Several issues that have been bubbling under the surface will now come to the fore, now that the election is over.
Here’s my overview and why African-Americans should be aware and engaged.
Midnight train to Noblesville — Powerful business interests and the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce are pushing hard for improving mass transit. But they’re not pushing to create an innovative IndyGo bus system that really serves the city and suburbs. Instead, these interests are pushing for a new regional sales tax to pay for a commuter train to run between downtown and the affluent Hamilton County (Carmel, Fishers and Noblesville).
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard and some 60 business leaders recently traveled to Denver to examine their public transportation. Only nine Blacks were a part of the delegation. None were community or grassroots leaders, only entrepreneurs or Black executives of major companies.
Meanwhile, the chamber and the Metropolitan Board of Realtors (MIBOR) released a poll saying 70 percent of Central Indiana residents want increased regional mass transit funding.
Unfortunately, the poll, conducted by Strategic Marketing & Research Inc. (SMARI), was a worthless piece of garbage that broke many rules of responsible research.
Only 15 percent of the 1,434 nine county metro area residents surveyed lived in Marion County, even though Marion County contains 53 percent of the metro’s population. SMARI’s poll dramatically oversampled suburban respondents and drastically undersampled city/county residents.
And in a metro where one-in-six residents are African-American and one-in-four city/county residents are Black, the chamber/MIBOR survey didn’t bother to ask survey participants their race.
“People don’t answer that correctly,” a SMARI official told me. A preposterous statement from a so-called responsible research company.
Chamber President Roland Dorson denies the Denver trip is a prelude to the chamber ramming a commuter train for the rich and powerful down the entire community’s throat. Yet, in an Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ) story, proponents openly admit that’s their goal.
Indianapolis needs a coherent city/suburban mass transit system. The debate on what that system should be, how we pay for it, and how it really benefits African-Americans will be one of 2009’s major debates.
Evicting local Black elected officials — You’re gonna hear a lot about the recommendations of the 2007 Kernan/Shepard Commission and about more government consolidation. In essence making Indiana’s other 91 counties more like Indianapolis, with an all powerful county executive in charge.
The destruction of township assessors was the first step. The next step will be the destruction of township government. That has disastrous consequences on African-Americans communities, not just in Lake County, but here in Marion County.
This plan, pushed by Gov. Mitch Daniels and surprisingly by former Mayor Bart Peterson, would fire township trustees, four of whom, in Marion County, are Black. They would create a countywide poor relief system under the mayor, which would be a bureaucratic nightmare.
There are also issues of racial fairness and equity.
Kernan/Shepard advocates eliminating school districts of less than 2,500 students. That would mean eliminating the Speedway and Beech Grove districts in Marion County. But if the elimination of township government and governance is a Kernan/Shepard goal, then what happens to “township school districts” which follow township governmental boundaries?
Townships receive federal revenue sharing funds, because they are a governmental entity. The Census also provides legal Census reports and measurements, data which help business and neighborhood leaders and government. All of that would be eliminated with the Kernan/Shepard destruction of township government.
This is a debate African-Americans need to get fully engaged in.
The future of IPS — The crying and caterwauling of neighborhood groups is beginning with the prospective closing of six IPS schools, the layoff of some 400 teachers and an unknown number of paid administrators. Next year is going to be a time our community takes a hard, hard look at IPS’ future.
Dwindling population is a serious problem as fewer people live in the IPS district.
The 2000 Census showed 328,785 people, including 139,416 Blacks, lived in IPS. The latest 2007 Census American Community Survey (ACS) reports that the population in the IPS district has dropped to 288,294, including 115,709 Blacks. That’s a 12.3 percent decrease of 40,491 (12.3 percent) in total population and a decrease of 23,707 (17 percent) in Black population. The only increase in population within IPS is among Hispanics, which grew from 15,891 in 2000 to 23,941, an increase of 8,050 (50.7 percent) in 2007.
By 2010, IPS will be the second largest, not the largest school district in Indiana. It’s high time for a serious community conversation on making IPS truly fit the declining population of its district. IPS can’t continue to have capacity for a district size that doesn’t exist anymore. Our community must get engaged in the debate on how IPS restructures itself and redoes school boundaries.
Martin University — If it was a human being, there would be calls for an intervention to help save the life of Martin University. This is an institution at war with itself as students and faculty are angry and upset at an erratic administration and a dangerously aloof and uncaring Board of Trustees.
A university is supposed to be a collegial institution where ideas and respect are welcomed and tolerated. Unfortunately, Martin has ceased to be such a university.
Instead, Martin has become a snakepit of venom and vengeance. The firing two weeks ago of Professor Harry Murphy, and his subsequent sit-in at the university’s front door, sparked a firestorm of student protests while being ignored by the university’s incompetent administration.
IBJ reported that in the past year, half of the Martin University’s trustees have quit. Not a sign of stability.
Martin University is an institution with financial problems, which can be solved. But it’s more seriously infected with a cancer of leadership. And if the trustees don’t quickly deal with eradicating that cancer, the issue facing our community will be how to dispose of the physical assets of the wrecked institution once known as Martin University.
See ‘ya next week with detailed insight on the victories of Gov. Mitch Daniels and President-elect Barack Obama.
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.
