Comment Archives: stories: Voices: Hoppe
Re: “Droned in Garfield Park”
Shoot drones down. Simple. It is not illegal.
You would need a crossbow or pellet rifle, since you it is
illegal to fire a gun in city limits...but...if you felt your
life was in danger....hmmmm.
Maybe drone buyers will find another hobby.
Re: “Osama bin Laden and climate change”
Ditto, carbon rules, for now.
You might worry however, about, Middle East unrest,
Kashmir (possible site of WWIII), N. Korea and nukes,
Africa issues, 100,000 dying in US hospitals per year by
malfeasance, meltdown in Europe (extreme dissent),
unemployment, Mexico and drug wars, China coming of age, all of which could embroil us socially, economically and
possibly militarily. But hey, let's let climate change - control
our behavior...back to the cave. Get Real.
This rant is basically anti-car, anti-suburb, anti-chain stores,
in short: the way Americans want to live.
Climate change is basically the new Evangelical Puritanical rant to 'cleanse our misguided souls'. Get your nose out
the clouds and your feet back in the mud.
Re: “Money talking in Broad Ripple”
http://www.facebook.com/SayNoToTifFundsFor…
...Please use/like this facebook page to keep us all in touch:...and share it with friends who care.
Keep Broad Ripple Local.
Say NO! Say NO to taking away tax funds meant for neighborhoods in need. Say NO to giving those funds to out-of-state Big Box corporations. Say NO to crony-profits that will destroy the Broad Ripple we all have built. Come out and Say NO.
Yours in art and labor,
Mike
Re: “Money talking in Broad Ripple”
Mr. Hoppe:
Mr. Kirby's proposed development was way more that simply adding a story. It was scraping off the present building and putting up a 4 story condo, three floors living and parking underneath with zero green space except a green roof garden only he could enjoy from his penthouse condo. This was just before the big crash, if I remember correctly. He is lucky it did not go then. Maybe now.
Re: “Money talking in Broad Ripple”
The 'creative destruction' of the market comes on the heels of any development. Established merchants either adapt or cease to exist. I would love to keep Broad Ripple locally-oriented, but outside forces see the village for what it is and everyone wants a piece of the action. In my mind, full is better than empty and the Shell station is an eyesore. All of the development that went on hold back in 2007 seems poised to roar back and we'll tread a fine line to keep the Broad Ripple ideal alive, a walkable village with lots of small shops. It's obvious this vision is not shared by everyone, but progress is a steamroller.
Re: “Money talking in Broad Ripple”
Indianapolis is considering spending 5 million dollars of taxpayer’s money in the form of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to enable a developer to bring a Whole Foods grocery into downtown Broad Ripple Village. Here is an informative online petition, on which you can address your comments to the powers that can stop this from happening:
tinyurl.com/KeepBroadRippleLocalPetition
The stated purpose of TIF is economic development to increase resources for the community, not economic redistribution which takes from existing businesses to give to new ones. Contrary to this intent, five million in TIF taxpayer dollars spent to enable the siting of a large retail grocery like Texas based Whole Foods in Broad Ripple would take business away from multiple existing groceries within a two mile radius, including another Whole Foods. It would also take business from the local Farmer’s Market, florists, restaurants, and even bars, as serving alcohol within Whole Foods is proposed.
The ideal of TIF is to invest wisely in our local community, where it is needed the most. Broad Ripple has greater needs than a giant grocery, bar, and restaurant. Other neighborhoods in the TIF district desperately need even basic food access.
Locally owned businesses typically recirculate money within the local community, whereas national chains typically drain money from the local community which goes to owners and stockholders in other states and countries. National chains are welcome to compete on a level playing field, but they shouldn’t be the beneficiary of local tax dollars which allow them to gain advantage over local businesses which are providing similar services.
Re: “Osama bin Laden and climate change”
Sorry buddy I like my carbon. Keeps me warm in winter cool and summer and vacationing on the costa del sol for pleasure.
Re: “Money talking in Broad Ripple”
Are you people footing the bill for all your "suggestions"?
Re: “Money talking in Broad Ripple”
Two words re- closing down BR Ave - Retractable bollards - just close it off at night, leave it open during the day. I'm so tried of everything being so black and white, which seems to be a real problem in that area.
Re: “Money talking in Broad Ripple”
There's already a Farmers market one day a week in Broad Ripple. Every Saturday at the High School.
Shutting down BR Avenue thru the Village will kill the Village.
We don't need a beer garden. There's already enough place for people to get a beer in the Village.
What the Village didn't need was Kilroy's and Brothers. Maybe the drunken college kids wouldn't deluge the neighborhood every weekend, and normal people could come out.
The evil people are attracted to the drunks. Easy Targets. If the drunks weren't around, the evil people would go somewhere else.
Re: “Money talking in Broad Ripple”
if broadripple wants to really change itself,
shut down the road going through the main area.... make it foot traffic only.
