Growing the Westside Economy

About the Meeting

Phil Powell headlines our second quarter meeting. Phil Powell is the associate dean of academic programs and a clinical associate professor of business economics and public policy at IU Kelley School of Business in Indianapolis. He previously served as faculty chair of the full-time and online MBA programs at Indiana University in Bloomington. Both programs saw an increase in national rankings under Powell’s leadership. Powell joined the Kelley School as an Indianapolis faculty member in 1996. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt University and his undergraduate degree in economics from the University of South Carolina.

Meeting Transcript

Speaker 1: So, throw that in there. So, I don’t have any slides or anything, I prepared some notes here. But I want to give you [inaudible00:08] and all of your small business, people, you have enterprises, you’re out there serving the customers and the community. But you also want to make sure you’re making money. So, I’ll talk about some of the economies. And I’ll give you some thoughts as we think about the long-term economic vision for what could be a longer-term economic vision for the quarter. Again, I thank Rick and Carly for great lunch and tour on Thursday. So, Rick and Carly wanted to talk about the economy. So, how do you think the economy is going, especially in the state in the city, I’ll give you some statistics. A lot of them were seen before our eyes used to surprise the state of Indiana has back to full employment. April, unemployment was 3.9% now compare that to the National 6.1.

 

So, Indianapolis and the state are doing rough us growing, we have more employment, by leaps and bounds over the rest of the nation. So, we’re leading the charge in terms of the recovery. Now, if I’m a small business person, I’m going yes, Phil the economy has caused a lot of pain in two areas; it’s hard to find people. And if you find them, you got to pay him a lot more and inflation. This is the statistic that worries me last month, for April; core inflation went up 0.9, about 1% in one month, now multiply that times 12. That’s an annualized inflation rate of about 12%. That varies from month to month. But if you’re feeling a crease in your expenses, it’s real and it’s pervasive and it’s going to continue for several months, if not longer.

 

So, these are the warning signals of an over-employed economy, the economy, those growing fast, usually our economy, and state of Indiana fall typically follows the US average, we typically grow only about two or 3% a year. This quarter, we expect the economy to grow by a 9%, rate. So, the growth is sort of this manic growth that we’re seeing is triple the rate of what we’re used to. And I think manic is the right word. If there’s a lot of pent-up demand, people save a lot of cash during the pandemic and now everybody wants to spend it. The challenge though is that business can’t ramp up the capacity fast enough that’s impacting supply chains. Folks are still hesitant to get back to work when we join the labor force for a myriad of reasons. So, we have a real supply crunch.

 

What do you know from basic economics? Demand goes up; supply can’t keep up the price goes up. Now, you might say, well, Phil, that’s a great insight. What does that translate down if I run a small business? Here are a couple of things to think about, if you’re an entrepreneur, and then I’ll get into talking about the quarter over here. So, there are four things I’ve been sort of shared with small businesses hearing in the region. First and foremost, and this is going to be a long-term challenge [inaudible03:43] before the pandemic. And it’s a challenge that’s asserted itself earlier than we expected that’s talent. We’re in a long-term talent, drought. And so, that’s probably going to be your biggest for businesses along the corridor, it’s going to be the biggest impediment to growth, finding people.

 

So, the Kelley Schools message to small businesses has been focused on the culture that you have at your workplace, pay people more than they’re worth, we talked about paying people what they’re worth, no it’s time to pay people more than they’re worth. Because then your turnover goes down, and you can reduce your overall costs. And then we want to treat people with respect, treat them as assets instead of just commodities. And I think that what we’re going to see this talent drought that we’re going to see is going to be even more of a wake-up call, in terms of how you treat the people who work for you.

 

So, that’s the first part of our message to small businesses. The other message I think is more acute or shorter term. But I talked to a lot of businesses and we have a lot of NBA teams that sold for small businesses. This is probably a new enterprise program we’re doing with Rick’s with Rankin at the chamber, I find a lot of businesses are afraid to charge what they’re worth, a lot of businesses under charge, and they’re afraid to raise their price. But if you have a loyal customer base, I’m telling small business owners to do a gut check on the prices that you’re charging. Because if we’re in an inflationary economy, you have more permission to raise your price because you’re going to have to pay your workers more, you’re going to probably have to charge more at the cash register and you can do that if you have loyal customers.

