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Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

Infographics of the Week: Social Media Neighborhoods, Civic Change

For my email subscribers who missed this update, the OECD report on Chicago actually now is available online. Thanks to Jim Russell for pointing this out.

Livehoods

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new way of looking at neighborhood definitions they call livehoods that determines de facto neighborhoods using an algorithm that looks at Foursquare checkins. It’s pretty cool, especially as the maps they generate are interactive. Here’s a static shot of San Francisco though to show you want they look like:

Maps are currently available for San Francisco, New York, and (of course), Pittsburgh, with more to come.

I found this via the excellent Flowing Data blog that I’d encourage any data visualization geeks to check out.

Think, Act, Impact Indianapolis

Another interesting infographic comes to us from the folks at People for Urban Progress. They put together an infographic showing how things get done in Indianapolis city government. If the zoomable image embedded below doesn’t display, click here to check it out on PUP’s site.

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

Re-Branding Indianapolis Through Humanitarian Efforts by Kelly Campbell

[ One of the traps of smaller cities is thinking that because the talent pool is smaller and very well connected, once you are plugged in, you must know everybody cool in town. But the reality for me in places like Indianapolis is that I am constantly amazed by how many cool and interesting people I've never even heard of, much less met.

Well, I recently came across a blog post by Kelly Campbell, one of those cool people I'd never heard of, that presented her passionate case for pursuing global humanitarian efforts in Indy, using her grass roots example to show how. Kelly previously worked in the fashion industry in New York, and now runs The Village Experience and writes for the Blue Vine Collective (She was also one of the IBJ's 40 Under 40 last year, and you can read more about her over at the IBJ). Kelly not only sees humanitarian efforts as a whitespace opportunity to exploit, they are a personal passion of hers. This shows it as an area that not only has good strategic relevance, but also fits with the cultural ethos of the city. Which is exactly what cities should be looking for. She graciously gave me permission to republish her post - Aaron. ]

Indianapolis has long been known as the “Crossroads of America” and one of the “Sports Capitals of the World.” We host large-scale conventions, international races, and very soon…the Super Bowl. Huge corporations including Eli Lilly, Cummins, and Rolls Royce call Indianapolis home. We are a relatively small city, but we’re on the map.

What I envision, though, is being on the map for something more meaningful… something more impactful. I see Indianapolis becoming a model for other cities to follow in regards to our local to global connections and our humanitarian efforts. Why couldn’t Indianapolis become known as the “humanitarian hub” of the country or even the world?

Many conversations in the community have been taking place around this topic. Indianapolis is now hosting monthly networking events through the Indianapolis Intercultural Network to connect young professionals with an interest in the international world – you walk into one of these events and the topics of conversation range from discussing shipping methods in Togo to recent adventures on the pirate infested beaches of the Kenyan Coast to improving the quality of water in Haiti to debating the image of the U.S. around the world. There is no shortage of interesting people or interesting and thoroughly exciting conversations taking place – all while supporting locally owned and operated businesses around town. This has really proven to be a catalyst to connect the right people to each other and jumpstart the move towards Indianapolis becoming a true international player in the humanitarian sector.

For years, several grassroots organizations have been leading the way in connecting Indianapolis to the rest of the world. The Village Experience has been working with artisans in over 30 countries and operating socially responsible trips to multiple countries in the developing world. Building Tomorrow has been constructing schools and making a huge impact on education in Uganda. Timmy Global Health has changed the face of healthcare in the developing world. The International Center has been bringing in foreign delegates and connecting them to local Indianapolis citizens and businesses. Exodus Refugee Center has been helping refugees make Indianapolis a home for many years. Provocate and Provocate Haiti have been centralizing international efforts and bringing awareness to social justice issues around the world and more specifically building community among all of those involved in Haiti. Without much media attention, these groups have been at the forefront of working in the international arena. What a great base from which to start this move forward.

One specific example of how Indianapolis is becoming more known for it’s international efforts is the East Africa Fundraiser hosted in September 2011.

Organizations and individual citizens approached the Village Experience with grandiose ideas of making a difference in this overwhelming disaster on the other side of the world…the only problem, not one of the organizations on its own had the ability to mobilize resources at the level desired. The solution…work together and make a bigger impact. Organizations such as Bluevine Collective, Indianapolis Intercultural Network, w/purpose, Provocate, Indego Global, and IUPUI joined forces, created a committee of members with large social media followings, and got to work planning a citywide event centered on bringing awareness to the East African famine and raising funds to help alleviate it. We used The Village Experience as our planning hub and as the venue for the event. We contacted the food trucks, local beer vendors, and our friends at Five Star Catering to join in and help us. We created facebook pages, blanketed cafes and coffee shops with flyers, sent out personal invitations, and promoted to all of our customers both in the store and through outside events. We reached out to Nuvo… and they responded by making it the featured event of the week. The pieces of the puzzle were coming together. The last piece of the puzzle… to which organization were we going to donate the money?

After weeks of research, we decided to donate any funds raised to the Global Enrichment Foundation. We didn’t want our efforts to be a drop in the bucket and go mostly to administrative costs at large organizations. We wanted our efforts and our funds to really make a difference. Global Enrichment Foundation became the perfect partner. They were a young, grassroots organization based in a small city in Canada. They maintained low administrative costs. Their founder was energetic and believed in sustainable development and helping people regardless of religious beliefs. And most importantly, they had a very personal connection to the people of Somalia and were working where no one else dared to go. They were on the ground in Kenya and Somalia trucking in life-saving food and water to those effected by the famine… and at the same time, they were developing programs to educate and empower women. It was the perfect fit.

We set a date for our fundraiser, and in the meantime, The Bluevine Collective reached out to followers in the weeks preceding the event and were successful in raising a great deal of funding. The day of the event, we had a huge turnout and were extremely excited to see so many new faces that showed up to do their part in ending the famine in East Africa. We raised $10,000! Not bad for our first attempt at hosting a community based event in collaboration with local partners to tackle a social justice issue.

