Filtering Indianapolis’ Water

I make a pot of tea each morning. I do this by using a coffee maker because it’s faster and weakens the tea a bit since I’m not boiling a tea bag in a pot. The reason for this is to reduce the strength of the tea and thus, my chances of a recurring kidney stone.

Since I use a coffee maker, I pour the water in the back, put the bag in the decanter and for kicks I throw a coffee filter in the filter tray. It doesn’t really need a filter since I’m just using that area to pass hot water through. All the action happens right in the decanter. Or, so I thought.

I don’t replace the filter every day. Again, nothing but hot water passes through it and it seems like a waste. After 5 days (when I do change it), this is what my filter looks like. This is water filtered through my PUR facet filter. Indianapolis, you’re drinking this.

Indy’s New Trash System Stinks

I just got back in town from my two weeks at VU and today was the first day I got to see Indy’s new trash pickup system in action.

What I was Told:

Indianapolis residents will receive a new 96-gallon trash can. Put all your shit in the trash can and a truck will come along with a big mechanical arm and it’ll pickup your shit and dump it in the dump truck. The can will then be set down neatly in the same spot. This will improve safety and speed for the drivers, as they no longer require Public Works men to stand on the backs of trucks.

What I Just Witnessed:

Indianapolis residents received a 96-gallon trash can. Everyone puts all their shit in that can now. A newerish looking truck drove up to my driveway. Two Hispanic men hopped off the back of the truck, practically fell into my trash can to dig out the shit I threw in there and they threw it in the back of the truck. No arm, no increased safety and it certainly wasn’t faster because they have to go pulling shit out of a giant man-sized can.

So, let’s recap. 800,000 residents received a new trash can. That probably cost us about $10 million ($13 a can). The trucks got painted white and we replaced the two black men on the back of the truck with two Hispanic men. The labor costs maybe saved us, oh, $4 million a year.

That’s about a net loss of about $6 million. The new system is slower, more expensive and less safe because men are now falling all over themselves inside giant shit holes.

That’s good governin’.

IndyGo Resembles a Bus Crash Scene

This IndyGo dealio is really like watching a bus collide with another bus:

They showed that routes the agency plans to cut — the 11, 55 and 87 — have among the lowest ridership of all 29 routes.

They explained that the door-to-door paratransit service, known as Open Door, is far more expensive to operate than fixed-route service — $35 per passenger versus about $4.

Well. There’s yer problem, son. IndyGo’s average rider fare is $1.75. They want to raise it $2. That means they’re, uh, still $2 short. If it costs $4 per passenger to operate the system, I’d be charging $4 a rider!

Assuming a person were to drive from one end of Marion County to Downtown, that’d be about 11 miles. The average cost-per-mile to include wear-and-tear, gas, oil, insurance, etc. is 50 cents a mile. That’s $5.50, or $11.00 round-trip by car. A bus fare would be $8, round-trip at the full cost to the rider, which is still a net savings of $3 for the rider to take the bus.

Heck, they could raise the fares to $3 a trip and there’d be even more savings for the rider vs. driving a car and they’d close their budget cap overnight. Or, you could subsidize some riders and not others. They’re a number of riders that take the bus because they can’t drive — maybe they have DUIs, seizures, want to be eco-friendly or are just plain afraid to get in a car. They may likely be perfectly capable of affording a car, but can’t or just don’t want to drive one. In which case, charge them $4 a ride and the poor folks can get a $3 fare.

Somehow, though, that was lost among those at the public hearing:

“It took me an hour and a half to get from my house to Washington (Street to catch the bus),” said regular IndyGo rider Nora Wright, her voice shaking with anger. “I don’t think that’s right.”

…

Then came the personal attacks and accusations.

“Thank you for lying to us all!” one person yelled toward a table where IndyGo employees were seated.

Another man, shouting at Terry, demanded to know: “What kind of car do you drive?” (Terry said he hasn’t owned a car since the 1990s.)

She’s right — that’s not right. IndyGo needs to beef up and attract more riders. They do that by improving service and adding busses to make it more convenient and faster. A 10 minute car trip takes 40 minutes by bus, if you’re lucky enough to live and work close to the stops. And you fix these problems by generating revenue. They can’t look to the government for funding — there isn’t any. Alas, raise the fares on a tiered system to provide better service, get people where they need to go and all the while helping those less fortunate.

Google Bicycles

Google Maps now supports better bike routs where cyclists can get the quickest, and flattest, route between Point A and Point B.

I’ve biked from my home to Downtown Indy many times in the past. I tried a Google Map search for a “better” route and it quickly put me off on to other roads. While it’s a longer distance, the roads it chose for me are flatter, wider and have less traffic than (my albeit shorter) route I used to take.

People Re-Write IUPUI’s History

The Star has a story today about IUPUI’s history around its founding. They’re really only two trains of thought on it: either IUPUI pushed a bunch of black people out of the way for no good reason to sit up shop for the white man, or, IUPUI pushed a crappy part of the middle of town out of the way to make way for an integral piece of Indianapolis’ future. In which case, a bunch of black people got pushed out of the way:

Beginning in the mid-1950s and lasting well into the 1970s, hundreds of [African American] families were uprooted and relocated — their homes either purchased outright or condemned by the city and then purchased. This was done not just for the new university but as part of a larger redevelopment of an area that many considered a classic example of urban blight.

Local human rights activists at the time, including a Jewish rabbi and a Protestant minister, pleaded with city officials to stop the process because fearful residents were being bullied into selling. Some in the black community began to refer to the effort as a “black removal” plan.

