The cost of parking is one of the top reasons office space has been a tough sell downtown when
compared to the suburbs. But it's not a problem if you're the mayor-elect. Thanks to a favor from the IMPD, Greg Ballard and
his transition team are enjoying free parking downtown. The team has moved into part of the ninth floor of the Majestic Building
at the corner of Pennsylvania and Maryland streets. Police have bagged every parking meter along the block west of the building
as a courtesy for the new mayor. Transition spokesman Robert Vane confirmed the temporary arrangement.
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Welcome to Property Lines, Indy's source for neighborhood real estate news. Your host is Scott Olson, IBJ's real estate beat
reporter. Edited by Cory Schouten.
The cost of parking is one of the top reasons office space has been a tough sell downtown when
compared to the suburbs. But it's not a problem if you're the mayor-elect. Thanks to a favor from the IMPD, Greg Ballard and
his transition team are enjoying free parking downtown. The team has moved into part of the ninth floor of the Majestic Building
at the corner of Pennsylvania and Maryland streets. Police have bagged every parking meter along the block west of the building
as a courtesy for the new mayor. Transition spokesman Robert Vane confirmed the temporary arrangement.
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So the Mayor adds another non value added layer to having a vehicle towed? Whereby the City Government RECIEVES AN ILLEGAL KICKBACK FROM A LGOISTICS COMPANY THAT SUBS THE WORK TO LOCAL TOW COMPANIES? What is the service the City performs for receiving the "tribute"? This is RICO!!!!! What a corrupt and unnecessary layer. What a dirtbag Mayor and his cronies.
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Owner occupied housing. Clear enough?
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So people think I am paranoid. It's from experience in dealing with puds requested by developers who make major donations themselves to representatives, have nice fund raisers for those running for office and hide through pac's. then there are the public relation firms. You will note some pr comments below. You there Clyde Lee? My opinion. Commercial along 421, great. Multifamily housing, terrible idea that will change the town. Senior condos or zero lot line homes west, great. I suggest keeping all entries to commercial areas at 421. All entries to owner occupied on sycamore. Will keep the traffic on sycamore down some. Two other things. You can't trust what will be there in 10 years. Steve builds quality stuff, but areas change over time. Look at the changes at the wall mart center at 86th and 421 over the last 10 years. Look at the apartments and neighborhoods behind St Vincent's. Raintree properties WILL decrease in value if commercial and multifamily goes in near. It has already been happening around the bridges area. The houses that have been sold recently are way below market. Several deals not closed due to the Illinois construction and the whole unsurety of the bridges. It's pretty simple, Zionsville will approve the whole thing because the city council has been groomed over a LONG period of time for this. I might even suggest some are in their position as a result of this.
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Esta, do you have a dog in this fight? You seem to really want to knock anyone against this project. No, I didn't move to Indiana for the architecture. I moved here for that red barn in the field. The horses and fields of corn. A place that is NOT overdeveloped. There are plenty of nearby places in Indianapolis that could be REDEVELOPED instead.
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RKW - OK, we get it, you're paranoid. The question is, are you paranoid enough? Greg - Yes, Pittman(s) is (are) at it again. They are developers, they build things. It's what they do. So when you go to work tomorrow, Greg, you're at it again too. Cliff - Really? You moved to Indiana for its progressive architecture? That's like moving to England for the cuisine. Zionsvillain - The house you moved to was once a field or woods. I'm willing to bet folks were upset when that ground was plowed under and a house was built. But I guess now that you are in, everything should stop? "My house was OK, but the next one is sprawl." SE Guy - Please don't paint us with such a wide brush. Most reasonable Zionsville residents welcome planned, measured development.
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Besides, the Jefferson Plaza is nearly completely empty, so it's not like their tenants need the parking spots for their visitors...honestly, I saw all the bags and assumed that Greg Allen worked out a deal with the city for his construction crew...
requires paid parking. You park in a garage, you pay a fee. This freebee
isn't set up as a service to the people visiting the mayor's office, it's set
up as a service to the mayor and his staff . . . and we know it's not really
free. Get our your wallets.
