Saturday, July 11, 2015

Council Resolution Seeks Towing Of Illegally Parked Blue Indy Cars

You read about it first here earlier this week. It's now official. A resolution will be introduced at next Monday's City-County Council meeting seeking the towing of those demonstration Blue Indy cars that have been illegally parked on Washington Street for more than a year now. Councilor Zach Adamson (D) talks to the Indianapolis Star about the resolution.
In a dramatic but largely symbolic gesture to register his displeasure, Democratic Councilman Zach Adamson will introduce a proposal at Monday’s City-County Council meeting to tow away five Blue Indy demonstration cars parked on Washington Street at Meridian Street. The cars have been parked there all year and are available to the public for test drives.
“That section of Washington Street is a no parking, no stopping and no standing zone at all times,” Adamson said. “It is not legal to park anything there.”
Adamson conceded the council is powerless to stop the charging stations from being built but said he wanted to send a message to Ballard that he and other council members were angered that neither they nor the public were consulted on the sites.
Listen up, IMPD officers. You can register your displeasure with the Ballard administration illegally entering into that 7-year contract with Vision Fleet and forcing members of your department to drive those electric cars unsuited for police use by ticketing the Blue Indy cars parked on Washington Street and having them towed. The law is on your side. A city ordinance currently in place makes that section of Washington Street a no parking zone. Mayor Ballard does not have the legal authority to give away parking spaces to political cronies for their exclusive business use.  Mayor Ballard should have long ago been hauled out of the City-County Building in handcuffs for all of the felonies he's committed during his tenure as mayor, but we lack federal or local prosecutors with any backbone to enforce the law against his corrupt administration.

The Star's John Tuohy also adds to the list a growing list of business owners voicing their displeasure with the Blue Indy-dedicated parking spaces taking up premium parking spaces harmful to their businesses. Yats owner Joe Yuskovich is among that growing list. Blue Indy gobbled up valuable parking spaces near his business at 54th and College. Two blocks further south, more parking spaces were taken for Blue Indy's use at 52nd and College, causing concerns for Luna Music owner Todd Robinson.

It's not just the illegal conversion of the parking spaces that are a concern. As Advance Indiana pointed out in earlier reports, the French-made cars are not approved for use on American highways and streets. The charging stations for the electric cars are also not UL-approved as mandated by the local ordinance the Ballard administration had the council to adopt. I'm happy to see the council becoming more aggressive on the issue, but it was clearly asleep at the switch when Ballard began this push for electric cars several years ago. Some of these problems could have been avoided if the council had been proactive. Councilor Adamson was among council members who actually applauded and supported the administration's move to promote electric car use without asking the tough questions. Councilor Christine Scales (R), who is also co-sponsoring the resolution offered by Adamson, was one of the first members of the council to ask those tough questions, which helped bring these problems to light.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And, the corrupts did not like for the lady to be shedding light on their corruptions. What Indianapolis might need is some method by which it could obtain special prosecutors under judicial supervision to go after the many, many political crooks in either party (the libertarians are pure only because no one would trust them with elected offices). A hot line, small staff, big budget augmented by RICO seizures----nearly all of our corrupts are pack hunters and conspirators---and the taxpayers would come out way ahead. Probably be a good idea to get this in place before Mr. Hogsett finds the trough....

Anonymous said...

It would be better if a Sheriff's deputy towed those cars. The Sheriff does not answer to Ballard; the police can end up with severe consequences for towing a Blue Indy car.

By the way, they are also in violation of abandoned vehicle ordinance. It would be grand to file a Mayor's Action Center complaint and then see what code enforcement says!!!

Anonymous said...

If the Councillors are looking for a way to show their displeasure with this corrupt administration, why don't they push their attorney to get a hearing on their lawsuit?

Anonymous said...

Gary, thank you so much for always maintaining the disinfectant of daylight on the utterly corrupt and perpetually lying Greg Ballard. (I am an active Marion County GOP.) Greg Ballard is one of the most deceptive, most corrupt, most vile (in my humble opinion) politicians this City has been infected with for a very long time.

While I am pleased that someone on the Council is making at least a symbolic stand, I see that liberal Democrat Zach Adamson is again doing what he does best… grandstanding to increase his political street cred by leading from behind on issues the majority of Marion County voters are obviously in opposition. Unless, of course, those issues are Angie’s List- where Zach Adamson had his foot on the accelerator ready to shovel tens of thousands of our hard earned tax dollars to a Ponzi scheme corporate welfare whore; or what about those crony corporatists who own digital signboards in Marion County who are another favored special interest group Adamson willingly sucks up dollars from because, as Adamson whined in excusing his greed,… “the fact is that campaigns are expensive….”- Greg Ballard could have easily said exactly the same thing. The fact that even the political rump kissing Indianapolis Star correctly and overtly admits Democrat Zach Adamson’s ploy is grandstanding amazes me and is a step in the right direction toward “the truth”.

Anonymous said...

Ot, whose paying for the dozens of solar arrays at the ROC? My guess is it's the Indianapolis taxpayers. Can we file a freedom of information request to find out just how much the IPL ratepayers will be gouged?

Anonymous said...

Hey Gary, construction crews have been working on Virginia and Penn outside of Scotty's Brewhouse for the past two weeks. Looks like more Blue Indy Cars could be going there or some type of charging station for electric vehicles. Not sure yet as the equipment is installed but under wraps.