But, we didn’t stop there. We wanted Indianapolis to be different. We wanted to follow our money to East Africa and really connect to the cause. So, The Village Experience took a group to Kenya in November to hand carry over the funds and meet with reps from The Global Enrichment Foundation. The group volunteered throughout the country for two weeks and gained a better understanding of why events like this happen and why the world seems to turn a blind eye. The world, except Indianapolis, that is. We returned energized to strengthen this newfound partnership and were thrilled when Global Enrichment Founder, Amanda Lindhout, sent over photographs from the Convoy of Hope in December, which was funded in part by our efforts. I still get a little emotional when I look at these photographs and see The Village Experience and The Bluevine Collective logos on the trucks and at the food distribution sites in Somalia. Indianapolis was making a name for itself – and on the humanitarian level at that.

If we can do something like this, there is no reason we can’t do more. I challenge Indianapolis to take the next step. In October 2012, The Village Experience will be hosting Somaly Mam – human trafficking advocate from Cambodia and CNN Hero – for a night of networking and raising awareness. With 9 months to plan a citywide event, I am betting that Indianapolis will prove to be the best stop on her international advocacy tour. This is a woman who is changing the lives of young boys and girls by rescuing them from brutal human traffickers and challenging governments to do more to protect their children. Indianapolis has its own human trafficking task force and deals with this issue on a daily basis. Let’s all join forces and put an end to human trafficking… once and for all.

This post originally appeared in the Blue Vine Collective on January 17, 2012.

Sunday, March 18th, 2012

The Chicago Tribune Doesn’t Get It On Regional Economic Development

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently released a 332-page economic report on greater Chicago. This one, like Rahm Emanuel’s own economic plan, is very candid about the economic and demographic problems facing Chicago. I will be saying much, much more on this subject in the near future.

In the meantime, I want to focus in on the Chicago Tribune’s reaction to the OECD study. They published an editorial about it concentrating on one finding, one that’s absolutely no surprise to anyone who has ever given Chicago even a cursory review, namely that there are way too many units of government in Chicagoland – over 1,700 to be precise.

The Tribune correctly notes that jurisdictional boundaries are often irrelevant to economic geography. But this particular piece caught my eye:

State borders should not matter, the OECD concludes, because the entire Midwest depends on the economic engine of its largest city. What’s good for Chicago is good for Indianapolis. Did you hear that, Mitch Daniels? Or is the Indiana governor too busy recruiting Illinois companies to move across the state line?

While I can’t read the Tribune editorial board’s minds, it isn’t difficult to see why they pick on Mitch Daniels. He has launched a campaign to try to lure businesses from Illinois (and other surrounding states) to Indiana. Indiana also pointedly declined to be part of the OECD study when they were invited, even though Northwest Indiana is clearly part of Chicagoland. In explaining the state’s rationale, economic development director Mitch Roob said, “We don’t do studies, we do deals.”

Far be it from me to defend Indiana’s decision not to participate in the study. It clearly shows a lack of understanding of modern economic geography. The approach of focusing on poaching businesses from surrounding states reveals Indiana’s strategy of trying to be “the best house on a bad block” and is a tacit admission it really can’t compete at the national much less the global level. What’s more, it’s another example of how Indiana hasn’t gotten it on the centrality of metro regions to the modern economic. (See “A New Approach to Regional Economic Development in Indiana for further thoughts on this). Incidentally, Indiana’s strategy isn’t working very well. Since 2004, the year Daniels was elected governor, Indiana actually lost a greater percentage of its jobs than Illinois, and the flow of people moving from Illinois to Indiana has dropped as well.* Underperforming dysfunctional Illinois is quite a feat.

But while there’s plenty of room for Indiana to change its thinking, the Tribune’s editorial isn’t likely to inspire anyone in Indiana or elsewhere to do it. Quite the opposite in fact.

Consider their statement “What’s good for Chicago is good for Indianapolis.” This sounds nearly identical with the oft-mangled misquoting of Charlie Wilson as telling Congress “What’s good for General Motors is good for America.” I wonder if Tribune ever considered the converse of their statement, namely that what’s good for Indianapolis is good for Chicago. Do you think they believe that? Do you think they or any other member of the Chicagoland’s leadership ever spent any time time thinking about what was good for Indianapolis or Milwaukee or Madison or Des Moines or Grand Rapids? I haven’t heard anything to suggest that they have.

If you are the big dog, which in this case Chicago clearly is, and you want other people to work with you, then you need to make the first move to prove your good intentions.

This is perhaps best illustrated by former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith. In Indiana, east-west roads that form a county boundary are the maintenance responsibility of the county to the north. 96th St. is the boundary between Marion County (Indianapolis) and Hamilton County, home to the most rapidly growing and affluent suburbs in the region. (Chicago residents can think “Lake-Cook Rd.” though the analogy is imperfect). There was a critical need to upgrade the corridor and build a new bridge across the White River at 96th St. Under Indiana law, this was Hamilton County’s responsibility, but because the cost of the project was so steep, it went nowhere for a long time. What’s more, plenty of folks in Indy weren’t too keen for it to happen, because they saw it as benefiting primarily the suburbs and enabling them to suck more life out of Indianapolis.

Goldsmith saw it differently. He saw how it would open up land in his own city to development as well. And he didn’t see the suburbs as the enemy. So although he was under no obligation to do so, he stepped up and told Hamilton County he’d pay for 50% of the road project even though legally it was 0% his responsibility. The project got done.

Later, on the other side of the county, it came time to widen South County Line Road. This time it was Indianapolis responsible for the cost. But because he had first paid for 96th St. when he didn’t have to, Goldsmith had the moral authority to go the county south of him and ask them to pay half of the County Line expansion, which they did.

This is how regional cooperation works. The big dog has to step up first. Getting it right on regional questions like this – it also has a regional non-compete where various cities and towns won’t offer subsidies to induce a business to relocate within the region – is one of the reasons Indianapolis has led the way in the Midwest on population and job growth in the last decade.

I absolutely agree that it is in the interest of the Midwest for Chicago to be strong and prosperous. And vice versa. So cooperation is in everyone’s interest. But to make it happen, it is Chicago that is going to have to step up and first and prove to the rest of the region that it is as invested in their success as it expects them to be invested in Chicago’s. Without that, maybe places like Milwaukee and Grand Rapids will continue to pursue closeness to Chicago on their own because they have few other good options, but any broader cooperation of the type the Tribune apparently wants to see happen is likely doomed.

