How To Destroy A Building's Viability

Well, that didn't take long. Let some bloggers talk about the potential viability of the vacant Winona Hospital in the 3200 block of North Meridian and watch the self-dealing insiders swing into action to knock the building out of the game. It seems the building has fallen into disrepair since the City acquired ownership of it at a tax sale more than a year ago. Although the City used it to train public safety workers just last year, in November the City declared the building a public health hazard because it contains asbestos and tagged it as a brownfield. WRTV swung out to the hospital today and featured a hit piece on the "public hazard" the building poses.

The original Winona Hospital opened in 1966. A major expansion to the hospital added an additional wing in 1983. The hospital operated through 2004 when its owners filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors. According to WRTV's report tonight, the hospital still contains medical equipment and furniture left behind the day it closed down five years ago. The City has not properly secured the building since taking possession of it at a tax sale, allowing homeless and other trespassers to enter the building at will. Weeds have been allowed to grow up around the building and graffiti has blemished the building's facade.

The Children's Museum is determined to get control of the building so it can level it and build an interactive learning park on the site. You can bet that Ballard, who wants to borrow and spend a billion dollars on a new Wishard Hospital, will have this building leveled in a heartbeat to prevent any viable use for it as a hospital. That's the Indianapolis way. We've got to keep huge construction projects in the pipeline to feed the construction industry complex that has bought and paid for most of our politicians. They don't make all of those campaign contributions for nothing.