Star Columnist Agrees With Ballard That Millions In Taxpayer Dollars Should Be Spent Promoting Cricket

If today was April Fool's Day, there would at least be an explanation for the latest column from Star columnist Erika Smith, but apparently she's not joking when she says she thinks Mayor Greg Ballard has a bright idea in spending millions of taxpayer dollars to build new sports facilities to host cricketing events.

. . . I’ve come to believe that maybe Ballard isn’t so crazy after all, that maybe spending a few million dollars to make our city a destination for cricket and other sports that are played primarily abroad is actually a good idea . . .

Ballard, from the beginning of his first term, has said that he wants Indianapolis to be known around the world not only as a place to visit but as a place to live, a place with a thriving community of immigrants who feel as comfortable being Hoosiers as the natives do . . .

In the past decade, the population of Asians has more than doubled, and the number of Hispanic residents has jumped by more than 60,000 . About half of the newcomers to Indianapolis are from Latin American countries, with others moving here from China, India and Germany.

But in general, the lack of diversity in Indianapolis continues to be a problem. Or, more to the point, it will be a problem in the years to come as the city and region need for economic reasons to attract new blood . . .

Ballard’s solution is to give Indianapolis a global reputation in the same way it has earned a national reputation — through sports. Not only cricket, but lacrosse, hurling, rugby and soccer . . .

At a cost of about $6 million, taken from the RebuildIndy infrastructure fund and Indy Parks, construction should be complete by fall of next year . . .

Sure, that sounds as if it’s a pipe dream. But it has worked before. Indianapolis built a sports strategy as a means to the end of economic development, and it worked beyond anyone’s wildest dreams . . .

Yeah, I'll stick with the pipe dream and wonder what substance Ms. Smith is smoking in her pipe. In perhaps a related article, the Star reports that Indianapolis is among U.S. metro areas with the largest shift in jobs to the suburbs:

Indianapolis saw one of the biggest increases in the past decade in the share of jobs located farther from its Downtown business core, according to a report on “job sprawl” being released today by the Brookings Institution.

The share of the metro area’s jobs 10 to 35 miles from the central business district increased from one-third in 2000 to 40 percent in 2010.

That was the eighth-biggest percentage point increase among the nation’s 100 largest metro areas.

The share of metro jobs in or near a downtown declined in nearly every metro area over the past decade . . .