Transcript
Narrator 0:05
In her book Revitalizing American Cities, historian Susan M. Wachter notes that “Our nation’s cities continue to evolve. Change is inevitable, and therefore reinvention is necessary.” In the U.S., older industrial cities once powered the nation’s economy, but during the 1970s many Midwestern cities that had previously thrived began falling on hard times. So how does the city adapt in order to avoid stagnation? At the Richard M. Fairbanks Symposium held at the University of Indianapolis on October 9, 2013, Senator Richard Lugar discussed city revitalization in Indianapolis. He observed that the implementation of Unigov in 1970 dramatically reinvented the city in numerous ways.
Richard Lugar 0:55
Indianapolis, along with Detroit and Buffalo and Pittsburgh and St Louis and so forth were all headed downhill. And they were going downhill in a hurry as a matter of fact, simply because properties were being abandoned, there were fewer and fewer jobs, the resources of the community seemed to be diminishing. It was a phenomenon in terms of an urban demise that was difficult. I found in Nashville, Tennessee and in Jacksonville, Florida, people had envisioned an expansion of the inner city to the suburbs. The different patterns in both cases, but nevertheless, this was intriguing. So we talked about that in the campaign about a greater Indianapolis, about a foolish situation going onward and upward, most people had no idea what in the world we were talking about. And it was certainly an upset win I suspect that we finally made it across the finish line.
Speaker 1 1:56
Senator Lugar notes that Unigov resulted in strategic opportunities for the city, as well as cultural opportunities for the residents, some of which were quite surprising.
Richard Lugar 2:07
It made all the difference, I would just say, in the life of the city, as immediately, all kinds of investment came in. People began to build the buildings they had envisioned for a long time. We began to clear away all the debris in the downtown area. So the people had land, brilliant people like David Meeker, brilliant tactician for architecture. And same time, why, President Nixon, who had been elected and 68 discovered Indianapolis was the largest Republican city. John Lindsay, New York, having gone to the Democratic Party. So as a result, his first trip as President with Mrs. Nixon was out here. Some may find that’s a good idea. Some may find that was dubious, but historically, it was important, because Nixon was so excited about the whole business that in the city county building on our way up to the 25th floor, he said, I want you and Mount Moynihan—this is Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then an advisor—to go to Brussels immediately represent the United States with the Cities of the World conference, got all kinds of problems there. And not lacking audacity about this. I went with Moynihan, and then I invited all the mayors of the world to come to Indianapolis the next year for the so called First International Conference on Cities, and 50 respondents, some from Japan, from Europe, Latin America. All came out here, revived many of the cultural communities who had not really thought of each other as Bosnians or Serbs or what have you, for years, but sort of came out of the woodwork, and it made a very exciting difference in terms of the international outlook of Indianapolis then, as we all began to think about exporting and trying to bring together that kind of business. I was elected president National League of Cities and this led to a whole host of other experiences, which we’ll not go into in great detail. But finally, the battle for revenue sharing. This was the first time, at least during the Nixon period, that federal government balanced the budget. There was actually a surplus for one year, and the Congress passed a revenue sharing plan. And I mentioned that because I had my heart set on the Market Square Arena, and I needed a way to pay for it. And so the revenue sharing money was the way to pay for it. The federal government paid for it so that we did not have a taxpayer expense at that particular stage. The Pacers were saved, otherwise would have gone somewhere else if we couldn’t provide that kind of thing. And $20.5 million worth of investment by businesses were pledged for all the buildings around us and the development and so forth. So the property tax base rose again, and I was able to reduce property taxes five years out of the eight that I was mayor, largely due to this expansion and excitement. So in a nutshell, this is why I enjoyed being mayor. It was an exciting time.
Ted Frantz 5:07
This podcast was produced by the Institute for Civic Leadership and Mayoral Archives and the Department of Communication at the University of Indianapolis. It is made possible by the support of the Richard M Fairbanks Foundation Indiana humanities and the lily endowment. For more information, please see our website, uindy.edu/mayoral.