Editorials

The city’s long relationship with the FFA convention is one to cherish.

Of course, our hope is that the Indiana consortium lands the full $70 million for biotech research and work.

We remain hopeful that environmental concerns can be allayed with advancements in technology and believe that it makes sense to keep Indiana companies in the lead on such developments.

Negative ads can lead voters to tune out of campaign messages. Some studies show they can lower voter turnout and enthusiasm about an election. Neither seems like a good idea, no matter whom you support.

Indiana doesn’t need a gimmick like the repeal of the income tax to stir economic development. And it certainly doesn’t need to do anything that could imperil its hard-earned AAA bond rating.

The move is good for the businesses—including the City Market, which will be undergoing its own transformation—around the City-County Building, and it’s also good for Indianapolis residents, who shouldn’t have to visit multiple locations to complete city business.

In presidential election years, the percentage of eligible Hoosiers registered to vote dropped from 71.3% in 2012 to 69.3% in 2020.

We need developers, business leaders, city-county councilors, downtown residents and others to make sure the Circle remains vibrant now and for future generations.

Last year, a study showed what public officials have long known: There is a wide disparity in the amount of road funding that communities receive when measured by the traffic traveling on those roads. In fact, the study found that Marion County ranked dead last in state-road funding among Indiana’s 92 counties when vehicle miles traveled are taken into account.

We appreciate the bigger goal of creating a can’t-miss, Midwest-based innovation conference, something that commands the attention of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, researchers and big-thinkers from the coasts and from across the world. There’s no reason an event like that can’t take place in Indianapolis.

We support putting decisions about things like stoplights and traffic control in the hands of local officials.

Anytime there is a reasonable and well-thought-out plan to enhance and promote one of our region’s treasures, we should take full advantage of it.

The partners in Columbus are to be commended for banding together to try to find solutions to such problems.

Spark is a welcome addition to downtown and the Circle in particular—one it feels like the city has been building up to for too long.

It’s a welcome development that should help reinvigorate the museum, generate more excitement for it among Hoosiers, give its many out-of-state visitors a more tantalizing experience, and make the institution a bigger part of the city’s arts and culture scene.

We also realize that supporting a tax just before an election is a politically tricky situation for any candidate. But a clear position on the downtown enhancement tax is sorely needed; whoever is elected mayor and to the City-County Council in November likely will face intense pressure to take quick action.

The portal provides resources for funding, business planning, locations, networking and more. It will also connect entrepreneurs with a network of navigators the IEDC is hiring to work throughout the state.