Way to Go City of Indianapolis

Great job City of Indianapolis! (dripping with sarcasm…) Mayor Elect Greg Ballard and Marion County prosecutor Carl Brizzi are “touring” the Phoenix Apartment slums today and are now promising to do something about the unlivable conditions and lawless, Wild West-like environment.  Why now? Why not 3 years ago? A high-profile, sickening abuse/murder case of a 3 year-old girl has finally (and tragically) made the city pay attention to the Phoenix Apartments. I don’t want to dishonor the memory of the little girl who suffered unthinkable abuse at the hands of her mother and mother’s boyfriend but I’m tired of the city leaders perpetually having their heads in the sand (or up their own rear ends) until something really bad happens.  I’m not a fan of the Indy Star’s reporting usually but to their credit about a month ago they did a 3-part series on the horrid conditions and crime-ridden violent environment at the Phoenix Apartments revealing among other things a completely and alarmingly defeatist attitude on the part of IMPD about controlling crime there. After reading the series, I shuddered because the Phoenix Apartments eerily resemble if not in appearance certainly the violence, crime and neglect of the notorious Chicago Robert Taylor, Ida B. Wells and Cabrini-Green projects. I read the whole series when it first came out. It was gripping actually – I’ll own up that I had no idea a place like this existed in the city.  At the time I had no way of knowing Matthew Tully’s report was an ominous foreshadowing of what was to come.