Mayor picks Democrat for housing initiative

It's time for Indy to really step up in this area. Other cities, even much smaller ones are light years ahead of us when it comes to revitalizing neglected neighborhoods. It has to be done on a house by house basis. Trying to do an entire development at one time is too expensive and requires a complete removal of the existing homeowners who live next to the vacancies.

good idea, make the owners clean the properties up or fined them big time, or take the properties away from the owners.

houses being torn up by renters, are turning neighborhoods into getto's

I'm ready for all the Peterson people to scream about a Republican mayor appointing a Democrat to a position. It must be a devious plan.

Speaking of devious, how is Monroe "Sweet Pea" Gray's ethics investigation proceeding?

She's not a Democrat!

Franklin never did anything on the Council except help out her police "brothers". She had no initiatives, no leadership, and nothing to show for her single term other than burnt bridges. And she sure as heck was no Democrat. She's thick as snot and will serve as a figurehead, if anything.

I don't understand how she can be both an IMPD police officer and be the point person in charge of abandoned houses? I mean, there is no position in the IMPD manning table for this? What is her chain of command? Besides, she appears to now be in violation of IMPD Rules and Regs, which clearly states that IMPD is to be the officers PRIMARY job and source of income. I don't think that this will work. While I think she is a fine choice for the position, she should resign IMPD before she takes it. It's not fair to others whom want to be an IMPD officer and are waiting to be hired to "patrol" like a police officer should, to have Ms. Franklin in a "police position" and working on abandoned houses. That's not right.

Good luck with the project

There is much more serious issues to worry about rather than whether the person chosen has another job or not.

Franklin is a thoughtful and independent thinker...hope he can handle it if/when she pushes back to do what she believes is right.

dewey wrote:

She's not a Democrat!

I agree! She is a closet republican who was a pain in the back of Peterson. Ballard knows this and this is why she got the job. The republicans should claim her because the democrats definately do not

pub wrote:

<quoted text>
I agree! She is a closet republican who was a pain in the back of Peterson. Ballard knows this and this is why she got the job. The republicans should claim her because the democrats definately do not

She didn't agree with everything the old mayor said,...sounds like someone who wasn't a yes man. we need more of those.

Aim High wrote:

I'm ready for all the Peterson people to scream about a Republican mayor appointing a Democrat to a position. It must be a devious plan.
Speaking of devious, how is Monroe "Sweet Pea" Gray's ethics investigation proceeding?

Ask the republicans. They're in charge.

anonymous wrote:

Franklin never did anything on the Council except help out her police "brothers". She had no initiatives, no leadership, and nothing to show for her single term other than burnt bridges. And she sure as heck was no Democrat. She's thick as snot and will serve as a figurehead, if anything.

I used to work with Sherron when she was a Councilwoman, and your statement is completely innacurate. I never saw any evidence that she helped out her "police brothers". In fact, quite the opposite. She cared about her constituents and she's really quite a moral person. Sorry. You're wrong on this one.

Somebody needs to take a serious look at what happened to the tax payers money that was wasted on previous housing rehab projects. They might find that most of the money did not end up in the rehab houses. So again the tax payers money ends up helping a few politically connected contractors and investors. What is the real benefit here? NOT the solution to the problem. Just more waste of tax payer dollars.

Why do people jump on a band wagon before they know where that wagon is going? Why not let this play out a while before drawing conclusions? At least she has "police powers" if the need arises.

Mad In Indy wrote:

I don't understand how she can be both an IMPD police officer and be the point person in charge of abandoned houses? I mean, there is no position in the IMPD manning table for this? What is her chain of command? Besides, she appears to now be in violation of IMPD Rules and Regs, which clearly states that IMPD is to be the officers PRIMARY job and source of income. I don't think that this will work. While I think she is a fine choice for the position, she should resign IMPD before she takes it. It's not fair to others whom want to be an IMPD officer and are waiting to be hired to "patrol" like a police officer should, to have Ms. Franklin in a "police position" and working on abandoned houses. That's not right.

Excellent questions. Why the heck is Ballard pulling shenanigans that remind us of what was going on under Bart? So she's gonna be a cop, like Monroe Gray is a fireman, right? I guess this is a budget shell game. The Mayor's office taps into the IMPD budget, and it looks like the Mayor is keeping his costs down. Feh.

IMPD is in charge of abandoned houses now?? Maybe we should also take over potholes and Parks, and the library, and snow, and the 25th floor (oh wait , we already did that one). Leave the us cops on the steets.

One less cop on the streets. Thank you mayor ballard

Any plan for the city to buy houses from HUD and give them to neighborhood groups is ridiculous and not within our budget. I hope Franklin has a better plan than that. We need rapid condemnation and demolition. She needs a fast track condemnation court she can turn to for authority. This business of thinking we'll spend city money buying houses and then give them to black run neighborhood organizations for renovation into section 8 housing is unacceptable. We didn't put Ballard in office to increase the blight on these neighborhoods. Indianapolis is not a social services agency. We don't purchase and then gift real estate. Tear down these properties.