“IUPUI, the city . . . they became the Ku Klux Klan,” said an angry John Lands, an area resident who once ran the neighborhood YMCA before it was demolished. “They took the black folks’ land. I think it’s a shame.”

The article is a little lengthy, but this part stuck out at me:

Kenneth B. Durgans, the assistant chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at IUPUI, said that although he is sensitive to history, he hopes people also take into account the good things the college has done for the city’s minority population.

Why am I paying for an Assistant Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion? Please tell me she’s an assistant to the university chancellor and that there isn’t also a head chancellor just for diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Bridge People

Somehow, overnight, Indianapolis is struggling to figure out a way to take care of “The Bridge People”, a bunch of homeless folks that have setup a ramshackle shanty town under the bridge on Davidson Street very near Downtown. If my geography is correct, this is very close where the old Market Street ramp used to be between Washington and Ohio Streets on the near-eastside.

Evidently, 30 or so people sit around, get drunk and toss their trash all over the street. They allegedly harass patrons of nearby businesses and residents that live near there are afraid to go near them. That area isn’t exactly the ghetto, so area residents are coming together to help:

“You can’t just kick them out, but until we get a solution, they should be required to clean up after themselves,” said Richard Campi, president of Friends of Historic Fountain Square, about the three dozen homeless people who live in the camp.

About 30 residents, advocates for the homeless, business owners, city officials and police attended the meeting at Campi’s house to discuss options for those living in the enclave.

…

The homeless at the camp said they prefer the bridge to shelters because the shelters have rules, including those against alcohol. But the camp can get unruly; recently a man was beaten by five other bridge people.

Yesterday, the Star had a story about this that included a line indicating that one man didn’t want to go to a shelter because he was required to take his shoes off before going to bed. Brandon tells me that this is because shoes are considered a valuable asset in the homeless community, so if they take them off they’re likely to get stolen. My solution was to offer lockers.

This whole thing smacks of all kinds of wrong. They don’t like living where they’re rules, so they live without them and then people get hurt and beat up. Shocking!

These people aren’t earning a lot of sympathy from most everyone else. Everyone has to live and play by the rules. So, somehow, these people just decide not to follow them and all sorts of laws get broken and hard-working people nearby just have to sit and suck it up. I doubt these nearby residents can help much. There’s not much you can do to help people that just want to drink and fight all day.

One thing is for sure, by February 2012 these people will be removed because there is no chance any politician in Indianapolis is going to sit idly by while the Super Bowl comes to town and get harassed by homeless people.

What Happens in Conservative Bastions?

The Denver Post has a very interesting piece on Colorado Springs, a so-called “Conservative Bastion“. It’s a lengthy read, but very interesting. For example:

More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.

The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.

Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.

Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.

City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open. Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won’t pay for any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet only about 10 percent of the need.

The article goes on to make the point that many folks, not just in Colorado’s second-largest city, are flat exhausted with what appears to be severe ineptitude and idiocy on the part of government officials. They’re not necessarily wrong. In Justin’s fantasy land, the Mayor would have all his department heads say precisely how much they need to do their job with an emphasis on looking ahead. I imagine the conversation going something like this:

Mayor: “Ok, what do we need to get done?”
Public Works: “It costs us $X per street light per day, so, for 365 days we need $Y.”
Police Chief: “It costs $X per cop per day, so I need $Y to cover us for the year. And, we have 10 old cars on their last few miles, so we should replace those 10 this year. We can do 5 more next year.”
Fire Chief: “It costs us $X per fireman per day, so I need $Y to cover us for the year.”

This is not that hard. At the end of the day, you add up your total and figure out your tax rates to meet that demand.

What people want at the local level is really, really straightforward. Plow the streets, fix the holes, plug the leaks and protect the people. And only hire just enough people to get the jobs done. So, you don’t get to hire an executive assistant to the assistant deputy mayor. And, while we’re at it, you don’t get to spend $800 per chair for meeting rooms and you don’t get to spend money on things no one really uses – especially when they’re better alternatives nearby. For example, someone in the comments says:

These cuts are not major quality of life issues. For example, they are talking about closing an indoor wave pool. I have been at it twice now, where my 2 kids and I were the only people enjoying it. Four lifeguards were watching us and the city was wasting a lot of energy running it. We prefer the YMCA pools — they are cheaper and nicer.

City government has no business running these kinds of things – not when you’re scaling back on police and firemen when you may really need them to have adequate coverage.

It’s hard to say what’s really happening in Colorado Springs. I think you can get away with turning off every other streetlight and closing a few water parks and not watering the grass (seriously – they live near a desert, why are they watering grass?). The citizens may have very good reason to doubt their government’s ability to spend money wisely. Until we start seeing our Mayors at rummage sales and flea markets, that opinion likely won’t change much.

The Future is Grim & We’re OK With That

It was a slow news weekend last weekend and the Indianapolis Star had a piece on helping Indy’s kids for Sunday’s Star. It’s a noble goal to help the worse-off children in the community.

Then, you realize we’re all doomed and that we’re all ok with that idea based on today’s Star poll:

So, there you have it, kids. Looks like you’re on your own.

Sled FAIL

Did Colbert Feature Lucas Oil Stadium?

Stephen Colbert was picking on Hannity’s “Liberty Tree” last night and noticed that his “Liberty Tree” had a root of liberty, too. According to Colbert, “That’s like building a stadium reinforced by concrete and steel with another stadium on top.”

Is it just me, or does that look like Lucas Oil Stadium on top?