The (Munster) Times. October 8, 2019
Spike the football: Rail expansion on track to reality
It's happening.
In the most definitive development to date, the expansion of Northwest Indiana's commuter rail line from Hammond to Dyer is on as direct a route to reality as any transportation project can be.
In a letter dated Friday, the Federal Transit Administration provided an essential stamp of approval for this long-awaited economic spark, moving the West Lake Corridor expansion of the South Shore Line to the engineering phase.
In the collective experience of local, state and federal leaders and transportation planners, it all but ensures commuter rail expansion in Northwest Indiana is happening with the aid of federal, state and local funding.
Anyone who cares about economic development and quality of place in our Region can and should be spiking the football.
The most significant early spark for this plan came in 2013 when Congressman Pete Visclosky, D-Gary, spoke at One Region's annual luncheon. He challenged local governments and the Indiana General Assembly to find sources of funding for a local match of federal dollars to make commuter rail expansion a reality.
In the ensuing years, it all started to come together in ways that demonstrated the best in local, state and federal collaboration.
Between 2014 and 2015, Lake County and 15 of its municipalities — where forward-thinking leaders saw the light — pledged a portion of their local-option income tax revenue for 30 years to the West Lake Corridor plan. The crucial city of Hammond would get on board in 2017.
In May 2015, then-Gov. Mike Pence signed two Indiana bills into law that paved the way toward Visclosky's call to action.
One bill required the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority to engage in projects aimed at building up the Region's transportation system and another provided $6 million per year in state funding to the RDA for 30 years to help pay for commuter rail expansion.
In 2017, then-Indiana House Rep. Hal Slager, R-Schererville, successfully pushed a bill providing for the formation of development districts around current and future South Shore Line train stations.
That law allocates property and income tax revenue within those districts to feed the economic development that can thrive near commuter rail lines.
It was an important building block to maximizing the impact of future rail expansion, and Slager deserves praise for it. We were glad to see earlier this week that he has decided to run again for the Indiana House seat that he lost in the last election cycle.
The Region needs leaders like Slager.
It also needs forward-thinking state and federal leaders, like so many whom have united behind commuter rail expansion, securing crucial funding and support around every bend of this project's journey.
Now that it has been approved for the engineering phase, history shows us there is no real obstacle left beyond final approval for federal funding.
No project of this type has made it this far in the federal funding process and not achieved funding — unless the project was voluntarily withdrawn by the originators — various transportation planners have confirmed.
It should surprise no one that we've arrived at this definitive point.
Good projects that drive growth and development are hard to stop when thinking people unite behind them and, in unison, shovel fuel into the engine.
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The (Anderson) Herald Bulletin. October 10, 2019
Anderson a leader in gender equality
Whether a community is a good place to live sometimes depends on perspective, as illustrated by two recent studies that, alternately, paint Anderson with positive and negative strokes.
Business Insider ranked Anderson the 35th most miserable city in the nation, mainly due to the massive job loss caused by closing of the GM plants, which led to population loss.
However, a study by e-commerce software company Volusion placed central Indiana, specified as the Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson area, 10th in cities with the highest percentage of female business owners. According to the study, 34% of business owners in our region are women.
While the number of women in business has been increasing since 1950, it seems that central Indiana is among the areas leading the way.
We can reasonably assume that some of the area businesswomen are natives and others moved here from somewhere else. There is something about Anderson that makes it a welcoming home for businesswomen, and we doubt it's the misery.
Of those businesswomen who are long-term residents, many of them no doubt were here for the shuttering of the GM plants and opted to stay here and face the challenges ahead.
When determining which study carries more weight, we consider that misery is subjective, and no one surveyed residents to ask if they are, in fact, miserable. The number of female business owners in the area is a solid fact and should be seen as a sign that we're doing something right.
Although we may be a little biased in favor of our community, the numbers don't lie.
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South Bend Tribune. October 8, 2019
The long road toward addressing inequities
The city of South Bend announced plans last week for addressing contracting disparities for minority- and women-owned businesses.
Community activists and black entrepreneurs expressed optimism at the news, but you couldn't blame them or anyone else for taking a wait-and-see approach.
After all, this is hardly a new issue, or one that city officials were unaware of. For decades, there's been a widely held perception among minorities that they haven't received a fair shot at bidding on city contracts.
The results of a "disparity study" — presented at a public meeting on Thursday — confirmed and quantified the problem.
The study, conducted by consultant Colette Holt's California-based firm, found that minority- and women-owned businesses get a disproportionately small share of jobs. Of more than $100 million in contracts awarded by the city between 2015 and 2017, businesses owned by minorities and women accounted for 12% of the companies that won the contracts. That's despite the fact that those businesses made up almost 15% of the contractors that were available in the city's market area to do the types of work awarded by the city over that time frame.
According to the study, the evidence of a discriminatory contracting process in South Bend's market area is strong enough that city policies meant to make the process fairer would likely stand up to court challenges. After passage of an ordinance by the city's Common Council, the city plans to use the study's results to justify setting minimum goals for contracting and procurement from women- and minority-owned businesses.
Community activist Joseph Shabazz, a persistent advocate on this issue for years, said the city's new initiative will be "a good thing" if it's fully implemented. Shabazz received an award named for Eugenia Braboy, a former Common Council member who pushed for a 1987 affirmative action ordinance calling for tracking city contracting with minority- and women-owned firms.
But Shabazz said city officials had told him for years that they weren't following the ordinance because it was unenforceable. He said the process that led to the city's plan was a long one, "frustrating at times, but there wasn't nobody else doing it, so I did it."
Now it's time for the city to do its part. The plan outlined last week is a good step. But for far too long, officials have accepted the status quo — instead of taking the action needed to fix this inequity.
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