Aim for more local businesses, and fewer big box stores.
ENCOURAGE rather then discourage locals to setup "carts" along the canal selling art, and food....
Clean up the alleys, streets, and sidewalks.... make this the responsablitiy of the local businesses...
Setup safer travel to the area via pickup / drop off services to downtown... and hotels through out the city... (tax every beer 10 cents to pay for it)... turn the shell station into a large parking lot... Open a farmers market one day per week. Open an artist market one day per week... at least spring through fall... Open the monon between BR ave and about 64th street 24/7.
want the canal to be something.... let vendor set up there every day.... for little to no cost (maybe just have them charge local sales taxes)... open a beer garden on the canal on fridays or saturdays.... So many ideas for this (my favorite part of the city).... that do not include begging big businesses to come in and lower the community value of the enviroment.
Re: “Money talking in Broad Ripple”
I still don't like the idea of tearing down all of old Broad Ripple. Under the aluminum facade of those buildings are very attractive apartments.
Re: “We could lose passenger rail service”
It is true that no rail system is "self-sustaining," but neither is any road. Every road is subsidized--it was built with tax funds from people who might never drive on. And even though gasoline taxes are "supposed to" cover all the maintenance, when it falls short we don't just shut down the road, we spend money from other taxpayers.
Trains are no different, and with an appropriate infrastructure to support high-speed rail, would be a far superior experience to "MegaBus" or driving yourself. You'd be in downtown Chicago in under two hours.
Yeah, really, who wants that.
Re: “We could lose passenger rail service”
Too bad Hoppe is trying to live in the 1800's when rail travel
was the transit mode. Just rent the movie, Once Upon a Time in the West to get your rail fix and watch old History Channel train documentaries.
The transit mode of the 21st Century is the personal mobile
vehicle (PMV) aka automobile. Why? Um..total versatility.
If Amtrak closes their Chicago route, because of lack of customers, why in the hell would you want a high speed rail?
Time for Hoppe to get on the clue bus, er, the MegaBus and ride
one and see the advantages. Then go rent the movie.
NO rail system in the USA supports itself or is SUSTAINABLE.
You want to be 'SUSTAINABLE' don't you?
Mass transit relies on heavy subsidies to operate. At the turn of the 1900's only the very rich could afford a car, now almost everyone can...it has been democratized, like most technology.
Would you go back to dial up modem? Every google search
amounts to the same energy as bringing water to a boil. Want
to give up google search to save the planet?
Re: “We could lose passenger rail service”
A quick wiki search reveals:
"During fiscal year (FY) 2011, the Hoosier State carried approximately 37,000 passengers."
So with a $4,000,000 subsidy / 37,000 passengers = $108 subsidy per passenger plus the passenger pays $32 per ticket.
Or passengers can buy a megabus ticket for the same $32 price and the state can keep it's $4,000,000
Re: “We could lose passenger rail service”
Just to clarify, the Hoosier State runs 4 days a week, as you point out, and it could be going away. However, the Cardinal still will run from Chicago to DC and stop in Indy, so not all service is lost.
Also, the route is 5hrs 5mins, station to station due to stops in Crawfordsville, Lafayette, Rensellaer, and perhaps Dyer. Megabus is 3.5 hours and Greyhound is about the same.
Re: “We could lose passenger rail service”
Well written. What is Indiana afraid of? Investing in rail travel isn't going to put current means of travel in jeopardy, only improve it. You can't tell me the cost of maintaining or building rail lines are more costly than roadbeds for vehicular traffic.
Re: “We could lose passenger rail service”
"But have you driven Interstate 65 between Chicago and Indy lately?"
-I do this frequently, as recently as yesterday. The pot holes are as bad as I've seen, no doubt due to the harsh winter we just went through, coupled with the heavy traffic. I would love to have more passenger rail options, and quit contributing to the problem!
Re: “The fear that voting actually works”
I willingly voted for the new Wishard Hospital and so increased my tax bill. I expected that our leaders would take a fiduciary responsibility to manage costs – but instead they saw their responsibility to build their own campaign war chests. It wasn’t until well after the tax increase passed we learned that a PLA (Project Labor Agreement) was signed, locking out 80 percent of local contractors and increasing costs by tens of millions of tax dollars. (If you remember, citing quality concerns, a PLA was signed for Lucas Oil Stadium, which after just two years needed millions of our dollars to repair shoddy plumbing work.)
The new Wishard Hospital was needed, but it quickly became a scheme to increase union membership, with monies flowing from taxpayers to favored union shops to campaign war chests to elect politicians who will increase union membership and dues.
With this memory, I will never again vote to increase my taxes
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Re: “The big government perplex”
Hoppe seems to think the government is like kudzu, it
keeps growing uncontrollably. He is right,The nature of bureaucracy
is to grow itself till it becomes bloated and then erupts
like in Greece, Italy and other countries.
Good luck trying to tame the kudzu and bureaucracy.