David Hoppe

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:: Our own best selves

Getting Indy back to basics

By David Hoppe

I know the economic news has been bad for most of us. Just when you think that nail's been driven about as deep as it can go, down comes the hammer with yet another blow. Across Indiana, people are digging in and preparing themselves for what promises to be a long winter.

But here in Indianapolis, I'd like to think we have an opportunity to actually make this town a better place.

No, I'm not talking about buying up shares of Emmis for - what are they now? - 24 cents each?

I mean taking this time to think fresh about what Indianapolis can do best.

For years, we've had it drummed into us how important it is for Indianapolis to be able to compete with other cities - not just here in the U.S. , but around the world. Mostly this amounts to a wish list for all those things we lack.

And so we scramble to keep up with the Jacksonvilles and the Charlottes, the Seattles and the St. Pauls.

That's why our city leaders have worked so hard to bring a Super Bowl here. This is the biggest deal in football. The game promises to bring millions of dollars to the city for a couple of weeks in 2012, but even more important, it is seen as a chance for us to prove that we have what it takes to throw a honkin' party.

It's kind of like splurging on a lot of expensive Christmas presents for your family and friends so you can show them what a big wheel you've become. Never mind that the bank is about to foreclose on your house and the repo man just took your car keys.

But when you stop and think about it, isn't this the way all of us in America have been encouraged to operate? Take now -- with both hands -- and pay later. We'd like to think this way of living is all about being in the moment, the Now.

It's not. Not when you haven't the wherewithal to pay for what you've grabbed. That's not being in the Now - it's Fantasyland. In the old days it was called "living beyond your means."

Indianapolis has been living this way for some time. This is nobody's fault, really. We've all fallen prey, at one time or another, to the fever of wanting where we live to be a so-called "world class" destination. To want other people to look at us and wish that they lived here, too.

The economy's put the brakes on this behavior. The city, the state, the country - all of us are in a financial bind. There are real problems associated with a situation like this. A lot of hopes and expectations have fallen by the wayside. But this is also a chance to get real about where we're at.

We can start with the fact that while Indianapolis may be big, it's not so big that our problems are impossible to deal with. Our schools, it's true, leave a lot to be desired. But the student population is less than 40,000 - you could give every one of those kids a seat in Lucas Oil Stadium and still have plenty of room to spare.

The POLIS center at IUPUI estimates there are around 3,500 homeless people in Indianapolis. You could give them some of those extra slots at the Luc - and there'd still be good seats available.

I'm not saying we can make these problems go away. But, given these numbers, we can surely make things better than they are. If, that is, we're determined to make the effort. The same might be said about improving our air and water, cleaning up some of our neighborhoods, providing better health services and supporting our cops and firefighters.

On average, we don't make as much money in Indianapolis as people do in other cities our size, so finding the funds to make Indy better isn't easy. That goes double now that the economy's in the tank.

All the more reason for us to set aside the urge to compete with other cities for awhile so that we can focus on the fundamentals here at home. It may not sound that glamorous, but if, in these challenging times, we can find ways to improve what amounts to our collective standard of living, Indianapolis can lay claim to an accomplishment worthy of a Super Bowl, a Final Four and a 500 race combined.

Who knows? It might even make some strangers decide they want to live here.