As I’ve argued before, Chicago and Indianapolis are very complementary. (The same is true of various other Midwest cities with Chicago). They are very different and are not good substitutes for each other. Hence they can benefit from specialization and cooperation. What we see instead is opportunistic swipes at each other, such as Indy trying to lure the CME away and Chicago saying it wants to poach sports events that are hosted in Indy. While I actually don’t think these sorts of things are necessarily unhealthy in and of themselves – I don’t want to stamp out inter-geographic competition – they are unfortunately all there is. There should also be more cooperation to create the sort of “coopetition” situation we’ve seen touted as one of the keys to Silicon Valley’s success.

As I said, Chicago will have to make the first move. The first one to make is to get the rhetoric right, which the Tribune clearly didn’t do. Chicago’s media and civic leadership need to show first through their statements that the success of the broader Midwest is important to them personally, and that they see it as critical to the future of success of Chicago. Then they need to figure out how to show they mean it through their actions.

* Total Non-Farm Employment, annual average, 2004-2011. Illinois lost 2.6% of its jobs. Indiana lost 3.4%.

Thursday, March 8th, 2012

Creative Transportation Financing in Indiana

I’ve been pounding the Indiana Department of Transportation lately, rightly so I think. But fairly I should also highlight things they do well that are also of relevance to the country.

One of them is an announcement yesterday of a plan to accelerate construction of a major project on US 31 in Carmel and Westfield, northern suburbs of Indianapolis. The project is an upgrade of 12 miles of that route to a full freeway. Work had finally started – after about 20 years of study – and was projected to dribble out over the course of nearly a decade, being completed in 2018.

With this announcement, the project will be accelerated and completed by 2015. All remaining work will be bundled into a single $475 million contract. This will be funded with some type of financing mechanism – the details aren’t yet clear as to whether this is GARVEE bonds, vendor financing, bank loans, etc – then repaid over a decade with allocations from the state’s regular highway funding.

Spending future money now can sometimes be a bad thing. Some states are in trouble because they’ve bonded out too much of their future highway funds. But in this case it seems like a good move. The state projects it will save $50 million in construction costs by doing it this way – not a small amount. One benefit of pulling forward projects right now is to take advantage of the weak economy to get better pricing. Prior to the recession, construction cost inflation was running at 11%, well above any reasonable financing costs for borrowing money by a state. So doing projects sooner avoids that future inflation as well.

But the state is only part of the equation. Motorists will save significantly both by having to endure fewer construction seasons, and by pulling forward the benefits. Given the congestion in the area, this should be significant.

But financing and contract bundling aren’t the only things pulling the project forward. The state is also looking at temporarily closing the road to get things done faster. This technique is known as a “hyperfix” locally after the name of the original project where it was done. This approach has been pushed by Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard, who upgraded Keystone Ave as an alternate route and built collector/distributor roads parallel to US 31 to provide access even if the highway were closed. Brainard wants to do the segment through his city in just one construction season. The Indianapolis region has a been a leader in using the hyperfix technique, which saves money and reduces the amount of time motorists experience the pain of construction.

Beyond the savings, this also greatly reduces the risk around the project just not getting done. This project barely survived getting axed due to budget problems a couple previous times, despite its huge benefit/cost ratio. As the Toll Road lease money runs out and federal funding seems sure to decline, Indiana faces the prospect of a plunge in its funds available for construction in the not too distant future. This announcement brings much greater certainty to the project.

Some don’t like highway projects, but this is clearly needed. The Major Moves upgrades on US 31 segments will cut travel times between Indianapolis and South Bend by 30 minutes in addition to serving key growth areas in the region. The suburbs in the region are in parallel pursuing new urbanist policies around densification and walkability, and mayors like Jim Brainard are strong supporters of building out a regional transit system.

This should only be considered a preliminary analysis since full details aren’t available yet. But it’s an example of how states can use techniques like shorter term financing and hyperfixes to save money and get projects done sooner. This is definitely something we need to see more of in America.

I should also note that Gov. Daniels decided to do this despite what I believe is the probability of considerable opposition from the state’s powerful highway lobby. Indiana’s contractors are often smallish and not able to handle large projects like this. Traditionally they’ve opposed large design/builds and such for this reason. That’s why Indiana usually breaks up its major projects into a seemingly endless parade of one to two mile segments. This combined bidding is much better for Hoosier taxpayers and motorists, however. Kudos to the governor for looking out for them first.

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

From Naptown to Super City

I have long touted the sports strategy that Indianapolis used to revitalize its downtown as a model for cities to follow in terms of strategy led economic and community development. I really think it sets the benchmark in terms of how to do it, and it has been very successful.

Indy is hosting the Super Bowl on Sunday, something that is locally seen as a sort of crowning achievement of the 40 year sports journey. As part of that, the Indianapolis Star and public TV station WFYI produced an hour long documentary on the journey called “Naptown to Super City.” I think it’s a must watch for anyone who is trying to figure out to revitalize their own downtown. An hour isn’t short, but given the billions of dollars cities pour into this, I think it’s worth doing some homework. It tells the story of how Indy went from a deserted downtown where local Jaycees were licensed to take their shotguns and kill pigeons to one where the Super Bowl is being hosted today.

I’ll talk more about the Indy strategy in a bit, but first the show. If you are in Google Reader this won’t display for you, so click here to watch.

One thing this brought home for me is the true magnitude of the change. Perhaps I’m being a bit uncharitable, but Indianapolis almost literally started with nothing. It was never a major, important American city. It had no brand in the market. And it had a downtown that was all but dead. Everything they have today was built almost from scratch.

Why do I think the Indy sports strategy was such a good one? Two reason: it was a good strategic area to go after, and it was backed up with very intelligent execution.

