Why I Want to Be Mayor

The most common question I receive is “Why do I want to be Mayor?” Sometimes this is presented as just a straightforward question; other times it is tendered as something like “Why would want you want to put yourself through this?” No matter the nuance, I answer the same way.

I want to be the Mayor of Indianapolis because our city is heading in the wrong direction. When I look out ten to twenty years, I don’t see a thriving, vibrant city. Due to our crime rate that is well above the national average and still growing, the overall poor education of our children, and a lack of emphasis on serious, long term economic development, Indianapolis, two decades out, has the potential to be a blighted, dangerous city with a few pockets of success stories. The trend is already one of many middle class families moving to the doughnut counties to be in a lower crime area and nearer to better schools. Soon, Indianapolis could be a city that accepts only the very rich and the desperate poor. That is a recipe for social and economic disaster.

I feel compelled to run for Mayor because I want to make the difficult decisions to put the city on the right path. If these decisions cost me reelection, so be it. I only want to do what’s right for Indianapolis. When I retired from the Marine Corps in 2001 from Stuttgart, Germany, I could have moved my family to almost any city in the world. However, I wanted to my kids, then heading into high school, to call Indianapolis their hometown, as I love to do. I want all of our children to be proud to call Indianapolis their hometown, but I’m afraid that in a few years, Indianapolis may not be such a proud place to call home. It’s easy to be fooled by the glitz and glamour of some of our attractions, but at its core, the city is not going where it needs to go.

It is sometimes difficult for a city to look forward, but we must do so now. I believe government officials should always act in the best long-term interest of the community, but too many times, our government officials have looked to a short term, politically acceptable solution. That is a definite characteristic of the Peterson administration. It is time to change that philosophy. We cannot afford four more years of this administration.

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