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.