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Seize the term
by Editors Nov 5, 2003
An open letter to Mayor Bart Peterson
Dear Mayor Peterson, On Tuesday, as we go to press, the stars appear aligned in favor of your winning a second term as mayor of Indianapolis. Barring a once-in-a-blue-moon upset, or some snafu with our new voting machines, it seems likely that, on Wednesday morning, we will be congratulating you for another successful campaign. Four years ago, when you ran for office for the first time, you created a document called the Peterson Plan that outlined areas of our city’s life where you wanted to make a positive difference. You pledged to add 200 police officers to combat violent crime and drugs, to improve city services to neighborhoods, strengthen our economy, improve transportation, support the arts and protect our health, homes and environment. As you wrote in the introduction to your plan, you wanted to make Indianapolis “the best place in the country to live and work and raise families.” Many might have found this a rather lofty goal — or worse, empty campaign rhetoric. Not us. We applauded the Peterson Plan’s ambition, and still do because we believe that the opportunity to make Indianapolis “the best place” is before us if we are willing to grasp it. But turning this opportunity into a reality to be shared by all the people of this city is going to require real leadership. That’s why we’re writing this letter. As we were reminded yesterday, you, in no uncertain terms, are the guy. To be sure, you have brought welcome energy and enthusiasm to your office — qualities that your predecessor sorely lacked. You seem not only to enjoy being mayor, but, even better, to enjoy Indianapolis. You exemplify the adage that a key to success is showing up. Indeed, throughout your first term, you made a point of getting out and being a public presence. Undoubtedly, there are some who think this is trivial, that the mayor ought to be spending his or her time “at work” for the city. But in a city with notoriously low self-esteem like Indianapolis, your willingness to not only make appearances, but, often, to be genuinely engaged by the events you attend has sent an affirming signal to us all. Not only that. Your insistence that Indianapolis can be “world class” has undeniably raised the bar about how we think and talk about our city. This is important because it has broadened our sense of shared possibility. There is probably no better example of what you have accomplished in this regard than your Cultural Initiative. Four years ago, the arts and culture were barely on the radar screen as far as this city’s public policy was concerned. Arts here were woefully underfunded and, more to the point, few people outside the arts community saw cultural resources as assets that could help create and sustain neighborhood revitalization and economic growth. You put the arts on our agenda — and the city is better for it. We have to add, though, that the Cultural Initiative also illustrates some of your administration’s shortcomings. As with so many areas identified by the Peterson Plan, recognizing the importance of the arts was enlightened. It held out the prospect not just of dressing up parts of town with decorative touches, but of creating a more inclusive and participatory way of doing the city’s business — bringing people to the decision-making table who had never been there before. This kind of openness has been painstaking at best. Too often, rather than taking hold of the concepts you promote, you have chosen instead to pass them off to the same hands that have been managing the city all along. To some extent, this is inevitable and even necessary. But it also has created the perception that your administration has more to do with management style than substance. Whether this is fair or not is almost beside the point. As we have already pointed out, you have won over many of us based on some of the positive perceptions you have cultivated. Dependence on the usual suspects associated with this city’s traditional leadership class has created a different kind of perception — that business as usual is still the norm when it comes to local decision making. During the early days of your first term, it was common to attribute this perception to the fact that you were our first Democrat mayor in a generation. Indianapolis was thought of as a Republican stronghold with, thanks to Unigov, a powerful political machine. It was assumed that to get anything done, you would have to play ball with your opposition. But as we have gone deeper into your tenure, your popularity has grown. Your public approval ratings have been remarkably high. And now you find yourself elected for another round. You have earned that most precious of political commodities: clout. Clout, of course, might also be called political capital, that fund made up of goodwill and power that politicians can draw upon in order to achieve certain goals. So far, you’ve seemed loathe to make withdrawls from this account. Throwing your weight around doesn’t appear to be your style. You prefer, instead, to try to manage people into submission. This tends to prolong coming to decisions about things — sometimes for years. The problem with this approach is that it confuses stasis with stability. It can make it seem as though an issue has been resolved when, in fact, it is only in a state of suspended animation. It is true, for example, that you have “taken steps” to clean the mess that is our White River, but it may be another generation before the White’s pollution problems are put to rest. Can we really accept this situation? As you begin your second term, Mr. Mayor, many of us wonder what issues might truly test your resolve and, indeed, define your career. How will you choose to spend your political capital? We’ll be facing some significant tests. As already mentioned, the city’s environment — our air as well as our water — needs help. But then so do many of our neighborhoods. There’s a serious lack of affordable housing in Indianapolis, and homelessness is a continuing problem. Your commitment to charter schools is interesting, but it doesn’t compensate for the fact that Indianapolis Public Schools is still a troubled system that people would rather make excuses for than take credit for. But you know all this. You also know that money is going to be tight. With Indiana’s budget in the tank and a ballooning federal budget deficit brought to us, in part, with the assistance of the likely Republican candidate for governor, Mr. Daniels, it’s going to be hard finding funds. This means there will be some thankless decisions in your future. Simply managing our situation won’t be sufficient; we’re going to need the kind of leadership that can help people understand the hard choices ahead. The Peterson Plan was — and is — a visionary blueprint for Indianapolis. We agree with its premise, that this can be the best place in the country to live and work and raise families. But we know through hard experience that wishing won’t make it so. For this goal to apply to everyone in our city we’re going to need the kind of leadership that’s willing not just to promote our culture, but change it — to make this a place where new ideas and new people are welcome. And where civic success is measured by the abundance of people able to share in its rewards. From everyone here at NUVO, good luck!
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