 

Lastly, with inflation, will come higher interest rates, I’m expected that interest rates are going to go up faster than the Fed is even saying. So, if you’re looking at financing something, lock in now, lock in at a fixed rate. If you have a variable rate, debt shifted over to fixed-rate, because those rates are going to start to go up. I would imagine that I don’t think the Feds being too optimistic about inflation staying low. Lastly, and I think this is built upon the data stored on the website, I find a lot of small businesses, and I’m sure this is true on the corridor that they’re afraid to invest in digital marketing. A little bit because it’s intimidating it’s a new frontier, we don’t have an advertisement with the old style, with the pamphlets and pieces of paper in the radio ads but digital marketing, can be a little intimidating.

 

But what we find is, is that small businesses that leap, and maybe invest a few $1,000 in digital marketing with a company that can help them out, the return on investment is huge. So, consider that, as we go into this post COVID economy. So, there are hopefully some helpful thoughts for those of you in small business right now. But let’s talk about the West Washington quarter. And I wrote down, I was kind of reflecting on my tour, reflecting on my knowledge of what the Indianapolis economy going in the region, where do you see the market activity, and sort of wrote some thoughts down, I hope these are going to be helpful, as you think about as an organization, how you work to set up the corridor for prosperity and to the throne.

 

What I know is, I was very impressed with the level of sort of civic and grassroots organization that we find from here, down toward just down West Washington Street. So, my first point is going to come this is that sort of obvious, placemaking is a long term endeavor that happens very slowly. So, when I approached this, I’m thinking about what is the West Washington corridor in 2030. You got to think in terms of 10 years, which sort of defies the gravity of our mind. When you’re talking about urban development, you have to think about these long-term windows. And I was thinking about how things have changed.

 

Now think about it, if you’ve been a longtime resident of Indianapolis if you think about the way things were 10 years ago, and 20 years ago. All that change before our eyes emerges West, and your work with the City Council, and other participants, society here, you have a lot of ability to impact how this area changes. If you’ve watched Bill Gates, he would always say, we overestimate what we can do in a year. And we underestimate what we can do in a decade as humans, just human, sort of our human brain. So, I’m going to talk to you, we need to think about where the West Washington corridor is going to be in 2030, think about that picture let your mind sort of think about that.

 

Pick your favorite part of where your business is and think about this would be fun exercises maybe a drive around in August, radio Dodgers commercials. But what’s the quarter going to be in 10 years were the opportunities? Well, let me share with you my observations about what’s going to be happening from the zoo down. You got your anchored; West Washington Street is going to be anchored by two very exciting areas of commercial development. The old General Motors naming plants is raring to go and Rose property purchased it, they were going to make that that was going to next part of downtown COVID hit, it just slowed things down. Now Dow agro is going to be over there or the former Dow agro, they’re going to have their headquarters over there. So, you’re going to find that the next downtown was to embrace the river, we haven’t embraced the river in the city, it’s a gorgeous waterway.

 

So, the next hottest part of downtown is going to be the GM standpoint, you’re going to have a fortune 500 corporate headquarters. So, that area it’s already starting to take off. So, that’s going to be anchored over that way and track professionals down there. The emphasis and this is the emphasis building. This isn’t just my opinion, but the thought is that’s going to anchor a whole new cluster of technologies. So, that’s West Washington Street is going to be bracketed by two very exciting growth areas that are going to take off. And so, if you’ve got it that’s the beginning of a good story. The next is, is that you got to understand who is going to be populating these areas, who are going to be working in emphasis, and the technology companies around there, who’s going to be working at the headquarters? Before now I’ve grown and the businesses that pop up around there, the Generation Z, and the millennials will be 10 years old.

