This Was Fun.

This year’s usual holiday party conversational gambit went something like this; "So Peter, what are you going to do now that you are off of city council?" "Will you miss it?" "Did you enjoy it?"

I did. This was fun.

My sixteen years on the West Lafayette City Council, my eight years as President, were fun.

Admittedly, that's not what is usually said at the end of a political career; even a minor one. I am supposed to say something about the rewards of public service, salute my colleagues, and praise my constituents. Consider it done.

But this was fun. That’s a surprise.

Professionally, my “day job” was as a mainline Protestant minister. That is not a growth industry. It uses a language of contraction, of diminution, and tries to make that failure praiseworthy. When a group gets smaller, it gets more idiosyncratic.

These sixteen years in city government were all about expansion, achievement. New institutions, new people, new geography were drawn into a conversation about our public life. That’s energizing. That’s fun.

I sat through months of land use planning for New Chauncey (my council district) and for the Levee district next door. Along the way I could say “let’s not put an apartment there”.  Then, okay, we won’t. I could say “let’s put that road there”; and then we put it there.

 Amazing.

 

I spent four years pushing historic preservation forward in West Lafayette. For ten years now we have protected historic homes and civic places. We have preserved our architecture, but even better we have preserved the memory of a time when the university was not a business or an industry, but a mentoring community. Faculty and students once lived together for the betterment of each other and Indiana society.

This makes a better sermon on campus ministry than any I ever preached in church.

I moved the city environmental commission out of the mayor’s office and in to city ordinance. There are car chargers out front at city hall now, and a sustainability officer at the water reclamation plant. Huge, expensive underground reservoirs keep dung and muck out of the Wabash River.

 Huh. How about that?

I felt like I won an election myself when three women I helped recruit were elected to city council this November. I like this next generation. This feels like success.

All the while these past years people like Mayor John Dennis (Katy is still trying to figure out what he meant when he told me at his council send-off  “I love you man!”) and the Development Director of our “Eagleton”, Erik Carlson, were optimistic, affable; funny. Successful."Look what you did!", I said.  No, they said; “Look what we did.”

Nice.

This was fun. Emotionally, I needed this.

To our new Madam Mayor and this new, young council, I hope you have fun too.

 

Next Person Up

 

 

No, I’m not running for West Lafayette City Council this year.

There; I didn’t step on the lead!

 

I have been serving West Lafayette’s Second District for the last 16 years. For half of that time I have served as President of city council.

I have made the case, successfully I think, that a multi-class, multi-generational, near campus neighborhood is worth preserving in a college town. Older homes on smaller urban lots should allow first time home buyers, even those who come here without a pricey contract in a STEM field, a way into our housing market, and so a way into the services this special community provides. This in spite of the challenges we face from those who see houses not as homes but as commodities.

A near campus neighborhood also serves as a reminder that before the university was a corporation, it was a community. I am proud of the residential land use plan that was developed by the APC for New Chauncey. I am glad that the city’s story will be preserved because of the historic preservation ordinance I authored.

 

It’s really been fun.

The city’s growth over these last four terms has been exciting. My professional career was lived as a mainline Protestant minister. That’s not a growth industry. Personally, it has been wonderful to be involved in projects filled with optimism, power, hope.

But John Dennis is leaving.

In a parking lot conversation this past year the mayor said, “You know why you and I have managed to get along all this time? We’re both irreverent.” I think he was right; though if “irreverent” were a race John would probably have lapped me. Even more colorful in private than he was in public, the mayor could look out his window in Margerum City Hall (a great name) and be honestly astonished at what this community has become. I liked his style. Also, John didn’t veto my most important stuff. Phew.

I think it’s a good place for me to stop too.

I don’t believe government should be a gerontocracy. (My apologies to Joe Biden and Mitch Daniels.)

I could serve the people of my district well for the next four years. But if I could find someone who could do this work energetically for the next 8, or 12, or 16 years, that would be better. I did this thing.

There should be someone who can do the next thing.

My wife and kids worry that I’ll be sad if I can’t feel important. Oh, probably a little. I also got our council salaries up; I think I’ll miss the extra cash.

But here’s a story. A few weeks ago my one year old grandson and I were bonding over a great game of “swap the pacifier”. I pulled his “paci” out of his mouth, he pulled my “paci” out of my mouth, laughed, and put it in his and I put his in mine. I pulled his “paci” out of his mouth, he pulled my “paci” out of my mouth, laughed, and put it in his and I put his in mine. Or sometimes he threw it over the back of the couch and laughed hysterically as I retrieved it.

