Indianapolis

By Evan Matthews, a Hoosier Libertarian.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- Smoking bans are onerous, misguided and dangerous. As Indianapolis lawmakers debate whether the Circle City requires more stringent smoking legislation, they should stop to consider the economic and realistic implications.

The owner of a private establishment, be it bar, bowling alley or barber shop, should be able to determine whether or not smoking is permissible on their property. Proprietors would display a sign on the door, reading either “Smoking” or “Non-Smoking,” both enforced with vigor. Individuals would then be able to make informed and individual choices, free from government coercion.

About three-fourths of the population are non-smokers. Establishments would be foolish to alienate this huge market. As a result, many will enforce their own bans in order to cater to clientele. Government intervention isn't needed to create non-smoking environments in private establishments.

Reposted from the Indiana Barrister blog written by central Indiana's leading political reporter and radio/television pundit, Abdul Hakim-Shabazz.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- I’m hearing some pretty interesting rumblings behind the scenes regarding the Mayor’s race in 2011.

Although there is no nominee, I hear the Obama campaign has agreed to send staff and volunteers into Indianapolis to help the Democratic candidate win the race. However, it doesn’t come without a price tag. In exchange for help in getting the Mayor’s office back, the Administration is telling Marion County Democrats that sort-of-kind-of Sheriff Candidate Kerry Forestall will not get the spot of U.S. Marshall for the Southern District and instead it will go to someone pikced by either Indiana Congressmen Brad Elsworth or Baron Hill.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- Edward Coleman, a member of the Indianapolis City-County Council, has switched his affiliation from Republican to Libertarian. Coleman was elected in 2007 to an At-Large position, and will serve as Indianapolis' only elected Libertarian official.

"This is not a decision I take lightly, nor did I come to it without deep reflection," Coleman said Tuesday.

"I have found that the direction of the Republican Party has changed, and it is not the same party I joined many years ago," he said. "Nor do I believe its current leaders truly represent the ideals that the party markets and advertises to voters."

Coleman said he faced criticism from fellow Republicans when he opposed the secretive and expensive affairs of the Capital Improvement Board. "The two old parties want obedient followers, not leaders," he said.

Reprinted from Indy Tax Dollars blog, written by long-time Indianapolis business leader Fred McCarthy.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- The headline in this morning's paper (9/15/08) reads, "MSA site will remain empty for a while." We're talking about "...prime real estate three blocks from Monument Circle."

We're talking about a site that has been off the property tax rolls for 34 years. We're also talking about a site that has been a ground level parking lot for 7 years while bureaucratic "planners" and economic "developers" have been unable to come up with the "right" use of the land. It goes on and on!

Nominations are currently being
accepted for the Charles L. Whistler Award - the most prestigious honor given by the Indianapolis Mayor's Office.

This year, the award will again will recognize one or two individuals who have brought together the Indianapolis public and private sectors for civic improvement. The deadline for nominations is Monday, Sept. 15.

A lawyer and community leader in the grand tradition, Whistler gave his time and extraordinary abilities to the Indianapolis community without asking for power or position in return. At the time of his death in 1981, he was a senior partner at Baker & Daniels and chairman of both the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee's Urban Growth and Revitalization Task Force and the White River State Park Citizen's Advisory Committee.

Andrea Neal is a middle school teacher and adjunct scholar with the Indiana Policy Review Foundation. Contact her at aneal@inpolicy.org.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- If you want to know what's happening to tax dollars in Marion County, you may have to file a lawsuit. That's what citizens have had to do in the case of the sale of Pan Am Plaza, a prime piece of Downtown real estate for which taxpayers should have received $6 million.

The operative word is "should." For reasons that are not very clear -- but should be exposed over the course of the litigation -- the powers that be decided that the Indiana Sports Corp. need not honor a 1985 agreement that required it to maintain an 88,000-square-foot plaza as public space or else pay the city $3 million plus inflation for it.