Bill Taft: Our mayor-centric civic culture needs to be replaced

I recently wrote about Indy’s “civic leadership recession,” and scores of you have since reached out to confirm that you agree we have lost the capacity to accomplish big things as a city. The next logical question: “How do we revive our effectiveness in driving change?”

When I look back at how Indy went from “India-no-place” to the star of the heartland, we relied on strong mayors to convene key leaders to focus on big priorities like Unigov, Circle Center Mall, Indianapolis International Airport and hosting the Super Bowl. They then rallied the investment and broader public support necessary to make them happen.

Over time, the decision-making “circuits” of our city’s corporate, political, philanthropic and nonprofit sectors evolved to make a strong mayor the center of our civic life, and this continues as our default approach for getting big things done.

I believe this mayor-centric civic culture is no longer viable and needs to be replaced with a new way of tackling our city’s greatest challenges. While the scandals and weakness of our current mayor will pass, I don’t think we are ever going back to a Hudnut or Peterson style of robust mayoral leadership. Our current political culture seems to discourage the emergence of these kinds of strong mayors or the broad community support necessary to empower them.

So what are our other leadership options? Cities like Cincinnati rely on corporate leaders to drive big efforts like reviving the Over the Rhine neighborhood and rebuilding the waterfront, but Indy lacks the cluster of Fortune 500 CEOs who make Cincinnati their home. Charlotte, North Carolina, depends on its bank CEOs in a similar manner.

In Detroit, a small number of successful entrepreneurs joined with local philanthropy to drag their city out of bankruptcy and undertake the dramatic revival of their downtown. Pittsburgh relied on the universities and foundations endowed by past robber barons to lift them out of industrial decay. None of these options seem viable for Indy.

Indianapolis should adapt its own leadership culture to invest in decentralized and intersecting “dense networks” of engaged residents. A dense network is an informal, relationally based group of highly connected individuals unified by shared objectives. Crucially, these networks are focused on supporting big goals over several years, lasting beyond a single project or initiative.

These connections are catalyzed by a small number of local leaders who, over time, encourage their growth and visibility with less engaged residents. Network members encourage one another to support their shared cause and to advocate for their goals through their individual professional and personal relationship networks. Members can also be mobilized for key moments such as public meetings, volunteer days and fun gatherings designed to inform and encourage broader adoption of the group’s mission and values.

While many of us have never heard the term, dense networks played a key role in Indy’s sports-based economic development, the revival of neighborhoods like Fountain Square, the rise of Irvington’s now famous Halloween celebrations and the growth of local charter schools. These initiatives emerged and sustained themselves not through singular organizational leadership but through networks of individuals working together. This has made these networks resilient and adaptive to changing political and economic climates over multiple decades.

Reorientation of Indy’s civic culture to advance big improvements through dense networks will require each of us to be clear on the causes we care most about, to find and build relationships with others holding a shared passion for this cause, and to work in a coordinated way for its advancement.•

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Taft is director of Interurban at Indianapolis-based Sagamore Institute. Send comments to [email protected].

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