 As I was going out the door he looked at me, and his eyes lit up, and he smiled, and he started, enthusiastically, out loud, to go over his list of important people names.“DADA”. . . . “MAMA”. . .   “NANA” (that’s his sister).  So, I think he was saying, “look gramps, I don’t quite have a name for you yet, but I am sure you belong in this tight little group of people who mean something good to me. Let’s do this again.” That made me feel very important. I wanted to slap him on the back and buy him a beer.

Katy and I don’t anticipate moving anywhere; not with one daughter in Indianapolis and the other in Chicago. We are still sure to have our opinions about how the place is being run. But as a retired couple, we won’t have to go to all those meetings. I’ll be interested to see what the folks half my age do.

 

 

Renew New Chauncey

After the pandemic, it is probably time for us to renew the New Chauncey Neighborhood Association. 

 

The upcoming redistricting in advance of the 2023 city election is an important issue for us,

as we try and maintain New Chauncey as a "community of interest" that should be noted by the city council.

 

Issues like noise, trash, occupancy, and code enforcement were once discussed on a regular basis with city officials. We need to do that again.

 

Have we gained anything from the urbanization of Chauncey Village? 

 

I suspect he arrival of "short term rentals" and their regulation would be another likely conversation topic.

 

We need to be aware of the evolving "West Lafayette Enrichment Corporation", a 501-3c

that could serve as "the Entity" we have often imagined helping to fund neighborhood revitalization.

We need to develop an organizational structure that can be identified both by our neighbors and city government.

 

Toward this end, Jean Sullivan and I have booked "The Bean" in Margerum City Hall for

Tuesday June 14th. at 7:00pm. for a meeting we are calling the "New Chauncey Neighborhood Association Reboot".

 

We hope to see you there.

No, It Isn't Time To End the Student Housing Moratorium.

Verve: Wood & Chauncey

4Up: Vine & Fowler

Monterey: Wood & Pierce

Is it time to end the student housing moratorium? No.

For the last decade Purdue has outsourced dormitory development to the City of West Lafayette. Now that Purdue will once again begin building dormitories of its own, we need to have a further conversation about the size and terms of that "contract".

Purdue's record enrollment numbers have continued to surprise us. Massive builds have taken place, yet rents continue to increase. The city is trying to manage urban in-fill without reliable information from the work's obvious beneficiary. There are practical financial challenges. "Master leases" signed by Purdue with local rental corporations and used by Purdue to manage student overflow then make those buildings "not-for-profit", cutting into our tax base. We receive no payments in lieu of those unpaid taxes.

There is little compensatory involvement in the near campus neighborhood or in the larger interests of the community.

After Wang Hall left its original home in Purdue's Discovery Park (fall 2010) and jumped across Northwestern Ave., the university and the Purdue Research Foundation used the language of "university districts" to describe possible cooperation between the university, the city, and the historic near campus neighborhood (New Chauncey) that made up the majority of my city council district.

With the failure of New Chauncey Housing, a new investment vehicle for the neighborhood was necessary. In 2011 "New Chauncey Rebound" (aka "the entity")  was proposed in a memorandum of understanding signed by Joe Hornett (PRF), Chandler Poole (West Lafayette's Director of Development), and Dr. Carl Griffin (New Chauncey Neighborhood Association.) By-laws were drafted. CSO architects (Jim Schellinger had been central to the negotiations around Wang Hall) were happy to work on a "Targeted Redevelopment Plan and Development Standards for the Historic New Chauncey Neighborhood." Call it an overlay zone.

Soon though France Cordova, Chandler Poole, and Joe Hornett would all be gone. Historic preservation (2011-13) and a land use plan for New Chauncey (2009 -13) would continue to be nudged along by the city council toward their final forms. But attention was turning elsewhere. By 2013 the State St. Project became the focus of the Purdue/West Lafayette relationship. Then there were the high rises. By 2018/19 Campus Edge, the Rise, and the Hub had altered the downtown skyline. The hope behind their construction went something like this; assuming a predictable growth in the Purdue student population, dramatically increasing the supply of rental units should reduce rental costs, and help the near campus neighborhoods stabilize.

That plan didn't work. Not for renters. Not for the neighbors. In a hole? Stop digging.