First, five reasons this was a good strategic goal to pursue:

1. It just fits the character of the city. Hoosiers love sports. The Indianapolis 500 and high school basketball were long established. It’s something they could behind in a way that they would never have gotten behind being the “vegetarian capital of the world” or something like there. It was authentic to the city. If you watch the video, you’ll note how locals embraced the events that were held that. That goes a long way towards explaining the success of the strategy. You have to be authentic to a place in your development efforts.
2. It was a whitespace opportunity where Indy could get first mover advantage. Today every city thinks they can make money off sports, but Indy really pioneered the notion that you could use sports as an economic development tool. There were a lot of firsts along the path, and that’s one reason Indy was able to take out a leadership position. Just as one example, Indy was first to do the “build it and they will come” model of building a stadium before having a team. As a result, they were able to grab the Colts, and do it in an era when you didn’t have to mortgage your whole city to make a team relocation happen.
3. Being America’s top city for sports events was a realistically achievable goal. I know this because the city achieved it. This is in great contrast to the umpteen cities who all claim they’ll be the “best cycling city in America” or some such.
4. There were huge collateral benefits to sports beyond the direct economic impact of the events and the jobs they support. They bring people to the city to show it off to people who might not otherwise come. They enliven downtown and create events that locals might actually want to attend. They also have been an amazing brand opportunity. Just think of the Colts. How many times a week during football season does the word “Indianapolis” get said on TV? Probably hundreds if not thousands. Imagine if the city had to pay advertising dollars for that exposure? Yes, sports is expensive, but I think it could be justified just as cost-efficient marketing alone. Think about how much companies pay just to put their name on the stadium. How much more is it worth to put your city’s name on the team or the event? Think about how much advertisers will be paying for a 30 second commercial in the Super Bowl? What’s it worth for all those mentions of your city during the Super Bowl again?
5. It was an initiative that had the possibility of being truly transformative for the city. Again, I know this is true because it was.

I’m not going to claim these were actually the thoughts going through people’s minds as the sports strategy developed or that it was this calculated. But all of these things were implicitly true all along, and I think clearly the people pushing sports must have gotten it on that at some level. So sports meets the first test of a great strategy in that it set out after a good strategic goal.

It was also something where there was a level of execution detail that far exceeded what most cities do. In business, it’s one thing to have an idea. It’s another thing to execute on it and achieve market leadership. It’s still another to generate sustainable competitive advantage that keeps you there over the long haul. Indianapolis has managed to do all of these with sports. I’ll highlight eight examples of how it did this:

1. It invested in world class facilities. A lot of these have remained top rated even long after they opened, like Conseco Fieldhouse, which is still ranked every year as the best arena in the United States.
2. Two, it laid out an entire district downtown around events hosting, with everything you need in close proximity – venues, the convention center, hotels, shopping, and entertainment. This is something that’s already been widely commented on by Super Bowl visitors who are amazed you don’t have to get shuttled around all over the place and that you can actually walk directly from the media hotel to the hotels where the teams are staying.
3. Three, because of this Indy is able to effectively “saturation rebrand” downtown for an event and otherwise cater to events in a way that few other cities can or will. In effect, the city has converted its downtown into a giant sound stage. Take a look at the pictures of the city. The whole downtown as been rebranded after the Super Bowl, including, for example, plastering a huge Lombardi Trophy images on the side of the city’s premier hotel. You can debate the value of this to the city, but there’s no denying its value to the NFL. How many cities are willing to do this to the extent Indianapolis is?
4. Indy created the Indiana Sports Corp. as the first ever non-profit management company for events. Today, everybody has adopted that model.
5. The city cultivated a large, experienced volunteer base for putting on events that is much more powerful than what others cities have.
6. Indy has been willing to take calculated risks in support of the strategy. Building the Hoosier Dome with no team to play in it – big risk.
7. It not only went after the events, it went after the sanctioning bodies that determined where the events would be held. The most important is of course the NCAA, but there are others too. This has resulted in Indy having a “cluster” of these organizations and direct access to the people making decisions that pays incalculable dividends. This is one area where the “face to face” discussions that occur in Indy gives the city a big leg up. It’s not just better for selling, it gives Indy critical advanced intelligence about how these organizations are conceiving of their future events needs.
8. Last but certainly not least, this has been a sustained, 35 year commitment. It wasn’t a party politics thing. It was a single project thing. It wasn’t a flash in the pan idea. It was something that has been relentlessly pursued over the long haul.

Add all this up and it is easy to see why still today, three or four decades after it first started and after pretty much every city decided to go after these types of events, Indianapolis is still the best place in America to host a sports event.

I hope this gives you a flavor why the Indy sports strategy was so good and so successful. It’s certainly something that’s not without its failures and downsides. The fact that sports has consumed disproportionate civic resources is one of them, and one highlighted by the documentary. But on the whole, most people seem very happy with the results.

Something the video highlights at the end is one essential attribute for success that you can’t plan for or make happen – luck. They ask questions like, what if the “Save the Pacers” telethon had failed back in the 70’s? What if the seats in the Hoosier Dome had been the originally planned variegated colors instead of the Colts blue and white colors when Bob Irsay walked in to check it out? There were many critical turning points where without a lucky break, who knows if the future of downtown Indy might have been radically different in some way. It should give us some humility about the limits of our ability to simply will things into being. On the other hand, it reminds us that if you aren’t in the game, if you aren’t swinging the bat, you don’t have any chance at all of hitting that home run. You have to play if you want to win.

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Do Unto Localities As You Hate the Federal Government Doing Unto You

If there’s one thing you can count on in state government, it is complaints about federal red tape, unfunded mandates, and general over reach. Witness, for example, the battle royale over the health care law, with many states suing to overturn it. I think in many ways it is totally justifiable for states to be upset that the federal government takes money from their citizens, then just sends parts of it back with string attached.

So when dealing with local governments inside of their states, you would think state level politicians would remember how it feels to be on the receiving end and avoid tangling up their localities with red tape and mandates, instead empowering them by devolving power as much as possible and not meddling.

If you think that, you think wrong.

Another example is happening before our eyes in Indiana. After years of local study and consensus building, metro Indianapolis finally came up with a consensus transit plan called Indy Connect. It is a bus centric system that, while not exactly cheap, is certainly more cost efficient than many cities’ grandiose rail plans.

Unfortunately, Indiana doesn’t allow localities to impose taxes without specific state authorization and has a long tradition of keeping municipalities on a tight leash. Legislators complain when places like Indy keep coming to the well, but the reality is they don’t have the powers they need to do things without specific state approval.

So it is with transit. In order to fund the transit system, a special local tax levy would be required. So the backers of Indy Connect went to the General Assembly to ask, not for any taxes to be imposed, but only for permission to put a referendum on the ballot that would allow locals to decide for themselves whether or not to pay for a transit system. That’s it.

Unfortunately, that was too much for the legislature, which killed the transit bill in committee. This is the same legislature that, by the way, on the very same day passed a bill out of committee allowing “creation science” to be taught in schools. Glad to see they have their priorities straight.

