Life and Death. And Life.
“I told my daughter, Angie, ‘I wish everybody would stop talking about the officer, because we don’t know whose lungs these are,” says Cathy Lewis.
“It’s a tough situation for Peyton. He’s not used to being in this situation. We rode the elevator together after the Tampa Bay game, and I told him he has to cover himself with optimism. He knows he can’t will his way through this. It’s not like having a broken leg, and if he were tough enough, he could play through it. It’s not that kind of injury. And the number of years he has left is unknown. He’s 35. You hope that he can play until 38, 39, 40.”
A: Shoveling one’s walk is barely even a “courtesy thing” these days, judging from the number of people in The Hoosierist’s own neighborhood who never lay a gloved finger on the drifts in their front yards. But if you think the law doesn’t care, you’re wrong. “Businesses and homeowners are responsible for clearing sidewalks of snow and ice to allow for safe pedestrian travel,” says Kate Johnson at Indy’s lively Department of Code Enforcement.
A: There are downtown city streets with free parking? If that’s what you’re implying, then The Hoosierist begs you to enlighten him. According to Marc Lotter, communications director for Mayor Greg Ballard, pretty much every bit of curbside asphalt in the Mile Square requires coinage for parking. And it’s not just to wring every last cent of revenue from motorists. Well, it’s not all about that. It’s also to keep commuters from monopolizing spaces from dawn to dusk, to the detriment of nearby businesses needing easy access for customers. “It encourages turnover and discourages long-term parking during the business day,” Lotter says.
If you’ve recently spotted a few tiny green cars zipping around the Circle, then you’ve noticed IPL’s latest effort to promote the electric automobile. Earlier this year, IPL purchased three Think cars (manufactured in northern Indiana) and started parking them outside its headquarters in order to publicize IPL’s Time of Use program, which allows participants to charge electric cars at night for discounted rates. The company even takes people for rides on occasion.
Walking around the Circle, you may have noticed the faint etchings of names in the bricks. In the late 1970’s, Commission for Downtown began a revitalization project that included re-bricking Monument Circle and allowed citizens to have their names engraved there in return for a small donation. These are the stories of the individuals, families, and companies whose names can be found engraved along the most famous streets in the city.