We will never see an Indiana version of "Save Berkeley" vs. U. Cal. Berkeley. Indiana lacks the environmental laws a neighborhood like New Chauncey could use to accuse a university of essentially polluting neighborhoods by admitting more students than the city can handle. Even if there were, it is hard to imagine plaintiffs winning in an Indiana court as they did in California.

We haven't found a way within state historic preservation law to keep Von's and Harry's Chocolate Shop from being taken out by higher taxes on properties with skyrocketing assessments. There is no green space. Having struggled with rental corporations and "kiddie condos", we now wrestle with the new problem of out-of-state investors and "air bnbs".

The possibility of a "West Lafayette Enrichment Corporation" floated by the city is interesting. This "Entity", this 5013c, would be welcomed. As soon as the "memorandum of understanding" for "the entity" is signed, as soon as its by-laws are in place, and the instant someone gives it its first $50,000, I think I could vote for new development.

But not this week.

 

Conversion Therapy

 

Admittedly, I’m not sure what led David Sanders and James Blanco to author Ordinance #31-21 banning conversion therapy in West Lafayette. It would have made more sense in 2021 when there was at least a doomed bill before the Indiana state legislature to ban the practice. Councilor Shannon Kang, who identifies as queer, may have provided the answer when she said that any day is a good day to be against conversion therapy.

 

Councilor Dr. Jeff Brown wanted a definition of conversion therapy. Let's try this: Conversion therapy is any attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression and is “premised on the belief that a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity, including gender expression, can and should be changed or suppressed when they do not fall under what other actors in a given setting and time perceive as the desirable norm, in particular when the person is lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or gender diverse.” - UN/NBC 6/20/20.  However, because the practice has come under increasing scrutiny, providers frequently change their terminology to avoid detection. Here are some examples: (https://www.glaad.org/conversiontherapy )

• Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE)

• Sexual Attraction Fluidity Exploration in Therapy (SAFE-T)

• Eliminating, reducing or decreasing frequency or intensity of unwanted Same-Sex Attraction (SSA)

• Reparative therapy

• Sexual reorientation efforts

• Ex-gay ministry

• Promoting healthy sexuality

• Addressing sexual addictions and disorders

• Sexuality counseling

• Encouraging relational and sexual wholeness

• Healing sexual brokenness

Conversion "therapy" is usually associated with evangelical Christian groups. But in 2015, the New Jersey Superior Court ruled against a Jewish “conversion” organization, finding it liable for violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. The Global Interfaith Commission on LGBT+ Lives, backed by 370 key figures from 35 countries, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland David Rosen and former Irish President Mary McAleese, have organized in opposition to the practice. My former employer, the Episcopal church, came out against the practice in 2015.

Every medical group you can name is opposed to conversion therapy. The United Nations called for its global abolition, saying it may amount to torture or child abuse. In December 2021 Canada banned the practice after a unanimous vote of their parliament. They even outlawed driving your child to the US for the treatment.

In the U.S., twenty states have banned the practice (e.g., California, Illinois, New York) and 100 municipalities (e.g., State College, PA). Indiana is not likely to join their ranks. Remember the 2015 “Fix This Now” front page of the Indianapolis Star? Our political responses to the LGBTQ+ community are almost always wrong footed. 

 

But why pick this fight here in Jesusland? (The title of Julia Scheeres famous book on fundamentalist religion here in Tippecanoe County.) Opposed to conversion therapy and its cousins, the council's ordinance seemed conventional. The response was predictable. 

Faith Church launched an aggressive, often ugly, campaign to try and scuttle the legislation. Along the way, Pastor Viars managed to slur, in no particular order, blacks, gays, and Jews. When caught in a lie, Dave Bangert reported, Faith Church "Orwelled" an offending video created by the "Lafayette Citizens for Freedom" (sic). Their fury has become a kind of culture war caricature; “the lady dost protest too much, methinks,” says Queen Gertrude in Hamlet. Faith decided to intimidate the city by threatening legal action. Councilors Sanders and Blanco then withdrew their ordinance, though the video minutes of the 2/7/22 city council meeting are worth a look; David Sanders at 19:45, Shannon Kang at 31:20, Kathy Parker at 36:00, Kathy again at 1:19:00, and Gerald Thomas at 1:22:00.

So then, does a parent really enjoy a religious privilege which would allow them to emotionally abuse a child? Can they outsource that abuse to a religious organization and its unlicensed practitioners? Can they hire that abuse done in the private sector by licensed professionals? 