 

Generation Z and the millennials bring a different set of values to the workplace, they bring a different set of values to our communities. And these are values that celebrate two things; they celebrate a lifestyle and have a less environmental impact. Thus, they’re much more embracing of mass transit, the blue line. So, not only do you have two, are you at the beginning point of two very exciting clusters in the city and each end, but I know, after the purple line, you get the next, the next mass transit line running up and down. So, you’ve got a cultural asset there that tailors to two new work generations of workers. Lastly, this is a good trend but Generation Z and the millennial generation are much more attenuated to issues of diversity. They like to live in diverse communities and wow, strike down was Washington, phenomenally diverse, especially a very diverse and invisible Latin X community. So, this is good news, folks you got mass transit coming in, you’ve already got a diverse community.

 

You got some real issues, working in your favor geographically, from a cultural and economic perspective. So, how do we work with that? So, as we think about how to leverage all that, there’s a trend that you need to recognize is going on. That just sort of occurred to me there’s something called the suburbanization of the downtown experience. Think of that new architecture that you see in fishers even Brownsburg right there, in these big white, they’re building you see the apartments go up in these suburban hubs they look exactly like the apartments downtown. If you’ve been to Brownsburg, they filled up this artificial area. It looks like a block in downtown Indianapolis. So, what’s happening is, is that there’s this suburbanization that the downtown experience is being recreated in these suburban hubs.

 

And I would argue that that trend has been accelerated by COVID-19. The problem downtown right now is that people don’t feel as safe as they used to. And people are not working downtown as they used to and there’s, life is returning, but it’s not going to be the same as it was. What people finding out is, is that they had downtown, they can recreate that in the outer periphery of the city. So, this is interesting. That creates opportunity, I think for the West Washington headquarters. And what I would say is, is that we talk about the West Washington, [inaudible15:31] geographically, you think of it as a line, you think that in linear terms, I would invite you or encourage thought, to think in terms of pugs, hub locations. I mean, you know the corridor much more intimately than I do. But between the emphasis anchor and the river anchor that has been these two hubs, and can develop into a place of interest.

 

And in this is what I was saying, when we call it those hubs. What is successful it was called organic placement? There’s artificial placemaking and there’s organic placemaking, organic place-making looks at the distinguishing features of the neighborhood, the distinguishing features of the community that’s already there, in place. Every geographic area has things that positively distinguish it, and from an economic perspective, have a comparative advantage there’s a specialization. And so, as you think about the West Washington corridor, you want to embrace the things that make it advantageous. And contrast that with some urban development strategies, where they just think things up and they want to copy something, well, we’re going to be a tech company, or we’re going to be a foodie company, or we’re going to be whatever company they come together, they think it’s a great idea that’s artificial.

 

That doesn’t fly, that doesn’t stick what’ll happen is, you just been lots of public money to make that vision happen. But if it’s not connected to the history of the area, it’s not connected to the story, the neighborhood, if it’s not connected to the cultural reality; it’s not going to sustain itself. So, the good news is you can look it you can embrace what’s around you use entrepreneurial thinking, to leverage it up. And that’s exactly what’s happened in Fountain Square that’s exactly what’s happening [inaudible17:54]. If anything, they went deeper into the wrong history to define a very vibrant presence and that’s why these hubs are taken off in our city fed by this trend of the suburbanization of downtown experience. It’s artificial; it’s not going to fly, especially with Generation Z and millennials. They don’t put up with anything artificial. It’s got to be true blue, and real. I feel like there’s a real opportunity and investments in the cultural assets of our Latin American communities along the west Washington corridor it’s under development.

 

I have the privilege of sitting on the Hispanic Business Council at the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce Spanish is my second language. 175,000 people speak Spanish in the Indianapolis region. 175,000 people okay [inaudible19:01]. That’s more people that live in Dayton, Ohio they live right here. And a lot of them live along the area covered by Merchants West. In my mind, Merchants West has a first-mover advantage in terms of claiming the Latin community presence; you can form hubs around, cultural districts. You see that all around the country that goes back over 100 years.

 

There are vibrant areas of US cities that begin with embracing sort of a cultural community that was in contrast to the rest of the city and then those communities all over the world. There’s a real opportunity to do that and I’m not just talking to Restaurants, can be civic organizations, it can be churches, it can be entrepreneurial ventures from the Latin community. So, if you look at the city, there’s no hub for the Latin community. That brings in business and it brings in a diverse clientele. I think there’s a real opportunity here in our Hispanic business community, chambers doing a great job trying to reach out, but the integration is there’s a lot of opportunities. Yes, sir.

