EDITORIAL: Building safety requires oversight
The saga of the Di Rimini apartments is a cautionary tale, and one Indianapolis officials would do well to heed.
The saga of the Di Rimini apartments is a cautionary tale, and one Indianapolis officials would do well to heed.
Brazen violations of city design guidelines and state building codes by the developer of the Di Rimini apartments cast a spotlight on what is essentially an honor system of regulation for developers once they win approval for their projects.
The state's fire marshal issued an emergency order Thursday barring occupancy of the DiRimini apartment project after the developer apparently continued to move in residents in defiance of city orders.
The real estate bust and a drought in transactions make values all but impossible to gauge.
Developer Jeff Sparks met with city planners Oct. 1 to propose fixes to the apartment project at Capitol Avenue and St. Clair Street.
What makes a developer think he can win approval for one design and construct an entirely different building? How did no one at the city notice until the structure was almost complete? What happens now?
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has made it official: You don’t own your software if the software maker says you don’t own it.
The number of building permits filed in the nine-county metropolitan area dropped by 18 percent in August from the same time a year ago, falling from 354 to 290. The drop marks the third consecutive month permits have fallen.
Housing starts are up 25 percent from their bottom in April 2009. But they remain 74 percent below their peak in January 2006.
One damper on Indiana’s entrepreneurial growth has been the shrinking of the 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, which has lost half its support because of state budget woes. As soon as state revenue permits, the state should bring this key program back to its funding level of $37 million a year, or boost it even higher.
The pitch from Mayor Greg Ballard’s administration to privatize the city’s parking meters is compelling, but the proposal
to sell the meters to Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc. has the city giving up more in the long run than is immediately
apparent.
Drug store chain pulls two applications, while local board rejects its request to sell booze at a store on East Washington
Street and deadlocks on a 2-2 vote regarding a store on East 86th Street.
Marion County’s Alcoholic Beverage Board on Monday denied Walgreen Co.’s application for a permit to sell alcohol at
its location on East Washington Street in Irvington, citing neighbors’ opposition. The panel split 2-2 on a permit for its
Nora store. Earlier, the drugstore chain withdrew two
other requests.
The housing market had boomed earlier in the year on the strength of federal tax credits. Since they have expired, the number
of people looking to buy has dropped even with the lowest mortgage rates in decades.
Rural electric cooperative to pay civil penalty of nearly $1 million for not using most modern pollution controls. Hoosier Energy also to spend up to $300 million on pollution controls at coal-fired plants.
Locally, the number of building permits filed in the nine-county Indianapolis area fell by 20 percent in June while home construction
plunged nationally to the lowest level since October.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art will receive a $200,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant for a series of installations along a six-mile stretch of the White River.
Finding the golden ticket of a liquor license in Indianapolis can be tricky—and costly. All 321 permits allowed in Marion
County under a state quota have been allotted. Unless a restaurant is opening in an “off-quota” district, the
owner has to find someone willing to transfer an existing license.
The latest batch of Indiana laws takes effect Thursday, with new provisions raising the age at which teenagers can get driver's
licenses and requiring ID checks for everyone buying alcohol.
State officials expect more backyard fireworks shows this year because budget problems have forced many municipalities to
cancel large professional fireworks displays.