In 1847 there were no laws protecting children from physical abuse from their parents; from Proverbs 23:14:

  ¹⁴ Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

The country finally determined that parents could not physically abuse their children, even though that first intervention was sponsored at the time by the ASPCA using laws meant to prohibit cruelty to animals. We can and do enforce prohibitions against physical child abuse. We should be able to call out a type of emotional abuse and its sponsors.

 

Council Democrats attempted to do just that in Resolution #01-22, an appeal to the state to outlaw the practice of conversion "therapy". Someday. Perhaps by 2047.

Let me close with a public service announcement on behalf of a cooperating ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, Trinity Haven. (https://www.trinityhavenindy.org/)

What exactly is Trinity Haven? Trinity Haven is a non-profit organization that provides housing options and supportive services for LGBTQ young adults, including a long-term Transitional Living Program (TLP) which offers up to 24 months of housing, stabilization assistance, support services, independent living skills, case management, and care coordination for young adults in the state of Indiana; as well as a short-term Host Homes Program (HHP) which offers an average of 6 months of housing and intensive case management, and is limited to Indianapolis/Marion County.

Just in case you know someone who might need it.

 

Townships

Kernan - Shepard Report

Jennifer Teising and Taletha Coles may have done us a favor.

Over the last several months lots of folks have been in touch with me to ask that either I personally or the West Lafayette City Council collectively "do something" about the governmental dysfunction in Wabash Township. Perhaps the folks in Lafayette are hearing the same thing over the misery in the Fairfield Township office.

Of course there is nothing we can do except "tsk,tsk" a little. City governments have no control over townships. Begun with an 18th. century survey system, townships may have made perfect sense in 1852 when they became part of the Indiana constitution. In the days of the horse and buggy, townships were responsible for schools, roads, libraries, property assessment and a few other services like the maintenance of abandoned cemeteries. Now townships mainly provide fire protection, emergency response, and poor relief, including indigent burials. No other state has this layer of government.

Wabash Township School #5 - Indiana Landmarks

But by every measure townships are now an expensive anachronism. Back in 2018 the Anderson Herald-Bulletin described townships as wasteful anomalies with endemic problems. Township offices are invisible and rarely open. Trustees hire on relatives and party political supporters. The salaries are sinecures. Townships are ripe for corruption with audits regularly revealing a lack of financial controls and misuse of public funds. There is little doubt that counties could take over all township duties, as they have with property assessment, and save money while improving efficiency.

We have known this for a very long time. In 2007, Governor Mitch Daniels asked then Chief Justice Randall Shepard and former Governor Joe Kernan to chair a bi-partisan commission on local government reform. His charge to them was this: “The purpose of the Blue- Ribbon Commission on Local Government Reform . . . is to develop recommendations to reform and restructure local government in Indiana in order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its operations and reduce its costs to Hoosier taxpayers."

Their findings became known as the Kernan-Shepard Report. The cover page read Streamlining Local Government - We've got to stop governing like this. Recommendation #9 was to transfer the responsibility for administering the duties of township government for assessment, poor relief, fire protection, emergency management services (EMS), cemeteries and any other remaining responsibilities to the county executive. Then, establish a countywide poor relief levy.

Generally, township executives (There are 1,008 townships in 92 counties in Indiana), who are generally Republican and have long been woven into party politics, hated the idea. Only property assessment moved to county government.

Original Annexation Map

 

When West Lafayette first mounted an annexation attempt to the west in 2012-2013 we heard from dozens of people in Green Meadows, Huntington Farms, McQuinn Estates, The Orchards, Sherwood Forest, and Wake Robin who all wanted nothing to do with our sewers, trash pick-up, policing, and fire service. They didn't want complicated or expensive government. They liked rural; "good enough" government.

Okay. So do a super majority of Republican legislators.

But when people have finished trashing the trustees on either side of the river I think it might be worth considering that there is a system in place that makes their erratic behaviors easier to imagine. Jennifer Teising and Taletha Coles have helped us to learn what townships are, what they do, and who does what they do at what cost. Now we should ask, again, why?

 

 

 

Permit Parking in West Lafayette

Permit Parking in West Lafayette

On March 2, 1998, after a special committee of the common council undertook an extensive study of non-resident parking in near campus neighborhoods, West Lafayette Councilwoman Sheryl Braile introduced Ordinance 4-98, which created a neighborhood parking permit program for West Lafayette. It was approved by the West Lafayette city traffic commission on March 18,1998 and then, after a study period, the administrative policies for the new parking zone(s) were approved by Mayor Sonya Margerum on Sept 10, 1998.