What about the Broad Ripple merchant who requested and received a permit to bag the meters on Broad Ripple Ave. a few months ago?
Is anyone going to check the facts about bagging meters before we all jump to conclusions?
Guess the reality is that in some situations, public servants are less equal.
I say free parking. How are they going to know your working for bollard or having a meeting with the new mayor? I say park there and when/if you get a ticket, send it to IMPD with a note saying I was sucking up to the new mayor
Yes city and county parking is usually paid for, but these county employees should be parking in the garages, like city employees so that they can help meet the minimum occupancy requirement contract the city has with Dennison management (for Conseco garage) that guarantees so many parkers with Denison.
And yes, this is even if the employee wants a buy out to ride mass transit, instead of parking on the city’s dime. (To be fair, the employees can have a free bus pass, but not the monthly cost of their parking pass).
I don't recall ever seeing it in other cities to the extent we have it here. I'm afraid that since no one questions it, IMPD has gone bag-happy, instead of looking for other solutions. Our streets are extremely wide, we don't need to bag whole swaths of downtown to accommodate traffic, and especially not to accommodate Political favors.
This may not technically qualify as cronyism, but it sure reeks of it.
- Simon's Mall Sale at Lafayette?
- The 2000 multifam units planned in the 146th st corridor
- the stutz tower
this is only what I came up with after 10 sec of thought.
there is a ton of worthy real estate stuff out there!
meters are bagged by authority of the DPW board if you want to see less meter bags go to the DPW board and remonistrate against it. You have a voice in almost every case. Make your voice heard or shut up
In my opinion, any type of street life and energy that major events can potentially bring to downtown is squelched by the having wide, barren streets as a result of meter bagging.
I need to state the obvious, and that is that those meters were bagged most of the time anyway (even before Ballard), and city wide, any time there are 'big' events the meters are bagged. It's a homeland security and safety issue from what I understand.
I for one love curbside parking, but we all have to acknowledge that they do make for less safe driving and walking downtown.
And some of you on this list that were quick to gripe were the first to gripe about Ballard in the first place. Your opinions are pocked with blind ignorance and bias. I love how people want to fire him before he's even started the job. Way to give it a 'fair' shot. I'm glad I don't work for you.
Actually, it's the opposite. A row of parked cars makes sidewalks much safer. A barren street without parking becomes a raceway, as anyone who drives north and south on Penn/Delaware or Capitol/Illinois at rush hours knows. And even though it's a pain in the rear to park on Mass Ave, the narrow travel lanes coupled with the parking give a very safe, small-town feel to a very wide right-of-way.
Thanks for the tip. I was unaware of how to address the situation. I will be contacting the DPW to see what can be done about eliminating this abuse of public property.
Please don't tell myself or others here to shut up. This is a civil forum
Thanks.
Driving...Slows or stops traffic, drivers get impatient, car doors fly open as parking parties exit/enter their vehicle. Badly parked cars force traffic into other lanes, sometimes causing vehicles to straddle the oncoming lane (on the two way streets).
Walking...Peds trying to get into/out of their vehicles (as listed above) with traffic moving by. J-walking (yes, it shouldn't happen but it does) becomes more risky, as parked vehicles obscure the view for vehicular traffic.
You can't convince me that freeing downtown streets of parked cars doesn't make for a safer environment. The traffic is there no matter what during events, and rarely do cars FLY through those streets, as the timing of the lights limits that potential.
Not wanting to duke it out on a non-issue to begin with, but not only was I not directly quoted, but you seem to ignore that there ARE dangers to having parked cars on the street. I won't even go into the Homeland Security concerns (because I don't think they really apply to Indy).
The DPW Board doesn't approve every bag or every permit--they typically only hear those where the requestor asks to have the fees associated with the bagging waived ($15 per meter, per day). Only non-profits or governmental entities can request a waiver of the fees to block out parking meters.
And IMPD does also bag meters at their own discretion for events or other reasons that are known only to them.
Ever since those bags went up, at least a third of those spaces are used by Deem Heating and Cooling.....