Lest you think this is all evil anti-transit Republicans, the transit measure failed because Democrats voted against it. The Republican committee chair insisted that the transit bill include a “right to work” provision that prohibited mandatory unionization of transit workers. Now, I think right to work is a sideshow myself. And I don’t think that Republicans should have insisted on what is clearly an ancillary matter and one they know would tweak Democrats. I would have removed the provision, especially as I believe it conflicts with federal law anyway. But for Democrats to throw transit under the bus because of it exposes the extent to which at the state level, the Democratic party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the unions. They’d rather have no transit system at all than a non-union transit system. The died in the wool blue urbanist crowd in Indy has expressed some surprise that Democrats opposed it – including, incidentally, Rep. Bill Crawford, who represents an Indianapolis inner city district that would benefit enormously from improved transit – but that’s only because they are naive about how politics works at this level. They should keep that in mind going forward.

In any case, there are still ways to pass the law, such as by inserting it into another bill that then passes. This happens routinely in Indiana and elsewhere. But this recent vote is part of a pattern of dis-empowerment of localities in recent years. Tax caps (which I support, incidentally) were one – but the rules go well beyond that to impose de fact spending caps on local government. The state has stepped up increasing control over school districts and now basically dictates per pupil funding around the state. Other busybody bills include proposals this year to limit the power of redevelopment commissions, strip state universities of their ability to set tuition, and to mandate a return to single class high school basketball. A lawmaker from Cedar Lake, 150 miles away from Indianapolis, wants to eliminate Indy’s at large council seats. If there’s one common theme, it’s that this legislature has been more about taking away the ability of others to make their own decisions rather than doing much positive themselves.

It should come as no surprise that this is showing up in the state’s economy. For example, Gov. Mitch Daniels has said of Indianapolis, “The Indy metro’s our star cylinder in the engine.” Indeed, during the 2000s metro Indy outperformed all peer regions in population and job growth.

But recently it has taken a stumble. Between December 2010 and December 2011, metro Indy lost jobs. It was the only metro with over a million people in the Midwest to lose jobs other than Cleveland. That’s right, even Detroit gained jobs. A recent Brookings Global MetroMonitor report report ranked Indianapolis 183rd out of 200 global metros and dead last in the Midwest. The recent Milken Institute top performing cities index ranked Indianapolis 121 out of 200 large US metros, down from 81 a few years ago. Obviously in the Great Recession there are complex dynamics affecting how cities perform, but I don’t think it’s any accident this stumble has occurred against a backdrop of progressive local dis-empowerment in Indiana.

I appreciate the need for lean government, particularly today. But while the logic of minimalistic government spending as a road to success makes sense in some cases, it clearly doesn’t in central Indianapolis. There we have a city burdened with legacy costs and problems. As a result, central Indianapolis is always going to have higher taxes, more crime, and worse schools than other regional areas. Always, no matter how much it cuts. It cannot make itself competitive by cost cutting alone, as the exodus from Center Township shown in the last Census illustrates. Instead, it has to built a differentiated environment that is not in direct cost competition with suburbs. Obviously it has to keep a keen eye on the bottom line, but it can’t simply rely on cost cutting alone to drive success.

Transit is a big part of trying to do that. There’s no guarantee of success. But given the history, more of same is highly unlikely to work. The heart of the proposal is a quality urban bus system for the central core. This creates a more differentiated environment, better serves the mobility needs of carless residents, and links central city residents with emerging suburban job centers (which is one reason business has been so on board with the plan). It’s also comparatively cost efficient.

Let’s hope the legislature comes to its senses on this one. The idea that what happens to the urban core of Indy doesn’t matter to the state is ludicrous. The fate of Indianapolis and Indiana are bi-directionally linked. There can’t be a successful Indianapolis without a successful Indiana – but also vice versa.

Some have reported that Indianapolis has accounted for something like 80% of the economic growth in the state. Contrary to popular belief, it sends far more to state government than it gets back in taxes. Indianapolis, as the governor noted, is the economic engine of the state. But that engine is sputtering. Given that there’s no precedent for a region to thrive with an urban core that dies, we can expect that if central Indianapolis ultimately fails, it will take the region with it, and with that likely the state. The trajectory of the state economically, especially the central 2/3rd that are in Indy’s economic area, would be quite different indeed even if metro Indy merely regresses to say a Cincinnati level of growth.

Who knows what the state will ultimately do, but the micro-management of localities that occurs all too often not just in Indiana, but across America, is crippling the metro areas that are the economic drivers of our economy.

Indiana’s legislature ought to take a hard look in the mirror and ask why they have to try to act like the city council for the whole state. Given that there’s no federalism at the state-local level, that’s certainly their constitutional right. But if they want to be in that business, they, like the ungrateful servant, deserve every drop of torment the federal government chooses to inflict on them.

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

Replay: Neighborhood Redevelopment and the Downsides of Consolidation

This post is about the downsides of city-county consolidation. Actually, it might better be described as a discussion of some of the pros and cons of “big box” vs. “small box” municipal government. It is similar to business. It seems like every large business is either doing one of two things: centralizing or decentralizing. There’s a sort of cycle of reincarnation about this. Every model has its flaws, and people tend to gravitate towards the other side of the spectrum from time to time when the problems of the current mode manifest themselves in a particularly severe form. As a prologue to this, you might want to read my previous examination of city-county consolidation post, if you haven’t already.

I haven’t read all the academic literature on city-county consolidations, so won’t make any strong claims about the benefits its promoters have touted. But I will make two observations. One, I’m not aware of any city that has gone through a city-county consolidation that has become a civic failure, or which has a severely under-performing region. Most of the ones I’m familiar with seem to be doing ok or better. Two, if you look at the Midwest region, the metros that are doing well almost all feature a core city that either underwent a consolidation or has managed to maintain its ability to annex new territory. Minneapolis-St. Paul is an exception, but it has regional revenue sharing. (Landlocked and unconsolidated Chicago has a thriving core, but the regional numbers are lagging). So my gut tells me that big box solutions at a minimum don’t hurt and probably have some benefit to a region.

But they do come with downsides, and one of them is that it can make neighborhood redevelopment more difficult. The root of the problem is that with a single city covering a large area, there is only one mayor, one city council, etc. These have a large area to concern themselves with and cannot physically devote significant time and attention to each neighborhood. They inevitably spend most of their time dealing with the biggest and most visible challenges, which often means downtown development issues.

