After spending the last decade advocating tax increase upon tax increase and every insider crony deal the downtown mafia could conjure up, Star political columnist Matt Tully
uses his latest column to tout Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard's re-election bid to a sixth term and throw in the fact he and his family are moving away from their beloved
Broad Ripple Meridian-Kessler neighborhood for the upper crust, gated communities of Carmel to live closer to his puppet masters.
Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard was talking quickly Tuesday evening. That was no surprise — although he is nearing the end of his fifth term, and currently seeking a sixth, he remains the region's most ambitious and idea-driven leader . . .
We were sitting at an outside table at Scotty's Brewhouse on Main Street. A few feet away, the Monon Trail bustled with families on bikes, twentysomethings out for a jog, and older couples taking a stroll. Main Street restaurants were doing a brisk business, and the scene seemed to endorse the vision Brainard had set in motion years earlier: To create a suburb that has not just great schools but also its own core and identity.
At one point, Brainard stood and pointed toward a large-scale redevelopment project south of Main Street, saying it would provide the much-needed connection between Main Street and the cluster of performing arts facilities several blocks away. He grew animated while talking about investments in parks and his efforts to better connect the city with trails. He talked to a man at the next table about the city's new bike-share program. And when a pair of high-schoolers asked to take a photo with him, he told them he hoped they'd stay in Carmel.
"You get passionate about things," he said. "We've worked for 20 years to try to make this place special and you just care so much about it. You have a lot invested in it. You care about the city, and you care about the people." . . .
But our conversation this week felt different because it came as my wife, my preschool-age son and I prepare to move to the city Brainard has led for so long. The decision to leave our beloved Indy neighborhood for Carmel wasn't an easy one, but it was made easier because of the work Brainard has done to create a vibrant city next to a much bigger city . . .
Oh, isn't that special? Who needs a publicist when you have the Star' Matt Tully on your side? Tully remarks at what a popular man Brainard is and what a shame it would be if that awful primary opponent, Rick Sharp, should happen to win because too many people choose to stay at a home and not come out to vote in next month's May primary election, a less than subtle hint to Democrats to cross over to vote in the Republican primary to ensure the RINO mayor is re-elected to a sixth term in office.
15 comments:
I love how Tully is proof that urbanism fails, only has limited appeal, and when people arrive at the means, they move out to what all decent people consider a nice place to live.
Tully stands as proof of the failure of urbanism when people are allowed to exercise market choice.
Is he leaving Indy because he's racist, Broad Ripple because of homophobia, the city because he's an anti-tax Tea Partier, or the densely populated areas because he's against the environment? Will he carpool, ride his bike, or try to institute mass transit to get downtown? Or is he just a plain-old crony-socialist hypocrite, and a propagandist to boot?
I don't believe in voting and live in Home Place but please send my parishioner Brainard to the pews and his principles challenger Rick Sharp to clean up his immoral (government boondoggles based on coercive theft) mess.
Tully and his wife are living proof that the White Flight that began in the late 1950's in Indianapolis is still alive and well in the 21st century.
Tully talks the the talk about diversity and inclusion so long as his family don't have to play along.
The code word for moving out of Indy to Carmel because of the kids is quite simply unvarnished racism on Tully's part. The excuse yuppie white people like Tully give when they move out is always "better schools" which actually means "we don't want OUR CHILD going to school with blacks".
What little credibilty Tully had with writing about Indianapolis can be thrown out with the trash now.
He is and always was nothing but a damn hypocrite. Don't let the door hit you on the way out Tully.
Maybe Tully's going to do a Dan McFeeley (former Star reporter who gave Carmel nothing but glowing reviews, then left the Star for a job promoting Carmel).
The Star has been cranking out Brainard propaganda every few days now. Sikich had a piece earlier this week about Brainard accusing Sharp of taking campaign money from a contractor who was negotiating a settlement with the city, very similar to a piece Current in Carmel published days earlier but pulled from their website for reasons unknown. Very little discussion was included about Brainards campaign contributors. The articles were close enough to make it obvious someone in the Brainard camp is doing the writing for the local media.
Having grown up in what is now Carmel, back then it was Clay Township Hamilton County and, having literally escaped annexation by moving to Boone County my freshman year of high school, I say good riddance to Brainard. May he lose! Carmel is so over developed and their kids are soooooo special with their 12 hour 25 mph school zones.
Also, The Indianapolis Star still exists? Most impressive.
Anyone remember Jim Brainards' line of work before he became mayor?
He was an attorney.
Does Tully have school age kids now? Maybe all those private schools and education profiteers he's been advocating for just aren't making the grade for his kids' future?
Word on the street is that Tully's home at 207 E. 47th Street sold very quickly--for about $350,000. If that's true, he was getting a bargain on his property taxes because he was paying on a house assessed as being worth $232,000
I think Tully owes Indianapolis a true, thoughtful explanation of the reasons he is leaving, because he has claimed to stand for a lot that is now placed in question by a move to Carmel. Tully has argued for diversity, for acceptance, for gay rights, for black inclusion, and more. How is any of that accomplished by moving to the State’s richest, whitest, more virulently Republican city. This is where rabid, anti-gay ant-black conservative Christians go to die; their promised land. Made even sweeter by the fact that they claim to be warm and welcoming while supporting en masse every discriminatory piece of legislation promulgated in the General Assembly. I for one don’t get it Tully. Was it all a lie? Do you join the exodus of white flight parents as soon as your wife can afford to get you out of the city? For most people such a move happens quietly and without fanfare. But you have fans, and detractors, who now need more information. We note that you didn’t move to Bloomington, or Lafayette or one of our more liberal enclaves. You moved Christian conservative USA. I guess you can tell us its none of our business. But I guess you don’t mind if 700,000 people now call you a hypocrite.
If that's his address, it's Meridian-Kessler. He seemed to identify so passionately with Broad Ripple in his columns, particularly during the Midtown TIF debate, I assumed that was where he lived.
Easy mistake. Tully wanted a taxpayer-subsidized Whole Foods in Broad Ripple really bad.
" I for one don’t get it Tully. Was it all a lie?"
Tully didn't lie to himself, but he lied to you.
Nobody likes congestion and being cramped. Everybody wants to live in Carmel. Why do some people delude themselves into thinking that an inner-city urban alternative lifestyle is something desirable in modern car-based America?
With any luck, Tully can submit his pieces from Carmel and never risk another mugging on the Circle.
The economic center of Indy is in Carmel, anyway, so Tully has really just moved to the new downtown of Indy.
Anon 3:30: I am not a Tully fan, but I am 90% sure that his son is black (they adopted). Interracial adoption is fraught with issues, but I don't imagine that an unvarnished racist would purposefully adopt a black child.
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