City Again Thwarted By High Weeds and Grass in Parks

It seems like every year, just as the weather starts being consistently warm, one of the news organizations is able to find a bunch of city parks with tall grass and weeds. I bet they take turns deciding who gets to cover it each year, because it always seems to be an issue and the city always seems to be caught off guard. If this were private property, the Department of Code Enforcement would issue a violation ordering you to mow it yourself or face paying a city contractor to do it for you.

But the problem isn't exclusive to Eagle Creek Park. I recently biked the White River Trail, which connects the northwest side of Indianapolis to downtown. Tall grass of at least two feet can be seen around several parts of the trail. Along Riverside Park, you can tell the areas that have had cut grass because they stay there in piles.

But the worst violation of the grass and weeds ordinance was the Indy Cycloplex. Indy Cycloplex, home of the Major Taylor velodrome, is being managed by Marian University as part of a 30 year lease. There's a large area of grass that falls within the Lake Sullivan Complex that easily is 3-5 feet high.

To be clear, I don't blame the folks at Indy Parks & Recreation. They're doing the absolute best they can with the limited resources they're allocated. I do, however, blame the powers-that-be that continue to piss away our resources on cricket stadiums and ugly parking garages while essential city services and amenities such as public safety, parks, and libraries face budget cuts and staff shortages.

For my non-Twitter readers:

I went to the City-County Council meeting tonight and was given the opportunity to speak out on Stuart Lowry's re-appointment as the head of the Department of Parks and Recreation.

Lowry has had a mixed bag with the Parks Department, but I don't think he is acting as an advocate for Parks as other department heads have done for their departments. Year after year, and this isn't a Democrat or Republican issue, it's completely bipartisan, the Parks department budget gets slashed and burned. We are in a recession, but the Parks Dept. is being cut into more than any other department. Parks spending has gone from $29 million in 2007 to $27 million in the 2010 budget, and is likely going to continue facing cuts. Cities such as Nashville, TN and Fort Wayne, IN spend about $51 per citizen on city parks, whereas Indianapolis spends $31, according to the Indianapolis Star.

As I mentioned on my Twitter page, I had a friendly conversation with Mr. Lowry shortly after I spoke. I told him I wish him well and was glad he was able to take the criticism in stride, but I just am not convinced that he is an advocate to Mayor Ballard on city parks. All I want is the parks, during budget cut times, to be treated like all the other agencies getting cut, instead of the slash and burning that's going on now.

I'd like to once again thank the council for allowing public comment during a full council meeting. More on THAT later.

Indianapolis City-County Council Meeting Tonight

A full view of what's on the agenda is here. The following are some items of interest that I found:

To be voted on:

• Prop 12 of 2010 appoints Stuary Lowry as the Director of Parks and Recreations. I was half an hour off in getting to the committee meeting on time, but I was told by someone exiting the meeting that there was no call for public comment. I have e-mailed my district council representative,Maggie Lewis (D-District 7), as well as the At-Large representatives, and hope a public comment can be added to the City-Council meeting before the council takes it's vote. I can live with my own fault if I missed my opportunity to have my voice heard, but it was never given a chance. The council should rectify that tonight.
• Prop 22 of 2010 amends a few parts of council ethic requirements and how to file complaints and handle them.

The following proposals are only being introduced to the council:

• Prop 30 approves Dennis G. Papenmeier as hearing office to preside over "administrative adjudication" of parking citations. If my definition of "adjudication" is accurate, this probably means Mr. Papenmeier will be presiding over the Parking "Court" that I've blogged extensively on. This will be referred to the Administration and Finance Committee.
• Prop 33 reappoints Michael Halstead else to the huge City Market Corporate Board of Directors. The City-Market's board is bloated and needs focused leadership, not more bureaucrats. Mr. Halstead is probably not the person to provide that, since he's been on the board since 2006. His background (surprise) is architecture. Here is his resume and here is his Linkedin profile.
• Prop 32 is funding various activities within the Mayor's Office of Education Innovation.
• Prop 35 is to fund two city-supported not-for-profit corporates, Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association and Indianapolis Economic Development Inc., as well as the Mayor's Office of Education Innovation. This is a common legislature tactic to put funding for various groups in one proposal even though the groups don't necessarily have the same goal, or anything in common. This forces representatives to vote for or against the whole package, even though they may support part of it. What should be done is this proposal should be broken into three, with ICVA, IEDI, and the Mayor's Office of Education Innovation in each. Each should lay out a specific budget on what exactly they intend to do with the money. It is disturbing that all of the additional funding being proposed in all of the additional funding proposals is being tossed into Section 3(a)3's "Other Services and Charges" category, meaning little accountability can be expected or enforced.
• Prop 36 will use a federal grant to fund EnderDel, a manufacturer of automotive lithium-ion batteries. I have previously expressed my concern at how much federal funding is propping up the budget of the City of Indianapolis, and am very concerned where all this money will come from once it dries up.
• Prop 37 uses $400,000 in a state grant to fund fiber-optic cables and related equipment installed by Lockheed Martin Aspen Systems Corporation.
• Edward Coleman (L-At Large) introduced another piece of legislation as well, Prop 39, to amend the ordinance banning firearms in city parks. This changes it so that law enforcement can carry their firearms into city parks, and that licensed firearm owners who can carry can also. It is still illegal to discharge any firearm unless it is in defense of self or others. This is sure to cause some controversy. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

The full council meeting will start at 7:00PM. Attend if you can.