Almost everywhere you look there’s a project just completed or going on someplace downtown both large and small. Like these updates to curbs, sidewalks and drainage along Washington Street near Meridian. And then there’s the Georgia Street Pedestrian Mall, refurbishing the Monument on the Circle, expanding the Convention Center, etc. These kinds of things are not inexpensive. They are spending some serious money on improvements and to make things look sharp downtown. I wonder what’s going on? With the flurry of activity, you’d think that they were getting ready for a lot of visitors, media attention and some kind of major event or something here soon?
Of course, the Superbowl inspired a lot of this or at least the timetable for completing it. But won’t it be nice to have things built, updated and looking good just for us afterwards. As a catalyst for positive change, the Superbowl is one of the best things that has ever happened here.
Here in Indiana, basketball is more than just a game. There are hoops everywhere, and just about everyone has grown up touching the ball. It’s an essential part of our identity, played for the love of the game itself. That’s why there seems to be a serious disconnect from the public with the NBA lockout. Everyone, and I mean everyone I’ve talked with is thoroughly disgusted with the owners, but even more so with the players for not coming to an agreement that would allow the season to go forward. The salaries that players get is so out of proportion to what the average hard-working person earns, and fighting for even more just doesn’t equate. As one person I know put it, “Don’t they realize that it’s really the fans who pay their salaries and pay off their arenas? The cost of taking your family out to a game is prohibitive for most people already.”
The saying goes, “if you know where you’ve been, then you can predict where you are going”. Not sure that is always true, but in this case it probably is. Last month, and for a number of months now in a row, sales of residential properties here in central Indiana have increased compared to the same period last year, and the number of homes on the market have declined. Translated, the market is much more in balance than it has been in a while. With inventory declining, there is more competition between sellers for active buyers. When that happens, prices trend higher.
Parked downtown lately? If not, depending on where you park, this is what you may encounter. Parking spaces in a number of locations are all serviced by a common pay-box such as this. A lot of people hardly ever have “real” money with them anymore, only plastic, which means they never have change, especially in a quantity enough to feed the meter for a while. All you need to do is key-in the number of the parking space you are in, then scan your credit card and it’s done. That means there is a tax deductible business-related record someplace too if needed.
