The administration of Mayor Greg Ballard and his predecessors have shared an affinity for using public tax dollars to build parking garages for the benefit of private real estate developers who stuff money in their campaign pockets. By my count, public expenditures for parking garages top $100 million over the past couple of decades. Now Mayor Ballard wants to change zoning laws to starve the public of parking spaces for their automobiles in an effort to force them to use public transit. The Star's John Tuohy, who has been pooh-poohing anyone complaining about Mayor Greg Ballard's theft of public assets for Blue Indy's exclusive for-profit use,
can't hide his enthusiasm for the effort to force people to give up their cars.
Could a simple tweak in zoning rules nudge city-dwellers toward buses, bicycles, car shares and other energy saving means of transportation?
Indianapolis city planners think so.
They are offering developers huge savings — tens of thousands of dollars on large projects — by reducing the required number of parking spaces for some developments if bike racks, electric-car charging stations or other “green” amenities are offered instead.
The change is included in the recent overhaul of the county’s 1969 zoning code, called Indy Rezone, which is moving toward final adoption by the City-County Council. It’s unclear how many developers will jump at the offer. And if they do, whether residents here can be swayed to part with their cars — or even do without them for a day or two.
“Drive, drive, drive has been the Central Indiana paradigm for years and many developers still have that mentality,” said Tammara Tracy, principal city planner. “We are trying to ease them into the new urban model with carrots.”
A major goal of the zoning re-write is to improve walkability and transportation options in the city and increase greenspace. It’s similar to plans in other cities and dovetails with many initiatives of Mayor Greg Ballard, such as the Indiana Pacers Bikeshare, expansion of trails system, the BlueIndy car share and the bus rapid transit plan . . .
Now you see why Ballard is stealing hundreds of the most valuable public parking spaces across the City for Blue Indy's exclusive benefit. Future private developers will be offered incentives to add charging stations for Blue Indy cars so the monopoly electric car sharing business can fatten its profits. Some might wonder what impact that will have on ACS/Xerox's 50-year lease of the City's parking meter assets since the most-used public parking assets managed by the private company are coming from their stock. Don't worry about them. City taxpayers are required to reimburse the private company when it takes away any of its parking spaces. The existing private parking garage owners who contribute heavily to the politicians' campaigns will also love the idea because it forces more people to pay to park in their garages as fewer and fewer metered, on-street spots become available.
7 comments:
We have a terrible time parking at the City County building, and telling us to bike or bus or electric car share is no answer. My mother is 80 and lives in the far reaches of the county. After the death of my father she had to file some papers having to do with the house with the county recorder's office in the city county building. She is already intimidated by the challenges of driving into downtown. But it has become almost impossible for an elderly woman to find parking accessible to the city county building, and I find that shocking. All this nonsense about electric car sharing. What is our Mayor thinking? Mother can't take a bus or bike or share an electric car. She just wants to drive and park and walk in to do necessary business that can't be done anywhere else. I judge the mayor by these type of issues. $32 million dollars for this electric car boondoggle. We have need of sidewalks. And truly dangerous potholes. And our property taxes being misappropriated for these fool projects. I would expect that the city county council would put an end to it. And if that Mayor is somehow going to financially benefit from all this personally, then I think he ought to go to jail for it.
In 2012 I submitted a petition to challenge the 2012 reassessment on our home and property because of the extreme increase from the previous assessment. After 3+ yrs I received notice that the assessor’s office would hear my challenge. I hired an independent appraiser and submitted his finding that was 51K less than what was the city’s. Am still waiting to hear back if there will be a readjustment in our property tax.
No buses run up to 96th st, there are no "electric car sharing spots" up north. How the hell does he expect, those of us that work downtown, to park and get to our jobs??? I bet his kiss ass cronies get the job to demolish the garages and put up an office building for their own use on the spot. This is such crap!! The council needs to cut his balls off before the upcoming election. The entire exercise is to create chaos for the next administration so the Republicans can point and say how bad of a job the Dem's are doing. I hate this city.
"We are trying to ease them into the new urban model"
Folks, there it is.
Be very afraid of this stuff. This is Agenda 21. It forces you into cities, into high density, out of your cars, into walking and into public transportation. Living like this makes you weak and confused about so many things.
They want everyone to get by with 400 square feet and a 1,500 calorie diet. They want you wired and monitored.
They don't like the progress of the 20th Century, and they want everyone back into the tenements that existed before the automobile.
Most people hate this idea and hate living like this, so they're attacking gender roles, masculinity, sexual orientation to reform what people consider normal and desirable. They want depopulation, and they know you won't have children in a dense and cramped existence.
They want a weak, androgynous world that the Bolsheviks or Mao would admire.
Ballard is a military officer, and the United States military is a huge proponent of globalist government.
Anonymous 11:08 needs to get a grip.
It's not a step toward world government, it's a simple way for Ballard to line his and his cronies' pockets.
Follow the money.
Anon 6:06 nailed it. Follow the money.
Anonymous 11;08,
Because other cramped urban areas--like China and India--clearly have a problem with no one reproducing?
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