City Played Hardball With Hollywood Bar & Filmworks Owner

Ted Bulthaup, owner of the now-defunct Hollywood Bar & Filmworks, shares a disturbing account of what the City of Indianapolis did in retaliation for his and other local business efforts for pressing the parking issue in his full-page ad in the Indianapolis Star. This is the passage that really caught my eye:

. . . Just after the meeting adjourned we found that a CIB official had lied to us and we went to the press with the lie. The minutes for that last meeting for the last IDI Task Force meeting were never issued, even though I requested a transcript. [Tamara] Zahn refused because they would have proven that official had lied. That CIB official later told a neighborhood businessman that if we thought we were bad off now; just wait until he was done with us (meaning getting even for the blowing of the whistle). At the time, I received the casket company brochure through the mail which I am sure was an implied threat for someone. My business then also became a target for every state and city inspector available. Within weeks my business was inspected by agencies that had never looked at us before. Anybody who had signed the petition was contacted by either Zahn or the head of the IDI Parking Partnership who tried to pressure them to take their name off the petition. This effort also included both IDI and other government officials contacting the Landlords of many of the restaurants in an effort to solicit their help in suppressing their tenant's vocal unrest with the situation. In two cases the pressure tactics worked and restauranteurs asked (or should I say were forced to ask) that their names be removed from the petition. This was a despicable pressure tactic unethical by any standard . . .

And you probably thought that these kinds of things only happened in Chicago.

UPDATE: Because some people who work for Mayor Peterson have felt compelled to comment on Mr. Bulthaup and his business, I feel compelled to share the story about his little appearance on WIBC the other morning. It seems the Mayor was talking to Terri and the Pidge on WIBC when he suddenly started having trouble hearing after Pidge asked him about the parking question. When Terri jumped in and repeated a question the question to him, the Mayor said he couldn't hear her either and hung up, which provoked laughter and disbelief in the WIBC studio and listening audience.

The Mayor's popularity with the Indianapolis public is a thing of the past. If the Republicans field a serious, well-financed candidate next year, they will be able to defeat him. AI is quite concerned about a rumor on the street that some people are talking up a certain partner at Ice Miller to take outgoing Mike Murphy's place as county GOP chairman. If that happens, Republicans can kiss the mayor's race goodbye. Ice Miller has a vested interest in the re-election of the Mayor. Peterson used to be a partner at the firm, and Ice Miller partner Lacy Johnson is one of the biggest beneficiary's of that relationship--having been handed the keys to the Indianapolis Airport Authority as its board president with control over the billion dollar midfield terminal project.