Two quick comments on the p.r. perceptions of Indiana and its politics. We're going to (1) take a surprising twist on the surprising mayoral developments in Gary and then (2) we're going to return, God help us all, to the bipartisan gridlock on the Major Moves transportation highway funding program.
As always with these Hoosier-centric posts, readers are encouraged to move along if the minutae of Indiana state affairs is of no interest.
Gary
Ed Feigenbaim's Indiana Legislative Insight newsletter dated April 3, 2006 but delivered on Friday, devotes both of its front-page stories this week to political developments in Gary, for the last century the center of Northwest Indiana's political power -- if no longer its economic power.
If you've come this far, you probably know that Gary Mayor Scott King ( D I ) has stepped down from office well more than a year before facing re-election and nearly two years before his term would be over. As King won office as a Democrat, before declaring himself a political independent, it's up to the Democratic Party to fill the office. A caucus of Democratic precinct officers in Gary has been convened for Tuesday at Gary's Genesis Center to elect a new mayor.
My money is on Rudy Clay, a Lake County Democratic Chair and also a Lake County commissioner. The caucus is entirely Clay's to organize. He has opponents for mayor, but ultimately I think his command of the party organization will prevail, though Tuesday's caucus will not be pretty as petty political jelousies are hauled onto a public stage for everyone to see.
Should Clay win, I think he will be the last member of his generation (including former mayors Hatcher, Barnes, and King) to run Gary. The next mayor will be a Baby Boomer, if not a member of Generation X.
Why is this so important? First, Gary is a city more on the move than people in Central Indiana realize. Its airport, already monikered as "Gary-Chicago Airport" thanks to an impressive operating agreement with the City of Chicago, stands as the best bet for selection as the third regional passenger airport for Chicagoland. Gary's neighborhoods, many of which have fallen down for the past 30 years, are slowly being built up with new affordable housing. Mayor King laid some groundwork for redevelopment of Downtown Gary, including construction of a new minor league baseball park (complete with a team, mind you) and a lot of forethought about the Broadway commercial corridor. Finally, to the north along the Lake Michigan coast, U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, has effectively bridged political fiefdoms to make the lakeshore from Chicago to Portage the object of a redevelopment plan pregnant with possibilities for the post steel economy.
Some quotes from Feigenbaum's report:
So why should you care what happens "up there" -- in the vernacular so often employed by people in Indianapolis?
For starters, this is a fascinating political exercise.
... What happens in Gary does not stay in Gary. What happens in this contest will have significant ramifications across The Region -- and perhaps the state as well.
If Clay has the mayoral pulpit in addition to his party chairmanship, he immediately becomes morew influential not only in his city and county, but im regional and statewide politics ... and regional politics has become much more important recently.
... A strong Gary also helps Democrats statewide politically. They would like to reverse the elction day margin that they had traditionally enjoyed in Lake County until declining population and increased Republican presence in South Lake cut into that advantage.
There is also a lot of money involved here. While Gary isn't exactly blessed with the same kind of growth and investment that Marion County and Central Indiana have seen, under the [Gov. Mitch] Daniels Administration [R] lots of bucks have been directed to the Steel City, and more are headed its way.
The Governor has taken flak from some Republicans over the past year for paying attention to and serving up big bucks for Lake County in general and Gary in specific. But he has been consistent in trying to ignore the politics and explain to all Hoosiers that the future economic success of Indiana is closely linked to the economic achievements of Gary and Northwest Indiana -– without reminding everyone that the industrial development in NWI through the first three quarters of the last century carried the rest of the state on its back. [emphasis added.]
And then we have the surprising twist to the surviving twist, and it's entirely personal. For most of the 23 years I've lived in Indiana and become a Hoosier, I've wondered if I would stay in Indianapolis or stay in the state when it came time to retire. My experience covering the sailing competition for the 1987 Pan Am Games gave me a giant taste of life in NWI. (The Pan Am Games were centered in Indianapolis, but sailing was one of the out-of-town sports with the competition held on the waters of Lake Michigan off Michigan City.) I liked NWI, which reminds me more of the diversity of the coastal Connecticut in which I grew up than any other part of the state.
