How council leader hopes to transform Indianapolis for poor and marginalized people

Ryan Martin | IndyStar

For years, Indianapolis' elected officials and other leaders, either through inaction or through deliberate public policy, have contributed to the wide disparities that exist here among racial and neighborhood lines.

That's according to Vop Osili, president of the Indianapolis City-County Council, who says it is past time for all local leaders — whether working in transit or criminal justice or education or public office — to shed that history and begin righting the ship together.

Now more than 100 such leaders are expected to turn out for one of two workshops today held by the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, which helps communities address inequities created through public policy.

Osili, a Democrat who has been touring the country to bring such an effort to Indianapolis, publicly announced the workshops Tuesday.

"How do we better accomplish outcomes that have benefits for all of our members of our community," Osili said in an interview with IndyStar, "understanding that historically certain members of our community have not had the benefit, I think, of purposeful thought and intentional thought on outcomes."

Seeking great equity in resources

Asked for an example, Osili brought up infrastructure funding.

City-county councilors have historically pushed for an equal amount of road funding in each of the 25 districts every year, Osili said. But should the council approve another $1 million-plus project on 71st Street when there are still neighborhoods without sidewalks?

"How are we thinking about the decisions that we make in our primary role, which is the city and county budget," Osili said. "Are we thinking equitably about the distribution of our resources?"

There's little surprise that Indianapolis is home to plenty of disparities. The Monon Trail is a good illustration cited by IUPUI researchers in 2015. At the northern end of the trail, around 96th Street, a person's average life expectancy is 83.5 years. As you navigate south, though, that expectancy drops and drops — until you reach the southern end, at 10th Street, where the expectancy is just 69.4 years, a number worse than Iraq's.

A simple drive through many Indianapolis neighborhoods will confirm what the research and data say. In Brookside are crumbling and abandoned homes that would never be spotted in some of the city's more affluent neighborhoods. Some apartment and condo complexes near 42nd Street and Post Road have struggled as economic opportunities have dissipated in the area. There are neighborhoods without streetlights or sidewalks. A child's opportunity in school can vary dramatically based on a ZIP code.

Disparities are evident elsewhere, too. The criminal justice system is overwhelmingly represented by black men, and young black males are four times more likely than everyone else to fall victim in the city's years-long struggle with criminal homicides.

Research that appeared in the New York Times in 2016 put it plainly: Indianapolis is one of the worst places to live if you're poor.

The adversity can seem too expansive to fix any time soon. Osili, though, insists that what may begin as a workshop for community leaders has the potential to one day transform the city into a national leader.

Osili pointed to recent announcements from other parts of the community as proof of a growing desire to solve the problem.

The Indy Chamber and other business leaders are working with Mayor Joe Hogsett's administration to require employers seeking public incentives to first provide higher pay and help in addressing issues like child care access.

The Central Indiana Community Foundation — which is funding the workshops today — is now focused on addressing systemic racism through the work of community nonprofits.

Overcoming resistance and denial

So Osili is looking at himself, at the city-county council and other agencies around town and wondering what the public sector can do to also make a difference. He acknowledged that it will be difficult to overcome resistance and denial. It's human nature, he said.

"It is just resistance to acknowledging that we actually might have some additional things we could look at in ourselves," Osili said. "I realize I've got biases. And I'm kind of thinking, you know, if I've got them, most of other folks probably have them, too. So can we agree to take the time to look a little deeper? Because it'll make it a lot easier when we're making decisions in a collective setting."

That is why starting this week, Osili said, he will push for his fellow community leaders to learn something that does not come easy in Indianapolis: Ditching their "Midwestern nice" to begin having uncomfortable conversations about race, inequity and bias.

Then, Osili said, public leaders can begin the work of reversing hundreds of years of policy and inaction that helped create haves and have-nots in Indianapolis.

"I don't think we can probably get it done in like a couple of days, right? Not four days, not four months, probably not four years," Osili said. "But every day that we commit to it has the potential to significantly impact the outcomes of many, many lives."

Contact IndyStar reporter Ryan Martin at 317-444-6294 or ryan.martin@indystar.com. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter: @ryanmartin

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