Marcus
Without taking anything away from the 2022 elections, let’s start thinking about next year. The primaries, the absurdities and the virtues of the candidates, the restrained promotional materials of the money-starved candidates, and the flamboyant eructations of the well-financed will again become tedious.
However, let me remind Hoosiers of the critical nature of the 2023 elections when our many local officials are up for re-election. It would not be an overstatement to declare mayors, town clerks, local councils and boards are the determinants of our quality of life.
Allow me to give just one critical example: Who decides land use in your community?
The cynic answers, the developers! The folks who can get the money or the influence to do what they want with any piece of land.
No one can stop them, cynics say. Developers can afford the lawyers, the architects, the experts and the lobbyists to bring pressure on the planning department, the zoning board, the top legislative and administrative officers.
But ultimately, developers must overcome the opinion of the people who have an interest in how the land is used. This is often done by keeping quiet. Don’t let the public know what you have in mind.
Buy the land through a shadow company. Post only the signs required which are often of questionable informative value. Avoid speaking to the media if there is a local news source in your town. If necessary, publish polished pamphlets about the immense benefits to accrue from the project.
Stealth serves survival.
Often neighbors will oppose any change in land use. They’re not irrational quacks. They have invested, financially and emotionally, in their land as it relates to neighboring uses. If their neighborhood is made up of single-family, owner-occupied homes, they don’t want multi-family rental units next door.
They may not want such units because of prejudice against renters, or the kind of people who are renters. But you can’t oppose who will use the land, only the use of the land. That’s why remonstrators are left focusing on noise or the increase in traffic that endangers their children’s safety, or the expansion of public services necessary for more densely populated land use.
Public officials often listen to the neighbors. But they don’t want to hear from others who understand the wider realities of land use. Parcels of land are like the pixels on your TV screen. Together they make up a picture of the community.
But the Indianapolis Metropolitan Development Commission demands a narrow view, denying non-neighbors equal rights in presenting at its meetings. In effect, this unelected body, so often rubber-stamped by the City-County Council, declares each parcel of land in Marion County is an island.
This act alone should convince all Hoosier voters the 2023 elections are critical. Every community deserves leadership that does not wear blinders.
Morton Marcus is an economist. Follow him and John Guy on Who Gets What? wherever podcasts are available or at mortonjohn.libsyn.com. Send comments to [email protected].
