There are certain basic things people expect from local government.
Streets plowed and salted after snow and ice. Garbage collected. Police patrols. Fire and first responders ready in emergencies.
And when night comes the streetlights come on and go off at sunrise.
But in many areas of Indianapolis/Marion County, streetlights aren’t working. Not just on neighborhood streets, but also on major thoroughfares.
Last month, a caller on our WTLC-AM (1310) “Afternoons with Amos” complained of the large number of non-working streetlights. That resulted in a flurry of additional calls complaining of the problem.
When I interviewed Mayor Greg Ballard Dec. 17, I asked about the problem of non-working streetlights. The mayor expressed genuine surprise.
“Never heard of that (the problem). That’s a new one to me,” Ballard said explaining that those seeing non-working streetlights should call either Indianapolis Power and Light or “their neighborhood liaisons.”
But the problem hit home last Saturday night as I was out driving while the Colts blew their playoff game. On West 38th Street, between White River and High School Road, I noticed 50 non-working streetlights.
That’s not a misprint. I saw FIFTY streetlights not working on that nearly six-mile stretch of street. Scores of streetlights not working at 38th and Cold Spring, Kessler, Industrial, Guion, Georgetown, Moller and in between.
Embarrassing and dangerous.
Now some will say this is only in the “Black neighborhoods.”
But I found non-working streetlights downtown and four on Pennsylvania between St. Clair and New York.
Eleven on Illinois between St. Clair and 21st.
Plus a non-working streetlight in front of WTLC, behind WISH-TV/Channel 8, in front of the Indianapolis Star and in front of IPS headquarters.
It seems that hundreds of the city’s streetlights aren’t working — making our streets darker and potentially unsafe.
One of the major theories of city governance is “the broken window theory.” It holds that when cities tolerate simple neighborhood problems like broken windows, abandoned buildings, non-working streetlights, then that contributes to rising crime.
The success mayors have had in fighting crime by concentrating on fixing neighborhood problems has shown some success. But Indianapolis’ failure to address the hundreds of non-working streetlights doesn’t help fight crime.
Every non-working streetlight creates a dark spot where crime can occur. When a group of streetlights aren’t working the resulting darkness becomes a great cover for wrongdoing of all sorts.
For Mayor Ballard to express that he’s “never heard” of the growing problem of non-working street lights isn’t the type of confident competence that Indianapolis expects from its mayors.
It even goes against Ballard’s own mantra that “public safety is job one.” Because if that was true, then Mayor Ballard would make fixing every non-working streetlight a “job one” priority.
The rash of broken, non-working streetlights is also a visible metaphor for the abdication of leadership in Indianapolis.
Why aren’t City-County Council members in these areas where streetlights aren’t working raising hell, flooding the mayor’s office, the deputy mayor and Ballard himself with loud, continuous complaints?
Back in the day, Democratic and Republican council members were stewards of their districts. They got complaints from citizens. They noticed the little things wrong in their districts. And they raised sand with the mayor of the day and city department heads to get things fixed.
Where’s the outrage and demands for action from neighborhood groups and leaders?
The administration now says the Mayor’s Action Center is answering calls more quickly. But what good is that if nothing is done about the complaint after the phone’s been promptly answered?
Then there’s the role of Indianapolis Power and Light (IPL).
They are in charge of the upkeep and maintenance of the city’s streetlights. Don’t they go out at night and inspect? Why isn’t the president/CEO of IPL marking down when she sees a streetlight not working? After all, if streetlights aren’t working that’s cash IPL’s not getting.
(Some cynics might think the hundreds of non-working streetlights is a deliberate government attempt to lower their light bill in tough economic times. I’m not that cynical. But one wonders.)
Everyone’s complaining about Mayor Ballard’s failure to express a vision for the city. Well it’s hard to do that when your streetlights aren’t working and you can’t see your vision.
Maybe we’ll have to call in Sherlock Holmes, CSI’s Laurence Fishburne, John Shaft and Columbo to help Mayor Ballard find the broken streetlights so they can be fixed.
Can’t hurt. Nothing else has worked!
What I’m hearing in the streets
Ball State University’s Bowen Center for Public Affairs released its first Hoosier Poll Monday. Some 600 Indiana adults were asked in November what this Legislature should focus on and 83 percent said jobs, while 67 percent wanted government to run “more efficiently.”
But before those trying to ram the destruction of township government down our throats get happy over this poll, check this fact. The Ball State Hoosier Poll undersampled Blacks by 16 percent.
Ball State farmed out the survey work to Princeton Survey Research Associates. This outfit, not connected with Princeton University messed up big time.
African-Americans comprise 8.5 percent of Indiana adults, according to 2007 Census estimates. But Princeton said 7.3 percent of Hoosier adults are African-American. The 2000 Census said Blacks were 7.9 percent of Indiana adults.
Obviously, Princeton blew it — big time.
When I confronted professor Joseph Losco, chair of Ball State’s Political Science Department which operates the Bowen Center, he admitted that Princeton and Ball State may have screwed-up their Black sampling in their first poll.
“We’ll work to be better next time” Losco told me.
I’ll give credit to Ball State’s Bowen Center. They published their poll’s full methodology and procedures, including the flaws. Something I’ve demanded other so-called reputable pollsters do, including the Iowa-based pollster used by a major Indianapolis media.
Let’s hope professor Losco and Ball State keeps their word and improves to a more accurate sampling of Blacks next time. Gov. Otis Bowen stood for integrity. I hope the polls from the center bearing his name adheres to those same qualities.
See ‘ya next week.
Amos Brown’s opinions are not necessarily those of the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. You can contact him at (317) 221-0915 or by e-mail at ACBROWN@AOL.COM.
