There are two sides to the "no regulation" coin. There are also two sides to the "full regulation" approach.

Hypothetically, Speedway could still allow Air B n B properties yet regulate them to the gills. This would include such things as posting a bond for each and every time that you rent your home, to cover the possible cost to the town of responding to nuisance or other calls associated with these guests. The town could require that a home be subject to inspection each time a new "renter" signs a new "lease." For the owners of long-term rentals, this would impose a hassle at least once per year. For an Air B n B owner, this would be a hassle as often as a few times per week. If the Town forced the property owner to pay for these inspections, the hassle would also be a financial obligation. There are numerous other ways that the Town could regulate these properties, but they all have their down side.

For starters, as to the bond, enforcing the collection of it would be nearly impossible and the Town would spend more attempting to enforce such collection than it would likely ever recover. Further, there are moral dilemma problems with this: if you've already paid for breaking something that is unbroken, perhaps you are more willing to break that thing. If that thing is our community, I don't want visitors to act as though they've already paid for breaking it. As far as the inspections, this could drum some of the smaller landlords out of business right along with Air B n B houses. It could scare off potential real estate investors that want to develop areas, such as the area north of Crawfordsville Rd. near I-465. Why would you invest in Speedway if the town has shown that it will essentially destroy your investment via regulation?

Anyway, I believe that the discussion is a healthy one for the Town of Speedway. I ask that my neighbors consider the larger issues when they decide where they stand on this issue, and attempt to consider the possible side effects of any purported action. Just because it annoys you does not mean that it is bad for Speedway; just because it lines your own pocket, consider that it may be problematic for your neighbor.

Once again, I find myself returning to the latin phrase: sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas.


*I am speaking hypothetically here, of course, because I for one believe that such an approach would violate the due process clauses of the 5th and 14th Amendments, the takings clause of the 5th Amendment, and the dead letter "privileges or immunities" clause of the 14th Amendment . . . but that Constitutional law discussion is for another day. Further, these extremes are taken outside of the context of other laws, such as nuisance laws. Today is about policy, not law.

YIMBY

I think that most people have heard of the term "NIMBY." This stands for Not In My Back Yard and generally refers to those who want to remonstrate or otherwise impede development. Further, it reflects the idea that many people are perfectly fine with developing property so long as that property is not to close to their own homes.

There is a movement in other cities, in response to NIMBYism, called YIMBY, i.e. Yes In My Back Yard.

Count me in. I would like to see development in my backyard. I want to see Wilshaw built, particularly if it is not dominated by parking structures. I want to see increased bus routes between Speedway and every other part of the city. I want to see a train connecting the airport to downtown via Speedway. I want to see condos built around IMS for wealthy racing team owners to stay in, hopefully for more than just a few weeks in May. I would like to see more bars and restaurants open throughout Speedway, not just on Main St. I want to see the Speedway Supercenter (i.e. the Kroger development) grow like gangbusters. I would like the McGilvery's development to fill in, whether it is with liquor stores, bible stores, health clubs, or whatever.

Along those lines, I love the International Marketplace on W. 38th Street! In a city that is dominated by chain franchise restaurants and stores, it is so refreshing to see all of those independently owned and operated restaurants and other businesses. I try to patronize them as often as I reasonably can.

As I wrote a long time ago, the traffic that comes along with these developments is evidence that people actually want to be here. That is a good thing. If there is no traffic and considerably more parking than would ever reasonably be required, that is evidence that our home is not worth visiting to those who don't live here. That is a bad thing!

PLEASE in my backyard! Maybe instead of YIMBY we should call people like myself PIMBYs.

Transit Innovation

I want to clarify what I mean by "transit innovation." As an initial matter, I would prefer to have an underground train system throughout, at the least, the center of Indianapolis. Alas, it is very difficult, if not impractical, to get "there" from "here." That is why I am a fan of transit innovation. We are not stuck with a binary choice between spending billions of dollars on a train system and continuing to use the automobile for every trip.

There are alternatives.

These alternatives come in forms such as bus routes; biking routes; embrace of golf carts; walkable development.

I am not wed to any of the above ideas, nor have I dismissed other ideas that I didn't mention above. My point is that we cannot continue to expect that simply paving more roads will solve the problems that we will face as a growing community. We need to think practically about how we (a) maintain property values, not just in Speedway but in Indianapolis generally, and (b) how we marshall public resources for the best outcome (i.e. do we spend more money on roads, or do we try something else? Which option will result in the maximum amount of utility and human happiness?).

