Impressions of the Ballard Speech

*Adam Longworth was able to attend Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s first State of the City Speech.  Since no one else who contributes here was able to attend, Adam volunteered to offer his impressions of the speech.*

Well last night was quite the interesting experience as far as speeches go. Although this was my first state of the city address that I would be viewing personally I have seen a few like them, and thus had a reasonable expectation of what to expect-or so I thought. I traveled to union station with Ponytail Paul and Kent Morgan and we arrived about 20 minutes before the speech began. Of course, this being a Republican mayor, there were plenty of Republicans there for me to rub elbows with. And I did with gusto.

(Read more of Adam’s post below the fold)

I had the opportunity to speak with Chief of Police Mike Spears and asked him how he was adjusting to the new dark blue uniforms as opposed to the white they used to wear (just the shirts, mind you). He stated that he rather liked the new uniforms and didn’t really have a problem adjusting. As I made my way around I nodded and shook hands with a few other notables-Ben Hunter, Aaron Williams, Chris Spangle (don’t let him know I called him a notable) and, of course, Abdul.  Just before I was heading to my seat, I happened to spy Mayor Greg Ballard walking toward one of the alcoves in the back. I took the opportunity to ask him how he was doing (this was his first state of the city speech, after all). He said he was confident in the speech and thought it would go over well.

At that point, I made my way to my seat. Now, I had been hearing throughout the evening rumors that there were actually two versions of the speech. The first called the Peterson administration to the carpet and exposed the ineptness with which they spent our tax dollars (i.e. the IFD overtime budget). The second was the kinder, gentler version focusing on where we are now, and where we are going to be. Among the more notable points, was discovery of 9 million dollars that were found by rethinking the plans for overhauling the sewer overflow system, restating the goal of repealing that damned 65% income tax increase by implementing the Kernan-Shephard report, and the expansion of the sister city program which would increase Indianapolis’ s influence

If I had to sum last night up in one word, it would be excitement—it was tangible. You could cut it with a knife. For the first time in a while, people are beginning to remember what a great this city really is, and where we can take it.