 

Speaker 2: Can you expand when we say, the black community, do you mean like, Mexico or[inaudible20:43]?

 

Speaker 1: I don’t want to pigeonhole like that’s in that genre. It’s an area that’s proud to claim the sort of cultural identity of the folks who live there, but in a way that is, that also invites people from other parts of the city to experience it. And that could be restaurants, and there are different versions of that. But that would be a way to think about it. You want to be entrepreneurial so, that it’s a business opportunity. And you see that all around your cities. Does that clarify?

 

Speaker 2: Yes, sir.

 

Speaker 1: So, that’s sitting right on the corridor. That’s right, that’s organic. That’s organic place-making, that opportunity sitting right there. And it can be fed by a generation of workers that will value that even more than my generation, Generation X, or baby boomers, at least sociologists say and you got public transit. So, I’m here to give you some ideas. When we think about the city of Indianapolis, three things stand out that our biggest challenges, I think, the next decade. And that’s talent because we’re going to talent ground, so stay at home. Economic immobility Indianapolis is only in the 11th percentile in economic mobility.

 

Economic mobility is the percentage chance that you’re born poor and you can work your way up to higher income levels 89%, of metropolitan areas were better than us. We also struggle amazingly, with small business creation, we’re a great place to do business, we’re a growing tech hub, one of the best ones in the country, it’s an affordable place to live and do business, it’s easy to network. So, you look at things Indianapolis is a great place to do business but when you look at the small business creation statistics, with 38, out of the 40 largest metropolitan areas, that for me when I saw a statistic. So, when you think about the West Washington quarter, another way that you’re going to gain enough [inaudible23:09] momentum is to keep these are ways to develop to help to solve some of these problems faced by the region.

 

Again, these are just going to be as an incubator for Hispanic businesses, that’s better to be an anchor in a hub that celebrates the lack of community. You’ve got on each side, down each part of Washington Street, you’re going to have businesses that need technology training talent,  and the only way that we’re going to overcome our talent shortage in the city is to upskill what we have 50,000 coders are not going to live in Indianapolis from other cities in the United States. We have to upskill our folks and when we can do that, in upskill, the people that live here, then we can also address this issue become mobility. And the good news is not everybody’s college degree satisfies the [inaudible24:26]. So, what’s popular now are the most innovative solutions are these smaller, private schools.

 

I’m not talking about secondary schools, but training centers, to train people for technology. There are two nonprofits here in town that is called Coding Boot Camps. They bring people in; teach them how to code from all different backgrounds, folks who’ve just been released from the penitentiary, folks that are partially disabled folks that are 63 years old that wanted a new career, their brain meant to teach them to code in six months, they get an entry-level job coming out making 60,000 a year. And we’ve seen two of those academies pop up here in the city 1150 Academy and McKenzie Academy downtown, there’s no reason you couldn’t have one of these on West Washington Street. If you didn’t need help to feed the townies in this part of the city and make it convenient for those. [Inaudible25:31]. Two more points here that open up for questions.

 

That I saw this on the tour with Carly and Rick, ultimately, if you’re going to make progress to Washington Street, you got to have basic public assets in place. I’m sure you brought this to the town council for the City Council. But besides the lack of sidewalks, the lack of drainage, can’t say a lot of activities now are over here, how do we connect to this sewage system in Marion County? So, my jaw kind of dropped, I’m thinking about this, as a sort of somebody just new to the conversation. To me, the West Washington corridor was like, sort of like a middle child. This part of the city is too well behaved in some ways; it doesn’t have a desperate story, like other parts of the city. But also, it’s not very distinguishing to a lot of folks, and so, it’s not well behaved, but not trendy enough to receive public attention.

 

So, in many ways, being the middle child, you have to work harder to get the attention of a parent. So, that’s why an organization like yours has, the work that you have to put in is probably higher than other areas of the city, you’re going to have to put in more work, put in more solidarity in terms of message and be more politely visible to the leaders in the city to bring in those public assets. And so, it’s an interesting place to be in terms of the politics of the region, and vying for the public resources, that just basically set a foundation for the type of vision that you want to implement. Last but not least, this is more of an academic point. But when we think about the development of a region, ultimately, you’ve got to bring in businesses not all businesses have to be this but there’s a correlation between real prosperity and a geographic region.

