JULY 9-15, 2021
Indianapolis’ game plan for retaining possession of the NFL’s annual Scouting Combine is no “Hail Mary.” IBJ’s Mickey Shuey has more on Indy’s strategy to hold the line after the current contract to host the combine expires. Also in those week’s issue, Walker Simmons reports that Wheeler Mission is set to open an expanded center for homeless women and children that will nearly double the space available for services, add 160 short- and long-term beds and enhance addiction treatment and education programming. And Leslie Bonilla explains how a city proposal to require tracking of municipal and commercial energy use has the potential to help save millions of dollars, reduce emission by thousands of tons and cut water use by billions of gallons in less than a decade.
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City wants building owners to track utility use
A city proposal to require tracking of municipal and commercial energy use could save millions of dollars, reduce emissions by thousands of tons and cut water usage by billions of gallons in less than a decade.
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New Riley Children’s Health leader has big job, towering presence
Gil Peri, a 6-foot, 8-1/2-inch, gregarious administrator with an easy laugh, started his job on June 28, after spending about four years as president and chief operating officer at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.
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Expanded women’s shelter to offer more beds, more dignity
Wheeler Mission is set to open an expanded center for homeless women and children that will nearly double the space for services, add 160 short- and long-term beds, and enhance programming.
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Indy is working to hold onto Combine even as NFL seeks other suitors
The league’s decision to invite other cities to bid to host its Scouting Combine didn’t come as a surprise to local leaders, and it gave them a head start on designing a bid that could keep the Combine in town beyond 2022.
Read MoreBuy now, pay later appeals to buyers who don’t like credit
The new iteration of an age-old retail concept is gaining traction, particularly with younger consumers, and a growing number of central Indiana retailers are adding the payment option to their websites.
Read MoreQ&A: Blogger Katy Mann pivots through pandemic
In 2019, Mann’s website—IndyWithKids.com—had 2.5 million page views. Thanks to some clever pandemic pivots, it more than doubled its page views in 2020 to 6 million.
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The Wine Market in Fountain Square taking over high-profile Pioneer building
The Wine Market, which opened on Virginia Avenue in 2017, is bursting at the seams. Its owners are investing more than $2 million to buy and renovate a new space in the heart of Fountain Square.
Read MoreSoftware firm OnBoard lands $100M investment from private equity firm
It’s the first major round of capital for OnBoard. It has been primarily bootstrapped and had only raised $5 million in private equity before this round.
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Public access counselor: Carmel BZA violated transparency laws during review of The GOAT
Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt issued an opinion stating the Carmel Board of Zoning Appeals violated Indiana Open Door Laws by having its members approve the written findings of fact for its April 26 meeting outside of the public eye.
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Mike Lopresti: It’s an Indiana summer at the ballpark
Four men, who might be having the summers of their baseball lives. Four roads that led through the state of Indiana.
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Renovated box factory anchors plans for 40-acre campus in neighborhood dubbed NOMA
Over the last two years, the Stenz Construction Corp., Third Street Ventures and Pure Development have undertaken a $25 million renovation of the former U.S. Corrugated Box Co. building.
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State Fair lands $50M to turn swine barn into multiuse facility
The pigs at the Indiana State Fair are officially getting a new place to stay after the state released $50 million to replace the almost century-old swine barn with a multiuse facility that will also be able to host large sporting events.
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Editorial: Spending on state parks, trails is welcome at time when talent attraction is crucial
We know that, as more companies move to remote working opportunities—and examples of that are all around us—employees will be able to more easily choose where they live. For Indiana and central Indiana to compete, we must step up our game.
Read MoreLesley Weidenbener: Downtown has been my safe space
I was startled when some extended family members recently expressed shock that I continue to come downtown every day—and that I worked in the IBJ office on Monument Circle regularly through the pandemic. They assumed it was too unsafe.
Read MoreSheila Kennedy: Uninformed frenzy over critical race theory is all politics
Assertions that critical race theory is being taught in America’s elementary and high schools are ludicrous. As I have been complaining pretty much forever, schools aren’t even teaching the most basic concepts required for civic literacy.
Read MoreBrose McVey & Carol D’Amico: The power of a job on teen mental health
Beginning with the graduating class of 2023, high school students may help themselves graduate through work-based learning, including internships—an overdue change that should generate dividends, intended and otherwise.
Read MoreMickey Kim: Stay cool even while inflation fears run hot
The nearly total shutdown of an economy and subsequent reopening is a truly unique event without precedent or a playbook.
Read MoreIn the workplace: Cultivating the power of many for innovation
So we’ve got a genius idea, to which a number of geniuses have contributed. Is that enough for it to break out? Sadly, no.
Read MoreCecil Bohanon & Nick Curott: Remembering economist Steven Horwitz
Horwitz reckoned the greatest misconception about economics is that it deals only with material living standards.
Read MoreLetter: Elected officials and community leaders should step back, create vision for spending
We urge elected officials, policymakers and civic leaders to consider a strategic and deliberate approach in determining how to best invest and leverage stimulus funds to achieve long-term gains.
Read MoreLetter: Our topsy-turvy pay scale
Someone who is doing a truly essential service, not a discretionary one, should earn more than $12 an hour.
Read MoreLetter: Pacers need to be quicker
For this team to improve, the perimeter defense must be way better. Our guys seem to lack quickness.
Read MoreJohn Patten: Rest areas need funding, too
Our surrounding states seem to understand these important way stations that dot our highways are, in and of themselves, indicators of state pride.
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Purdue-patented technology turns plastic into fuel
The technology could soon scale up to commercial-level production under a demonstration project planned by Hasler Ventures LLC.
Read MoreUPDATE: Judge letting Indiana’s governor sue to block emergency law
Judge Patrick Dietrick wrote in the ruling dated Saturday that such an interpretation would give the attorney general greater power than the governor in protecting the governor’s constitutional powers.
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Ticket sales for Newfields’ multisensory exhibit open to public July 6
“The Lume” exhibit, which launches July 27, will put visitors in the center of floor-to-ceiling projections of paintings such as “The Starry Night” and “Sunflowers” by Vincent van Gogh.
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WFYI parent firm taking over state’s oldest radio station
Purdue University officials have signed a letter of intent for the transfer of both WBAA’s AM and FM stations to Metropolitan Indianapolis Public Media. WBAA first received its broadcasting license in 1922.
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