Redevelopment in Indianapolis

Indianapolis is a good example of this principle in action. It underwent a city-county consolidation in 1970. Four smaller municipalities were excluded from merger and so are known as “excluded cities”. So we get here both consolidated neighborhoods and some unconsolidated ones we can compare.

Since 1970, downtown Indianapolis has experienced a major resurgence. And Indy has emerged as what is in many ways the strongest performing Midwest metro area. I happen to believe its consolidation was instrumental in setting the stage for that. Many of its urban neighborhood have seen challenges, however. This includes many reasonably upscale areas, and I’d like to highlight two of them.

The first is an area centered around 71st and Binford Blvd on the northeast side. It was an established suburban area annexed under consolidation that started experiencing problems recently, notably with decay in its commercial developments, a common concern in aging suburbs. The population was also aging and not being renewed. This prompted a local woman to found a new neighborhood group called Binford Redevelopment and Growth (BRAG) to try to change the situation. BRAG wants more urban, mixed use development anchored by a transit stop on a future rail line, infrastructure upgrades to add basics like sidewalks that are missing in the area, and help redeveloping the commercial districts. They’ve had some successes, notably attracting investment in local strip centers, with a new Starbucks, CVS, and Kroger. But there has been little city investment.

The other is Midtown, an area encompassing the historically most desirable urban neighborhoods in the city. It includes the Meridian St. mansion district, Butler University, and Broad Ripple, the city’s main bar district. This area is loaded with gorgeous 1920’s era architecture and many independent shops and restaurants. But this area too started to experience problems, with vacant houses, some struggling commercial nodes, increasing crime, a property tax spike, and deteriorating infrastructure.

A group of neighbors here also formed a group called HARMONI designed to change this. They are also promoting neighborhood infrastructure investment, more urban development, etc. As part of this they purchased copies of Suburban Nation and distributed it to all regional elected officials. They even secured pledges of private funding for some infrastructure improvements. However, there has been little city investment in Midtown either.

But turn to the excluded cities and see a different pattern. Lawrence, the largest, inherited part of a closed military base. They created a commission to repurpose this into a new town center area. This included a multi-million dollar extension of 56th St, which involved building a bridge over a double-tracked rail line. That project also featured high quality streetscape treatments along its length. Former officers quarters on the base were renovated, and many other townhomes and other residences built. And there has been significant new commercial development as well, such that this area appears as nice and thriving as any edge suburb in the region.

As the name suggests, Speedway is the home of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It is also an older industrial suburb, with gridiron streets and its own Main St. The town really never leveraged the track outside of race days. The Main St. had businesses but was struggling, and the town was at best stagnant. However, the town council has taken on a major redevelopment program that will involve a major street reconfiguration and significant commercial oriented development designed to turn Speedway into a year round tourist destination and hub of motorsports themed businesses. It’s a $500 million plan, and while not much has happened yet, the town is getting ready to issue bonds to finance millions of dollars in road improvements.

A third of the four excluded cities, Beech Grove, is also improving its town center, and has already spent millions rebuilding its main gateway street, Emerson Ave.

So three of the four Indianapolis excluded cities have active town center renewal programs, while the two annexed neighborhoods, even though more upscale than the excluded cities in many ways, have seen little tangible city investment. Why is that?

The excluded cities have their own city governments. So they have elected officials whose sole focus is their own community. They’ve also got the legal powers, such a the ability to create their own tax increment financing districts, that let them control their own destiny without regards to a higher authority.

The annexed areas, by contrast, only have neighborhood groups. These groups have no power to do anything except lobby the main Indianapolis city government. This city government has to cover a huge area and is besieged with many groups wanting things. The mayor has an incredibly limited ability to deal with individual neighborhood issues. For example, he does a monthly “Mayor’s Night Out” in which he visits each township in turn, a different one each month, to answer citizen questions along with his senior staff. But there are nine townships, each one of which would rank among Indiana’s largest cities by itself. And that doesn’t even get to the neighborhood level.

It should come as no surprise that progress is slow. For example, there’s a proposal in the Midtown area at 49th and College Ave. called (interestingly) “The Uptown”. This would replace an old gas station, another vacant commercial structure, and a few single family homes with a three story, multi-use building featuring 75 apartments and storefront retail. It is exactly what the neighborhood needs. It’s a rare example of approved upzoning for density in Indianapolis. And from an urban design standpoint it is the best designed structure Indianapolis has seen in the modern era. Here’s the present view of the site:

The project needs tax assistance to ever get built, but it is looking like it won’t as the project has been on hold for well over a year. If the Uptown were in one of the excluded cities or in an actual suburb, it is almost inconceivable that it wouldn’t get built. The local government would find a way to make it happen. But Indianapolis has higher priorities. For example, a major civic focus is a project on the near East Side in conjunction with hosting the Superbowl. That’s the sort of major event that consumes management time and attention in a large city.

This is not to criticize the mayor. In fact, people from both BRAG and HARMONI have told me the city is very willing to engage with them and that the mayor has been supportive. The problem is structural. No mayor could physically deal with the demand. It’s inherent in the very nature of a large, big box government. It seems likely to occur in any consolidated government or very large city without sub-city level authorities with real powers.

It was before my time, but reportedly Bill Hudnut, a previous mayor, saw this problem and wanted to create more neighborhood level structures in a system he called Minigov (versus “Unigov”, as the consolidated government is known). But that never happened.

Midtown vs. Bexley

Another interesting comparison is the Midtown area of Indianapolis with the suburb of Bexley in Columbus, Ohio. Bexley is more or less exactly the same as Midtown with the exception that it is a separate municipality, though one that is completely surrounded by the city of Columbus. American Dirt ran very interesting profile of Bexley you might want to check out.

Bexley remains a thriving city, especially in contrast with the surrounding areas of Columbus. Its streets largely have up to date infrastructure, including full sidewalks, which Columbus often doesn’t. It has maintained thriving commercial districts, and has had more intense urban infill as well, as this picture will attest:

Why the difference vs. Midtown Indianapolis? Well, the fact that Bexley gets to have its own city school district while Midtown is part of the stigmatized Indianapolis Public Schools no doubt has something to do with it. This keeps land prices high, which preserves a largely affluent and exclusive resident base. This has pros and cons. Of course it means the city can be kept nicer. But it also denies the experience of that to those who can’t buy in. And the overall regional tax base misses out on one of its most affluent areas. This is the problem of all upscale suburbs. Midtown, Indianapolis, whatever its faults, has many well-off homeowners who pay significant money towards the broader community, including the city schools. And it is a much more mixed income area.