Why I Support Transit Innovation

Speedway has been around for a long time. The houses are old. The land has a lot of history, to put it kindly. While my neighborhood was initially seen as green field development at the edge of Indianapolis, that is no longer the case. Some 40 years after my house was built and 100 years after Main St. and IMS were built, these things are about as near Monument Circle as much of anything else. Don't forget; Monument Circle is the spiritual, if not physical, center of the State.

Speedway will never again be the newest suburb with the newest houses. That ship has sailed. I tend to believe that Speedway must, imperatively, capitalize on its assets while it still can. I read an old piece in the Urbanophile that discussed the life span of suburbs:

When you offer an older, inferior version of the same basic auto-oriented product as the suburbs, but with higher taxes, don’t expect many takers.

I think that is the essence of it; Speedway can either be the "older, inferior version" of Carmel, Avon, etc., or it can be the place where you can live and be connected with the remainder of Speedway as well as downtown Indianapolis. Frankly, I could not care less if they construct something out to the east side; I don't live there and rarely go there (if I can help it).

This goes along with my previously expressed beliefs and thoughts about golf carts and bike paths through Speedway. Urbanism is the key, people. We are not a green field suburb anymore. We can either be a part of "slumburbia" or we can remain a bona fide neighborhood set inside of a great American metropolis. We can embrace our urban nature or fight and deny it. As I say with so many things, the choice is ours. We get the future we deserve.

Roundabout Musings

A few thoughts on roundabouts:

1. I saw a news story about all of the roundabouts in Carmel. Apparently, the number of automobile accidents where someone is hurt and requires ambulance transport has decreased by 75%, in real terms, since the late 1990s. By way of comparison, recall that the population of Carmel has increased significantly, yet the number of serious injury accidents has decreased significantly. Anyone who says that roundabouts don't increase public safety is making an assertion that is at odds with the evidence.

2. I think that the Speedway roundabout has significantly improved the intersection of 16th/Crawfordsville. Now, I fully recognize that there are those in the neighborhood bounded by 25th/Lynhurst/Crawfordsville/Georgetown who lament the closure of Georgetown Rd. For two reasons, I can't really speak to the merits of their concerns: I don't live in that neighborhood and thus don't experience their concerns firsthand; and I did not live in Speedway prior to the closure of Georgetown Rd. What I can say, however, is that prior to the closure of Georgetown Rd., the 16th/Georgetown/Crawfordsville intersection was approximately the least desirable place one could think of to go. That intersection is now considerably more aesthetically pleasing and presents a much more favorable and positive image of Speedway.

3. I have heard that the OSCNA is lobbying to put a 40' flag pole in the middle of that roundabout. Really?!?! Do we need another large American flag flying in Speedway? Don't we have enough of them? By my count, we have such flag poles in front of every one of the six schools; in front of the Town Hall; at the track; in front of Allison Transmission; etc. Why not try to do something a bit unique and/or creative? Perhaps we could do a joint deal with IMS and put a huge replica of the Borg-Warner trophy in there? How about a large piece of public art? I used to live in Grand Rapids, MI, and they have "the calder" downtown. These are the kinds of things that make cities and towns unique places to go or generic places to go through. In my own opinion, yet one more 40' flag pole makes that roundabout the kind of generic unremarkable place that one simply goes through; a representative piece of art that embodies Speedway would go a long way towards announcing to the world that Speedway is a unique place to spend time and money.

Thank You to the Commenters

Too often, the comment sections of blogs reverts to pointless personal attacks on either the writer or the fellow commenters. Clearly, the commentariat that reads Speedway Matters is of a different breed and class, as the comments I get tend to be thoughtful and helpful to the discussion with only a few isolated (and probably well deserved) shots at the writer.

Specifically regarding Speedway's former director of the Redevelopment Commission, I would like to thank the readers to this blog for their thoughtful contributions to the discussion. While opinions can and do vary, I commend the readers for grounding their opinions in facts and, even more so, taking the time to learn the facts pertaining to the Home of the American Dream (i.e. Speedway). It is because of you (and those like you who are willing to take the time to care) that Speedway is a special place. Kudos!