Letter to editor in Indy Star 1/9/2016

Future of Fishers isn’t as rosy as IndyStar article showed

IndyStar’s Jan. 3 story on the future of Fishers painted a very rosy picture of the city.

But I do not share the same idyllic vision.

We can argue for months about the beneficiaries of all this development.

I would like us to ask why so much happened over the last few years?

I suspect it was not at the request of either residents, or those who wanted to move in. I submit it was a plan by the architects, the engineers, the property developers and their business partners to cash in on the boom. Abundant evidence comes from the campaign finance reports of the previous Town Council and the current mayor.

For example, in the 2014 campaign, Mayor Scott Fadness accepted over $240,000 in donations. Of that, less than 10 percent ($19,000) was from residents of Fishers. The rest? Political action committees: $15,000. Corporations: $16,000. Individuals with a mailing address not in Fishers: $93,000. And the biggest donor category was “other organizations” (law, engineering and construction firms): $99,000.

Is it any wonder that the future of Fishers looks like it does, when it’s been carefully planned by those same engineering, construction and architecture firms that will benefit from the millions of dollars in contracts to be won? And which, by the way, cannot vote but can clearly influence the election.

This is no way to look to the future. Instead, it’s a recipe for failure just waiting to happen.

Steve Mathys

Fishers

Could not have said this any better. Steve you hit the nail on the head.