Star Editorial: City will be looking better as it sticks to standards 6.27.10

June 27, 2010
The Indianapolis Star

The stretch of West 38th Street between Lafayette and High School roads, once a thriving area for retail businesses, has now decayed into one of the least attractive areas of the city. Empty storefronts mark the graves of failed businesses. Vacancies abound in outdated strip shopping centers. And a forest of signs and billboards of various sizes, shapes and colors create a depressing montage that illustrates how one-time suburban sprawl can age into urban blight.

Yet, neither the city nor local residents and business owners have given up on the area. Work began this month on a $14 million project that will include repaving two miles of West 38th Street and replacement of curbs and sidewalks. And a neighborhood volunteer group, the Lafayette Square Area Coalition, recently completed a land-use plan for the area.

But there's another key piece in the puzzle of how to restore blighted urban landscapes: setting and enforcing city codes on such things as signage and landscaping. Historically, city officials in Indianapolis have taken a largely laissez-faire approach to such aesthetical matters. The result in areas such as West 38th Street is a visual mess that discourages visitors and ultimately hurts businesses.

That may be changing. Under Mayor Greg Ballard, the city has placed a higher emphasis on code enforcement, and a review of long-standing practices and policies is under way.

It's not a simple task, however.

As Rick Powers, director of the Department of Code Enforcement, noted in a meeting with The Star Editorial Board last week, city officials must strike a tough balance. Reasonable standards for businesses and other property owners can benefit entire neighborhoods by creating a more attractive and livable urban environment. However, codes that are too restrictive or that are enforced with too heavy a hand can crush fledging entrepreneurs.

One of the more encouraging developments in recent years along and near West 38th Street has been the influx of ethnic restaurants and other businesses that cater to an internationally diverse clientele. Higher standards and better code enforcement that help create a more inviting neighborhood could enable those small businesses to attract more customers. At the same time, codes that are too tough could discourage more small business owners from locating in the area, sapping the neighborhood's growing ethnic community of fresh energy.

Still, it's important for city, business and neighborhood leaders to wrestle with such issues. Dozens of neighborhoods in Indianapolis have deteriorated in recent decades, and new business owners and residents are unlikely to invest in such areas without assurance that their neighbors will be held to reasonable standards.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20100627/OPINION08/6270344/1291/OPINION08/City-will-be-looking-better-as-it-sticks-to-standards