With the development of five marinas along the lakeshore from East Chicago to Michigan City, with the Visclosky lakeshore improvement plans, with income from casino boats, and with interest growing in lakefront housing (see the Miller section of Gary) as well as downtown Michigan City, I think it's likely that in the next two decades, condominiums or highrise apartment or condo towers will be built fronting on the lakeshore. If that happens, there's a big piece of me that wants to have a 35-foot sloop moored in a marina within accessible drive of a condo on or near the lakeshore. Dirty as it is now, the Indiana Harbor section of East Chicago is my personal preference for redevelopment into the sweetest housing development with water access to the Pastrick Marina. Frankly, it could resemble seaside developments in Florida. But developments in Gary are probably more likely to occur and might turn out to be more attractive, especially if U.S. Steel's Gary Works finally downsizes its beachfront property. If a move to NWI were not in the cards, perhaps a small condo and a medium-sized boat might be the ticket if I stayed domiciled in Marion County. So, surprisingly, I look on Northwest Indiana as a retirement locale. Rose-colored glasses, you say? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I think that (a) Pete Visclosky, (b) the next mayor of Gary (which I hope is Rudy Clay), and (c) Gov. Daniels and his successor will have a lot to do with the eventual outcome. There is already (d) strong leadership for Gary in the Legislature, specifically in Sen. Earline Rogers (D-Gary) and Rep. Charlie Brown (D-Gary). Foremost, we need to remember that until 100 years ago (Gary was founded in 1907 as a company town for U.S. Steel), North Lake's most dominant feature was its lakeshore and dunes. A return to lakeshore and dunes could be the 21st Century answer for Lake County. Has anyone noticed the wealth in seaside Florida, not to mention Cape Cod, the Michigan towns like New Buffalo and Saugatuck/Douglas, or the north shore of Chicagoland? Some of this -- and every bit would help -- could be coming to Gary and NWI's Lake Michigan shoreline.
*Sigh* Major Moves, Again. *Sigh*
Leaving this vision pipedream behind, we turn to another policy that could bring more money to Gary and have impact across the state. This, of course, is Major Moves. I have already blogged once during the 2006 General Assembly session and again after the session ended about the rhetorical gridlock that ensnared both Gov. Daniels and the Democrats in the Legislature.
Sad to say, the gridlock continues. According to the same issue of Indiana Legislative Insight, Democrats on the State Budget Committee remain reluctant to pass administrative aspects of Major Moves because of their supposed lack of access to documents concerning the 75-yerar privatization deal for the Indiana Toll Road, which is the center of the 10-year highway funding program. (Unfortunately, mass transit funding is not entailed -- yet.) Led by Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Elletsville, a once and perhaps future candidate for governor, Democrats are still demanding the most basic of documents for Major Moves. It's my strong suspicion that some of the documents are readily available if Democrats would just look on the state's website. Other documents, I fear, are bottled up by Gov. Daniels.
It's way past time for statesmanship. It's time for Mitch Daniels and Vi Simpson to have a quiet meeting in which they settle on what Vi really wants and what Mitch will really give. My point all along is that the Democrats have not done their homework and have preferred bluster to study. By the same token, the governor has been too secretive. So I've put a pox on both their houses.
Well, Major Moves is now the permanent policy of Indiana. (Of course, when dealing with legislatures, one has to remember that "permanent" does not mean "eternal.") It's high time both sides accomodate each other. The wisest course is a sit-down chat, preferably over a slow and intimate meal, in which Vi Simpson and Mitch Daniels come to an agreement on moving forward in realpolitik terms. It's time for the Governor to come clean and conduct the transparent Administration he pledged to run. It's time for Democrats to reach out and specify, even if quietly, what they really want. It's time for Denmocrats to stop complaining that documents are unavailable in fabor of producing analysis of the substantial documents that are already available on the web. The analysis will tell them how to proceed in terms of policy and politics. (And, please, somebody, pry some of the Major Moves pot loose to improve mass transit -- buses and passenger trains -- in the Hoosier State.)
Meantime, if you plan to have a 35-foot sloop to sell in the next 10 to 15 years, let me know!
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