 

And businesses that come in, that are serving customers outside of the region. Just like a country has to export goods and services to prosper, a region or even a community has to do the same thing, then you’ve got that you got the airport up here, which benefits people, billions of dollars, all around the region, you’ll have a big emphasis in the same way. So, you’ve got those kinds of businesses already here. But the more that you’re able to get some more anchor businesses that serve last or serve the country or to serve internationally, those are always going to be good. There’s always going to help you speed up and step up in terms of your level of development.

 

So anyway, here are some thoughts, I hope that they are helpful to get the mind flowing. But the good news is, you’ve got some assets going forward, both cultural and economic. If I was looking at other regions of Indianapolis, that could give you an advantage, I think the real challenge is just convincing folks, as an area, you’ve got to spend more energy, and more time just to make the same achievements and getting the attention of public officials that perhaps will depart specific. So, Brian, with that, I hope that’s interesting and helpful. I’m happy to answer any questions. And hear your opinions. Yes, sir.

 

Speaker 3: First of all, to say thank you for all that, but I think it’s reassuring to us because you brought up a lot of topics and things that we’ve had conversations about and this reassures us that we’re on the right path because much of what you’re [inaudible29:53] talking about. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts though on something one area that has been a struggle is to get the development community to come out here and look at our community knowing that emphasis is bringing in 3000 jobs. Elanco is going to be coming to Westside development to look at doing some of that takes us development that we’ve talked about, it’s been a real struggle because they deal with the basis of the current market, if you will, my attitude has been, this is a game-changer that we have coming in here.

 

And as Indianapolis, we need to be capturing these jobs and keeping these people living in our communities. So, we capture that income, but the development community has been very hesitant. And I’m curious as to what your thoughts are about that, or what we can do to get them to want to invest in this community? Because I don’t think they see a lot of what, when you mentioned that what we have in common conversations about the west side is a community a lot of the leftovers, if you will, the people who’ve been here, with their families with three and four generations, or blue-collar, mostly white families that moved last in were very [inaudible31:15] involved in the city, there is an applet a problem in this part of town is that these people do not get active it’s been very frustrating. And we’re trying to change that culture because we do have to be a people that are involved in paying attention. And if we want to get the resources that are so limited infrastructures, the revenue sources limited in the city, but so mistake-focused, I wonder what your thoughts are about it? It doesn’t seem something but we know the developments that are coming in can change that.

 

Speaker 1: Absolutely. Before I do that we know that x migraine was saying down agro, it’s Elanco. I was thinking animals and plants [inaudible31:58]. So, it’s going to be a minefield out there, which is going to be real. Typically, when that happens, it’s because I prefer that [inaudible32:13] is that the sale is vicious to diluted. I think that you’ve got to, again, this is just my thoughts on all the coffee, of welcoming any challenges or limits to what I’m saying. I think you get the developers interested in something focused, developers hear a lot of the same sort of development talk, community talk, jobs talk. You got to come in from a saw, with a colorful vision.

 

It’s focused, I think he’s back to the hub it right, instead of thinking of it as a line thinks of it as hubs that put upon community organizing, organizing organizations, organizing groups, like you, a bigger burden to be entrepreneurial, and very creative in the color. But given what you’ve achieved in the level of a civic organization, and motivation at the business level, for this side of the city, there is no northwest side, Chamber of Commerce, there’s no South Side Chamber of Commerce, there’s a Westside Chamber of Commerce. So, you guys can achieve a much higher level of organization than other areas of accounting of the region. So, that plays to your favorites, I would double down on that, and come up with a very creative vision. That focuses on a couple of places between here and wherever was the whole road where you guys kind of seed into the next quarter or organization. But that’s how you get excited.

 

Speaker 3: So, just kind of going down that so that’d be like saying, hey, we’re going to pick this area, geographical area, it’s much smaller. What’s the master plan?

