For Indianapolis to return to economic normalcy, we must work harder than ever to mend our differences, address long-neglected problems and coalesce around an inclusive, strategic plan for renewed growth.
Those who have gone from protest to riot have forgotten the lessons of Gandhi and King. They were effective through non-violent civil disobedience.
Our state capital is being destroyed and the governor is MIA. Why did he not order the Indiana National Guard to mobilize and assist IPD Saturday night?
It is too hard being black in this city, and black people are tired.
The most significant theft that has occurred is not that of liquor or merchandise; the looters, by their actions, are stealing the credibility of the good people peacefully protesting a lengthy history of opportunity denied to people of color and those without means.
Decisions are impossible to make when leadership fails to listen to the community; fails to communicate a comprehensive plan; and falls into a reactive, not proactive, stance on protecting our community.
We can and will address the concerns of citizens and business owners grappling with the damage to public and private spaces caused by last weekend’s violence. But we cannot do so without simultaneously wrestling, and besting, the historically tolerated race disparities that lie at the heart of that violence.
It’s hard to find words for the horror that is the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, just as it is hard to comprehend how the anger over that death—and too many others—led to so much destruction in downtown Indianapolis. But IBJ asked several community leaders to give it a shot. Here’s what they wrote.
What we are experiencing in our city, and cities across our country, is the language of pain when people’s spirits are broken and they move beyond hopelessness to outrage.
We all were taught early that two wrongs don’t make a right. What has happened to our city is inexcusable.
Design thinking is generally described as a five-step process, with specific names for each step. But in reality, the people and companies that use design thinking adapt their own take on it, by combining or breaking out some of the steps or using a more conceptual approach.
This large displacement of human capital has left some of the best and brightest talent in search of their next trail to blaze.
But drawing on my federal agency experience helping economically distressed areas and now leading an institute helping communities make better economic decisions, here is how leaders can create an economic recovery plan.
If sales taxes continue to fall in tandem with income taxes, the results would be crushing for Indiana; we collect more than half our general fund revenue from sales taxes (the 50-state average is about 31%).
Workers are being forced to choose between their health and a paycheck they need to survive.
For as much as government has been chided in some business circles for shutting down the economy—and that certainly has happened—officials have in other ways worked quickly to clear the path for business to innovate and adjust.
Epic levels of unemployment and declines in GDP take time to repair, even if we get good news such as better remedies or an effective vaccine. There are at least two reasons why.
Perhaps the biggest key to making effective plans in all this is flexibility.
The Indianapolis International Airport’s journey back from the coronavirus crisis won’t be complete—and the city and state won’t be made whole—without the return of nonstop service overseas.
We must provide as many people as possible access to health and safety information in their primary language. Failure to do so threatens the health of every one of us.
