Comments on Advance Indiana™: Ballard Awards Politically-Connected ACS 50-Year Parking Meter Lease

Right on the money, IPOPA. Er, so to speak. *cough...

2010-08-23T07:03:58.039-05:00

Right on the money, IPOPA. Er, so to speak. *cough*

My underlying thought is with regards to light rail. There are certain conditions that make it work, and Indy has had none of them: high density over a large geographic area, auto commutes of over an hour, a scarcity of parking and/or expensive parking. Well! This change 'addresses' this.

Call my cynical, but I believe the Ballard Admin had this in mind. There are forces that want to ram this light rail down no matter what lack of common sense or reading of balance sheets.

Sean, Why are you so surprised, bruh? This is o...

2010-08-22T12:32:31.582-05:00

Sean,

Why are you so surprised, bruh? This is only half the lease on the Indiana Toll Road. Ballard was just taking his cue from Mitch Daniels.

From verifying on indy.gov: Mayor Ballard is a Ca...

2010-08-20T21:14:52.531-05:00

From verifying on indy.gov: Mayor Ballard is a Cathedral grad, undergraduate Economics degree from I.U.

My buddy had his bike stolen from a garage rack a few bldgs down from Gary. There are public bike lockers downtown.

We may not always agree, but thank's to Ms. Barton for her kind words.

Back on the cycling theme, I was just thinking... ...

2010-08-20T20:50:13.864-05:00

Back on the cycling theme, I was just thinking...

What if - when I was 5 years old and just learning to ride a little bike with training wheels - then mayor Phillip L. Bayt Jr. had signed up the city to a 50 year deal for, oh let's say interurban transit service.

Or if 100 years ago, mayor Samuel Lewis Shank had signed the city up to a 50 year deal to manage the clean up of horse manure on city streets.

Things change unimaginably in a half century.

We've repeatedly had bicycles stolen out of ou...

2010-08-20T16:32:03.448-05:00

We've repeatedly had bicycles stolen out of our building's garage over the past year. I keep mine inside. It's obvious community policing isn't working in my neighborhood.

I ride my bike downtown all the time. I do NOT, h...

2010-08-20T15:19:24.527-05:00

I ride my bike downtown all the time. I do NOT, however, leave it unattended at any time. I doubt it would be there on my return - at least, not intact. I have seen any number of stripped frames, usually chained carefully to a solid object.

dcrutch, Mayor Ballard has an economics degree? Fr...

2010-08-20T14:10:19.321-05:00

dcrutch, Mayor Ballard has an economics degree? From where? Devry College?

My apologies to Devry College graduates everywhere.

I for one will not be going downtown as much.

2010-08-20T13:58:27.896-05:00

I for one will not be going downtown as much.

dcrutch said a mouthful, very well, and I so agree...

2010-08-20T13:36:27.339-05:00

dcrutch said a mouthful, very well, and I so agree! Ballarditis is contaminating.

I for one will be riding my bike downtown a whole ...

2010-08-20T12:55:27.795-05:00

I for one will be riding my bike downtown a whole lot more often.

Another quick thought. There seems to be a big ru...

2010-08-20T11:33:29.008-05:00

Another quick thought. There seems to be a big rush to get a lot of these capital improvement projects started. Without comment on the need for much of it, I do wonder about whether the urgency to do these big deals is centered around improvements prior to the Superbowl (assuming no lock-out - LoL) and/or the 2011 election (which is an obvious one - but I wonder about if there is big concern about putting some lipstick and mascara on the city?)

The news about the Ballard administration gets wor...

2010-08-20T11:20:33.832-05:00

The news about the Ballard administration gets worse every day. It reminds me more and more of reading about Mayor Daley Sr's administration in Chicago. The trains ran on time but everything was a closed deal- no outsiders admitted.

I wasn't of the philosophical mind to elect a machine politics guy. I thought I was electing a guy who had no political experience, a veteran who wanted to buck the system, put his economics degree to work and not be as much in-somebody's-pocket as Peterson.

I was wrong. Whether it's 33M for the Pacers, Brizzi keeping his job, blackmailing sidewalk repair thru increased water rates, zero input on an inner city school system that can't graduate half the kids, abandonment of investigating private stadium management, or handing over IT & parking meters contracts to cronies- this is worse than Peterson, Goldsmith, or any administration I can think of for ignoring corruption and rewarding "players".

I concede, I've only been here 23 years, undoubtably naive and remote from the fray compared to many. However, nobody ever provided services to the city based on merit or price, versus who they know and how much they donate?

FIFTY YEARS? FIFTY?! What the hell are these peo...

2010-08-20T10:21:55.732-05:00

FIFTY YEARS? FIFTY?!

What the hell are these people thinking. Obviously, without reading the details one can't know for certain but basically is this company paying $35 million to buy itself a monopoly on the parking meters?

On the surface this just seems wrong. I can only hope there are a lot of recourse provisions. The garages offer some limited level of competition; but, even those aren't really operating in a true free market environment.

And, how much influence over parking meters does the Council now lose? Curious.

FIFTY YEARS... FIFTY. Not Five. FIFTY. [still shaking my head in bewilderment]

I can't wait for when the s**t hits the fan th...

2010-08-20T09:55:36.703-05:00

I can't wait for when the s**t hits the fan the next time there's a big event downtown on a weekend or week-night, and hundreds of people get surprised by a parking violation - or get towed.

I also await learning how many more meters may pop up in areas that currently don't have them!

and they promised Ballard a life time of free food...

2010-08-20T09:20:23.799-05:00

and they promised Ballard a life time of free food at the Golden Corral

Please tell me this is a late April Fool's jok...

2010-08-20T08:48:21.981-05:00

Please tell me this is a late April Fool's joke.