The ordinance itself mimicked a similar ordinance in East Lansing, MI, which in turn was typical of legislation found in other urban zones and college towns. Area residents were to be afforded the opportunity to park near their own homes as part of an overall neighborhood stabilization strategy. "It is intended that this Neighborhood Permit Parking will deter the excessive and burdensome practice of non-residents in certain areas and neighborhoods parking their motor vehicles for extended periods of time therein, leading to unnecessary driving, traffic congestion, illegal parking, noise, pollution, and strains on interpersonal relationships which lead to a deterioration of air quality, safety, tranquility, and other values normally desired in residential neighborhoods"

New Chauncey was the first neighborhood to take advantage of the new law. Home owners on Vine, Oak, Lawn, Meridian, and Chauncey collected signatures and presented their petitions to the City Engineer asking for a New Chauncey Neighborhood Permit Parking district. The City Engineer then verified addresses and determined which blocks met the ordinances signature requirements. He then obtained a recommendation for a New Chauncey Neighborhood Parking Permit Zone from the West Lafayette Traffic Commission. On July 28, 2000 letters went out to the neighbors, parking signs went up, and enforcement began September 1, 2000.

The idea is popular.  It "curbs" greed.

- It reduces traffic and congestion on primarily residential streets.                                                                    There are fewer parked cars to drive around or have children dart between.

- Grants owners and tenants better access to their homes and apartments.                                                      You no longer have to watch a pick-up truck park in front of your house and have the owner lift a bicycle out of the bed and head off to class for the day.

- Allows the community to better regulate occupancy.
  Only three unrelated adults are permitted to rent in West Lafayette.

- Eliminates the subsidy urban areas inadvertently give to suburban and exurban residents.                             It's great to live off campus; just don't count on free parking on city streets.

- Forces apartment managers to consider parking in their rental advertising.                                                     It's no accident that a problematic rental property on N. Chauncey is in a block without permit parking.

- Challenges the educational industry to provide adequate parking for its customers and employees.            City streets were not meant to be used as a parking garage.

No block has ever left the program. Several have been added in two separate zones. For the current parking permit map, go here: https://www.westlafayette.in.gov/egov/documents/1594642922_99945.pdf

 

FAQ

Why two permits?

By ordinance, one permit is allowed for each parking spot. Each parking spot takes 25 feet of lineal curb footage. Homes in the permit district are zoned R-1U. The lots are small. House frontages vary from 40 feet (e.g. 44 ft.-The Brittons) to 80 feet (e.g. 83 ft.-The Bunders). Two parking spaces (two permits) need 50 lineal feet. Three permits? Then somebody is probably infringing on a neighbors right to park a car or a basketball hoop or a lemonade stand or a massive pile of leaves at their curb. Even if it is awkward, most houses also have some form of off-street parking available.

Are there "guest permits" ?

This has historically been handled informally. The ladies bridge club meets on Chelsea Rd. with an impunity denied the Purdue student athletes headed to Mackey. Permit parking extends from only 7:00am to 7:00pm Monday through Friday. So students visiting friends on Stadium over the weekend usually try to be gone by noon on Monday.

Are commercial vehicles allowed overnight in a permit parking zone?

No. But that actually would apply to anything larger than a van or pick-up truck (sec. 38-252) in any residential neighborhood in West Lafayette. "No person shall park for more than four hours
in a residential district a vehicle designed, used or maintained as a commercial vehicle, including any bus or commercial truck, as hereinafter defined, or any vehicle designed or modified to serve purposes other than the transportation of persons, if such vehicle is used in or is part of a business or service."

I want to change something! Where do I go?

The Traffic Commission. https://www.westlafayette.in.gov/department/board.php?structureid=94

"It is the duty of the West Lafayette Traffic Commission to advise and coordinate traffic activities, receive complaints having to do with traffic matters, and to recommend to city officials and the city council the ways and means of improving vehicular and pedestrian traffic." Remember the "speed bump" survey? The blue flashing signs? Stop signs were eventually placed at the Smiley St. intersection.

Our friend Paul Bower represents the Second District on the Traffic Commission. Paul lives at 170 E, Stadium. (pbower@purdue.edu) He succeeded Lauren Bruce who brought permit parking to her block of Meridian before she moved to Wisconsin.