Nate Feltman: Where is that whole ‘vision thing’ in the mayor’s race?

In less than three months, the next mayor of Indianapolis will be elected. Either Democrat Mayor Joe Hogsett, the incumbent, will begin his third term as mayor or Republican businessman Jefferson Shreve will get the opportunity to lead America’s 16th-largest city.

To date, the candidates’ stance on public safety and gun laws have taken center stage. Absent from the discussion have been a vision and plan for creating a more prosperous and more livable city. What are the priorities and tactics for creating a more attractive and dynamic city where young people have more opportunities? How do we improve the city’s school system in order to provide our children the best opportunity to play a productive role in society?

While public safety certainly must be a top priority for any mayor, arguably it will be impossible to improve the city’s safety and security without a vision and a plan to attract more people, entrepreneurs and businesses to our city and region.

I’m not a campaign strategist, so perhaps the best path to victory in November is to attack the opponent’s record on crime or their stance on gun laws. Maybe he who spends the most money painting the other guy as soft on crime or wishy-washy on gun laws wins.

So far, both candidates seem to be taking a page out of President George H.W. Bush’s playbook and are unable or unwilling to clearly articulate a compelling vision for the city of Indianapolis. Bush acknowledged his challenge with communicating a vision for America’s future in a New York Times interview, stating, “I have trouble with the vision thing.” One is left to assume that either neither candidate has a vision for the future of Indianapolis or they don’t think communicating one will get them elected.

Following primary victories by Hogsett and Shreve, IBJ’s editorial board called on both candidates to lay out a vision for the city’s future, something akin to our city’s sports strategy that former Mayor Bill Hudnut led and implemented, ultimately leading Indianapolis to lay claim to the title of amateur sports capital of the world. Our city’s well-documented decades-long sports strategy rejuvenated our downtown and led to our city’s playing host to multiple Final Fours, the College Football Playoff National Championship and the Super Bowl.

We called on both candidates to tell us how they plan to address the impact of remote and hybrid work, which is leading to vacant downtown office buildings. Are they in favor of the downtown investment district that would increase taxes on business owners but help address homelessness and cleanliness? How will they address the city’s infrastructure challenges? What are their ideas for rethinking the interstates that divide downtown? What are their ideas for redeveloping Circle Centre Mall? How can the city maximize the new efforts by Indiana University and Purdue University in Indianapolis? And the list goes on.

There is near-unanimous agreement among city and state leaders that the sports strategy alone will not be enough to propel Indy’s growth in the decades ahead. Without a vision and a plan to reinvigorate downtown and the city as a whole, Indianapolis risks falling further behind peer cities that are growing faster economically and attracting more talent.

Voters are hungry for inspirational leaders who can articulate a vision for a more livable, prosperous and, therefore, safer city. At this critical time in our city’s history, Indianapolis needs strong leadership. We are still waiting for a vision from the next leader of our capital city.•

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Feltman is publisher of IBJ and CEO of IBJ Media. Send comments to nfeltman@ibj.com.