Editorials

In the first year of his second term, the mayor has an opportunity to make rebuilding downtown in a way that’s economically inclusive his signature achievement in office.

Opening opportunities for Black Americans and other groups means rethinking not just how we do things but why we do them the way we do. And then amending or even ripping those systems apart and rebuilding them.

Any industrial uses permitted by city should be in sync with grand vision of creating an office, residential hub.

We support a community conversation about the way IMPD and police officers do their jobs. We support changes in use-of-force policies, police oversight and additional bias training.

The business community has a huge role to play. The last time the city reinvented itself, turning a blighted downtown into a magnet for housing, retail, conventions and high-profile sporting events, the momentum came from business leaders who worked hand-in-hand with city government to transform the city.

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.

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.

Indiana has the 12th-highest COVID-19 death rate in the United States, but its share of federal money intended to help states battle the pandemic isn’t nearly so high. And that’s a problem. Not just for Indiana but for every state fighting to keep from being overwhelmed by the virus but receiving a disproportionately small share […]

A better target for attack would be Congress, for crafting a program that let so many larger businesses in the door.

No one quite knows how this reopening of the economy will go—or, frankly, the best way to make it happen. So business owners must plan carefully, always with an eye to balancing the safety of workers and customers with the need for our economy to get moving again.

Gov. Eric Holcomb and his team took aggressive action early in the crisis and have been steady in their approach to minimizing the human and economic suffering the pandemic is causing.

This week we introduced a weekly podcast called “Beyond COVID,” with the goal of helping local companies get to the other side of the coronavirus crisis in a position to thrive.

This is not a time to be critical of organizations that make what might seem like drastic decisions “out of an abundance of caution.” They are not panicking.

If IndyGo is to move forward with the next phases of its rapid-transit system—which we believe is crucial to the economic vitality of a huge swath of the city’s workers—it must shore up the community’s confidence in its ability to operate effectively and avoid future political gaffes.

Ideally, a broad look at alternatives, with input from diverse stakeholders, would have come sooner in the process of planning the reconstruction of a roadway that was controversial to begin with.

Utilities are making the switch to other alternatives, including natural gas and solar, because they are cheaper and cleaner. Those are positive changes for Indiana economically—in both the sheer cost of power and the potential for improvements in health that come from cleaner air.

One point everyone can agree on is that, over the past two years, construction costs have skyrocketed, thanks to higher prices for materials and a severe labor shortage. But other developers who spoke to IBJ say those setbacks alone would not explain a nearly 50% increase in the project’s cost.