City Halts Blue Indy Theft Of Public Parking Spaces Over Disabled Homeowner's Concerns

Mayor Greg Ballard has authorized the theft of hundreds of the City's most valuable public sparking spaces throughout the City for a private company's monopoly electric car sharing service while the City-County Council and law enforcement sit by idly and do nothing to stop what amounts to a loss of tens of millions of dollars in public assets, if not more. Finally, the City halted one of the thefts on the City's south side only because it resulted in denying a disabled resident the only access he has to his home if the theft proceeded.

The latest theft involved five parking spaces near the corner of Shelby and Croft Streets adjacent to a tire service business and nearby houses owned by Randy Peterman and his family. Peterman tells Fox 59 News he was stunned when workers showed up and placed orange barrels blocking the public parking spaces next to the property he's owned for decades without prior notice.

“They never told us they were going to do this,” said Peterman. “They’re going to put their electric cars out here, and I said, ‘What about the people who live here?’ They said, ‘We’ll try to figure something out.’ I said, ‘Where are they supposed to go? Where are we supposed to park?'” Peterman isn’t only worried about his customers, he’s worried about his renters, too. One is in a wheelchair, the other had a heart attack, and both need access to the curb for parking or to be picked up for physical therapy.

“Cottage Corners will come and pick up people if they need help to go to Cottage Corners,” said Don Magill, who worries he will have to move if the parking spaces are occupied 24/7 by BlueIndy. “They have to have this access area to take us to the doctor’s office or if I need to park in the wintertime, I have to park here.”

The permit drawn in Peterman’s name and issued for the Blue Indy project allows Miller Eads to begin construction as soon as today, those plans have been put on hold.

So apparently the loss of a disabled person's access to their home is the only thing that will halt this high theft of public assets. Blue Indy released to Fox 59 News this statement on its decision to halt work at the site:

“When BlueIndy found out there were disabled residents (wheelchair) using the unmarked street parking directly in front to load/unload, we quickly consulted with the City and paused the pre-construction process for that station in order to meet with the residents, store and building owners directly related. Solutions being discussed this week to hopefully create a good option for all parties for this rare situation. Relevant parties seem to agree an affordable and efficient new transit option like BlueIndy has high value as long as the location of the local station is optimal.”

Like with all of these theft of public parking spaces, the City's Department of Code of Enforcement waived the $7,852 fee that would have applied to the conversion of these public parking spaces for Blue Indy's monopoly use if the Mayor actually possessed authority to unilaterally give these public parking spaces to Blue Indy for its exclusive use.  Every aspect about the manner in which the French company, Bollore, has been authorized to establish its exclusive electric car sharing service in the City of Indianapolis has been illegal. We know this deal was brokered behind closed doors during one of Mayor Ballard's junkets to Europe when he visited the company's operations in Paris, France where it has to compete against several other companies to offer electric car sharing services. Because the Mayor chose to break every conceivable law to make it possible for Blue Indy to set up a monopoly business in Indianapolis on stolen public property, we can only speculate the worst has happened. Did bribery, kickbacks or payoffs accompany this deal? Why else would our mayor ignore so many laws at such a great detrimental loss to our city during his final months in office to enable a private company to conduct its electric car sharing service? The people of our City don't know who all owns a beneficial interest in Blue Indy, and the company isn't giving up that information to the public.

Because people read this blog from all over the world, please let the word go out how that this company preys on extremely corrupt public officials like our city's mayor, Greg Ballard, who believes he's above the law. Don't assume that because criminal charges have not been brought against Mayor Ballard and others responsible for this huge theft of our public assets that it's no big deal. Understand that we live in one of the only cities in America where the people who run our City are immune from prosecution for engaging in the theft of public assets and other organized crime-related activities to benefit an elite group of political insiders who have bribed those entrusted with running our local municipal government. Our prosecutors are as warped and corrupt as our elected officials. They will ignore these major public crimes at the same time they target innocent persons with bogus criminal charges in an effort to silence their critics, exact punishment on persons who have become a problem for the organized crime figures who run our city or to give the appearance they take the law seriously. The rule of law and equal justice under the law are just becoming figments of our imaginations in Indianapolis.