Bexley also has its own municipal authority, while Midtown does not, with the implications discussed above.

But another thing occurs to me. Because Midtown is part of a much larger city, it suffers from the problem of a diffusion of responsibility. That is, it can assume the rest of the city will carry the load in some respects. This manifests itself in a strong anti-development NIMBY contingent that is opposed to urbanization. Any proposed development of any kind is greeted by wailing and teeth-gnashing by opponents, who’ve been known to do things like pull their kids out of school to serve as props at mid-day zoning hearings where commissioners are told neighborhood kids will literally die if new apartments are approved.

I don’t know what the sentiment is in Bexley, but they’ve certainly implemented more actual urbanization than Midtown. I suspect one reason is that Bexley knows it has only its own tax base to rely on. If its residents want to keep quality schools, they can either approve more commercial and intense development, or watch their residential property taxes go up significantly over time. That focuses the mind wonderfully.

So I also hypothesize that in addition to making redevelopment more difficult for reasons of the structure of government, big box government also inculcates an anti-development mindset to a greater degree than small box government.

The Chicago Ward System

So how do you deal with this? Chicago is a big box government that has solved the governance problem with a ward system. There are 50 city council members, who more or less are the gods of their ward as a result of a system called aldermanic privilege. This is where the alderman basically agree they will let each other do whatever they want as long as it is in their own ward. Various city agencies also more or less defer to the alderman on almost any decision to do anything. This results in a system where the mayor deals with the big issues of the city and major developments, while the aldermen deal with neighborhood issues.

The Chicago system has maintained many strong neighborhoods in the city, but it has its downsides. Aldermen have virtually unlimited authority in their wards, making it a sort of elected dictatorship. So it should come as no surprise that corruption has been rampant. In excess of 40 alderman have gone to jail for corruption in the last three decades, an astonishing rate. This also makes things like planning difficult, and creates a climate of great political uncertainty around development that contributes to a terrible business climate for small businesses.

The Chicago system is a de facto one, not based on a city charter or anything like that. It would be interesting to see how it developed. But it does show that you don’t necessarily need constitutional change to effect small box government inside of a big one.

Jane Jacobs and District Governance

Jane Jacobs saw this problem of big box government very clearly and dedicated an entire chapter of The Death and Life of Great American Cities to it. (Chapter 21, Governing and Planning Districts). This is not one of the chapters that generally gets a lot of attention these days, and that’s a shame. She says:

The historical changes relevant in this case are not only an immense increase in the size of great cities, but also the immensely increased responsibilities….which have been taken on by the governments of great municipalities. New York is not unique in failing to match such profound changes in circumstances with appropriate functional changes in administrative and planning structure.

I can’t do this chapter justice here, but it is a must read. Her basic solution is that all city agencies – police, fire, planning, parks, etc) would be organized around districts (neighborhood groupings), with contiguous borders, with service delivery coordinated between them and with the input of the neighborhood. Chicago’s ward system is similar to this, with the notable exception of having a district dictator. That might be a cautionary tale about what this sort of thing can turn into.

Implication for Small Box Cities

To me this implies that cities which retain a relatively small and governable core along with a plethora of unconsolidated suburbs might be in an advantageous position from a redevelopment perspective. Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh come to mind. Their many separate towns in the core county have the independent power they need to take matters into their own hands if they so desire. And the core city itself should be small enough to enable more fine grained governance from city hall.

On the downside, it seems almost inevitable that many of these unconsolidated suburbs will turn into complete failed cities, often left ignored and forgotten. There are plenty of beyond dysfunctional suburbs in Chicago just like this. I presume it is similar in places like Pittsburgh. I think it is notable that consolidated cities like Indianapolis and Nashville don’t have any truly failed suburbs. Another benefit of the big box city.

Summing it Up

I think the lesson here is that there are always, always trade offs to be made in governance. The trick is to understand the trade-offs you are making and take steps to try to mitigate the inherent problems with the model your city and region operate in.

Based on this and the previous post, we might say at high level that for big box government, the pros are stronger civic consensus and cohesion, generally stronger regional and downtown growth, a fairer tax base, and a general lack of totally failed central cities and suburbs. The cons are a weaker city neighborhoods, redevelopment challenges outside of downtown, weaker urban identity, and lower quality development.

For small box government is is basically the inverse of this. The pros are a strong central city & urban identity, higher quality development, more redevelopment opportunities. The downsides are civic fragmentation and lack of consensus, the potential for a failed central city, some failed suburbs, and possibly weaker downtown growth.

This post originally ran on February 28, 2009.

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Indiana Abandons Long Range Transportation Planning

The Indiana Department of Transportation has released a draft of its 2035 long range transportation plan. The previous iteration, which seems to no longer be available online, was a pretty good plan I thought. One of the first things Mitch Daniels did when coming into office was to blow the whistle on how INDOT had basically been lying about its plans. It had promised basically everything to everybody even though there was no prospect of paying for it. He decided to face the issue of underfunding head on, the result of which was the Toll Road lease and the Major Moves highway construction plan.

As part of this, INDOT produced a new long range plan that had a much more realistic list of projects than in the past. It was probably still too much to get done. But not ridiculously so.

Well, as Major Moves has progressed and it has become clear that the state doesn’t have the money to complete all the projects as originally conceived, INDOT seems to be backsliding into its old ways. I noted the sneaky way they kicked perhaps the state’s most critical corridor upgrade out of the Major Moves program without telling anyone. Now as I’ve reviewed their new LRP draft, it’s clear long range planning is reverting to form. Here is what INDOT says about their plan:

Previous INDOT Long-Range Transportation Plans were “Project Specific” identifying specific highway expansion projects to meet identified transportation needs and stated goals. Projects included costs and ready for construction dates through 2030. or the new plan, INDOT has adopted a “Needs-Based” type plan. Needs-based plans describe overarching strategies to accomplish future results (e.g., improved mobility, safety, economic development, etc.). Needs-based plans include official public policies for solving problems or meeting projected demands, typically based on legislation and implemented through governmental programs. It also identifies the means to accomplish these policies, through strategies, or programs.

