Super Bowl Committee And Downtown Elites Picking On The Little People, No Surprise

Everything in Indianapolis now is about the Super Bowl. Tens of millions of dollars in new improvements to streets and sidewalks downtown are being made to spruce up downtown even though it was already one of the few areas of this city that doesn't look like shit. A police command center is being relocated to be closer to the center of Super Bowl activities instead of the neighborhood it serves. And new laws to screw over the little guy in order to put more money into the pockets of the insiders who are lining the pockets of the politicians are being proposed. I'm of course talking about the big power grab in the form of a proposed new city ordinance that would impose an entire menu of new regulations governing the conduct of special events. One of the more outrageous power grabs in the proposed ordinance is a requirement that homeowners and lot owners who live near Lucas Oil Stadium be required to pay $75 to obtain a special permit from the City in order to allow people to park on their property for a fee during the Super Bowl.

The Indianapolis 500 and the Indiana State Fair are two examples of events that have taken place for many decades and nobody ever saw a need to regulate private owners who take the lemon of the congestion and inconvenience posed by the special event and turn it into lemonade by making a small profit. But the insiders running the Super Bowl activities want to make sure that they totally control who can make money off the Super Bowl event next February, and they have no intention of allowing average residents to make one dime off of the event. WRTV explains:

Homeowners Linda Floyd and Hildermon Harris charge drivers to park in their yard during major sporting events and believe the city just wants a cut of their profits, 6News' Ericka Flye reported.

"We are 215 steps from (Lucas Oil Stadium), a two-minute walk. Who would not want to park on our property?" Floyd said.

Floyd and Harris said they live on prime real estate for parking and have been turning a profit during major events for years.

"The city has ignored us all these years," Harris said.

City leaders are proposing that residents pay a $75 fee if they want to turn their yards into parking lots.

"(The city) has the audacity to come in our area and tell us what we can and cannot do on private property. It's unfair, and we want it stopped," Floyd said.

Adam Collins, of the Department of Code Enforcement, said the proposal would require residents in certain areas to buy a permit if they want to use their yards for parking or for vendor activities during special events.

"It's legitimizing the industry. It gives homeowners, business owners, not only with residential parking, but with temporary signage, an opportunity to do things that would otherwise be prohibited," Collins said.

Some Hoosiers said they'd be willing to pay $75 for a permit to use their grass to make some green.

"It'd be fine with us," one resident said. "We could take care of the $75 right here where we're standing."

This is how the parking situation is going to go down during the Super Bowl. Most people coming into town for the Super Bowl will be staying at a hotel. The host committee will have a list of parking venues that out-of-town visitors will be steered towards during the event. I've got a hint for the people who plan to turn their small lots and yards into temporary parking for the event. You aren't going to be on that list. There will be an unprecedented number of vehicles brought into town, including limos, liveries and shuttle vans, to shuttle people to and from the Super Bowl events and their hotels to minimize the need for parking. The people who are driving themselves to the event will be steered to the parking garages owned or controlled by the downtown elites who believe only they are entitled to make money off of the Super Bowl. If this ordinance passes, none of these residents should comply with this ordinance and pay the $75 to the City. Dare them to come and arrest you for not complying with this ordinance. If the City has resources to commit to enforcing this power grab law during the Super Bowl, then something is really amiss. Not surprisingly, this ordinance will not apply to the Indianapolis 500, which has operated for a century and draws an even larger number of visitors annually than this one-time event will draw.

UPDATE: As an aside, has anyone else noticed how vigilantly the Ballard administration has been cracking down on the mostly-Muslim taxi cab drivers in town? Yep, they want to minimize perceived security risks so their goal is to put as many of the Muslim taxi cab drivers out of business before the Super Bowl as possible. I kid you not. Where's Andre?