ROWLAND: Monument Circle is all about traffic
Time and again, communities have tried pedestrian plazas in downtown areas and have failed because, without cars, there are few people, and businesses failed.
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SHOBERT: Could new model save manufacturing?
On my most recent trip to China, it was not without some heaviness of heart that I again found myself comparing the newness
of the country’s infrastructure—and the teeming activity that seems to have enveloped this part of the world—with
much of what I see, or do not, around Indiana and the United States.
BOULET: Has civility become a quaint and obsolete concept?
Americans are not as civil as they used to be. Daily, there are doses of uncivil behavior reported by the media. And bad behavior isn’t limited to highly visible
people.
BURNEY: Keep drive for high-ability education
In 2007, the Indiana General Assembly unanimously put into place the requirement for all Indiana schools to identify students
with advanced potential from all groups and provide them with appropriate curriculum and instruction needed to develop their
potential.
DUNN: Let’s utilize Indiana’s energy resources
Recent events in the Gulf of Mexico have placed considerable focus
on the everyday contributions the men and women in the oil and natural gas industry make to help fuel and power our way of
life.
JOSEPH: Beware of screening job applicants with social media
Tech-savvy employers are turning to social-media tools to locate and
screen applicants for positions. And with increasing competition for jobs, employers are trying to both find the best applicants
available and know as much as possible about them.
THIES: Get ready for state’s finest hour
I am a sucker for a good story. During the NCAA men’s basketball
championship last month, when that ball, or as the CBS color commentator Clark Kellogg called it, the “pumpkin,”
arched into the air from the hands of central Indiana’s now second-most-famous “babyface,” I thought, “This
is it!”
COOK: Restoring buildings revitalizes communities
I got involved in restoration projects more than 30 years ago when a serious cardiac illness sidelined me from my medical-device
business.
GIGERICH: Happiness is factor in location choices
State-by-state comparisons ranking residents’ satisfaction levels are gaining traction in economic development circles. While rankings do not drive site-selection decisions, they do play a role.
HENDERSON: The real reasons not to merge utilities
Part of the overall utility problem is that lack of government oversight and public policy vision has made Indianapolis one
of the highest-polluting and just plain ugliest cities in the Midwest.
SLAUGHTER: Why you should kill the operations manual
You’ve
probably forgotten entirely about your company operations manual.
WEIGAND: Let’s rethink fixes for urban poverty
The message to neighborhoods couldn’t be clearer: It’s absolutely essential to attract and retain middle-class
homeowners with the resources to invest in—and maintain—their own homes, as well as support surrounding businesses.
GUY: Do you want to travel or truly vacate?
How does a busy person vacate, as in the dictionary reference, “to vacate one’s mind
of worries?” One answer is to take a vacation, but an important choice remains: place or event?
FORSELL: Look beyond results for reciprocity in health care
I want to matter to the nurse standing next to me. I want to be more than a number, more than just a name on a list of hundreds
of patients on a research protocol.
SHOBERT: Who’s your in-house entrepreneur?
Times like this are ripe for pioneering activities. Now that your business knows it can operate profitably even in a down
economy—no small thing—the next question is what you need to be doing to grow.
FELDMANN: Beware the dreaded donor engagement gap
Engagement gap strikes small organizations and big ones, struggling not-for-profits and successful ones, and it threatens
to cripple each of its sufferers.
SLAUGHTER: Does your work flow bring satisfaction?
The satisfaction derived from work is more than just momentary bliss. Satisfaction is an essential component of productivity.
HENDERSON: Indianapolis getting squeezed by suburbs
Indianapolis’ successful suburbs are rapidly surrounding the city. More important, tax and cultural shifts
are starting to drain Marion County.
HOLIFIELD: Build consensus before building facilities
Only a handful
of public building projects have earned permission from voters, leading local officials to delay or consider abandoning much-needed
projects.
WIEGAND: Who’s monitoring home construction?
About 18 months ago, I watched as the entire exterior of an expensive condo on the Central Canal—originally
built in 1996—was rebuilt. Among the issues: There was no building paper (Tyvek) under the siding, treated lumber wasn’t
used on the exposed porches, and neither was there any drainage.