 

Speaker 1: Yes. And it’s focused, but it’s also going to be colorful and different and distinguishing. It gets back to this concept of organic placemaking. Much easier said than done. But you’d be surprised at how far that can go. And how fun that can be as an organization sits back and, I mean, you all know the area, your residence here. And if you can paint a picture, we already talk with our business students about you look for the head tilt. You want the developers to do the head tilt, you want other businesses to do the head tilt in terms of the vision that you bring, and a positive bright vision of what an area can achieve that sticks out because most organizations like yourself stick to the script. And it bores the developers to death. Does that help?

 

Speaker 3: That’s the path we’re on to [cross-talking35:11].

 

Speaker 1: That’s great.

 

Speaker 4: Kind of a play on constantly talking about, I feel like we have two distinct challenges getting the developers in addition, but we also have to, I feel the kind of the redheaded stepchild sort of middle child, I look at redheaded stepchild.

 

Speaker 1: Redheaded middle child.

 

Speaker 4: But with the state-county counselor from the municipality, they don’t see our business. So, I think we have to also paint the picture for them as well for that infrastructure. And I wondered, what do developments look for?

 

Speaker 1: Well, obviously, look at it like this, you got to look at it as someone’s focused, that didn’t create some momentum it gets people excited. I am I think about it, and to me, as a first step getting some of the folks in the city excited. Whether it’s city government or some other public, private actors in the developers are going to get attracted to the developers, if you’ve got someone’s public officials, with some sort of commitment, or there’s some sort of excitement. And, the council here this week, so I think that’s also necessary, that’s a lesson. If you can convert some conditionals, then you can have an easier job to bring some developers.

 

Speaker 3: We’re going to have a battle when you talk about the two ends, companies that are coming in those companies with the size of employees that they’re going to bring are also their bring a type of certain person, if you look at the construction industry is white males is the tech industry also, is it very culturally diverse, is it going to find each other? If we start living in a Hispanic…

 

Speaker 1: You talking about like, gentrification type of situation?

 

Speaker 3: Are the two businesses also going to challenge what is in between those two businesses? And what cultural you’re talking about?

 

Speaker 1: That’s a great question. It’s something to keep your eye on. I can only offer one opinion, just based upon what I see. You’ve got a community that’s already very diverse. Which I think place to the advantage here. The minority the conflict between those communities, but I’m just curious to pull up the homicide map. Minneapolis, actually quarter here is pretty safe. So, to me, that’s an indicator that there’s some integrated calmness here. So, it goes back to my generational argument, when you look at tech workers, they’re not as diverse as they want to be. But they are typically a bit more diverse than, say, from some of the more traditional industries. And they embrace this aspirational diversity.

 

We’re part of some high-tech initiatives here in the city, the Kelley School is, and it very much reflects the newer generations. Which are you see as a country, we’re still wrestling. But you’ve already kind of got a diverse footprint and I think that means that the risk of gentrification, I don’t see a high risk there. And so, it’s a lot of lands, and you got to have the transit, you can’t underestimate the impact the blue line can have, now what you don’t want. You can have the blue line, you can have these two anchors, and nobody visits in between, that’s what’s going to happen if there’s no leadership. That’s what’s going to happen if there’s no vision. And these new workers will not only embrace the fact that it’s diverse, but they embrace the fact that of opportunity for diverse communities. So again, I think it all plays together. For me, I see much less issue of gentrification along this corridor or then say, what’s happening along with the mass app.

 

Speaker 5: Can I ask a question?

 

Speaker 1: Yes, ma’am.

 

Speaker 5: I’m just curious if you’ve heard any of us through your research or talking with developers or small businesses. So, there is an issue and Councilor Evans is aware of this with the ability for small businesses to just get through the process of investing in their property permitting is a nightmare in this city. I’m curious, and we’re hearing that a lot of people don’t want to develop in Marin County because of these issues that they have with the, I guess, the regulatory process of, even putting signup or to invest and expand their business. Three people in this room have complained to me about the permitting process and trying to expand their business. And I’m just curious if that’s something I noticed that Indianapolis has other issues, but to me, one of their largest issues is the permitting process. And I’m just curious if you have heard that and if that is…

 

