Mayor Meets with Westside Residents

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Mayor Greg Ballard (top), IMPD Major Brian Mahone.

Photos by Jay Thompson

(posted Mar 7)

The winter of 2008 may not be remembered for its significant snow accumulation or blustery cold conditions, but for its creation of potholes due to the extreme highs and lows.

Mayor Greg Ballard, the guest speaker at the March 6 Greater Garden City Civic Association meeting, told the audience that this year's winter weather has pushed the DPW about $4 million over its budget for snow removal and pothole repairs. This was the first time an Indianapolis mayor has appeared at the civic association's meeting.

Ballard said the road paving situation does not look much better. He said the paving budget was cut back in 2005 and since then, the city's paving status is always in the "catch up" phase.

When asked about rapid transit, Ballard responded that he preferred to see a rapid rail system connect the airport to downtown before Fishers to downtown, but the reality is there is no money dedicated to the project. He said it costs about $10 million to $20 million a mile to build, but he was not sure if the ridership would be there to justify the costs. Ballard's assessment of Indianapolis' transportation problem is that the mass transit systems like bus service, airport, and rail compete with each other instead of integrating with each other like in Europe.

Ballard said his first priority is to provide IndyGo bus service across county lines to help people reach their employment destination. The mayor also said he is looking into linking the Indy Green trails systems. He said that it took him 90 minutes to reach the Monon Trail from Pike Township.

Tom Glass of the 500 View Neighborhood Association said there is no activity to support the B & O Trail development from Holt Road to downtown. The Speedway Trails Association organized less than a year ago to develop the B & O in Speedway.

State Representative Phil Hinkle said he pushed for the airport-to-downtown link years ago because the airport would generate millions of riders a year zipping downtown.

City County Councilor Marilyn Pfisterer requested a bus route connection to Clarian West in Hendricks County.

Merri Anderson, GGCCA president, explained in the interest of economic development, she would want to see the rail stop along Washington Street. She blamed the construction of I-70 as the demise for Washington Street. She said it is not from lack of trying, but the Washington Street corridor is ignored, and the area has been bypassed with improvement grant awards going to other areas in the city.

Ballard also talked about his top priority, public safety. Ballard is adding people to his administration to correct the abandoned housing problems that can take up to 18 months for the city to gain possession. He wants to reduce the time to six to nine months. The other appointment is to oversee ex-offender re-entry to stem the recidivism rate.

The Mayor will return to Wayne Township on March 20 at 6 pm at the Emergency Service Training Center to answer the public's concerns.

Major Brian Mahone of IMPD Southwest District said that Washington Street will be its own beat to provide more of a police presence. A recent detail involved 17 reserve officers, but the normal patrol will now involve three officers. Last month, the police made 2,010 traffic stops. He said the idea is not to generate statistics, but to let the public know the police are out there. Only eight percent of the traffic stops resulted in a traffic ticket.

Mahone is also concerned about abandoned homes. The southwest district currently tracking 640 homes to see if they are infested with criminal activity. Mahone is also cracking down on prostitution. He described the profession as a mold that grows deeper into the community than it initially appears. Most prostitutes are drug addicts and if they are out of work it means they are probably committing burglaries or shop lifting to garner cash to fix their habit. Because prostitution is a misdemeanor, little can be done to avert the crime. However, Mahone is trying to change that by trying to add a felony charge to the prostitutes for failing to inform their clients if they have a communicable disease.

Deb Falls wanted the police to do more in the area of education. She said education might serve as a deterrent to commit a crime if criminals realized that spending three days in jail would make a person ineligible to be an organ donor or recipient.

Mahone responded that neither he nor his officers have a health education background to assume that kind of role. He said that would come under the responsibility of Health and Hospital. He said the police do contact child protective services and Health and Hospital for health related issues in the neighborhoods.