The Green Mouse has been listening to an array of hot rumors concerning the redevelopment potential of the Coyle property, located adjacent to I-Spring Street, which is being listed by Mike Kopp.
As we learned on Tuesday morning, insofar as the city's economic development squad has a pattern for downtown economic piecemealing in the ongoing absence of an actual, coherent plan, it is to refrain from any substantive action until prompted by realtors like Kopp , at which point it is permissible to consider helpful infrastructure improvements, i.e., replacing sidewalks not repaired since the Eisenhower administration.
In short, we've been told on more than one occasion that pro-activity in downtown economic development simply is not possible because such a tool kit does not exist -- and, by obvious extension, city officials do not possess sufficient creative instincts (or passion) to assemble one.
However, when it comes to the Coyle ground, as with the infamous Mainland condo project debacle of previous years, the rumor mill suggests that the city is perfectly willing to ante up so long as the asker is not an independent local business.
Sounds like a One Southern Indiana memo, doesn't it?
The Green Mouse believes the Urban Enterprise Association (forcibly annexed by the Gahan administration to serve as handy ATM, and controlled by Mr. Duggins) will be asked to fund a feasibility study for "upscale" housing infill on the property, as undertaken by a big-time Indianapolis development firm.
This may seem innocuous, but almost certainly it is the prelude to the city proposing to further subsidize this company to the tune of considerably more than just chump change.
Did I mention that the current administration has no downtown economic development plan?
It was to have happened with Mainland in the form of a $15 million parking garage, and there's been no evidence of outside-the-box thinking since that ship ingloriously sank of its own hubris.
"Careerists" like Maalox may be gone, but the 1Si-indoctrinated team in place at present isn't exactly populated by people who've learned from different teachers than the time-servers who preceded them.
We need to pay very close attention to what happens next. First things first: Two way streets, now, as were promised by Jeff Gahan in 2011. Only then do we consider the next in a probable series of Mainlandings.
If City Hall elects to shovel buckets of cash to an Indianapolis company to do what Matt Chalfant is doing entirely on his own ... if there's no downtown economic development plan, and no completed streets .. then City Hall quite obviously does not deserve to be elected again, and should not be elected again.
Drinking Progressively: Let's make it Tuesday evenings, beginning on November 25.
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