Speaker 1: I’m not as close as [inaudible40:58] I can tell you that, I would put that in the same category as sidewalks, you just need a certain basic way of handling physical infrastructure, but sort of intangible infrastructure to get things moving. Now, one strategy is that it’s a try to define the zone that has maybe sort of pilot set of easier ways to get business done. That goes back to this kind of focused hub, again, it’s a very entrepreneurial way to think about public policy, but you’ll find that municipalities are a little bit more progressive than anything, you say, this is a zone, an opportunity zone. And we’re going to try for a five-year window, that the permitting be this process. You could say we’ll call it [inaudible41:53] but that can be much more effective in bringing that to a legislative body to try to change the whole system. Because then again, that goes back to the idea of creating something small, that generates unambiguous social benefits, that then sort of just people start to…

 

Speaker 5: We’ve tried to do this zone overlay for West Washington Street entertainment with the city and they said they would not zone this section differently than the rest of the city. Now they’re doing transit-oriented development zoning projects, so they might be coming around to it. But we tried that, I must say, four or five years ago, trying to do an overlay along here and they just like we’re not doing that. So, it’s a philosophical thing that, unfortunately, the west side can’t control. But I’m just curious if you’ve heard that because I think if you can start a business easier, in a different County, you’re going to go do that because you just have to hide behind emails and voicemails in Indianapolis to get things done. And I think it’s to our disadvantage to encourage our small businesses, sometimes.

 

Speaker 1: It’s a real challenge. And the only thing to do is to not give up, and keep trying to come at it from the side. Again, easier said than done. But over the life of the city changes, there’s always been a time when the city does respond, that in the long history of Indianapolis is what made us great. That’s what allowed the city leaders to sit down and the late 70s and say, we’re going to be an amateur worst capital of the world, and look what happened 25 years later. If you live here the late 70 cents, which I didn’t, Indianapolis, anything, we’re going to be the worst, amateur worst capital of the world. And that was thinking that term potential years with that, we achieved it, we premier about them. So, it comes back to leadership, and leadership, to me that good leadership is always trying to figure out how to still come at the goal that you want, you just go back up the mountain again, in a more creative way. Good. Thank you all.

 

Speaker 6: Thank you. Appreciate everyone’s attendance tonight. Thank you. And great conversations we had. I think, you know, the leaders can certainly circle and try for over those ideas and we continue to move with them but that’s things that he brought up great points about the core of awareness. That’s the exciting part about this growing community and what we’re working towards, so I wanted to do a quick reminder, please come see or go see Ryan about your listing and getting that updated. There’s key and the website is what we talked about as part of our growth and how we’re going to continue to try to support the local community. So, please see Ryan. He is very responsive. I’ve asked questions, and he was on top of it. So please, I encourage you to subscribe before you leave. Any final thoughts or questions? Yes, sir.

 

Speaker 7: I just want to say real quick, what we’ve got in the room is he did have a couple of good topics about this blue line. And we know he just came out about four months of controversy and lies and inaccurate information from the opposition. And I think for those who are standing here to talk about the fact that he talked about the two key elements that I think are going to be the resurrection of the west side this forward. And that means the fact that you’ve got the public infrastructure, the blue line brings that, it brings sidewalks, it brings floodwater and stormwater projects, completely reconstructed road Atlas city you cannot afford to do.

 

That’s a different discussion. Because of the way the state’s protocol is they take our money is very funny here. It’s not because we don’t choose to, because we don’t have the money. And the other thing is that understanding the demographic of people who are going to have the purchasing and buying power to revitalize the area, is something that they want. When I go to Chicago, tell you what I do. I go to Hammond, Indiana, and I parked my car at the train station and I train in Chicago I don’t even drive-in. And I walked in Uber and take buses and take their train it’s amazing, it’s unbelievable. You think we’re in a different world over here. So, I just want to put that out because it’s going to be the critical point to the revitalization of this area. You cannot underestimate $40 million of public infrastructure that won’t happen without that.

 

Speaker 6: I agree. Again, thanks for the typical state of your talents, and this is August 25, again is our next event relies on bringing the restaurants into visibility to the scoreboard and I think we grow what we can do…