To reach top tier of cities, there are hills to climb 7.9.11

INDIANAPOLIS STAR

Indianapolis is a former C student who got motivated enough several years ago to kick up the GPA to the B-plus range. That progress is well worth celebrating.

But there's still enough dormant potential, enough room and aptitude for growth in a few key areas, that making a move to the top of the class is a tantalizing possibility. It's also an occasional source of frustration -- the kind felt when being good is no longer sufficient and greatness is just out of reach.

The latest reminder of Indy's strengths -- and its enormous but untapped potential for an even better future -- came last week with the release of Forbes magazine's list of the nation's next boom towns. Of the 52 metro areas rated, Indianapolis landed at No. 11 -- right behind Phoenix and Orlando and just ahead of Salt Lake City. In fact, according to Forbes, Indy has greater potential for rapid economic growth than any other Midwestern or Northern city. The magazine based the rankings on job creation and demographic factors such as population growth, family formation, the ability to lure and keep educated workers, and attractiveness to immigrants. Granted, it's merely one publication's assessment of what may (or may never) happen. It fits, however, with what other observers, both national and local, have found about this city's potential. But there's much work that still needs to be done to secure that future.

The work must start with the city's schools. Indy can't be a great city, and its economy can't fully soar, when nearly half of the students in the urban core, those who attend the state's largest school system, fail to graduate from high school. It also can't meet its potential when many of those who do graduate, from either Indianapolis Public Schools or other districts in the region, aren't well prepared for the rigors of college or the real world demands of the workplace.

This community must step up its commitment to ensuring that every student has access to a high-quality education, both for the sake of tens of thousands of individual children and for the entire city's economic vitality. Indianapolis also needs to dramatically improve on quality-of-life issues such as mass transit, neighborhood redevelopment, parks and development of a culture that places a high value on personal health and fitness.

Signs of progress can be found in each of those areas, including a fresh push to finally build a regional mass transit system and exciting plans for the rebirth of neighborhoods on the Near Eastside, Southside and Westside. But past failures can't be forgotten. Local leaders have pitched transit plans for decades. Yet the only transit option is a bus system that remains a civic embarrassment. Neighborhood redevelopment has been sporadic; pockets of new life have been created but remain surrounded by blight and decay.
For this city to finally reach its potential -- to move from good to great -- will require a shared and sustained vision, a willingness to take reasonable risks, and leadership that won't settle for the mediocre. We have come a long way as a city, one that now has a lot going for it. We still have a long way to go.
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