In other words, INDOT has solved the management challenge of delivering on a long range list of projects by simply deciding not to make a list at all. This allows them to acknowledge every community’s “needs” without having any tangible plan to address them. In other words, pretty much the status quo ante. A long range plan where you don’t even say what it is that you plan do is no plan at all. Indiana has abandoned long range transportation planning.

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Indy to Repurpose Stadium Seats at Bus Stops

[ You may remember an older post of mine about how an independent urbanist group in Indianapolis called People for Urban Progress undertook a super-cool recycling operation for the roof the of the now demolished Hoosier Dome. Well, they've done it again. PUP has partnered with Indianapolis Fabrications and Ecolaborative to re-purpose the seating from the now closed Bush Stadium minor league ballpark for bus stop seating and other purposes. This might seem inferior for places that have honest to goodness bus shelters. But in Indianapolis there is very little in the way of furnishings at bus stops, so this is an upgrade. Kevin Kaster of Urban Indy provides this update. If you are interested in seeing more pictures and learning more about what PUP is up to, check out their Facebook page - Aaron. ]

The first Bush Stadium seats have been installed at the corner of Alabama and Vermont Streets. The official unveiling was took place at 10:00, and I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the event. I chatted with Michael and Jessica Bricker from People for Urban Progress, as well as Bryan Luellen, Annette Darrow, Jessica Mitchell’, and Samantha Cross from IndyGo in the hopes of finding out some more information about the project.

Urban Indy: How did this opportunity happen?

Michael Bricker: Ryan Fitzpatrick and his brother Kevin (from organization called Ecolaborative) were working with the Bush Stadium reuse people and came up to us with the idea for salvaging the seats. We also had an intern named Ryan Gallagher, whose college thesis was based on increasing bus ridership, and he believed that increasing amenities would help towards that goal. Basically, our organization was the facilitator that brought these two ideas together.

UI: Which bus stops are next in line?

MB: College and Alabama is the pilot. There are 4 other bus stops proposed. They will be at 10th and College, 86th and the Monon, Broad Ripple and Carrollton, and Fall Creek and Meridian. After that, other organizations can sponsor their own bus stops through the PUP Stop program.

UI: Is there funding in place for maintenance?

Bryan Luellen: IndyGo will maintain them. It is possible that they might become part of the adopt-a-stop program. But the seats are pretty sturdy, and they are designed to be outside, so they will not need much maintenance.

UI: Has anyone else done this?

MB: Not that we know of. Other stadium seats may be in the private domain, but these are the first to be re-purposed for public use that we know of.

UI: How did you get the city to buy off on the project?

MB: It was pretty easy, actually. We worked with Develop Indy and the developer of the Stadium. Develop Indy helped us quickly secure access to the stadium and the seats. We have to get them out of the stadium by March 2nd.

BL: Also, IndyGo pursued a license from the city to place the bench in a public Right-of-Way.

Indianapolis Transit Expansion Proposal

This week Indianapolis business leaders also unveiled a $1.3B proposal for a major transit expansion, including doubling the footprint of the local bus system and building a commuter rail line. This faces many hurdles in getting through the state legislature and then a referendum. We’ll see if this fares any better than most transit proposals in similar sized Midwestern cities, most of which have failed. Urban Indy has the story. Here’s a map of the proposed system:

Thanks so much to Kevin Kastner and Urban Indy for this contribution.

Sunday, December 4th, 2011

Is the Indianapolis Superbowl Shuffle Video Really That Bad?

The Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association created this parody video of the Chicago Bears “Superbowl Shuffle” to market the city to meeting and event planers. (If the video doesn’t display, click here). It was posted to You Tube though, and ended up provoking a firestorm of reaction locally, as people piled on saying how it was so cheesy and lame that it embarrassed the city. This meme went mini-viral, even earning some national attention, as in this particularly brutal Deadspin post.

Is the video cheesy? Yes. Then again, so was the original Bears video, of which there are tons of similar parodies out there. Watching this, I can’t believe that it was ever anything other than what the ICVA says it was: a piece of industry marketing. The whole thing is about hotel rooms, for goodness sake. On that level, I don’t think it’s that much different from various other types of promotional gimmicks I’ve ever seen. Perhaps the ICVA erred in letting it get out “into the wild,” but I don’t see how anyone could really think this was intended as aimed directly at tourists.

But I think this brings up a couple salient points of relevance to smaller cities. First, this is part of an increasing trend of people in Indy taking extreme exception to what they believe as second rate stuff. I started noticing this a few years ago when the city first proposed an extremely bland generic design for a new convention anchor hotel, and it continues to get stronger ever day, as things like this and the chorus of dissent over the dubious proposal to rename Georgia St show.

I think this is extremely healthy. Like too many cities, Indy has long lacked a strong culture of self-critique. And as is especially true in the Midwest, there’s been an acceptance of mediocrity that wouldn’t be tolerated in other parts of the country. But increasingly locals are saying no more and are aggressively stepping up to demand better for their city. This ability to self-criticize and to have a robust, engaged citizenry that demands excellence can only be a good thing.

Secondly, cities like Indy want to be taken seriously on the national stage. Well, be careful what you wish for. Now you are in the fish bowl. You’ve finally got people to pay attention to you, now they are going to start making judgements. Things you could get away with when you were drifting in obscurity get called out when you try to play in the big leagues. So second tier cities like Indy really need to, as the ICVA might put it themselves, raise their game and get a lot sharper in the face they put forward. All cities cities need to realize that to play at a higher level, they have to bring a new standard to the table in everything that they do. Especially as they aren’t going to be getting any free passes from the folks who are already in the cool kids club.

Again, this isn’t just an Indy thing. It applies to all similar sized cities who want to move up to the next level. You’re playing in a whole new league and the game is a lot tougher than what you’re used to.

So while I think the criticism over the video itself is largely misplaced, I think the overall sentiment behind it is positive. And hopefully this does let the local powers that be know that there’s a new expectation level among their own citizens. People have started to take seriously all that talk about “world class city” and unsurprisingly they are expecting the city to deliver on it. And to operate at the place it wants to, the city has to bring a level of polish and sophistication to its marketing, design, etc. that it has never had to in the past. Because to the extent that you realize your ambition to have a place in a national civic conversation, you’re going to get scrutiny like you’ve never experienced in your life. Game on.

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